Chapter 1 from Defame thy Neighbor
"Cover up woman." Henry sounded defeated as he closed the wooden door behind him.
Sapphire looked up from her space on the floor. She was wearing a long blue dress made from wool. The sleeves looked like bells flaring out from the elbows. The ruffle peeking out from the edges around her shoulders revealed she wore a proper stay. However, she sat with her bare bottom resting on cool stone where she had rolled the rug away from the floor with the fabric of her dress pulled up in folds around her waist.
"I'm covered," she insisted and stood to smooth the wool over her legs.
"You are exposed."
"I am hot. The sun blazes in the yard and the only relief I have is to press my skin along the stones."
Henry kicked the rug back into place and walked to the table under a window. He poured water into a cup and drank so quickly Sapphire heard his throat gulp it from her place at the back door. She fanned herself with a white apron and muttered, "So hot your throat gallops to refreshment."
Henry drank more and then replaced the pitcher in it's stance. He walked to his wife and dragged the back of his hand along the strands of her golden hair. Looking into the backyard, he noticed a basket hanging on a sturdy branch of a black walnut tree. "From whence did you yield the berries?"
"Neighbor Margaret."
"We are not doing this again wife," Henry demanded and then stormed outside to pull the basket from the tree.
Sapphire followed behind him while increasing the volume of her voice to continue her sentence, "Neighbor Margaret took me for a walk in the woods to show me free land where wild blueberries grow!" She paused a moment and then growled the words, "Is that acceptable, husband?"
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Henry referred to the incident that brought the couple to America from Turku, Finland. Sapphire had a habit of harvesting the neighbor's raspberries. She offered to make pies and compotes for the neighbor, but refused to stop claiming them as her own. When the neighbor built a stone wall to separate the land, it was assumed the pilfering would cease. But, Sapphire insisted on taking the raspberries. She pried stones from the wall through which she pulled the branches of the bush. Eventually, the wall hosted a hole three feet in size so she had no obstacle in procuring the fruit.
The neighbor claimed it was thievery. Sapphire declared jokamiehenoikeus; loosely translated to mean open land is every man's space. The court ruled although open land may be cultivated by anyone looking to benefit from the resources, land that has been purchased as property cannot be used for public benefit without the express permission of the landowner. And this neighbor certainly did not give permission.
Sapphire never seemed to concede that she had acted without regard to the work done to tend the berries. The neighbor even offered to gift a cutting with lessons on how to care for the bushes but Sapphire refused saying she would not interfere with the natural replenishment of the earth.
Hushed insults were murmured as the couple walked through Turku. Henry's mercantile business suffered and the small group with whom they socialized became less and less congenial to the couple behind their backs as well as to their faces. The reputation and success of the household suffered. In the end, Henry and Sapphire packed up the things they wanted to carry with them to start anew taking a ferry to Sweden.
At the very moment their ferry docked in Sweden, a ship was loading cargo and passengers to sail to the other side of the world.
"Come Henrick, our papers are in order."
"We are not on that ship's manifest. We are to sail to Britain."
"We were looking for Friendship, and there it is!" Sapphire pointed to the big gold letters on the side of the ship reading the word. She insisted, "I am going."
And she did. Henrick's wife left his side with a smirk on her face looking back to him and ran up the gangplank. She called as if she was speaking to someone on the ship and waved away comments from the officers checking boarding passengers. Henry tried to keep his eyes on her but she moved in and out of his sight. Finally, he pulled his cap down around his ears and stood in line to get aboard the ship. When there was the opportunity to move forward without suspicion, Henry pressed his way through the side just as Sapphire did. When the officers were distracted with an argument requiring force to subdue folks who grew impatient, Henry pulled the collar of his jacket close to his face and walked onto the ship looking for his wife.
He found her sitting in a deck chair speaking with passengers as if they were old pals.
"Oh Henrick, did they figure out that business with our tickets?"
Henry looked at his wife in silence as she told the people with whom she sat how the officers accused them of having the wrong tickets for the ship. She was hiding in plain sight. She was justifying walking into the place she knew she did not belong by stating unequivocally that she did not belong there. Henry was amazed at the brazen nature of the woman he takes into his arms while he lay in bed.
And because of a fight back at the dock, which turned out to be a scuffle leading to an unfortunate stabbing during which the victim was calling out nonsensical words, the boarding was closed and the ship sailed without reaching capacity. Those left behind would be able to sail during the next voyage in a few weeks. It was through these coincidences that Henry and Sapphire found themselves in private quarters locked behind a door. Henry of course was nervous he would be questioned as Sapphire assured him that, if discovered, they would only need to pay for the voyage they were taking and not the one intended.
