Needs

Writers: Chelle, Paula
Date Posted: 10th March 2010

Characters: Qorri, Calla
Description: Qorri notices Calla standing aside and thinks about his needs.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 8, day 2 of Turn 5

Qorri walked around the kitchens and the dining caverns, pleased to see
everyone hard at work. Stopping here and there to taste a sauce or to
answer a question from one of her staffers, she made her rounds.

Calla had finished his previous task, and since nobody had given him a
new one, he was standing at the corner, unmoving, his hands hanging
limply at his side. Picking up a new job without anybody telling him to
was beyond his mental capacity. He could stand there for candlemarks
until someone gave him an order.

Qorri noticed him after she finished speaking to one of the bakers.
Walking up to him slowly, she nodded to the drudge. "Calla, you are
done?"

"Ye-ee-ye-yes ma-ma'am," Calla managed to stutter out with a nod.

"Come Calla," she said gently, then led him to a counter. It was full
of meat. The meat needed to be tenderized. She handed him the mallet.

"Can you?" He had done this before and she wanted to know if he remembered.

Calla nodded again. It was easier than talking. He knew this woman was
the new boss, although he couldn't remember her name. The old one had
gone somewhere else. People's names often slipped from his mind, but
their faces stayed. And if his mind didn't always remember, his body
did. When he was given a tool, he usually knew what he was supposed to
do with it. Bucket meant he had to bring water, broom meant brushing
floors etc.

Letting him have the mallet, she moved aside, watching him from the
corner of her eye as she spoke softly to one of the women nearby. The
woman would watch Calla, making sure he knew what to do afterward.

Calla worked with the meat with machine-like tiredness and precision.
His mind was young and strong, as long as he wasn't required to think,
he coped just fine.

"Good Calla, very good." Qorri made a mental note to try to assign
someone to oversee him everyday, to make sure he went from one task to
another. She could do it easily when she made up the chore list.

The young man grinned, happy with the praise.

"I think we'll have him dig tubers tomorrow," she said to herself.
Might be good for Calla to have a change in tasks and get outside.

Calla couldn't say himself when something was enough. He was beating
the meat and in danger of turning it into a pulp or minced meat.

Seeing things were finished, Qorri moved in and stood before him. "Stop
now," she said clearly, though in a normal voice.

Calla stopped pummelling the meat and looked at her with a question in his
eyes.

She took the mallet and gestured for another staffer to take the meat
where it would be used to make patties and other lovely things. "Wash
up." She pointed to the sink.

Calla nodded and went obediently to wash up.

Last updated on the May 3rd 2010

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Needs