| Subject: The Tavern (yep, life goes on!) |
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Drea, Savinia
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Date Posted: 12:22:02 01/31/03 Fri
“Drea, can you pass me a large pot from the bottom cupboard?” Savinia’s voice filtered from the bar into the kitchen.
There was no reply. Savinia stuck her head around the door. Drea was sitting alone at the table, her head buried in her hands.
“Drea, did you hear me? I need a large...”
“Get it yourself!” a muffled reply came from the huddle at the table.
“Drea?” Savinia was profoundly shocked. “What did you say? Are you alright?” In all the years she had been working at the tavern, she’d never heard Drea speak like that before.
“I’m fine!” Drea said loudly, sitting up and banging her hands down on the table.
“One pot coming up” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Drea & sarcasm. The words just didn’t go together.
Drea knelt by the large cupboard and groped inside, trying to remember exactly where she had placed the mousetraps. She roughly pulled out a large pot, set it on the floor with a clatter and slammed the cupboard door shut. She tucked her knees up under her chin and rocked slightly backwards and forwards, her eyes lifelessly staring into nothing as usual.
Savinia watched for a few moments, then tucking up her skirts she booted the large pot out of the way and sat down on the cold, stone floor next to Drea.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing” came the instant reply.
“I don’t believe you.” Savinia sighed. “I know you’re growing up now and are more entitled to grouch occasionally. But the Drea I know wouldn’t change so dramatically without reason. So what’s bothering you?”
Drea’s rocking slowed down and eventually stopped. She buried her head in her knees again.
“Nothing...” the muffled reply was quieter and more hesitant. “It..it was just something stupid...something I was thinking about. I’m sorry for being rude. I’ll be fine in a moment.”
Savinia smiled and put her arm around Drea’s shoulders, drawing the girl closer to her.
“We can all be rude sometimes” she whispered into Drea’s pale blonde hair. “And it is perfectly alright to get into a bad temper over a stupid reason once in a while. Why,
the other day, I was in a foul mood. And all because I couldn’t find my favourite pair of socks that were tucked down the side of the bed.”
Drea shifted slightly and rested her head against the older girl.
“That’s not true. You’re always complaining about how you hate your socks.”
Savinia laughed.
“There’s no fooling you is there!... Well the real reason was equally as silly, so don’t worry about it.”
“So come on,” Savinia tried again. “I want to know what was bothering you.” Drea sighed in resignation.
“Harion left this morning” was all she said.
“Yes, I know, and...” Savinia probed. There was no reply. “ahh...I see” she concluded.
“Well, come on Drea, you had only just met him, and he was a bit old for you.”
Drea lifted her head and the briefest of brief smiles fluttered across her lips.
“It wasn’t that” she said. “It just made me think....”
“about what...” Savinia prompted.
“Well....it’s not fair.” Drea said miserably.
“What’s not fair?” Savinia replied convinced they were finally getting to the problem.
“Everything.” Drea said softly. “Harion gets to go off on an adventure with royalty. People get to come and go and do as they please. Even you have freedom..... And I’m stuck in my dark little world in the kitchen. All by myself.”
She lowered her voice so that there was no way that anyone but Savinia could hear.
“Sometimes I wish I could still see. At least then I might have a future to look forward to.”
Savinia’s face fell, she hadn’t expected that to be the problem. She didn’t have an answer.
“I see” She said at last. “And you can’t tell your parents, because they already feel so guilty about your sight that they’d give you their own eyes if they could.”
Drea nodded slowly.
“Do you often think about your eyesight?” Savinia asked.
“Sometimes...” Drea muttered.
“Which means a lot” Savinia added for her. “It was a long time ago now. How much can you remember about being able to see?”
“A bit.” Drea replied. “Images, colours...and faces. Faces I miss most of all.” She traced her own face with a finger as she said this.
“It would have been easier if I’d been born blind” she said at last. “At least then I wouldn’t have known anything else.”
Savinia was silent for a while, thinking.
“It could be worse” she said at last. “At least you will inherit the Tavern. You won’t have to worry about finding work.”
“That’s true, I won’t starve and I won’t need to beg.” Drea admitted. “But there’s more to life than being stuck in the kitchen for ever. I used to dream of a husband. But who would marry a blind girl unless they had their greedy eyes on the Tavern.
I wanted to do something with my life Savinia. I want some people to remember me fondly when I’ve gone, because I’ve done something. I’ve been somebody.
Oh Savinia....I want to live.”
What reply could be given to that? Nothing Savinia could think of. After a while, Drea rose to her feet.
“I’ve got stuff to do” she said simply and made her way to the other end of the kitchen.
Savinia watched her go, her eyes slightly moist. Drea was right, It wasn’t fair. Nothing was fair. If the public healers hadn’t been so greedy, then the family might have been able to afford to take Drea when the fever first struck. Things could have been so different...
Savinia rose to her feet slowly and picked up the large pot. Did anyone have a good life? she wondered. Perhaps the king did, and his courtiers in that huge stone palace. How could you not be happy with that much money?
She looked back at Drea, working quietly in the kitchen. Surely there could be something she could do. No matter how small. Just something to convince her that there was more to life than the kitchen.
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