Goldie awoke. Daylight streamed through the thin fabric of the kitchen curtains. She’d been up late the night before, tending to her mother, who was never sick enough to seek aid from the healer, but never well enough to rise from her own bed in their own one-bed cottage.                   

Never mind. The kitchen hearth where Goldie slept stayed warm for most of the night, and the curtains she’d patched together from rags and woven rushes allowed some privacy as she lay near the failing embers.

Because even though the healer with the chicken-legged house always answered “Never mind” to her repeated questions about how to help her mother, the woman still stopped by on occasion. Just to check on the girl. Just to check if the hopeless mother had passed and Goldie was ready for a new home and apprenticeship.

The rest of the cottage was dark, as usual, and when Goldie moved to open the curtain from the one window over her mother’s bed, she was met by a weakly flailing fist.

“Leave it alone,” the poor woman moaned, rolling over and covering her shoulders with the only fine woolen blanket left them. The following winter would be hard to survive.

It had been this way every morning since her father had left, three years ago. Goldie sighed, “Can I get you a slice of bread, and a cup of tea?”

“You can get out of this house and away from me!” her mother shrieked, ending with an extended bout of coughing that cracked her bones and rattled over a thick layer of phlegm.

“All right,” the girl bowed her head and turned to the kitchen, which held neither toast nor tea. She knew how her offering would be greeted, but it was her duty to offer. Though it was sometimes very hard, she tried to be a good girl.

“At least I have sunshine, and the entire forest to explore,” she reasoned, adding “I may just as well go for an invigorating walk.”

(To be continued?)

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2025)

JusJoJan 2025: January 6 – Prompt INVIGORATING . Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!  https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/06/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-6th-2025/