"And what do we do when we reach this new world? We have no friends there. No family. We have no home or jobs. It took weeks to arrange things in Britain! Woman, we have nothing."
"Henrick, darling. We have everything. We have a new world of possibility. I heard they haven't got roads or shops or anything in this new world. We are going there with nothing more than nature provides us; that is to say, everything that nature has given us without the expectation of man and the obstacles he puts before the earth."
"They are a Christian people," Henry reminded his wife to stop talking of the Finnish goddesses.
Sapphire nodded her head and waved away the comment. When she was finished brushing her hair before she climbed into the bed next to her husband, she pinned a blue gemstone to fix a kerchief around her neck.
"You shouldn't sleep with that."
"It is the one thing I never want to lose."
Henry considered for a moment that his wife meant all else can be forgotten, but the brooch of sapphire would always be possessed by her. He considered that he was a part of the things she would disregard and forget. When she acted, he was perplexed by her running alone onto a ship knowing no one to whom she ran. But looking at her in the dim light from the porthole, he was troubled at how easily she ran from him, leaving him to be the one alone.
Henry pulled his fingers through Sapphire's hair. She could feel the unease from his fingertips.
"Darling, we picked up everything we could carry and moved from our parents into our little home. That was ten steps away from what we knew. We picked up everything we could carry with the intention of escaping the scrutiny and humiliation we faced with the neighbors. We were going another ten steps,"
Henry interrupted, "We were sailing to Britain which is farther than ten steps."
Sapphire sat up and drew Henry's hands into hers pulling him into a sitting position as well. "Ten steps or ten thousand, it matters not." Sapphire sighed heavily as she decided on the words to use. "The goddesses have placed before us a series of occurrences allowing us safe," she pulled her hands into the air around her gesturing to the corners of the cabin, "and comfortable passage into the next part of our lives. It seems to me it was the intention of Luonnotor when she put the insatiable desire in my belly for those raspberries that she wanted me to be a part of an unblemished piece of earth." Sapphire closed her eyes and clasped her hands together as she said, "And, Vellamo will keep us safe while we are on the water."
Henry grasped Sapphire's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "You mustn't speak of the goddesses in the new world. It is a Christian society."
Sapphire wriggled free from Henry's grip and said, "I will not change who I am in here," as she pressed her fingertips to her head.
"You speak of old stories. Nothing more. There are no goddesses caring for you and certainly not working together to bring you to a new home."
"Why not? They must be working at something. Why not me?"
"They are stories!"
"So is everything! The problem is not that I believe the stories of goddesses providing for me; the problem, dearest love, is that you believe in nothing and are able to relinquish one story for another without regard for the things you know to be true. You cannot entertain the possibility of truth in the antiquities because you seek acceptance from this group claiming to be modern thinkers. But they are not thinking. They are just trampling on the things that some of us clasp so tightly in our hands because we don't want to lose the bits of ourselves reminding us of the trials we have experienced."
Henry paced the room in silence as Sapphire watched his anger from her words filter through his thoughts before returning to bed.
Six weeks later they disembarked on the shore of this new world in a place called Weccacoe.
◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐
Sapphire scooped a handful of blueberries and fed her husband the fruit one morsel at a time. He straddled the bench in the yard after peeling off the wool vest he wore. When her hand was free from the berries, Sapphire pulled her apron from her waist and blotted the beads of sweat from husband's brow. "Margaret and I spoke of Ukko Kokko today,"
"No. We are Christian now. There is no more of the,"
"Careful husband. You are speaking to me as if you,"
"Careful wife. You are speaking as if the community we find ourselves tolerates the wellspring of your temperament and you know that in this place, men have greater importance than women. If someone is eavesdropping, I will be mocked and you will be punished."
Sapphire sighed. She was raised in a community where men and women were treated with an equality that was unheard of globally. Turku, Finland was home to paved streets and brick homes. It hosted trade and culture. Men and women had importance in the community. There were some that said there was no sex in Finland. More definitive would be to say that gender was neither a help nor hindrance in the success or failure of a Finn. The nuances of differences were celebrated. Meritorious work was rewarded regardless of the employed. But now this mish-mash of people with whom they surrounded themselves were primarily from Sweden although there were many cultures and global ethnicities. The diversity seemed to expand with every shipload of immigrants. And to Sapphire's great dismay, the inequality of men and women seemed to be the norm with most of them.
