Little Red Riding Hood and the Prince

Chapter 24- The Plague

The summer started out uncommonly rainy. It seems certain that it was the rain which doomed so many, for what else could have brought such a terrible disease upon the whole country at once?

I remember the second week of June waking to the sound of water pounding down on the roof. Looking out the window, I quickly discerned that sending Katie and Katherine to work in town would be unwise. It rained long and hard that day, so that the whole area quickly became a muddy quagmire.

Unfortunately, it was not only that day that was like so, the whole week saw more rain than we normally got in the entirety of June. It was not safe to even set foot outside the house, so I forbade my siblings from going out. I shudder to remember how I carefully brought our chickens into the house, wading through knee high mud, to shelter. I was relieved that we were too poor to have any other animals to take care of, even though we had been saving up in hopes of buying a nanny goat for some time.

'Praise God that we don't always get what we want!'

We were lucky that by the middle of the second week the rain had let up enough that the ground had time to dry out a bit. It was still treacherous, but our larder had run bare, so there was no choice but to venture out.

I was heartbroken but unsurprised to see the garden; it had not fared well under the heavy rains. Even our root vegetables were ruined, rotting in the too wet soil. Looking around the yard, I realized how lucky we were that the house was in an elevated area and had not flooded. Several ponds had formed around the yard in low lying areas, and the woods boarding along the roadside had clearly drained off their water into our plot.

In the end, I sent the twins to forage in the woods and said my prayers. God must have heard, for they safely returned hours later with two large basketfuls of edible berries and mushrooms, and news that the woods, at least, seemed to have fared well.

It was several days after that when I deemed it safe enough to venture into town. Sick of the house, the twins and Tristan were quick to volunteer for the trip. Truthfully I wished to go as well, but Stepmother had not been looking well of late, and I feared to leave her alone. And so, I stayed behind, giving Katherine some of our precious coins and instructions to get what flour and provisions they could in town.

They returned quickly with pale faces and empty hands.

"What happened?" I rushed out to meet them in the yard, having spied them through the kitchen window.

They stared at me mutely. To this day I do not know exactly what sight greeted them in town, but I eventually got it out of the twins that there was a great sickness. A plague in Meadowsoft and all the country.

None of us ventured into town again for a month, despite our need. Instead, we spent most of the time we were able to forage, gathering anything we could identify as edible. Still, it has been barely enough. My siblings have grown increasingly slender, the twins long limbs are beginning to look knobby, and little Tristan has lost all of the baby roundness in his face. Stepmother refuses to eat many times, being wary of the unfamiliar dishes we offer up, and she now looks like little more than a skeleton. Even her hair, gone gray years ago, has begun to fall out, and only sparse clumps still cling to her head. I don't blame Tristan for being afraid of his mother, scary as she looks and mad as she acts. Rarely does she ever seem to be present with us anymore, and I fear she is close to death.

Still, for now, I have four mouths besides my own to feed, which is why I find myself venturing to town today. I'm hoping against hope that all will be well. 

My family watches me silently as I leave, with eyes that feel too old for their years. God help us all.