.:For Us There Is Only Tomorrow:. [JB Thread; Tom]
Jan 29, 2017 22:49:11 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2017 22:49:11 GMT -5
You are not a shrinking violet.When the older boys would not let you come to the watering hole at eleven, and they teenagers, you had decided to show them just what wits could accomplish over selfishness. Sampson had laughed saying this was only for boys, and no one needed little Salome around. Their tongues were foul, their thoughts impure—what would she have wanted to tag along for? But you yearned to watch them, to learn from them, to be treated as the old spirt you were. And so if they weren’t going to let you come, you would make them not forget you again. Stationed in the fields just along the break in the orchards where the outcropping was, you watched. They stripped out their suits and into the water, naked and foolish. Your tiny feet were silent, your hands quick. Before any of them realized, you had snatched away their clothes. They all yelled at one another, thinking the least of their cousins as though one of them had committed the crime. But you stood at the top of the hill, grin on your face, waving their soaking clothes high over your head.But stealing swim trunks is not the same as the horrors in the arena. You know this, even as the door closes behind you. Your mother and father have come and gone, praising your sacrifice, believing that you are too noble and good to be felled. Your sister whispers the truth through her teeth, saying that you will die and that she is scared, but you hug her too tight to speak another word. By the time they have gone, you imagine all of it as a dream. The silence builds with you sitting in a large leather chair in a room that’s seen enough faces be put to death. Is it the same that Benat, Iago, and Levi saw? Or did they put the girls on one side, the boys on the other? You listen to the crackle of the fire, and watch the flames dance over the logs.A thud comes at the door, and you believe it time to go to the train. Your heart beats faster, the first flush of anxiety since the morning. This is not fear, though you are certain she was appear at your door soon. Your courage was in faith to do good and you had done so; now was the time to steel yourself for what was to come. But—if not your family, and not the peacekeepers that should have come bursting through the door, what other visitor would want to see you? You were no great star of the district; the most you had ever done was your best to take care of all the other Izars, even those that had a dash after their names (for they were no less your cousins).You sit straight in your seat and cross your legs as any lady should. You take a breath and muster a smile. “Come in, please.” Because courtesy has not nor would ever leave your body.
