Mama Haga came closer and took her in her arms and gave her a long quiet hug and said, “They are sleeping and will rise again as the Lord promised you, so don’t despair.” No one knew if Mama Haga was pondering on the prayer or on Mara’s sad loss. She eventually said, “Hush, hush now, my child, all will be well, hush, hush. Be strong, my dear one, you have to be courageous now, see how much work you have to do for the Lord?”
She nodded and agreed with Mama Haga to have a copy of the prayer each and to start praying each day, reciting it early morning, noon time and when going to bed at night. They agreed to do this for the next two months and then Mama Haga was going to visit Goza to see her so that they could call an assembly to inform the king and his people about what the Lord had said through His Angel.
Mama Haga also planned to inform her husband and agree with him to inform the village chief to gather people around for the announcement and the decree made by the Lord to be executed. They all went to sleep as arranged and first thing in the morning Mara and Mama Haga got up to pray.
They recited the prayer by moonlight as it was still very dark to see, and they also didn’t want to attract any attention from the outside at that time of the morning. Afterwards when it was light, Mara tiptoed to where the men were still sleeping and knocked on the door to wake Tamura up so they could go to visit their parents’ graves before they returned to Goza.
Chapter 16
Tamura was normally an early riser due to his duties with the king, but since he was off work, he was taking advantage of a lie in and waking up to Mama Haga’s breakfast, which was next to none he had ever tasted.
Considering the men had talked and laughed till the early hours of the morning, Tamura wasn’t very pleased to hear his sister’s little voice calling him and bidding him to wake up. Tamura grudgingly responded with only one eyelid open, “Ooh, go away, Mara, can’t you see I am sleeping, what do you want this early in the morning?”
Mara responded calmly and said, “I wanted us to go and visit the graves today before we go back to Goza.”
“Well, we can do that when I wake up and had breakfast, there is no rush, so please leave me alone to enjoy my sleep,” Tamura rasped.
“Okay, but don’t forget it’s important,” said Mara authoritatively with annoyance at Tamura’s tone.
She glanced at the farm from a distance hoping to catch a glimpse of the graves, but she couldn’t make out their location as the entire place was all cleared out by Mabige and the graves were a little obstructed as they were located at the base of the small hill on the south side of the farm. Mara sighed at her hopeless effort to spot the graves. She also wondered if she would be brave enough to go there alone.
Instead she opted to go to the kitchen where Mama Haga was frying smoked sausages with shallots and herbs for breakfast; she was going to serve this with fried bread and eggs, there was also a pot of oat porridge simmering away on slow heat from embers besides the flames, in a three-legged iron pot.
She sat next to Mama Haga and said, “Something smells nice and I am hungry!”
Mama Haga just smiled and said, “I have put hot water in the dish for you and some soap and clean towels, go and have a wash and come and have something to eat.”
When she returned, Mama Haga said, “Sit yourself down, child, and what can I get you, porridge first maybe?”
“Yes, please, Mama Haga, and I like it with honey not sugar, and then I can have the sausage and mushrooms and a bit of bread please. I don’t really like fried eggs.”
“Really?” said Mama Haga, “that’s good then for I have plenty of honey in a jar, sitting on the kitchen shelf untouched.”
“Do you really?” asked Mara with excitement.
“You can have as much as you want on toasted rye bread but too much of it will give you the runs!” They both laughed.
By the time she returned from having her bath, Mabige and Tamura were coming out of their room to have breakfast as they caught a whiff of the frying meat on the fire and it had awakened their senses.
Papa Haga was already sitting down with a mug of hot tea in one hand and a bowl of porridge in the other, as was his custom to eat porridge with tea and then finished with bread and fried sausages and eggs. Mama Haga thought it was bizarre, but just let him have it his way.
Mama Haga knew what her husband liked to eat and made sure she treated him to that every now and again, but not every day as she was worried about his weight at his age.
After eating, Papa Haga normally went for a long walk to burn off the fat, but Mama Haga always told him it would not work as he walked very slowly and sluggishly and would not break any sweat. However, Papa Haga always argued that the walking did him a world of good.
As Papa Haga took his long walk, Mabige, Tamura and Mara headed for the fields to see what Mabige had been doing on the farm. They had arrived when it was already dark the previous night and could not see the fields clearly. They also wanted to see
