“brother, brother, I am done here.” A small girl cheerfully called out to a young man, running across the brown and yellow field with a sickle in hand.

When she approached the young man, he stood up and looked in the direction of the young girl, contrary to the cheerful young girl he seemed exhausted and was sweating lightly, when the girl came within a few steps of him however, his tired expression vanished, replaced by a smile of his own.

“Don’t run like that with the sickle. You could end up hurting yourself or me if you trip.” He reprimanded her in a light tone, no anger whatsoever showing in his face.

The girl didn’t react much at first, but when she heard him say she might hurt her brother, she looked apologetic and dropped the sickle next to her in the dirt.

“I’m sorry, brother, I don’t want to hurt you.” She looked to the ground while speaking. Suddenly jerking her head up when she felt a touch on her head. It was her brother's hand, patting her on the head. She could see him look down at her with a gentle expression.

“I’m not mad. I know you don’t want to hurt me, that’s exactly why you need to be careful when holding sharp things, remember that.” The boy stopped for a second, looking to the place where she was just working with the sickle, the ground covered in bundles of wheat, before looking back to her. “You’re already done, huh? Good job. But is this not too much for you? You’re still so young after all.” He praised her and worried for her in the same breath, while still patting her head.

Perhaps happy at his praise, or perhaps happy that he worried for her, or perhaps both, the girl giggled and spoke enthusiastically:” Not at all! I know that brother is always worrying about whether we will make it through the winter or not, even eating less to make sure I get enough food. I want to help you too. I am old enough!” She ended on a somewhat forceful note, her honest desire to help clear to anyone who would hear her.

Somewhat perplexed at the forceful declaration, her brother looked back and forth between the large amount of wheat on the ground and his little sister. “Well, it’s true that you did a good job and you don’t seem all too exhausted either, but you are barely 8 years old, it definitely isn’t normal for you to be doing such demanding work already, plus you are a girl, you should leave the heavy work to me. Although I can definitely use your help if I am being honest…” His voice trailed off at the end and she couldn’t clearly make out what he said, but she could hear him sigh lightly.

“It doesn’t matter how young I am or that I am a girl! I want to help you with your work.” The girl said, not giving up despite her big brother's concerns.

"Fine" The boy said with resignation in his tone. “It’s not like I don’t appreciate it, so thank you. BUT you have to promise me to be careful with the sickle and to tell me when it gets too hard for you, okay? You shouldn’t have to worry about work yet at your age.” He took a serious tone, scolding her.

The girl however only happily nodded as if she only heard the first sentence of her brother’s speech.

“I love you brother, I promise I will be careful!”

Somehow I get the distinct feeling she didn’t actually listen to a word I said… But she’s happy, so it’s fine I guess. The brother thought to himself.

“I love you too. Now thankfully it doesn’t look like it’ll rain any time soon and it’s pretty warm and dry, so let’s leave it to dry for a night. Tomorrow we will have to start threshing it, that could take a while, so we will need to get plenty of sleep today.`` The young man said as he looked at the sun that had slowly started setting while they were working.

“But I am not tired yet! I can still work some more.” The girl protested.

“Sleep is important to grow up healthy. Even if you aren’t exhausted you should always try to get a good night's sleep. Besides, even if you don’t need it, I do. I am through for the day. So let’s go home. I will make us some dinner.”

“Okay!”

The two picked up their tools and made their way from the fields to a wooden house standing some few paces away from the field. Their field wasn’t particularly big as there were only the two of them to take care of it. Even if they somehow prepared more ground, which was close to impossible for the two of them since they had no horse or other animals to help with the work, they wouldn’t be able to tend to much larger fields anyhow and it would all go to waste, so they contended themselves with what they had. Producing just enough to survive, occasionally getting help from their fellow villagers when their own supplies ran out. In exchange they would help the other families when they had time to spare. It was a peaceful, uneventful life. The worst thing that happened around them were wild animals eating their produce or someone falling ill. And by a stroke of luck their field had never had any major damages and the big brother could not even recall ever seeing his little sister sick. So in some way they could count themselves lucky, he thought.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

They arrived at their house and entered without saying any word and neither did they hear any words from inside the house. The two siblings, Brother 18 years old, his little sister only 8 were living in this house alone.

