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Short Story: Unknown Words

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Dearthart Justice was in the kitchen, scapular smeared with flour.  

ā€œHot in here,ā€ Dearthart Eden pulled lir tunic away from lir chest.

ā€œYou donā€™t have to be in here,ā€ Justice worked the rolling pin, muscles bunching in lir arms.

ā€œYes, but I wanted to talk to you about something that has been troubling me,ā€ Eden leaned against the wooden counter.

ā€œOh, not you too,ā€ Justice swiped a sleeve across lir forehead, leaving a streak of white, ā€œIf one more person leaves the Deharthood to marry, I shall be forced to use miniature bread pans.ā€

Eden laughed, ā€œNo, itā€™s not that.  It all started with my desk. You know how it faces the window?  I get so distracted watching the squirrels swirl around the tree like dancers, or sometimes thereā€™d be a bird with a twig in its mouth . . .ā€

ā€œNot to mention that fool of a Dearthart that always waves at you from the path,ā€ Justice eased the rectangle of dough off the counter.

ā€œYes, well I decided to move it to face a blank wall.ā€

ā€œLet me know if you next need a hair shirt,ā€ Justice grinned as le laid the dough on a stone.

Eden absently picked up a square of cloth, ā€œWhen I was moving it, I found an old copy of The Book.ā€

ā€œHow old?ā€ Justice took the cloth from lir, covering the dough.

ā€œThere wasnā€™t a date, but it was different from any other copy of The Book Iā€™ve seen.  It used the words,ā€ Eden pulled a scrap of paper out of lir cincture, ā€œā€˜Women and men.ā€™  Could The Book have been written for another species?ā€

Justice lost lir tray with a clatter.  As the two Deartharts bent to salvage the dough, Justice whispered, ā€œThey were humans, like us.  Long ago people were women and men.ā€ 

ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”

Cross-posted to 12 Short Stories

ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”

You know I love neologisms, and this tiny story is chock-a-block with them. The Deartharts are priests, who live on a post-apocalyptic earth. Someone asked me if they were a different species, but I actually intended them to be human. Regardless, they only have one gender, and use the pronouns lir and le.

I realize I haven't been blogging very much, so to all y'all who still check on this site or visit periodically - - hello! Thank you for your patience and persistence during the summer. At some point remind me to tell you about the bees. Not the birds and the bees, just the bees. I know I can be a little inappropriate sometimes, but I mean, you know, the flying insects with wings and yellow pin-stripes. The very fashionably dressed pollinators of flowers and makers of honey. Those bees.

Anyhow, if you haven't yet checked it out, I have a new cozy mystery novella up on Smashwords:

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