“Yes,” Adah told her to keep her answers as short as possible.
“You and your husband got to just walk into this church here and take everything you needed. You were able to do that because Josh goes out and hunts, providing a good portion of the dried meats you see on the tables. Do you understand why you need a job, and what it means to live here in this community?”
Her mouth fell open slightly, and she hesitated. There may have been some language barriers when she first arrived, but the way he was speaking down to her felt to be a little much. She wondered what exactly Adah had told the community about her.
“Yes. I understand. I need to contribute for the greater good.”
He nodded. “Greater good. I like the way you put that. I’m glad you understand at least that. So, what do you think you might be interested in doing?”
“I like to do things with my hands.”
He nodded. “Good. Maybe we could train you as a seamstress.”
She looked at Joshua. “Making clothes.”
She winced and looked back at them. “I was thinking more like building or inventing things. I might like something like that.”
The town council shared a glance with each other. “Well, Hope, that’s not a woman’s job. The women folk are better with sewing, or baking, and they do a great job in the gardens. I think that would be something more appropriate for you.”
Although she couldn’t remember what she did before, she knew those jobs listed were not right for her. Her chest became heavy with the weight of living in this community. Suddenly those free goods at the market seemed to come at a remarkable cost.
“She’s real smart,” Josh said. “Do you have something, maybe a bit more, challenging?”
“Do you have someone who treats the sick?” A glimmer of relief hung in the air. “I might find that interesting.”
“Again, that’s a man’s job.” The council member paused and shared a disapproving look with the others. “I think you need to remember that soon you’ll be off raising a family. You won’t work much at your job as you’ll have a home to take care of. We don’t educate the women on such matters when they will spend so little of their time contributing to the community.”
It dumbfounded Hope. If women can’t contribute to society, then why did they bring me here? Why train me to do anything at all?
“How smart, Joshua?” The Reverend asked.
Joshua shrugged. “Smartest person I ever met.”
“Hmmm. I was talking to Miriam; she’s thinking it’s time for her to take another apprentice. She was looking at that Jensen girl, but if Hope is as smart as Josh says she is, and she wants to do something medical, might be a good fit.”
Josh immediately nodded. “Yeah. I think she might like that the most.”
Hope looked between them, trying to understand what exchange had just taken place. “What’s the apprenticeship for?”
“Miriam is our head midwife. She trains women before they start families of their own.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not familiar with the term midwife.”
“Deliver babies. Helps the women folk through the birth process.” Josh answered.
“Oh? That does sound more interesting than making clothing.”
“It’s not an easy life.” The council member cut in again: his tone equally condescending as before. “You will train hard and rush off to deliver babies at all hours of the night. You will get pulled away from your family here and there until your children can do without you. Then you’ll hardly ever be home. Miriam’s kids are all grown, and she works all the time. When she’s not delivering babies, she teaches others to.”
The Reverend’s eyes twinkled. “It sounds to me as though Hope is up for the challenge.”
The town council looked to each other while a series of nods and shrugs were exchanged.
“A hunter and a midwife. That’s a hard life. We’ve never had a combination like that before.”
“Yes, but the Lord has never sent us a newcomer before either.” The Reverend beamed. “It’s like I always say, he works in mysterious ways.”
Chapter 12
“Hope, it’s nice to meet you.” Miriam extended her hand.
Hope felt relief wash over her. It was the first time someone greeted her directly. Although Miriam’s expression was neither warm nor sincere, she had properly addressed her.
“I’m really excited to be working with you, Miriam.”
Miriam’s jaw clenched. “Yes. I’m sure it will be… interesting.”
Hope ignored the chill in her words. She was starting to see this entire community’s behavior toward her as ridiculous.
Miriam picked up a large book, making no further pleasantries. “This book I have here, there is only one of them. You will copy all of your notes yourself from this book and keep it for future reference. I recommend you spend a little time every night reading the information and making your own notes that make good sense to you.” She laid out large sheets of yellow parchment in front of her along with a pen.
Hope picked up the pen and studied it, then ran her hands over the rough yellow paper. She comprehended the paper was the same material inside Miriam’s book but couldn’t make a connection between the pen and paper. “I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure what you want me to do with these.”
“I just told you.” Miriam squinted. “They told me you were smart. Do I have to repeat everything I say to ya?”
Hope’s face flushed. Her shoulders slumped as she looked away from Mariam. “I am smart. But we didn’t have these items where I come from.”
“You didn’t have paper? What on earth did ya write on?”
Hope shrugged. She didn’t know how she knew the answer, but it came to her nonetheless. “We didn’t write, make, or even use books.”
