The Apprentice's Diaries: Hellfire Hunter Archives, #1

By Wendy Williams

A little over a hundred years ago, the world ended and out of the ashes, one group, the Hellfire Club rose. With it came things that people thought of as only myths, witches, vampires and shapeshifters as well as other things that go bump in the night. Within the Hellfire Club, is a group who's sole purpose is to protect. Protect the club, the regulars, and the club's allies, no matter their race.

 

Our story follows Kenna Ravensheart and her group of friends as they enter the Hellfire Academy to learn to be Hunters. Kenna is a witch and comes from a long line of Hellfire members and Hunters. Can she live up to her family's legacy?

 

And when reports come in of a bigfoot in the area, can her and her friends find it before the regulars do and either of they get her or it does? And could there be more to these mythical creatures then anyone can imagine?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wendy Williams
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215646564

Wendy Williams

I was born on July 4th 1969 in Chattanooga, TN and still live in the area. I have been married to my wonderful husband for over twenty years. We have a dog and two cats as well as my sister that live with us. 

Book preview

Kenna Ravensheart

About three weeks after I had my sparring match with Marcia, my Da called me into his study. He smiled as I entered his domain to let me know that I was not in any trouble.

Sit down, Kenna. I called you in here to talk to you about something. Marcia came to see me this morning. You impressed her the other day, and she took it into her head to talk to the Elders in charge of the Academy and the leader of the Hunters about you and convinced them that you would be a great asset to the Hunters. So, if you still want to, you will leave for the Academy next Sunday and start classes there on the following Monday.

I sat there looking at my father like he had grown another head. I could not believe what I was hearing. You really mean it, Da? I get to go to the Academy. Now! I don't have to wait another year. I cannot believe it. Holy Hera, I need to pack, and there are a few things that I will need to get before I leave. I don't even know where to start. I need a suitcase out of the attic and probably one of the steam trunks, and I need to wash the rest of my clothes and I need to get ....  I got up and wandered out of the office. I was halfway to my room without even realizing that I had left the office.

My mother, Alyce, was waiting in my room when I got there. On my bed sat a new suitcase and a new weapons bag, on the floor was a new trunk for all the rest of my things. She was taking my clothes out of the closet and was folding them to put in the suitcase or trunk depending on if I would need it as soon as I got there, or it could wait. I just stared at her then shook my head. Mother, you don't have to do that. I can do it. I was just coming up here to do just that. I walked over and hugged my mother. It was then that I noticed that her eyes were a little misty and soon mine were too.

I was just trying to help you get started and help you decide what you want to take with you on Sunday and what you might want stored for you. Since I had not really gotten that far in my thought process, I really was choked up by her forethought. We spent the next few hours going through my things, deciding what I would take with me and what would be put in the attic with the things that my siblings that had gone to the Academy before me had left to be stored. I had seen six of my sisters and my older brother leave for the Academy, but I had never known what happened behind the scenes when they left.

There was a small ritual that happened when one of us left. It started as soon as someone was notified that they were leaving. The child's mother would come and help them just as my mother was helping me. Then Da would take us to the dojo and let us pick out the weapons that we wanted to take with us. My Da's wives would start planning a farewell dinner. Mine would be Saturday night.

That night my mother and da called me into my Da's office. Kenna, we are immensely proud of you, and we know that you will keep making us proud. We wanted to give you some things to help you on your path.

First, we want to give you this. My mother handed me a leather belt pouch that had been dyed a deep sable black and had my symbol, a flame wrapped around an open hand, embossed on it. As she handed it to me it clanked, and I opened it. There was a mix of coins in the pouch. It is not much but it should hold you until you start to get your pay.

Da said and then he handed me a leather-bound book. This is for your Book of Shadows. It is more than time to start your own book.

Da then handed me a small backpack that was a lot heavier than it looked. This is just a few things that you might need. I looked into the bag, and I saw one of Storm's water bottles, a compass, a small tool kit, a small herb kit, and a few other things that I could not identify immediately.

Then Da led me into the Dojo and I walked over to the weapons rack that lined the wall closest to the door that we had just entered. I looked over the racks knowing what I would find there. These were the weapons that I had used every day since Da found out that I wanted to be a hunter like him.

