For a Season

Chapter 1: Desires of the Heart

It was still raining outside. Leah Amram stared out of the window at the steady downpour of the southwest monsoon that had not let up since it had started the day before yesterday. Every year it blew in over the Western Ghats of the Malabar Coast turning the brown hills into lush green forests. The coconut trees swayed gently as the wind stirred the fronds.

They would have a good coconut crop this year, Leah thought as she absent-mindedly played with her long braided hair. Her long hair was her pride and joy and every night she would oil her long tresses with oil from their coconuts to make it grow lush and long. With such lovely hair it wouldn’t be long until some young man marries your daughter and takes her away from you, her aunt Sara told her father Amram.

The year was 1899. Leah had turned eighteen that year. She was getting too old to be unmarried by the rules of their society. Although several families had asked for Leah’s hand in marriage for their sons, her father had turned them all away. They all wanted a dowry and Amram was having none of it.