Miriam nearly slammed the book down on the desk. “What the San-hell are you talking about? You can’t write?”
Her eyes filled with tears. She kept her gaze down at the table in front of her. She hadn’t been expecting her training to start off on such a note. She knew she was smart, smarter than most yet this woman had somehow already managed to make her feel stupid.
“What am I supposed to do with a student who can’t read or write? They should have put you in the gardens!”
A few tears escaped her eyes. She wiped them away quickly, fighting to conceal her emotions. Hope wanted to protest but was too afraid of saying something that would give her away. There was no Joshua or Adah to cover for her if she said the wrong thing. The fear kept her mute and looking away. Miriam began pacing in a circular motion. Hope realized she had to do something. If she sat idly by, she would learn to garden the following day. With trembling hands, Hope carefully flipped the large book open to the first page. She took a deep breath to steady her voice before speaking.
“I can read this. I have just never recorded anything in the manner you requested. I’m certain I can figure it out.”
Miriam took a few more paces around the room before taking a seat at the table. “I’m sorry. I’m just really frustrated right now. I wanted a younger apprentice, someone who hasn’t gotten married yet. I’m overworked, and all of my trained girls are at home with a little one, if not two bouncing on their knee. I’m sure you are going to be expecting yourself soon enough, then I’ll be no better off than before you started. I wasn’t supposed to be the only midwife working full-time. The woman who trained me came down with the fever last spring and didn’t pull through. No one else has kids old enough to leave home alone yet.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe you should have someone else.” As much as Hope didn’t want a mundane job, she genuinely felt bad for Miriam. Would a boring job be so bad? Maybe she would find a nicer group of women to work with. “Do you want me to talk to the Reverend about it?”
Miriam shook her head, resting it in her hand. “I doubt he’d listen, not when he feels this is the Lord’s plan.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Some plan. A plan to test me, that�
��s for damn sure. I sometimes wish the Lord could plan a day off for me.” She turned to retrieve something from a basket containing school children’s materials. “I guess we are going to start with one of these. This is for you to practice your letters on. It’s called a chalkboard. We don’t want you to waste the perfectly good paper learning to write.”
The moment Hope grasped it, a sense of déjà vu came over her. The size and shape were familiar somehow. It felt thinner, lighter, but holding an object of this nature in her hands felt familiar.
“How did they write where you come from? I assume they write if you can read my book.”
Hope continued to stare at the board in hand. “We had something kind of like this board, but much different.” She stared at it for another moment, and a memory burst through the fog. “We kind of tapped it with our fingers.”
“You tap a chalkboard with your fingers?” Miriam shook her head. “I heard your people were heathens, but wow, I had no idea you wouldn’t even know how to write properly.”
“It’s about the same size and shape, but it works differently than this.” She stared down at the board, trying to see if she could remember anything more about the device. She could see it lit up, and constantly changed the display. As she couldn’t articulate what she saw, she decided it was best to keep this information to herself.
Miriam showed her each letter in both a large and small version. Hope couldn’t believe how tedious writing each letter could be. The lesson felt like it dragged on forever. Although she couldn’t remember much about the tapping she used to do, she could sense it was much faster.
“I’m going to have you take this board home and practice. You need to work on those letters before you start making your own book.”
Hope pushed the board off to the side. “Why is it I need to write a book? You said there was a shortage of them?”
“No. That’s not the point. You’ll learn better if you write the information I teach you out by hand.”
Hope blinked twice. How could Miriam think I would need to write in order to learn when I have never written? It became clear to her at that moment, Miriam doesn’t know another way of teaching me. “When do I learn about how to deliver a baby?”
Miriam sighed. “You were supposed to start today, but you can’t write. You have to learn those letters first.”
Hope could sympathize with Miriam’s schedule and situation. She wanted to help her by speeding her education along. “I think you should just start training me now before I learn my letters.”
“No. It will just waste my time.” Miriam cut in sharply. “I’ll have to repeat everything again once you can take notes. We can’t share this book; you need your own. You won’t always have access to this when you need it.”
Hope took a deep breath and looked her directly in the eyes, trying to keep her tone even. “I don’t need to write this information down to remember it. You want to do this quickly, so let's begin. I can remember without you needing to repeat it.”
Miriam shook her head. “You won’t remember—”
Hope leaned forward cutting her off. “Try me.”
***
“I know a baby is a gift from God, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like that—not when a woman isn’t yet a woman. We discourage them from having a baby right away, but they don’t always listen to us—like Ruth.”
