Story: Palma (part four)

Palma

(part four)

There were dates of significance. Eyes, on the twenty-seventh or fourteenth of particular months, would meet. Contact could be followed by business: a thing dropped, a thing fished from a bag, a color revealed by a scarf removed. Walkers with companions could chitchat, passing by. And anyone might act at any moment.

If he were a suicide fighter, if he had chosen this for himself.

Palma assigned Frederick first. He gave his theme: “No other God before me.”

(It posed a hazard to the G.R.A., but why would Palma’s fighters not rally, preach sermons if they liked? Doug and Sadie might find themselves counter-indoctrinated.)

“Friends, long ago, among the sects who accepted guidance according to customs they called Commandments, a preacher by the name of Moody said this: ‘That which you think about most often is your God.’

“Jocelyn is an evil man. A greedy man, a fat man. A stupid man. We credit the G.R.A. for delivering us from his rule at a time we were stupid ourselves. But with apologies to Sister Mary, the four nations are foreign. They hold us in contempt. They made a study of hardship and discouragement, then they inflicted their subtle ways on us, to break us. They took every home and sent every citizen to a different home, among strangers, with the aim of destroying every tie, every Jocelynist to die…” He gave Palma a small smile. “With its heart pent up in bitterness, its life designed that it will never meet a fellow Jocelynist again.” Shrug. “So the G.R.A. is not all bad. They have only stolen our property and our government, and our rights to acquire what we are able to buy, and to choose representation we prefer.”

Mary was stirring, almost raising her hand.

Frederick raised his. “They say they’ll give those things back. They haven’t, but they’ve given us a system for gaining status through obedience. And a few stores and restaurants. And they have been progressive towards the Utdrife…”

The Ftheorde spoke, and only to Palma. “General, this one called Anton shares his room with Utdrife. What does he write to you? The Utdrife says…he has said it to his jailers…that he makes a very fair offer. And for that, your Anton expects to be murdered.”

The Ftheorde, twice, grasped after Anton’s letter. Palma told him, “I will let you have it. Take it when you go, and let Mary read it to you.”

“Oh, let me now. Because I’ve only brought one of my own.” Mary added, and trailed off to a murmur, “I write to my sister…just to please myself. Just as though I really could. I think I might like making a book of them, all my letters.”

“I suppose you were going to take him over the mountains, and make him do work for your family, since the Utdrife will no longer work.”

“No. Myself, no. On my name, this is what I mean, I forbid it. Because your Anton supposes a thing, he has told the Utdrife we are able to make explosives in our caves and that we force prisoners to carry them. You see why he would be killed at once.”

4

Tourmaline

Tourmaline (part five)

(2016, Stephanie Foster)