by Lena Coakley
“Of course . . . you could stay here,” he says. “If you wanted.”
I’m not sure about that, so I don’t answer.
“You are a people, you know.”
That’s true. I’ll probably have to start doing people-y things, like taking baths and eating with a fork. Horrible.
“Jonathan,” I say. “Why didn’t you ever get married and have children?”
“I just didn’t . . . I don’t know. It didn’t happen.”
I sit up. “You could still find some lady,” I tell him. “One who doesn’t mind no hair.”
“Go to sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”
I try, but I am wide-awake now. The bed is too close to the ground. The fluffy covers are too comfortable. I kick them off.
The truth is, I want to stay with Jonathan, but I know that if I do, things will change. I’m afraid I’ll forget how to howl. I’m afraid I’ll forget how to tell one bird from another just by the sound of her wings. I’m afraid that Mr. Green will whisper secrets to me, and I won’t hear them because I will be inside a cottage. What if he is whispering to me right now?
I’m about to tell Jonathan that I have to go back to my nest right away, but then I see what he is carving. A star. A five-pointed star.
He told me that our parents carved a star for every happy memory, and I wonder if the happy memory that he is carving is of finding me.
I sigh. I love my nest, but Jonathan can’t come there. He might fall out.
“I’ll stay,” I tell him. “You are my little brother, and you need me to take care of you.”
“That’s true,” Jonathan says. “I do.”
Acknowledgments
The idea for Wicked Nix came to me years ago in Peter Carver’s wonderful Writing for Children class, but I could never get it right. I am very grateful to early readers Georgia Watterson, Hadley Dyer, Paula Wing, and Kathy Stinson for helping me to finally find Nix’s voice, and to Susan Van Metre, whose brilliant advice helped me flesh out the book and uncover the heart of the story.
Many thanks go to my agent, Steven Malk; Erica Finkel and Alyssa Nassner at Abrams Books; Suzanne Sutherland at HarperCollins Canada; and the many others who had a hand in this book’s publication.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts that came in the form of a grant to complete this work.
Finally, thank you to Jaime Zollars for her beautiful illustrations and for making me one of those authors with a map at the beginning of her book, something I’ve always wanted to be.
LENA COAKLEY is the author of Witchlanders and Worlds of Ink and Shadow. She concentrated in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and now lives in Toronto.
JAIME ZOLLARS is an illustrator of children’s books. She is inspired by fairy tales, Flemish painters, and flea-market photographs. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
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