AN: Here we go, another little chapter. I hope to have another for you soon…it's already in the works.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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When Michonne smelled the familiar smell of Muh's bread wafting through the air with the smoke, she took her break from working without asking permission.
The four who had gone on the run weren't back yet…and that meant that Carol hadn't slept well, which consequently meant that breakfast had come at an earlier hour and the community had gotten to stirring before the time when they were even normally at work. And Michonne was starving…even though she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn't time to break for lunch yet.
Muh had begun to make some kind of bread. Michonne didn't know what it was, exactly, but she assumed that it was probably made from the most basic ingredients possible. Some of the group called it bread, others called it biscuits, and when it was old and had sat out too long, the all called it hard tack. But the only thing they all had to agree on entirely was that it was delicious, especially if you were lucky enough to get it not long after she removed it from the fire pits she made it in and brought the cast iron pans inside that served as her portable ovens.
Michonne crossed through the yard of the headquarters. The front yard was empty…indicating that Carol and anyone keeping her company was inside because, while Carol preferred the front yard for any of her fire building needs so that she could keep up with the comings and goings of the group, Muh preferred the back yard where no one was attempting to poke their noses into anything she was doing.
When Michonne eased through the door, she found Carol sitting at the small kitchen table that was centered in the kitchen with Mercedes sitting near her, her chair flipped backwards and facing away from Carol. Lisette faced both of them, sitting on the couch…and it didn't take long for Michonne to pick up enough of the noises trailing in from outside to figure out that Emma, most likely, was outside with Haralee and Muh, letting the children play in "Muh's yard"…because Muh had no objection to children poking their noses into anything.
"Still not back yet?" Michonne asked, taking a seat next to Lisette. She already knew the answer and the question was more for attempting to start up some kind of conversation.
Carol shook her head, but it was Lisette who responded verbally.
"No…there's no sign of anyone…I walked the road down to the end…turned toward the town…there's no sign," Lisette said.
Michonne reached over and patted the woman's arm. She and Carol were worried for the men in their lives…as was Maggie, though she was probably, if Michonne had to guess, out back with the children…but Lisette was worried for her daughter, and that was a different kind of worry entirely.
"It's not time to worry yet," Michonne offered. "I didn't expect them back by now…if they're not back by dinner…then it may be time to start being concerned."
Michonne knew it offered relatively little comfort to anyone, but she wasn't really worried. She'd been on enough runs lately to know the condition of the surrounding areas and know how time could slip away when you were trying to pick through things that had been picked to death in the effort to come up with the gems beneath the rubble.
Muh came shuffling in the back door and through the house a few minutes later, carrying one of the cast iron pans. Maggie followed behind her, Lela on one hip, carrying the other of the pans. Both went into the kitchen and Maggie put the pan down for Muh so that Muh could dole out the food as she saw fit.
The extra food that Muh made she saw as treats or snacks. She was the one who made it, so she was the one who served it. She had a meticulous way of going about the portioning out of things. The children were served first…without question. Once their food was rationed out, then Muh would treat anyone she felt inclined to treat…and after that, she left what was left open to anyone who wanted or required it.
And no one argued with this practice, partly owing to the fact that hardly anyone ever argued with Muh about anything, and partly owing to the fact that they understood the so called method behind her madness. It wasn't necessarily that Muh believed anyone to be any more important than anyone else…she certainly treated everyone as though they were her children or grandchildren…but she did believe there was a hierarchy in receiving special attention…and children were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by anyone who was ill or in particular need. The rest could wait their turn.
Maggie crossed back into the living room area and sat, sliding her body close to Michonne's so that the she could fit onto the couch with Michonne and Lisette. Michonne reached a hand over, teasing Lela and the little girl smiled at her, huffing air in something of a laugh. Michonne chuckled at her.
"Zeb?" She asked Maggie.
