His Mother's Grave

When asking for a place to sleep, young Thom was met with silence. But then one man stepped forward and pointed upward. At the back of the barn, young Thom could see a ladder towards a hayloft. He thanked the man who he assumed to be the owner and said he would go to sleep immediately. By the time young Thom reached the loft, all men had already left the barn. Only the owner remained present to point out that the barn’s door would be locked and that young Thom should knock on the inner door towards the main house in case he was in need of something.
Not many hours later, before dawn, the barn door was opened again, and without a word, the owner brought some bread, cheese and milk to young Thom. While eating and drinking, he thought of his mother who had died less than a year ago. The news of which he had been informed by letter, and so he asked the owner of the barn the way to the graveyard and also the whereabouts of his sister of whom he hadn’t heard since. The barn owner pointed at the cross of the chapel that could be seen above the trees at the top of a hill. About the sister he did not know, but perhaps young Thom should ask the butcher. It was the place where both his mother and sister last stayed. Young Thom thanked the barn owner again and left for the graveyard.
It was a sunny day, and yet the village appeared quite dark. It was much unlike young Thom remembered it, but that should not have been a surprise. The last time young Thom walked about these houses was the day he left here to work in the factory at the other end of the country. Only his mother had been there to wave him goodbye. His father had not returned from war long before that day and his mother was not able to support a son while being pregnant of a daughter. But young Thom did not know of this at that time. Indeed, he only came to know of the girl’s existence through the writings of his mother and, years later, those of his sister herself. Her handwriting was therefore the only thing he knew of her. All of this was on young Thom’s mind as he cleared one year’s weed from his mother’s grave – a wooden cross that was about to break.

Next: The Butchers