They Came to Buy My Sister, So I Went in Her Place as a Boy novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Oak
Itziar's POV
"I want to be the man who stood beside you," Aitor said.
"That is all.
"I want it to be in the room when I die."
I kissed him once, hard, and went to find my skirt.
I had brought one after all.
It was the borrowed grey wool from the women's side, folded at the bottom of my sack, and I had told no one.
I put it on in the cold grey light with my brother's coat over it, and I took the cap from my pocket and held it.
Amaia did my hair.
There was nothing to do with it.
She combed it flat with her fingers and kissed the back of my neck and said, "You look like Mama," which was not true, and I loved her for it.
The oak had a hundred men under it by the second bell.
They sat on the flat stones in a ring, house-heads in their good black coats and their txapelak, each man with a stick across his knees.
They had come on mules and on foot, from the Larrau side and the Roncal side.
Their sons stood at the back.
The old house-head of the valley sat on the oldest stone, under the thickest branch.
He was a very old man in a cloak of brown wool, with a face like a walnut.
His eyes had stopped being impressed.
At the front of the ring, on a stone to the old man's left, sat my uncle.
He wore his best black coat and held his good cap in his hands, and his eyes were red and swollen.
A neighbour had a hand on his shoulder.
He was weeping quietly, and every man who passed him touched his arm.
I stood at the meadow gate with Aitor on my left and Gotzon on my right.
Aitor was unarmed.
I had searched him myself that morning, in the room, with my hands.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of They Came to Buy My Sister, So I Went in Her Place as a Boy are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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