"Welcome back, mister. So, how was your night, mister? You look well fed!" Madam Salome said to Hosea, looking at him with a cup of tea in her hands as she glanced briefly at him from head to toe. She was seated at the dining table, waiting for him that morning, as he had slept out.
Hosea smiled, greeted her with a "Good morning," removed his shoes, and walked up to the dining area.
"I slept at a friend's place. Yara is just a young girl mother," Hosea replied, pouring himself some tea from the kettle. Madam Salome's eyes stayed on him for a while.
"I thought you had gone to be a man," Madam Salome said, raising her eyes and letting them wander across the ceiling. After saying that, she bowed her head and sipped her tea.
"Is that what Dad did to you?" Hosea asked, meeting her eyes briefly. Madam Salome jeered at him and curled her lips up.
"Are you stupid? You're so old and still playing games," she snapped, then stood up.
"Get married and have a life!" she said as she walked away briskly. Hosea chuckled.
Back at the school, the gateman delivered the news to Zayun about Lelvin's burial. He had heard gossip from his neighbors and at the market. Not so impressed by the news, Zayun quickly excused himself from the gateman and walked back to his place of solitude an umbrella-like tree with purple flowers a little further from the school forest.
While looking at the grasslands ahead of him, a mix of thoughts ran through his mind.
"I am the middle child and will always be on my own. Focus. Focus. Focus..." Zayun whispered while standing still. Sighing in and out, he repeated the same words over and over. When the sun had set, he returned to the school and continued with his activities.
That night, Walda had officially moved into Lelvin's room with all her belongings and Moze's as well. Just as Egen was about to leave Zera's room, where they had been having a short prayer session, she asked him to sit down so she could have a word with him.
Egen sat down and folded his hands neatly together, resting them on his lap.
"Your mother is still estranged from all of us. Your father is absent even today. You are growing faster," Zera said, sighing as she pulled out a couple of papers from her drawer and handed them to him.
The room was lit with lamps in all four corners and one on the table. Egen could read the document clearly.
"Yara is useless to you. She will probably get married and be cared for by her husband. But you need your own form of security as a man," Zera said, looking directly into Egen's eyes. He glanced back at the paper and continued to read.
"Sign it," Zera encouraged him. A pen with ink lay on the table. Egen picked it up and signed, and Zera took the papers back to her drawer.
"You can go rest. We will talk tomorrow," Zera said, dismissing him as she remained seated on her bed until he had left the room.
She stayed seated for a while longer before standing up to turn off the lamps in her room.
Tears rolled down Tara's cheeks as she stood in front of the window to Zera's room, holding a pail of water and a mop she had intended to use to clean the front verandah. All the mourners had left earlier, and the area needed a final touch up.
While seated on her bed, Zera kept thinking about the words the priest had once spoken to her about Yara both long ago and again at the burial.
"She will always be a knife in your life and household. Be very careful with her."
Those words kept replaying in her mind.
Early the next morning, Yara woke up to continue with her usual routine of going to the shop. She packed a few items into a small purse, planning to visit Zayun later in the day. They had been close during their younger years, but over time, they had drifted apart.
When she was ready, she stepped out of the house. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the faint creak of the door caught Walda's attention. Lifting her head from the pillow, Walda pulled the curtain slightly aside and peeped outside it was still a bit dark.
Pulling an extra shawl over her shoulders, she called out,
"Yara, where are you going this early?"
But Yara kept walking, ignoring her.
"Where will I go in this life after I leave this house?" Yara pondered, dressed in a long tunic and a fur-lined head cap. She walked to the school, a journey of nearly an hour.
When she arrived, Zayun was called for.
A smile flashed between them as they greeted each other and sat down together.
"How are you doing?" Zayun asked, his eyes focused on her hands and legs.
"I wonder why she's here," he thought to himself, offering a thin smile.
"I'm fine, brother. What about you? How's school? You look so handsome now." Yara replied, her eyes lighting up. She unpacked some snacks she had brought and offered them to him. Zayun accepted them, slowly picking each piece from her hand.
"Is she pregnant again?"he wondered silently, his gaze drawn to the glossy shine of her forehead and the small breakout of pimples on her cheek.
"I'm enjoying it here," he said aloud. "Every day, I learn something new. I even met a new friend."
He smiled, revealing a neat set of perfectly aligned teeth.
They chatted on various topics, but Zayun didn't say a word about Lelvin or Moze or even Egen.
"He surely knows a lot now, but no longer confides in me," Yara thought, her eyes drifting not quite meeting his but stealing a glance at the neatness of his clothes and his calm posture.
"Zera is changing him... pulling him away from me." The thought lingered as they quietly shared one of the many snacks they enjoyed from childhood.