May, 1945 CE

The Village of Ash

Once there was a story and no one to tell it.

As Grandmother spoke, the girl settled herself closer; the pair were excused from the work of women and girls in their village lest their strangeness spoil the bubbling disks of injera as they baked or taint the healing essence of the plants hanged to dry in the African sun.

“Tell about the tree and the bird and the girl by the sea,” Asmeret begged.

Kauaʻi

1969 CE

Alicia watched the postal truck pull away from their house on the bluff. Maneuvering up the drive backwards, the vehicle stopped and started several times. She raised an eyebrow.