Golden Box Book Publishing GBBP Magazine, June, 2017 | Page 58
“You are late, again, young lady! Didn’t I tell you to be home by
the time the sun reaches the head of the Falcon? Look!” she
pointed at the pole through the door.
Aisa quickly let the leather curtain slide back to cover the
door, dutifully bowed, and whispered, “Yes, Mother. Sorry
Mother.”
She always wanted to please her mother, she really did, but
she could rarely live up to her expectations. Luckily, Mara’s anger
and lectures were as brief as summer storms, so Aisa obediently
stood by the entrance and lowered her eyelids to hide the playful
twinkle in her eyes. Her long, black hair, which was braided in
two rows, slid off her shoulders as she bowed her head, and she
adjusted her delicately-woven horsetail headband that kept the
stray hairs out of her face. Aisa took a hesitant step forward on the
thick, wool carpet that covered the dirt floor of the Jurta.
“Where were you?”
“We were… I was… I got some herbs, too. Look!” Aisa
hoped that she could divert her mother’s attention, so she quickly
opened the leather pouch that contained some flowers that she had
collected. Lying wasn’t in her nature, but concealing the truth a
little by trailing the conversation away from the sensitive subject
was widely used in her tribe, especially by teenagers.
Emily looked at Jayden with suspicion in her eyes. “Jay,
where did you get this?”
“I found it in a secret room in grandma’s house. It was
wrapped up and hidden in a wooden trunk with a bunch of other
books and stuff. When I opened it I saw i t was Hun writing and it
made me angry that I couldn’t read it.”
“A secret room?” Emily mused. “I thought I knew every nook
and cranny of grandma’s house. How did you find it?”
Jayden gave her an excited look and said, “A few days ago
Aunt Julia asked me to fix the leak on the roof when the ceiling in
the corner of the living room got wet after a long rain. When I was
trying to figure out the location of the leak on the roof, I noticed
that above that corner of the living room the guest bedroom
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