“Ah, ah beats our lungs and we are racing into the waves.

Though there are worlds below us and above us, we are straight ahead…”

-Joy Harjo

As the door opened, Maritza gazed at the girl who stood next to her son and daughter with bewilderment.

She somehow RECOGNIZED her.

“Where do I know you from?” Maritza asked as they entered the apartment.

The young lady looked up at Maritza, at first a bit confused, then with pure joy as she said to Maritza “Oh my god, it IS you! This is so great! Can we talk for a sec, like in private?”

The young lady then took Maritza into the bathroom and closed the door.

“So,” The young lady began, “At first I was like nah I’m in the wrong house because you’re like...old, but then I remember the demon said it was dragging us to a place beyond time, then I saw your eyes and I knew it was you! You’re even prettier now than you were as a teenager, I hope I’m that pretty when I’m… how old are you now?”

“Whoa,” Maritza began, “Relax there a bit. What dream are you talking abou….oh.”

“Oh is right,” The young lady said, “Remember? I told you I’d come to you as soon as I woke up from that dream, and here I am! Crazy right? Like I just saw you when you were about my age, now you’re like, old!”

Maritza looked at the young lady in front of her then slowly muttered, “Y...Yuki?”

“OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY NAME?!?!” responded Yuki as she hugged Maritza once again.

Maritza felt an odd kinship to this girl that she had technically just met.

She remembered the feeling and warmth of the hug from that dream they all had together many years before, the one that made Yuki fly thousands of miles to find her.

“You don’t understand,” Continued Yuki as she let go and sat on the toilet, “I have been having some pretty hard times. It was actually very hard to find you, You don’t even have a facebook! I’m just so happy that I found someone else to call family. My mom and dad… I hate them.”

“Why would you you hate your parents?” asked Maritza as she leaned on the bathroom door, unaware that Flora and Zekito were listening in through the other side.

“They… they use me,” Yuki explained, “they force me to keep making things for them. Ever since I learned that I could create things seemingly out of thin air... I’ve been forced to make things for them. Money, Clothes... I can feel myself becoming less ‘me’ every time I use this… burden I call it.”

“I can understand,” Maritza interjected as she patted Yuki on the head, “I kind of got disowned by my parents after the blue fires came out of my fingers. I don’t hate my parents, but I can understand the resentment you feel. Did anyone ever tell you how we were cursed with our powers?”

“POWERS?!?” Flora yelled under her breath as took her ear off the door.

“Oh man,” Zekito said as he took his ear off the door as well, “mom has... powers?”

“ha, you kids didn’t know?” Sierra muttered as she continued putting balloons on the ceiling with tape.

“How would we know? Ma never showed us.” The two children both answered almost in unison.

“Ha, you guys are kinda naive,” Sierra responded as she climbed down the step ladder, “Y’all never noticed how your mom never gets sick, or even hurt? Did you guys know that the only time I’ve ever seen your mom in just a little bit of pain was when she was giving birth to y’all two. Oh, you guys definitely need to know that your mom is very… different. You two should have a talk with her about it, maybe stop thinking about yourselves so much and ask her...about her.”

“So,” Maritza explained to Yuki, “Madame Melfi told me that she and her brother once called upon a demon. Her brother had just lost his wife and wanted to summon a demon for revenge. Demons can’t come to earth for more than a few moments before “The higher power” sends them back to hell. So the demon made a plan to bypass the limits beholden to the demons by splitting it’s powers into six parts, reuniting it’s powers through us when we are all old enough to control them and chant the final summon in unison. We are supposed to reunite when the youngest of us turns eleven. That’s when she will bring upon the great plague which will begin to…”

“Oh god,” Yuki interrupted as she began to shiver, “I’m… I’m part oni?”

“What’s an oni?” asked Maritza.

“Oh sorry,” Responded Yuki, “That’s Just what we call demon in my native Nippon.”

“Nippon?” asked Maritza.

“Nippon is what everyone else in the world calls my country of Japan. Oni, Akuma, Youkai. We have lots of names for demons. I never figured that I could be one, though…”

“You are NOT a demon Yuki!” Maritza said as she hugged her. “we are simply cursed and we… we can stop this, all we have to do is, well… all I’ve been doing is trying to forget about it. But…”

“But what?” asked Yuki.

“But I think that… all I’ve been doing is… avoiding it. The older I get, the less I feel like my old self. I think this might be… inevitable.”

Yuki looked at Maritza’s saddened face, then remembered the younger Maritza’s monologue from the dream and smiled.

“I remember,” she began, “When a beautiful curly haired girl told us that we could fight this. I didn’t catch on to the whole demon thing, but I felt your determination and commitment to us, your brothers and sisters! I know you’re still you, and I.. I think I can help stop this, and I am here to help you however I can, big sister!”

They hugged once more then opened the door to see three busybodies staring at the two of them.

“So mom,” Flora beckoned to her mother, “You mind telling us what is going on?”