Melody

Chapter Five - Things of the Earth

  "Psssssst."
  Eleni opened one eye.
  "Pssssssssssssssst."
  She opened the other. Her chest rose and fell with gentle breaths, a strange sensation, and oddly calming. She swallowed against the dryness in her throat and flicked her gaze in the direction of the sound. Dim light shone thinly through the closet door, cracked just enough that she could see a sliver of the young girl's face. The corner of a puckered mouth, and one one round, dark eye peering in at her. It sparkled as the corner of the mouth turned up in a smile.
  "Good morning!" Delfina whispered.
  Eleni smiled back. She sat up as Delfina pushed the door open further.
  "Do you want to help me?"
  Eleni tilted her head, but she didn't get the chance to respond. Delfina reached in and snatched her hand and pulled her out into the hall. Cool air wrapped itself around Eleni and raised prickles on her arms and legs. They pattered over the cool stone into the kitchen right out through a side door into the yard. The smell of  ocean and earth filled Eleni's lungs. Dawn glowed on the very edges of the sky. Morning on land was a beautiful song in her ears, soft and filled with the gentle waking of living things.
  "You can help me milk the goat and feed the chickens," Delfina said.
  With dew covering her feet and dampening the hem of her dress, Eleni did just that. She recognized the creatures Delfina mentioned, but had not known their names, and the work they did with them was unlike any Eleni had ever had to do in her life. Dirty work. Servant's work. Her hands felt clumsy with it, but Delfina laughed at her efforts so brightly it was hard to be peeved. In the end, they returned inside with a bucket of milk and a basket of eggs. There got mud on their feet and feathers in their hair, but smiles on their faces nonetheless. Eleni tried to remember if she had ever seen the servants in her palace smiling and found she couldn't even remember their faces.
  Inside, Isobel was already awake. She tied on a long strip of brown fabric to her waist over the dress she already wore.
  "Good morning, Mother!" Delfina set the pail down with a thump on the wooden table.
  Eleni set the basket of eggs down more gently, sensing their fragility.
  Heavy footsteps sounded outside the kitchen, and Tomas entered.
"Good morning," He said upon seeing her. "I did not expect to see you up this early."
She offered a smile.
"Are you feeling better? You look better."
She nodded her reply.
"Good, I am glad."
"Morning, Papa!" Delfina trotted in with the pail of milk.
"Good morning, little rascal."
"She helped me milk Maya and she got out so we chased her and then I milked her while she got the eggs and let the chickens out. I mean, let the chickens out and got the eggs."
Tomas glanced at Eleni. "Well, I thank you, then. Now I see why you were up so early."
She just smiled, and helped Delfina lift the sloshing pail onto the table.
Tomas went outside. Sitting at the table, Eleni watched as Delfina sorted the eggs, explaining the process, but she only half heard it. Tomas returned with a stack of cut wood in his wiry arms and laid it in the hearth that occupied one side of the kitchen. Fascinated, Eleni watched him stack the wood beside the hearth, and bring to life the bed of glowing orange by laying smaller pieces of wood on top of it and blowing on them. Tongues of light sprang up and devoured them and once Tomas placed larger logs over them, they licked at the underside until they caught, too.
Soon the light grew like sun from behind a cloud to flicker in and amongst the crevices of the stack, dancing orange light.
She had almost decided to leave the table and look more closely at the odd phenomenon when Isobel entered. Already dressed, with her hair caught up in an effortless manner in a colorful scarf, she kissed Delfina's head and greeted Eleni as Tomas had. The tone of the room brightened with her presence, and so did Tomas. He kissed her and touched her neck, warmth in his eyes that reflected in hers.
"Celeste!" Delfina ran from the room calling her sister's name. "Time to wake up!" Her voice faded away deeper into the house.
Picking up the eggs, Eleni carried them over to Mother Isobel.
"Oh, thank you. Did you sleep well?"
She nodded again. Sleep had never been that important to her but it seemed to matter much to humans. Likely because they moved with such energy and purpose all the hours of the day. That must be exhausting.
"Normally I wouldn't ask a guest to help, but it seems you already have been." She glanced down at Eleni's dirty feet and the damp hem of her skirt. "Never mind. See that pan over there? Fetch it down for me?"
Eleni found the pan and brought it to her. Mother Isobel tied on a side strip of light fabric over her dress before setting to work with the energy and purpose Eleni had just been pondering. She cracked the eggs and stirred the porridge and warmed the milk, going from one to the other with graceful industry. Eleni hovered nearby to watch until she noticed and gave her small tasks to assist with.
"Celeste doesn't care for cooking," She shared in a lower tone. "I'll have to marry her off to a rich businessman or merchant if continues on like that."
She chuckled, and again Eleni smiled, realizing the jesting tone of Isobel's voice meant she was teasing.
She continued on, cracking more eggs into the pan so they sizzled and popped. "I used to be very like her. Then I met Tomas. Love changes one's mind about a lot of things. Now here I am with two beautiful daughters and a happy, warm home. I wouldn't trade it for all the riches in the world."
  "Nor would I." Tomas appeared by her shoulder and pecked her cheek. "I'm going to get ready."
