I woke up with a cold sensation on my back.

The straw was wet.

When I shake her up, Ullma didn’t wake.

She soiled the whole bed and wouldn’t wake, no matter how much I called for her.

When I finally made fire and returned to the room, fear started to take me.

She had the same eyes as our daughter.

Yellow eyes. Yellow skin. Puffed stomach.

She’s sick. She’s sick with the same sickness of Mullan.

I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know. That was the moment when I discovered I couldn’t pretend anymore.

My sons were watching us.

My eldest would run from the house. He would go to the witch to get help for his mother. I have no doubt. He even hit me last time.

…

She won.

The witch won.

And that’s why now she enters my house.

She’s walking around. The neighbors are all here. All of them can see my failure.

No matter.

She comes close to Ullma and starts chanting.

I feel something cold in my back. A shiver runs on my spine.

The witch is casting her spells. I have let the monster inside my house.

Is she going to do it now?

Is she going to enslave us? Destroy us? Eat our souls?

The knuckles in my hand hurt.

She has stopped chanting. Ullma looks healthy.

“She will be fine now. Drink the herb concoction I give you, and give it to your children as well. Then give a mix of Frog Tongue roots and Berry Blue trunk to your chickens to eat. And don’t eat raw eggs anymore. Cook them well.”

“How much do I own you?”

The witch never does anything for free.

“Five bags of rice for healing your wife and one bag for each of you. You can pay me at the next harvest.”

A single bag of rice can serve four people for two months.

Eight bags are enough for a whole year. I don’t have so much.

“I can’t pay this much. We will starve.”

“Then you can pay me in ten years. One bag each year.”

She’s charging interest. But I can’t say no.

“Fine.”

“Good. If you need anything else, you know where to find me.”

And so she’s gone. And I have a ten-year debt to pay.

The memory of my daughter’s smile makes my eyes hot.

Only ten years.