"What beautiful hair," Valencia said and made the first pass of the comb into my tangled waves.
I flinched deeper into her lap.
"Ouch!" I said as the comb ripped through my hair.
"Just one more," Valencia said and sectioned another piece of hair.
V33 sat on the bottom cot and smoothed her fingers over her plated curls with her fingers.
"Cia, how'd you learn to braid?" V33 asked.
"My mother taught me when I was about your age," Valencia said.
Mother. I had never heard Valencia talked about her mother or any family.
"Was it hard to learn?" I asked.
"At first yes," Valencia said and grinned, "But my mother made me braid my hair every night. Then one day, I was better than her."
V33 leaped off the cot and said, "What was she like?"
"She was, wonderful," Valencia whispered, her fingers on my head stopped.
Valencia looked past the stone walls. The pulse of her chest against my back quickened.
"Where is she now?" I asked and turned my head to look up at her.
"They're back home," Valencia said and pulled my hair tighter, "Now keep your head still. I'm almost finished."
V33 knelt at Valencia's feet, "Where's your home?"
"By the water," Valencia let out a held breath, "Where houses are stacked on a grassy hill, and the sun never dies — I remember the smell of my mother's garden. It was so big one day when I didn't come home Papa found me sleeping under our orange tree."
Valencia's eyes opened wider, "Before bed, he would gather the neighbors and tell us stories underneath that tree. Even though we'd heard his stories hundreds of times when he told them it always felt like the first."
Valencia's faint voice forced its way through, "We had everything."
"Then why did you leave?" I asked.
Valencia put down the comb and looked down at us.
"I needed to be here," she said, "To help you."
Help. Valencia helped us in so many ways. She dressed us when we couldn't, she cared for us after we got our marks, and stayed in our rooms when storms rattled outside our windows.
How could she help us any more than she already did?
YOU ARE READING
X-Marks: Stealing Shadows
Science FictionChildren are disappearing. And their parents don't want to find them. After Valen is taken from her home she is used for government plans never spoken aloud. Only the mark of an "X" on her forehead is left to tell her past. When her new home is over...
