The hut was dark, and cold, and his hands--her hands--ached, with sharp twinges at every movement, a strange contrast to the softness of the wool. They would pay well enough for the work, but only if it was finished, and tomorrow was the pickup. She couldn't afford not to fill the order, next month would be colder and darker, and the children--
She glanced over, but they still slept, and her heart eased back from a moment's panic to the normal share of worry for them. They were sleeping. She would finish another two before she joined them--she could work well enough without the light, she'd done hundreds in the last months, since the Americans had begun buying. But her hands hurt so badly, and she was beginning to shiver. She'd like to lay them over lap, wrap them around herself--but they had to be kept clean and neatly folded for tomorrow. Just a few more rows, just a few more--
The vision cut off as the sweater dropped from Johnny's hands to his lap, and he stared into Sarah's worried eyes. He could feel a smile frozen on his face, and he hardly dared to move. "Do you like it?" she asked. "It's your favorite color, and when I saw it I thought--"
Johnny looked away, blinking in the brightness of the living room, decorated for Christmas. Little Johnny was staring at him, a gift half-unwrapped in his hands, and Walt had gone perfectly still, watching him with his hand on his phone, just waiting for Johnny to spit out another crisis. But there wasn't a crisis, not really, just a life he couldn't change, somewhere far away--and this was his life, here with Sarah and Little Johnny and Walt. He blinked again, and his smile unfroze as he flexed his hands against the lingering ache of cold and repetitive motion.
"--it's handmade," Sarah finished, searching his eyes as he looked back to her. "One of the fair-trade co-ops I was telling you about."
Johnny swallowed. "Yeah," he said, smiling for Sarah and wondering how he could get the sweater off his lap without touching it again, "Yeah, I can tell."
Email is always welcome at dsudis@yahoo.com
Or you can drop me a comment.