In my mother’s humid tent, I sat crosslegged next to my mother on a thin, uncomfortable pillow. My knees and hips burned from the stiffness of being immobile for so long. Countless customers have come and gone throughout the afternoon, including a few of my mother's regulars.

  They found it a pleasant surprise to see me sitting next to my mother, finally taking her up on her offer of an apprenticeship. Funny that they didn’t know that she never offered me the position or that I didn’t have a choice. I didn't dare to correct them seeing the glaring side eye my mother shot me every time. And so I sat prisoner in mind and body.

  After another round of fortune telling, my mother stood up and walked toward the door with the young son of the captain of the village guard. I took the moment to stretch my painfully sore legs. I leaned back on my hands and savored the rush of the blood flowing through my calves again.

  “Stay put. I said.” I looked up into my mother's eyes, her brows scrunched tightly together.

  I pulled my knee up to my chest and wrapped my arms around it. I wiggled my prickling toes as the feeling returned to them.

  “But, mother, I am staying put. I’m not planning on going anywhere.” I leaned forward swatting at her hand. “Lighten up would you?”

  She glared at me, not with the eyes of a mother to her child, but with the cold eyes of master to her servant.

  “Absolutely do not touch me.” She jumped back toward the door. “That's the first rule for being my apprentice, or have you forgotten. No touching me. No touching our clients.”

  I sighed, whining as I slowly exhaled. I looked up to the ceiling. “But, I'm so bored just sitting here and it hurts.

  “You no longer are to speak to me in that tone of voice.” I looked at my mother as she crossed her arms over her chest. “And you have an assignment. You don’t have the time to be bored.”

  “Mother, I don't get what you want me to do.”

  “That's just too bad. Next time don't run off and you'll have time to ask questions. Sit up.” I straightened out my leg and leaned over with my hands on my knees.

  “That’s not what I meant. Sit like my apprentice and not a sack of flour.” She demanded of me while making a small, quick irritated motion with her fingers, drawing tiny circles in the air.

  I slouched my shoulders in silent protest to my mother’s real intention behind the command to stay put. She didn’t mean that I couldn’t leave the tent. She meant that I had to stay seated with my legs crossed.

  “Yes, master.” I sighed folding my legs returning to my painfully stiff position on the pillow.

  “Excuse me?”

  This time I responded to my mother like a servant to his master, “Yes, master.”

  The next few customers came and went. I paid attention to the growing pain in my knees instead of the conversation between my mother and her clients. When my legs had gone completely numb, I put some effort into the assignment my mother had given me.

  My mother never started a session without a full pot of her yellow flower tea. The aromatic smells brought back fond memories of gathering baskets full of the flowers when I was little. I will never forget the sweet smell of the flowers hanging from the rafters in our cabin to dry. Too badly those happy memories are now tied to the knowledge that I was helping to fill my mother’s drug supply all those years.

  My mother always kept one hand on top of her client’s and the other wrapped around a small pendant on a necklace I didn’t even know she had. I tried to get a glimpse of the pendant handing on her necklace. It was a small teardrop made of some kind of light blue stone. I kept asking myself after that, how in the hell did my mother have something that valuable? Especially when I've never once had decent clothing my whole life.

  Once my mother was finished with the day’s work, I absentmindedly gave her a hand to help her to her feet. I tensed up when she took it.

  “Don’t worry my child. Through the years of constant contact with me and my own control of my magic, nothing will happen.” She rubbed my shoulder. “I just can’t concentrate on what I’m doing while worrying about you and helping keep your magic docile.”

  She started gathering the pillows. “But.” She turned suddenly back to face me. “I can’t use my magic to help tame yours forever. You have to learn yourself how to bend it to your will. Otherwise you’ll never be able to touch another being again, not without having a vision anyway.”

  I didn’t acknowledge what my mother told me. My stomach twisted in pain. I hurried outside, my body quick to remind me that I hadn’t relieved myself all day. I didn’t dare to ask if I could be excused to take care of such things.

  When I got back to the tent Fern had already arrived with the horse and cart. He was the first to notice me approaching.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Ah, lad, there you are. Good to see you up and about. How was your first day?” I was pleasantly surprised with his genuine inquiry about my day. A small smile snuck its way onto my face.

  “Thanks for helping me out today, Fern,” I said as I stopped next to him to help with the complicated strings that held my mother’s tent together. He stopped pulling on the strings and quickly moved out of the way. At first I was displeased, I couldn’t imagine that me helping him would have offended him that much. Getting closer to each other is what he wanted isn’t it?

  I stopped briefly to look at him. Then weight of the reality of my mother’s warning to me before my sudden departure finally hit me. My head slumped to my chest. Fern jumped aside to save me from an unpleasant evening. I turned away and looked to my fingers poking apart a knot in the tight leather string.

  “Considering the circumstances, pretty good, sir. Although it was exhausting and I’m struggling with a few things,” I murmured softly.

  “Give it time, lad. Don’t forget your powers only awakened yesterday.”

  I heard the instant regret in his voice as he sighed when he finished his sentence. He used the wrong word.

