David hurried to read it; so he ordered it the same day, of course on Amazon as he was a faithful customer of his employer, buying something almost every day. However, he didn’t know how the story of a wizard who possessed his daughter referred to Joanna. So he asked her. He suggested they discuss it after work in a McDonald’s restaurant, as it was the nearest and indeed the only restaurant in the town where they worked and convenient for the trains they both used in commuting to work, although in different directions.
David ordered chips with chicken nuggets for both of them, as this was what they normally ate after finishing their shift and said: “I see no connection between the girl in the story and you.”
“Well, there is. Everybody who knew my father told me that I was very similar to him, both in my appearance and character. We both had very green eyes, and he was into strange things. He believed in ghosts and reincarnation. He claimed that we carry within us memories of other people. For some people they remain hidden, others are aware of them but they don’t care, and others still, like my father, search to find their sources, as they want to know their place in the chain of inheritance of consciousness. And so, he kept leaving to search for these traces and one day he never returned. And since then, I cannot get rid of him from my mind. I think about him, wherever I go, as if he colonised my consciousness. I also have problems with seeing other people,”
“I’m sorry to hear it. My father also disappeared, but in a more prosaic way. He and my mother simply divorced several years ago.”
“Does what I said not put you off?” asked Joanna. “Are you not afraid that I’m like Asenath from ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’?”
“No. This story is just a piece of fiction, even a fantasy, while we live in a real world. Anyway, I see nothing wrong with you,” said David, taking Joanna’s hand. Her hand was slightly larger than his, as he had small hands for a man, but she let him hold hers and didn’t laugh him off, as he was afraid might happen. Maybe this was because she was a witch, bent on destroying him, or maybe because she genuinely liked him. “Time will tell,” he reassured himself.
