Eva pursed her lips. “Are you sure? Because I can also give a lengthy speech about how beautiful you are, if that’s another area of self-confidence that you strugg?—”
“YES. YES, I AM SURE,” I yelled. God, why did floors never swallow you up when you wanted them to? There was a full five seconds of silence. Then Eva’s face broke into a grin.
“Do you react like this any time someone tries to compliment you?” she asked, sounding positively giddy at the prospect.
I was wary now. “Kind of?”
The grin widened. “Oh, I am going to abuse this power so, so much.”
I groaned again, and walked away from her to find Zale putting the top on the old box of costumes and props we were no longer using.
“After tonight, I think it’s safe to say we won’t need these again,” he said cheerfully, tapping the box with his hand.
“Well, let’s make it official, then,” I said, and picked the box up. “I’m taking this to the dumpster.”
“The perfect place for it!” Zale agreed, laughing.
I walked up the side aisle and out the fire exit door halfway up the house, which I knew led to the back side of the building, where the dumpsters were located. As I walked, I tried to shake off the rest of my embarrassment over Luca. Instead of focusing on my mortifying response, I should be focusing on the fact that he asked me to hang out. Wasn’t that the point? That he seemed interested? It wasn’t a sensation I had much experience with. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine what it would be like arriving at the festival, and seeing him standing there, waiting for me. His face lit up with a smile when I appeared, and me, confident enough to return that smile without turning the color of a ripe tomato. Maybe even his hand reaching casually out to take mine as we walked. Looking over to sneak a glimpse of his face, only to find he was sneaking a glimpse at mine…
“Oof!”
I was so lost in my daydream that I didn’t see the small pothole in the pavement walkway. I caught the toe of my shoe in it and stumbled forward, losing my grip on the bin and falling painfully on my side.
“Shit, ouch!” I gasped, as I pushed myself into a seated position and examined the damage. My left palm was scraped up from where I’d thrust it out to catch myself, and I could tell my hip and thigh would be bruised before I could even get to my feet. Grumbling at my own clumsiness, I hobbled over to the overturned bin, and began shoving all the scattered items back inside. I vented my feelings by breaking one of the Styrofoam antlers off one of the crowns. As I snatched at the moth-eaten old Holly King cloak, something small and dark tumbled out of the folds, and I picked it up.
It was a book, small and old-looking, bound in deep green fabric, with a faded illustration on the front. There was no title, but it reminded me of old editions of Grimm’s Fairytales I’d seen in used bookstores. Curiously, I opened it, and began to skim the words. “Holly King”… “Oak King”… it was the story of Litha, I realized, in book form. There were color plate illustrations between the text pages, somewhat faded, but still beautiful in their details. I flipped forward a few more pages, and came to what looked like a poem. I started to read it…
“We are the Keepers of Forest and Flame!
We are the beacons of sun! Of Spring!
Wielding our power, to grow and to survive
We cast you out Darkness, so hence Light can thrive!”
A tingling excitement ran over me, like an electric shock. I turned the page, reading another passage.
“We are the keepers of Darkness and Ice!
We are the bastions of frost, and of sleep!
We blanket all nature in a mantle of white,
And wrap all the world in endless dark night!”
I forgot all about my bruises and scrapes, and I jumped to my feet. It was all I could do to chuck the bin and its contents into the dumpster before running back into the theater, my heart pounding.
“Zale! Eva! Look at this!” I cried, as I bolted back down the aisle to the stage where the two of them stood, looking alarmed. “Have you ever seen this before?”
Zale and Eva both examined the little book, each shaking their heads.
“Where did you find it?” Zale asked.
“It was in the bottom of that bin of old costumes,” I explained.
Eva snorted. “Where it’s probably been for like fifty years.”
“It’s… a children’s book?” Zale asked, flipping through it. “About Litha?”
