“Are you deaf? I just told you, I don’t have any legs.”
“Come now, of course you do! They’re there. They’re just not actualized yet. You’re in the middle of it. Well, I really think it’s over now. You just don’t know it’s over.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The actualization. I don’t know what happened to you, but I’ve been around the block, Little Baby. I can take a good guess. You were turned. You used to be a girl called Echo. She was Paul’s favorite, so she must’ve been hanging about when Josep went upstairs. You can tell me all about it later, but for now let’s get you out of that water.”
Then she offers me her hand.
I don’t take it. My mind is swirling with the words she just spoke.You used to be a girl called Echo. She’s right. I know she’s right. But I have no memory of that. Which bothers me. Greatly.
“Come now. Take my hand. I promise, you can get out of the water.”
“Why should I believe your promises?” I’m irritated so these words come out as a sneer. “You don’t have any legs either.”
The witch bursts out laughing. Then looks down at the mist surrounding her lower body. I look at it too, and as I watch the mist fades and her legs appear. Well, not legs, per se, because she’s in a long dress.
When I look back up at her, she’s smiling at me. “There. Legs. Satisfied now? You’re new, Little Baby. And while you do seem to have quite the command of the English language, the magic is something that must be learned. I can teach you.” She pauses here, letting those words hang in the air for a few moments before continuing. “Would you like me to teach you?”
And once again, she offers her hand.
I take it. Because I would like to get out of the pool. I really, really want legs. And the moment our hands touch, there they are. Smooth, and pale, and made of flesh.
The water changes color. The lavender glow subsides. But at the same time, I feel it. Not all around me this time, but inside me.
“That’s it,” the witch says. “You’ve got it now. Stand up. You can do it.”
“Stop talking to me like I’m a child.”
“Your name is Little Baby. Of course you’re a child.”
Reluctantly, I admit she’s right. I am a child. Not in body—I’m in my twenties, at least—but in spirit. So maybe she was onto something about that.
I hate being wrong. At least I think I do.
“Stand up. Baby steps for Little Baby.”
I sneer at her, but she just laughs. Which feels… disrespectful, since clearly?—
“Clearly,” she says, cutting off my thoughts, “you are a powerful thing, Little Baby. But experience is everything, dear girl.”
“Hmm.” I stand up—my legs weak and wobbly, but very much there—and, with her help, step out of the pool. We face each other, nearly eye to eye, and I tip my chin up. “Youth,” I say. “Youth is everything.”
“Spoken like a true child.”
I yank my hand out of hers and walk across the smooth rock towards a floor-length mirror propped up against the side of the cave wall. “You should be nicer to me.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I’m more powerful than you.”
“Power is only useful if one can wield it, dear girl.”
I don’t say anything back because I have reached the mirror and I’m looking at myself. There’s a hazy mist around my body now, just like it was around hers. Only mine is still two colors instead of one. Lavender and gold.
I’m pale, pale white, and my skin kind of glows, making me almost appear silver. I’m thin, but shapely. My hips are wide and my breasts large. My hair is long and silver. Or maybe lavender, I can’t really tell.
I’m…
