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“Well, we
have met a family who says they let go of a cat just a week ago. They said it was
beginning to become a burden having so many pet animals in the house. Believe me,
if they would have known she was a jinniyah they never would have tried to get rid of
her.”
“Rewind,
Jer. You said ‘if they would have known.’ Does that mean they didn’t really know
what she was? They haven’t seen her shift into human.”
“That could
be,” Jeremy said, “or it could be
something else. It could be that she doesn’t know
how to shift into human.”
“ARE YOU
CRAZY?!” Sidiro stormed, almost dropping the phone that he held in his hand.
“All jinni know how to shift. Everybody knows that.”
“You could
be wrong there, Sid. I mean, if she
knows how to shift, then she would have done so
by now. She would have walked out of your house before you could even stop her.
But try to see clearly. She hasn’t shifted in your place, not once. Otherwise you would
have felt some seep of her magic. Sid,
what if she was deliberately born in animal
form?”
“Why would a
jinniyah want to bear its young in animal form?”
There was a
long pause, followed by a frustrated sigh.
“Beats me,” Jeremy concluded, “but I think she needs to shift as
soon as possible.
The earlier
you teach her how to shift the better.”
“Me?” Sid accused. “Why do I have to teach her how to
shift?”
“Because she
already trusts you, stupid. And besides, what are the kids at the park gonna
say when they see me pull a wild animal out of my hat instead of a rabbit?”
There was a
clatter on the other end of the line. It seemed like Jeremy
had handed over the
phone to someone else. Or that someone else rather, had pried the phone out of Jer’s
hand. After the noise stopped, a familiar female voice took charge of the conversation.
“Sid?”
“Aisha? What are you doing at Jer’s house? And this early in
the morning?”
