Empty Hand Revolution

Surviving Village Life

Cosmo kicked the withered carcass with his foot. Nothing remained of the blackbird except feathers, sinew and a beak. “We’ve got to find something to eat. I can’t make it until dinner.”

Ramrei joined his brother at the edge of the dirt road and stared at the desiccated bird.

School had dismissed minutes earlier. After Cosmo and Samuel had changed from their navy blue and white uniforms into their everyday clothing, Ramrei had met them outside the school house. His responsibility was to escort the boys into Low Town, the village colony where their clan resided. Instead, the three boys had taken a circuitous route to nowhere in particular.

“Didn’t you have lunch?” Samuel asked the question without turning aside to join the brothers.

Ramrei and Cosmo shifted their gaze from the bird to their sometime friend, Samuel. Cosmo seared him with angry eyes.

“What?” The look on Samuel’s face revealed he already knew his offense. Of course he did. The vast majority of the villagers only ate two meals a day. Cosmo never attended school with a lunch. Today there had hardly been any breakfast—a few chickpeas and peppers.

Ramrei broke the silence. “Nothing in the jungle is in season, and the village is picked over.”

“We could steal something,” Samuel offered.

The brothers looked at him then shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d nicked something from a backyard. Stolen or not, it filled the stomach the same.

Cosmo looked to his brother and raised a brow.

Ramrei nodded. “High Town.”

Samuel barked and clutched for the brothers’ arms. “I meant around here, in Middle Town. I don’t want to get beat up.”

Cosmo shook off Samuel’s grip. “A good idea is a good idea.”

Ramrei led the way toward the hillside on the east of town. The valley they lived in sloped upward gradually as it followed the course of the river. None of the village was so steep that the rains eroded it, but just enough that the clans in High Town were able to look down on the rest. “I’m not going to steal from Middle Town when I can just as easily take from those sods in High Town.”

Samuel stomped his flip-flop in the middle of the road. “Haven’t we pissed them off enough lately?”

“We could always leave you here.” Cosmo fell in behind his brother’s quick march eastward and upward.

Samuel carefully scanned the neighborhood surrounding him. All the adults were either working in the fields or selling vegetables and baskets in the nearest town. The whole village would operate under gang law for at least two more hours.

Samuel had few to no rights under such a system, and he knew it. He jogged to catch up. “On second thought, we don’t have to steal. I think there’s some food lying around my house.”

Cosmo sneered at the pudgy boy. Nearly one year Cosmo’s elder, Samuel remained dominated by fear. Sadly, the boy was one of Cosmo’s better friends, despite his softness and constant sniveling.

Cosmo ignored most of Samuel’s whining, but this latest comment incensed him. What kind of person left food lying around? “We can’t all rely on the central government for handouts.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Samuel gasped.

Ramrei called over his shoulder. “It means you eat from the hand of India, nitwit.”

“My father is a teacher! He earns everything he brings home.”

“Does he?” Cosmo would have laughed if he wasn’t so angry. “If your father is a teacher, who does he teach?” He stabbed a finger toward the government school building, visible beyond a row of stepped huts.