Jewel of the East

Hope is not food enough for the village

Repinda looked in the basket she had carried home from the dirty market square. Two small fishes. She wondered how she was to feed her family on such meager fare from day to day. Lukash was already skinnier for a twelve-year-old boy, and his twin sister, Avreet, had grown despondent and morose with her hunger. Two small fishes for Repinda and her family. She wiped away a tear so the children wouldn't see.

She looked around the village. Everyone was in the same predicament. The sun beat down on the crude houses, hammered the pathetic little gardens. Repinda went inside and picked up her sole valuable, hidden in an ornate wooden box inlaid with silver. She opened the box and stared at the precious treasure inside: a pure pearl, as big as a man's thumbnail, round and rainbow-shiny. How much would it sell for? How long would the money last? What was there to purchase with it, anyway?

She put the box down. She turned and lit kindling for the stove—the desiccated stalks of the sun-scorched vegetables outside made wonderful kindling. She looked in her bin of flour. There was enough for a few more meals; perhaps the relief trucks would roll through before she ran out completely. She brushed away tears lest they fall into the flour and ruin whatever was left.

She cleaned the fish, brushing away flies and hopes with equal measure. She looked at Avreet, who was staring sullenly at the garden, her beautiful girl who was intended to one day wear the gorgeous pearl at her wedding. Her beautiful girl who was slowly starving to death with the rest of the village right before her eyes.

She put a battered pot on the rude cooker and let the tears fall wherever they pleased.

(Word Count: 299)