-new Seed--26-12-2003--ae----a----baby--inmai Baby--... Page

She whispered to the soil, "This is not for me. It is for the baby I never got to hold."

Ae held the fading sprout in her palms. As its final glow went out, she felt warmth spread through her own body. A month later, she learned she was pregnant. Her daughter, born that autumn, had Lumen’s same crescent-shaped birthmark on her wrist. -NEW SEED--26-12-2003--ae----a----Baby--INMAI BABY--...

For three years, Ae had tried to conceive. The doctors had no answers. Her partner had left. But in her loneliest hour, an old herbalist gave her the INMAI seed. "Tend it like a child," the herbalist had said, "and it will show you what was never lost." She whispered to the soil, "This is not for me