heres one of my homework assignments on co-wives:

Co-wives

Miriam ran through fields of daffodils and crocuses and lilies and every other flower you can think of, the pollen stained her laced dress orange. Her golden hair bounced above her shoulder in ringlets, she lay on the bed of flowers and stared at the masses of clouds above her, trying to make out a picture of some sort. A smile spread across her pretty face as she made out a rabbit wearing a dress, sunbathing on a book. Suddenly, the sky turned black and rain clouds invaded the sky, the rabbit hurried off, and water began pelting down, except the rain wasn’t normal, the droplets were hot, boiling hot…

Miriam looked down and another hot splatter hit her face from the boiling pot of soup, she hurriedly lifted the bubbling, copper pot with her fragile arms but then dropped it again as the heat burnt her fingers. A stream of broth poured from the vessel, Miriam picked up the pot (that was somewhat lighter) trying to save what was left;
A few leaves and not even an inch of supper lay at the bottom of it.

“Again! You spilt the soup again! That was the last of the mint leaves and meat! I can’t trust you with anything these days! I have a good mind to throw you out…!” Sadiq paced the small room, his fuming, red face looked up into Miriam’s small, wrinkly one, he looked more like an angry gnome than an angry husband to her, she stared at the ground. Miriam was used to these lectures and he always threatened to throw her out because he knew she’d have no where to go, her family abandoned her after she refused to marry someone from her own tribe. Now she totally regretted it, a few years into their marriage, he’d found another younger wife to marry, at first Miriam hated sharing Sadiq with her, but once she got used to her she had to share him with another woman, then another and another. Miriam couldn’t even remember half of their names, but the women he married seemed to get younger and the portions of food smaller and the space smaller as well.

“…Are you listening to me, or day-dreaming again!? Sadiq stopped pacing and marched over to Miriam.
She felt a searing pain in her cheek as, Sadiq reached up and slapped her, and she jumped back in shock. “Oh, got your attention now have I!?” he retorted. Miriam clutched her cheek, still shocked at the sudden attack, her face showed a dumbfounded expression as she stared down at Sadiq, who was still babbling on, and she still wasn’t taking anything in. The rest of the wives also stared flabbergasted at the assault; yes, they’d seen him angry, but never had they seen him hit any one.

“…And it had better not happen again!” He stormed out of the room, leaving all the wives, except his favourite, Hannan, in the room by them selves. The older wives started cursing Sadiq in as loud as they dared as they examined the red mark left on her face, while the younger ones sat in a group, gossiping.
An urgent call from a wife of Sadiq’s arrival, made them all silently return to their chores, Miriam snatched the straw broom that stood in the corner and began sweeping furiously. She felt Sadiq’s eyes bore into the back of her head. He strolled up arm in arm with Hanaan (it was more like hand in arm, as his arm wasn’t long enough), he inspected each of his wives’ work, Miriam found that her examination seemed years longer than the rest, but when he gave a grunt of approval she relaxed the sweeping motion until she was leaning with her head on the handle of the broom, staring up at the clouds in the sky outside…