ADVENT CALENDAR - DAY ONE

Advent Calendar - National Flash Fiction issued a challenge for December. That for December 1st is to use the FIRST words of a book or poem as the LAST words of a piece of flash fiction. I chose a line from a poem by Emily Dickinson.

THE POTTER and THE SLAVE

The slave-master yanked the rope that bound Yani and shouted, “Who will bid a hundred for this lovely young virgin?”

“She’s ugly,” a wit called out, “And she won’t be a virgin after a night in your cells.” The crowd guffawed and the slave-master squeezed Yani’s arm. “At least she’s strong, and as it’s a feast day I’ll let her go for eighty.”

“I’ll take her,” a man said and the hammer fell.

Petrus was old and his home in Stabiae was humble – an open-fronted pottery with one room above – but a fig-tree shaded the well in the yard and the kitchen was cool. Also, Petrus was gentle, in bed he was grateful, and when Yani gave birth to a son, he freed her.

Marcus was a month old when Petrus announced, “I am going to sell pots in Surrentum.”

A warm breeze wafted from the north but Yani shivered. “I will come with you.”

Petrus stared as she packed their belongings into the cart – he had heard childbirth made women strange. “Shall I bring my wheel?” he joked.

Yani glanced at the mountain and clutched Marcus. “You can buy another – now hurry!”

They were ten miles away when Vesuvius erupted – a still volcano life that flickered in the night.