"The
soldiers stare at Annika when we go for rations."
"Let
them look." Liam snatched a biscuit from the plate. "Her
beauty will save us. As long as there is something to dangle in front
of them, they will leave us alone."
"She
is your daughter, not
an enticement. When will they be
no longer satisfied with...?"
"We
all need to survive, Bekka." Liam looked out the window. "It
will be a cold winter. We must find more wood."
"The
hickory shells..."
"...mere
phantom of warmth. You and Annika go to the forest tomorrow. Bring
back what you can in the sled."
"I
won't take her, not with the soldiers."
"The
New Decree forbids your disobedience."
She
stood. "I will prepare Annika and myself for tomorrow's
foraging."
"I
am thinking of joining the soldiers. We will get more rations for my
service."
Bekka
stared. What had happened to Liam's dreams of revolution? His plans
for New Independence? "Do what you must."
She
found Annika in the back yard, studying her reflection in a pool of
rainwater. "Do you find me beautiful, Mother?"
Bekka
gazed. "Oh, yes."
"What
gives me my beauty? Is it my hair? My teeth? My skin?"
Bekka
frowned. What hubris was this in a child of such modesty? "All
of it, I suppose."
Annika
pointed. "See you that maple?"
Bekka
nodded.
"Why
do the leaves depart the tree?"
"It's
the time of the Falling, Annika. Why ask you such questions?"
"Grandmother
once said that the leaves depart because the weight of their beauty
cannot be contained by the tree."
"I
have heard it so as well."
"The
truth is that the tree willingly lets the leaves go, sacrificing its
beauty in order to preserve itself over winter. Beauty is only an
encumbrance to survival." Annika took a length of
hair in her left hand and cut it off to the scalp with the kitchen
knife. "We must go to the forest, Mother, and there wait for the
promise of spring."
Labels: dystopian, Fiction, Trifecta Writing Challenge