Year of Wonders Reader's Response #1

Apple-Picking Time

        This section of the book is set in the year 1666 and describes many characters relevant to the main plot. What the reader learns is that Anna, the protagonist of the story, marries young through the support of her step-mother, Aphra: she's only fifteen when she marries Sam Frith. They had "three good years" together, having two children before Sam unexpectedly dies in a mining accident. What surprised me most was how Anna describes Sam after he died, suggesting he meant little to her other than a husband: she calls him "poor slow Sam" and reveals that Sam has "a life in the dark. And a death there, too" (Brooks, 8-9). 

        Shifting the perspective back to the present day, Anna goes about her day. She is a maid for the rector of the village, Mr. Mompellion. There is lots of foreshadowing. In the opening of the novel, Anna states that it is apple-picking time (hence, the title of the chapter), yet "There are so few people to do the picking. So few people to do anything. And those of us who are left walk around as it we're half asleep. We are all so tired" (Brooks, 3). What happened to the village that caused people to vanish and the rest to be so tired? Another source of inquiry for me comes from the way Mr. Mompellion refuses to help Elizabeth Bradford and her family, the elite class of the village that apparently disappeared when many in the village needed help. Isn't a rector supposed to help one that is in need despite their previous wrongdoings? I don't blame him, however. Elizabeth seems like an uptight, arrogant girl. 

        So, my thoughts thus far are this: Anna was somehow connected, and most likely close to Elinor Mompellion, the rector's wife. She isn't present in 1666, so I assume that she has passed away. Is the rector acting the way he is simply because he is sad because of all the misery that occurred in the village, or is there something more to attribute to his sadness? What is Elizabeth Bradford's mother's condition? If so many people have died already, why is it so important that that her mother is ill and may possibly die?