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“You do not belong to me, and I do not want you,” the old woman as Ghassan snorted

“Then give me my skin back, if you will not have me”

“Not after I cut it with such difficulty from you—you have very stubborn bones”

I was stricken Ghassan would not close me up in a house, or feed er feared those things, but needed them, needed them as violently as once I needed the sea I beca, the dark sea horrible I did not knohere to go; this body see It was chilled easily and always hungry I followed the crone because the crone had my skin That is what a Selkie does

Please, I would say Loveme

I do not want you, would come the answer

Please, I would say I can be useful I can iveme

I do not like you, I do not want you, would come the answer

Please, I would say I ash house walls and s Letme

I do not care, would come the answer

And so it went on, but I could not stop I learned he was not a crone at all, and what house he had was on a far distant island where he would certainly not lead me But I could not stop The skin is knotted in my belly like a sailor’s rope, and the harder Ghassan pulls to escape hter the knot becomes, and the more desperately I chase him

My skin is gone, but I belong to no one I am no seal and no man The skin calls to me, but I cannot answer

Please, I would say You are killing me

“HE ONLY TRADED IT TO YOU TO BE RID OF ME I have hounded him for three years and he would not let me touch it, but he traded it to you for two pieces of bark TheyThey are pieces of skin, not a skin He only wanted to show me how little my skin orth I am so tired, Eshkol Please”

I grinned up at hih my curly hair My voice was soft as pine needles underfoot “I a to me I could close you up in a house, and feed you sardines and black bread, and love you under towering trees And you knoe Satyrs have very well-deserved reputations My father says I a for a lover, but you are very handsome, and I am not tired at all”