Aiti

Margy lives alone. One night just before Christmas 1946 there is a knock on the door.

Already incapable of mirth Margy opens it to find her youngest brother standing there holding a child. What do you want, she says.

Here is Rose, says her brother John. Rachel is sick again.

You mean drunk, says Margy.

Just let me in. John pushes past her. Inside the disheveled kitchen sits their other sister Inith.

My husband has been living with another woman Inith says.

All three sit while the sleeping girl Rose lies on a bed by the window. They start to dance and soon John has left and the women have gone to bed.

Early in the morning before sunrise Margy awakens to screaming. Someone is hurt. It is Rose awakening to a dark room and no one she knows. A drunk parent can be better than no one.

Margy falls off the bed and then goes into the other room. Rose is mollified but only just. Tell me a story she says.

And so it begins the story of Aru, the Last Chieftess.