here you go @fredhincanada and @eminerale another chapter!
Myneeku’la must have dozed off, because next thing she knew was Sheeba gently trying to wake her, which must’ve been difficult without a physical body. My child, someone approaches, the Goddess said, and that was enough for the little girl to sit up straight and rub the sleep from her eyes, doing her best to try and stretch out the kink in her neck from sleeping against the walls of the wooden smuggler’s box.
“Is it my stepfather?” she thought to Sheeba.
No, it appears to be a woman, trying her best to move quietly. I believe it’s your mother, the Goddess responded. Before Myneeku’la had time to reply, she heard the sound of a metal key in the lock before it was removed and the box was opened. Even though it was barely light out, she couldn’t help but hiss out in pain and shield her eyes with her hand.
“Oh, my precious child, I’m so sorry,” her mother said softly, gently but firmly helping extract Myneeku’la from the cramped box. Once she was out, Tene fussed over her, smoothing out the wrinkles in her clothes and trying to get her unruly short black hair to lay down before finally giving up as it was a lost cause without a hairbrush. Not for the first time did she wish she looked more like her mom than her dad. Life hadn’t been especially kind to Tene, but she tried to take pride in her appearance, brushing out her long blond hair and keeping it clean as much as anyone stayed clean in Butcher’s Bay. Her hazel eyes could still sparkle, when they hadn’t been beaten shut by a drunk insecure wreck of a man.
“How did you get the key, mom?” Myneeku’la asked, fidgeting in place under her mom’s ministrations and slowly restoring feeling into her tingling legs and feet. “Eto sleeps with that thing chained to his belt.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Tene said, looking away as Myneeku’la gave a shiver of disgust. She could imagine what her mom had to do to get that away from Eto, and she silently vowed to never be put in that kind of situation. The walls were thin, and even with a small pillow pulled down tight over her head Myneeku’la could hear their rutting whenever he forced her mom to do her ‘wifely duties’ as he liked to say. He liked to hurt Tene, and not for the first time did Myneeku’la wish he would just drop dead.
We can talk about that later, if you wish, Sheeba said quietly to Myneeku’la, and she couldn’t help but give a little jump in startlement. Thankfully, Tene didn’t seem to notice.
“Now, I was able to pack you something to eat, one of my clients last night gave me some bread and cheese as payment, so you have a sandwich and an apple left over from earlier this week. It’s a little soft, but it should still taste good,” Tene said, handing over a paper bag packed with the aforementioned items. Myneeku’la took it gratefully, and then her mom continued talking. “Don’t worry about Eto, I’ll tell him that I had to let you out to get to school on time. I’ll be fine,” she said, holding up a hand when Myneeku’la tried to speak. To her credit, Tene’s hand barely shook as she lied to her daughter; but Myneeku’la knew that tonight, anyone needing a midwife would get a badly beaten woman.
“Mom, why do we have to live with…HIM?” Myneeku’la asked, barely able to contain the venom in her words. “All he does is beat you -and me- and for what? What does he get out of this marriage to you? And please don’t lie to me and tell me he loves you, cuz I saw the way dad treated you, and that’s real love. This is abuse and control!”
Tene shook her head as her daughter went on. “You don’t know what it’s like! You know that most of my clients are just as poor as we are, and that it’s usually a barter system for me to provide care for them. But what am I supposed to do, deny them my services? Or make them pay money they don’t have? Your father was the one who made payments on our house; without him, we didn’t have any choice. We were going to be out on the street, and I will be damned if I subject my daughter to those kinds of conditions.”
Myneeku’la frowned. “What DID dad do, that he was able to support us all? I know he seemed to be gone quite a lot, but you’ve never told me what his job was before.”
“Don’t worry about that honey; maybe when you’re older we’ll talk about it,” Tene said, looking around fearfully as she spoke. Before Myneeku’la could say another word, her mother turned her around and gave her a little push. “Now, run along, I can see some of the other kids heading towards the fountain just down the block; you don’t want to be late again.” Myneeku’la could see some of the neighborhood children leaving their houses and trudging along, and her mother was right in that she had no desire to be the last one there again and stuck cleaning the chalkboard and helping their teacher cart the supplies back to the room behind the tavern after all the other kids got to run off and get into mischief.
“And Myneeku’la?” Tene said, and once she turned her head around to look back at her mom finished with, “try not to make Eto mad tonight, OK? Please, just behave.” Not wanting to speak a lie to her mom, Myneeku’la just nodded once and turned back around, hurrying down the street to get to class.
The sun was slowly rising, banishing the darkness of night. Myneeku’la tried to not hurry but not dawdle either; it was just as bad to be first there as it was to be last. “Will I get to talk to you tonight?” she asked Sheeba, unsure if that was the proper way to talk to Her. It wasn’t like she had a lot of experience talking to deities, after all. Another thing that seemed insane, an actual Goddess talking to someone as insignificant as a broke little girl from the seedier part of Tawnytown. She would’ve believed she’d gone crazy from being beat too much if the voice in her head hadn’t assured her that she wasn’t crazy…any crazier than one could be in this messed up place, that is.
Yes my child, as long as there is darkness I can call on you. Now, as the sun is driving off my realm, I must conserve my energy. I promise you I will answer all your questions tonight.
During her short life, Myneeku’la had come to not give weight to the things that others promised her, as they usually broke their word. But she truly hoped that this voice in her head, one of the only friendly ‘people’ she’d met recently, wasn’t one to break a promise. “Can you give me some sort of sign, to prove that you’re real?” she asked before gasping, hoping she hadn’t broken some sort of rule when speaking to deities.
But Sheeba only laughed. Trust but verify is one of my founding tenets, my child. I would be happy to give you proof that you’re not insane and that I am real. Name me a task and if it’s within my power I shall do it.
Thinking hard as she walked, Myneeku’la nearly fell over as someone shoved her to the side and kept running. “Move aside, smelly loser!” a tallish boy taunted her as he ran past. “Hope you like cleaning the chalkboard!”
Recovering her equilibrium, the young girl snarled. “I wish Tam would break his leg so he couldn’t run so fast, and so that HE’LL be the last one to class.”
Done, the Goddess said, and as Myneeku’la watched, the young boy put his foot down into the shadow of a building…only to scream out as everyone heard a loud snap and he crashed to the ground. Maybe that’ll teach him not to walk in the shadows, Sheeba said with a satisfied purr, and Myneeku’la couldn’t help but grin.
As other kids stopped to help Tam up, Myneeku’la couldn't help taunting him back as she rushed by. “Looks like I won’t be cleaning the chalkboard for a while!” she said in a sing-song voice, giggling as his voice cracked as he tried to shout obscenities at her back. “Thanks, Sheeba,” she whispered to the Goddess, and felt more than heard a gracious acceptance of her words. Looking forward to tonight, the young girl found a place by the fountain that would allow her to work in peace just as the teacher began their measured walk up from the tavern. Not the first, not the last, and I got to see my mom and take a lunch; today might be a good day after all. Myneeku’la grinned to herself as she watched Tam’s friends abandon him so they wouldn’t be the last to class. His annoyed cries of how unfair it was as the teacher told him excuses weren’t acceptable was the icing on the cake.