I learned early on that I favored a sword called a Mortuary Sword, a light, quick, and nicely balanced blade that is primarily used as a cutter. The blade is good and flexible but is rigid enough for thrusting as well. I was looking for my favorite blade when I looked up to see a new blade on the wall.

It was a Mortuary Sword. It had a sable black handle and scabbard with silver fittings. The basket around the hilt was three silver bars that wrapped over the handle to protect the user's hand. I reached up almost against my will and lifted the sword off the rack. Holding on to the scabbard, I placed my hand on the hilt and quickly pulled the sword from its scabbard. The blade was a bit heavier than I was used to, but I could see that it was razor sharp and when I ran through a few of the sword forms that I have been trained in, the blade did not waver one little bit. I slowly sheathed the blade and turned to my Da.

My Da smiled. It is not the dwarven blade that you wanted but this one will do for now and who knows, there is always graduation. I would also suggest that you take at least one of the practice blades, they have practice blades at the Academy, but you never know if they will have one to your liking. Remember never go into battle with ill-fitting gear and that includes your weapons. I nodded my head and picked one of the shinai and one of the metal practice blades that I used in the dojo.

I turned and hugged my Da. I love you, Da, and I am going to miss you so much. I ran from the room before he could see the tears in my eyes.

The rest of the week went by in a blur as we tried to get everything ready for me to go. Saturday night we had a family dinner and my Da's wives made all my favorite foods, and my mom made my favorite dessert, spiced cake with buttercream icing. Yum.

On Sunday morning, I woke up early and went around the house to get any last-minute things that I might have forgotten and spent some time just sitting in my room thinking about how things were about to change and about the good times that I had with my siblings and Morgan in this place. Morgan, I hoped that I would see her today when I got to the Academy.

When it was time for me to leave, my mother was starting to cry and so was I. You would think that you have never sent anyone off to school before. I said as I rubbed the back of my hand across my eyes. I hugged my mom, I will miss you so much mom. You and the other wives don't let Da drive you too crazy, and make sure that he is not too hard on the dojo students. I love you.

Then I turned and gave my other mothers, and my younger siblings hugs and told my siblings to behave themselves. We all laughed and hugged again.

Morgan’s grandmother had come out to see me off and to give me a care package to give to Morgan when I saw her and one for me as well. She gave me a tight hug and told me to tell Morgan that she loved her when I saw her. I hugged her back tightly and said that I would. She looked me in the eye studying me then nodded her head and released me and moved away for others to say bye.

I looked up and down the street that had been my home all my life, the building in front of me, the family home and businesses, Copperhold Grocery and the Dojo, with its sign Copperhold in large copper letters across the front, remembering the neighbors that I had grown up with like Morgan’s Grandmother, who lived in the building next to my Da’s dojo, who made some of the best jams and jellies. The butcher, Ole Joe, on the other side of the grocery store, who could tell you where every piece of meat came from and how it was best to cook it. The seamstress, Miss Mellie, down the street on the other side of the road that could take fabric and thread and turn them into something that might not be what you envisioned but would be exactly what you needed. I would miss each of them and the street itself.

Home, but I was on my way to the life I wanted. I smiled.

Last of all I looked at my Da, hugged him and whispered, I will make you proud.

Da hugged me tighter and whispered back. You already have. He kissed the top of my head and released me, pushing me lightly, towards the carriage that he had called to take me to the Academy. Then I picked up my bags and got into the carriage as the driver placed my trunk on the back of the carriage. I was on my way. I was going to the Academy to be a Hunter.

The Academy

Education is Not the

Learning of Facts

It’s Rather the Training

of the Mind to Think

Albert Einstein

First Meeting With the Elders

Kenna

It took about an hour to reach the Academy from my family’s home.  The carriage stopped at the gates, the driver talking to the two guards at the gate, showing my paperwork for admittance to one, while the other guard looked inside at me. Once we were allowed through the gates, I got my first real look at the place that would be my home for the coming years. Power, influence, prestige, it all begins here. The friends you make, the enemies you make, the work you do, it all affects the rest of your life.

As the carriage moved up the driveway, I could not keep from looking around at all the buildings and the grounds. Closest to the gates were two buildings like those back home, two- or three-story brick buildings with stoops at the front door with people sitting on them talking and watching the carriage go by. The way the people at these buildings were dressed and the fact that there were some people working out at targets and fighting dummies at the side of each building, these must be the Hunters’ Lodge buildings and housing. It made a certain kind of sense since they would defend the gates if anyone attacked the Academy. There was also a smaller building on the left side of the drive, a patio in the front and on the side with tables and seating showing it was a place for people to gather but I could not see enough to understand its full purpose.

