Owl Light
Where Inspiration & Inquiry Converge
  • Home
  • Literary Journal
  • Owl Light Sponsorship
  • Digital Owl
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Home
  • Literary Journal
  • Owl Light Sponsorship
  • Digital Owl
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • Home
  • /
  • Fantasy
  • /
  • Fiction
  • /
  • Young Adult

Where the Path Leads-Chapter 6

Finding Your Way

Bees and flies hummed in the afternoon sun that slanted in the open doorway. Emily thought it would have been the perfect time to take a nap, but she was counting threads and had to pay attention. Sophia had finally set her to work on her first weaving project, although as of yet, she hadn’t gotten anywhere near the loom. Instead, she was kneeling in front of a warping board that had wooden pegs on it and looping yarn around the pegs to measure the number and length of threads that would go onto the loom. Like so many tasks Sophia gave her, it was tedious and boring, her knees ached, and the wool she measured was nothing like the silk Sophia had used for the green cloth, which had been packaged up and delivered as soon as it was finished. This stuff was a dull grey and she knew that whatever she made from it would not be lovely.

“Sophia,” she stopped, mentally noting where she had counted, “why did you say I was your niece?”

Her companion was laying twigs on the fire then added some kind of root vegetable from the garden to the continuous cauldron. That’s what Emily had started calling it, since it was always in use. Was it rutabaga or turnip? No matter. She wouldn’t know the difference anyway.  She had never eaten that kind of stuff before, but there were no tater tots here.

Sophia sighed. “We have lived here all our lives, Emilia. So have our parents, and our parent’s parents, and their parents before them.”

That came as a shock. This community of backward people was no chance oddity.

“We all know one another, and people are suspicious of outsiders,” Sophia went on.

“There are laws against vagabonds and wanderers. I thought people would ask fewer questions if I said we were related.” “If I really was your niece, would you want me to learn weaving, like Will’s father wants him to become a cobbler?”  Emily slipped down onto the floor to sit and let the ball of yarn rest in her lap.

“It’s not the same for girls.” Sophia dipped a finger into the stew to taste it, then sprinkled in some herb.

“Did you always know what you wanted to do?”

Sophia shook her head, stirring the pottage absently as if thinking of something else, then she came to sit down on the floor beside Emily.

“At one time, I thought I did. When I was young, I wanted to be a scholar, but we didn’t have any school back then, just our old rector, Tado Gregory, who taught a few boys–reading, public speaking, numbers. Sometimes on Sundays, he would let one of them read the Palabra in high Anglais from the huge book always open on the lectern near the worship table. I longed to read from that book, or from any book. Once, after adorando, I stole into the worship space to look at it, touching the intricate lines and curves of the letters; the writing was like a magical code. I wished I could understand it with my fingertips because I knew the book contained worlds and experiences beyond my village. I begged Mama and Papa to learn to read, but Tado Gregory said no. He told papa I had no need for reading. I was just a laborer and a girl at that. Teaching me to read would ruin me for my life’s purpose, which he said was to work.

“My life’s purpose,” she repeated softly, a faraway look of remembering in her eyes. “My parents felt my keen disappointment, and Papa vowed I should not become a common laborer in the field if he could help it. One feast day, he was drinking with a master weaver who was passing through on his way to the Great City, and he persuaded him to take me as an apprentice. Before I knew it, I was headed there too. So, you see, I didn’t choose my future, it chose me.” She paused, fingering some of the plain grey yarn for Emily’s project, twisting it over and over again around her slender but calloused finger, then unwinding it. 

“The master showed me what to do, then left me alone. I was miserable at first, bored with the work and lonely in the Great City since I knew no one. But one day I saw the master weaving a fabric that was so lovely it seemed magical, the different ways it caught the light and reflected it, like moving water. As if hypnotized, I watched it emerge on the loom and knew that whoever wore it would be as glowing as the fabric. What I didn’t know until later was that my master made the fabric for his daughter’s wedding dress and he wove into it all his wishes for her happiness, good fortune, and many children. She was a radiant bride and her husband, a successful potter; they went on to have a whole brood of children. My master said that if I worked diligently, I could make something like it one day and put my own feelings into it. After that, I applied myself, accepting the discipline of the loom. I learned to read the threads, both what they said and what I wove into them to say.  It wasn’t the life I had wanted, but it offered unimagined possibilities.” 

Sophia stood up, brushing dirt off the back of her shift. “Finding what you want to do may take a while. In the meantime,” she said archly, her blue eyes glinting, “just recall how you felt in those shoes and let those feelings help you to weave,” then she pointed back to the warping board.

Posted on August 22, 2020 by owllightnews.com. This entry was posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult and tagged #YoungAdultFantasy. Bookmark the permalink.
Another Side of (Cat) Stevens
A Year of Virtual Theatre at PYTCo

    Recent Posts

    • Visual Studies Workshop Announces Project Space Residency Open Application Period
    • West End Gallery showcasing Brian S. Keeler, Treacy Ziegler
    • Hard
    • Eye-Magine – Future Youth Art Exhibit
    • “These Wilds” Announcement

    Recent Comments

    • Darlene on Let’s Talk About Beep!
    • Darlene Bentley on Hello! from a new Guest Editor, and Finding Joy in Hardship.
    • owllightnews.com on The Farm
    • Douglas Morgan on The Farm
    • owllightnews.com on Energizing and Engaging Fun at GEVA

    Archives

    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017

    Categories

    • #2021
    • Agriculture
    • Animals
    • Antiques
    • Art
    • Astronomy
    • automobiles
    • Beekeeping
    • Birthday
    • Boating
    • books
    • Botany
    • Broome County
    • Buffalo
    • Canadice
    • Canandaigua
    • Cartoon
    • Children
    • Civics
    • Collecting
    • Comic Strip
    • Community Information
    • concert
    • Covid-19
    • Creative non-fiction
    • Dansville
    • Death
    • Democracy
    • Dogs
    • Editorial
    • Education
    • Environmental
    • Essay
    • Family Fun
    • Fantasy
    • Fiction
    • film
    • Finger Lakes
    • Food and Beverage
    • gallery
    • Gardening
    • Gender Rights
    • Great Lakes
    • Health
    • History
    • Holiday
    • Honeoye
    • Human Interest
    • Human Rights
    • In Memoriam
    • Innovation
    • Interview
    • Leisurely Pursuits
    • Literary Arts
    • Little Lakes
    • Live Theatre
    • Livingston County
    • media
    • Monroe County
    • Movies
    • Museums
    • Music
    • Naples, NY
    • Nature
    • Night Sky
    • No. 1
    • NYS
    • Obituary
    • online
    • Ontario County
    • Opinion
    • Outdoor Sports
    • OWL Light
    • Owl Light News
    • Owl Light Newsstand locations
    • Owl Light Sponsor
    • Owl Sponsor
    • OwlLight Blogpost
    • OwlLightNewsArchive
    • Performing Arts
    • Photography
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Recipe
    • Reviews
    • Richmond, NY
    • Rochester
    • Satire
    • Science
    • Scifi
    • Seniors
    • Shop Local
    • Social Justice
    • sports
    • STEM
    • Steuben County
    • Sustainability
    • Theatre
    • Tioga County
    • Tompkins County
    • Travel
    • Uncategorized
    • Veterans
    • Weather
    • Women's Rights
    • Wood working
    • writing
    • Wyoming County
    • Yates County
    • Young Adult
    • youth
    • Zoom

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
Powered by