Hagovi’s Bridge Chapter Four: New Digs
“What is this professor, anyway?”
Listen to the Soundcloud audio narration by N. MacCameron.
Hagovi stood on her tiptoes. A vacuum of silence pulled at her eardrums after the pummeling of the storm. Her gaze followed the curved ceiling of the new space like tendrils of a vine, up and over the apex and down to become the back wall on the far side. Half walls, no taller than her waist, sprouted off a main aisle and cut the living space up into odd shaped sections.
She felt a pull at her sleeve and allowed Testoneel to draw her protective garments off her limbs. Second-grains sifted to the floor as the shielding clothes fell from her, and the servant hung them on hooks by the door.
Twisted, tortured scraps of metal and fiber-glass balanced on some of the walls and shelves in no apparent order.
Barrier Trash!
One forlorn twig with two green shoots decorated the elbow where the short wall nearest the door met the roof wall.
Father reached for the door handle. “Well now, you’re safely delivered.”
Hagovi stared at him with an open mouth. “Wha…? What am I supposed to do here?”
“Well now, its all arranged. You’re going to clean. Seconds. “
“And when that’s done?”
“Cook. Meals.”
Hagovi frowned. Father wasn’t making sense. “For who?”
“For you, and Testoneel. She’ll help you.” Under his breath, Father added, “and the Professor. Good bye.” He turned the door handle.
Hagovi grabbed the crackling fabric of his sleeve. “What do you mean? Am I staying here long enough to have meals here? What is the Professor? What does it ‘profess’? What…?”
“Well now, Hagovi.” Father interrupted. The dimple appeared above his eyebrow. “I expected more of you.”
Hagovi released his sleeve and stepped back.
“Testoneel will help you. I’ve got a harvest to bring in, then I’ll see you. I’ll see you then.”
The door thudded closed and she stared at the grain in the stone for a stunned moment.
“You know what’s going on.” She grabbed the lapels on Testoneel’s tunic. “Why don’t you say something? What am I supposed to do? There isn’t enough cleaning here to keep us busy until Father finishes the harvest. Where are we supposed to find food? What is this professor, anyway?” She huffed through her nose.
Testoneel stood with her feet apart and her lips drawn in a hard line. “You ‘mind me of yo’r Mama when she was havin’ you.” She yanked herself out of Hagovi’s grip and shuffled up the aisle between the walls.
Hagovi stared at her companion’s hunched shoulders. A cold feeling seeped up from the stone floor into her back and stomach.
“Say, what’s here?” Testoneel bent into one of the rooms created by the half walls.
Hagovi suddenly noticed the distance between them and covered it in the blink of an eye. Testoneel reached down a cup exactly like the cups at home and filled it from the spigot of a clear sided barrel full of red liquid. She offered the cup to Hagovi.
“Drink a bit. You’ll see we’ve got all we need.”
Father. We raced drinking this at breakfast. Hagovi’s stomach growled and her tongue stuck to the inside of her teeth. She slurped the liquid down and came up for air while Testoneel drank her own.
Testoneel shuffled on. A contorted, flesh-colored, half-burned strip of plastic seemed to reach out for Hagovi from the next room. No telling what might be in here. She grasped the top of the servant’s arm while looking high and low at the Barrier Trash lying everywhere.
“Well lookee here!” Testoneel chirruped. She pushed at a half open door and entered an actual room.
Inside, the ceiling and walls reached all the way to the top. Two beds with Mother’s sheets and blankets on them lay side by side with a shaggy rug in between. Light filtered through a shaded skylight.
Testoneel emerged from another door. “Hose room!” She exalted. “What you say we get washed and fed and get started into the cleaning?” She disappeared again.
Hagovi’s arms hung limp at her sides. She heard familiar noises of grooming machines and water.
Testoneel returned with wet hair and a new dress. “Aw DK, don’t ‘mind me so much of your mama.” She put her arm around Hagovi’s shoulders. “She went to your daddy all alone. Not another body but me, and she didn’t like it either.” She drew them down to sit on the bed.
Hagovi nestled her face in Testoneel’s neck. Even though she was taller, she hunched her back to snuggle under her arm. The world seemed to have been washed of color and sound.
“Your daddy made a beautiful life for her. Even when they left, your mama was strong. So’re you.”
“Tell me?” Hagovi whispered.
“Well, now, your mama came all alone. It was ‘n’arranged marriage. Their fathers had planned it all out and your father was as surprised as anybody to get an armful of sparkly princess from far beyond anythin’ he ever knowed.” She stroked Hagovi’s cheek and looked at her second covered hand and sighed. “They didn’t know what to do with each other, but your daddy promised me he’d do his best by her. I came with her and sort of guarded her, you know. She had ideas that needed trimmin’ sometimes.
“Seems they figured somethin’ out, cause eventually your brother was born. And then he went away and then you came and she, well, she looked like you do now, like her ideas hadn’t given her the least idea what her life would turn out like. And your daddy had ideas that didn’t turn out either.” Testoneel placed her hands on Hagovi’s shoulders and made them both rise. “C’mon, DK, don’t fall behind. Get scrubbed and I’ll look for eats.” She gave Hagovi a gentle shove toward the hose room.
“What’s the use of washing?” Hagovi sighed. “We’re going to get dirty cleaning.”
“You want second-grains falling in your salad?” Testoneel ruffled Hagovi’s hair and shook out her hand. Seconds hissed to the floor. Testoneel flounced out, dusting her hands and the collar of her new dress.
How does she know there’s food? Hagovi sighed and took off her dress.
The hose room looked identical to the one at home. Hagovi inserted the top of her head into the dead time extractor and felt the gentle tug of the whirling air. She stepped into the cubicle of blue glass and adjusted the hose to cover her with water.
The caress and swush of the water brought out a few dry sobs.
Everything reminds me of Father.
She placed her hands on her cheeks and felt her clenched jaw muscles.
I’m so angry I could spit at him. Testoneel only talks about Mother.
Hagovi closed her eyes.
I have to be strong. I have to be strong.
Who will sweep the Prodigal door?
About the author: I trained as a musician and have taught music to over 700 students in 30 years. I draw, paint, sculpt, sew, embroider, crochet, macramé, tat, weave … I squish clay around, glue all kinds of stuff together, cut stuff up … I also dance on moonlit nights when the fairies and pixies reign. Characters and worlds play in my mind until I write them down and build stories around them. https://leoshine.micandpen.com/
