Foster Me: Emerson's Secret (ON GOING)

Chapter 32

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Karielle wrapped a blue quilt around me as I laid on the couch. I woke up that morning with a fever of 101 and then I started to get cold chills..

I choose a horrible day to get sick. Today was games day at school.

Karielle tried her best to make the living room as comfortable as could be. She brought pillows from my bedroom and a few stuffies I did not recognize. The TV was turned more to the right so I could see it without twisting my neck. She also rented a bunch of new movies to pass the time.

Karielle even slept on the floor during the night.

"How are you feeling söt flicka?" She asked squeezing my hand.

"Yucky. I wanted Freezies."

"When your better I'll show you how to make kladdkaka." Her gentle hand brushes my face. "I'd like to teach you."

"What's kladd---kaka?" I struggled to pronounce the word.

"It's like a brownie cake," she explained. "My mor taught me when I was young."

"I do like chocolate."

"Then you'll love my kladdkaka." She smiled kindly at me. "There is so much I want to teach you."

"Can you tell me that story again about that farmer and that rich guy?"

"Of course, söt flicka. Master Pär was a terribly rich landowner and Rag Jan was a dirt-poor farmer. Master Pär, however, was deeply dissatisfied because his wife had never been able to have children, so there was no one to inherit his wealth. Rag Jan, on the other hand, had several children and Master Pär envied the poor farmer terribly. One night a strange traveler came to town and went to Master Pär's house asking if she could stay the night. Master Pär laughed and slammed the door in her face. Next she went to Rag Jan's, who, even though his wife had just given birth to another son, told her she was more than welcome. The strange traveler, who was something of a mystic, told Jan that in the morning he should go to Master Pär and ask him to be the godfather of his new son. Jan did so even though he knew Master Pär would sneer at the idea, which he did. "Never mind," said the strange woman, "your new son will one day be heir to Master Pär's fortune: I have seen it in a vision." The only thing Jan had to do was to keep quiet about her plan. Time passed and Master Pär continued to despair over not having an heir. Being rich, he thought that the solution would be to buy a child, so he went to Jan, remembering that strange day when Jan had suggested that he be the godfather to his new boy. He bought the boy and raised him for a year, but then his wife got pregnant and bore him a daughter. The boy and girl became inseparable friends, falling deeply in love. Then one day Rag Jan's wife forgot the strange woman's pleading to keep quiet and told a friend that it had been predicted that her son would one day inherit Master Pär's wealth. Well, Master Pär heard of this and had the boy sent off to the woods, to his sister's, to be killed. Years went by, and, through the help of the strange woman, the boy was not killed but raised by Master Pär's sister into a strong young man. When Master Pär found out, he again hatched a plot to have the boy killed, but, again through the workings of the strange woman, the boy was not only spared but became engaged to Master Pär's daughter. When Master Pär found out, he went into a rage and told the boy that the only way he could marry his daughter would be to travel to the end of the world and ask the giant that lived there why everything always went wrong for Master Pär. The boy agreed to take the journey. Master Pär was happy because he knew (but the boy didn't) that the giant at the end of the world loved to eat Christians. As the boy journeyed to the end of the world, he passed three castles and met three kings, each of whom asked where he was going. "To the end of the world," the boy replied, "to ask the giant why everything always goes wrong for Master Pär." Each of the kings then asked him if he could ask the giant a question for him. The first wanted to know why the apples on one side of his apple tree grew red and on the other grew white; the second wanted to know why his spring had gone muddy; the third asked him to find out what had happened to his daughter. The boy happily told them all he would do the best he could.
When he got to the end of the world, he came to a river with a ferry operated by an ancient woman. The woman asked the young boy where he was going. When he told her, she too asked him to ask the giant a question. She wanted to know how long she would have to stay at the river. She had already been there for a hundred years. Across the river, the young boy came to a mountain with a door leading into its heart. He went inside and came across a beautiful woman spinning golden thread. The woman asked the boy what he was doing there and when he told her, the woman told him that his journey was doomed: the giant would simply eat him up the minute he saw him. Then the woman had an idea and told the boy to hide. That night, when the giant fell asleep, the woman pretended to wake from a terrible dream, screaming. This woke the giant and he asked what was wrong. She told him that in her dream someone named Master Pär had asked her why things always went wrong for him. The giant, half asleep, said it was because he refused to accept the son-in-law the gods had chosen for him. The woman then pretended to wake from three more dreams, each time asking the giant to solve one of the riddles. Then she pretended to awake one more time, this time asking how the ancient woman who operated the ferry could be relieved of her duty. The giant answered all the questions, and then the young boy jumped up from his hiding place and chopped off the giant's head.When the boy and the woman got to the ferry, they told the ancient woman that they had found the answer to her question, but they would not tell her until they got across the river. When they landed, they told her that the next person who needed to get across could be forced to take her place if she said, "Now you must stay here as long as I have," while that person was in the ferry. The old woman shouted as the two ran off together that they should have told her that before getting out of the boat. All the kings were so grateful for the answers to their questions that they showered the young man with gifts, dressing him in the finest clothes and giving him the finest horse on which to ride the long journey home.
When he finally got to Master Pär's castle, Master Pär was quite surprised to see him alive and reluctantly agreed to allow the marriage. He was never happy, however, and became especially dissatisfied when his new son-in-law told him that he had left the giant's vast treasure of gold and jewelry behind after killing him. The treasure was still sitting there in the giant's mountain home. After a few years, the greed of Master Pär finally got the better of him, and he traveled to the end of the world to get the giant's treasure for himself. When he got to the ferry, the old woman told him to get in the boat and then said, "Now you must stay here as long as I have," and ran off cackling, leaving Master Pär to stare at the giant's unretrieved treasure, glistening in the mountain cave. He is sitting there still."

