“Mara, leave those books and come to the kitchen,”The voice of Mara’s mother came loud from the other end of the big house. Mara obediently left the books, ran out of her room, down two flights of stairs, across the thousand square feet living area and into the kitchen before her mother could repeat the call. She didn’t want any of her sibling to mock her for being mommy’s favorite, not today anyway.
“Good, you are here.” Mara’s mother was still quite young, yet she only gave to her father Mara and Abed her infant brother, some of the other wives of her father had six children each, even the wives more recent than her. “Take a knife and start chopping those potatoes, and hurry, we have to finish the whole meal in an hour,” Mara’s mother said as she put in front of Mara a huge sack of potatoes.
Mara’s siblings didn’t usually enter the kitchen, and if they did, it was to steal some treats and run out immediately.
Not Mara though, as her mother always cooked alone when it was her day, never joining the other wives on their days, and never joined by any of them on hers, so, Mara always was her assistant cook.
Mara started to work, and in minutes she entered a steady yet fast rhythm, she will be finished with the meal soon.
Mara liked the kitchen and the joy it brought to help create the exceptional meals her mother made, but she liked her books even more, she wanted to finish fast to run back to her book.
Her father brought her a book each week, each one was different, this week she had a cartographer’s guide, last week it was a fantastic adventure from the Arabian nights.
She loved her books, they were the perfect escape from the taunting of her siblings, and they were many.
Mara had twenty brothers and sister, well, six brothers and fourteen sisters, the wives of her father always tried for a boy, or two, as those will inherit the lion’s share from his vast trade, and the girls would be sent off to marry, mostly away from their home city, Khorasan.
Her mother didn’t really care for her father’s wealth, she loved the man not the gold in his pockets, and both Mara and Abed were children of love, not of greed.
Mara finished finally chopping the potatoes, and her mother gave her a nod an a faint smile.
Mara washed her hands quickly, wiped her hands on her cotton dress and ran upstairs to her room.
She jumped on bed, grabbed the book, and lost her self to the pages.
Characters From Agartha
1 thought on “Mara”