Sue nodded, then shook her head. “Tallis the powerful and Alice of Wonderland with a mask of power. You two just radiate mystery and adventure. And yet,” she cocks her head, peering up into my eyes. “you hid the mask after you found it.”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.” She stands, silent. I hear in my mind the ‘tic, tic, tic’ of several seconds going by. “It might’ve been content to live with you all for a while, before displaying its power. I believe it became impatient, and when an opportunity arrived to return, it took it, and your man. Was he a good man?”
I nod, and out of the corner of my eye I see Alice doing the same.
“See? If you were a powerful being, would you rather be stuck in a box in a dark basement, or out playing in the universe with a new friend?” She crosses her arms and shakes her head at the ground before looking me in the eyes again. “What would you do?”
I’m in shock. Suddenly I am the child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I’m also rethinking everything I’ve done since finding the mask. Was I just being selfish, or overprotective? “I didn’t know...”
Sue slowly shakes her head while holding my eyes with her intense gaze. “That’s why the old stories must be told. You would’ve known, and you would’ve had an epic experience with your whole family. The key to the universe was given to you...and you put it in a box in the basement.”
I turn to Alice. She has that face for when she is building up to a major blow up. “Alice, I was afraid of it. I was afraid for us! I didn’t know.”