  "Very well, dear." Isobel's cheeks looked pinker.
  After everything was prepared, the whole family sat down at the table to eat together. Eleni sat on the end nearest the fire. Even after the meal was finished, and Delfina and Celeste argued over whose turn it was to feed the chickens, Mother Isobel's words played themselves over and over in Eleni's mind. She crept after Tomas and Isobel when they walked to the front door to say goodbye. The tender touch, the firm kiss, the familiarity and sense of knowingness despite only a few exchanged words. They were heavy words, laden with meaning only the two of them felt. An I Love You exchanged so matter of factly yet so sincerely.
  It was beautiful. She stood still in wonder and curiosity. When Tomas left for work and Isobel returned inside, Eleni moved out of sight around a corner and listened to her footsteps move off in the opposite direction. She looked down at her hands. Little tremors made her fingers shake with every heartbeat. A feeling welled up in her chest again. But this time it was different. It made her happy. A deeper happiness than she'd ever felt in her short life.
If she had her voice she would put a melody, some fitting tune, to the way this family loved each other. When all was finished and she returned to Atlantis, she would, so her own family could know this feeling the way she did.
  "It's market day," Isobel said as Eleni entered the kitchen again. "So work quickly and start loading the baskets into the wagon. And you..." She looked to Eleni and clucked her tongue. "We must find something decent to call you. Girls, see what you can think of. Would you clear the table for us?"
  It felt good to be useful, so Eleni thought little of being told what to do. Let alone being told to do a chore. Between the four of them, the work in the kitchen took no time at all. But Eleni was intensely curious about what Market Day was. Afterwards, she followed Delfina to another room in the house filled with baskets of every shape and size, woven with colorful patterns and perfectly fitting lids. Some were soft, like the ones woven in Atlantis, and others were hard from the branches of some rigid plant. A tree, she thought, and she wondered how they managed to weave something so inflexible into such beautiful shapes.
  "We have to carry these out to the cart," Delfina said, setting a stack of them into Eleni's arms. She lifted her own armful and led the way out to the front of the house again.
  The cart had only two wheels, and a pair of long handles at the front. Little painted flowers decorated the wooden sides and the big round cap in the middle of the wheel, which looked like a flower itself. They tucked the baskets into the back corners of the bed and went inside for more. Back and forth they trotted with arms full of earth scented baskets until they fit the very last one into the very last corner of the cart, and Celeste carefully latched the back shut.
  "Oh, I forgot," Celeste said, looking down. Eleni followed her gaze to her bare, dirty feet, and then looked at her quizzically. The girl shook her head. "You can't go into town like that. Delfina!"
  "What?"
  "Go get my old shoes and bring them down."
  "What for?"
  "Just go get them."
  Making a face, the younger girl turned on her heel and trotted back into the house. She returned a few moments later carrying a pair of brown oblong bowls with strings hanging off them. Celeste motioned for her to give them to Eleni. "Those used to be mine. Your feet and mine look about the same size, so they should fit."
  She took the offered items and frowned curiously at them.
  "They're shoes," Delfina said. "Celeste doesn't wear them anymore because she says they're not fashionable."
  Her older sister smirked. "I don't wear them because they're too small and they pinch my feet."
  "Why did you give them to her then?"
  "Because her feet are smaller than mine, silly."
  Kneeling down, Eleni slipped them on. Shoes. So that's what they were called. She always wondered.
  Delfina laughed. "Those are the wrong feet!"
  She paused, her brow furrowing deeper. That sentence did not make sense no matter how she turned it around in her head.
  "Haven't you ever worn shoes before?" She sounded incredulous. She squatted and switched the shoes around and then Eleni understood. Each had to go on a specific foot. She slid them on again, and the girl helped show her how to wind the faded yellow ribbon around her ankles and tie them.
  Rising, Eleni wiggled her toes. The shoes felt very strange. She wasn't sure if she liked them.
  "Time to go, girls," Mother Isobel called. "Come along!" She picked up the long handles of the cart and started pulling it along behind her down the path. The three of them turned and followed her, and the baskets jostled gently as they went.
  "What song shall we sing?"
  Delfina skipped up to walk beside her mother. "Let's sing The Angels' Road to Heaven!"
  And with that Mother Isobel opened her mouth and sang with a beautiful, full tone. Deep and rich, with a rasp like wind over long grasses. Voices in the air sounded so beautiful and so different to the intoned notes beneath the sea. How she wished she could sing along! Delfina and then Celeste joined in the song and they left the house behind. All Eleni could do was listen but she listened with all her might. Their feet pat a rhythm on the hard packed dirt road and birds from the trees or the waving grasses twittered amidst the tune. Eleni never imagined the earth could have as rich a symphony as the ocean, but the more she listened, the more she heard. Perhaps Isobel and the girls didn't sing with quite as much precision and clarity as merfolk, but their hearts filled their music effortlessly.
  Overhead, the sun warmed Eleni's skin. She wondered if she would get as dark as them before long. Her sisters would think her so ugly, but secretly Eleni hoped she would bronze like the earth walkers and keep the sun with her in the tone of her skin. She didn't know if merfolk could hold that much sun in them.
