coming down the path towards us—the grandmother and the mother and the elder sisters, six of them in all. But it was the grandmother who spoke to us, as was befitting her station.
“This is the one—the male who came in last night’s rain of golden fire?”
I could see her eyes covering you, coveting you.
“Yes, most honored Matriarch. He is one of the god-men from beyond our sun.”
“What do they want, Josephine?” you asked, for of course you could not understand their words.
“He is well formed, is he not, my child?” the grandmother said.
I could sense even as she spoke these words the horrible fate she had planned for us in her wicked jealousy.
“He is most beautiful, beloved Mother.”
“And you feel since you were the one who found him, since it was you who first took him in, that you should have the first and claimant rights to him?” she asked with soft avarice.
“He is mine, most hallowed of women. We love one another, and he is to be the father of my children. The fates have willed it so.”
The old woman’s voice crashed with thunder: “He is not yours! He belongs to all of us—then to the one who is best qualified to receive him as a husband!”
“Have I done something wrong, Josephine?”
I could not answer you, beloved, for my heart was in my mouth. I knew the trickery that this one, my own parent, was capable of.
The Matriarch was waiting for a sign of opposition so that she could have me destroyed. But I was too clever for that. Even though it meant losing face in your sight for the moment, I offered no resistance.
“He will be taken to the mancompound at once, to be held there until the official beginning of the mating season,” she roared, hoping again to provoke me to open hostility. When I made no move, she changed her tactics. “What a wonderful husband he will make,” she repeated, again eying the splendor of your physique. “How many children he will father for some lucky woman.” I could scarcely stand her taunts, but already, most dear one to my heart, a plan was forming in my mind. You would be mine yet!
“Guards, take him away!” the Old One shouted.
“Josephine, what are they doing? Don’t let them take me away from you! I love you, Josephine! Tell them that I’ll marry you. Don’t let them take me away!”
I felt the confusion in your mind, the lostness that over-