Safiiri and Henrick Houshmeis, as they were known in Turku, worked together. Safiiri made intricate bobbin lace and Henrick sold the creations to dressmakers. Neither was more important than the other to the household. Safiiri moved her fingers manipulating threads sharply and with precision as if her fingers were made of fine needles warping through wefts. Henrick worked to find people willing to purchase the lace, adding the beauty of each piece to their clothing or linen designs. If not for Henrick's ability to sell the products in the marketplace, Safiiri's work would be pointless. And without Safiiri's work to sell, Henrick would be empty handed.
In looking around her yard at the black walnut trees she used to make soap, while her husband sells the soaps in what they call town, Sapphire had a longing to go home. While she was in Turku, she pushed social boundaries and wanted to be anywhere but. However, being on the other side of the world, she felt homesick.
Henry removed the ruffle collar from his neck. He never wore less than expected. A long stay, breeches, stockings, blouse, vest, neck ruff, and in the colder months, a coat. Atop his head, Henry was rarely seen without a brimmed hat. Shoes were made of leather with a mid-rise heel tied properly with ribbon. Sapphire however, would frequently wear the minimum that was socially accepted. A stay and dress were staples. Beneath, ladies in the community wore petticoats. The older the lady, the greater number of petticoats. "By this definition," Sapphire mocked, "when my bones ache with age, I shall have to lumber around with the added heft of undergarments. And because of that age and that ache, no man nor woman will offer to assist with disrobing me." On the occasion she did pull a petticoat under her dress, she only wore one layer that was trimmed with lace made by her hands. Rarely did she wear stockings, usually pressing her bare feet directly into the leather shoes when she wore them. And the ribbons she threaded through the leather were colorful, frequently matching her dress, but moreso a bright blue color reflecting the name she chose to wear. When going to town, fixed with the same gem stone she wore during her journey to America, Sapphire wrapped a kerchief around her neck covering most of the skin from her neck to her bosom. When leaving the house, a bonnet was worn on her head covering every bit of hair as it was the mark of an unchaste woman to share the beauty and sexual flirtation of untamed locks. But in her home and in the sunshine of her yard, Sapphire was much less modest and allowed her skin to breathe unfiltered air as much as she could.
Sapphire took another handful of berries to eat from her fingertips. "Margaret and Nils are from Sweden. They know of the midsummer celebration." She bit her lip and raised her eyebrows looking into her husband's eyes. "We've changed so much just to move here and fit in. But what if there is a group of other people here who also feel like they don't fit in? What if we are all sitting quietly in church when what we want to do is light the fire,"
"You don't always need to be the one to create the spark."
Sapphire looked up from her space on the floor. She was wearing a long blue dress made from wool. The sleeves looked like bells flaring out from the elbows. The ruffle peeking out from the edges around her shoulders revealed she wore a proper stay. However, she sat with her bare bottom resting on cool stone where she had rolled the rug away from the floor with the fabric of her dress pulled up in folds around her waist.
"I'm covered," she insisted and stood to smooth the wool over her legs.
"You are exposed."
"I am hot. The sun blazes in the yard and the only relief I have is to press my skin along the stones."
Henry kicked the rug back into place and walked to the table under a window. He poured water into a cup and drank so quickly Sapphire heard his throat gulp it from her place at the back door. She fanned herself with a white apron and muttered, "So hot your throat gallops to refreshment."
Henry drank more and then replaced the pitcher in it's stance. He walked to his wife and dragged the back of his hand along the strands of her golden hair. Looking into the backyard, he noticed a basket hanging on a sturdy branch of a black walnut tree. "From whence did you yield the berries?"
"Neighbor Margaret."
"We are not doing this again wife," Henry demanded and then stormed outside to pull the basket from the tree.
Sapphire followed behind him while increasing the volume of her voice to continue her sentence, "Neighbor Margaret took me for a walk in the woods to show me free land where wild blueberries grow!" She paused a moment and then growled the words, "Is that acceptable, husband?"
◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑◑
Henry referred to the incident that brought the couple to America from Turku, Finland. Sapphire had a habit of harvesting the neighbor's raspberries. She offered to make pies and compotes for the neighbor, but refused to stop claiming them as her own. When the neighbor built a stone wall to separate the land, it was assumed the pilfering would cease. But, Sapphire insisted on taking the raspberries. She pried stones from the wall through which she pulled the branches of the bush. Eventually, the wall hosted a hole three feet in size so she had no obstacle in procuring the fruit.
The neighbor claimed it was thievery. Sapphire declared jokamiehenoikeus; loosely translated to mean open land is every man's space. The court ruled although open land may be cultivated by anyone looking to benefit from the resources, land that has been purchased as property cannot be used for public benefit without the express permission of the landowner. And this neighbor certainly did not give permission.
