Being as her skin always stayed blue tinged, they were sure she was still weak and sick from her savage beatings, so Sesha went along with that too. The easiest way to keep them thinking that was to complain that she was cold, even if the day was fairly warm or often throwing up after eating. Much as she hated to do that, it was the easiest way to appear incapacitated, and subsequently, somewhat ill from what had happened. So she ate small, specially prepared meals often, realizing she was already throwing the city into an uproar to accommodate her eating needs. Even those days that beatings occurred, Sunday, Beulah called it, food was cooked just for her. It wasn’t supposed to be allowed, but it was under this special rule, that part never before invoked. ‘Duties of necessity’ were always allowed, the man said, like milking cows and feeding the animals and pouring water into the draughts – toilet holes – and a couple more, but not much. For anyone else in the city the ‘mercy’ part had never occurred.
So far it was only a small uproar right now, considering the tumult she was planning on! Eagerly Sesha looked for ways to destroy more of the routine around here;
Her chance came all too soon.
Grace came in the next morning, not on shift. She had a bundle with her and quickly kissed Sesha, Beulah and Florence then left, her eyes downcast. Sesha acted as if it was nothing odd but smiled and babbled bits of English and her many languages as she did during her ‘better’ times.
Something’s going on, hon, Shni informed her. I’m hearing quiet talk of being gone a full seven days… it seems to happen to all the women of childbearing capabilities, even Beulah, who thinks she’ll be going tomorrow sometime too. Just not as often as her system is slowing down due to age.
Sesha went cold; without Beulah, she’d be in greater danger from the madman who ran this encampment, even with Florence around. Keep listening, try to figure it out, please! Her Realistic program knew how important it was that Beulah could come when needed. Even though females were treated as inferior, most of the men listened to the wife of their Leader and did as she ‘asked,’ truly commands altered to sound like asking for permission to do something.
She’s speaking how the… flowers? Were absent the last two time periods, but she’s feeling discomfort and thinks it will happen this time, and she’s afraid for you. The women have been quietly talking, to figure out how to keep you safe. They’re… not sure they can.
We’ll come up with something. Keep me informed, k?
Oh, I will, darlin’ woman, I will.
Sesha went on her day as if she was having a fairly good day, which brightened the faces of the women around her, and even managed a giggle at a Monitor when he dropped his hat. At first the man scowled, causing her to pause with a bit of fright until one of the other women whispered something near him, then he cleared his throat and smiled. Which was good that he did, but too late.
Sesha let her ‘fright’ start aiming her day downhill so she was taken back to the room in the Reverend’s house to rest, and then Beulah appeared, a bundle in her hand.
“It has just begun,” she whispered to Anna, who was sitting with Sesha. The young woman was slipping into a doze, but hearing the voice of her favorite woman, struggled back awake.
“Bee – la?” she whispered in that voice she hated, but since she had started out that way… damn, she had to finish that way!
“I’m here, Sesha… I, Bee-you-la, have to leave for a while, so Rachel, Delia, Ruth and Sarah will care for you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You, um… p’embla, um, go see razakiea? Um,” she pointed to a homemade doll lying in another bed, a project being worked on when Sesha lay quietly.
“Am I going to see my children?” Beulah interpreted, and Sesha nodded eagerly.
“No, sweet child… I must live outside the camp for a few days. It is our rules. Tell me,” she settled beside Sesha and gathered her under her arm, “where you come from, are there babies?” She put her arms together and rocked, then made a rounded motion to show a swollen belly.
“I’etreka-lel,” Sesha smiled and made the rounded motion, then pointed between her legs. “Out, out.”
