myth for english ivy

Pearl made sure her boy was strong and intelligent, that he could live without her because the shadow man would one day come to his door. She was determined that the boy would know how to outmaneuver the man. It was not a question of if he would come, but when. Pearl trusted no one with the boy. She knew that if the official found out about her son he would rid them all from the palace and they would have no protection against the incoming shadow. So she kept gardens of gourds big and small. In these fruits she taught her child and in the deepest night, she trained him to hunt out in the fields, and sometimes further, skirting the forest.

All the while, Pearl maintained her impeccable beauty and negotiated her position among the grass men. Her responsibilities among the elite grass people soared. She studied the ways they worshipped the sun. She wore gold and mirrors and stunned everyone to hide the bags under her eyes from her sleepless nights. One night she was so exhausted she fell asleep in the gourd and woke in a shock. The boy was in the kitchen feeding eggs to blue snakes who wrapped around his arms. The darkness was thickening around him. She knew, then, that it was time to let him go.

When Pearl and the boy showed up at the old house, Rebecca remembered when Pearl was found. How she came brittle, empty and pale as a shell left on the shore. They let her in and she never spoke. Now Pearl was a being of grace and regality - golden even when there was no light outside. Not even the moon cut the sky. Pearl did not seem pleased that she had to return to this place. She made sure not to touch the mud or anything in the house. She seemed to fear it may infect her. She held the hand of a little boy.

“I will build a house in the middle of the field. Where the sun visits first, and the last place the sun sees when it goes down. You will manage this house that I will have built.” She told Rebecca. “When it is night my boy will come back to me. During the day you must keep him.” I can not keep eyes always on him. “You will never have to worry about money again, and the grass men will not come for you. I only ask that you let the boy sleep and you keep him safe. I have only a few more months to teach him the last thing he needs to know. At that point you must leave him and never go to the house again.”

Rebecca thought of her ill grandmother in the grove of passionfruit. It seemed Rebecca and her grandmother were the last ones not overtaken by grass. She was the last remaining family, and she knew, then, that she must choose between the house and the boy. So the choice had already made itself.

“His name is Ivy. He will be the one to cover our graves and he will be the one to breath life into this place once more. But you won’t see it. Nor shall I. Which is why you must do this, and why you must trust me.”

Rebecca did not believe Pearl. But she knew that Pearl was powerful, and maybe the money would make her soft and her powers could bend toward Rebecca if she needed. And, despite her resentment for Pearl’s leaving, she still loved her, and cared for the boy. On the right side of the child’s upbringing she could protect her grandmother, and provide a safe place for Sweetie to come home to. Not to mention everyone else who lived in the limestone quarry. So she agreed.

The next day a house stood - made all of english ivy - at the top of the hill. In the summer it would be surrounded by emmer, now the hill was a swell in the land, and white with freshly fallen snow.