CHAPTER 10

 

 

Ariel couldn’t bear to face school on Monday. Not when she had more important things to do. She wouldn’t miss anything anyway, it was only the sports carnival. She wasn’t planning on competing in anything so it was pointless to sit around in the sun all day. Especially when she was trying to lift a centuries old curse.

She went directly to the public library as soon as it opened. At least she knew she wouldn’t run into her parents there. They would definitely freak out if they knew she was skipping school. She would most likely be grounded for the rest of her life.

The witch had said she needed to find the descendants of the original tribe that had cursed the Black Eyed People. It sounded simple enough but they lived centuries ago. That was a long period of time to cover and a mighty big family tree to build.

Ariel sat down at one of the archive computers and started typing. She had already done some work on her own computer but there was limited information available online. To get to the really old stuff, she had to delve deep into the archives.

For the next four hours, Ariel did nothing but go through microfilm and dusty old books. She had to go back to the sixteen hundreds and start from there. Once she found the tribe, then it was a matter of finding marriage details. If they weren’t married, then she searched for details on a death so she could sever the branch. If they were married, then she needed to look for birth records of any children they had.

The tree Ariel was putting together could have had hundreds of branches. And each one of those would have hundreds more. The whole project was starting to get overwhelming.

Suddenly it dawned on her that she didn’t need hundreds of branches, just a few. Providing everyone in the family didn’t die, then she would be able to trace it back to a descendant alive right now. The whole point was to find living people, not every single one of them.

Ariel chose a few branches and stuck with them. Using the archives and the old books that recorded all the births, deaths, and marriages by hand, she steadily traced the lineage as far as she could.

By the end of the day, she had exhausted all the records she could find. Unfortunately, they ended in the late eighteen hundreds. There were still a few generations she needed before being able to find a descendent that would still be alive.

Frustrated, Ariel left the library and headed to the one person she could vent to: Cassidy. School had been out for over an hour so she expected her to be home.

Knocking on her best friend’s door, Ariel couldn’t keep her eyes from the house over the road. She imagined Gabe standing on the stoop, telling her to go away like he always did. It seemed so long ago but not far enough for the memory not to hurt anymore.

“Hey, you weren’t at school today,” Cassidy said as she answered the door. “Tell me you were sick.”

Ariel tried to look innocent. “Um, I was sick?”

Cassidy just rolled her eyes and let her in. They went upstairs to her bedroom, well away from the prying ears of parents. When the door was closed, Cassidy wanted answers. “So, the truth now? What was it this time, witches? Warlocks? Goblins?”

“None of the above. Try a sweet little librarian.” Ariel explained about her reasons for being at the library. Cassidy only sighed once, it was a good sign she was coming around. “I still have a few generations to go before I have any hope of finding someone alive.”

“I would have thought the more recent stuff would have been easier to find?”

“Me too, but the branch kind of just stops. There are no records anywhere. I either have to try another branch or keep persevering.”

“So choose another branch,” Cassidy shrugged, it sounded easy enough to her.

“That means going right back to the beginning again. It took me six hours to follow the branch this far. Six hours, that’s like an entire lifespan of a bug or something.” Ariel flopped back onto the armchair, exhausted with just the thought of starting over. She never thought researching a family tree could be so tiring.

Cassidy stared at her friend, trying to work her out. No matter how many times she had tried to talk sense into her over the last two months, it never seemed to make any difference. “What is it about Gabe that’s got you so obsessed? He’s not even around anymore. Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”

Ariel sat up again, wide awake now. “Because I love him. I can’t explain why or how, but I know I’ve got to do this. It’s something inside me that I just can’t let go. I wish I could.”

“If you want to stop, then stop. He’s not worth it.”

“But I can’t,” Ariel sighed, wishing she could articulate it better. All she knew was that she couldn’t get over Gabe. He was inside her, under her skin and running through her veins. If she could cure herself of him, she would. But until that happened, she had to keep going. She didn’t know how to stop.

“You’re crazy, you know that, right?”

“I know.” Ariel nodded, knowing exactly how she sounded.