Historical Setting, 629 C.E. The thatched house behind Annegray
Brandell and Gaia aren’t staying at the monastery. With horses, they can easily go back and forth from their little house to this place where Brandell paints. And with these borrowed horses we can ride back to their house with them now as Brandell finishes his day’s work.
So, we end up at the little thatched house by the secular church. Ana and I are something like uninvited guests, as Brandell goes next door and invites Mater Doe to join us too, then he goes out to wash up from his day of painting. Ana, a guest in the home of her daughter-in-law, makes herself totally at home, maybe too much at home for a new in-law, but Gaia is gracious while Ana makes us a meal.
I know that Ana finds doing things for her children fills her emptiness, but I’m not so sure Gaia, with the cooking tools organized by touch, not sight, is pleased with so much help and reorganizing. And Gaia hasn’t had a mother of her own long enough to establish a norm for this.
“Momma Ana, you remind me of the mothers of the Jewish families on our journey. For them, the traditionally assigned mother’s tasks were the most important thing. And it didn’t matter so much where the spoon was kept because they all knew where everything was, even when they traveled. Everything had its same place for a thousand years. But just now, I would stir the pot for us. It smells as though it has cooked all through and needs stirring, but I don’t know where the stirring spoon was put.”
“Oh, I forgot to hang it back on the hook.” Ana realizes what she is doing, invading a blind woman’s kitchen and moving things around. Gaia only offered a gentle lecture and then she issues orders for me. “Papa Laz, while Brandell is still out at the well trying to clean up his painted fingers, would you be so kind as to lift the cooking kettle off the fire?”
Mater Doe might understand all of this, but she says nothing. She is very wise. I move the pot. Brandell joins us and we pull the benches to the table. I start to take my seat, then I realize it is Brandell who assigns us our places here. He and Gaia are at the head, and Ana and I have our backs to the door. Brandell calls on Mater Doe to say the prayer.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 