Page 29 of Curses and Cornstalks
“Feel better?” she asks.
Not quite.
I kneel to the ground and flap my coat around, shaking any loose bits of dirt free, and lay it flat on the soil. It isn’t very big, but maybe it'll be enough to keep her clothes clean.
I gesture to it. “Sit.”
Her eyebrows shoot up, but she sinks to the ground, getting comfortable. As I take a seat on the dirt next to her, her cheeks turn bright pink.
“Thank you,” she says bashfully.
“You don't have to thank me. It’s the least I can do.”
“Who knew the Watcher was such a gentleman?” She chuckles, and my chest warms. “What is all this for?”
“You tell me.” I shrug and lean back on my elbows. A glance at my worn clothes makes my confidence falter; I look terrible compared to her. An embarrassment.Unworthy.“What did you really come here for?”
She hesitates, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Ididwant to make sure you're okay, but… I guess I wanted to talk. To pick your brain, to hear about your life before the curse…” Her voice trails off, and I can tell there's more she wants to say.
A soft smile that she can't see curls my lips, and I stare at the side of her face. I could sit here with her under the cloudy sky all night talking about nothing, but she wants to know aboutme.About my life.
“What do you want to know?” I ask, suddenly at a loss for words.
She lifts her shoulders and drops them again. “Anything. What did you do before you were cursed? What was your life like?”
A dull ache blooms in my chest, the way it always does when I think of the life that was stolen from me. Everything I had, everyone I loved, was taken from me in an instant.
“It’s been so long now, the details have begun to fade…” I answer, combing through flashes of things I can remember. “Most men my age settled down and started a family, but not me. I had ten younger siblings to care for, so marriage wasn’t something I worried about. My job was to make sure they were fed.”
“Eleven kids?” Cassie's eyes swing in my direction, wide and full of disbelief. “I guess that was the norm back then, huh?”
I nod. “Most families had many children. More hands to help around the farm.”
“What happened to them?” she whispers.
The familiar tug of worry and disappointment makes my chest heavy, and I sigh.
“I… don't know.” I never saw any of them after I was cursed; none of them came looking for me. Not that I would have wanted them to.
I didn't want them to see me like this.
“I hope they all made it without me, though there's no way of knowing. Jeremy, the next oldest, was a year younger than me. Strong, capable. He probably stepped up and took my place as the man of the house. At least, that’s what I’ve told myself all these years.”
“I’m sure he did a fine job.” Cassie offers me a polite smile. “If you were taking care of them, what happened to your parents?”
“They died from pneumonia.” I take off my hat, setting it aside, and lay flat on the ground with my hands behind my head. I can't see Cassie as well from this position, but it’s more comfortable. I stare up at the sky, watching clouds drift by and periodically blot out stars. “I was eighteen. It was a miracle none of the children caught it. After that, I became the man of the house, working long days to provide for them. Did that for seven years.”
“Seven years?” she repeats. “So you're twenty-five?”
A sigh escapes me. “That does sound better than one hundred twenty-five, doesn't it?”
“A bit.” To my surprise, Cassie lays down next to me, mimicking my position. Her elbow brushes against my arm and I still. “But you never know. Some people are into age gaps.”
Age gaps?
My nose scrunches involuntarily as I try to infer what she means, but I give up. I don't want to embarrass myself by asking.
“I lost my parents too,” she offers after a beat. “My mother is the only one that died though. A car crash took her.”
