Chapter 2

We never did get around to completing our mission. Not that night. No, by the time I got back from taking care of my son, Fafara was fast asleep. I lay down beside him, feeling disappointed but hopeful that we would be able to try again soon.

The following day passed by according to the usual pattern.

In the morning Fafara and Arafa, now near the end of his apprenticeship, collected and prepared medicines from the garden and accepted a few visitors who'd come by with various ailments.

I spent the morning with Ilafa, who I'd recently started on a program of more structured lessons. Sometime in the future, Fafara and I planned on finding him a tutor, but at that point I was charged with overseeing his education and making sure he was firmly grounded in Wraeththu traditions and beliefs.

We ate lunch as a family before breaking up again for the afternoon, this time in different groupings. The healers left to carry out various home healings in town and to engage in business on behalf of the household. As had been their practice for several months, they took Ilafa along with them.

Thus I had the house to myself and time to engage in that which had been my profession in my former life. I was a jeweler. Because Fafara was quite well off and we had a comfortable lifestyle, I didn't need to have a shop or take my work seriously as a financial concern. However, I had always enjoyed the work and so it was my pleasure to create earrings and necklaces and rings, often out of local stone. That afternoon I made a necklace out of turquoise -- a gift for Fafara.

At the end of the day, I prepared a dinner of soup, bread and vegetables. Everyone came home just in time and I was quite pleased. Ilafa was tired and so I instructed Arafa, giving Fafara a meaningful look, to see that the child went to bed and stayed there -- for several hours. Arafa offered a knowing smile as he left Fafara and I sitting at the dinner table.

I reached across and took Fafara's hand. "Well, what do you say?" I asked. "Think we could try again?"

When we entered the bedroom I told him to lie down and close his eyes. I went over to the dresser, pulled out the necklace from where I had hidden it, and fastened it around his neck.

"Look," I said to him. He opened his eyes and looked down.

"It's beautiful!" he exclaimed softly, raising it up around his chin so he could examine it. After a moment, his eyes returned to me. "Just like you."

That was all the thanks I needed.

Obeying my orders, Arafa made sure Ilafa did not disturb us that night.

Once again, Fafara and I soared up to the climax. Our minds were perfectly in tune and no one interrupted us as I snaked deep inside the soume-lam, broke the seal, and planted the seeds of new life.