Zane and Zoe stepped off the bus. At last they were in the town of their birth—Dag. It had been a long plane trip followed by a dull bus ride. This town was north of nowhere. He was surprised the bus even stopped in Dag. Zane suddenly felt very uncomfortable. He noticed that people were staring at them. Sure Zane and Zoe were strangers, but the natives didn’t have to be so rude. Two old women sidestepped them and went to the other side of the street. The one woman crossed herself, never taking her eyes off of them. What was their problem? This place didn’t seem at all like Uncle Ulmer had always described it. Uncle Ulmer. It had been wonderful after Uncle transferred to Japan when Zane and Zoe were kids. They’d been able to spend all their free time with him at his cabin by the lake. Their own father didn’t care as long as they were out of his sight. As children, Ulmer had taught them the language while regaling them with stories of his youth in the picturesque and friendly town of Dag. Friendly wasn’t how Zane would’ve described it. And it was such an ugly, grey place.
“Zane. Do you
feel it? It’s so cold here.”
“Yeah. It’s a
good thing cold doesn’t bother us.”
“Not the temperature, the atmosphere. It’s like…I don’t know. Fear maybe?
Wariness? It’s like they’re
afraid. Afraid of us! What’s going on here?”
“I don’t know.
And I don’t want to know. Let’s
just get settled at the hotel, see the lawyer, and get this over with so we can
go back home. This place is already
creeping me out.”
“I’m with you.”
Zoe took out their city map and got her bearings. They were not to far from their hotel. The two of them picked up their bags and started walking. As they turned the corner they almost knocked down a middle-aged woman.
“Oh, man! I am so sorry! Are you okay?”
The woman merely smiled at them and handed Zane something wrapped in a handkerchief. She leaned towards them, her voice low.
“Hatred is a living thing
that feeds and breathes and grows
it reaches out with icy hands
even in death’s throes
change the future
for you cannot change the past
allow the peace that has escaped
to return to hearts at last
Beware!”
The woman quickly turned the corner. When Zane tried to stop her to ask her what she meant, she had disappeared. “Well that wasn’t weird or anything.”
“I’ll say. What did she give you?”
Zane slowly unrolled the handkerchief. Inside it was a sprig of some plant. What..?
Zoe took a step back. “Mistletoe!” At her shocked gasp, Zane dropped the plant. The two of them had an irrational dislike of mistletoe. Seeing it at Christmas parties when they’d briefly lived in the U.S. had always made their skin crawl for some reason. Zoe stepped on the plant, crushing it with her boot. “Why would she give us something like that? Now I’m really uncomfortable. Do you think someone is trying to scare us away?”
Zane wasn’t sure about anything. “Well, if they want us to go, they just have to wait a few days and then we’ll oblige them. The sooner we leave here the better.”
“That’s for sure. The minute we first arrived in Norway I felt uneasy.”
Zane nodded. “Let’s get going. We have to meet the lawyer this afternoon.” The two of them walked on, but they couldn’t stop thinking about the woman and her “gift”. They both found themselves looking back several times.
They were happy to see that the hotel was small but cozy. At least they would be physically comfortable. The receptionist was an older woman who looked at them strangely. “You look familiar. You have family here in Dag?”
“We used to. We were born here.”
The old lady’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Yes. You are Astrid’s children! How could it not be? You look very much like her. She was very pale with the snow-white hair and the crisp-blue eyes like the North Sea. I’m sure you have had the trouble as your mother had for her peculiarities. The small-minded townspeople have been staring, yes?”
“Very rudely.”
“I am sorry for that. It is a friendly enough town, but most of the people here still live in the Dark Ages. They are very superstitious. I was considered suspect myself for many years because I am Finnish, a stranger. You mother and I used to talk a lot. Poor girl always had such difficulties. People feared her because she was a…a noita. Forgive me, I do not know the Norwegian word.”
Zane and Zoe were perplexed. “What do you mean? What’s a ‘noita’?”
“Why someone with the sight, of course.” She saw how they looked at her dumbfounded. “You did not know your mother was so gifted?”
“Our father never talked about her—ever. And it seems our uncle left out a few things.”
“Perhaps we should talk. But not right now. You both look so tired. You must have just arrived in the city. Rest and we will talk again.” She had a young boy take their bags up to the room. They followed him wearily. They would definitely talk to the old woman later.