**
I was sick at the thought of a sweet woman getting murdered and---no one caring to bring her justice.

Karielle wanted a family and wanted someone to share with all that she knew. She loved her parents to the point where she had to mention them at least twice every couple of hours.

She should have never met Trenton

I shook my head. "Her poor parents. They let her leave and this is what happens?"

Without a word Levi pulled me onto his lap. He pressed my head gently against his chest and wrapped his arms around me. "C'mon stop thinkin' about that stuff."

I talked with Karielle's parents a few times over video call. Sweet people but it was sometimes hard to understand what they were saying. Sometimes words got jumbled and I wasn't quick enough to get it. They'd call me liten flicka which Karielle translated to me as 'little girl.'

"We need to fix this." I mumbled. "If he did this he needs to be punished."

"I can't help you, Emme. It's my dad your accusin' here."

I lifted my head to look at him. I blinked rapidly, "But I need your help." Levi knows about Karielle and his dad so really he's the only inside source I got. I inhaled sharply, "I need you."

He still has an arm around my waist while his free hand moved to slowly trace my face. His thumb brushed my lower lip and I hear his breathing hitch. "How much?" He's staring into my eyes now.

"I need you like----soup needs a spoon?"

He quirked an eyebrow at me.

"What, it's the first thing that came to mind." I could have said something weirder like---I need you like a crispy cream donut needs the cream...

Levi gently moved my hair from my shoulder. "I can't help you," he said in a rough voice, as though he was in pain. "This would fuck some stuff up. Can't risk it."

"Since when is Levi Jacobs afraid?"

"I'm afraid for my mom." The back of his hand ran down the length of my arm. "And for you."

I ignored the goosebumps spread along my arms. "Help me then. You could be my bodyguard."

"I can't."

I wanted to throw my hands in the air and just give up. I tried and I failed miserably. The only thing I could think of was to find some way to distract him till he agrees to help me. Locking him in a cage with a very hungry ape came to mind. I don't know if they have apes at the Vancouver Zoo but I could lock him in with some other animal. I thought of using the I won't talk to you ever again unless you-----card. Course knowing Levi he always finds some way to creep back in. Really I only had one another option I thought of. Persuasion.

I kissed Levi.

He seemed tense, his body frozen in shock.

My hands clawed into his hair and I pressed my body up against his. "Help me," I whispered between kisses.

Levi didn't answer me.

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