Historical Setting: Monkwearmouth, 794 C.E.
We sit here in the dark mostly in silence — the dark is cold — the silence is raw. What can I say? There are no words of goodness or even hope. Much as I wish it, I can’t repair another’s grief.
She explains it again too easily.
“I took him to the sea, and the baby prince was taken up by the angels. Them angels came in a crashing wave, and wrapped him up in sea foam and took him away to the place where the sea meets the heaven. But they didn’t take me — his own mother.”
She rubs the bruises on her wrists.
“Instead, you and the demons took me away to Hell.”
I say, “It was the king’s guards who were keeping watch over Jarrow and Monkwearmouth who pulled you from the sea. They brought you up from the water just as I was crossing over the sandbar to the church on this side of the river. I took you on to the church and to the nuns. They didn’t see you as you are. They only saw what belonged to the stories they tell — first they remembered you were a mother and they thought they saw Mary, then then they feared you were plagued by demons.”
“They feared demons? But they’re the ones keepin’ the demons in the tower! There the ones chained me to the demons!”
“The Reverend Mother showed me the tower and the chains with manacles sized to fetter a demon, but without a fearsome devil, a person in those chains could just slip away and run down the stairs and cross the field to the river. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
“I had to be stealth to hide all the demon howls.”
“You were stealth. The Reverend Mother didn’t even know you had escaped until I asked to see you in the tower.”
“Good for them.”
“So now you are free from the chains. I could walk with you maybe to a new place. We could see what is on the Jarrow side.”
“I already said that’s where I can’t go! And look at me now, all dressed up like a princess but bringing no one any of the riches. Maybe they could trade me for a better price now.”
“Very well, use your castle words and make up the story you wish to live into. Hone the words to say any kind of worthy ever after. We should make a new plan now.”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 