"You are talking in riddles. Don't you trust me?"
Sullha shook her head. "I trust you more than you know, but if something goes wrong, the less you know, the less trouble you'll be in."
Burda set the trowel down, wiped her hands again, and stood up with a grunt and the sound of cracking knees.
"All right. I'll help you without asking any questions. For now."
"Thank you."
Burda responded with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"We start with Karina," she said. "She is probably going to refuse, so we can cross her off your list. She's not much of a team player."
"You're the boss," Sullha agreed. "You decide the order."
Burda nodded. "We will end with your mother, because she's going to refuse as well."
Karina lived in dormitory number five. Burda led the way through the corridors, and Sullha followed.
When they reached the right door, Burda knocked. "It's Burda. Can I come in?"
Silence from inside the room.
"I'm here to see Karina."
Another silence. Then the small sound of a chair being pushed back. Then footsteps. Then the door opened a few inches, and a woman's face appeared in the gap.
"What is it?"
"Good morning, Karina. This is my friend Sullha. She works in the garden with me, and she wants to talk to you."
Number Five's mother was thin, with a few gray strands woven through her light brown hair, and blue eyes that, thankfully, lacked the religious fervor of the Sacred Mothers. They were dimmed, in the way the eyes of many of the women in the enclosure were, but she didn't look nearly as dead on the inside as Sullha's mother.
Karina's eyes moved from Burda to Sullha and back to Burda.
"About what?"
"A teaching position," Sullha said. "Saphira needs help with the younger children, and I'm collecting possible candidates to meet with her tonight at six at the playground to discuss it. I was told that you might be interested."
Karina blinked. "Who said that?"
Sullha shrugged. "After talking to so many women, I don't remember who recommended whom. I'm visiting every woman on the list I compiled."
"I am not a teacher."
"No one is born a teacher," Sullha said. "Some feel it's their calling, but others need some coercing before they start and then discover that they love it. I have a five-year-old boy, and I help in Saphira's class because she needs the help and because working with the little ones brings joy to my heart."
"I am not good with kids."
"You don't know that. You might discover that you are. Besides, some of the tasks are about organizing supplies and other things that don't involve direct interaction with the children. Come to the meeting. Listen. If at the end you decide that it is not for you, you can leave. But you should at least give it a chance, even if it's just for the spirit of camaraderie. You can volunteer for as much or as little as you are comfortable with."
Karina seemed conflicted, which was good because she wasn't refusing outright.
"I will think about it," she said.
"We are meeting at the playground this evening at six. Come so you can hear what it's all about and then think about it."
"I will think about it." Karina closed the door.
