T hat day as they sell the fish Neemias cannot keep his eyes from wandering around the marketplace. Is there an old woman there with swollen eyes who knows not how she will ever make good her loss? He looks around sees the women with their caps and scarves their aprons and twisted baskets yet he does not know who owned the cow.
But still as the women drop coins into his palm he must force himself to pass them on to Captain deposit them into his leather money bag. In his heart he wants to press the coins back into the women’s hands and say keep it this time keep it. Take a fish home to your family and feast on the salty goodness and trust in the bounty of the land and sea.
He does not of course.
He simply takes the money and silently apologizes that he was not strong enough not determined enough. That despite the lessons from Friar Pere he did not have enough words to prevail over Captain.
That night a chill wind blows in and they find shelter for the night beside a copse of thorn bushes. The bushes break the teeth of the wind but the thorns that have already been dropped from the bush find their way into his neck and arms.
