The Maiden [Wattys 2018 Longlist]

four

Tabitha was sitting in her room, tapping her pencil against her cheek at the algebraic problems, when she heard the door open suddenly in the early afternoon.

"Mẹ? Bố!?" a deep male voice called. In the Northern Vietnamese dialect, it meant "mother" and "father," respectively.

"Nathan!?" Tabitha shouted from her room, then ran out.

She saw her tall, older brother, resting down several bags and suitcases. He pushed up his rectangular glasses and straightened himself up. Tabitha noticed he wore a white coat — that of a doctor's.

"Hey, there, Tabitha," he said — in English — and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Standing over six feet tall, Nathan seemed very intimidating.

"Did Mom and Dad know you were coming home?" she asked him.

"I sent letters, but I'm not sure they ever got them," Nathan said. "But Mom did tell me about your letter."

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I think it's fantastic!" he said, ruffling her layered hair. "I had to go far and wide for my chance to move up and get away from everything! This is a great chance for you!"

"I'm nervous," she admitted. "Do you have any old anatomy books or pamphlets on you?"

"Sure. Why?" her older brother asked.

"I have a feeling the aristocratic council is gonna make the admission test impossible," Tabitha explained. "We don't know what's gonna be on it, so we're getting everything we can put our hands on."

"Actually, I'll be back next month," Nathan said. "If you want, I have loads of anatomy and physiology books I had to study. That'll be enough, right? It's only April."

"Almost May," Tabitha added.

"Well, you guys are smart; a month is plenty of time," he dismissed.

Nathan reached into the suitcase he held in his left hand and pulled out a thick pamphlet. It was a manuscript of sorts, the title "Les Parties du Corps: un Étude."

"Parts of the body: a study," Tabitha translated.

"Don't worry about translating it," Nathan said. "My professor did that for us back when he was studying medicine himself. He gave it to me before I left since I told him about how you know French. He said that if there are any errors, feel free to correct them."

Tabitha took the yellowed pamphlet, its faces distorted and wavy as if it had been in water and dried out. The writing was in pencil for the most part, so the work was preserved from whatever mishap occurred.

"I miss France," she admitted.

"Yeah, I know you do," Nathan sighed. "But Mom really missed you, and so did Grandma when she was alive."

The previous year, Tabitha (by herself) visited her aunt who lived in France during the summertime. It had taken about a month to sail across the ocean, and she had stayed for a month. She made it back just in time for school to start again but missed her beloved lotus flowers blooming (although the sights she saw and the sites she visited sure kept them off her mind).

She longed for the non-humid, cool French air. The weather in their kingdom was always humid and hot, save for some sacred days of winter.

"Besides, we have our own palaces and gardens here," Nathan said. "Why sail across the ocean to see that?"

"Well, in France, I was welcomed into the palaces," Tabitha sighed. "Here, they're trying to keep me out."

Nathan laughed.

"And I bet you that you can do more things than all of those aristocrats can do put together," he said. "You can play two musical instruments, knit, sew, fold animals and flowers out of paper, paint, sketch, dance, sing. The real question is, what can't you do?"

"I'm not athletic," Tabitha answered.

"Well, I doubt aristocrats are either," Nathan added. "My point is, you're even better than aristocrats. This whole idea of one person having more value than another just because one has more money...it's just despicable."

She understood. Everybody was human; they all breathed the same air, had the same color blood.

That night, by the light of a single white candle, Tabitha read and copied the pamphlet. She tried her best to replicate the drawings. She learned of all the body parts that everybody had, regardless of their class.

-----

Tabitha sat, watching Henry and Charles race each other up and down a section of the bayou. Henry won, of course.

"You sure you won't swim, Tabitha?" Michael asked, preparing to slip into the water.

She sat on the edge of the wooden walkway, resting her legs only up to her shins in the bayou water.

"I told you, I can't," Tabitha said. "I don't want blood everywhere."

"Man, you girls must have it hard," Henry said from below, resting his arms atop the wooden dock. "I'm sure a little swim won't hurt right? Didn't you say exercise helps with cramps?"

"I prefer not to make a mess," Tabitha said.

"Yeah, what if she attracts leeches!?" Charles said in a deep, growling voice that grew to a roar as he splashed water from behind.

Tabitha let out a squeal and, all of a sudden, a huge splashing fight erupted. Henry won, of course.

"So, I heard that the elder Prince of Knights is a swimmer," Charles said. "Henry, what do you suppose?"

"Well, I suppose I'll join the team and see how good of a swimmer he is myself and then compare," Henry said, splashing Charles.

"Ow! I think a crawfish just pinched my toe!" Michael exclaimed suddenly, leaping at least a foot out of the water.

"Ooo, is your family doing another crawfish boil, Charles?" Tabitha asked, suddenly reminded of one of her favorite summertime events (second only to her lotus flowers blooming).

"By family, you mean the chefs my mother hires, right?" Charles corrected with a half-smile.

"Well, they do it better than my family!" Tabitha laughed. "Besides, my aunt from France did a crawfish boil, and our family felt very remorseful for having to dump them into the boiling water ourselves."

"Ah, to be boiled alive!" Charles said in a sarcastically blissful tone.

"So what makes the people Mrs. Neumann hires to cook crawfish better than your own family doing it?" Henry asked.

"See no evil, do no evil!" Michael laughed. "I mean, we just eat. They're the ones doing the killing!"

"Yeah, and it would be wasteful if we didn't eat," Tabitha added.

Michael wasn't much of a religious person. In fact, Tabitha still wasn't sure of which religion he followed. She knew that Henry was a devout Christian, and Charles was an atheist (and herself, who was Buddhist). Despite their different beliefs, they were all open and fascinated by each other's beliefs (well, Henry was simply less open of his disapproval at times).

'If people in the Palace Village can't even accept people of different classes, how will they accept me, a low class non-Christian?' Tabitha thought.

She never had such a thought before; she had always felt accepted and welcomed despite her appearance and beliefs. She feared stepping into that glorious world that could reject her for existing.