Another Me Read Online Free Page B

blackness.
    —
    Shadows filled the chamber when I awoke. My eyes traveled around a grand room I had never seen before. Mama was sitting on one side of my bed, Elena on the other. I must be dreaming, I told myself. But I didn’t want the dream to end, so I closed my eyes again.
    “He is awake!” Elena cried.
    Mama leaned over me and patted my face with roughened fingers. “Are you finally with us again, my son?”
    “Where am I?” My eyes rested on a huge fireplace, on carved furniture and on walls hung with tapestries.
    “You’re in my home,” Elena said.
    I tried to speak, but my mouth was so parched that no sound came out. Mama held a cup to my lips. The ale tasted bitter.
    “You had us worried,” she said. “We were about to send for the surgeon to apply leeches to you.” She laughed at my disgusted expression. “Elena’s father saved your life, just as you saved the life of Meyer the moneylender.” She wiped away a tear. “That was a brave thing you did. Brave but unwise.”
    I tried to sit up, but pain exploded in my head. I lifted my hand and explored the thick bandage wound around my temple.
    “What happened?”
    “It was gallant of you to defend the old man,” Elena said.
    “Brave but foolish,” Mama repeated in a severe voice. “First your father and now you…What next?”
    “What happened to the moneylender?”
    “When his attackers turned on you, he crawled away into the crowd,” Elena said. “Nobody was paying attention to him. Everybody was watching you. The old man somehow made his way home.”
    “He is resting in his bed,” Mama said. “His wife was here a short while ago to ask about your health. She saysthat her husband will recover.” She bent over me and straightened my covering. “Do you want more ale?”
    I shook my head gently. “Why am I here?”
    “Hans ran to get my father when you were attacked.”
    “As soon as Master Wilhelm appeared, Kaspar the butcher ran away,” Mama explained. “He is a devil but too cowardly to tangle with a man as respected as Wilhelm the draper.”
    “My father had you carried to our house,” Elena added. “He said it would be safer for you to heal here than in your own home. Nobody would dare to bother you here.” She bent over me to straighten my blanket. “The inhabitants of our city hate your people so much. I just don’t understand why.”
    “They hate us because we are moneylenders and men of commerce. They forget that these are the only professions open to us—that all other trades are forbidden to us,” I explained. “They don’t know that the city government takes most of our profits away. We must charge high interest in order to pay the taxes that have been imposed upon us in return for protection by the city.”
    “Enough talk! You must rest!” Mama said. “We can never repay Master Wilhelm’s kindness,” she added, her voice thick with emotion.
    She stood up and marched to the doorway with Elena in her footsteps. But just before she followed mymother out of the room, my beloved locked eyes with me and gave a little smile. I hugged that smile to my heart as I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
    —
    I began to feel like myself as the days passed. My bruises faded from black and blue to an interesting shade of amber. And although my heart was filled with joy whenever I saw Elena, I missed my family. I decided to tell her father that I wanted to go home.
    I was on my way to find him when I heard voices drifting out of a small chamber down the hall from the room where I was staying. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could tell that a man and a woman were talking to each other. I thought it must be Wilhelm and Elena, and I decided this was my chance to thank the master draper for saving my life and to tell him that I wanted to return to my family. I also wanted to offer him my services in repayment for his kindness.
    As I approached the chamber, I noticed that the curtain over the doorway was