Chapter 9: Of Cabbages & Confusion
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Katara gave a small snort of a laugh as her brother dashed from the bedroom with one last warning about staying off of his bed, then took up the spot occupied by him in front of the mirror. The girl smiled at her reflection and smoothed her hands over her ponytail, pushing into place the few stray hairs that were creeping upwards. She had her typical two strands hanging down by her face, which she assured were tucked just right behind her ears. Her tight fitting, orchid blouse was smooth and wrinkle free, tucked properly into her khaki colored slacks, which rested just above her light brown sandals. She had wanted to wear her skirt, but Gran Gran convinced her that it wasn't the best of ideas. Of course, her mother's necklace hung around her neck.
Within the hour, Jin had arrived, wearing a tight fitting, spring green blouse over a knee length white skirt, her hair pulled up into a smooth ponytail. "Thank you so much for allowing me to come with you, Ma'am," she said sweetly, flashing a shy smile to Kanna.
"No need to call me Ma'am," Kanna answered. "You can call me Gran Gran or just Kanna, and I'm glad that you girls are coming along today." The old woman gave both Jin and Katara an excited grin and shooed them out the door so they get to the farmers' market. "You girls be sure and stay close to me while we're there. It's a crowded place on Saturdays and I don't need any lost girls on my hands."
Gran Gran Kanna hadn't been kidding when she said that the Si Wong Farmers' Market was a crowded place on Saturday. Katara and Jin followed close behind the old woman, refusing to let go of her bag strap as they pushed through a tight packing of people to get through the entry way to the large, gated land that held a large number of booths and stalls. Though it was a farmers' market, the farming stalls were actually not the majority. There were many stands and carts selling various fruits and vegetables, all grown by the people that were selling them. They all seemed to be stuffed into one corner of the land, the air around them so heavy with the sweet smell of fresh picked strawberries and melons, even a blindfolded man could find his way to the section.
The remainder of the Farmers' Market held a variety of booths selling sandwiches, fruit pies, dumplings, clothes, books, music, toys and furniture. There were even several scatterings of booths all pushing their various religious, environmental and political views. By the time Gran Gran, Katara and Jin made it to the back corner to peruse the farm stands, Katara was already holding twelve pamphlets, pushing everything between 'Save the Platypus Bear' to 'Re-Elect Senator Ozai', for the girl just simply couldn't say 'no' to anyone stuffing one into her hands. She flipped through them, reading at a few of the more interesting looking ones, as the old woman haggled with a cabbage merchant over the price increase he had apparently had since the month before.
Jin had just handed Katara back her pamphlet about 'Protect the Foggy Swamp' when a loud crash erupted from behind them, causing the girls to spin around and stare wide eyed at the sight before them. The cabbage merchant was turned on his back side, his shirt flapping above his head as he waved his arms in a struggle to get off of the ground, his cabbage cart was now tipped to the side, for one of the wheels was split in two, and all of his cabbages were rolling out onto the ground. The small crowd near his cart scooted away, not wanting to step on the man's product, or perhaps simply not wanting to help.
"My cabbages!" the merchant screamed as he managed to get onto his feet and see his product now covered in dirt.
Katara and Jin dove to the ground, desperately trying to gather up the cabbages heads as they rolled around. With the cart broken, the girls were limited in the amount of good they could actually do and had to settle for making a cabbage pyramid behind it.
"I'm so sorry!" A young boy, who appeared to be a bit younger than the girls, came scooting into view. He was short and quite pale, his head cleanly shaved to the scalp where he was marked with a large, downward pointing, light blue arrow tattoo. His clothes were a loose fitting pair of pale brown pants, which gave off the distinct impression of having been handmade, as did his chocolatey orange shirt that came together in the front with a large tie made of the same material his pants were. One hand was clutched around a thin wooden staff that stood taller than the boy did, revealing the same light blue arrow tattoos which reached the knuckles of both hands. His large blue eyes shimmered with a childlike innocence as he stared down at the broken cart wheel.
"You again!" the cabbage merchant screamed, glaring coldly at the young boy. "I thought they weren't allowing you to come back after what happened last time."
"Hey! He said he was sorry," Katara snapped, feeling uneasy at the clearly broken expression on the boy's face and the cruel tone to the merchant's voice. She felt a hand close around her arm and pull her back, then a shushing sound in her ear. "I won't shush," she spat at Jin, pulling form the girl's grip. "He said that he was sorry, it isn't right to yell at him like that in front of this crowd." She pointed to the circle of onlookers, most of which suddenly realized they had elsewhere to be and dipped their heads in shame as they moved along from the scene.
"You stay out of this, little girl," the merchant spat towards Katara. "You don't know the half of it. Every time they bring this one along," he started, wagging his finger towards the offending boy, "something happens. Last time he nearly cost me my entire load with that stick of his."
"We paid for it," the boy, defended. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was silenced by a heavy hand on his shoulder from a tall, thin man who looked around Gran Gran's age.
The man was old, but carried himself with a youthful and healthy stature, not slouching in the slightest. His head was clean shaven and revealed the same arrow tattoos as the young boy, as did his hands, only he also had a long, white hanging mustache that reached past his chin. His blue eyes were heavily lidded and his entire face was deeply wrinkled. He was draped in a heavy robe of the same orange cloth that the boy wore for a shirt and held a large, wooden set of beads around his neck, a pendant hanging from it bearing a symbol of three swirled lines.
"Gyatso, I told you that boy is a menace. You said that you weren't going to bring him back. Do you see what he has done?" the cabbage merchant demanded, pointing flamboyantly to his broken wheel and damaged produce. "I told you if he came back I would file a complaint. I want that booth of yours moved. Far, far, away from my cart."
