Sacrifice

This was a viper, slowly slithering, evil, horror, mouth suddenly gaping, fangs exposed. The mouth of hell. The human mind found it hard to grasp

I’m sitting at the familiar wooden table in the warm kitchen, late at night. Zeida sits at the head of the table, I at his side. Zeida’s eyes glow with life and memory. The radiator puffs coziness. I take a sip of tea, and pull my chair closer. We are deep into the past.

“There was a woman,” Zeida says, “who killed her child.”

I stare at Zeida over the top of my glasses. I have no questions; I wait to hear. Anything is possible in the mouth of hell.

Zeida strokes his beard and leans back. “There was a little girl, a beautiful little girl, named Estushe… Esther….”