A Garden Locked by Naomi Ruppin

Author:Naomi Ruppin [Ruppin, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naomi Ruppin
Published: 2020-03-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Night Watch

I was already stationed on the balcony when I saw the night fires bloom in the watchtowers. I had brought food, water and three woolen blankets. Thankfully the sky was clear and I didn’t expect rain. I spread out one of the blankets and sat on it, peering out between the wooden bars of the balcony railing. I didn’t think I could be seen in the dark from below. I wrapped myself in another blanket, saving the third for Moth, but I was still far from warm.

I wondered whether Moth would manage to find some khat. It wouldn’t be the first time. Once, when we were about ten years old, Moth had pilfered an entire khat plant brought by merchants from Ethiopia. He’d heard about its effects from some of the older boys. We planted it amidst a cluster of hedges on the palace grounds and tended to it carefully until it had grown into a fine bush. I was the one who came up with the idea of how we would amuse ourselves with its harvest. Moth created a diversion in the kitchen one evening, while I mixed a goodly amount of khat leaves in with the mint leaves used to make an infusion for the royal wives and children. After dinner we took up position on the balcony and observed with much mirth as the women and children of the court became frantically animated, all talking at once, laughing, singing, dancing, women quarreling and slapping each other, children jumping off the dangerously tall trees that grew in the courtyard. I remember Moth saying with delight, “Look! Now they’re all like me.”

Now I heard Moth coming up the stairs to the balcony. He walked over to me, carrying a lidded earthenware pot.

“Did you get the khat?” I asked.

Moth set the heavy pot down on the floor and lifted the lid. Inside was a long-handled copper kettle nestled in a bed of glowing embers.

“It’s khat infusion,” Moth said. “I thought it could keep us warm too.”

“Brilliant!”

Moth produced two small earthenware cups from his pocket and poured us some of the brew. I sipped at it cautiously. It was the most bitter thing I’d ever tasted.

“Moth, this is truly disgusting.”

“Then don’t drink it.”

I had brought some date honey to eat with bread. Using a knife, I transferred a blob of the honey into my cup and stirred. This made it slightly more palatable, so I gave Moth’s cup the same treatment.

“Would you believe the bush that we planted years ago is still alive?” Moth said. “I had to root around in the hedges to find it. You can’t see in the dark, but I’m all scratched up.”

“Poor Moth! Thank you.” I remembered the third blanket and draped it around his shoulders. I drained my cup and held it out to him. “Pour me some more?”

“Should you be drinking it so fast?”

“I can’t feel a thing. I don’t think it has the slightest effect on me. Anyway, I’ll drink this one more slowly.

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