07
My heart couldn’t settle for a long time. My dad had been alive all along, hidden away in my mom’s safe.
That happiness I felt when I touched him was real. He knew I was his daughter.
“What about Dad? Did you love him?”
A tear rolled down my mom’s beautiful face, glistening like a jewel.
1 loved him, More than anyone.”
She handed me an old black–and–white photo. My dad had strong eyebrows and sharp features. He looked just as striking as Z Zephyr.
“He came around here collecting antiques, and the moment I saw him, I was smitten. My mother told me, “If you like him, go after him.” But I didn’t dare. I was just like you back then, fat and plain”
No wonder she always said I looked like her. Turns out, before she made her glamour stool, she was just like me.
“1 gathered every old thing in the house, practically gave them away, just for a chance to see him again. He knew i had money, so he kept coming around, making excuses. Then one day, he said, “Let’s get married. He brought me a wedding dress from the city and a sparkling diamond ring. He told me to trust him, to give myself to him. We were up on the mountainside when I did. That’s when I got pregnant with you. After we got married, he’d always ask for money, saying he was going off to collect more goods. He’d disappear for weeks at a time, then show up, grab the cash, and leave again. I never saw any of those goods he talked about. When I was about to give birth, I sent word to him, but there was no reply. Desperate, I hitched a ride to the city. That’s when I found out he had a whole other family there. A big house, a wife, and kids. They laughed at me and said i was a fool. As long as I kept giving. they’d never have to work. They’d live off me forever. That’s when I finally understood what my mom had always warned me. No man would ever truly love
me, not even my father. A woman who makes glamour stools is destined to turn the one she loves most into a stool. Go ahead. He’ll be with you forever now. You live and die together”
Tears blurred my vision. I’d succeeded in keeping Zephyr with me, but he didn’t love me Worse, he would hate me forever. I was bound to spend my life with a man who despised me.
Was this really my fate? Why did it have to be?
Just as I started to resist the thought, a voice whispered in my head, telling me this was my destiny. I had to make countless glamour stools, to bring peace and pleasure to the hearts and bodies of so many women like me, women who had been wronged
I bowed my head and continued making the stool.
My mom watched with emy.
“Zephyr’s got plenty of nutrients. You can keep him well–preserved. I only had one source back then, and once it was used up, I had to be so stingy with it.”
I spent seven days and nights in the basement. My mom only ever needed a day and a night to make her glamour stool. I guess I was taking longer She reassured me, “Take your time. Your glamour stool is going to be a masterpiece, one of a kind. You’re going to be so happy I’m honestly jealous.” On the seventh day, pale and exhausted, I finally emerged, clutching my completed stool.
My mom, not even turning to look at me, handed me a box.
“Pack him up. I don’t want to see it.
I locked the glamour stool away and slept for days.
When I finally woke up, I felt fully refreshed. I closed all the doors and windows, drew the curtains, and sat down
I closed my eyes, just like all those nights when Zephyr would hold me.
We swayed in the wind, drifted on the sea, soared through the sky,
“Zephyr, we’ll never be apart again. You’re mine forever, and only mine.”
As I let out my final breath, I stood up, satisfied, watching as the stool slowly flattened out.
I brought over a basin of warm water and, just like my mom did before, carefully cleaned the glamour stool.
