Episode #25: 2 Christopher - Chapter 4 - Work

Jan,15 2026

<-#24: 2 Christopher - Chapter 3 - Immitation#26: 2 Christopher - Chapter 5 - Widow ->

On work rediscovered, quiet strength, and the ones who already know

4:1

On the first morning I was brought to the community fields,

I expected to be an inconvenience.

4:2

Christopher said nothing,

but one of the men took my chair

and placed me where the rows were narrow.

4:3

He handed me a basket and said,

"Take what is ripe."

4:4

I hesitated,

for I had grown accustomed to tasks being taken from me.

4:5

But as I reached forward,

I found that the plants met me easily.

4:6

What others did by bending,

I did by sitting.

4:7

My hands moved steadily,

and my back did not protest.

4:8

I worked for an hour

before I realized

that no one had been watching me fail.

4:9

A man beside me spoke,

not looking up.

"France?"

4:10

I said, "Verdun."

4:11

He nodded once and said,

"Ypres."

4:12

We did not speak again for some time.

4:13

Later I noticed that several among us

walked stiffly,

or carried silence in their shoulders.

4:14

No one named it,

but I recognized the shape of it.

4:15

A woman came behind me then

and placed her hands on the handles of my chair.

4:16

She said,

"You'll work faster if you don't fight the row."

4:17

She guided me gently,

as one guides a wheelbarrow,

without apology or explanation.

4:18

Her name was Myriam.

4:19

She spoke easily,

laughed rarely but honestly,

and worked harder than anyone nearby.

4:20

She did not ask about my legs.

4:21

At midday we rested,

and someone brought water.

4:22

Christopher passed among us,

checking the baskets,

adjusting a tool,

saying little.

4:23

When he reached me,

he looked only at my hands.

4:24

He nodded once,

as if a question had been answered.

4:25

Later I learned that Myriam

was the youngest daughter

of the man who wrote the first book.

4:26

She had been raised on stories,

not memories.

4:27

She said once,

"My father died before I could know him,

but he left us something living."

4:28

I did not yet understand

how close she stood to my future.

4:29

That day,

I returned to my room tired,

and grateful.

4:30

And for the first time since the war,

my body had served life

instead of destroying it.

<-#24: 2 Christopher - Chapter 3 - Immitation#26: 2 Christopher - Chapter 5 - Widow ->