Chapter 26
Trees - Brina
Once we were back home, my parents hugged me and spoke kind words. I headed for my hammock where I fell into another deep sleep.
I was awakened by the sound of loud whispers. I lay in my hammock and listened.
“Those cuts don’t look like they came from some branches in a poor landing!” It was my mother’s voice, and she sounded upset.
“I…I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing,” I heard my little sister Glorna say.
“But why didn’t you just come straight home?” my mother asked.
“I…I went gliding with some of the other girls.”
“Who?”
“Frutana, Layna, and some others.”
“Were you racing?”
“No…I, well, I sort of followed them.”
“Followed them? Why would you do that?”
Silence.
“Let me see your other arm. Glorna, look at those scratches. You must tell me the truth. How did you get this?”
Glorna started sobbing: “I approached them after the funeral. They are…were…my friends. I just said hello, but they wouldn’t even speak to me. They turned their backs on me. Layna said, ‘Don’t talk to her,’ and they all took off. So I followed them. I couldn’t imagine what I had done.”
“That still doesn’t explain these cuts,” Mama said.
“When they landed on a terrace, I landed behind them. I asked Frutana why they all flew away. But she wouldn’t even look at me. So then Layna walked up to me and said, ‘Go away. We don’t want to be seen with you. Your sister was banished.’ ”
“She said that to you?” my mother said, no longer bothering to hush her raised voice.
“Mhm. It was awful. Why would she say that about Brina? She’s going on a special journey, right Mama?”
The silence that followed was devastating, even if it was short.
“We believe she is being sent on a special journey, yes, Glorna.”
Another deafening pause of silence followed.
Then my mother said, “So what happened?”
“We started arguing and I…I pushed her. So then she pushed me into some branches and they all started hitting me. I tried to get them off of me, but Layna brought out her claws and scratched me. Then they all left me there crying, and Layna called back at me, ‘Banished Brina!’” Glorna dissolved in tears. “She wasn’t banished. I know she wasn’t Mama, Brina isn’t bad!”
I decided it was time that I got involved. After all, it was my fault that this had happened to Glorna. I swung my legs out of my hammock and hopped to the floor, then walked into the room where the voices had come from, not sure what I was going to say.
“Thanks for sticking up for me, Glorna,” I said. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“Let’s get you washed up and get some mesmeringa salve on those cuts right away,” Mama said gently.
“I’ll get the poultice,” I added, trying to be helpful.
“I’ll speak to their parents, Glorna,” Mama said as she retrieved a basin of water and some cloths.
Glorna looked horrified. “No, Mama, please don’t!” she begged. “It'll be worse if they know that I told. Anyway, I pushed Layna first.”
“Well, we can’t have her pulling out her claws every time somebody pushes her, now can we?”
“Can’t we just forget about it?” begged Glorna. “You don’t think the council will hear about it, do you?” she said seeming more and more frightened. "Maybe they’ll banish me too!”
“Nobody in this family is being banished.” Mama said emphatically. “I’m going to have to think about what to do, but we can’t just do nothing.” Mama dipped the cloth in the basin of warm water filled with mesmeringa root and honey, wrung it out, and then gently washed Glorna’s arms with it. After we dabbed the cuts with a dried cloth, I spread soothing mesmeringa balm on Glorna’s cuts, and tied bandages around them.
“People may say all kinds of things about me when I’m gone,” I said to Glorna. “Will you do something for me please?”
She looked up at me with those big innocent brown eyes of hers and waited.
“Just remember me always, the way I am, the way you know me…no matter what you hear. Can you do that? I don’t care what they say, as long as you remember me as I am.”
Glorna nodded her head yes and reached to hug me. I wrapped her in my glides. “I love you,” I said and held her tightly.