FORTUNE: A FREENBECKY STORY

Chapter 19 🥷

Becky looked at Freen slightly puzzled. "Why was Freen being so nice? Did she feel bad for the way she treated me?" Becky thought.
Becky smiled.
"Thank you for coming, I'm glad we can be friends." Becky said
"Yeah..." Freen responded.

Becky made her way back into Richie's room as Freen watched on.

CONTINUED......

The moment she entered, their faces were downcast. "Richie, spill, now!" She demanded.

Richie grabbed the remote and adjusted his hospital bed very slowly to an upright position. He cleared his throat.

"I'm going to hit you" becky said raising her hand
"Ok!" He exclaimed shielding himself.

"Da sent me home to protect you" he said
"From what?" Becky interrupts
"Becca, listen" Ma said "it's okay Richie let me explain"

"You know how I've always told you our family historically were blessed and we're connected deeply to our ancestors?" Ma said
"Yes? What about it?" Becky asked
"It's a little more than that. Our family received a genie long ago and we became his charges"
"Genie?!!" Becky interrupted
"Becca just listen," Ma continued
"One day while rummaging through my mothers old things I found a bottle of blue mist. I had heard about our family's genie but never thought much of it."

"What do you mean?" Becky asked
"Centuries ago our ancestors sent us a genie to save us from poverty and death" Ma said
"Genie... like make a wish genie?" Becky asked
"Yes, a Genie who grants wishes, his name is Marlin" Ma said
"Right..." Becky said hesitant
"I thought it was too much trouble to engage in anything regarding the genie until I discovered a letter 7 years ago" Ma said

"Letter?" Becky said flashing back to the letter she found on the floor of Ma's closet
"It was a letter from one of our ancestors, centuries old, it wasn't even in our modern language but were inscriptions from the Sukothai era" Ma said
"Wow, the 1200s? How were you able to read it?" Becky said
"I'm not sure but I could, but it revealed something that I could not deny." Ma said
"...What?" Becky asked

"It explained how jealous families tried go wipe out our family and steal Marlin, they split him up into essences and shared him amongst themselves in order to end the fighting. It explained the grave consequences for our family of losing Marlin especially affecting every 3rd generation first born woman in our family in an early death." Ma said her expression softening
"Every 3rd generation? That's often. But that can't be true. It would be a miracle to have lasted this long if that was the case" Becky laughed off
"Becca.. my grandmother died at 25" Ma said
"Right..." Becky said
"Becca.. you're the 3rd generation" Ma said

Becky looked at her mum and brother in disbelief but they looked so convinced. Becky began to think deeply, she was already 24 and had a hard time believing she would just drop dead. She was healthy and bright and had so much more life to live and so much more good to do. She was lost in thought and beginning to panic when her Ma placed her hand on her shoulder and said "we're not going to let that happen"

Becky sat down on the only seat in the room. "When I realised this I immediately tried to call out for Marlin using the genie that returned to us" Ma said
"You mean we have the genie?" Becky asked
"Not exactly, we have an essence" Ma said
"What's an essence?" Becky asked
"Its like a piece of Marlin, the letter explained how we needed all of his essences to call him out." Ma said

"Right.. so how many are there?" Becky asked
"7" Ma said
"Where are they?" Becky asked
"We consulted a reader and we were told there were 3 here in Bangkok and 4 in London" Ma said
"London?" Becky asked
"So your Da moved to London to find the 3 essences there while I stayed here searching for the 2 remaining here" Ma said

Becky sat back in her chair thinking of all the memories she'd had in London with her Da when she decided to go to university there. He'd always seemed to hold on tighter to her while she was there and spend more time with her even when he was working all the time. This must have been why.

Becky took a deep breath. "Ok, what about the accident and Richie protecting us?" Becky asked