“Us too,” Beulah smiled, knowing she understood. “When there is no baby, we bleed… it is called ‘flowers,’ ” she pronounced it carefully. “We women must live outside the city until the bleeding stops, and then be cleansed before coming home. I’ll be back in a few days, all right?” She saw Sesha smile brightly and start babbling, making motions with her arms, so the woman looked up at Sarah, who had come in to take over the shift. “She does not understand…” the whisper was soft but Sesha heard it. “Try your best to keep her injuries clean and softened, and watch when she sleeps. Sunday will be the worst… have at least two women with her at all times.” Kissing Sesha’s cheek, Beulah rose, for her name was being called loudly from outside. A Monitor was waiting to escort her to the Women’s Area, a small, bare-necessities only camp outside the city where she would stay until her menstruation was over.
“We will do the best we can,” Sarah sighed, and sat beside Sesha, patting her hand as the young woman frowned over Beulah’s departure.
I think I understand, Gem explained as the door closed. Sarah rose to pull the curtains closed to settle the patient for her nap. It is some barbaric ritual concerning female biped-mammalian periods of bleeding when no zygote is implanted.
It’s merely the sluffing off of unused placental matter,” Sesha let Sarah tuck her on her side and draw the well-made sheet over her. ‘I don’t do it because I had my baby making organs put in stasis.’
In ancient days, some cultures attached deep significance to the flow. The Pre- Ajjekarian bipeds placed their females upon thrones with holes in the seats and caught the emissions in ornately carved bowls, and would rub it all over their pregnant females to aid them in having a healthy delivery. Shni was ever a fount of facts!
I think this is a negative significance… Sesha was mentally chewing her lip, and the form of her Wrist Gem program reached out and touched her lips, so she quit. Look at how much of this belief system is negative! And since women are so low in status, I’m betting this is a form of punishment. I’ll have to do something about that!
But… what? And then Shni fell silent.
Awakening from her nap before it was supposed to be over, Sesha had her idea.
Gem… I have to be hurting more than normal. Lying on her side, Sesha started pushing on the bandages, trying to shove part of one deeper into one of the deeper gashes on her back still painful and weepy.
What are you doing? Oh… Shni suddenly picked up from her mind what she was picturing. I’m already in trouble for other things done so allow me, and then her back muscles began to lightly spasm. Sesha knew her Program would override the computer’s self-preservation program yet again to fix her up with a problem that, while it would panic those here, she knew Florence could easily take care of but Sesha would demand Beulah. Don’t forget Grace, her wonderful friend reminded her. With Shni’s help, Sesha went to sleep and stayed asleep the whole night, despite tossing and turning, with the problem building in her back.
The next morning Delia was worried when Sesha didn’t wake up much, and that her usually lightly chilled and bluish-white skin was hot and pink on her face and neck. After an hour of trying to wake the poor child up, she called in assistance.
Sarah managed to get Sesha’s eyes open after several minutes, only to have her start sobbing, whimpering in that odd language.
“Child,” she was gently bathing Sesha’s face and neck, and as a Monitor was standing in the open doorway, eyes narrowed, she spoke the litany. “Thou must speak God’s chosen language, little one. Be ye not lost in thy mind, but come forth into the light.”
So confused, most of it really so, Sesha managed to open pain-filled eyes again but stuck to her language as she writhed in pain.
A quick glance at Delia told her the Monitor was still there, so she motioned the woman close to her.
“It m
ust be needed that we turn the child so I mayst examine her back. Woulds’t thou please assist me?”
“In God’s Name I shall,” Delia frightened easily and was trembling already, but she took Sesha’s shoulders and together they rolled her despite her cries of pain.
The problem was obvious; the bandages lifted easily except for the impacted area. They found that out when Sesha voiced the horrible pain of it yanking when the cloths were removed and the caught part started tearing open a deeper wound.
The Monitor rushed in fully as the women gasped in shock from her screams and sudden thrashing; he caught her as she fell off the bed, howling from the pain.
“What in the name of God and all his angels is wrong?” He began to lay Sesha on her back, but Sarah shook her head.
“Place the child upon her belly if you please, Man of God,” she requested, and in a moment Sesha’s gown was shifted to see the area deep red with inflammation, the whole bandage hanging from the one area that was now bleeding some.