Next was workshops of some kind, they looked like they might be for large machines or for large projects. I could see what looked like a carriage, but it was on belts of some kind instead of wheels. Next to them I could see other buildings and dorms. These must be for the regulars that came to the Academy to learn engineering and other useful skills and trades.

From here in the distance, I could see a large brick building with a tall square tower that rose above the rest of the building in the center of the roof. There were buildings on either side of this building, which were three-or four-story tall, with lots of windows facing the driveway. The dorms if I remember correctly from visits with my siblings. That made the towered building the main building where the classrooms were and the offices of the different Masters that taught here and of course the hall where the council of elders met. Before we could get to the building in the distance, we had to go past a fenced off space that looked like it had been allowed to grow wild but as we drew closer, I could see small forts at either end of the space, and I wondered what they were used for.

My carriage pulled up in front of the main building, the drive was a large circle here with a fountain in the middle with flowers and benches around the fountain. Past the driveway was a large area of grass, students and some teachers and hunters sat in groups on the grass listening to people singing or playing music or playing games, a group of both male and female students with long ribbons hanging from their pants were throwing some kind of ball and chasing each other grabbing for the ribbons and the ball. In the center of this grassy area was a tall obelisk with the names of Hellfire members that were lost in the cataclysm. On the other side of this area was another small building with tables and seating on the patio surrounding it. This one had what looked like students sitting outside of it with books, dishes and cups scattered on their tables.

My carriage was met by a girl who looked to be one of the older students. She opened the door to the carriage and said briskly, Leave your things, they will be taken to your room while you are meeting with the Elders.

She led me through the Academy doors and up a set of stairs in the center of the building, it must have been just under the tower that I had seen earlier, to a square room lined with dark paneling midway up the wall. Large paintings lined the walls with electric lights between each painting. This room felt like it was designed to make a person nervous.

She showed me to a bench and told me that the Elders would be with me shortly. I waited in the room, too nervous just to sit there, I walked around the room looking at the paintings that ran along it. They were scenes of the Hellfire Club working to help people after the Cataclysm. I was at one that was closest to the doors when they swung open.

Kenna Ravensheart a voice from inside called. I ran my hands down my shirt smoothing the invisible wrinkles on it as I walked through the doors.

Walking up the steps behind the doors into the Council room the first thing I noticed was the dark paneling that ran halfway up the wall in this room as well. Unlike the previous room, here it lent a certain weight to the room, giving it a feeling of being judged as soon as you entered, even the high windows on each side of the room that let in tons of light did not ease this feeling. I could imagine that if the tiered seats behind me were filled, you would feel like you were in a fishbowl with everyone watching to see what you would do next.

Then I saw the large high desk with three people sitting behind it. In the center of the desk was the oldest woman I had ever seen. As I moved to the front of the desk, she smiled down at me. Kenna, welcome to the Academy.

The man to the left of her could have been twenty or two hundred years old. He had the face of a youngish man until you looked at his eyes, there you could see the age in him. You just knew that he had seen some things. He smiled, showing the tips of his fangs, You have been chosen to train to be a hunter for the Hellfire Club, like your father before you.

On the other side of the woman set another man. This one with long shaggy almost black hair and bright black eyes. He did not smile but grimaced and in a rough voice said We have a few questions for you. Think of this as the club getting to know you.

The woman again spoke, Take a seat and we will get started. I moved to the chair that had been placed in front of the desk and sat down.

For the next few hours, the three Elders peppered me with questions, some about my family, some about what I had been taught about the Hunters, some about my training so far. But others made no sense to me, what I thought about different creatures, what I thought about the Church of Rio and its knights. By the time they were finished, my head was dizzy. I felt like I had been running uphill, instead of sitting in a chair talking. I also thought they may know more about me than I knew about myself. I felt completely rung out.

The man with the shaggy hair spoke again, This is Master Loretta Blake, he waved at a tall, beautiful blonde that I had not even noticed until that moment, she will be your mentor while you are with us. You should go to her whenever you have questions or any other problems.

Master Blake glided over to me and held out her hand. Up close she was even more beautiful, but her beauty was cold, like an ice princess come to life. I took her hand and shook it. They were cold to the touch.