"Playing," Maggie responded. "All of them are going to need baths soon…they've got a mud puddle…"
"It used to be dirty washwater," Carol admitted. "But…I'll give them a bath when they're done…and I need your laundry if you get a chance to bring it down…I'm almost caught up, which means I'm running behind."
Michonne chuckled and nodded her head. The laundry around there was a never ending process when, most of the time, it fell into the hands of one or two people to do by hand.
Haralee came in without being called, anticipating in her normal manner the fact that Muh would soon require her services, and she handed Muh a plastic container without explanation which the old woman accepted. And then she waited quietly to the side while Muh portioned out food on the little plates for the children and dribbled the jarred honey she had on top of the hot bread.
Michonne was becoming quite fond of the little girl…they all were really. Where once they'd thought she was something of a strange entity, a silent figure who drifted around like a ghost, it was becoming more and more evident that she was simply a child…maybe nine or ten at the most…who had been taught to remain silent and didn't find that request problematic. She lived a life where she served Muh…but it wasn't to be seen as anything negative. Under closer inspection, it was clear that the little girl valued her position, or so they'd come to think of it, and she loved Muh dearly…and in return, she was loved dearly by Muh.
As soon as Mercedes spoke, though, Michonne remembered that it had taken them all a little time to figure Muh out…and the newest members to their community hadn't been blessed with that time yet.
"So what is the kid? A deaf-mute or something? Like the other woman?" Mercedes shook her head as she spoke, continuing before anyone could reply. "You people are running a leper colony around here…"
"Mercedes," Lisette scolded. "Hold your tongue."
Michonne chuckled to herself. She might not have made it as far with the girl as Lisette had…she might have ended up "losing" her somewhere along the way if she hadn't learned how to keep her opinions…of which there were far too many…to herself.
Muh passed the small plates of food to Haralee piled onto an old cookie sheet that was now, more often than not, used as a serving tray. Without saying anything, Haralee nodded her head slightly at the old woman.
"Carry that outside, girl," Muh said. "Then come back for the rest."
Haralee nodded and disappeared through the house with the tray while Muh separated out the rest of the small plates, reciting something in a mumbled voice that might have sounded like a incantation of some sort but was most likely only a list covered once and then again a few time over of the names of the children who would be expecting to eat.
"Can I get some of that?" Mercedes asked.
Michonne cast a quick glance at Lisette who was wearing the expression of a worn out mother…the expression of the woman that you used to see in the grocery store who didn't know how to keep domain over her household. The only difference was that Michonne seldom found sympathy for those women in the grocery stores…figuring that they'd lost control of their homes by never knowing how to take control in the first place…but she felt sympathy for Lisette because her position was one that fate had thrust upon her, and one she'd obviously tried to take up with a great deal of patience and grace…leaving Michonne to wonder if she was something of a saint in disguise.
Muh grunted at Mercedes…a sound that reminded Michonne of the warning noises that her grandmother had made when they were children and treading dreadfully close to seeing her go from nice grandma to the grandma that made the all cower and fear for their lives…or at least for the backs of their legs.
After another moment, Haralee came back through the door, and Muh took her tray, beginning to arrange the last of the plates there.
She returned the tray to Haralee, offered the girl a nod that the girl mirrored, and Haralee went back in the direction that she'd come. Muh turned then, her jaws working in the constant manner that they were accustomed to and put a plate with the bread and honey on the table in front of Carol along with a plastic cup she'd poured something in from the plastic container.
"Eat…for Isaac," Muh said.
Carol looked at the food that had just appeared in front of her, glanced into the cup with some question, and thanked Muh.
Mercedes, apparently not having had the same warnings in her life that Michonne had gotten from her grandmother, reached her hand over as though she were going to take some of the bread pieces off of the plate that Muh had put down.
And if the slap of the hand that followed stung half as much as the sound of it surprised everyone else in the house, Michonne knew the girl was doing good to simply recoil and not to lament the damage done to her.
