Aerin and Broddun by Himring

Part I: Chapter 1: Reading the Signs

Reading the Signs

Prompt: Sign Language

Brodda has decided to call it marriage. Later on, that word will carry meaning, although it will never mean what it should. It cannot.

Here and now, swarthy skin and rough black hair translate into nightmare, oppression, force. Any Easterling touch, any outstretched hand causes Aerin to recoil. Blindly, she flees to the outhouse, seeking refuge in noisome solitude.

Slowly, regaining her vision, she learns to read other signs again: uneasily lowered female voices in the background, hesitant gestures of assistance. Broddun sets a piece of honeycomb in a wooden bowl on the table near Aerin’s elbow: sympathy without words.