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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 28: Takano 93
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 9
“Tommy? Tommy? Are you here?”
She had been up late last night, sitting by her fire worrying about the future. Didn’t she ask Lauren once if it was always wrong to worry? What was the answer? Well, whatever it was, whether worry was right or wrong it seemed it was always inevitable.
The outcome of her worry, though, was only that she was still in bed well after daybreak. It was a familiar voice, a woman, she thought, so she pulled on her shoes and her housecoat and crawled out of the nest. It was Sylwi.
“Good morning, Sylwi.”
“I’m sorry; did I wake you?”
“It’s fine. I should be up anyway. It feels like it’s warm enough for fishing, and I should get something for today’s food. So, what can I do for you?”
“I was wondering,” she began, then diverted, “that is, if it’s all right with you, whether I might take over the Bible teaching?”
Tommy almost laughed. It was the one chore she did for the tribe, but it was a chore, and she was ill-prepared for it. On the other hand, she was probably better prepared for it than anyone else in the tribe. But then, she remembered Lauren’s notion, that the best thing a leader can do is make herself superfluous. Eventually someone was going to have to take over the teaching. Why not now?
“I guess. Can I ask why?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” There she was apologizing again. “It’s not that you’re not doing a wonderful job; I learn so much from you. But this week as I was listening, I thought, I could do that. I enjoy reading the Bible, and I learn a lot from it, and sometimes I share it with others in the tribe. I could do something every week. It would be something I did with my talents that helped everyone.”
It was difficult to argue with that. Tommy remembered that the Puritans who settled in New England had very long Sunday services, with several sermons, a lot of Bible readings, even a lunch break. She didn’t know how they managed; her people were living off the land day by day, and stealing those few hours from one afternoon was already taxing them. No, it would be good to let someone else do this.
“It’s fine with me,” she said, but then had a second thought, “as long as you can clear it with the council.”
“Thank you,” she answered, and turned to leave, and was she skipping? Anyway, she seemed happy to have the job, and Tommy wasn’t sad to surrender it.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #502: Character Setbacks. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
