Polar Opposites

2 - Awake

As it turns out, the woman was not on the mend. She had many underlying injuries that were initially hidden by her frozen state. Zokkik believed that she had a concussion, broken wrist, at least one cracked rib, and several other - thankfully less serious - injuries.

For the majority of three weeks, the woman had remained unconscious. She had only been responsive a few times, albeit in a delirious state that lasted no longer than a minute. Zokkik expressed he was glad she was in her comatose state – she would be in a great deal of pain if she was not. Every time the healer would come to relay news about the woman's state, Hakoda would just thank him for his work and send him on his way. It seemed callous, but Hakoda had much more important things to worry about – like a certain nation trying to take over the world and burn anything in its path.

As the weeks went on, the buzz from the mystery woman died down. The men stopped talking about her and questions directed to Hakoda and Zokkik became less frequent. With the unconscious woman tucked away in the healer's cabin and out of sight from the bustling crew, life was back to normal. It was easy for everyone to forget about the woman with their workloads. Well, easy for most people.

The two youngest members of their crew, Petak and Konoye, were still very much interested in their surprise guest. They would ask the chief or healer about her almost every day. Petak's asking was quiet and polite while Konoye's was loud and boisterous. The two couldn't be more different. While Petak was reserved, Konoye was one of the most extroverted people Hakoda knew. Despite their differences, the two were close friends. They were hardly seen without each other – usually with Konoye yapping constantly and Petak looking like he wanted to lightly strangle him. It was an endearing sight for a ship full of older men.

Konoye had showed up at the healer's room the morning after they found the woman, asking questions about her in rapid succession. Zokkik had shooed him away, too tired to deal with the young man's energy after a sleepless, hectic night. He had come back that night with Petak in tow. Zokkik had just finished washing all of the dried blood out of the woman's hair when they knocked on his door. He begrudgingly let them in the room, ready to kick them out the moment at the slightest annoyance. His usual patient self was stretched too thin at the moment to endure anything above a quiet conversation.

To the healer's surprise, the two young men just asked if they could do anything to help Zokkik. He glanced around the messy room that desperately needed cleaning, but he couldn't ask for help with that. He had a strict organizational system that he didn't want to be messed up. Zokkik smiled gratefully at the boys, "Thank you for the offer, but I think I'm good right now. Y'all go up to deck, supper should be ready soon." Zokkik expected the boys to leave without a second thought at the mention of food but was surprised when they stayed in their places.

Konoye looked over at the woman and asked the healer, "Can we braid her hair? We'll be careful. And if it stays down like that, it'll get all matted up." Zokkik eyed them thoughtfully before nodding, "Yes, but you can't turn her head so just braid the ends of her hair."

The boys eagerly got to work. They split the work into half, each taking one side. Their hands were gentle and slow – the healer had never seen them work so meticulously. Zokkik watched them closely at first, to make sure they weren't too rough, but quickly turned his attention to his messy workstation. They were good boys, and he trusted them to have the utmost care with the woman.

This became a biweekly occurrence. Zokkik would clean the woman's body and change her dressings – obviously in private and not with Konoye and Petak around (they were respectable young men, but they were still young men) – then the boys would wash her hair and braid it. It was a help to both Zokkik and the woman. Zokkik had seen too many cases of people's hygiene not being taken care of while they were bedbound and as a result had to chop off their matted hair. It seemed like an insignificant change, especially if someone was unhealthy enough to be bedbound, but that one change was enough to break someone's spirit.