The Auction

Chapter Two : The Month Before The Auction.

Nothing special happened for the rest of that week. Mother and I spent our days in the house as per usual. We dusted and cleaned with a rag and a bottle of surface cleaner each morning. We made the beds and collected the buckets of rainwater from beside the outhouse and had made lunch before one in the afternoon. We sat and knitted and sewed for the rest of the afternoons until six o'clock rolled around and we'd disappear into the kitchen to make dinner for everyone. It was the same routine that we'd had for the last few years but one thing was different now- me and mother could talk during the mundane tasks of ordinary life. She told me of her time in the auction: how she watched the wealthy women go first, how she was barley up there for ten minutes before father snatched her up, how strange it was being taken to another country to live in a house with someone she'd never met, how she found planning the wedding to be nothing she dreamed of as a little girl, how she gave up trying to conceive after six years, how happy she was when she found out she was finally pregnant at twenty four and a half, how surprised she was when she discovered there was two of us in there. I listened with an eagerness I hadn't found within myself under any other circumstance. At forty-three, my mother had experienced many things I never had and, in a way, she had barely experienced anything at all. I was no stranger to the privileges men have, Sven and I would often slip out to the outhouse on a nighttime once mother and father had fallen asleep to talk about it all. Sven had gone to school, I hadn't. Sven had made friends, I hadn't. Sven had kissed a rebellious girl at the supermarket, I most certainly hadn't.

When he told me that, I had to clamp my hand over my mouth. Her future husband wouldn't approve of that. She was dirty now, used and an abomination in society's eyes. I was even more shocked when Sven told me it was Vera Albert, the polite but quiet and reserved girl who usually silently accompanied me and mother at the shops. Her mother had died two winters before of pneumonia which had taken a toll on her. She now had a sick and old father too look after alone and she became even more isolated, if that was ever possible. I told Sven to never tell a soul so she could keep her dignity otherwise she'd never be auctioned off and she'd end up like Alice.

Alice was a chatty town-girl who wasn't auctioned off before the age of thirty so they sent her to a camp for the unwanted and rebellious women. She never came back and her family slowly perished one-by-one without ever knowing what happened to her. I got shivers thinking about it. It must have been awful for her to spend twelve years waiting for someone to want her, only to never be needed. It was the one story that my parents told me in order to keep me from rebelling against the auction, not that anyone ever would if they knew what was good for them.

Anyway, shopping trips with Vera Albert had been weird ever since. She totally ignored any attempt that I made at conversation, her face turning a bright shade of pink at any mention of my brother. My mother suspected she had a crush on him. I never dared to tell her the truth. She was a gossip and the entire town would know before Sven could blink. He'd be so mad if he knew I had told her anyway, I wouldn't risk my only friendship over ruining a kind girl's reputation. Not in a million years.

Saturday came soon enough and me and mother walked around with Vera in our normal silence. We split up eventually so mother could go to the dairy aisle and me and Vera found ourselves alone in the bread aisle. She hovered behind me, opening and closing her mouth as though she wanted to say something but the words were stuck on her tongue.

Once I dumped a loaf of bread into my basket and turned to face her, she spoke up.

"Please don't tell anyone about me and Sven. He won't be allowed to buy me if any of this gets out." She pleaded quietly. It was so soft that I pitied her.

"Of course I wouldn't. I hope he picks you and you both lead long, healthy and happy lives together. Good luck." I whispered back. She smiled at me, a genuine content spreading across her features. She was much prettier when she was smiling, though I suppose all women are. Hers and Sven's children would be beautiful.