God Was Busy

Chapter 3

Lying in bed with wide-open eyes I thought about how the month had passed in the blink of an eye. Today's sun will announce my last night as a free woman, and I don't want to spend this night sleeping not that sleep was anywhere near me. I couldn't close my eyes knowing they would be here any time soon, I didn't bother waking up. No voice came from my mother's room. I knew she was awake because her breath rate was normal, she didn't sleep that silently.

I heard her silent footsteps approaching the veranda, birds fluttering on the top of the olive tree, she was probably worshipping the sun again. When my father married her, he taught her never to worship the sun but in the last few desperate months, I saw her turn to the rising sun again.

Then I heard her footsteps approaching the kitchen, Chair legs scraped against the floor as she sat down. she set a bowl gently on the wooden table. I heard Marcus's footsteps too, he settled himself, another bowl set on the wooden table. Then I heard chewing for a few moments.

"ma-ma-more," Marcus stammered.

"We don't have more," mother scolded in the lowest possible tone, her inflections sounded off, as if her mind was elsewhere. I could not take it any longer, so I stood up and opened my room door.

The air was heavy with the foreknowledge of what was about to come. Marcus's head moved to and fro as he smiled his shy smile but mother remained silent.

She pointed to a piece of bread, wrapped in basil leaves to protect it from hungry cats and mice alike, in a wooden bowl, placed next to my chair

"Give that to Marcus, they will never let their laborers starve," I said.

We heard neighs of horses followed by the trumpet right outside our veranda, they were here, in a group and like always — on time, after a while we heard a strong man's voice start reading loud enough for the entire neighborhood to bear witness.

"Prepare to hear the verdict of our Lord," the voice paused for a second then continued reading. "Prepare to hear the verdict of our Lord,"

"I Khufu, God and supreme head of the country of Rhesus, having been informed of the events which took place, Cassandra Apazoglou was given a generous amount of flour, to which she agreed that she will return at the end of this month, now unable to keep her words, hereby I declare and command that she should be taken in custody to keep peace in the region and avoid such transgressions in future, where she has to work in exchange for the barter, till the amount is paid off,",

Then we heard a gentle knock on the door, I instantly knew It was time to say goodbye to my loved ones. I cannot afford to get upset, to leave my door with puffy eyes and a red nose. Crying was not an option. I don't want anyone in the neighborhood to see me like this. I opened my arms and my brother hugged me, his arms around my back, I placed my head on his shoulder, just like he did when he was a toddler. My mother stood beside me and wrapped her arms around us. For a few minutes, we said nothing. Then I told mother all the things she must remember to do, now that I will not be there to do them. she can make out well with her olives, so I concentrated on that.

When I was done with instructions, I gripped my mother's arm, hard. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?" She nodded, alarmed by my intensity. She must know what was about to come was important. "You can't think of leaving him in the temple," I said with a forced voice. "No matter what they say,"

My mother's eyes found the floor. "I know. I won't. That was —" They knocked on the door a bit harshly,  if I didn't go out they will come in because the wait was prolonged, we all hugged one another so hard it hurt and all I heard myself saying was "I love you. I love you both."

I moved forward and opened the door and stood up in the middle. I've had a lot of practice at wiping my face clean of emotions and I did that now.

I remember my father never liked me going outside the house, unveiled and unchaperoned—another promise I had already broken, since I was a teenager, so I kept my eyes cast, looking at buckles on my sandals that glittered in the sunlight. Whoops of encouragement: Hey, don't worry you will be back soon, mainly good-natured, though one or two shouted terrible things. What a disappointment I was, a disgrace to the family. I recognized the voice, it was Abdera, the woman who pretended to be my mother's friend and wanted me to marry her fifty-seven years old widowed brother.

As gossip was the breath of life to her, she was making sure she didn't miss anything, tact and discretion were qualities unknown to her, I thought about ways she will discuss this with my mother then dissect this situation to those who are not present here.

"She could have saved herself from all this if she only accepted my brother's proposal" she will say, if only she knew her definition of "safe" was far from mine.