by James Comins
* * *
The girls had been running around the newly-repaired empress for fifteen minutes, sliming each other and shrieking, when Lenna noticed someone in a pink bonnet sitting in a heap alongside the inn. Lenna halted, receiving a bit of axle grease in her hair. She pointed. Binnan Darnan followed the finger to the swollen red eyes of Brugda. The eyes were hollowed by the shadow of the roof’s overhang. The old woman tucked something into the big pocket of her skirt.
“Do you think ...?” Binnan Darnan began.
“Hm?”
“Should we go to her?”
Lenna shrugged and ran over to Brugda, who sighed in a broken way.
“Brugda Brugda. Oh, Brugda,” she called. “Don’t feel so bad. I didn’t mean to run away for so long.”
The old woman leaned her shoulder into the unpolished alley wall, dug a heel into the packed ground and skidded upright. Lenna frowned. The old woman wasn’t herself. She had been crying, too, which was deeply weird. Puffy eyes and foreboding clouded Brugda’s face.
Lenna hugged her. “I really did only sleep, Brugda.” The matron draped a floppy arm over the girl and patted her. “Don’t cry for what happened, Brugda. This isn't worth crying over. It’s all done with now!” She raised her arms to the sky, then hugged Brugda some more.
With an unsteady hand the old woman pulled her baby bonnet off and pushed her fingers through her thin red hair. A few strands came out in her hand. When she spoke, her voice was husky and dark. “You never knew my husband.”
Lenna just stared. Binnan Darnan stood apart, at the corner of the alley, looking in.
“Kaldi’s father. Talvi’s father. Bear of a man. Beautiful.” Something heavy wagged in Brugda’s pocket as she staggered. She put a hand out to the slick silver. “Told me not to hit the kids. But damn.”
Lenna frowned. “Kaldi and Talvi have the same father?” she whispered, but Brugda maybe didn’t hear her.
“And anyway.” Brugda stifled a belch. “Anyway. They’re good boys. Proves something. Run along, child.”
Bewildered, Binnan Darnan led Lenna away. Her eyes stayed on the woman, whose thin red hair flew and flared, untamed and unbonneted.