The Singing Sun

Spiral Five - Twenty Years Ago

We resided in a crude makeshift hut. Flimsy wooden scaffoldings with a green square of rags drooping on top of it. Droplets of water seeped through when it rained. Then one day Lusk showed up.
Carn, Mun and I held hands and walked on and on led by Lusk. He told stories about how his mansion was filled with sweets and delicacies, which could all be ours. No more leaking roofs, no more faulty walls. It all seemed like a fairytale, a dream. Such tantalizing promises in his words. I asked if really us tiding up his house was enough for all that. Lusk chuckled. He had a sly smile. His lips stretching ear to ear when he did.
"Of course. I promised, didn't I?"
He nudged at Carn. She too smiles. Not a real one. The same smile she made when she went begging near the town and a generous hurl of coins hit her face. People laughed at Carn, who ruffled to pick up the money. A smile concealing hurt pride. Of disgust.
We reached his mansion. The size of the building perfectly matched every one of Lusk's boastful words. Tall walls, fanciful gates, and a gleaming rooftop. Having walked inside Lusk pointed toward the end of a long hallway. Carpets laced with red silk decorations covered the floors. He said the room on the far left could be ours.

It had beds, lamps, and tables. Mun leaped onto the bed and starting bouncing. Happy Mun. Carn crawled down in a corner. She sighed, then buried her face in herself. I asked if anything was wrong. Carn said she had promised Lusk to do some extra work for us to come here, and just thinking about it tired her out. I said we could take turns if it was so hard that she already didn't want to do it. Carn laughed. She murmured incoherently.

Something about how she doubts Lusk would be that disgusting and a slimy snake of a man. When I stared into her eyes, puzzled, she faintly smiled and said it was very difficult work and she also especially promised Lusk about how only she would have to do it. I said I was glad she worked hard for us. Carn burst out into laughter.

Lusk brought us food on a silver shining tray. Bread that didn't cut its way down my throat and milk without sour odors. We all ate in joy. Every bite, as I savored each and every one, infused me with comfort; the realization of not having to continue the seemingly everlasting battles against hunger and starvation. The war for survival has come to a ceasefire. Absolute happiness rushed through me.

Carn, on the hand, did not seem to share my incremental pleasures which came from each morsel we stuffed down ourselves. Quite the contrary. With every continuing piece of bread, her face ever so slightly twisted with some anticipation of terror. I assumed the extra work she was to do required greatly hefty efforts.
Lusk, who stuck around as the rest of us ate, observed anxiously at Carn eating. He worked at his fingernails, chipping them off little by little. Glances were sent to the silver tray as if he were checking for how long would it be till she finished her meal. A sinister gleam shone in his eyes.

When we finally finished, Lusk banged on the doors to the room. Two servants in black hastily stepped into the room. Lusk barked at them with even greater haste.
"You! Take away the trays. And you! Prepare a room for the two of us."
One of the servants picked up the tray now with empty plates with breadcrumbs sprinkled on it while the other hurried out as instructed. Lusk gave a smile, a creepy one. He bowed and offered a hand to Carn.
"Shall we?"
Carn looked toward him, then averted her sight back to me and Mun. She swallowed and spoke.
"Stay put guys. I'll be... doing some work off somewhere with Lusk."
Mun and I nodded. We were young, but we still got the nuance that for the food and the bed to continue listening to her was paramount. Lusk, hearing this, jerked his head back as he laughed and clapped.
"Work? Certainly right! Carn here is doing great work to keep you all fed!"
He reached out toward Carn, attempting to grasp her. Carn slapped his hands away.
"Not in front of them!"
Carn angrily exclaimed.
"You agreed. That's why I came here in the first place."
Lusk stepped back, chuckling.
"Right, right. Where are my manners?"