Read Part 1 here
Read Part 2 here
A Brilliant Little Fire
Part 3: Aaron
Read Part 2 here
A Brilliant Little Fire
Part 3: Aaron
Aaron
made his way up the hill toward the two figures. The first rays of the
sun felt pleasantly warm on his back; later, he knew they would cause
his wounds to itch and burn. He cautiously approached the elderly
couple on the hillside and raised a hand in greeting.
The woman's lined face broke into a smile.
“Good morning, Aaron.” She beckoned him closer, and he seated himself on the wet grass.
“Have you recovered from your flogging?”
Aaron
felt his face flush, and yet there was nothing but an inquisitive look
on Anna's face. The ways of Renaissance were still a mystery to him; all
crimes were punished by public whippings, painful and humiliating, and
yet afterward the perpetrator was treated as a member of the community
once again, as though nothing had happened. Some took it as a blood
baptism, a chance to start over with a clean slate. Others, who could
not or would not change their behavior, sustained beating after beating
until they were either incapacitated or died. Still, it was a system
that seemed to work. His scars would remain as a reminder to himself,
and everyone else, that he had both erred and paid his dues. Today would
be a new beginning, to do with as he chose.
“I'm
sorry,” he muttered to her, still feeling embarrassed. A newcomer to
the town, he'd crept through a window in their cottage a few days before
and stolen things that he'd needed; food, a blanket, a lantern. And
one thing he hadn't needed; a leather bound book he'd found lying on
the table. The Decline and Fall Of the Roman Empire.
A touchstone from the old world, where life was nothing to him but an
opportunity to drink, chase girls, and drag himself to boring lectures
every day. A careless existence, until it had been swept away in a
matter of days along with the bodies of his dead mates. He fancied a
whiff of those long ago funeral pyres was tickling his nostrils.
Anna
shifted her position, laying her husband Will's head in her lap and
kissing him gently on the cheek. He was deeply, irrevocably, asleep.
“I would have given those things to you, had you asked,” she said sadly. “However, it's done, and so we move on.”
“I wish I could, you know, make things up to you both.”
“It isn't necessary for us. But it is, perhaps, for you. And so there is something that you can do.”
***************
Aaron
descended from the hill, the lifeless body of Will Mentzer draped
tenderly in his arms. At the edge of town, he stopped.
“Go on, Aaron,” she urged. “There's nothing to be afraid of. He died a peaceful, natural death and that will be obvious.”
“It's
not that,” he said miserably. “I can feel the blood on the back of my
shirt. I hate the idea of everyone staring at me, knowing.”
“Dear
boy, nearly everyone in Renaissance has flogging scars.” The rumble of
Mayor Joseph Grey's voice reached them from the loudspeakers.
“Even the Mayor.”
What a terrifying regime to live under.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wouldn't want to live there.
ReplyDelete