The Burning Wharf

"The Christianic Woman"

"The woman has been like this ever since she began this Christianic stuff," he explained dismissively. "Magya, do you think that your fine house here has grown by itself?" His broad hands swept the air, as though gathering together the rich fabrics that lined the walls of the large room. In the center of it, Magya slumped noticeably at the words.

"It's Christian, as you know," she said. "And I have always been 'like this'. For all the years you have had me here--wanting a world in which people's children were not seized and raped and taken to foreign lands."

"You came quite willingly, as I recall," Jor said. "I found Magya in a little village in Hungaria," he explained to me, "It was in the early days when I was trading in metals." Now his look took in the children as well. "You might today have a fine gypsy family, a hard-working tin miner for a husband."

"I went willingly," she replied. "We would wish for more choices."