Aru could feel the hole it left behind in her heart. And even though she couldn’t remember it now, she wanted to weep. Those memories wereeverything. They were what she held close when she had to spend a night without her mother at home. They were what she returned to whenever she was scared.
She couldn’t lose them.
She needed to loosen Shukra’s control of the memory-stealing snow….
“The snow is hungry,” said Shukra. “It will feed.”
He turned his back to them, walking farther and farther away, as if he couldn’t bear to see what would happen next.
But Aru had a plan—
Mini grabbed her around the wrist. “No, Aru.” Her eyes were wide, and Aru knew that Mini had guessed what she was going to do. “There has to be some other way.”
“If we don’t break his mirrors, we won’t remember anything, Mini.”
“It’s not right! He has those mirrors because he feels bad—”
“He killed his wife. Why should I feel sorry for him?”
“Aru, he’s…he’s in pain. If we take from him, then we’re no better—”
“Fine.I’lltake from him, so thatwecan survive.”
Aru didn’t wait for Mini to answer. She had to act now.
Around her neck, the gray pendant from Monsoon was cold and wet. Even as she reached for it, she remembered Monsoon’s words.
But be warned: regret will always follow. It is the price of aiming true. For sometimes, when we take the deadliest aim, we are nothing if not reckless.
Aru didn’t hesitate. She threw. Mini turned away as if she couldn’t witness this.
The stone struck the mirror in front of Shukra’s chest. He shuddered, clutching his heart. “Irsa?” he called. He stumbled forward, clawing at the air as if he’d suddenly gone blind.
The pendant bounced, shattering the mirror above him. Then it broke the third and the fourth.
Shukra fell to his knees. The snow seemed to notice him then. It stopped falling on Aru and Mini, perhaps drawn by how much more potent his memories were.
“No!” he screamed. “Please! They are all I have left of her!”
But the snow showed no mercy. Aru couldn’t watch.
“The bridge…” said Mini softly.
When Aru turned around, she saw that the bridge was being built, more quickly now. Each moment stolen from Shukra’s life was fashioning a sturdy step over the ravine.
Aru and Mini leaped across it, Shukra’s screams and cries chasing them all the way. No snow followed them. When they reached the other side, Aru turned to see Shukra looking lost. Snow frosted his skin.
“You are merely a child, and children are sometimes the cruelest of all. You have taken everything from me. For that, I curse you, daughter of Indra,” said Shukra. He held out his hand. “My curse is that, in the moment when it matters most, you, too, shall forget.”
With that, Shukra disappeared. Where he had once stood, now there were just two footprints gradually filling with snow.
This Place Smells Funky
Aru was no stranger to curses.
It’s just that she was usually the giver and not the receiver.
In the sixth grade, Aru had cursed Carol Yang. It was during a week when Aru had been suffering from a cold. Jordan Smith had used up all the tissues giving himself pretend boobs, which was not nearly as funny as he’d thought it would be, and it was theworstfor Aru, who’dreallyneeded to blow her nose. The teacher wouldn’t excuse her to go to the bathroom. So Aru had been left with that horrible, tickly feeling of a drippy nose, and she’d had no other choice….
