“Like humans with the mouths of beasts. That’s a rumor. I’ve never seen one, they like the dark and I was only ten when we... when we left.”
Sophie didn’t pry further. Her mother hadn’t come straight to America. There were years spent moving from relative’s house to friend’s house, refugee camp to resettlement camp before they were granted asylum in America as victims of genocide. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to bring it up. It’s just... most people don’t believe in monsters like vampires.”
“I don’t believe in most monsters. Only useful ones,” her mother replied, savagely kneading the orange-scented dough that would become Christmas-morning’s breakfast buns. “If you believe in a heaven, you believe in a hell, if you believe in an angel, you believe in a demon. They say some angels left heaven to spite the Lord, but maybe some left for other reasons. The dakhanavar are monsters and they kill to live. They also protect. Why are you staring?”
“Because most adult people don’t believe in monsters! Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Only the holy one,” her mother winked, studding the doubt with golden raisins.
“But- but what about Count Dracula and—”
“Sophie. I’ve never seen God. But I know He exists. I know other things exist, too, things I don’t know. I know science and ‘proof’ are only parts of a whole.” Her mother dusted floury hands on her festive apron and surveyed her precious child. “You taught me that. To believe in miracles and to accept them.”
For the second time in as many months, her world flipped on its head. Whatever she was... maybe it wasn’t a curse. It was a miracle. Whatever Jesse had didn’t have to make him something scary and feared, at least not to a few important people. “How do they think the dakhanavar came to be if they’re semi-animal, semi-human?”
“Oh, who knows? Maybe I’m a foolish woman, still clinging to the stories from little villages that the rest of the world would call ‘backward.’” Something sad drifted across her face. “There are no little villages like mine anymore. Not over here. Miracles are hard to find in the big places. So crowded.”
Sophie put her arm around her mother’s waist and rested her head on her soft, cushiony shoulder. “Antonia is a small place. So is Pine Ridge. I think... I think there are still places of miracles, Mom.”
“You are happy and you are loved, that’s all the miracle I need. I cannot wait to meet this boy who helped you become the woman you are meant to be. My fearless one.”
“How can you say fearless?” Sophie snuck a raisin before backing away.
“You didn’t give up. That’s a lot of what bravery is,Sers.Not giving up.”
TEN
Christmas was different than Sophie remembered it. She hadn’t felt this free in years, literally years. When Uncle Darrell and Aunt Izzy arrived with her pseudo-cousins, she didn’t hide behind her hair and speak in whispers. She had always had plenty to say when Charlie, Essie, and Eva talked about their sports teams, their part-time jobs, their dating life. She’d simply kept quiet, avoiding attention. This year, she spoke up. She laughed, she joked, and people joked back. Her favorite moment was showing her cousins the picture of herself and Jesse on campus.
“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Sophie grinned at Essie and Eva in particular.
“Rowrrr. That hair.” Eva fanned herself.
“Does he have a brother?” the currently-single Essie hinted.
“Nope, he’s the only one and he’s all mine.”
“Hey, hey, don’t get too serious too fast,” Charlie warned. “What do you know about this guy, aside from the fact that you both fell in the same vat of paint?”
It was nice to pummel him with sofa pillows, assisted by his equally indignant sisters. “I hope you meet him when he’s down here.”
“When do you leave to see him?”
“I’ll drive up tomorrow and stay until New Year’s Eve, then we’ll come down here together for a week.”
