Jenny's Curse

Jenny's Curse is Chapter 5 of How I Met My Echo On Big Wolf Cliff

The girls step out of Jenny's cabin and into the air as smooth as butter. Liz’s hair rises and pulls back towards the cabin as if they walked through an airlock in a whoosh of fresh pine and spruce, with a cacophony of birdsong. Her hair drops, and they sink to their ankles in a heavy carpet of vibrant green moss.

Liz’s gaze streaks across the small open glade. “I don’t know what to look at first.”

“You can come back, Liz. You do not have to swallow it all up in a single moment,” Jenny laughs.

“Are the trees purring? The white and jack pine look like the ones on my side, but these are pulsating. The whole forest is moving,” Liz says. She hops over to a branch to take a long finger of needles into her palm. “Jenny, the branch is still. It doesn’t feel any different than the trees on my side. What’s happening?”

“It is not the branch vibrating, it is the air around the needles. On the other side, you can watch the branches rustle in the breeze. But here, you can also see the air movement. Look up at the sky.”

“It’s like a van Gogh painting—a living breathing brushstroke.” She leans back to steady herself. A rainbow of currents sweeps the clouds across the sky like little cottony ice floes. The air swirls around as the clouds divide and part in tumultuous tumbles. “Whoa!”

Jenny takes her hand. “Imagine the beauty of a thunderstorm.”

Liz turns to Jenny and smiles. “I bet Vincent van Gogh visited a place like this. He had to have. No wonder he suffered from mental illness. How could an artist experience a place like this and not become depressed returning to our dull world?”

“Your world is as bright. This is no better. It is only different.”

“I don’t know about that. Why would you leave here to visit my side?”

“It is very lonely here.”

“Don’t you have family?”

“No, there is no one like me here.”

“What do you mean? There are no people?”

“Yes, there are people but not here. It would not matter if there were because I do not fit in with anyone.”

“I'm the same.”

Jenny drops her hands and plunks onto a wooden bench coated in lichen like barnacles on a whale.

“You have a family. I had to leave mine long ago because I did not want to become what they are.”

Liz settles next to Jenny, hesitating before taking back her hand. “I’m sorry I compared our lives. I’ve no idea how life is for you. How long have you lived alone?”

“I do not know anymore. I used to carve the days in the back of that tree,” she replies, pointing to a large spruce bent over like a knee. “I stopped counting when there were so many marks that it could not stand anymore. If I continued, I would kill every tree. I do not age. I wonder sometimes if I will live forever.”

“Forever?”

“Yes—it is my curse.”

“Who cursed you?”

“My family.”

Liz shakes her head, dumbfounded. “How could your family curse you to a life of loneliness?”

“I chose this, Liz," Jenny replies, hardly over a whisper. "I could not become what they wanted me to be.”

“You chose to be cursed, left alone to live forever? What could be worse than that?

As if on cue, the sky closes in as a dark, thick cloud settles above. Shadows stretch out of the woods like long fingers. Jenny’s gaze flicks around at the growing shadows. A shiver runs up Liz’s back, and she squeezes Jenny’s hand.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Can we change the subject? I have not had a friend here for eons. I would prefer sharing the beauty of this world with you, not the darkness.”

“Of course.”

The clouds part, and the shadows dissolve.

Jenny hops up and along a path that snakes through the moss, stops, and swivels around at the still-seated Liz. “Are we friends?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Phew! I have not scared you too much with my ominous mood?”

“No.”

“Do you have to leave now?”

“I'm not sure. Does time work the same here as on my side?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“Okay, good. We still have time before my cousins come looking for me.”

Relief spreads across Jenny’s face. “Great! Stay close to me, Liz. We can have a little adventure.” She smiles, pulling Liz to her feet. “I will take you to the trout stream. It is close and even more beautiful than the sky.”

“Whoa! Really?” Liz asks. Her eyes return to the dark clouds. The wind waves have pushed them almost out of view. “Lead on!”