A vampire mentor, I thought, WOW! Out loud I said as I shook her hand It is a pleasure to meet you Master Blake.

The pleasure is all mine, young one. She had a slight accent that I could not place, but her voice was pleasant and bright, it also sounded a little young. Her next words confirmed that she was at least one of the younger vampire mentors in the Academy. You are to be my first apprentice so you may have to bear with me for a bit as I figure out my teaching style, but hey, we will learn together, right.

She turned to the Elders, May I show her to her room, Elders?

The woman in the center nodded her head, Again the woman said I believe you will be a great asset to the Hunters. We look forward to seeing you grow with us and seeing what you will be capable of in the future.

Master Blake bowed to the Elders, and I followed suit. Turning as she did, I followed her down the stairs from the room.

We walked back down the same set of stairs I had come up earlier, she stopped at the bottom and pointed to the right, Your classes will be in that wing and, then pointing to the left she continued, the teachers’ wing is down this way. You will find my office in this direction. It is three doors down on the left side of the hall and my workroom is down the stairs at the other end of the hall on the right.

She opened the door for me pulling out an umbrella to cover herself with as she did so and we headed across the grassy area to the dorms, she handed me a folder with several things in it.  This is the quad, as you can see the students use this as a place to hang out between classes and after hours. These are your room keys and the key to my workroom. There may be times that I must send you to my workroom for something or that you must use the space to work on something magical. There is also a map of the campus in there to help you find your way around. First years are not allowed off campus without their mentors. If you need anything that is not available in the Academy store, just let me know and I will either get it for you or arrange an outing to get what you are looking for. Your first class is on a slip of paper, you have Master Wyndfall in the morning at 8am. Just give the paper to her at the beginning of class. She will add you to the roll.

By this time, we had reached the dorms, and we stopped on the second floor in front of a room with the number matching the number on my key. After your class, in the morning, I will have the rest of your class schedule ready for you. Do you have any questions so far? I shook my head. She nodded and with that turned and headed back down the hall the way we had come, in such a graceful step that it seemed as if she was floating.

I opened my door to investigate my room. It is about the same size as the one that I had at home, maybe ten feet by ten feet. Inside there was a wardrobe, a dresser, a narrow bed, a desk, and a comfortable looking leather chair, none of them new but all in serviceable condition. On the desk there was a small desk lamp and a steam driven computing device. Next to the device was a folder with my sign on and access card. My room as well as the hallway was lit with electricity provided to the Academy by the Tesla towers that the Hellfire Club had built on the campus of the academy soon after the cataclysm. The walls were all a pale yellow, almost cream color.  I noticed that my trunk, weapon bag and my small to-go bag had already been brought up to my room and sat at the end of my bed ready to be unloaded.

After checking out my room, I looked at the map and saw that this was marked as the witches’ dorms and the building across the quad was marked as the Shifters’ dorms and the vampires’ dorms were under both buildings.

I followed the map down the hallway in the opposite direction that we had come up to find the bathroom. I then followed it to the mess hall, in the main building, to get something to eat. There was no one that I knew in the mess hall, so I might as well return to my room to get settled.

I was a bit upset that I had not seen any of my siblings or Morgan since I got here. Maybe they did not know I was here yet. I was about six months earlier than I thought that I would be here. Maybe that was the reason none of them had come to greet me when I got here. Maybe Morgan had found new friends and forgotten all about me. No, she would not do that. We were best friends, even a year was not enough to break that. Maybe she was just busy. I knew that the workload here was extremely hard. I was so lost in thought that I almost did not turn the right direction to go to my room.

When I got up to my room, my door was slightly open, and I could hear voices in my room. I moved silently to the side of the door and made to look inside but before I could look, my sister Rhea’s voice called out, You might as well come in, I could hear you coming all the way down the hall. Your thoughts are too loud, you need to work on that. She laughed.

I pushed the door the rest of the way open and ran into my big sister’s waiting arms. How did you get in here? I know that I locked that door.

She smiled a conspiratorial smile, Master Blake let us in when your things were brought up. The Masters have keys to all of their apprentice’s rooms just in case of an emergency.

