I have been in the midst of a major fret all day, wondering whether to say ought to Alex of the curse.
Given how upset she is already, it can only make matters worse.
I would leave if I could, but that is not to be. I knew the bringing of the curse was possible, but never having been in a house where it actually happened, I had no idea how bad it would be.
What makes it worse is that things are getting better between the girl and me. When she returned from school this afternoon, she said, “Come on out, brownie. I need to know more about why you’re here.”
Thanking her for the invitation, I climbed out of my shoe box.
“Do you want me to lift you down?” she asked.
“Nae, miss, I prefer not to be picked up. I’ll make my own way.”
As I scrambled to the floor, she said, “You’re very athletic.”
“We brownies need to be strong to do our work. If I were human height, I would be able to lift your father’s car!”
This was a bit of a brag, but as it was true, I didna think it was too bad to say it.
When I reached the floor, she said, “Would you rather sit on my desk or on my bed?”
I looked at her desk and shuddered.
“Right. Silly question. Sorry.”
She picked up the chair from her desk and set it beside the bed. I climbed the bedspread and sat down tailor style. When I was settled, she said, “So tell me why this distant relative of mine assigned you to me?”
I was not yet ready to explain the curse. So I chose to use a different word. “It wasn’t assigned so much as obeying the terms of my family’s ancient, er…agreement with your family. It states that when my human passes on, I must go to the youngest female of the line—”
“The youngest would be my little sister, Destiny!”
“I’ll thank you not to interrupt! As I was trying to say, I must go to the youngest female of the line who is old enough to take me on! As Destiny is too young, that happens to be you. It’s not like I wanted to come to this barbarian wilderness. It’s just that, things being what they are, I didn’t have any choice. So here I am, much to your good fortune, and bound to you for as long as we both shall live. Of course, as it is likely I will outlive you, I am—”
“That’s not very nice. When are you expecting me to die?”
“Oh, not for many and many a year. It’s just that humans don’t last as long as brownies do.”
She scowled at me. After a moment, she said, “You keep talking about an agreement. I didn’t agree to anything.”
“Of course you didn’t! This agreement was made nearly three centuries ago.”
“Are you claiming you’re three hundred years old?”
“No, though I do have a bit over a century and a half to my name. The binding was first laid on my father, Seamus Cairns, and passed on to me at the time of his death. I am now tied to your family, and to you specifically, until either one of us shall die. Just imagine how lovely it will be to have your things all neat and tidy every day!”
“But I like them the way they are!”
“Well, it makes no difference. I’m here now, and it’s here I must stay.”
“So you’re saying I don’t have any choice in this?”
“Of course you don’t have a choice. It’s a family matter. No one gets a choice when it comes to things like that. We’re no more free of the past than we are of breathing.”
“But I don’t like you messing with my stuff.”
This peeved me greatly. “I am not messing. I am unmessing.”
She rolled her eyes. “You are going to drive me nuts!”
“And you are already driving me quite mad,” I snapped back. “But there’s naught we can do about it. Though I am personally quite tidy, I cannot deny that fate takes some messy turns. However, the fact that life can be quite messy doesn’t mean your bedroom has to be!”
Feeling my temper getting the better of me, I leaped off the bed and stomped over to the closet.
Sadly, stomping is not very effective when you are scarcely a foot high.