“What hath occurred?” the Monitor demanded, seeing the problem, getting in the way as Delia hauled over the bucket of water and scooped some into the wash bowl. She dipped the rag in and began dabbing at the blood.
“Perchance in the time of God’s sleep the bandage sunk into the wound and now is encrusted in…” Sarah tried to ignore the hated and feared Monitor while she tried to examine the issue. “Wash it well, Sister Delia, and we will attempt to ease it out,” but when they did, Sesha thrashed and wailed so loudly that people outside came running, and one of them was the Most Holy Lord Reverend.
“Most Holy Lord Reverend,” Sarah was on her knees pressing a wet cloth firmly to staunch the blood. “I make advocation for the Leech; the knowledge she hath mayhap recure this issue. We women be skilless in a matter such as this; as the Mercy of the Lord hath already been shown, I beg thee to grant this unable woman’s orisons?”
While Sarah and Delia held the sobbing woman, the problem was peered at, discussed and rehashed several times, until Sesha finally made her voice heard.
“Bee-lah,” she was sobbing, in pain and broken-hearted, “wan’ Bee, um, you-lah! Why Bee-lah no here?” Someone touched her back too close to the impaction and she screamed with pain again. “Wan’ Bee-you-lah! Wan Gwace! Wan Fwo’enz! Where? Where?”
The crowd outside the Reverend’s house and crammed into the upstairs hall all fell silent, knowing where the women were, and why they couldn’t return yet. But here was what their own Reverend called ‘a gift from God’ albeit she couldn’t yet understand their laws, screaming for the defiled women.
The Reverend looked at his head Monitor, then back at the weeping woman he so very much wanted for his wife and child-bearer.
“Send a lad for the Leech whilst I expostulate our doctrine. Child,” again his voice was so soft, so gentle! He went down on one knee and took one of her hands, stroking it in comfort. “Beulah and Grace cannot come back, for they are in their Flowers. When it passes, then they will return.”
“No,” sobbed Sesha. “C’righź ʼnàper,” she tried to grope around to the paining area, “go ‘way,” she began to writhe again, the pain awful.
“Sesha, child she just cannot,” Allway tried again. “She is in the… bleeding time. You know?” he gestured towards his crotch, “here,”
“P’ees,” Sesha begged, “come back dwah wah-ter woom now, make go ‘way,” she went on weeping. It really did hurt like a Sularian Schrag bug had taken a bite out of her back! Besides six inch long needle teeth, it injected a venom that burned like fire… Sesha had experienced one once and this was too familiar a feeling!
I know… it’s the same spot, dear, sorry. Nerves there always more tender.
“No,” the Most Holy Reverend was getting exasperated. Reaching out, he daubed his finger gently in her seeping blood, carrying it onto his fingers. Then he moved his fingers to one of the women, who understanding his intent, pulled her skirts between her legs and he held it near her groin. “Her flowers… no baby comes, only blood.”
“Ah,” the sobbing woman relaxed suddenly, “ees… no – thinck… um,” she made washing motions with her one free hand, crunched up part of the sheet then, offering it. “M… ake, um,” dropping the cloth, Sesha touched the pad of leaves and moss always tucked under her, for in seizures and great fright, the girl involuntarily wet herself, “same for ba-bee, tum ba-ck now?”
“Darling girl, it is a bad thing, this Flowers. The scripture says,” and before any of his Monitors could remind him of her seeming innocence, Allway launched into preaching mode.
“The book of Leviticus, chapter 15 gives us the rules we live by, for this problem with women. It says, ‘And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean… and everything that she lieth upon… shall be unclean: everything also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean… But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. And the priest shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness.’ Understandest thou, sweet Sesha,” he hesitated, for Sesha’s eyes rolled back into her head, which arched back, “that women in their Flowers must be separated from the City,” and then Sesha started a seizure.