Sapphire never seemed to concede that she had acted without regard to the work done to tend the berries. The neighbor even offered to gift a cutting with lessons on how to care for the bushes but Sapphire refused saying she would not interfere with the natural replenishment of the earth.
Hushed insults were murmured as the couple walked through Turku. Henry's mercantile business suffered and the small group with whom they socialized became less and less congenial to the couple behind their backs as well as to their faces. The reputation and success of the household suffered. In the end, Henry and Sapphire packed up the things they wanted to carry with them to start anew taking a ferry to Sweden.
At the very moment their ferry docked in Sweden, a ship was loading cargo and passengers to sail to the other side of the world.
"Come Henrick, our papers are in order."
"We are not on that ship's manifest. We are to sail to Britain."
"We were looking for Friendship, and there it is!" Sapphire pointed to the big gold letters on the side of the ship reading the word. She insisted, "I am going."
And she did. Henrick's wife left his side with a smirk on her face looking back to him and ran up the gangplank. She called as if she was speaking to someone on the ship and waved away comments from the officers checking boarding passengers. Henry tried to keep his eyes on her but she moved in and out of his sight. Finally, he pulled his cap down around his ears and stood in line to get aboard the ship. When there was the opportunity to move forward without suspicion, Henry pressed his way through the side just as Sapphire did. When the officers were distracted with an argument requiring force to subdue folks who grew impatient, Henry pulled the collar of his jacket close to his face and walked onto the ship looking for his wife.
He found her sitting in a deck chair speaking with passengers as if they were old pals.
"Oh Henrick, did they figure out that business with our tickets?"
Henry looked at his wife in silence as she told the people with whom she sat how the officers accused them of having the wrong tickets for the ship. She was hiding in plain sight. She was justifying walking into the place she knew she did not belong by stating unequivocally that she did not belong there. Henry was amazed at the brazen nature of the woman he takes into his arms while he lay in bed.
And because of a fight back at the dock, which turned out to be a scuffle leading to an unfortunate stabbing during which the victim was calling out nonsensical words, the boarding was closed and the ship sailed without reaching capacity. Those left behind would be able to sail during the next voyage in a few weeks. It was through these coincidences that Henry and Sapphire found themselves in private quarters locked behind a door. Henry of course was nervous he would be questioned as Sapphire assured him that, if discovered, they would only need to pay for the voyage they were taking and not the one intended.
"And what do we do when we reach this new world? We have no friends there. No family. We have no home or jobs. It took weeks to arrange things in Britain! Woman, we have nothing."
"Henrick, darling. We have everything. We have a new world of possibility. I heard they haven't got roads or shops or anything in this new world. We are going there with nothing more than nature provides us; that is to say, everything that nature has given us without the expectation of man and the obstacles he puts before the earth."
"They are a Christian people," Henry reminded his wife to stop talking of the Finnish goddesses.
Sapphire nodded her head and waved away the comment. When she was finished brushing her hair before she climbed into the bed next to her husband, she pinned a blue gemstone to fix a kerchief around her neck.
"You shouldn't sleep with that."
"It is the one thing I never want to lose."
Henry considered for a moment that his wife meant all else can be forgotten, but the brooch of sapphire would always be possessed by her. He considered that he was a part of the things she would disregard and forget. When she acted, he was perplexed by her running alone onto a ship knowing no one to whom she ran. But looking at her in the dim light from the porthole, he was troubled at how easily she ran from him, leaving him to be the one alone.
Henry pulled his fingers through Sapphire's hair. She could feel the unease from his fingertips.
"Darling, we picked up everything we could carry and moved from our parents into our little home. That was ten steps away from what we knew. We picked up everything we could carry with the intention of escaping the scrutiny and humiliation we faced with the neighbors. We were going another ten steps,"
Henry interrupted, "We were sailing to Britain which is farther than ten steps."
Sapphire sat up and drew Henry's hands into hers pulling him into a sitting position as well. "Ten steps or ten thousand, it matters not." Sapphire sighed heavily as she decided on the words to use. "The goddesses have placed before us a series of occurrences allowing us safe," she pulled her hands into the air around her gesturing to the corners of the cabin, "and comfortable passage into the next part of our lives. It seems to me it was the intention of Luonnotor when she put the insatiable desire in my belly for those raspberries that she wanted me to be a part of an unblemished piece of earth." Sapphire closed her eyes and clasped her hands together as she said, "And, Vellamo will keep us safe while we are on the water."
Henry grasped Sapphire's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "You mustn't speak of the goddesses in the new world. It is a Christian society."
Sapphire wriggled free from Henry's grip and said, "I will not change who I am in here," as she pressed her fingertips to her head.
