Song of Life – 5

Part 5: News from friends

Two days later, the house was clean and since the harvest was complete, Sarabek’s father gave everyone 2 days of rest. The third day would be the day of worship and then they would begin the winter tasks in the vineyard. Sarabek’s mother walked with Sarabek to Ruth’s house and Judith was there already. The girls enjoyed a midday meal with the women and then went outdoors to the dovecote Ruth’s father kept. They spent the afternoon talking about the wedding and how wonderful everything had been.

That night after supper, they settled down in Ruth’s room and began to talk quietly. Ruth, older than Sarabek by almost a year, asked them to promise to keep her newest secret; she was betrothed to a young man in the village. He was the tailor’s son and had learned his father’s trade. They were to be married in the springtime and Ruth would live with him in the small house attached to his family’s larger one. Judith and Sarabek hugged their friend and said, of course, they would keep her secret. It would be announced in a month after most of the latter rains had fallen.

Judith said she too had a secret. She said her father, a carpenter, had been speaking with the father of one of the goatherds who lived at the southern end of the valley. His oldest son was preparing a new home and would farm some of his family’s land and the fathers were praying about their children being married. Judith made her friends promise to keep her secret too. If they married it would not be for a year since the fathers wanted the new farm’s first season to be harvested before the wedding. Judith felt sure it would happen and she and her mother were working harder at assembling her housekeeping goods that she would bring to the marriage.

Sarabek rejoiced with her friends and promised them both to weave special shawls for their weddings for them. She would make them of their favorite colors and have them ready. She knew her mother would understand when she said she had special gifts in mind for her friends when she began dying the wool. She could see her mother’s smile as she told her they had to be done and ready, for her mother was always generous to the women and girls in the valley.

As Sarabek thought about her friends’ weddings approaching, she remembered her grandmother’s words and wondered when she would be ready for marriage and who the man her grandmother had spoken of would be. She silently prayed that her husband would be kind and that their life together would be blessed.

The girls chattered until Ruth’s mother stuck her head in the room and told them to go to sleep. They were so excited they whispered to each other until the waning moon rose and finally, they all dropped off. The next day they spent in the garden and dovecote, helping Ruth’s mother in the house and enjoying each other as they had not done since they were much younger. That night before the day of worship, they went to bed early, promising to be friends forever even with the changes coming in their lives. After worship ended, Sarabek and her friends said goodbye and hugged each other, smiling about the secrets they shared and looking forward to the new chapters in their lives.

Next: New life, new king