“Pardon, Most Holy Lord,” Sarah gasped and lunged in. Florence’s voice was heard, telling people to move or get out, then she ran in as Sarah turned the almost-unconscious Sesha on her side and held her gently. “Quickly, cool wet cloths… she be in greater heat, which Lady Beulah says helps bring on the quaking. We must cool her off,” and Florence whisked a sheet over her, while Rachel began wetting down her neck. Alarmed the men drew back.
“And what of your plans if Miss Sesha dies while your ‘dying’ wife resides outside the camp?” the words were almost silent; only Allway heard the throated words his Number One Monitor spoke to him.
“Make haste,” his voice boomed out, making Sesha jerk reflexively, harder “send a girl-child to the camp to give word and whist that be done, this be the work done by children who hath not reached the ages of issue….”
Beulah and Grace, happening to be the only inhabitants of the Women’s camp just then were laying on their blankets in the cleared area, looking up through the tops of the trees and talking somberly.
“For positive he knows, Grace, that you have slight pains and scant show perhaps once a year and I twice, perchance three… ‘tis his Proof over women and I was nice to fall for him.”
“No… the snare was set for all, he did draw us in so slowly, as if a frog in a pot of water. None of us believed this instance could occur, how could we? Three hundred fifty adults all followed; when 100 of them turned back, taking family and personal possession, we began to see a problem as the wagon of supplies they brought stayed, leaving them less than the basics for survival. Beulah, do not feel like a fool, we all were.”
“Aunt Florence wasn’t,” her tone was downcast.
Grace rolled onto her side and pulled Beulah’s face her way. “When Peter looked for a competent physician to assist you in your Nursing skills, the only doctor in the congregation willing to go was old Doctor Haynes. Him Peter would not have because of his age but the other Leeches in the Church stayed behind. That’s why he asked you to convince Florence to come.”
Beulah nodded, remembering. “He knew she was not a Believer, and she came only because of me, we are the last of our family and as Florence practically raised me, taking me around the world with her on her medical travels, who would be the better to come? Even though her Homeopathic Doctoring is not wholly approved by men’s medical colleges she came. There was talk of a female medical college being founded in France and despite her desire to enroll and attend, she stayed with me.”
“We all talked,” Grace reminded her, “Florence knew from the beginning that her attitude and mode of speech would rankle Peter and the Monitors yet she continued, even when banished to the
women’s quarters and give base work to perform there.”
“I know… she knows, but what,” then they heard a voice calling.
“Miz Beulah? Miz Grace? Tis I, Savannah… I hath a written message from the Reverend for the two of thee. Shalt lay it down on the line encompassing the Unclean Area.”
“Much thanks, Savannah,” they waited till the girl had hurried back through the trees, then picked up the rough paper and read it.
“The Angel Unawares Sesha hath contracted an illness and be in need of more assistance than the Leech can provide. Both Unclean Women are commanded to traverse through God’s forest to the path our Lakin did arrive by; down thirty paces from thence, cross the path and make thy way to the house. There shalt see Bavin laid for thy gait; thou shalt not digress e’en a mote. Thy haviour shalt be not froward nor orgulous, but as the Word commands, ‘that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety.’ Having read these commands, come straight and whist.” At the bottom was the flowery, unreadable signature of the Exsufficate man-in-charge.
“Quickly,” the women weren’t wearing the required petticoats and other additions to their wardrobe, just the dresses. They simply buttoned up the shirtfronts, pushed what little they’d brought into the sacks and hurried through the woods until they saw a stick lying across the path. There they crossed and hurried back.
“We’ve only been gone one full day,” Grace panted, “what could have occurred?”
“I do not know but at least Florence is there tending her.”
Chopped firewood and branches lined the path to the back door and the women rushed in and up the stairs balancing on old cloths and pieces of wood that prevented them from touching any part of the house. Inside the door they stopped and stared, a mix of dismay and unreasonable laughter rising; the laughter was squelched. The room was covered in planks upon which old rags and dirty garbage scattered to make a bit of a pad. A large pot sat to the side, and beside a too-quiet Sesha sat Sarah and Florence. They motioned them in, so they came, and then the doorway was shut.
Weathering Storms Page 21