Page 211 of Circle of Days

“I did, and I’m sorry, because I know that your life is just as important as mine. But what are we going to do?”

“We both need to think very hard.”

“Couldn’t you stay with me while we do that?”

“No. That would mean we had already made the decision.”

Of course it would, Joia saw that. Still she protested: “I can’t bear for us to part again.”

“I’ll come back.”

“When?”

“Midsummer.”

“A whole year? Can’t you come earlier?”

“Perhaps. I’ll see.”

There was a long silence, then Joia said thoughtfully: “It’s the second time you’ve done this.”

Dee frowned, not understanding. “Done what?”

“Knocked me flat.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“The first time it was because you were afraid I didn’t love you in a sexual way. You thought I might just want to be friends.”

“I was wrong about that.”

“Now you’re afraid I don’t respect you as I should. You think your wishes will always be secondary to mine.”

Suddenly Dee was upset. Tears ran down her face and she said: “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I’ve hurt you again. You’re the one I love.”

“Then you will come back.”

“I promise.”

“I’m not going to lose you. I will not let it happen.”

“I’m glad,” said Dee.

Pia, Duff, and Yana worked hard on their farm, trying to make up for the days they had lost as prisoners. They weeded and hoed from dawn to nightfall, and continued on the eleventh and twelfth days of the week, which were supposed to be rest days.

At the beginning of the following week Zad and Biddy came looking for them, and found them in a field. “There was a battle,” Zad said. “I was there. All the farmers were killed.”

Duff said: “Allof them? No survivors at all?”

“Joia told me to stampede the herd, and the farmers were trampled.”

Yana gasped. “That’s terrible,” she said. Beginning to understand the consequences, she went on: “It means that most of the women in Farmplace have lost their men.” After a moment’s thought she added: “We’ll have to go round and tell them.”

Pia said: “We’ll have to do more than tell them. The young widows will struggle to manage their farms, and the older ones will be unable to get their harvest in—unless we can organize to help them.”

Duff said: “I don’t see what we can do—every family will be stretched thin.”

“Some are better off than others,” Pia said. “A young mother with a fourteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old will do better than an old woman with no one. The young mother could let her children help the old woman a couple of days a week.”