I was twelve, the traditional age of apprenticeship, and my little sister was two, when my mother called me to the workbench and said that it was time. I had loved to watch her, of course, when I was small. She had a magical touch, she did; there was nothing, living or not, that she couldn’t heal. She made broken things whole. And our neighbors were poor like us for the most part, so they couldn’t afford the folk who could do it the ordinary way. She had the touch, that in another day and time would have made her holy.
What it made my father… was suspicious. He looked askance at her, in spite of the money it brought in, for people did pay her what they could, for the animals she made right, for the electronics that mysteriously worked again, for the delicate gearing of antique watches and the untangling of barbed wire and the curing of slow weary ills.
***
As I begin revisions on The Shape-shifter’s Tale, I will be posting character interview excerpts for the main cast of the novel. This week’s excerpt comes from the interview with Trevor, Emma’s cousin.
Weekend Writing Warriors offers eight-sentence excerpts from a variety of writers; see the other excerpts here.
E. P. Beaumont 
If the father becomes suspicious, I fear for what happened next.
Good story.
In the whole wide world there is only one.
Is she the one?
Is the the “seventh daughter of the seventh daugher?” 🙂
Nice excerpt!
What a sweet memory to have of your mother… and as if often so, the more gifted a person is, the more danger they are in, as the gift is much sought after…the father sounds like that kind of a dangerous person and I find myself fearing for what happened to this gifted woman! Great snippet!
Not good if a witch-hunt is starting up.
I like the tone of the excerpt very much but I’m with SueAnn, makes me wonder if something bad is about to begin. Excellent snippet!
Oh, I love your voice…it took on a flavor all its own as I read it. I could hear a child’s voice, soft and respectful, and just a little scared.