Casey A Clark

Birthday Gifts

Nothing burned like sunshine on skin scrubbed raw with lye soap and steel wool. Traders were coming to West this morning. Display was to begin just before the second feed. Dune cringed when Bell’s rough hands turned him around to inspect his face and hair. Before his bath, she had given him a portion of her morning meal as a gift for what was considered the start of his twentieth year. This was not how he wanted to celebrate.