Muh pointed a finger at her, shuffling around the table quickly, and everyone else in the space froze in the curiosity of what might happen.
"No one grown should take food out of the mouths of children," Muh said.
Mercedes looked like she wanted to gut the old woman, but she apparently wouldn't have dared to try it so she settled for a glare instead that did nothing to unnerve Muh.
"She's not a kid…or can't you see?" Mercedes snapped, obviously sore from her scolding and the pop on her hand that the children playing outside had likely heard now that they'd grown silent with their snacks.
Muh didn't back down, even though the confrontation was somewhat laughable given the fact that Mercedes height while sitting in the chair put her almost level with Muh's full standing height.
"She feeds her child because the child has no other way to eat," Muh responded quickly. "And I am old and I do not see well…but I see enough to know that it is you who has yet to open your eyes. Haralee is neither deaf nor mute. She sees with her eyes and she listens with her ears because she knows that in that way her mind and her spirit will grow. She doesn't speak because words left to walk about before they have matured are the words of fools. It is a lesson you would do well to learn if you wish not to be thought as foolish as you are now."
It was only then that Michonne realized, from her position tightly wedged between Lisette and Maggie, that the fingers of Maggie's free hand were digging into her thigh and Lisette had leaned into her in a defensive position. It was as if, in the shock of the moment, the two women expected her to protect them from lightning or whatever else might come through the house to strike Mercedes down. And Michonne would have hated to inform both of them that she was staying planted firmly on the couch until given permission to get off of it or until Muh no longer looked like she was going to produce the knife from the folds of her dress that she kept hidden there and offer Mercedes up as some kind of blood sacrifice to some unnamed deity.
Mercedes' only response was to get up and storm out of the house, taking on the appearance of a disgruntled teenager that reminded Michonne that the girl wasn't very old…and probably hadn't even reached the age of Beau or Libby or any of the other "younger ones" that they had in the community.
As soon as the door slammed behind Mercedes, Muh obviously relaxed her stance and the normal expression she wore returned to her face instead of the expression drawn up in anger or annoyance.
"There is food," she said. "For anyone who wishes to serve themselves."
And without addressing the confrontation any further, she gave the command once more to Carol to eat and then she shuffled back out the house the same way that she'd come in, leaving all of them to stare at each other a moment before anyone relaxed enough to move.
Maggie broke the silence by chuckling and peeling her fingertips out of Michonne's leg.
"That was the slap heard 'round the world," Maggie said, breaking everyone else into a loose chuckle.
"I hate to say it," Michonne said, "but she had it coming."
Lisette hummed next to her.
"She's had it coming for a while," Lisette said, sighing as she spoke. "I don't know what to do with her, though…she's not my child…but I'm responsible for her."
Michonne nodded her head, understanding what the woman was trying to say.
Michonne reached and patted her on the arm now that they'd all resumed normal positions.
"No one is judging you for her actions," she assured Lisette. "I'll talk to her."
"I can talk to her," Lisette said, shaking her head.
Michonne responded by shaking her head back.
"No…I'll talk to her. Maybe she needs to talk to someone who she hasn't talked to before," Michonne said. She pushed herself up from her position on the couch then, breaking the human chain that the three of them had formed. "I'll talk to her…but first I'm eating some of that bread."
She started toward the kitchen and Carol offered her the plate she was eating from.
"I don't want to eat all of this," Carol said, pushing the food toward Michonne. Michonne chuckled, patted her on the arm, and stepped past her toward the counter where she could fix her own fresh plate.
"You better eat that…because I feel like if anyone else eats it…they might die or something," Michonne teased. "Muh's not playing and that bread has a spell or something on it…I'll eat mine right out of the community pile."
And Michonne laughed at herself when everyone else laughed at her joke. She fixed her plate of food, moving to the side to allow room for Maggie and Lisette come over and fix theirs, and she thought about what she might say to Mercedes…when she found her…about how things worked in their community…and how she might go about getting herself in decent standings and staying there.