The Strange Land Between A Town And A Hill

My mother and I still go to the house of Habi. But as weeks fly, I can see mother lessen the wine she drinks before sleeping. However, the Habi Superior says I should remain as a companion on her side.A helper hands me envelopes of letters. All are addressed to my mom and I think these letters are not meant to be sent here in our house.The first letter tells of an elderly seeking assistance to carry his wife’s dead body to a tombstone in the community cemetery. The woman died in her sleep after being fatally ill for a week. Another letter tells about asking the town hall to build more houses of Habi to accommodate other people found with the sickness. Another letter tells of a farmer who had nothing more crop to harvest and they recommend importing goods from the town nearby so the food can be distributed to everyone. At the end of the letter, it says, “Kassia must be angry.” The remaining letters tell about the same thing.However, one of th

The Habi Superior superior looks a worried gaze at me with no words coming out of her mouth. She leads me to her room with all the silence wafting throughout the room. There she is – mom is lying down on her bed sleeping like a still river. Her skin has turned pale, with her lips colored white. She forcefully coughs and a thick blood squirts from her mouth staining her pillow. I rush to get a clean cloth to wipe the blood on the edges her lips. She then grips the blanket that is covering her body. I can feel her fingers holding tight to its cloth from where I stand. The Habi Superior approaches a metal bowl filled with water. She soaks a dry cloth into it and squeezes it tightly until all the water exits the cloth. She wipes the cloth from my mother’s forehead, then to her eyes and neck. My mom shivers in the cold.I cannot think of a single thing as I look at my mother’s face. My mother woke up with tons of energy this morning and she seemed fine when I vis