“What is the ideal age? I would think being young is an asset. The body repairs faster in your youth.”
“Yes, it does. But you can’t be growing a baby when your body isn’t done growing itself. I don’t know why parents let their girls get married before they turn seventeen, but there ain’t no law against it.”
“What is normal for marriage here? How is an appropriate mate selected for each individual?”
Miriam’s head jerked back, giving Hope an incredulous stare. “What the hell do you mean? People fall in love and they get married—just like you and Joshua.” She did a triple take and nearly spun around. “Wait. You do love him, don’t you? Cuz there’s been a lot of comments about his, well…”
Hope leaned forward. “His what? What are people talking about?”
Miriam winced and sat beside her. “I’m sorry. I shoulda kept my big mouth shut.”
Hope grabbed her arm. “Please tell me. I know there is some sort of stigma about him—he had trouble finding a wife. I simply don’t understand. I do completely adore him, and I have since the moment we met. I understand it even less now that I have met the entire community. I think out of all the males I’ve met, he is by far, the most dashing.”
“Oh, well, looks ain’t never been his problem.” Miriam looked away. Hope gripped her arm a little tighter. “Most of it isn’t his fault, you see. The boy was just born with a bout of bad luck. He was born in a year where almost all the babies came out as boys—it was the damnedest thing. It happens, but these things tend to sort themselves out over the years. But then he was turned into a hunter.”
“And women don’t like the killing of animals?”
“There’s a whole lot that women don’t like about it. For starters, the smell turns their stomachs.”
Hope nodded. “He smells a bit foul after a kill. I don’t see it as enough to keep a woman from enjoying how he looks. What else?”
Miriam winced. “You just need to understand, out of all the jobs men can get, the hunters tend to marry last. Then on top of all that, his mother.” Miriam rolled her eyes.
“Women don’t like his mother?”
Miriam sat back in her chair. “You do?”
“No, I find her dreadful, but I thought it was just me!”
Miriam burst into a fit of laughter. “Oh, no, hunny. You got the sympathy of a lot of the women folk in town. Does she ever give you a moment’s peace? Or is she constantly poking around your place?”
Hope laughed and shook her head.
“You don’t need to answer that. I already know.” She shook her head. “Not being from these parts, you wouldn’t know what you’re getting into with that family of his. Everybody knows everybody in these parts. The women know all about how bossy his momma is from the time they were just girls. His mommas a pain, he’s a hunter, and then he got to be older than the prime age to get married. None of these girls want to marry someone a good decade their senior.” Miriam winced as soon as the words escaped her lips. “How old are you again, Hope?”
She forced a smile on her face. She hadn’t a clue but also knew Miriam would never know the difference. “I’m old enough to be a good match with Joshua. I don’t think he’s too old for me and I am mature enough to look past his less desirable attributes. I think his other qualities more than compensate for the minor details.”
Miriam stood and squared her shoulders. “I’m afraid we got a little off topic. We have a lot of material to go over in not much time. I’m certain Mrs. Stewart is going to go into labor any time now. Let’s get back to work.”
Hope folded her hands in front of her on the table and nodded. Miriam lectured for a few minutes before she halted. “How are your letters coming along?”
“Slowly.” Hope shrugged.
Miriam lifted her hand and rubbed the back of her neck. “I know this has been a lot for you to take on, but I really need you to work on your book. I can’t get into the detailed information until you can write it down. I’m too burdened already for this to take any longer than it has to. Have you at least been practicing?”
“Yes, I have. Joshua has been helping me with it as well. I can comprehend each letter, yet I feel it is more likely to slow down the learning process than it is to aid it in any way. It takes so long to form each letter, each word. It would be much more effective if you just told me the information before we utilized it in action.”
Miriam raised her tightly clamped chin. “Hope, I have been teaching women in this community for almost twenty years. I know how to make you remember when you need to. We aren’t sewing clothes here! Women are putting their lives, their b
abies’ lives, and their faith in our hands. When something goes wrong, you gotta be the smartest person in the room. There ain’t nobody to ask if you forget somethin’. If you make one little mistake, someone could die. I’m mighty concerned about you not takin’ your studies seriously.”
Hope bit her bottom lip. She knew she was right about this. It might take the other women in this community a lot of time and effort to learn this material, but Hope was different somehow. She remembered every single word Miriam said, every concept. It was becoming clear to her, the dome people were of a higher intelligence than in this community. Although she didn’t understand how that was possible, there was something different about their genetics, not simply their cultural practices.
Beyond: Book Four of the State Series Page 12