  As the city walls drew nearer, Eleni tingled with excitement. For so long she had stared at the city from afar, wondering what it must be like inside. Soon she would know. The tall gate stood open, huge wooden doors that rose higher than the top of the wall in a pointed arch, flanked by two city guards in regal blue uniform. Their spears and breastplates and ridged helmets gleamed.
  Others Joined them on the main path from the side roads the snakes off to other unknown parts of the island. Not so crowded they couldn't all pass through the gate amicably, but enough make steady traffic on the threshold of the great city. Isobel greeted some with a call and a smile and a little boy tossed a pebble at Delfina to make her scowl at him. The guards eyed them as they passed like they eyed everyone. It was harder for Eleni to ignore them as she did the guards back home. In their eyes she was merely a peasant, not a princess. The feeling unsettled her. But the guards allowed them to pass without a hint of hinderance.
  Then the city swallowed them. Buildings towered on either side of cobblestone streets that wound in every direction, but Isobel knew exactly where to go. The cart rumbled alongside other carts and wagons drawn by shaggy horses and people carrying baskets or satchels. Their way grew more and more crowded. Eleni started noticing stalls outside shops, and then they reached a wide open plaza filled with wooden stalls.  All around them patrons bustled about on their way here and there, to this stall or that. Laughing, talking, and somewhere she heard snatches of singing.  She'd never seen so many people in one place before, and in clothing every color of the rainbow. She had thought her own clothing was colorful, but now it looked faded and drab by comparison. Gold bangles glittered on the wrists, arms, and ankles of some of the passersby. Skirts danced, hats bobbed at jaunty angles, jackets and shawls had plants or animals or letters embroidered into them. It was like a living garden bursting with flowers. The constant, flowing drone was almost like the current of the ocean. So... alive.
  Celeste nudged her. "I told you it was spectacular."
  Eleni gave her a breathless smile and Celeste laughed.
  When they stopped by a small, empty stall, Eleni helped unload the baskets and set them up on the counter, the shelves behind, and the hooks hanging from ceiling beams. It kept the sun off while they stood and sold the baskets. Delfina went into the street and called out invitations to come look at their wares. She didn't seem bothered that most continued right on by her.
Whenever a customer did  come  to the stall, Celeste flashed her brightest smile, and when they wouldn't commit to buying a bigger basket, she never failed to sell them a smaller one. Eleni began to wonder if she had magic in her voice like a Mer, but with words instead of music. She handed baskets up when needed, and Isobel placed the money in a coffer and kept careful track of each coin in a book.
More than an hour passed, the fastest hour in Eleni's life. She felt her senses returning as if from a long journey, growing more aware of herself instead of being caught up in every new sound, smell, and sight that bustled past the stall.
"If sales don't pick up soon we won't reach our quota," she heard Celeste say despite her low tone.
"That new weaver's shop opened down the street," her mother said, resting her hand on Celeste's arm. "The novelty of it will wear off, dear, we just have to be patient."
Celeste did not answer, but it seemed to Eleni that some unspoken understanding passed between the mother and daughter.
Delfina came bouncing into the stall. "Mother, may we go to the bakery?"
Celeste rolled her eyes. "Delfina--"
Isobel put her hand on Celeste's arm to stop her. She picked out two coins from the coffer and handed one each to the girls. Celeste looked surprised.
"Go. And bring me something, as well."
Delfina beamed. "What about--?" She grabbed Eleni's hand.
Isobel closed the coffer gently. "Why don't you share yours with her?"
This did not seem to bother the girl at all, and she tugged Eleni along behind her as the three of them plunged into the crowd.
Delfina appeared to know the way to the bakery - whatever that was - so Eleni looked about her in curiosity as they went. Stalls everywhere sported wares of all kinds, from woven head scarves and sashes, to jewelry, pottery, food of all sorts. The scents assailed her nose such that she despaired at not being able to spend longer chasing them down to see where each and every one came from.
The left the open plaza onto a street lined with shops. Here and there a food vendor called out invitations with tantalizing smells coming from their place, but Delfina ignored them. If Eleni had been leading she might not have made it out of the market. Everything was so interesting, so distracting. And all along this new street were shops of dresses, of silver work, a blacksmith - things she had heard of but never seen, and could only guess at their composition beyond the fascinating exteriors and signs that hung over their doors.
  Finally they came to the bakery, over which hung an oval sign painted with a loaf of bread and the letters G R U N O S underneath it. She paused long enough to sound the letters out in her head. They didn't make any sense, however, and in any case Delfina tugged her along again. The girl ducked around someone already exiting, but Eleni, being a bit larger, barely managed to squeeze past, bumping against the doorframe in her attempt to keep from running into him. She glanced back to give an apologetic look, and froze.
"My apologies," he said, offering a smile in a brief glance back.
  It was him. The boy from the wreck. Older, like her, but she would recognize those eyes anywhere, the noble face, the hair like sunbeams.
  Then Delfina tugged her further into the bakery. Warm smells enveloped her, but Eleni pulled her hand free and ran back to the doorway. He was gone.