[piosenniel]

Qirfah and Qamar

‘Qamar,’ her sister began, her voice ragged with sadness, ‘please, will you help me?’

So, here it was, the request she dreaded. Qamar sat down next to her sister, and taking her cold hand in cupped it to her own cheek. ‘Heart of my heart, I suppose there is no way of talking you out of this, is there?’

Qirfah shook her head ‘no’. She looked not at her sister but out toward the baobab tree. Qamar waited, and her sister’s next words fell heavily into the silence between them. ‘He was here last night. In the darkness as I stood lost in thought in the shadows of the tree, he passed me by. So close I could have reached out to touch him. He went to my tent and stood there for a space of time. I half feared he would enter in to find me and would wake Husam. But he only touched the flap and then departed.’

She drew her knees up under her chin and clasped her arms around them tightly. ‘These two years that we have kept apart have not diminished my memories of him. Now they have all come back, and I would go to him. But I cannot see my way to do it.’ Her brow furrowed. ‘Husam is a good man, and a good father. But that is not enough for me.’ Qirfah rocked slowly back and forth, her gaze still fixed on some distant object. ‘I wish him no harm or sadness. What shall I do?’

‘You cannot shield him from sadness. That will come naturally.’ And in fact, already has, if I read his mood aright this morning. she thought to herself. ‘I’ll think of something. Let me see what I can do.’ She pulled her sister to her feet and pushed her toward her tent. ‘Go! Get some sleep. There is the rest of the day to get through. Your children will need the full presence of their mother.’

*+*+*+*+*+*

While Qirfah slept, Qamar sorted through the baskets she had made, and put on the finishing touches to several that were nearly done. As her quick fingers laced the edgings round their rims, her thoughts fell into place with each tight pull on the final strand. ‘There!’ she murmured to herself in a satisfied manner, pulling the last inch through and hiding the end beneath the others.

Tomorrow she would go to the little trading fair set up in the Painted Sands encampment. She would see her old friends, and they would play the game of bargaining for goods that she so enjoyed. And she would seek out Ahmad, and speak with him.