After she let me go, I saw who she had been talking to. It was my best friend from the neighborhood, Morgan Redarrow. She had left for the Academy the year before. She looked much as she had the last time that I had seen her, last year when she had left. Her coppery skin and dark brown hair and eyes were just like I remembered. She looked like she might have put on a little muscle, but she was still just as wiry as she had been all our lives. I had missed her just like another sister.

As she pushed the last of my few books on a small bookcase that had magically appeared in my room sometime after I locked it and headed to the bathroom and mess hall, I came over to her and gave her a hug as well. Where did the bookcase come from? It was not here when Master Blake brought me up here.

We knew how you are about books and no bookcase would have driven you crazy. So, we found one in one of the storerooms for you. Morgan laughed.

Since you have unpacked everything, I assume that you found your basket from your grandmother. She told me to tell you that she loved you and missed you. She nodded and lifted a basket that I had not seen on my desk behind her. She gave me another quick hug with a light kiss on my cheek, before opening the lid of the basket to see what her grandmother had sent her. She squealed with delight at seeing all the goodies that her grandmother had sent her and turned to smile at my sister and I, holding up some of her grandmother’s famous jelly up for us to see.

She and my sister had unpacked my stuff and set up my room, not like I would have done it but in a way that worked better than what I would have done. It would have probably taken me another week to make it feel this comfortable.

They had made up my bed with the sheets and the quilt that I had brought from home. The scent of lavender from our laundry detergent and the sprigs that we placed in the linen storage permeated the air of the room making it smell of home.

The quilt was one that my sisters and I had worked on one winter when we had been snowed in. We created quilt tops for all of us then our moms helped us quilt them. It was brightly colored, created with fabric from all of our outgrown clothing and made the room feel comfy and homey.

The chair was set in the corner next to the bookcase with my desk on the other side of the bookcase, creating a nice little reading nook and study space. Another blanket, this time a crocheted blanket one of my mother’s mothers had made when I was born. It was a little small for the bed now but was perfect for curling up in a chair with a good book.

We spent the rest of the night talking, gossiping about the Academy, eating the goodies that Morgan’s grandmother had sent and catching up. We talked until both of them were yawning. They said that they had had an early morning and should get to their rooms and beds. We got up and cleaned up the trash from our feast and I hugged them, shooing them both out the door before shutting and locking the door behind them.

I turned, smiling, back to my new home, then crawled into my own bed for my first night at the Academy.

The Fabled City of New York

"WHEN I WAS YOUNGER my mother’s mother lived with us and at night we would gather around the fire, and she would tell us the most fantastic of stories. She said that they were the stories of her youth before the cataclysm. She would tell us of the wonderful things that everyone thought they just had to have to live.

Her stories were so fantastic, and it is wonderful to think that life could have been like that, but I know that she is just pulling the youngling’s legs. The things that she told us just could not have been real.

One of her favorite stories is one that she said happened when she was about ten years old. She tells us about a city that her family went to on a thing called a vacation whatever that was.

Here is her story in her own words:

"When I was a youngling of about ten summers, my mother and father, we only had one mother and father in those days, took me on vacation with them to a city called New York. We flew in an airplane, which is a large metal tube with wings and engines that flies through the air. We took off from an airport near our home in the late afternoon and landed in New York just as the sun was setting.

The first sight of the city that I got was from the airplane windows as we were coming in for a landing and the sun had turned the windows of the tall buildings to liquid gold. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen and when I think about it, it still is.

It took us so long to get our luggage. I was so proud, mom had bought me my own little suitcase, just for my stuff, and I was rolling it behind me as my folks got their suitcases and then we headed out to catch a taxicab, these were vehicles with a driver that you could rent to take you around to places, to take us to the hotel that we would be staying at while we were in the city. There were about twenty cabs out in front of the airport waiting with motors running to take people into the city. We got in and my dad gave the man driving the cab the name of the hotel and we were off.

I could not look around fast enough. There was so much to see. There were lights everywhere and all the buildings that had looked like liquid gold now glowed with all the lights that covered them. There was a riot of colors from the signs and the lights. There were signs everywhere, some of them I could read but there were some that I could not read because of all the lights that surrounded them. There were lights that flashed, lights that burned steadily, lights that changed colors, and there were ones that flashed and changed colors at the same time. It was amazing to see.

Now that we were on the ground and in the city, the buildings looked so tall as they reached for the sky. When we got to the hotel, Dad paid the driver, and we stepped out into a clash of sounds that I thought would bury me. My mother had to yell just so I could hear what she was telling me. I took my suitcase as the taxicab driver handed it out of the trunk of his cab and we headed into the hotel.

