I asked, “What do you mean? What price?”
She said, “I am an odd girl. I don’t speak like others. If I take your arm, the village will think differently of you. They will whisper. Though I know the answer, tell me. Will you care?”
I said, “Alexia, I taught in the market and you’ve heard the story. You know that my story is about you and how I will find the sweetest fruit in the box. You know that this is about you. The whole village will know that the story is about you and when you take my arm all men will wish that they were me.”
She smiled and a bit of emotion came through as she said, “And you think that all women will wish that they were me. It’s you who are truly odd, My Prince. When you speak, it’s so hard to hold back and not have you take me in your arms, even though I have never known what it would be like to even imagine it!”
We walked on and greeted anyone who passed us.
Alexia said, “Mark, I am patient. Some would say more patient than anyone in the village. But Mark, my body doesn’t know it I don’t think. I’m suddenly two people. Patient Alexia who will wait for you forever, and Alexia’s body who, if you listen like you listen to fruit, says that she grows more and more uncomfortable to be able to release the sweet nectars that she makes within her body to prove that she’s worth of the price that you’ve paid. So let me give her hope. How long do you think that she will have to wait? It is not me who asks, but her.”
I laughed and said, “Tell her that I’ll find a way to release her from her prison very, very soon. On the day that the bed can be moved to the roof, and the day that the big bed will be ready, she’ll already be free before the sun rises the next day! Is that OK? Can the captive princess wait just that long?”
Alexia laughed a tiny laugh and turned into what I thought was the wrong street and quickened her pace.
She said, “I like how even a short answer is a story with you. It’s the way that I think too. My thoughts are all stories. People would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but a story is a better way. Until now, I have hidden my speech because people have no ear for my stories. I tried when I was a child, but others would say, ‘just tell us yes or no’ and I couldn’t do it. I’m able to talk to you in stories about being two people and a princess in her prison. We should hurry.”
I said, “Why do we need to hurry?”
Alexia said dryly, “Because it’s faster! Why do you think? Is there another reason to hurry?” and she laughed.
I laughed as well. There was a great sense of humor hinted at; a dry humor that I found delightful.
Then she said, “If we hurry, we will arrive sooner. And if we arrive sooner, then the weaver will finish the mattresses sooner. And If I say that they need to hurry, then they will finish even faster. Now that you have tell me that I’ll be yours before the sun comes up on the morning after I finish the beds, I’m in a hurry to finish the beds! We hurry to talk to the weaver and then we hurry to the rope maker. Unless you intend to throw the bed onto the roof, we need a strong rope! Hurry!”
She was a girl who knew how to get things done.
She said, “You say that you’ll tell stories at a meeting tonight and I wouldn’t miss it, but I may not sleep tonight if there’s a way that I can hasten the beds.”
I knew that she wouldn’t wait even until midnight tonight, and I wanted very badly to tell her, but I also wanted to let her be surprised. I wanted her to hear the next story first and know that I was telling tonight’s story about her as well.
Soon we were at the weaver’s and Alexia described the two mattresses, twice the size but half the thickness of a normal large bed. The woman who ran the place asked what it was for and Alexia explained that she had been commissioned to make a bed big enough for four mates, me and the shrine maidens, and that this was the proper size. The woman smiled and didn’t question her. I could tell that she smiled genuinely at the thought of the four mates and had no inkling that it was really for seven if necessary. Based on what would happen tonight, there would be five, plus myself, by morning.
When we left, Alexia turned toward home.
She said, “I changed my mind. We’ll borrow the ropes from Narhu. He’ll loan them to you.”
With that I turned back toward Narhu’s shop and Alexia asked, “Where to now? The house is this way.”
I said, “Hurry, it will be faster! We should go to Narhu now. The sooner we get the rope, the sooner we’ll be ready to raise the bed. I have a princess to rescue from her prison and I do not want to keep her waiting!”
At that we started running and very quickly arrived back at the builder’s. Narhu was more than glad to loan me a rope. I assured him that I didn’t need any help with the project that it was for.
He said, “But Mark, what’s the project that you need a rope for? I can’t guess.”
I turned and said, “Oh, let me tell you. I’m putting a bed on my roof so that I can make love to my princesses under the moon in the cool of the evening!”
He said, “Oh, well, I won’t ask any more questions. But I may take a rope and pulley to my own house before long! I come to love you more and more! My mate thanks you again for convincing me not to die!”
Chapter 22
Alexia Asks for a Lesson
When we did arrive home, Belle and Rani were there.
As soon as we walked through the door, before it was completely closed, Alexia took off her belt and hung it on a hook on the wall. Belle and Rani looked surprised, and Alexia calmly stated, “It’s all that I’m allowed. I’ll take advantage of small gifts. Is the garden viewable from other homes?”
Belle said, “Um, no, it is very private… I don’t think that anyone could see in. Um, the house in the back is vacant and only one floor. There’s a high wall. This was basically a religious women’s enclave for 60 years, I was only here for the last 30, and it was designed as a separate and very private space for the shrine maidens. This district has fallen on hard times over the past 20 years and the homes on each side are vacant now as well.”
Alexia said simply, “OK.”
She walked to the back door and out into the garden naked. It was still a weird thing; to be naked and surrounded by naked people all day long, and to see the beautiful woman without a belt around her waist and think of her as ‘truly’ naked.
Alexia looked over the yard, and then turned to the house and scanned the wall. She sized the door with her eyes and then walked back into the house and up to the second floor. The rest of us simply followed. On the second floor, she examined each bedroom, and in the second room chose the bed that would go to the roof.
She turned to me and said, “We should hurry.” Her eyes smiled, but the rest of her face said nothing. She pulled the heavy mattress off of the bed, onto the floor, and looking at the heavy wooden bed frame asked, “Can we lift it?”
I stepped to the side of the bed and easily turned it on its side. I estimated that the thing would have weighed maybe 200 pounds on Earth, but here, that was just 35 pounds and I could lift and carry it without a problem. I put my shoulder under a side rail and stood up and walked toward the door. It was a simple matter to get through the door and into the hallway. When we came to the stairs, I wondered how I would navigate them, but Alexia said, “Put it down and slide it. I will repair any damage and the stairs already need to be replaced. You don’t need to be gentle.”
I set the bed down and got in front of it an hauled it down the flight of stairs. At the bottom, I lifted it again and carried it outside to the back garden. I set it down near the wall and Alexia sent me to the roof with the rope. I let one end of the rope down to her and she tied it to the bed, leaving about half of the rope on the ground.