Iva
Iva had the most sturdy pair of scissors she could find. They were out on the porch and she was finally cutting the cast off Merle's leg. Toby was bopping around behind her, feeling excited.
"Its like watching a baby get born!," he declared, making everyone laugh. Iva who was the only one of the three who had actually seen a baby be born knew this was nothing like it. Normally she would keep her opinions to herself but the boys had been encouraging her to talk more, to practice her english.
"Baby born is not same," she said, looking down to concentrate on the cast.
"Oh yeah?," Merle asked, "how many babies have you seen getting popped out?" Anything she said wouldn't surprise him, he had gathered by now that she had an unusual upbringing. He figured she had seen a lot of animals being born at the very least.
"Many," she said. She had helped out family members before she had been married and she had assisted her husband with even more.
"Who you see give birth?," Toby asked. In his before life he had never seen anything close to birthing, but since he came here he had seen a baby horse born, a cat have kittens and seen the sheep and goats squeeze out tiny versions of themselves. One goat had three babies, and one of then had died. Toby had been upset, but Iva had seemed fine about it. Life and death were just another part of life on a farm and she had seen many worse things before. She thought about her answer.
"I see many baby born," she started, "I see mother have many baby. Sister of my mother."
"Aunt," Merle corrected her.
"Aunt, " she repeated getting used to the word, "I see wife of brother, and I see other wife of husband have two baby." Really she had seen a lot more than that, but that seemed enough to mention for now. Toby didnt understand the last part. Wife of husband made no sense to him, but Merle was quicker to pick up on it.
"You were married?," he asked her. She nodded. "Your husband had other wives?" She nodded again in confirmation. "How many?," he asked. Iva held up two fingers and snipped through the last of his cast. Seeing his own leg after all this time was exciting, but not enough to make him forget the subject at hand.
"You were married?," Toby asked in disbelief. Both men were looking at her with surprised expressions on their faces. It was making her feel bad, like they thought she was something wrong with her that would make her unacceptable to a man. Merle could see she was starting to get upset.
"No no no," he said, "you just seem very young to have been married." She let out her breath and gave him a grateful smile for explaining. Maybe english girls didn't get married until much later.
"I am a woman," she said firmly, "I bleed now many years."
"Are you talking about your rag Iva," Toby exclaimed with some noises of disgust, "don't nobody want to hear about that." This made everyone laugh especially Iva, who thought he was very silly to be grossed out over a normal and natural part of life. Merle was interested to hear more, he had heard people make the joke 'old enough to bleed, old enough to breed', but her had never met anyone who took it seriously as a way of life.
"How old were you when you got married?," he asked her.
"Ten and two," she answered after thinking about the right english number word.
"Twelve," he asked, hoping maybe she was just using the wrong words again.
"Yes," she said, "I have twelve years when I am wife to Zachary. First husband."
"You had more than one husband," Toby interjected. This story was getting interesting now. He couldn't imagine getting married at his age. Merle shushed him up, he wanted to hear what Iva was telling them and if she was interrupted too many times she might stop talking. He motioned for Iva to continue.
"I am married three years to Zachary," she said, "he was arts, dierenarts.. take care of sick animal, people."
"A doctor," Toby suggested.
"Yes," she said smiling, happy to be understood, "Zachary die. Then I am wife to brother of Zachary, Zeke." Merle could see her face twist up when she said the second man's name. So many of the things that seemed so curious about her were finally being explained. She must have learned her healing skills from the doctor husband. And he had guessed before, but now he was convinced, she had grown up in some sort of strange religious cult. Who else but crazy religious people got down on marrying twelve year olds.
"The second husband was Zeke?," he asked in a soft tone. She nodded. "Is that where you got the marks on your back?"
"I was bad wife," she said, staring down at her hands.
"Damn," Toby said. He was suddenly angry with this strange man he had never met. Anyone who would hurt his special and gentle friend deserved whatever they got. He hoped the man was dead. Toby kneeled down next to Iva and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back gratefully. "Its okay," Toby told her, "if we ever see him around here, I will stick a knife right in him." There was no reason to worry about him showing up, since he was long dead, but Iva appreciated the gesture anyway. Merle sat looking down at them with a smile. If anyone had told him a year ago that his favorite people in the world would be a nappy headed skinny little black kid and a former religious cult member who barely spoke english he would have thought that person was a total lunatic. Toby let Iva go and turned to examine Merle's newly revealed leg.
"Damn man," the boy exclaimed, "its even whiter than the rest of you."