  “Powers? You mean more than one?” I wasn’t even used to the idea of future sight yet and here’s Fern insinuating that there’s more to come.

  Before Fern could answer my question, the canvas from the tent slid out of my fingers onto the ground next to its wooden frame. The dust lingered upwards tickling my nose causing a barrage of quick sneezes.

  “So, enough of that kind of talk, boys. Since when do we allow that at the market?” She smacked her hands on her legs and pointed at Fern. “How about you start loading the cart, and you.” She turned to me before finishing her sentence. “You’re doing more talking than thinking about your assignment.”

  Fern and I turned and looked at each other, both trying to hide the embarrassment of being scolded by my mother. I probably blushed harder than he did.

  ──── ? ────

  I stretched my legs in the back of the wooden cart as we gently made our way down the rocky path cutting through the farm fields. Closing my eyes, I savored the last warm rays of the summer sun slowly setting as I listened to the steady clopping of the horse's hooves. I could get used to having a horse an cart to carry our belongings.

  My mother and Fern sat together on the front bench of the cart. I lazily listened in on their chatter. Fern lost a half day's income by spending the morning looking for me but he didn’t seem too upset about it. Bringing the lad home safe and sound is worth more than his weight in gold he told my mother. She laughed and quickly smacked his arm.

  It didn’t take long for our wagon to leave the sun beaten path between the farm fields for the cooler, shaded paths of the forest. I nearly dozed off when my mother suddenly turned on the cart bench to face me.

  “Now, my boy. Your assignment. What did you learn?” I flinched, startled by her breaking the silence between us. She laughed, covering her mouth with her sun-tanned hand.

  “Well,” I said, taking a deep breath before continuing. I wasn't sure what she wanted to hear from me. I bit my lip a few times.

  “Just tell me what you saw, sweetheart. It's your first day after all.”

  I smiled at her soft tone and looked into her wide, friendly eyes. “I did notice a few things. For one, you never do a reading without a full pot of yellow flower tea. But you don’t drink very much of it though.”

  “Yes. Yes.” My mother nodded. “Future sense is an unnatural magic for the human body. The mind sometimes rebels against it causing the headaches. The tea helps to dampen the pain.” She turned back to quickly glance ahead of the horse and the cart. “Okay, what else?”

  "Why do you keep looking over your shoulder?"

  "I told you, son, we need to keep your abilities hidden." She looked over my shoulder toward the village. "That's all you need to know. Now, what else?"

  I adjusted how I was sitting, sighing from my annoyance and the stiffness of my body. My back tingled from slouching so much against the planks of the cart. “I also noticed that you always keep contact with your client in some way. Usually you keep your hand on top of theirs.”

  My mother adjusted how she was sitting. I couldn’t imagine that the backrest digging into her armpit felt comfortable.

  “Indeed,” she said. “I can’t keep the vision in my mind without physical contact. The moment I let go it flickers out and fades.”

  “Why is it then that a simple bump into Levi triggered a full blown vision in my mind then?” I fidgeted with the string hanging from my shirt. “Well, the magic tried but I managed to suppress it. Hell, Fern won’t even get close to me.”

  The more of my thoughts I put into words, the more questions I had. “Wait, how could he carry me back without me having a vision of him?”

  My mother fidgeted with her necklace, staring down at the canvas I played with. I bit my lip. A nervous tick of mine that I haven't had in years.

  “Well, starting with the Levi incident.” She paused not releasing the pendant I knew she hid in her hand. “Your magic is different. It’s more powerful than I could have ever imagined. You obviously don’t need continuous contact to hold a vision in your mind.”

  I stared at my toes picking at one of the ropes of the tent. I had more questions but my thoughts tangled together. I couldn't find the words for what I wanted to ask.

  “You must have done something before Fern found you. It tamed the magic enough so Fern could hold you.” She tapped her fingers against the backboard.

  “Yeah. I fainted.”

  She didn’t look up from her fingers. The rhythm of the subtle tapping drew me in. The storm of thoughts whirling in my mind calmed. I took a deep breath filling my lungs with the damp forest air.

  “The last thing I noticed was that you always hold that hidden pendant around your neck. The light blue gemstone I mean,” I said.

  Fern lowered his chin to his chest, a single tear rolled down his cheek before disappearing into his dark stubble. My mother pulled the pendant out of her dress and held it up as high as the chain would allow. The gem casted a gentle ray of light blue light across her face.

  She too began silently to cry. I looked again at my hands, ashamed that I had even brought up the pendant.

  “If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand mother.”

  “No, my son. You know about the pendant now and leaving your question unanswered will only annoy you. I know you, my boy.” She tucked the pendant safely away in her dress.

  “The pendant has nothing to do with my future sight,” she explained. “I enjoy holding it because it’s what I did when I practiced magic with your father. He’s the one who gave it to me.”

  She turned back around in her seat and leaned against Fern. He let go of the reins to pull my mother closer to him.

  The rest of the ride to the cabin was in silence with the exception of Fern’s and my mother’s soft sobbing.