daughter

When Alice woke up the next morning, she felt totally rejuvenated and energetic. She hadn't slept this well in quite some time. It was not long ago that she would have fought for every second to just stay a little longer in bed. Especially with the nice smell of freshly baked bread still lingering in the air.

But right now, she was fully awake as soon as she realized that her grandma wasn't there anymore. But just with a glance, Alice could see her placing plates on the table. The hut had only a single room after all.

"Grandma, let me do that!"

"Oh, you woke up? No need, stay in bed a little longer, you still haven't fully recovered after all."

"Please, at least let me help you!"

Saying so, Alice jumped out of the bed and helped her grandma to lay the table.

The meal was a very simple one, only consisting of bread with a little cheese and some water. But with the bread still being warm and soft, it was very delicious.

When they had finished eating, Alice stood up and, before her grandma could react, she had taken away the plates and started cleaning them. It still took her quite some time, but she managed to do it a little quicker already when compared to the first time.

"Alice, my dear, could you please bring in the bucket of water that stands beside the well? We can use that to clean ourselves."

Alice left the little hut and walked over to the well. She looked around for a few moments but just couldn't find any bucket of water.

Just as she was about to go back, a hulking man left one of the other huts. Alice had never been the largest person, although the strongest, with around 135cm, she had always been on the smaller side. But now that she stood in front of this giant who was more than two heads taller and at least two times as broad when compared to her, she felt a little intimidated.

He had two buckets in his hands and a long piece of rope on his shoulder. With a few quick motions, the man fixed one of the buckets on the end of the rope and threw it into the well. After a few moments, he pulled the bucket out of the well and took off the rope, the bucket was filled to the brim with water.

"Take it.", the man said.

"Thanks.", Alice thanked him.

When the had looked at her, he had a very serious expression on his face. Alice could guess why he looked so serious, but she couldn't tell if the man stood on the side of her grandma or on her daughters.

When Alice brought the water back in, her grandma was already waiting for her.

Sometime later, Alice held the broken comb of her mother in her hands, hesitating. In the end, she stretched out her hands, handing the comb to her grandma.

"This is a beautiful comb, where do you have it from?"

"This was my mothers. She always used it to comb my hair in the morning.", Alice answered

When she heard it, the old woman understood Alice intentions. She took the comb and said:

"Sit down, my dear."

She carefully started to comb Alice's hair. After a few days of not being taken care of at all, it was completely entangled and full of little knots. It took her quite a while to comb Alice hair, especially since the old woman didn't want to hurt her.

Then suddenly.

*SNAP*

While she was combing an especially stubborn strand of her, the comb broke with a loud sound.

Both of them were shocked, but while the old woman felt very sorry, Alice suddenly got sad again and looked as if she was on the verge of crying.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect this, my dear. I used to much force without thinking."

Seeing her grandma's apologetic face, Alice forced herself to calm down again. Alice knew that it wasn't really her fault, it would have happened eventually.

When she looked at the two pieces of the comb, it was actually almost a little funny. The comb that previously looked broken now looked almost intact again. What had broken off was only the endpiece, and almost exactly the same size as the other piece that had already been missing.

She kept the endpiece to herself and put the middle part in the hands of her grandma.

"Please.", she asked.

This time even more careful, her grandma continued to comb her hair.

Sometime later, a ‚cat and mouse' game started. Whenever her grandma started some task around the house, Alice would try to take it off her and do it in her grandma's stead.

Alice couldn't bear to see the old woman do so much work and she didn't even want to imagine how she had started the fire in the oven to make the bread. Carrying the firewood, kneeling on the ground with flint and steel or making use of the bellows to get the fire going.

But it also helped Alice to distract herself. As long as she worked hard for her grandma, she wouldn't think any depressing thoughts.

....

Because Alice was working so hard and the small size of the hut, it only took about half a day until everything was cleaned.

Now, she was sitting on the ground behind the house. In front of her were the herbs that her grandma was growing here. She had somehow managed to make her grandma teach her how to attend to them so that she could do it in the future.

"Ah, be careful, you can't cut off to many leaves like that or they won't regrow properly."

Alice quickly understood her mistake and corrected it quickly, but she could still see her grandma stand up, trying to help her.

Trying to find an excuse and stop her, Alice thought hard. But in the end, she still came up with something:

"Grandma, isn't it getting a little boring? Can you tell me a story?"

"You really like your stories, don't you? Ok, what should I tell you?"

Although she had come up with an excuse, Alice hadn't thought about this question. What story did she want to hear? She didn't know. At that moment, she remembered what the storyteller had said.

"Your story! I want to hear how you fell in love and got married to grandpa!"

"It's quite a boring story, it wasn't anything special. Why do you want to hear this of all things?"

"A storyteller once told me, that the best story is always your own! I want to hear your best story, grandma!"

"Hmm, ok! Let me think for a moment... How long has it been? Over forty years already, almost fifty that we got married. And I think I was not much older than you right now when he fell in love with me. Back then we lived in a different village, a few days away from here.

Originally our parents where already friends and I considered him one as well. He had always been very kind to me, but I never realized that he had such feelings for me. He had to pester me for quite some time until I finally started to understand him a little better.

Now that I think about it, I was a little bit dull back then, wasn't I?"

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

At that moment, they heard someone hitting against the front door hard.

"I will continue in a while. I should answer the door right now.", Charlotte said with a slightly sour expression on her face.

"When... leave?"

"... staying... me!"

"... can't afford...!"

"Her... dead! ... no... else... !"

"So what? My son is dead as well! No means no!"

"Yes! And you would have managed him as well, wouldn't you?!"

"That is something different! My son is my own flesh and blood! She is a stranger!"

"To me, she is already more like a daughter than you!"

*Boom*

The door got closed with a loud noise. Alice had always had very good hearing, or else she wouldn't have been able to make out anything of the first half of what her grandma and the other woman had been talking about.

But the last few lines the two women said in loud and agitated voices were already enough for Alice to get an idea. Together with the first few snippets, Alice got a general idea of what was happening.

Her eyes fell on her walking stick that stood against the wall on the back of the hut and thought:

"Was it really her fate to stay here? Was this really her story? Or..."