Chapter 01

  "How much?"

  "Five bronze."

  "One Bronze"

  "No, I know what you are doing. And I will not entertain your shenanigans anymore."

  "Shenanigans, that's a great word. A worthy word. You see, how far you have come? Because of my influence, look at you, even in your cranky old age, you are increasing your vocabulary, must you not thank me for teaching you this?"

  The man was alone in his cart, with his manual labourer missing. And that slightly made my heart pound its beat faster, because the primary purpose of my visit here, after my vacation away from the valley was that, as we bantered and bartered, my gaze would fall onto the boy who would methodically chop the meat that was hung before him.

  This was our ritual. This had been our ritual.

  Seeing each other, without seeing each other. Talking to each other, without talking to each other. Dancing with our hearts and our gazes. Even though his well-being mattered the most to me, those words never came from my mouth, because just as all the brothers we too were different, and we too have our differences. So, we never saw eye-to-eye on anything, agreed on anything. And only once in our lives did we argue, and that was more than sufficient enough for both of us. And now missing his presence here, the hair on my arms erected itself, but before that could be addressed, the man before me, pulled me into the conversation again.

  "No, five bronze, that's all–nothing more and nothing less!!"

  "Hmmmmm."

  Instead of responding my voice grunted, because as much as we wanted and needed to discuss my concern, we had neither privacy nor silence, as the constant chatter began to increase beside and around me, so amidst such disturbance and disruption, my eyes watched this man as he sat on his cart, where the meat of the sheep and the wild boar hung before and behind him. And seeing as this man instead of responding to me, choose to address the sweat leaking from his face, my fingers itched for my hairband on my wrist, but before that could be addressed, my lips moved on its own.

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  "Come on, Salem. we both know a pound of meat is not less than two pennies. And yet I am paying you four times as much, just because you hand out free meat on every Thursday to the valley's orphanage. So, even though you sell meat at the premium rate, I buy from you because you do that. I could go to any vendor in this market, and we both know they sell cheaper, but I do not do so because I respect you, so the same must be reciprocated as well, right?"

  At my sudden praise and compliment, the man narrowing his gaze responded back to me.

  "Four bronze."

  "One bronze's all I am giving you, so, lower your rate, Salem, because if you sell in this way, nobody in the valley will buy a single pound of flesh from you."

  Stating that both of my legs advanced forward, covering the distance so that the chatter behind and beside me would not disrupt the conversation.

  As for this man before me, seeing the distance shorten between us, his eyes began to wander to each corner, cautiously gauging and scanning and watching me, all the while the voice of his, raised a question of its own.

  "Must you always do this?"

  "Do what, Salem?"

  "Cover your threats with dignified words, and drench and drown them in compassion, so that instead of the threat that arises from your tongue, the primary focus would be on the compassion in your voice. But I am not going to fall for that. Today is not going to be your day. You cannot push me anymore, son. Because no matter how much you want to, everything will not go according to your wish and desire every time, so do keep in mind, no matter how much you try and twist the wheel, lady fate will always be their stopping and opposing your every move."

  Upon hearing this man's sudden warning and indirect threat in this early morning, the hairs on both of my forearms and my bruised knuckles instantaneously erected, resulting in spreading the unholy melancholy within me, so much so that as my mind registered and digested the thought behind those words, a trained voice deep within me, rising on its own, took over, and responded to the man.

  "That is deep, Salem,very, very deep. Wisdom and philosophy are the pillars of civilizations, since you have already earned both of them, I am going to do something I never do, I am going to pay you a bronze and a penny."