Chapter 51

I shook my head, smiling. As I said goodbye to the elder and carried the book back to the shed, I felt my soul a little lighter. But just looking at that book again, trying to understand the story its pages tried to tell me, made me feel the weight and anger of having a father who didn’t know how to act the way a father should.

“Do you want help?” asked a familiar voice. I looked up to see Marcus already inside my shed. “Randall told me to stay around today since the females are busy trying to calm the other girls who arrived last night. He doesn’t want you to be alone.”

I made a face.

“And there was no one better than you for him to send?”

Marcus made an obscene gesture, then stared at my book.

“What did you find out about this crap?”

I opened the last page of the book before sitting down.

“It’s a tale. I don’t know yet what it’s about, but I have a suspicion.”

“Can you read aloud?” he asked, sitting on the floor in front of me. “We a