Beautiful Cries

Chapter Eighteen: Days Gone By

The longer Alena thought about the peculiarities of her morning, the more she couldn't remember why she had been so puzzled in the first place; her earlier confusion disappearing as the memory of the old woman began to fade away into the background.

Life seemed to flow out into a normal pattern, one that wore away at her mind with its familiarity as she placed a brown speckled egg into the hay filled basket in her hands, the strands poking away at her skin while Klari bustled around behind her on another shelf.

"I got the last of them." Klari called out, opening the fenced door of the shed carefully as she held the basket tightly to her chest. "Mother really only likes if we have the eggs freshly picked and don't take hours doing it."

"I know, Klari." Alena said laughing. "I have lived here too you know."

"Okay phew." Klari uttered under her breath, holding a hand to her chest in fake worry. "For a second there I could have sworn you had lost it."

Alena scoffed and moved out of the shed, trying to get used to the feel of her bare feet against the rickety old wood.

"For a second there, so did I."

Klari shrugged her shoulders and sidled up next to her sister as she lifted a hand to block the blinding sunlight. "You know I was thinking, maybe you and I could go down to the shore sometime this week, whenever we're done with our chores. I'm sure Mother and Father wouldn't mind."

"The shore? But I thought you've always had a fear of the water," Alena said, quirking an eyebrow before shoving Klari into the side of the house with a laugh, "you know after I pushed you into the tide."

"And dumped an entire handful of seaweed on my head!" Klari screeched, slapping Alena over the arm before laughing at her own childishness. "You know I miss those memories."

The soft dirt of the ground molded itself to Alena's heel as she slowed down, approaching the front door of her house more cautiously then she usually would. "Why do you say that?"

Klari looked thoughtfully at the house. "Ever since we were little I can always remember wanting to be older, growing up, moving away from the fields and living my life the way I wanted. But now that we're both older, and we're almost of age, I find myself wishing I was a little girl again."

Alena smiled wistfully and put an arm around Klari's shoulders. "Well I suppose that means that we're just going to have to make the most of our last few weeks of childhood."

Klari smiled back, opening the front door. "I suppose it does."

And as the pair moved inside to take care of breakfast for their parents, Alena couldn't help but feel treasured, to have worth to someone else, someone who loved her.

A bubble of delight and happiness welled up inside her and she couldn't help but smile, throwing herself into routine and forgetting anything that could bring her down.

After that, the day flew by, filled with chores such as feeding Ralph, her father's old palomino, along with the chickens, washing the clothes then setting them to dry outside and preparing dinner from the leftover meat that her family had preserved during the winter months.

The end of the day rushed up to meet them and Alena returned to her room with a soft sigh, her feet aching from walking on them all day and her temple throbbing as she plopped down on the bed to curl up into its comforting embrace.

"What are you doing, Lena?" Klari laughed, moving into the room in a white gown that reached down to her ankles. "You know that's my bed, yes? Yours is in the corner along with your night gown."