She no longer endures this bending.

She pressed her belly with both hands and moaned. She wanted to stand up from her bending positions, but she couldn’t. She fell down on the grass like a rolling ball. She pressed her belly harder when pain squeezed her and her moans grew louder.

She no longer endures bending. She cleans the ground and picks up the fruits that have fallen from the lofty trees. She no longer… Intense pain is sawing her back in two all the time, depriving her of any enjoyment. She no longer…

She looked around herself and saw only palm and olive trees filling the void and gazing at the sky indifferently. The pain intensified. She bit off the edge of her dress. Her thin face shrank and grew paler. She writhed on the ground for a while. Pain leads her to the verge of death but she doesn’t die. She delights for a moment in the fact that death is approaching to offer her rest, but she doesn’t die.

Life ensnares her so she suffers and writhes again. Suffering the most intense pain, she suddenly shuddered and stood up. A shrill cry overwhelmed her and echoed in the silent universe surrounding her.

***

The olives, which she had collected in her lap, scattered all around her. A joy of emancipation seemed to dance between her legs. She looked downward: These black-eyed fruits looking back at her definitely don’t suffer. This grass under her feet definitely doesn’t suffer, either... And then she saw patches of red spreading on the grass.

A viscous liquid—a mixture of red and yellow—poured forth from between her thighs, and it was followed by a pain that paralyzed her entire body. But she squatted, opening her thighs, and a mass of blue flesh came out, screaming and announcing life.

She grabbed a neglected piece of glass, shook it off, and spat on it. Then she wiped it off with her dress and cut the umbilical cord.

She pulled a rag from those wrapped around her head and swaddled the newborn baby. Then she sat under the trunk of the palm tree, breast-feeding her, but “fresh ripe dates didn’t fall upon her.”

She made a cradle for the newborn baby from straw and put her to sleep. Filled with remnants of pain, and a bit of malaise and exhaustion, she resumed picking up the scattered olives.

She bent again. Thus, pain hammered the nails of hell into her back. She crawled on the ground, chasing the wayward fruits.

She looked at the smiling afternoon sun, which was flirting passionately with everything around, and then at the almost empty bag thrown aside. She resumed wiping the sweat of exhaustion and struggle; perhaps she could fill the bag with fruits before nightfall, to earn her daily wage.

***

The employer will not pay a worker whose bag is not filled and who spent half of her day struggling with the pain of labor. The employer is not interested in any of these things. If she’s not able to work, she must leave her place for someone else: This is what he will say to her with his husky voice, while spit sprays out of the corners of his mouth and his rude gaze is fixed on her from his reddish bulgy eyes, which have become two embers.

She crawled further, scrutinizing the earth. She chased the wayward fruits until she was gasping and exhausted to the core. She became pale and weak. Her baby cried, asking for milk.

She looked at the bag, which would not be easily filled. She looked at her hypoplastic breasts which didn’t produce sufficient milk. She saw a cold night drawing nearer; her drunken husband welcoming her with his belt and beating her cruelly until she passed out because she didn’t give him her daily wage, then throwing her and her baby to the dogs. She saw dogs tearing into her flesh and dragging her baby.

She woke up in the morning, licking her wounds. She looked at the little money in her hand and became delighted: With all his might, her husband couldn’t take it from her. She then danced to the idea that had already ripened in her mind.

***

She shopped around the city to buy a dress that would suit her, show off the svelteness of her seductive youthful body, and match the pure complexion of her skin despite its paleness.

She let down her soft black hair for light and wind to play with. Then she went to visit her employer, strutting in her high heels and her lavishly elegant dress.

Surprised and fascinated, the employer looked into her deep eyes. He cleared the way for her and her baby.

He pulled over a chair and attached it to another, making a cradle out of the seats for the baby. He grabbed her hand and put his other hand on her thin waist. Pointing to the women who were diligently bending and picking up the black fruits, he said with his husky voice, while spit sprayed out of the corners of his mouth, “I have informed them that you will be their supervisor and your wage will be doubled from here on out.”

She was overcome with joy. She looked at her calm, sleeping baby, promising her warmth and abundant milk, though at that moment she felt that her bending increased and her backaches doubled.