10 March 2013
The caravans were arranged in a U-formation facing a stream and the mountain from which it ran, the tents attached to caravans or placed around the large fire pit.
She sat, her long auburn hair tucked up in a thin scarf, a few curls peeking out of the fabric. A knife in one hand and a freckled, yellow apple in the other, she carved the skin away from it in ugly chunks that fell on her skirt. The morning was warm so she wore a light blouse and her patterned skirt played at her ankles. The other women wore similar clothing, thin and permeable for the breeze to seep in. Directly across from her, another tent flap opened and a yawning boy emerged and waved at her. "Jaelle!" "Benji!" He sauntered over lazily, tripping over rocks and kicking up sleeping toads on his way. "Helluva lot of birds crowing for June." Benji pointed up to the trees. "It'll give the crones something to talk about, see what 'omens' they can riddle out of those damn birds." Jaelle said. Benji grabbed the knife and the mutilated apple from her hand and threw the fruit at the nearest tree, producing a cloud of squawking mockingbirds. "Hey! I was eating that!" "No you weren't, you were tearing it to bits." "And the birds won't do the same?" Benji shrugged, "Rather the beak than the blade." "Go help with the laundry or something, and leave my fruit alone."
Jaelle pushed him lightly and he stumbled backwards and muttered something about 'women's work' under his breath, and sat on the step below Jaelle and whittled a hunk of wood with the knife. Wood chips fell on his bare feet and tickled his toes. Jaelle broke the silence, "Where's Miri?" Benji shrugged, "I dunno, probably still sleeping.” She nodded, elbows rested on her thighs and chin in her hands, a few more curls loosened from the blue headscarf. She picked through the knots in Benji’s dark hair with callused fingers and broken nails.
They wouldn’t be needed for anything until later in the morning, too old to play with the kids, too young to be considered adults, their choices were to sit and talk or sit in silence. “Benji.” “Hmm?” “It’s only fair that you go and bring me a new apple.” Benji snorted, “I’ll do no such thing, I wont let another one of those innocent things suffer under your uselessly blunt knife.” Jaelle smacked Benji upside the head, took the knife back and tucked it into her belt.
1. Apples • Opuss № I