CHAPTER 2

Shock rolled through me, and I fell back on social training as much as instinct and stepped back, letting her in. I didn't even stop my dog when he came up to sniff her, just closed the door after her and walked through the house to the front where my familiar overstuffed recliner waited.

It was truly shock, not pain. Shock simply because I didn't know how to react. All I knew was that I was sick of people dying on me when I didn't know how I felt about them. Selfish, yes, but in pain we are all selfish, it is the nature of life.

I wanted to curse as she followed me in, sitting on the formal settee left by a former roommate that the dog used as a bed. He followed her in, oblivious to my turmoil, and begged of her affection as he usually did with all strangers I didn't immediately try to punch.

I suppose a normal person would ask when and how. I couldn't. All I knew of my birth mother was that she had met my father one fateful night, and then nine months later left me on his doorstep in a classic ding 'n' ditch. My married father had somehow talked my step-mother into raising me as her own, and she had regretted it the rest of her life. Then, thirty years later I got the call and I never found it in me to forgive her for abandoning me, so we'd never met. Not surprisingly, my "retirement" began soon after.

"So why exactly are you here?" I finally asked this stranger.

"At the reading of her will we found out about your existence. All these years and she never mentioned you. There is a legacy for you, though."

I felt a stirring of hope. Statues don't make much money and I was destitute. I knew my birth mother came from a well-off family and had herself a good, stable money-making career and had married a man on the same track.

"Oh?" I said casually, trying not to get too excited. In the past people had died and left me very wonderful things and large amounts of money. But somehow, a third party always fucked it up so I was left with nothing. My life seemed to be one big tease always leaving me high and dry.

"Before I can explain it to you, you need to experience it for yourself."

"What the hell is it?" For some reason I was envisioning some fancy horse at a stable whose upkeep was the GDP of a small island nation.

"The true legacy is something passed to the firstborn daughter in our family. However, it comes with three smaller gifts. They are to prepare you for the legacy. I am going to give you the first gift right now. You need to experience it for yourself."

Rising from the couch she crossed to me and grabbed my hand, holding it between both of hers. Closing her bright eyes, she began to murmur in some strange language I didn't know. I felt wind, and at first thought it was leaking through the ancient windows to blow her light, long hair back, but it was warm.

Heat began where our skin touched and grew to a burn. Suddenly her words grew faster and louder and at the crescendo I felt the intense warmth shoot through me, more like an explosion. It was all fire and heat, lightning filling me like a teacup from hell.

I tried to jerk back but she held me, chanting still as the pain wracked me, only to disappear as fast as it came.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked when I could talk.

She let me go and I fell back to the loveseat. Standing above me she smiled. "Make a wish, about your body or mind. Wish to speak a new language, or to be taller, shorter, thinner, or bigger. Wish it now, Anna."

"What!?"

Something powerful ran through her light green eyes. It wasn't anger, it was more like the emotion that gave birth to anger that had died when humans were still clinging to trees.

Wildly I wished I was black. I felt a tingle somewhere between licking a light socket and my legs coming back to life after falling asleep. Looking down my pale white skin was a rich mocha.

I began screaming.

I'm not the kind of person to scream. I yell often. The night my mother died I howled like a wounded wolf, but I never remembered ever screaming no matter what horror or pain came my way. But reality broke in that moment, and the weight of the lie was too much for my brain, so I screamed.

She waved her hand and I went silent. Oh, my muscles still worked but no sound came. Once more I felt the feeling when she waved her hand and I was pale white again.

"I'll leave now, but know this. Over the next twenty-four hours you may wish for anything to change about your body or mind. After twenty four hours it will remain for a week. I will be back after that week. If you pass the test you will receive the next gift, and any mistakes you discover you've made may be undone then."

"-the fuck!?" My voice came back in the middle of my yelling.

"It's a test. Three gifts, three tests. If you pass them, then you get your inheritance. Good day, Anna."