There have never been secrets between Iano and his twin brother, Miano. But that changes when his brother marries an heir of the most powerful fief of the village. With such power comes the right to see the face of the Goddess. Only, Iano's twin mus...
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4th Week/ 11th Month/ 1824 - City of Gomeh, Industrial Neighborhood, Northern suburbs.
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Crouched on the ground, Kairou finally clicked his suitcase shut. A soft exhale escaped him. He found himself surprised that, for the first time since Professor Helou had announced the news, he was wondering if he was ready for this. After one month of preparing himself, it didn't make sense to dread leaving now.
At his left side, the door left ajar let inside a cool breeze that brushed his nape and showed a glimpse of the common yard bathed in the blue light of dawn. In the main corridor of the house stood his mother and three siblings.
Mama Tito was holding back tears, her face twisted in an undecided grimace mingling pride and loss. Under the dim light of a soon-to-be-consumed candle, her calloused hands were black, with palms brushing each other regularly with a soft scratch.
The siblings had arranged themselves in ascending order, blocking the corridor that led to the rooms of the house with the youngest in the front and the older ones behind.
Kairou wanted to say that he would miss them too. But no one needed him to be sentimental now. He had the duty to give his family hope. As he struggled to find the right words for farewell, Ramati, the youngest of them, just six years old, came forward with his hands tight around a wooden cup filled with a red liquid mixture. "Drink, Kai," he said, and continued as if he had rehearsed his words, "to help cure the bite."
Kairou laughed. "But I don't have it, Rama." Besides, the drink didn't cure the disease. Kairou knew as much because he had been the one to prepare it. After the plague had spread in the neighborhood, Kairou began giving the mixture to all his family to drink twice a day. "To keep the bite away," he had said. But even that Kairou knew was not true.
He woke up early every day, ears alert to detect the slightest sign of a cough, and then he controlled the body temperature of the siblings, one after the other. He was glad his family had been spared from the plague this far. So, he urged them to continue doing things as they had been up until now: burning incense every night and keeping the windows covered with nets.