As Dad checked us in, Mom and I stood and looked around the lobby. It was so beautiful and lush. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a glass elevator that zipped up the far wall that just went up, and up, and up, till I lost sight of it as I cranked my head up as far as it would go to follow its progress. Dad came over to us with our key cards and we headed to the elevators.

Our room was on the 28th floor and that was not even the top floor of this hotel. When we got to our room, it was so cool. It was like a small apartment. It had a living room with a small refrigerator, microwave, and a coffee pot on a counter in the corner. The bathroom was on the right between two doors. I ran to the first door. It turned out to be the smaller of the two bedrooms and the second door was the bedroom that my folks would use while we were here. I came back out into the living room and walked to the window and looked out. The window faced the front of the hotel, and I could see the same road that we had been on just a few minutes ago. Looking down, all the cars on the road looked small, like match box cars.

After we got settled in the room, we went back down to the lobby and the restaurant there. We were sat at a table and given menus. I looked mine over, there were so many new things on it to taste. My mom asked what I wanted to eat, and I told her that I could not decide, she laughed and told me that I should just order something simple that night, that we were going to be here for ten whole days, and I could try new stuff later. In the end I ordered a burger and fries and a chocolate shake. I loved chocolate shakes. I miss chocolate ice cream. That burger was the best burger I had ever tasted.

That night mom and dad took me to see the Rockettes in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The theater itself was beautiful. We sat high above the stage. Before the show started, I watched the people below file in and take their seats. As more people came in, I got so excited and as the lights started going down, I was bouncing in my seat. My mom laid her hand on my leg, and I settled down to watch the show. It was wonderful and magickal. As my mother would have said It was sweet enough to rot your teeth. We got back to the hotel, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The next ten days flew by so fast that I don’t remember much about what we did or where we went. I remember that we went to a couple of different museums and other historical sites. There are a few things that I do remember though. I remember the people. I have never seen so many different people in one place. There were people everywhere and I mean a lot.

We could not go anywhere fast. It took us forty-five minutes just to get a cab. If Dad did not arrange for a one before we were ready to go and if we were not down at the door when the cab got there someone else would take it before we could get there. Not only were there a lot of people but there were also a lot of different races as well. I saw as many assorted colors as possible of people and heard so many different languages. Mom had to remind me continuously not to stare.

It was not all rosy. We were walking back to the hotel one night when a young man walked up to us, pointed a gun at my dad and demanded Dad’s wallet and Mom’s purse. They gave them to him, and he ran off. Luckily Dad had been warned not to carry much money on him and to carry his credit cards somewhere other than his wallet. Mom was only carrying a small purse that had nothing but her lipstick and wet wipes in it. But we hurried to get back to the hotel before he realized that he had not gotten anything and came back. We made it back ok, but I was really scared and the next morning I did not even want to go out anywhere. My dad told me he would keep me safe and that we would take a cab from now on if we went out at night. By the following day I was ok, and New York was magickal again.

We went on a carriage ride through Central Park.

We went to Chinatown. Chinatown was like stepping into another world. There were even a few people walking around in traditional clothing. There were bright colors everywhere and the smells, oh man the smells. The scent of cinnamon and ginger and other spices I could never identify were everywhere. They were thick in the air, especially around the market and the food stalls.

We ate lunch at a small stand in the market that seemed to specialize in ramen and noodle dishes. They had ramen of all kinds. There was no way to taste all of them in one sitting. But we each got a different one and traded with each other so that we got to try a few different kinds. They were good. We found another little stall that had dumplings. They even had a couple that had a sweet filling in them. My Dad promised that we would come back on our way to the hotel and get some for dinner.

We spent the day walking around in the different shops. We went into one shop that carried all kinds of statues of this fat little laughing guy that Mom told me was called Buddha. She told me that he was the Chinese version of God. The store had all sorts of statues of him, made of all kinds of materials. Mom let me buy a small one that was made of a blue tiger’s eye. It made me feel happy to carry it in my hand. I kept that little statue for years after that and I always felt that same happy feeling when I held it.

We went into a shop that had all different incense, soaps, and perfumes. Mom found some sandalwood perfume and bought a small bottle of it and some sandalwood incense to burn to make