A Life That's So Demanding

Gerard and I had been friend now for over 3 years. I was now 10 and he was 12. We still meet up every few days but we can’t as often as we’d like to. You see, not that I’d gotten older I had to start working for the family. I was now a slave, but I didn’t have to do any hard labour yet. I was only a crop gatherer.

Also, since Gerard had come of age, he’d had to start doing his royal duties, meeting with other upper class families and things like that. He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but he didn’t really have a choice. His father was the Pharaoh after all.

The sun was almost scorching on my skin as I made my way to the palace. I’d been there so many times that it was extremely easy to know where the guards would be and when I could get passed them. I double checked that the coast was clear before I slipped through the window of the basement. Losing my footing slightly I ended up landing on my butt. I groaned, rubbing my butt before I heard someone giggling and I stopped.

“Same old Frankie.” Gerard said, smiling as he shook his head slightly. I grinned, getting to my feet and quickly wrapping Gerard into a tight hug.

“Hey Gee.” I murmured. When we pulled away from the hug Gerard ruffled my hair, making me glare at him slightly before we sat down together. He pulled out some sheets of papyrus and a quill and ink, setting it out in front of us. Over the past few years Gerard had been teaching me to read and write hieroglyphics. I found it incredibly nice of him to spend so much time helping me.

We went over the usual stuff, him writing out a sentence, I then read it aloud and copied the sentence down. This went on for a while before we stopped and just ended up talking. We hadn’t seen each other in over a week after all.

“So how’s life as a crop gatherer?” he asked, putting the papyrus back into a box.

“Oh you know, same old same old.” I said “What about you? Having fun doing your duties?” I asked, knowing that he hated it.

“Urg, don’t get me started on that. It’s so boring! And Mikey just makes it worse.” He said. Mikey was now 6 and Gerard had decided that he was the most annoying person in the world. I of course hadn’t met him, but I had seen him occasionally when they made royal visits to our village.

“Oh, I can imagine.” I said, giggling. He just shoved me playfully.

“Shut up, it’s still annoying. And plus that fact that my father isn’t well.” He said.

“Really? How so?” I asked.

“Well he just generally looks unhealthy and spends most of the day in bed.” He explained, looking down slightly.

“Oh, well I hope he gets better soon.” I said, reaching out my hand to grab his, trying to comfort him. It may seem slightly weird but this was normality for us. We always held each other’s hands and hugged randomly, I’m not sure if that’s normal, but it’s normal for us.

“Thanks Frankie.” He said, offering a small smile.

“No problem.” I said, rubbing my thumb over his knuckles softly.