Growing Up

Kopper and Mrs. Flaminkoh set themselves a routine which was very relaxing to Kopper. They spent the first half of the morning after a small breakfast on their own pursuits without talking or interacting with the rest of the morning devoted to working on the garden and taking care of the chickens and the goat. They ate their one large meal an hour or two past noon and then finished up any work in the garden or house cleaning. The late afternoon and evening was spent reading and discussing and singing and dancing.

Kopper had missed singing and dancing. They had sung at the convent and though she found some of the songs inspiring she missed some of the songs she had listened to in space. There was something in Kopper that enjoyed both sacred and secular music and Mrs. Flaminkoh encouraged her to explore both musics. At the convent they had never danced and Kopper desperately missed being able to express her joy or sorrow through physical movement. She had learned to speak to God through dancing, even when dancing to secular music, and now she knew that her prayer life had been suffering during her time at the convent. So Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper danced in the evenings without worrying what other people thought of them because nobody ventured out to the little cottage.

They were almost self sufficient at the cottage. But Mrs. Flaminkoh did venture to the village a half a days walk away once a month to sell a few items that they sewed and buy a few items that they needed to supplement the garden and the goat. She also went to hear the news. They worried occasionally but fiercely that Kopper might be found out, but Mrs. Flaminkoh never heard anything and nobody questioned the slight increase in supplies that she sold and bought each month. So they became content, but not exactly relaxed.

Each evening they would read and discuss passages from the Bible or sacred writings using Mrs. Flaminkoh’s pad. They could not afford another one and so they made do with just the one. Actually, the discussions consisted more of Kopper argueing with herself and then Mrs. Flaminkoh providing supporting views and attacks on things as there was space for her to do so. She had already formed opinions on several of the things that they were reading, but she allowed Kopper a sounding board to develop her own opinions and thoughts; but she also learned a few things and changed her opinion on some things. She didn’t tell Kopper of the learning and changes but she did support Kopper’s exploration with vigorous comments and praise for actually thinking.

Aspen and Martha managed to visit three months after the poor Sister Mary’s death and reported that there were no problems. They also brought a few supplies though they were meager. The evening discussion was wonderful and lively; everyone threw out opinions and thoughts without concern for being mocked or labeled as evil. The discussion didn’t wane, but Kopper wanted to sing and dance so they did. It was late at night when they went to bed.

In the morning Martha and Aspen had to continue their official journey, which was a pilgrimage. Everyone had so thoroughly enjoyed the previous afternoon and evening that saying goodbye was a mess. Everyone avoided looking at anything but the ground for several minutes and then Kopper looked up at Martha who also glanced up for a moment. The eye contact was long enough that they both started chewing on their lips, gulping air, and dabbing their eyes with the backs of their hands. Eventually they all broke down into full blown sobs. But it was brief since they all knew that they needed to part. They didn’t want to attract any attention and the people in the village knew that Mrs. Flaminkoh was hosting the nuns for the night and were expecting to see them pass through the village. A long delay would be noticed and so they briskly walked down the track without saying a full goodbye. They did say they would try to be back in about six months time.

Kopper and Mrs. Flaminkoh continued with their schedule after the two sisters left, but they were sad for the next two days. But the summer and the harvest consumed their days and the time flew by before the Christmas season came around and they looked for the return of Martha and Aspen. Mrs. Flaminkoh had finally introduced Kopper, using her middle name Light, to the village and said she was a distant cousin that had lost her family to the plague and had spent all her money on trying to save them. The village accepted her without much thought and so both of the women went to the village together and occasionally stayed the night at the inn to join in a celebration or do more business.

It was toward Christmas that the village received word that the Pope was planning a celebration in the spring in honor of Christ, ostensibly, but really everyone knew that it was to celebrate the Pope. This year he wanted to have a lawn. A lawn at Easter time and he lived in a region that wouldn’t have green lawn for two months after the celebration. So in order to have the green lawn that he desired there was a call out to the farming villages to grow lawn in greenhouses and they would be paid handsomely for the lawns they delivered. It didn’t seem to occur to the Pope that the farmers didn’t have greenhouses in the area and outside was just as cold here, but it was to this region that he had delivered his invitation to grow him a lawn. Everyone at the town tavern was a buzz with news of both the potential to make money and the stupidity of the Pope not to out source the lawn to someplace warm.

Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper were delighted to learn of the possibility to earn additional money, even if it required a little investment in building a greenhouse, they could use the greenhouse in later winters. So they took some of the plugs of grass that the Pope had sent along to the town, so that all the grass was the same variety and looked the same color, or at least close to the same color when it arrived in the spring. The town had a traveling salesman that came through not long after and he sold everyone some plastic and glass for greenhouses. Kopper and Mrs. Flaminkoh scrapped to afford some of the glass and managed to fall a few trees for some lumber to make their greenhouse. They were so busy tending to the grass plugs and the green house that they didn’t notice that Aspen and Martha were becoming overdue for their visit.

When they arrived they brought news about the celebration. Again they were officially on a pilgrimage so they could only spend a night at the cottage, but they made sure to spend the time wisely. They were delighted with the green house and how good their grass was growing. Kopper had devised a system to generate light using low power and a way to rotate several tiers of lawn to make full use of the space they were able to enclose with the their glass. In the evening they shared the news that they knew. Martha said that the real celebration at the Easter festival was going to be an announcement that using birth control was a sin. Martha speculated that the real reason behind outlawing birth control was because the lower class was decreasing in population due to the living conditions. Disease was rampant since the health care for the lower classes was essentially non-existent and the general diet was not of the highest quality. People also didn’t want to have children because they couldn’t afford to have them. The upper classes of the government depended on the lower classes for multiple things, growing their food, serving them, providing masses that looked like support... etc. So Martha guessed that the higher ups got together and found out that in the distant past the church had mandated birth control as being illegal and so the solution was born.

They discussed long into the night how the church felt justified in mandating women’s rights and what in the Bible backed their position. Finally, they realized it was exceptionally late and the two sisters still had to make the journey out in the morning. So they went to bed. But Kopper stayed up. She laid in the bed that she and Mrs. Flaminkoh shared and stared at the dark which was broken only by a small spider that was crawling across the ceiling.

She couldn’t decide what to do. Something about this celebration told her that there was something important she had to do. She prayed desperately for more information on what she was supposed to do. For several moments she wondered if the thing she was supposed to do was merely to grow grass and deliver it. It was a noble endeavor to make things beautiful even if the people in charge weren’t the most noble people surely among those who came to the celebration there was somebody worthy of the beauty that would be present. She remembered how much she missed color while in space and thanked God for the abundant beauty of the colors on earth and for the changing seasons, even if it was cold now. The idea seemed to grow in her head that perhaps the greatest contribution to the earth that she could make was beauty, beauty in grass and beauty in dance. She might get in trouble for dancing at the Easter celebration but maybe she was supposed to do that. Her mind formed the picture of her and Mrs. Flaminkoh being the ones in charge of delivering the grass that their area had grown. They each drove a wagon to the festival and helped install the grass. After this they decided that the best use of the grass would be to use it to dance to God. She then envisioned them leading the masses, the poor, onto the lawn which had been reserved for the dignitaries and dancing up a storm for God.

The spider let down a silk and started to swing as if saying no. Eventually it made a long enough swing to get to the head of the bed and crawl to the small window above her head. No, dancing would not be a real protest of things and beauty is not sufficient encouragement to people. There was so much that Kopper saw in the church that was a huge step into the past in a very bad way. Medieval times were horrible then and were horrible in the weird duplication that seemed to be going on in this twisted theocracy. Dancing wasn’t going to show that any of the things that were happening was truly bad and needed to be fixed, people would merely be distracted for a while and then they would be severely punished because they had dared to tread on sacred ground that they were barely worthy to observe let alone step on. It didn’t matter that these people may very well be the people that grew the grass and cut it and then laid it on the ground, suddenly they would be forbidden to walk on it.

Merely looking at the beautiful items provided no hope for the masses either. They were constantly reminded that they were not as good as the people parading in front of them and if they dared to question their position in life they were told that their soul was in danger of hell fire. More than likely, the people that grew the grass would get only half of the promised payments since it was invariably true that something was found wanting with the supplies that were provided to the government so they paid less. Of course everyone knew this when they grew the grass, but even so the payment would be reasonable enough that it would be slightly profitable to those who were growing and there was always the “bonus” that the government would look on you slightly more favorably in the future.

People were wronged. People were unhappy. People were being misrepresented. The poor deserved more. Those in high positions deserved less. Everyone deserved to know that God was gracious. So what was Kopper going to do about it?

By morning she had formulated a plan that she did not discuss with anyone. In this act she was sure that God wanted her to do it, but not sure that God wanted her to risk her friends. In fact she was particularly certain she was to benefit people, not hurt them and she knew that her friends had already done all they could do for her by getting her to Mrs. Flaminkoh’s cottage.