~~~~~
This tale is tagged as Incest/Taboo and describes sexual activity between siblings. If that type of story is not for you, this is your last warning to turn aside.
~~~~~
~~~ Week 35 ~~~
The villagers turned out in-force to bring in the wheat crop. The men cut the stalks of grain, the teens carried the bundles to the processing area, the smaller boys separated the wheat from the straw, the young women winnowed & thrashed it, the little girls gathered the kernels, the older women milled it, and the adult women bagged it.
Miriam (always thinking ahead) had saved the bags from the wheat we'd been buying. Those bags were now being used to hold the fruits of our toil. The heavy sacks were loaded onto push-carries and moved off to the new storage building that Paul & Rowe had designed and built - near the structures used for food preparation. It had a raised section- where the wheat would be stored - to help reduce problems with pests. It also had a pit to store root-crops. These types of vegetables were slowly being introduced to the garden area - which had been expanded once again.
A second wheat field had been tilled and planted midway through the grow-cycle on the original plot - and it was already looking good. It took two days to get everything harvested, processed, and stored but - once that was done - the process of breaking up the roots & soil, to plant the next crop, began. That was going to take another day or two - and require effort from most of the tribe as well.
Joshua and I were excused from those tasks to go deal with the tribe's money "problems". The problem was, we were getting more and more money - and had almost nothing to spend it on. We stepped onto the dock to find Alfonso waiting to greet us.
He went with us to the police station - to visit Luis - to get the boat titles. From there, Jorge taxied the three of us to the bank - where we completed the paperwork to officially sell the two ships to Alfonso. The tribe ended up with even more money in their accounts.
Once that was done, the boat buyer rode with us to visit Diego. Alfonso nodded to both of us as we completed the sale of the loot we had recovered from the boats and the dead human traffickers. I shook the pawn broker's hand and we headed back to the docks. Although Diego seemed nice - and I thought we had gotten a fair deal (mostly because Alfonso had overseen everything) - I sincerely hoped that I would never be returning to sell more items that I had recovered from the corpses of men who couldn't be convinced to leave our island alone.
As we got ready to leave, Alfonso brought over the mattresses that I had ordered for Naomi & Paul - as well as the ones I'd gotten for Heather & Joshua. We loaded them aboard and took off.
~~~
When Joshua and I got home, we found Hestia's father joining us for the evening meal. Although I tried not to eavesdrop, it wasn't difficult to figure out that Hestia's sister was being difficult and their father was trying to figure out what to do with the girl.
At breakfast, the next morning, the chief asked if I could join them for a meeting following the meal. Once I had finished eating, I joined the elders. Miriam brought Megan with her. Hestia brought her mother and father.
The chief made the introductions between me and Hestia's father. His name sounded like Rumor to me. If he was named after something in their language, I wasn't able to figure out what it was. Honestly, as long as we'd been here, my vocabulary was still, largely, limited to words and phrases used in everyday conversations.
Rumor started talking about his other daughter. I'm not sure what he called her but "Nettle" is what stuck in my head and - based on her personality - that was a word-picture that worked for me. I tried not to grin, thinking about the prickly princess' name - as her father described the problems he was having.
Apparently, the smugglers/traffickers had lured her away by describing luxuries that she would enjoy once she was off of the island. Although - supposedly - she understood that those men had intended to treat her like a caged slave for the rest of her life, she had gotten the notion into her head of escaping the more primitive nature of their existence and she was driving everyone crazy with her incessant whining and complaining.
Rumor asked me (and, to a degree, Megan) about the land we came from. He wanted to know if everyone wore jewels. We nodded. He asked if there were fancy carriages that took people wherever they wanted to go. I told him that most people either had one of their own or could barter for rides (explaining a monetary system to him would take too much time - so I used "barter"). He asked if there were lots of things to eat and Joshua - who had joined the conversation - nodded enthusiastically. He asked about baths of hot or cold fresh water. I told him people usually had a choice of a personal bath or a room with a tiny waterfall in their homes. He had trouble believing that everybody had a bathing area in their private homes. I didn't bother to try to explain indoor plumbing to him.
Hestia's father said that Nettle was bugging him to death. She wanted to leave the island. She was making life miserable for everybody. Assuming that what she described truly existed, he was ready to give in, and send her off with a guard contingent.
I told him that all of those things existed and that I would look into where we could settle Nettle the next time I went to the mainland. Miriam's husband put his hand on my shoulder and - basically - told me to make that task my first priority.
After thinking for a bit, I pulled Hestia aside and asked her if she would be willing to go with Megan and I on the boat to find out if this was possible. We would also show her the things her father had wanted to know about. She said she would go with us.
I turned to Rumor and Brook (Hestia's parents) and informed them of the plan. I also warned them that - once we moved Nettle to the mainland - she would be on her own - and would probably never return. The two of them stepped away, spoke quietly together for a moment, and then rejoined the group.
Megan and I were instructed to take Hestia and Trace (the former Scout) with us. We would show them all of the things the foreign chief had asked about, find a place for Nettle to go, and come back with confirmation. In the meantime, Rumor would return home to tell his daughter that he was working on the solution.
Hestia's father also informed me that he would like hammocks for himself, Brook, and Hestia to be installed in his hut at their village. He said that he'd never slept so soundly. His wife laughed at him. He gave her a kiss and then asked me if they made a hammock big enough for two people. I raised my eyebrows at his insinuation and Brook laughed even harder and pressed her lips to his. He hugged her tightly until Micah cleared his throat. Miriam and her husband were both smiling so I assumed we were good.
Micah looked at me and, basically, told me I was wasting daylight. Hestia hugged her parents and hurried off to find Trace. We told her to meet us at our hut.
