3

Baqara

Year of Sultani Rule 111

Too anxious and preoccupied to eat, Adira had yet to start the meager meal Sadiq had prepared for them when she heard the commotion mounting at the doorway. The rising timbre intensified and swelled flowing quickly throughout the resonating hut, heralding the beginning of the ceremony she had been waiting for and dreading. As if choreographed by a shared understanding, every eye old enough to grasp the consequence of what was to come followed Adira’s apprehensive gaze toward the entrance. Baqara, the region’s Mahryn boss, hadarrived.

As the most senior of the hovel’s two elders, Eajuz bore the responsibility of greeting Baqara on behalf of the shelter’s uneasy young boarders. The state owned all structures in the barrio, and dwellers occupied the housings only by the government’slargesse.

“Welcome and admiration, most venerable leader. Thank you for honoring our most humble abode with your esteemed presence. Our hearts brim with gratefulpride.”

Gaunt and frail, with sparse, stringy dangling gray hair, Eajuz had beaten the odds and managed to endure late into her forties by bestowing unto the rulers what was expected, what was demanded. Bent nearly double by the degenerative pain and stiffness brought on by a lifetime of unbroken toil, Eajuz somehow managed to kowtow and bend even further, touching her forehead down upon the earthen floor in a well-practiced and oft repeated gesture of total subservience and submission. The boss was not a person to be trifled with, and Eajuz was shrewd enough to know how to elude the boss’s annoyance, or much worse, hisvengeance.

Baqara recognized and valued the homage Eajuz paid him as she groveled prostrate at his feet. The aged female would not have survived as long as she had without employing this cunning and without forsaking any residue of honor she might once have possessed. Her behavior did not irk or disgust Baqara; in truth, he was pleased. Every breathing creature possessed the innate primal urge to continue living. Baqara understood this and exploited the stark truth for his own ends. He did not mind tolerating Eajuz’s deferential routine, even though it was so obviously stained with her own self-interest for survival. To Baqara, it was simply the opening act of a familiar drama. A passion play Baqara had been the leading actor in so many times before. Eajuz’s performance was merely the introductory scene in his visit to this hovel tonight, helping to establish the intimidating backdrop of fear and obedience he desired and needed. These were emotions Baqara knew how to intensify and exploit for his ownends.

Laying his hand upon Eajuz’s unwashed head, Baqara suppressed his reflexive desire to recoil and pull back his appendage from her overwhelming greasy filth.<