AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By then, the scent of greasy cooking was coming through the door, and I hurried to finish cleaning myself. I still made sure to do a good job, since I didn’t want to upset Elmyra, but I definitely went as quickly as I could. My skin was cold from the water, and the towel was filthy when I finished, so I hoped it was good enough.
The clothes that had been left for me were threadbare and ill-fitting – a long sleeve peasant top and an ankle-length overall skirt. They weren’t great, but they were clean, and right now, I was far more concerned with eating and surviving than fashion. I raked my fingers through my long blond tangles, and I tied it back in a loose braid with a ribbon.
“Don’t you look lovely now?” Elmyra regarded me when I came out of the washroom, but my eyes were fixed on the plate of food on the kitchen table.
Two sunny side eggs, a thick slice of homemade bread, and a diced up fried potato.
“Thank you, is that for me?” I asked her in a rush, despite my attempts to be polite and patient, but I couldn’t contain myself.
“Yes. It is. Go ahead.”
I raced over and sat down. I wanted to use manners and go slow and savor it, but I just couldn’t. It was delicious, I think, but I devoured it so fast, I barely even tasted it.
“Thank you. That was wonderful,” I told her as I finished.
She was standing to the side, leaning against the kitchen counter and watching me.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Fourteen.” My birthday had been over two weeks ago, and yet it felt like a lifetime had passed.
Elmyra was holding a cup of tea in her hands, and she sipped it before coming over to sit beside me at the table.
“I live in this house with four of my children, a daughter-in-law, and my grandchildren,” she elucidated. “The adults and older children work out on the farm all day, caring for the various livestock and fields so we can thrive during these difficult times. I oversee the farm and take care of the house, but that ends up being too much for one pair of hands. That’s where you and the other house girls and house boy come in.
“We have two other girls right now, Avril and Tallulah, and a boy, Buddy,” Elmyra continued, then she leaned back in her chair and hollered the girls’ names.
A few seconds later, the two of them appeared, and they stood side by side. “This is Avril,” Elmyra pointed to the first girl, and then the other, “That is Tallulah. Girls, this is Harlow.”
I immediately recognized Tallulah as the girl I had seen in the stall before, the one with her arm missing and the vacant eyes. Her cheeks had a bit more color than the last time I saw her, and there seemed to be a bit more of a spark in her eyes, but not much. She mostly stared at the floor when Elmyra spoke.
Avril looked to be a few years older than me, with auburn curls pulled back into a ribbon, and she offered me a thin but polite smile.
“Avril will be the one showing you around.” Elmyra motioned to her with thinly veiled disdain. “She understands my expectations the best. Why don’t the two of you get started?”
“Yes, Elmyra,” Avril said with another tight smile.
“Tallulah, you can clean the table,” Elmyra instructed, and she went back to sipping her tea.
“You can come with me, Harlow,” Avril said.
I mumbled another thank you to Elmyra, and then I followed Avril down the hall. Like Elmyra, she walked quickly, and only spoke when telling me what a particular room was called as we passed by it – the den, the family dining room, Elmyra’s sewing room, the children’s playroom.
I peeked in all of the rooms as we went past, but with the playroom, I stopped and lingered. It was a perfectly ordinary room for children, with wooden toys and stuffed animals on the floor. Two kids were playing there, little boys who couldn’t be more than five or six.
They weren’t twins, but they definitely looked like all the Loths I had seen so far: sandy blond hair, pale eyes, wide noses, broad shoulders. But otherwise, they were two ordinary little kids, playing with toys and making silly noises.
More surprising than that, though, was what I saw through their playroom window. Behind the house was a carousel, like the kind I had seen at the fair.
“Do they have an amusement park ride in their backyard?” I asked, mystified by the sight.
“Don’t talk to the children!” Avril snapped, then she grabbed my wrist and pulled me along. “You have so much to learn, and we have so much to do.”
“How is it working here?” I asked in a voice just above a whisper.
“The chores aren’t terrible, and I’ve been worse places,” Avril replied.
“What about the others?” I asked, thinking of Tallulah’s thousand-yard stare. “Do Buddy and Tallulah enjoy working here?”
