all about the incident until a few days later he
was working and became aware that there was someone else in the room.
He looked up, and a pretty little girl was standing in front of his
desk. "Well!" he asked, "Who are you?"
82 The girl curtsied. "Sweet Blossom Crow," she answered. "Well, what
can I do for you, Sweet Blossom Crow?"
83 "Gray Boar told me," she continued, "you can't look in the Books of
The Damned and tell me who my father was. But YOU'RE First Speaker! You
can make my mother tell me, and tell me where my brother is."
84 "Come here," Gray Boar requested. The little girl came around his
desk, and he sat her on his knee. "Do you really think," he said, "it
would be right for me to make your mother tell you something she
doesn't want you to know? I can talk to her, ask her, but I cannot make
her. That would not be right. You would not want me to do something
that wasn't right, would you?"
85 The girl lowered her head. "No, sir," she said, "but I want to know
so bad! My mother and father used to be so happy, and I used to play
with my brother. I was real little, but I remember it. Then, one time,
my father and brother went away, and only my father came back. My
mother was screaming at him, calling him horrible things.
86 Then, some men came, and my father fought with them. There was a
loud noise, then the men carried my father away. And since then, my
mother won't tell me who my father was, or where my brother is. She
just tells me not to ask every time. But I WANT to ask, I WANT to know."
87 "Do you know your telephone number?" asked Gray Boar. "Do you have
one?"
88 "My mother's father is very rich," she explained, "we've got
everything." She told Gray Boar the number,