High School Ramblings

High School Ramblings, 8

EXCERPT FROM A RELATED PEASANT STORY.


Let me introduce myself.  My name is Narcissilla, and I live in the village that is home to the great King Amadeus and his family.  King Amadeus helps rule the small Kingdom of Pendan.  I am married to a wonderful man named Fritzle Whitle.  Fritzle is twenty, and I am sixteen.  My papa, Iastor Winder, arranged this marriage, and, so far, we are happy.  That could change, though, because we were married only yesterday.

"Good morning, lovely Narcissilla.  Today is a wonderful day."

"Indeed it is, dear Fritzle.  Simply beautiful."  Fritzle and I kissed.

"Just like my lovely new wife."  Fritzle laughed, and I blushed just a little bit.

"Will you think me lovely in years to come?"  I was laughing now, too.  "Go sell your wares so that we can have money for when we have children to feed."  Fritzle is a merchant of clay and stoneware, along with small trinkets and beads.

"But I love you, and I wish to stay and love you.  Besides, your beauty blinds me."

"I love you equally, my handsome husband, but you can love me while you sell your wares.  Today I must plant a garden so that we can have fresh vegetables to eat and to pay taxes with.  I beg you to go sell your wares.  We've been together for over a month, what with your courting and the wedding arrangements."  I gave Fritzle a playful shove out the door.

After Fritzle left, I washed the dishes, made the bed, and swept and packed the dirt floor.  I was relatively new to packing a dirt floor.  Consequentially, it took the rest of the morning to get it right.  After a small lunch of water, bread, and cheese, I was ready to prepare a garden.

It must have taken me all afternoon, for Fritzle came home and asked where his evening meal was.

"Oh, Fritzle, I'm sorry.  The ground is hard to break, and I lost all track of time."  Tears were forming in my eyes.

"It's all right.  You never really had someone to teach you how to do household chores.  Sweetheart, let me finish breaking the ground while you prepare the evening meal."  Fritzle took the hoe from me, and steered me inside.

You see, my mother died when I was very young.  I don't even remember her.  Father and my older sister told me every time I asked why I didn't have a mother.  Apparently, she became ill and died when she was twenty-one.  Mother had married father when she was sixteen and pregnant with my older sister, Eileen.  Three years later, when she was nineteen, I was born.  Fritzle's mother had died when he was twelve, so at least he got a chance to know her.

"Fritzle, come in.  Dinner's ready."  He put the hoe away and came in.  "How was your day?"

"Almost half my wares sold, and for wonderful prices.  I got ten shillings off of one fellow!  All together, I made about five pounds.  I'll be leaving early tomorrow to restock my cart."

"Wonderful!  Mind you, don't go spending all five pounds on restocking.  There's food to buy, and I need needles, thread, yarn, and cloth if I'm to do any sewing or knitting."

"Narcissilla, I don't intend to spend half of the money.  Anything that I don't use, which will be more than half, will be yours."  Fritzle smiled at me, and we at the meal that I had prepared.

I cleared the table when we were done, and washed the dishes, like any good housewife would do.  Fritzle sat at the table, making small lists of what he had, what he needed to sell, and what he needed to buy.  I sat before a new easel, which had been a wedding gift.  I was drawing on a piece of parchment with a charcoal piece.  As night fell, I stopped drawing and went to bed.  Moments later, Fritzle joined me.

(Four months pass in this fashion)

It is the fifth evening of our fifth month of marriage.  Fritzle, as usual, is sitting at the table doing his numbers.  In a few days, he would be leaving on a merchants' trip, along with my papa.  I am sitting in my rocking chair, knitting a blanket.

"Dear Silla, you seem unusually happy tonight.  I haven't heard you hum after dinner in a long time."

I smiled.  "Fritz, I am happy.  Our family of two will soon become a family of three."

He came over to me.  "This is great!"  Then he looked unhappy as he looked over at his numbers.  "I don't think I want to leave you now.  Anything could happen to you while I'm away."

"But Fritzle, this trip will bring us a lot of money.  Money that we will need soon."

"All right, I'll go.  But I want a letter from you every week."  I agreed to send him letters, and he agreed to go and sell his wares.

The months without Fritzle were lonely.  As agreed, I wrote him once a week, and he replied.  One of his letters toward the end told me that he had been delayed by about a month.  That worried me, because I didn't know how soon it would be before the baby arrived.

The day that Fritzle came home, I was wearing a new lilac-purple dress that I had made.  I had worked hard enough that morning that I fell asleep after lunch in my rocking chair.

I awoke to the smell of frying bacon.  Before opening my eyes, I spoke.  "Who's here?"

"A man who loves you," was the reply.

My eyes opened in an instant.  "Fritzle!  You're home!"

He kissed me.  "Yes, and I thought that I might be in the wrong hut, because I didn't recognize you.  Dinner's ready, you must be hungry."  Fritzle helped me out of the chair, led me to the table, and held out a chair for me.  When he had sat down across from me, I turned both my body and the chair sideways, like I was now accustomed to.

"So that's why the chair was like that."

"I can't exactly sit the other way, can I?  Dinner smells good."  I ate some of the bacon.  "How long have you been home?"

"Since just after lunch.  You were already asleep."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"It looked like you had just fallen asleep.  The way you were sitting in the rocking chair seemed to say that you were very worn out."  I could tell that something was bothering him,but I let it sit.

"Fritzle, I'm sorry I didn't plant a garden this year.  I just don't have the energy to take care of one this time."

"It's all right.  Don't worry about it."

After dinner, I started to wash them, but Fritzle stopped me.  I looked at his face, and he looked worried.  "Fritzle, what's wrong?  I've only seen you unhappy once before."

He sighed.  "I'm worried about you.  You're dragging.  Much more than when I left you.  This is a change in you that I really don't like."

I sighed, sat back down, and closed my eyes.  "Fritzle, I know my limits, or at least I think I do.  The only reason that I am dragging is because of the child that I am carrying.  I don't want you to worry about me.  Really, I'm fine."

For a moment, Fritzle looked surprised, and then he recovered.  "I almost forgot that our first child is on the way.  Let me do the dishes, and you just relax.  You've done enough for yourself for long enough."

So Fritzle did the dishes, while I sat and worked on a small outfit for the baby to come.

Night fell, and I was comforted by the warm mass of Fritzle's body next to mine in bed, especially after he had been gone for a long five months.  I inhaled his essence, and he smelled like a dark pine forest and fire smoke.  I fell asleep knowing all was well.

(One month goes by)

A few days one month after Fritzle came home, my daughter was born.  Fritzle and I decided to name her Jennifer.