The Dark Days

Chapter Nine

 The following morning I sat at the breakfast table with my family. Isaac was chatting with school and some friends who wanted to hang out when I cleared my throat, "I'm going to the river today. I don't know who's been bringing us fish but I don't want them getting too comfortable with taking our things."

"I tried to see who it was two nights ago, but no one showed up. It was only after I came inside that whoever it was, dropped it off." Isaac commented. No one was listening to him. Nana and Mama's eyes were fixed on me. There was love and concern in their eyes, for me and my choice to venture out so soon after what happened. More than anything, it surprised me that Nana wanted me to be emotionally and mentally healed before stepping out. It went against her stern demeanor.

"I'll go with you." Mama announced after a heartbeat.

Shaking my head, I squeezed her hand between us, "No, you won't. Mama, it happened and I am still here. If you start babying me now, it'll never end. Besides, our home is close to the river. I can make it back on a run if anything happens."

Druig would be by the river. But Mama wouldn't see him staying on his side of the river, she'd just see another man, watching her daughter.

"Okay, at a run, alright? A run." Mama said on an exhale. I nodded eagerly, both my thanks and gratitude. I wouldn't let myself die with those men. God knows what they tried to do to me, what they must have done to plenty of women before me, and took action in a way only He could.

I returned to my shared room with Isaac and opened my trunk. The dress I'd bought from Mary was neatly folded and placed on the one side. I moved it out of the way and scratched around to find my blue dress. I wasn't a fan of it but I wouldn't be wearing the favourite brown one anymore. I didn't know where it was, and I didn't care. I hated it.

I changed quickly, pulling Mama's cloak over my shoulders and left the house with my knife secured to my belt, as always. It was cleaned of the blood, probably Mama but I could still see the ghost of the blonde man's blood.

The fish cage was still beneath my work table when I reached down to scoop it up, placing ten banana leaves inside it and my crushed plants for the fish basin. I took a deep breath and kept telling myself that I had survived, I would always survive. Then stepped out of the side gate. The world is only as scary as I allow it to be.

The morning air was chilly, and getting more chilled as the days went by. The nights were even colder. I would need to go to the sea village for winter clothes soon. Winter is colder for people who can't afford to keep warm.

The sound of the running water from the river reached me before I saw the water. And to no surprise at all, Druig sat leaning against the same tree he was always seated against, on his side of the river. "Not stealing my fish cage this morning?"

"Is it stealing if I return it every night?" his smile didn't reach his eyes. The usual sparkle that lived in his eyes was missing. There's an exhaustion about him that had nothing to do with being rested. I waited for him to ask where I'd been, or what had happened because I didn't think I would have it in me to tell him but I'd try if he asked. I was sure that my experience clung to my body like a layer of charcoal on my skin.

I unpacked my satchel and when I moved to put the cage in the water, Druig was already waiting. He took special care to make sure our fingers didn't touch, as if he knew I might not want to be touched by another man yet, as if he already knew what happened.

"You know, don't you?" I asked, my cheeks were suddenly hot as a heat tingled across my face, my ears, my neck and all the way to my covered shoulders.

Druig didn't say anything. He just placed the cage in the water then waded across to sit down against the tree again. He was placing the salve on his calves again when I realised that it should be nearly empty by now. He'd been using it for almost a week, or he should have been. The depth he reached when he dipped his fingers into the tin was still pretty close to the top. I chose to believe he was using it sparingly rather than to guess that he'd been fishing for four days without caring for the muscles in his legs.