Coup D'état *Discontinued

Day Fifteen

Hushed voices filled the silence of the evening, disturbing me from my fretful slumber. Two soft voices spoke in inaudible words just barely loud enough to be heard. The husky voices and the groggy mind made it difficult to match the voices with a face. 

I rolled over on the bed so that my front faced toward the voices. My eyes parted into blurry slits. Through the foggy vision, I could see two silhouettes standing in the center of the small cabin blocking out the path of the moonlight trickling in through the cracks in the walls. 

There was a considerable height different between the two of them. The shorter flailed arms wildly in a frantic mess. My sleep deprived brain failed to identify the figures arguing before. I passed up the temptation to force the argumentative couple outside.

My actions would’ve been worthless as the taller one opened the door, letting more light spill into the room. The smaller one quickly ducked out, pulling the door sharply behind. It closed in silence bringing the darkness back with it.

The silhouette of the taller interlocutor migrated toward the shadowy side of the cabin. Once his figure became indistinguishable, I ceased my eavesdropping. 

Falling back to my original position stomach up, my eye lids grew heavy. Whatever the conversation had been about, it was foreign to my knowledge. It was too far into the night for me to have pushed further into figuring out what was happening. 

Sleep encased me once more, cradling me as if I was its child as it sang me to sleep in a symphony of silence. 

~*~

“Morning.” Nat said, meeting me at the shed the next day. 

I yawned, grudgingly accepting the Cutter he held out for me. It seemed to weigh more than normal, but I ignored the new strain on my muscles, focusing my attention on the path before us. “Morning.”

We walked in silence to the fields. The long stalks loomed threateningly over us as the heat beat down terribly. It was going to be a long day. 

Nat led us to a new area which I hadn’t been in yet. There was one other pair working a few yards away diligently. He kept us far from them as we worked, going at a steady, but slower than normal, pace. 

Silence conversed with us as we worked with nothing but the sounds of falling stalks to replace it. The sun beat down brutally on my skin. Droplets of sweat had already begun to form underneath my arms and around my hairline. Next to me, Nat seemed to be experiencing similar symptoms of the unforgiving sun. 

When the trumpets blared, signaling the end of the morning shift, a ubiquitous sigh of relief passed over the clearing. Nat and I finished the stalk we were working on before turning the Cutters off. The other couple that had been working in the same clearing had left as soon as the trumpet sounded, leaving us alone. 

Nat led the way out of the clearing. Our shirts were stained with the morning’s sweat. It seemed brutally hot out today, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to continue through the afternoon shift. Nat seemed to be struggling just as much as I was. 

“Eva…” he whispered in a low voice. 

“Yeah?” 

Nat moved his body closer to mine to keep his voice as quiet as possible. I strained my ears to pick up his hushed words.

“There’s another meeting tonight.”

I nodded. 

My heart beat quickened. Never before had he warned me of a meeting; I had discovered them on my own. There had to have been an unknown motive for Nat informing me of the impending gathering.