I opened my eyes. I was still laying in my bed, even though the sun had already come up by now; I must have overslept. Today my brother and I will finish threshing the wheat we harvested a few days ago, so I got out of bed and went to look for him.
"Brother? Brother?” I called out to him, but I didn’t get a response. I went and looked all around the house, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. I guess he must’ve already gone outside then.
I got dressed and went outside and sure enough there he was, threshing the wheat. He was tall and slender - we didn't eat enough to get fat after all - and had the same gray hair as me, only that his was short, while mine was a bit longer than shoulder length. His eyes were brown and he had a gentle looking face.
By comparison I was short and the other children in the village always said I had a mean look on my face, completely opposite to my brother. But my hair and eye color were the same and no one else in the village had gray hair, so we clearly belong together.
“Ah good morning Mira.” My brother called out to me when he noticed me.
“Good morning big brother. I see you are already working without me.” I said with a pouty face.
“Forgive me. I didn’t want to wake you up early since you’ve been working hard recently.”
This harvest season was the first I started helping my brother out on the field. I was still only 8 years old and never worked before, but I wanted to help my brother who took care of me all this time instead of our parents. So I decided I would help him with farm work. I already helped him harvest and thresh the wheat over the last week and was eager to help him today as well, but I overslept.
And my brother seemed to think it’s still too early for me to work, so he didn’t wake me up to help, even though I kept telling him I was fine. He’s so overprotective, sometimes it annoys me. I wanna take care of him too!
“You should’ve woken me up to help! I am gonna join you now, if we keep the pace from yesterday we will be done today.”
“Did you already eat breakfast, Mira?” My brother asked.
“We can do that later, for now I wanna help you.”
“A growing girl needs to eat, Mira. Else you won’t grow taller. How about this? I will let you help out after you eat breakfast and don’t forget to wash your hands and face.”
“Okay, deal!” I smiled at my brother and took off.
I went to wash my hands and face first as quickly as I could and then scarfed down the meal my brother had prepared. I barely even chewed and choked on my food once or twice, but I was eagerly trying to get it done, so there was no time to waste on things like chewing!
Once I was down I put the dishes away and sprinted outside. Threshing the wheat wasn’t easy, as my brother said, but helping him out and having him praise me for it was the greatest way to spend my days I could imagine, so no way I would get tired of it.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I arrived outside and my brother gave me an exhausted look, clearly not expecting me back so quickly.
“Did you eat that all in one bite? Are you a human or a bear? Sometimes I can’t believe you.” My brother sighed a bit, but his eyes didn’t look annoyed at all.
“I hurried so I could join you.” I answered
“I could tell, just make sure you properly chew your food, okay? I wouldn’t want you choking and passing out, especially not when I’m not around.”
Remembering that I did choke on my food and barely got it down while eating, I couldn’t exactly refute him, so I just nodded my head. But what shall I do when he’s out working without me and doesn’t even wake me up. If you think about it this is actually his fault. Yeah, that’s right.
Or so I convinced myself to not feel guilty about his bullseye worry.
“Alright then, come and join me. There is still plenty of work to be done here.” My brother changed gears and invited me to help.
“Yes.” I followed suit and enthusiastically answered him, before I got down to work and spent a big part of the ensuing day threshing the wheat with my brother.
____________________________________________________________________________
We worked through the day, taking small breaks occasionally and finished threshing our wheat in the evening when the sun started setting.
“Whew, we’re finally done. "Good job, Mira.” My brother patted my head while speaking.
He sounded really exhausted, but glad at the same time. I wasn’t really as exhausted as he was, but I was also glad to be done with the work, well, glad to be of help to my big brother.
“What do we do with the weed now?” I asked him.
“We? Nothing. Our job here is done. The wheat berries will now be ground into flour that can be used to bake bread and other things, but we don’t have to do that by hand. That’s what happens in the mill down the river.”
My brother was referring to a water mill that stood at the edge of our village. It was next to a small river that this village was apparently built around, or so my brother told me.
“So what do we do next?” I asked him.
“For one, we have to carry the weed to the watermill, after that I guess I will chop some firewood for the winter, but I don’t think you can help me with that. Chopping wood is a bit too difficult for you.”
I could feel my pouty face come back when he said I couldn’t help him with his work.
“Why not? It can’t be that much harder than the wheat harvest.” I complained.
“I am afraid it is. The ax alone is probably too heavy for you to handle, let alone actually chopping the wood. But that might change once you grow up. So for now your job will be: eating properly, resting properly and playing, so that you grow up quickly and healthily, then we can talk about it again. Think you can do that, Mira?”
“Fine…” I wasn’t really convinced but could tell he wouldn’t give up on this, so I dropped it. I will simply have to wait another year and then ask him again!
“Good girl. Now, let’s get inside. I will make dinner. Oh and before I forget it, the tax collector from the capital should arrive soon, so we have to separate out our tax from the wheat. I guess it’s gonna be one tenth of our harvest as before, but we can do that tomorrow. For now let’s just relax.”
“Okay.” I smiled at him as I followed him inside. That evening we celebrated being done with the work and my brother made a bit more food than normally. It was all delicious!
I went to bed feeling good that day, falling asleep quickly. The next morning; or maybe it was already midday? Anyway, the next day I woke up to a commotion outside. It sounded like a bunch of people arguing and I could also hear my brother in the mix, though he wasn’t as agitated as the rest of the voices.
I guess I will go out and investigate what’s going on.