The Pole Shift

Sassafras

Sassafras played with a snatch of cloth. Clever fingers prodded and pulled but the textile was peeling fibers like burnt skin. The fabric was no good. She had remained silent about her adventures of the day, except to say she had found a scrap of textile in a hollow hill. Her kin had enthused but when they saw the crumbling cloth had ridiculed:

"She found ghost cloth!" Spoke one. They gathered around, preparing a meal of crab broth. The oldest of the four Shes stopped stirring the pot to announce:

"She found a dead and took it from bones." Her elder sister spoke with all the derision she could muster. Proud of her statement she turned away from the scene and breathed deeply of the broth's steam. Sassafras's reply gathered her back:

"I found my name." Their eyes met in the age old female way.

"Your name's She! Who knew anything else?"

"A Wizard in the hollow hill. He trembled me hard so I fell to my knees, then he befriended me. The Lord Vet bade him to do so with strong words, The Wizard's fire turned to soft rain water . Then he spoke my name." A long pause followed the statement. Sassafras's sister felt earnestness was in use and her urge to ridicule slipped away.

"Sassafras?"

"It is an Old World place name. We were all given names by the first ones, but the second ones forgot them. The Wizard might know your name too." Sassafras spoke with slight tease yet her elder sister was entirely won over. She touched her ratty hair, lank and greasy, lacking the bouncing curls of Sassafras. Her face was more pinched and her eyes set close. The woman resembled the girl in no way and the only thing they had in common was the old Earth Bunker. It was the custom of the people to call the females that shared the old Pole Shift survival bunkers sisters and Shes. The post Pole Shift world had been hard on women.

"Will you take me to the Wizard?" The woman looked hopeful and suddenly friendly. Sassafras spoke not out of meanness, but in sudden power:

"I won't, Old She." The use of the woman's common name revisited bad attitude towards Sassafras in full. Close set eyes slit and a snarl took hold of a mean mouth.

"You will!" Old She went to grab with knotted fingers and Sassafras shrunk away yet maintained eye contact. Her face turned stern, but before physical struggle developed, there came shouting from outside:

"Sassafras! Sassafras!" Sassafras stood out of her crouch and smiled at her startled earth sister, a look of pleasure holding her face before being hidden behind hazel eyes.

"They shout your name." Said Old She, and all fight went from her, she bowed her head and shrunk from the centre of the room. The door banged open and men stared at the scene. The men's eyes were drawn to the food first, a hearth glowed with driftwood coals under a pot from ancient days, the smoke was sucked away by a vent yet tendrils of scent met the men. One muttered:

"Crab broth and pippis?" Harsh words were urged from behind the entrance.

"Which is Sassafras?" The words were excited. Old She dared to step forward, but as Sassafras sensed movement behind her shoulder she snapped her face back to lock eyes once more. The final struggle for domination ended and with confidence the young girl turned to the men:

"I'm Sassafras, named by The Wizard of Hollow Hill."