"You speak of old stories. Nothing more. There are no goddesses caring for you and certainly not working together to bring you to a new home."
"Why not? They must be working at something. Why not me?"
"They are stories!"
"So is everything! The problem is not that I believe the stories of goddesses providing for me; the problem, dearest love, is that you believe in nothing and are able to relinquish one story for another without regard for the things you know to be true. You cannot entertain the possibility of truth in the antiquities because you seek acceptance from this group claiming to be modern thinkers. But they are not thinking. They are just trampling on the things that some of us clasp so tightly in our hands because we don't want to lose the bits of ourselves reminding us of the trials we have experienced."
Henry paced the room in silence as Sapphire watched his anger from her words filter through his thoughts before returning to bed.
Six weeks later they disembarked on the shore of this new world in a place called Weccacoe.
◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐◐
Sapphire scooped a handful of blueberries and fed her husband the fruit one morsel at a time. He straddled the bench in the yard after peeling off the wool vest he wore. When her hand was free from the berries, Sapphire pulled her apron from her waist and blotted the beads of sweat from husband's brow. "Margaret and I spoke of Ukko Kokko today,"
"No. We are Christian now. There is no more of the,"
"Careful husband. You are speaking to me as if you,"
"Careful wife. You are speaking as if the community we find ourselves tolerates the wellspring of your temperament and you know that in this place, men have greater importance than women. If someone is eavesdropping, I will be mocked and you will be punished."
Sapphire sighed. She was raised in a community where men and women were treated with an equality that was unheard of globally. Turku, Finland was home to paved streets and brick homes. It hosted trade and culture. Men and women had importance in the community. There were some that said there was no sex in Finland. More definitive would be to say that gender was neither a help nor hindrance in the success or failure of a Finn. The nuances of differences were celebrated. Meritorious work was rewarded regardless of the employed. But now this mish-mash of people with whom they surrounded themselves were primarily from Sweden although there were many cultures and global ethnicities. The diversity seemed to expand with every shipload of immigrants. And to Sapphire's great dismay, the inequality of men and women seemed to be the norm with most of them.
Safiiri and Henrick Houshmeis, as they were known in Turku, worked together. Safiiri made intricate bobbin lace and Henrick sold the creations to dressmakers. Neither was more important than the other to the household. Safiiri moved her fingers manipulating threads sharply and with precision as if her fingers were made of fine needles warping through wefts. Henrick worked to find people willing to purchase the lace, adding the beauty of each piece to their clothing or linen designs. If not for Henrick's ability to sell the products in the marketplace, Safiiri's work would be pointless. And without Safiiri's work to sell, Henrick would be empty handed.
In looking around her yard at the black walnut trees she used to make soap, while her husband sells the soaps in what they call town, Sapphire had a longing to go home. While she was in Turku, she pushed social boundaries and wanted to be anywhere but. However, being on the other side of the world, she felt homesick.
Henry removed the ruffle collar from his neck. He never wore less than expected. A long stay, breeches, stockings, blouse, vest, neck ruff, and in the colder months, a coat. Atop his head, Henry was rarely seen without a brimmed hat. Shoes were made of leather with a mid-rise heel tied properly with ribbon. Sapphire however, would frequently wear the minimum that was socially accepted. A stay and dress were staples. Beneath, ladies in the community wore petticoats. The older the lady, the greater number of petticoats. "By this definition," Sapphire mocked, "when my bones ache with age, I shall have to lumber around with the added heft of undergarments. And because of that age and that ache, no man nor woman will offer to assist with disrobing me." On the occasion she did pull a petticoat under her dress, she only wore one layer that was trimmed with lace made by her hands. Rarely did she wear stockings, usually pressing her bare feet directly into the leather shoes when she wore them. And the ribbons she threaded through the leather were colorful, frequently matching her dress, but moreso a bright blue color reflecting the name she chose to wear. When going to town, fixed with the same gem stone she wore during her journey to America, Sapphire wrapped a kerchief around her neck covering most of the skin from her neck to her bosom. When leaving the house, a bonnet was worn on her head covering every bit of hair as it was the mark of an unchaste woman to share the beauty and sexual flirtation of untamed locks. But in her home and in the sunshine of her yard, Sapphire was much less modest and allowed her skin to breathe unfiltered air as much as she could.
Sapphire took another handful of berries to eat from her fingertips. "Margaret and Nils are from Sweden. They know of the midsummer celebration." She bit her lip and raised her eyebrows looking into her husband's eyes. "We've changed so much just to move here and fit in. But what if there is a group of other people here who also feel like they don't fit in? What if we are all sitting quietly in church when what we want to do is light the fire,"
"You don't always need to be the one to create the spark."
