being nearly dead

Swear it on the sun

  The farmstalls were always cheaper in the morning. Just as they were setting up, when the sellers still had optimism for the day's lot. He walked quickly along the dirt pathway to their gathering. He fingered the coins in his pocket and recited the list in his head. He knew exactly where he was going and exactly what he was buying, also what he'd be stealing.

  They knew him well here. They knew he could be a thief when he chose to be. He set about working the farmers, first was Old Tommy. He was a large man and could easily corner you in a bar to tell you a long tale of anything under the sun. He smiled politely at him and stood in front of a stall of vegetables like potatoes, cauliflower, lettuce etc.

  "Harvest hasn't been good this year?" he said idly in alanguage somewhere between Latin and Catalan as he inspected the vegetables. The sellers here spoke Latin in some cultural divide he wasn't fully aware of. Across the border to the right it was French and to the left it was Spanish. He bent closer to look better. He knew how to play the game and he liked to.

  "Aye, but I dare say not as bad as last," Tommy replied and stood from his stool. Ever since frost bite seven years back took off a hunk of his foot, he walked with a stick and sat as often as possible.

  He nodded. "Pretty sparse, nonetheless..."

  Tommy chuckled and almost threw a cauliflower at him, not anything he hadn't done before. "You'll bleed me dry one day, Nicky."

  Nicky grinned with uncharacteristically perfect teeth for his part of the neighbourhood. "That's the goal."

  "Twenty-five pence per piece," Tommy told him.

  "Twenty-five-?" he almost gasped. "You'll have my family poor," he warned him but inspected the food anyway.

  "No poorer than you already are."

  "Aye..." he picked up a long carrot stick and weighted it in his hands. "I've got five mouths to feed, excluding myself you know, duties to do as the eldest, first is to keep all the little brats alive."

  "I'll top your five with my thirteen," Tommy grinned as Nicky looked down in defeat. "I hear your mother's expecting?"

  "Making it six, yes. Hopefully the last one."

  Tommy gave out a belly laugh. "So young and yet so mature," he commented and turned his attention back to his veg. "I can make you a deal." He proceeded to cut about five percent of the cost on a cauliflower, three carrot sticks, two potatoes and a leak.

  Nicky bowed to him before he carefully packed them in his padded basket. He did this haggling a few more times at separate stalls down the line and made off with half his money spent on a fresh-ish cut of meat, a small doll and five apples, three of which were stolen.

  He picked his way back home through the dense forest, minding the poison leaves that left many in itching messes at their end of their journey. Finally, he came to gaze upon his crippled house. The tarp over the holed roof was coming away at the edge so he knew he'd have to go up there and fix it later that day.

  Before he could focus on that he saw a scuffle of dirt being kicked up a few feet from the house. He recognised that scuffle of dirt and dropped the basket immediately, running in that direction.

  The boy's lip was already cut and an earlier bruise was forming around his eye, blood ran down his nose and it didn't look any much better for the ribs they were kicking in as he attempted a fetal position to protect himself, which of course wasn't working.

  "Hey!" he heard but didn't dare look. His attackers were scared off enough from his big brother without Nicky having to pull one toward him by the shoulder and knee him in the gut. "Get out of here!" he called to them as they ran away, screaming taunts like: wait until your brother isn't around. Nicky pulled him up and assessed the damage. "Si, are you okay?"

  He shook his head and spat the blood out sideways, wiping off his mouth afterwards. He hated the bitter taste of his own blood. "They're right... they'll come back and you won't be here to chase 'em off."

  "I'll always be here, Si," he told him as he straightened him up and looked for where he winced.

  "No, you won't..." he looked down as pain racked through him. He wanted to fall asleep and never wake up, Nicky knew this but he ignored it.

  "Always," he looked him dead in the eyes, "I swear it on the..." he looked around for something to swear on then looked up, "I swear it on the sun. As your brother I will always protect you, as long as the sun shines."
  Silas nodded to shut him up and smiled despite himself. "Alright, fine... the sun it is."

  Nicky grinned and pulled him to where he'd dropped the basket. "I've got a couple veg and even some meat."

  "There's dirt in it."

  Nicky frowned then shrugged and picked it up. "I must have kicked it up when I ran... Nothing water can't wash off."

  "What water?" Silas frowned. "Well's been dry for two days."

  "Then it'll have to be dusted off... We can go into the forest tomorrow to look for a nearby-ish stream to collect from until the well's back up."

  "Alright..." Silas agreed and peered into the basket before Nicky picked it up again.

  "What's the doll for? Luna? She hates them."

  Nicky shrugged as they walked back. "For the baby, I have a feeling it's a girl" he smiled.
  Silas rolled his eyes but returned the smile. "How would you know?"

  "I talk to her, she kicks back but the message is pretty much the same. She kicks strong like a girl. That's how I knew Luna was a girl, she kicked hard."

  "I don't think that's really how it works?"

  Nicky chuckled. "Probably not but I still know. Little Cara, she will be a girl."

  "You've named her?" Silas raised an eyebrow.

  "Cara, it means darling. She will be the most beautiful girl in all of Andorra," he announced.

  "You better keep your voice down, Luna is already pissed there's going to be another one. With all your talk of it being a girl that'll really send her over the edge. She wants to be the only girl," Silas told him.

  "She shouldn't, she's gorgeous too... she just doesn't play with dolls."

  Silas chuckled but it faded into his hollow chest. He looked down as they approached the front door. He stopped Nicky from opening it. "Father's come back... he's passed out on the bed" he warned him.

  "I knew little boys couldn't inflict such damage," he referred to his bruises from hours before, those weren't freshly made, they had time to settle and fester under his skin. He lightly touched his cheek and saw him wince.

  He looked away in shame, away from Nicky's touch. "He's been drinking... I sent mother to aunty until she has the baby..." he glanced away. "At least to give this one a chance."

  Nicky remembered the child before this. He thought it was a boy, he named him Amias meaning beloved. He was excited until one night Father drank too much and beat their mother a little too much. She was screaming when he and Silas came home. It was too late. The baby was gone.

  She was four weeks along with this one, with Cara. "She deserves something to make her happy..." Silas commented and swallowed hard, knowing what sending her away meant. It meant their father would take it out on him, perhaps even on Nicky or Felix this time. Luna had been assumed to be off-limits for him but anything was possible without their mother to divert him.

  "I agree... but, are you sure you can-"

  "Yes."

  Nicky nodded solemnly. He opened the door and went in, his bloody brother following him.