Oct 4, Protagonist intro

Protagonist Intro

At some time during the night a body was washed up on the shore. It was only discovered next morning when the people of the village came down to the riverside to collect water. Lillum stood there wondering if the hippos had seen this new thing. The river Nile had many hippos in its muddy waters. Every night she heard their grunting and barking. Her mother had told her that they were dangerous and if she ever saw one, with its big mouth and huge teeth, she had to run back home immediately.

Looking at the body, she recognized the necklace it was wearing. It belonged to Parten. The face however didn’t belong to anyone she knew; it certainly didn’t look like Japhet’s father. It was grey and fat and looked to belong to a stranger.  The beaded necklace she did remember however, especially the big, red bead in the middle. Japhet’s mother had traded four rush baskets for that bead. She remembered Japhet taking her by the hand one day and creeping into their hut to lift up the lid of  a small wooden chest to reveal the big red bead inside.

His father had worn that necklace at the Feast of Opet. How long ago was that? Her mother had baked honey cakes and Japhet’s mother had cooked red bream. Parten had carried their offerings to the temple and placed them in the priest’s hands, wearing his best linen kilt and round his neck, the necklace with the red bead in the middle.
“I think I’ll  fill my jar upstream this morning,” someone muttered.
Lillum looked up. It was Menut that had spoken. With a large terracotta jar balanced on an ample hip, she turned and headed towards the path. Her long, white cotton dress flapped around her ankles as she stumbled up the bank and then disappeared over its edge.
“Someone should tell Arrem,” another voice suggested.

Many more were gathered at the river’s edge, each staring at the body, marveling at the rock tied to its ankle, whispering to each other, when Arrem eventually arrived.  Lillum had heard how Japhet’s mother had once been the most beautiful girl in their village, but now as she stared wide-eyed at the thing wearing her husband’s necklace, she looked old and worn. Japhet was there at her side. Lillum went over to stand next to her friend.

“Is that…,” Lillum asked softly, scared to put what she feared into words.
“Yes!” was Japhet’s brief reply.
Before she could say any more, Japhet rubbed at his eyes with a clenched fist. When he turned away, Lillum tried to follow, wanting to say she was sorry, that the gods would take care of his father, but he ran so fast she couldn’t keep up. Seeing her father coming towards her along the path that led to the village, she gave up chasing Japhet and went to speak to him instead.
“Was it the boy’s father?”
“Japhet was crying,” she told him. That seemed answer enough
Her father took her small hand in his.
“Lets go home.”

“After the Feast of Opet,” she said as they neared the mud huts clustered around the tall, brick-built temple. “Japhet’s father was shouting… and…hitting…”
“Yes, he was,” her father agreed. “But I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt Arrem. Its just that when he drinks too much, he gets angry.”
“I was frightened by the shouting,” Lillum admitted tearfully. “When he hit Arrem, was it a bad thing to do?”
“Yes it was,” her father replied softly, staring hard at the distant trees."When he went missing some days later, we'd hoped he'd run off in shame."
“The priests say that when we die, our Ka is judged by Osiris. That Horus weighs our heart against a feather and if it’s heavy, the animal gods devour us.” She couldn’t repress a shudder at this, it sounded terrible.
“Is that what worries you? What do you think is worse?” Suddenly her father seemed angry with her. “Being eaten by animals, or starving to death. At least being eaten is over quickly. It can take months to starve.”
“I don’t understand...”
“The boy’s father is dead,” he snapped. “The temple priests will want their farm back. They won’t let a woman work the land and Japhet is not old enough yet. After this, they’ll be thrown out and have to fend for themselves.”
“And when that happens...,” he added angrily, “they will starve.”
“But we can help them. We…”
“Wake up child, “ he snorted, jerking her hand and making her stop. “We barely have enough to keep our bellies filled. We can’t share what little we have with others.

Gripping her hand, he walked on quickly, pulling her along. As they neared the house, he let go and continued alone. Lillum felt her feet dragging. Her father was angry with her. She would wait on the path until he was gone. From behind a date palm she watched as he grabbed his leather bag from the stool next to the door and after a few words to her mother, strode off in the direction of the temple. Her mother, sitting on a bench in the shade of the lemon tree, was stripping rushes to make baskets and mats. She looked in her direction and smiled. It was a thin sliver of a smile. One that said come here little girl, come and sit with me. Lillum went and sat next to her mother and looked upwards. Beautiful dark eyes looked deeply into hers. Then her mother bent down and kissed her forehead.

“Japhet was crying?”
Her mother’s question was spoken so quietly that she could barely hear it over the rustling of the surrounding leaves. Lillum looked down and kicked at the packed dirt beneath the bench, her bare feet ringed with mud from the water’s edge.
“Yes… and then Daddy got angry with me.”
“He’s not angry with you little one,” her mother protested hugging her close, “He’s angry at the world, angry at loosing a friend, angry that Arrem and Japhet will now suffer, angry that he couldn’t prevent this from happening.”
“Will Japhet have to go away?” It was a question that had been on her mind ever since her father had spoken those angry words to her.
“Perhaps,” her mother replied looking up at the sky and placing her hands on her knees. “If the gods decree it so.”
“I don’t want Japhet to go,” she told her mother, miserable at the very idea.
“I know,” her mother replied, putting her arm across her shoulders and hugging her again. “Your father and I had hope that the day would come when you and Japhet would choose to marry, but it seems that the gods have decreed otherwise.”
Lillum sat with her head hung low, staring at her toes, feeling too wretched to speak.
“I have a secret,” her mother whispered, looking around as if she was worried that someone would overhear them.
“Before the feast of the Beautiful Valley, you will have a baby sister or baby brother; if the gods are willing.”

Lillum looked at her mother with fresh eyes. She knew that young girls went to the temple with a boy of their choice and soon afterwards got very fat. After a long time being fat there would be a night with lots of crying and shouting and next day there would be a new person in the village; small and wrinkled and half blind, with everyone very happy. The god Bes supervised such happenings. But there had also been times when after all that crying in the night, the next day everyone had been very sad. She could see now that her mother was getting a little bit fat, but not as fat as Menut.

“Having a child is a dangerous time in a woman’s life,” her mother continued, patting her hand gently. “I will speak to the priests and to the village elders, to see if there is anyone else suitable for you. We live our lives cupped in the hands of the gods. We never know what they have planned for us, but it doesn’t do not to have a plan of your own, just in case.” 
Lillum sat on the bench as a cold foreboding crept up her body. One night soon her beloved mother would be crying and shouting and in the morning…
“I’m also worried about your father,” her mother continued as she went back to pulling apart the dusty, dried rushes at her feet. “The priests have given him medicine for that cough of his, the one that troubles him in the morning. The problem is, the medicine is making him worse, not better.”