Excerpt: working title: Thicker Than Water

Mother’s Day

Paul woke with the town’s outer wall against his back and wolves gnawing at his intestines. That was nothing new to him. Las week he has had a lucky day. First Lilla had given him a whole loaf of bread then he had been able to steal another. Yesterday he had eaten his last slice. Now he wished that he hadn’t. Hunger was easier to cope with if he stopped eating altogether. He pulled his legs closer until the pain subsided.

Than he sat up and looked at the kids sleeping beside him. All of them were skinny and unkempt and smelled of stale sweat and dirt. Amanda’s wound was still festering. She hadn’t been able to use her leg for two weeks now. Her nimble fingers and fleet feet had been sorely missed, since she was one of the best providers of the Gang. Her wound smelled nasty. In the early morning twilight Paul could hardly make out the grubs eating the rotting flesh. The girl clung to her blind sister Seraphine as if her life depended on it. She moaned in her sleep and Paul’s heart ached at his inability to help her. He knew that the flies’ larvae would help her much better than he could.

He felt the hunger again and reached for the jug. It sometimes helped to drink. Through the crack in the side most of the water had leaked: He drank what was left and crawled through the entrance of the lean to that served as their shelter. It wasn’t much lighter in the open.

Torben was on the lookout.
“How’s it going?” Paul asked.
“Guards are up early. Where’re you headed?”
“I’ll get some more water.”
“Go to the upper well. Downtown’s has been spoilt by a drowned rat”. Torben advised him. Paul sighed and nodded. It was much harder to get water from the upper well. First, it was a much longer walk and second, the residents didn’t like beggar kids and chased them away.
“I might as well go and see Lilla again”, he said.
“She won’t be up, yet”. Torben pointed to what little was visible of the sky.
Paul shrugged and left. He knew Lilla better. He felt her arms around him as if he still was quite small. She was the closest to a mother that he could remember and provided he didn’t rouse the house he could wake her at any time.
She might even be up already, he thought. After all, it’s Mother’s Day today.

Although the streets were deserted, Paul kept close to the houses. The entrances provided at least some cover should he encounter any guards. It took him a while to reach the quarter where the nobles lived. Their houses were much bigger surrounded by generous gardens. Paul climbed the wall of a particular house and dropped to his knees on the other side. A fierce dog came running. It didn’t bark but it was ready to bite the intruder. When it smelled Paul it stopped and started wagging its tail. Paul ruffled its fur.

“You’re a lucky bitch”, he said. “Bet you get much better food than I.”
Followed by the bitch he sidled through the garden to the kitchen door. It was easy for him to lift the hook on the inside with a small piece of metal that he was carrying around. He had done it countless times before. The dog whined when he told her to stay outside but she obeyed.

Reveling in the kitchen’s warmth Paul tiptoed to the fireplace, where a well-rounded, middle aged woman was stoking the fire.
“Good morning”, he whispered. She flinched and dropped the poker.
“Paul! Dear me, you scared me. I told you not to do that.” She turned and embraced him. “It’s wonderful to see you again, though.”
Paul slung his arms around her, breathing in the musky flavor of her brown, woolen dress.
“I’m glad, too“, he said.
“You can’t stay long. I heard the cook getting up a few minutes ago. She’ll be down here, soon, to prepare the feast for the celebration of the Mother.”
“I thought Our Lady didn’t believe in the Mother.” Reluctantly, Paul let her go. He went to the table and sat on the bench beside it.

Lilla picked up the poker and finished stoking the fire. “She doesn’t but if you are of noble birth, appearances count. The queen is a firm believer, you know and the king follows her every whim since she became pregnant again.” She put some more logs into the flames. Without looking at Paul, she said: “I can’t give you anything today. The cook has counted every grain of salt in preparation for the feast.”
Paul tried hard not to show his disappointment. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll find something somewhere. After the kings proclamation, everybody will be at the market, today.”
Lilla turned. There were tears in her eyes. “I wish I could feed you more, Paul. You are so very skinny. It hurts my heart.”

