Marietta Landsby Loves her Boy

    Mark Stinson

    The old woman finished sweeping out the kitchen, flinging all the sweepings with her broom into the herbal garden outside.  Eggs and bacon were cooking, and a greasy smoke filled the air with delicious scents.  A butcher block table in the center of the kitchen was strewn with chopped plants and ingredients more strange, and unidentifiable, in nature.  Jars and vials, some full and some empty, were strewn about the table.

    Leaning the broom in a corner and checking the bacon, the old woman called out.  "Jack!  You'll miss your big day!  Get down here boy!"

    Heavy footsteps could be heard on the floorboards above, and then coming down a thin stairway leading down from the second floor of the farm house.  Jacob Landsby tromped into the room, wearing an antique cuirass, darkened by age and use.  What appeared to be a stylized apple tree was worked into the metal pattern on the front of the chest-piece.  "Sorry, mom.  I was having trouble getting this strapped."

    Marietta went to her son, and buckled the final leather strap that was still hanging loose.  "Oh, Jack.  Your father would be so proud.  Not that you are chasing after that whore, Jess...but that you are standing up for your families honor."

    "Mom...she's not a whore."

    "Acts like one...might as well be one."

    Jack let out a sigh.  "That weird traveler guy has her bewitched somehow.  He's confused her with his dark charms.  I'll take care of that today."

    Marietta put the eggs and a pile of bacon on Jack's plate, and got him settled in with a fork and cloth napkin usually reserved for important occasions.  "Yes you will my dear.  Yes you will."

    As Jack began to dig into the huge breakfast, Marietta turned to the table full of ingredients and picked up a vial.  She poured its contents into a glass, and then topped off the glass with milk.  Turning to Jacob, she set the glass on the table.  "Drink it up dear.  Drink every drop.  It will make you strong, and help you make your mother proud."

    Jacob drank from the glass, and made a strange face.  "That tastes like the milk's gone bad."

    Marietta smiled.  "Drink up.  We'll teach those city folks to come to Toulon and spoil our young women.  Teach them not to deprive me of grandchildren.  I love you, Jack.  And today....we'll show them all."