Chapter 9

“Hey, Uncle…” I was washing Hamin’s hair and checking whether the curse had faded a little when I finally tuned in to the hundredth round of his “Hey, Uncle…” “At our house, we have a really, really big pool. Do you like swimming, Uncle?” “Not really.” To me, swimming was nothing more or less than flailing your limbs when you fell into water. I rinsed the soft brown hair that slipped through my fingers, then used Splish-Splash to dry it lightly. In an instant, he was fluffy and dry. Halfway through putting on his blue pajamas with Bbani printed on them, Hamin suddenly flung himself into my arms.