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Nana’s Eye




"Nana, will you tell me a story?" I asked. It was a chilly, damp night, and I snuggled under my quilt.

"A short one. Then you sleep," Nana smiled indulgently, and her one eye twinkled. The other eye, the glass one, shone out with its strange, dull gleam. It had always made me uneasy, that glass eye…

"Many years ago, our family was given a strange, wonderful gift," Nana began. I knew this story.

About the eye.

"Your great-great grandfather was traveling in Egypt, and came upon an old beggar-woman. He took pity on her, gave her some money, bought her a meal, and a warm blanket, for cold desert nights. In turn, she gave him this eye, the very one I wear now."

The eye was an odd color, sometimes blue, sometimes green or grey, but it always had the same flat, knowing gleam…

"She told him it was the eye of a god—Osiris? Horus? I don’t remember. She told him he would have to sacrifice one of his own eyes to use the glass eye’s powers, power to punish or reward, to the degree that such is deserved. It was a wonderful gift, and has been passed down to the oldest child in the family ever since…" she sighed.

"Is it true, Nana? Does the eye really have powers?" I always asked, and she always answered the same.

"Oh, who knows? It’s a fun story, though, " she smiled again, and glanced over at my sleeping sister. "I wish Emma hadn’t broken that teapot this morning. It was my favorite. I’m sure it was an accident, though…"

Emma, who would spend most of the next day with a terrible stomach-ache, throwing up every few minutes, shifted and whimpered in her sleep as Nana stared, but didn’t wake.

"Ah, well, the eye will go to you one day, honey. Won’t that be nice?" Nana kissed me goodnight.

How can you be afraid of someone if you love them?

How can you love someone when you’re so afraid of them?

"Yes, all yours, and I hope you use it well. Goodnight, sweetie." Nana went quietly out of the room.

I shivered, but whether with dread or anticipation, I wasn’t sure.

—
Credits to: Queenofscots

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