By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang
Please do not repost or copy to another site. Thank you. Enjoy reading.
Liksi is bored. She's been knitting red yarn, blue yarn, white yarn - so many yarns! - since eight in the morning and the only breaks she gets are during eating time, which means she only gets one break at lunch for less than an hour! Afterward, she has to continue until before the sun sets and it's time to eat dinner. Repeat the same routine tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, next day - she'll never be done!
She expects to do this like all the other girls turning sixteen in their city. It's a tradition. it all seems so easy when she watches her grandmother and mother and aunts - both related to her by blood and citizens of the city - weave yards of blankets and curtains and clothes back when she is smaller (last month, he brain supplies. It's only been last month when she turns sixteen), but now! Now, her wrists are aching, the knitting needles are not cooperating, and her back and butt cheeks are hurting from constantly sitting around.
She fumbles with her cotton yarns and tries not to envy Susan and Janis, both turns sixteen around the same time as her, who already finish a blanket each and are starting another one. Liksi releases a huge sigh and puts her things to her side. She cups her cheeks into a pout and says, "Why do we even have to do this?"
"Arent' you glad, Liksi, that we can do this already?" Susan asks as she twirls her knitting needles to start another piece of yarn into her blanket connecting it to the previous one.
"Yes, aren't you glad?" Janis drops her knitting needles on her lap and claps her hands, "This means we'll be meeting our husbands soon!"
"Not husband --" Liksi starts but shuts herself up when they both glare at her. "What? I'm telling the truth! The elders are just going to introduce a bunch of boys - maybe even someone you already know, like that snotty kid, Bakal - and gets you to marry if you so much show interest in them. No way am I going to marry someone like that. I want to find myself a husband."
Susan and Janis shake their heads at her. Susan says, "You're only imagining someone fantastical. Liksi, come back to reality. We should be grateful we can actually meet someone, you know, and besides, what's wrong with actually getting a match with someone we already know? Isn't it better since we will never have to wonder about their characteristics as a person?"
Liksi blinks and lies on he rback. She looks at the sky - blue and covered with white cumulonimbus clouds - and finds herself once again thinking that the sky is big and there are other opportunities from behind those clouds.
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