Gyatso, the old man, held his hand up to silence the irate merchant, and calmly passed his eyes over the damage. "Aang, did you say you were sorry?" he asked, turning to the young boy.
Aang nodded fiercely and looked towards Katara as though he were asking her to back him up, prompting her to begin nodding as well. "I did say sorry. I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I was trying to show Kuzon my marble trick and I dropped one, then when I went to get it, I backed into the stand and th-"
"It's alright, Aang, you don't have to explain. I know it was an accident. You may go back to the others, I will handle things here." Gyatso pat the boy on the shoulder and waited for him to run off towards the direction he had came from before digging into his robes and producing a wallet. "How much do I owe you?" he asked the merchant.
Katara didn't hear how much the man owned the merchant, for Gran Gran was quickly hurrying her and Jin away, muttering about 'not our business'. The old woman returned to her shopping, occasionally pushing a container of strawberries or a bundle of carrots into one of the cloth bags draped over Jin and Katara's arms. Katara soon realized why Gran Gran had warned her not to wear a skirt, as Jin, having her hands full, was finding it difficult to keep the wind from blowing her's up in the back. As the three all found themselves growing hungry, they took a seat outside of a small noodle vendor who had a covered awning over several tables.
"Oh no, Katara, that boy is heading over here," Jin whispered, throwing a glance towards Gran Gran Kanna, who stood in line to order their noodles, then looking back behind Katara.
"What boy?" Katara turned around just in time to see Aang step up behind her, a wide smile stretching across his boyish face. "Oh! Hello. Aang, right?"
Aang nodded and twisted his hands nervously over the staff clutched in them. "I wanted to say thank you. For trying to stick up for me back there, I mean. It was really nice of you." The boy's cheeks were soon graced with the tiniest amount of red and he hung his head towards the ground.
"You don't have to thank me. I was just trying to do the right thing," Katara answered, smiling back at the boy though he wasn't looking at her. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at the wide eyed and worried look on Jin's face as she stared at Aang. "I'm Katara," she continued.
"It's nice to meet you, Katara." Aang looked back up, his smile even wider than before. "So do you live around here? I haven't seen you at the market before."
The reappearance of Gyatso put an end to Katara's answer before she even started it. She gave Aang a small wave as the man ushered the boy away, then turned back to Jin with a bit of annoyance written over face. "What is wrong with you? That boy was nice and you're staring at him like he's covered in cabbage slug slime."
"Look, that boy is one of the...commune kids." Jin looked back over her shoulders as though she were speaking of a secret mission, then leaned towards Katara and started whispering. "They all dress exactly like that boy was and they live on this big space of land where they have their own school, their own church, they grow their own food there too. They call it the Air Temple."
Katara raised her eyebrows at Jin and made a scoffing sound that made it clear she wasn't believing everything she was hearing.
Jin pursed her lips and shook her head slightly, then leaned back in her chair. She didn't speak again until the old woman sat back down at the table, handing both girls a bowl of noodles. "Ma'am, I mean Gran Gran Kanna, ma'am, sorry...I just... Would you tell Katara where that boy is from the broke the merchant's cart?"
Kanna stared at Jin as though she was being quite random, not having been privy to the conversation. "Um, sure...he's from the Air Temple Commune. You know that road we came in on?" she asked, waiting for Katara to nod before continuing. "You keep going that way and their land is right before you get to Chin Village. You passed by it when Bato brought you to my apartment, but you probably didn't see it in the dark." She gave a small shrug and started in on her noodles, ignoring the look of increased confusion on her granddaughter's face.
"Why do they call it the Air Temple?" Katara asked, shifting in her seat. It wasn't every day that the girl was on the receiving end of an I-told-you-so and she wasn't liking it one bit.
"I don't know, dear. I'm not part of their religion. It's a pity though. They are such nice people, never cause anyone anyone any trouble bu-"
"'Cept that cabbage merchant," Jin interjected, quickly looking down at her noodles.
"They don't usually cause trouble," Gran Gran corrected. "If Ozai gets re-elected, they're gonna be sent off their land. He's got it in his campaign promise that he's going to make them move so that they can build some sort of superstore there. If you ask me, we don't need some big chain place coming in here and taking away all of the business of the local, hard working establishments. Especially if it means kicking an entire commune out of their home. They have lived there for a good hundred years now. It's really sad."
"Well, he can't just kick them out!" Katara cried out. "Can he? I mean Senator or not, he can't just go in and tell them they don't own their own land anymore. As long as they pay their taxes and aren't doing anything illegal, he can't just...take it away."
Kanna merely shrugged her shoulders and kept her eyes down. "I don't know, dear."
"Why do you even care?" Jin asked, staring at Katara with her lips twisted in confusion. "You just heard about it and you're getting all worked up. You've only lived around here for a few weeks, you don't really understand how things work. Have you even been to Chin Village? Why don't you go up there and listen to some of them tell you how they feel about the commune. You won't feel the same after that, I'm sure of it."
A weighted silence fell over the table as the three finished their lunch. An unspoken argument hung on the tips of each of their tongues, though none of them let the words fall.
A Note From the Author: Okay, I'm sure most of you knew that Aang was going to show up the moment I said 'cabbage merchant' but I hope you enjoyed seeing him. This won't be the last you see or hear of Aang and the commune. I know it might have been a bit cliche, but I always loved the cabbage merchant scenes so much! Leave me some thoughts. Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond to the reviews last time. Thank you all. -Jenna
