The Pink River
Fourteen years.
That’s how long it’s been since a baby has been born on Mahanea. Fourteen years ago, that horrid witch came and killed the women. Fourteen years that the men have lived on their own.
Leopold de Truett was only three when the curse was implanted. He barely remembers what a woman even is. Every so often, he’ll see a flash of his mother’s soft brown eyes, but otherwise, he’s completely ignorant to the meaning of this word that his father and uncles speak of so reverently.
One night, the light breeze carried a scrap of paper through the window. In the moonlight, he made out:
Leopold,
You don’t know me, but I’ve seen you and somehow trust you. I’m risking my life by writing this to you, but I’ve lived alone so long that I no longer consider death a curse but a blessing. I’ll be by the pink river behind the school tomorrow at dawn. Please come alone.
The words were so gentle and emotion-filled that Leo couldn’t help but read them over and over again.
Leo didn’t sleep that night, and he left for the river before the sun lightened the sky. Who was this stranger writing notes in the middle of the night?
Common sense argued otherwise, but for some reason, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe today was the day he’d learn the meaning behind this thing called woman… and perhaps it would become more than a figment of his imagination.
Next: Your Arms Around Me