by Nel Franks
Rosie flipped the edge of her skirt up and down, but she didn’t argue. Then she said, ‘Did you bring the food, Tomma? I’m starving. I know we’re not supposed to eat before Transition, but if I don’t, I’ll pass out in the Temple tonight.’
I didn’t feel hungry. Tomma looked in her sack, and I looked. She had picnic for all of us. We had sandwiches, and fruit, and juice. My favourite is watermelon juice, but we didn’t have that one.
‘Do you remember that woman? The sterilisation we saw?’ Tomma said it very quietly, she was still sad. I had to watch her mouth. I moved so I could see all their faces. That way I can see better what they are saying.
‘Of course. We would never forget.’ Gaia was looking very serious, like elder sisters in Temple. Rosie nodded.
Rosie said: ‘Every time I even think about bending a rule, let alone breaking one, I think of her.’
‘It’s barbaric.’ Gaia’s face was hard. ‘It’s inhumane. It’s an abuse of power. It keeps us compliant with rules we don’t even know or understand. It keeps all of us from even thinking about living in a different way.’
Nobody said anything after that. Then Rosie spoke, a bit too soft for me to hear. But I could see what she said.
‘How could you live in a different way? I mean, here, in the Enclave, this is the way we live.’
Gaia was not happy. I knew why.
‘What about Transition, then?’ Tomma was loud and trying to be cheerful. ‘What do you think they’ll do for the ceremony this year?’
Rosie and Tomma talked about transition so fast I could not catch everything. Gaia just listened. Tomma asked Rosie what House she wanted to go in. Rosie said she wanted to stay in Temple Healers forever.
Tomma grinned. She said ‘You know you said the same thing back in year one? You said you wanted to go to the Children’s Rooms and never have to leave.’
They were smiling at each other. Then Tomma sighed. She said she didn’t know what House she wanted to go to.
Rosie jumped up. ‘I know what we should do!’
She asked Tomma for something to write on. Tomma found a pencil in her sack, and she smoothed out the sandwich paper. Then Rosie got a lot of twigs and dried grass. She lit a little fire.
She said to write down what we wanted to do. She said we would burn it for the Goddess, to make it come true. I can read and write some words. When it was my turn with the pencil, I wrote on my paper: Stay frens.
When it was her turn, Rosie wrote a lot. I watched over her shoulder. She wrote this:
I want to be a Temple Research Mistress. I want to create pregnancy without lying with a man, and I want women to be able to choose whether they give birth to a boy or a girl.
I didn’t understand all that. Nobody can choose the baby they get.
Tomma thought a lot. She said what if she changed her mind later? Rosie said don’t worry, the Goddess won’t mind. We could burn another message. When I passed the pencil across to Tomma, I saw what she wrote. She wrote:
I want to have babies with Rove. And I want us to keep our children together and make a family.
She folded her paper up very little.
I feel sad for Tomma. Her wish will never come true.
Gaia said it was a good idea about writing to the Goddess. She said we should do it at every Transition. I think I would write the same thing each time.
I didn’t see Gaia’s writing. But I know what she wrote. She told me what she wanted a long time ago. She would write:
I want to live as a man.
I don’t understand that, either. But I know Gaia is stuck. She is worried and sad.
Rosie said we should have a sacrifice to go with the paper in the fire. She got some flowers from along the wall. I helped her. She said they were a sacrifice from nature.
Tomma tore a bit off her robe. She said it was a sacrifice from our worldly possessions. Laundry Mistress is going to be so cross.
Gaia said she would give a sacrifice from her body. She cut a bit of her hair on her forehead. She cut too much, and it was bleeding. She wiped the blood up with her finger and she looked at it. Then she wiped it on her paper. She said that would make it a proper sacrifice.
Rosie sounded like a Temple Mistress. She said Temple words: ‘Goddess, heed our prayers. Goddess, accept our sacrifice. Goddess, heed our prayers.’
Then she dropped the flowers into the fire. They didn’t burn. Just the ends of the petals curled up. Then she put her bit of paper in and waved the smoke into the sky.
Tomma said her words very fast. She dropped the bit of robe in the fire, but it nearly went out. She laughed. She knelt down so she could put just one end in. She looked in the fire a long time. Then she pushed in her piece of paper.
Gaia said I should burn my paper next. I put it in the fire. I watched it. The edges went black and smoked, and then went red. A black patch started over my word frens. I think the Goddess will hear that word first. Will she know what I meant? I don’t think She listens to me anyway. I went back to the circle.
Then Gaia kneeled and looked in the fire. She put her bit of hair in very carefully. It smelled really bad. We all stepped back. But Gaia stayed there. She had that smelly smoke blowing on her. She put her paper with the blood on it into the fire. I saw her lips move. This is what she whispered:
‘Goddess heed my prayer, my sacrifice. Goddess, please heed my prayer.’
THE END
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Books of the Enclave Series
Book 1: Acolytes, published February 2021
Book 2: Expelled, to be published mid-2021
Book 3: Enclave, to be published late-2021
All available at Amazon.com.au and at good e-book retailers.