Aĉaĵego

VI: 10 Years Ago

10 Years Ago

It was good weather, weather that was just a little bit too warm, weather that was pleasant outside, in the wind and in shady areas, but not so pleasant indoors, where the shade provided by the walls was not quite enough to make up for the still, heavy air. Their father was indoors, and he hadn't peeked out at them in a while, which probably meant that he was napping. He'd be unpleasant when he woke up; he would scream at them for not working while he was asleep (and if they did work, he would still scream at them for not doing enough), but for these couple hours, they were free to play in peace.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Karesema called out.

The world spun around her as she jumped away from the tree she'd been leaning against, and opened her squeezed-shut eyes wide to the bright sun. It took only a second to orient herself and then she sprinted towards the grove, where Floreca always hid, because there were so many footprints there that new ones could not easily be tracked. There were lots of trees, and Floreca had been getting better at climbing lately, so Karesema spent more time looking up than looking around. But when she got dizzy and lowered her head, she noticed a shadow poking out from behind the egg-flower tree.

"Found you!" she called out, expecting Floreca to squeal and jump out so Karesema could chase her, the fun part of this game. But Floreca did neither of those things as Karesema ran towards her, and by the time she realized the shadow did not belong to Floreca it was too late to back away unnoticed.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Karesema said, stumbling a bit as she halted – having expected Floreca to run when she pounced, she had nearly toppled over. Good thing she hadn't – it was her mother sitting there, feeding the baby.

"No worries," the woman said with a chuckle.

Karesema was about to turn around and get back to looking for Floreca – she didn't feel comfortable being around her mother lately, she had been acting strange ever since the pregnancy. She kept up her mundane tasks as usual, keeping the house neat and assisting on the farm, but for the most part she'd been ignoring the girls. She hadn't been coming in to their room at night to tell stories, or singing songs as they worked; she hadn't even been coming in to wake them up in the mornings to rub their arms soothingly until they awoke or help them put their hair into buns. Floreca was particularly upset about her change in behavior. Before the baby was born, she had asked their mother several times if she would still love them once the new baby was born, and then she asked if she would love the new baby more than them if it was a boy. Each time, the reply had been, "Sweetheart, nothing in the world could ever make me love you less, and I could never love anybody more than I love you and your sister. I'm just tired." But the fatigue had lasted too long for it to be just that.

But before Karesema could stumble away, her mother patted the ground next to her and said, "Sit with me."

Karesema wanted to be angry. She wanted to say, "Floreca and I can play by ourselves now! We don't need you anymore!" But more than she wanted that, she wanted everything to be normal again. She wanted to lay her head on her mother's lap while she stroked her hair and sang a lullaby. So she dutifully sat down, and when her mother shifted the baby into one arm so she could place her spare arm around Karesema, she leaned into the embrace, closed her eyes, and took in the feeling of her mother's soft, bare skin.

"My two beautiful girls!" her mother cooed, and Karesema opened her eyes to get a better look at the baby. The baby did not look very beautiful to Karesema; she just looked like any old baby, with squinty eyes and a near-permanent grimace.

"What's her child-name gonna be?" Karesema asked. Perhaps if the baby had a beautiful child-name, that would make up for unimpressive looks.

"I have my ideas, but I don't know what your father thinks. I think I'll wait a bit and see what his thoughts are before I say anything about it to him."