Paul forced a smile. “It’s Mother’s Day. I’ll beg at the Chapel. It will be ok because many people will go there, today. Will you go there?”
Lilla shook her head. “I can’t. Our Lady has invited too many guests but I’d be glad if you could take the laurel.” She pointed to a circle wound of laurel branches and daisies that hung on a nail at the kitchen door.
“Consider it done”, Paul said.
Lilla smiled and glanced at the grubby jug in Paul’s hand. Paul blushed and hid it behind his back. “It’s the only one we got”, he said defiantly.
“There is a nearly new one on the rubbish pile outside. The cook threw it out because the handle was broken. Hush!” She put a finger to her lips. Paul listened into the darkness of the house. Feet were shuffling down the stairs.

“Cook is coming”, Lilla whispered. “Hide.”
Fast as a weasel Paul slid into the broom cupboard. The cook had caught him before and he didn’t fancy another of his beatings.
“We are short of a loaf of bread.” The cooks loud voice shook the door to the cupboard. Paul breathed a shallow as he could while listening.
“I threw it away. It had mice gnawing at it”, Lilla said.
“If I find that it had been a two-legged mouse in particular you will loose your job, Allison. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”

The kitchen door opened and the cooks voice seeped through the gap. “Our Lady has impressed upon all of us the necessity that we are not to support that rotten boy.” Paul heard him return. Obviously, he had been examining the rubbish pile. “I’m glad that you told me the truth, though. There have been mice at that loaf. Did you prepare the tea for Our Lady?”
“On the tray, as you requested”, Lilla answered.

Paul heard something rattle and then the cook shuffled out of the kitchen. Paul left his hiding place. “I’d better go.”
After a final hug, he left, taking the laurel wreath from its nail. On his way through the garden, he passed the rubbish pile, picked up the gnawed at bread and the jug with the broken handle and put both in the bag on his belt. To him both were treasures. Carefully hidden behind some plants, he climbed the wall.

The first reddish glow illuminated the sky. The sun still wasn’t up. If I hurry I might make it to the shelter and still be one of the first to reach the Chapel. It’s about time that I get a little luck, he thought. He ran as fast as he could, filling the jug with water on the way back and ignoring the noises of the slowly waking town. He left his spoils with Torben. It had been a successful morning.
“Send someone round later. I’ll be at the Chapel”, he said.
“I’ll send Jasper and don’t forget to check the Poor Man’s Box”, Torben replied. Paul nodded and raced off with an empty bag and Lilla’s laurel wreath.

Panting, he reached the market and looked around. Only rats were crossing the big square in the town center at the castle’s feet. There was no other beggar in sight, which meant that Paul would get the best place. He should be able to beg enough food for the Gang. On Mother’s Day many a woman was unusually generous. Also there was this mysterious ceremony for his son that the town-crier had announced, the day before. In this proclamation the king had ordered all his subjects to gather at Mother’s Chapel. Paul hung Lilla’s laurel on one of the many hooks in the chapel’s southern wall and whispered a short prayer of thanks. If Lilla’s son Laurel hadn’t died I probably wouldn’t be alive, today, he thought. With what little she earns she wouldn’t have been able to feed us both. I just wish the Lady hadn’t found out about me.

When the sun rose over the city’s roofs, Paul was sitting on the steps of the Chapel chewing the core of an old apple he had found in the Poor Man’s Box at the left side of the town hall. This early, the market was empty except for two carpenters. Paul watched as they put the finishing touches on a big platform beside the Chapel’s entrance. A noble lady walked across the square with two fat children in tow that looked a lot like her. The kids trudged sleepy behind their mother and followed her into the chapel without complaint. Paul envied them - not so much because they were well fed but because they had a mother. Everybody knew at least some little thing about their mother, even the twins Amanda and Seraphine who had been abandoned as babies.

I wish I knew who birthed me and why she didn’t keep me, Paul thought and threw away the stem of the finished apple.
He was just spitting out the pips when the family returned. Well, they surely are back fast. They can’t have done the full Circle of Life.
The mother handed each of her children the traditional slice of black whole grain bread and said: “Happy Mother’s Day, darlings.”
As soon as her back was turned, the kids dropped their bread and followed their mother back home. Paul picked up the bread eagerly and stuffed it into his bag. He knew that he would get many more slices of bread as Mother’s Day wore on.