Their parents had died maybe 6 winters ago, before the little girl could remember, from an illness. The, at the time still baby was perfectly healthy, but everyone else was sick. The young boy had an easier time of it than his two parents, perhaps because he was still young, he thought. But ultimately he didn’t know why. The only thing he knew was that he and his little sister had survived, while their parents both died. Before his mother passed away she tasked him with taking care of his infant sister, as he was the oldest and only son of the family. His father was already too weak to speak by then, barely clinging onto life. A few days later both died. They died in their sleep so they likely didn’t suffer much in the end, but that was a small comfort for the boy suddenly all alone with a baby.

He cried many tears the following days and his little sister, distraught by the lack of parents and the instability of her brother, followed suit. Seeing her cry, unable to do anything except wail, he remembered his mothers words, he had to take care of her. Of course he would have tried to do so anyhow, after all she was his only family left, but he did consider asking other families to raise her, since he felt overwhelmed with the whole situation. But remembering that it was not only his wish, but also his mothers last wish that he take care of her, he steeled himself.

He stopped crying, instead moving his parents out of the house, after comforting his little sister. He couldn’t keep the bodies in the house, lest they all get sick. Noticing the situation of their neighbors, some villagers offered to help. A few more people in their village had caught the disease and died, so they made one big bonfire and burned the bodies of all the dead in it. After that they buried the bones. This was the last time he would cry in front of his sister, he told himself. He would have to be strong from now on, for both their sakes, until his sister could lead her own life.

And so they survived, just the two of them in the house their parents had left them. Of course they got plenty of help from their neighbors and friends, some having lost their children recently, treating them as a sort of substitute, others simply helping out of goodwill and others again helping with the intention of making the boy work for them once he grew up a bit more. But no matter what anyone said, he wouldn’t give away his sister. He stayed with her, raising her, vowing to give her all the love and affection or at times, if necessary, discipline that her parents would have given her. So they lived their lives, close as can be as each other's only family until now.

We’ve come a long way, huh. I still remember when she was too young to even stand and now she is helping me with the field work. He reminisced about the past while cooking a simple soup.

“How long will dinner take?”

His sister's impatient question took him out of his thoughts and back into the present moment.

That’s right, she may be able to help me out now, but she is still far from independent, I still got a long way to go. No time to look to the past.

“It won’t take long. I am almost done. Could you get the dishes out already?”

“Sure.” The little girl walked to the kitchen where her brother was cooking and opened the wooden cabinet. It was low enough that even she could open it, so she could at the very least bring out the dishes. She took the wooden bowls and spoons and placed them on their dinner table. Then she sat back down and waited again.

“Is it ready now?”

"I'm about ready. Did you wash your hands before coming in?”

“Uh”

His sister's reaction told him all he needed to know.

“Go outside and wash your hands, when you come back the food will be ready.”

“But I don’t wanna. Why do I even need to to begin with?” She pouted.

“It’s important to wash your hands before eating, or else you will get sick.” Her brother scolded her.

“But I never got sick before!”

“Well then we should keep it that way, wouldn’t you agree?” He laughed lightly.

His little sister was smart for her age, so even if she pouted because she didn’t want to, she would understand why he said what he said and ultimately go along with it. And just like he expected, she stood up with a “fine” and went to the well to wash her hands. In the meantime he finished the meal. It wasn’t a rich or delicious meal, but it would keep them fed.

The two ate their dinner, cleaned up and got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be another hard day, full of sweat and worry for their future, even worse soon tax season would arrive and they had to give a good chunk of their already small produce away. Even so, the two were happy. They had each other to care for. As far as they were concerned that was all they needed to be content, all they needed to brave their anxiety-filled days.

And so, another fulfilling day ended for the siblings who had no one else left: Mira and her big brother Caleb.