She remembered now. She’d been down in the hole, baskin’ in them strange weird lights like a sun worshipper. But she hadn’t felt strange. She’d felt welcome, more welcome than she’d ever felt in her own home. She remembered wantin’ to tear off her clothes so the rays could go straight to her skin. But she didn’t get the chance…

Because that was when the voices began.

Whispers at first, so soft she could barely make them out. Not sounds, really. More like voices in her head, like she was a mental case or somethin’. She wasn’t even sure they was talkin’ to her. Maybe they was jawin’ at each other and their words was passin’ through her head, but she had a feelin’ they was talkin’ to her. She wanted them to be talkin’ to her.

“What happened to you down there?” Luke said. “You screamed like I ain’t never heard nobody scream, and when we pulled you up you was out cold. I thought you was a goner.”

Out cold…she jammed her hands against her temples. Damn, she wished she could remember what had happened, and remember more of what them voices had said. She did know she kept hearin’ about ‘the One.’ All sorts of yammerin’ about the One, repeatin’ it over and over again. The One what?

Suddenly she realized they was talkin’ about a person. The One was preparing the way, everything depended on the One because the One was special.

Wait, she thought, stiffening as a thrill ran through her. I’m special. I got a power like no one else. And then there’s my name…

She levered up to a sittin’ position and crossed her legs, Indian style. “Yes!”

“What is it?”

“Luke, do you know what my name means?”

“Y’mean Semelee? It means…it means ‘Semelee.’ Just like Luke means ‘Luke.’”

“All names mean somethin’. I ain’t got no idea what Luke means, but my momma told me that Semelee means ‘one and only.’ She said she named me that because I was her first and I was a real hard birth, and she wasn’t goin’ through that again. She said I was her first and last kid, her one and only.”

Luke frowned. “Okay. So?”

“I heard voices down in that hole and they was talkin’ about ‘the One.’ That has to be me. They was talking about me.” She closed her eyes. Excitement flashed like lectric shocks through her body. “And they kept on sayin’ somethin’ else too.”

What was it? It was right there, just out of reach…started with an R…but what was the rest?

And then she had it! The name popped into her head like she’d known it all along.