Galileo

If she stared at it hard and long enough, she could see the sun move, almost imperceptible.

The day had been long, and the sun on the horizon was taunting her. Half an hour until sundown. Can you make it? The summer solstice was always the most cruel of days for one who worked from dawn til dusk.

The fields had been long ago plowed, the seeds planted, the fields cut and razed. It was the most strenuous of days, an annual affair of planting those crops that would mature just at the end of the fall to feed them through the winter, and it was always done on the longest day of the year. However, for the first time in almost a decade the task had been finished while the sun still hung, yet still they were not allowed to return to the village until dusk. If they were seen, the guards would kill them with smiles on their faces and insubordination on their lips — the rebellious slaves.

And so they waited, singing quiet songs and crouching among the tall grasses to play pebble games that they had learned as children.

Another half hour and then sweet reprisal.

~ by eeratka on April 26, 2008.