Posted in Posted by C.S. Lewis

Jessie was sitting with some of the women when D'Arcy walked over to her and sat down. He was holding something in his hand, but Jessie did not notice it at first; she was too busy braiding strains of leather together. She had no idea what it was going to be used for, but the woman had been teaching her how to do it.

D'Arcy watched her in silence, then he touched her arm to get her attention. “Jessie?” he asked.

She looked up and smiled at him. “Aye?”

He grinned, and held the bowl out to her. Jessie looked inside, and saw it was full of wiggling, white slugs. She looked up at D'Arcy, wondering what he wanted her to do with them. He noticed the look of confusion, and for a moment he looked confused to.

“Doesn't everyone know what to do with these?” he seemed to be saying. However, he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, reached in the bowl, and grabbed one of the grubs. With an encouraging smile, he placed the grub in his mouth, and chewed.

Jessie felt sick. He didna dae what I thought he did, she tried to convince herself. He held the bowl out to her again, and she knew she was in for it. Sure, she ate Nate's cooking, but eating a grub was pushing it; wasn't it? Even she would not go that far!

D'Arcy did not take his eyes from her face. He seemed to be searching for the right word; when he finally found it Jessie had to smile, it was one of the words she had taught him.

“Eat!” he declared in triumph.

Jessie shook her head. “I canna!” she gasped; she looked down at the writhing grubs again. “I dinna eat bug D'Arcy!”

The only word he understood was eat and D'Arcy. He grinned even wider, and grabbed another one. He popped that one in his mouth, and ate it happily. Jessie closed her eyes and clenched her stomach, but D'Arcy did not seem to notice her agony. In fact, he went so far as to pick one up and held it out to her.

Jessie tried to pull back, but there was such a look of delight in D'Arcy's eyes, that she knew she couldn't. He was trying to be friendly to her, and share, apparently, a rare treat with her.

“Father, I think this is the weirdest think I've e'er done,” she whispered as she slowly took the grub from D'Arcy.

The fat thing wiggled between her fingers as she held it; she looked more closely at it and saw two beady black eyes; they seemed to be looking right at her.

“I canna dae this!” she moaned, she tried to hand it back, but D'Arcy wouldn't take it. He made eating motions.

Jessie screwed up her face, held her breath, and did whatever else she could think of to make it easier. She then looked at D'Arcy one last time and whispered, “'Tis yer fault if I die!” then she placed the grub in her mouth.

At first nothing happened, it just sat on her tongue. Then, it began to move around, and she almost choked. She could feel it crawling around inside her mouth, little feet on her tongue. She almost choked, but forced herself to remain clam. She decided not to chew it like D'Arcy did, but to swallow quickly. With one defiant gulp she swallowed, and nearly lost it.

She could feel it sliding all the way down, feet tickling her throat. Once it was down Jessie closed her eyes, and fought back the sick feeling in her gut. When she opened her eyes D'Arcy was grinning at her; at least he looked pleased. All Jessie could think of was how she had a grub wiggling about in her gut.

D'Arcy held the bowl out to her again, but Jessie knew without a doubt that she could not go through that again. Without a word she leaped up, and scrambled away to get a breath of fresh air; and tried not to loose her dinner-and the grub.