Ensouled

Mina keeps our plant body by a bright window in a room where food is prepared.

Mamik prepares food and Mina assists. A neighbour enters the room and prepares food with Mamik. The neighbour's name is Leyla. Leyla and her kin are of the people with whom Mamik’s people have tension, though there is no tension between Leyla and Mamik. Mamik and Leyla prepare the same sustenance and drink the same coffee. Many children run in and out of the room where food is prepared. Leyla offers Mamik’s children sustenance, from gentle hands into little mouths. Mamik does the same for Leyla’s children. Astghik enters the room and assists Mamik and Leyla with rolling the leaves of grapes while smiling at Mina. We feel Mina's heart skipping a beat. Mamik notices also, and places her soft hands onto Astghik’s cheek, as if Astghik was blood-kin.

The neighbouring families sit around a table and share sustenance. Mina and Astghik weave their fingers softly under the table. Mamik notices, but this time her face transforms into one that looks like it is holding back from creating a pool of tears.

Leyla and Astghik depart, and Mamik is alone with Mina. Mamik warns Mina to be cautious about being openly intimate with Astghik because there are many people who are fearful of bonds such as these. Mamik is not fearful of Mina and Astghik’s bond, but she is fearful of people learning about how Mina was born different from others. Mina was born as both. Mina does not want to dress in the same clothing as Mamik and Astghik. Mamik warns Mina that they cannot reveal their bothness to anyone other than Astghik, then reminds them that they can always dress to their liking inside the rooms in which they live. They embrace in a pool of tears and Mamik whispers the word ‘always’ over and over again as they sway their bodies back and forth together.

We have been placed in our plant body form near a window in a bright room.

Mina runs into the bright room and looks out the window. The neighbour’s house is on fire. A person with shaking hands walks into the bright room and hands a bundle of clothing to Mina. They undress and wear the clothing. The person with shaking hands instructs Mina to urgently place objects of sentimental value inside a small metal box. Mina places an unfinished piece of needle-lace and a string of evil eye charms into the box. They turn towards us, whispering to our seed-kin then shaking us gently. Our seed-kin fall onto a piece of paper. Mina folds the piece of paper and places our seed-kin into the small metal box. Shaking hands wipe Mina's tears as the neighbours house continues to burn. They both exit the bright room and we sense our seed-kin rattling around in the box, the sound of Mina panting and stomping from afar, then stillness.

Mina is surrounded by five others who sit in pools of their own tears. Shaking hands cut Mina’s hair and five people learn to call Mina by another name.

We are with Mina in their small metal box. They whisper to us under the moonlight and we feel their heart-pain. Sometimes we feel the heart-pain of other whisperers, and sometimes we hear whispers from a time that has not yet come to be, like when Astghik leaves Constantinople to retrieve little Makrouhi from the orphanage then finds a new home where she is able to grow our seed-kin in a new garden to prepare for Mina's arrival.

Mehmet is Leyla’s eldest kin. He is born with a heart defect and grows until he is half as tall as Leyla then dies in Leyla’s arms on the floor in the room where food is prepared.

Leyla spent many moons soaking pools of her own tears into Mamik’s chest. When Mamik and all of Mina’s kin transition at the hands of the people in uniform, Leyla invites Mina to live in her home and take care of them as blood-kin. It is fortunate for Mina that Leyla did not inform the authorities of Mehmet’s transition. Mina and Mehmet were born under the same solar rotation, and Mina looks like they could be Leyla’s blood kin. They cannot shapeshift for very long periods of time, so this is their only way to survive. When the people in uniform enter Leyla's home, they conduct a head count of her household kin and ask several questions, then move onto another house.

Leyla embraces Mina, now posing as her transitioned son, then Mina pretends to go to sleep. After Leyla and the children go to bed, Mina sneaks out of the house. They visit us in our elder tree form, near the symphony of stones. They place their hands into the soil near our roots, listening beyond the heartbeats. They hear the secondary thumping of boots on earth. They whisper incantations, requesting permission to see little Makrouhi, who is still dreaming in our stead. We pull back our roots to reveal the sleeping infant, and whisper to Mina that we can only keep little Makrouhi safe until the next new moon. Mina whispers to us that they have a plan, that they will convince Ali to bring little Makrouhi to a nearby orphanage.

Mina keeps their word and retrieves little Makrouhi in time. Ali walks carefully in the dark night and hands little Makrouhi into the warm embrace of two kind women.

Mina begs Ali to take them to Constantinople so they can find Astghik. Leyla is against the idea because she is fearful that Mina will be exposed, but she does not know that Mina is a shapeshifter. Mina can transform to keep themselves hidden from watchful eyes, for short periods of time.