We Leave Together, стр. 40

He’s taking off his boots. His boots were the most expensive thing he owned. They were brown leather, worn in thick creases where they bent. They smelled like mud. They felt just as hard as a dog’s padded paws. His feet emerged from the shoe, as tough as the shoe-leather. He rubbed one foot.

“Were you listening?” he said.

He put that foot down. He picked up the other foot, and rubbed it.

Rachel was listening. She curled up into a ball in her bedroll.

She felt her father’s heavy hand on her foot. “Little one,” he said, “You should keep your boots on in case someone discovers us sleeping here. Where are the boots I made you?”

He pulled a blanket over her foot. She could feel her father watching her sleeping. She pretended to be asleep.

“You’re such a beautiful thing,” he whispered, “Where’s your brother?”

Rachel shivered, pulling herself tighter into a ball. She pressed her eyes closed, hard.

“I asked you a question,” he said. He thumped her leg. “Hey, where’s your brother?”

Her mother spoke. “The last I saw of him he was out with his friends. Leave him be. The little ruffian’s going to make more tonight than we did all day.”

“I’m going out, too,” he said. He reached for his boots. His joints crackled.

Rachel’s mother reached out to him. She touched his skin and rubbed it. She didn’t want the man to find her son. She sang to him, “Aren’t you tired after your long day?”

“No,” he said. He stood up. Every bone in his body popped and groaned. He didn’t seem to mind the painful sounds.

***

Rachel’s mother placed a hand on her daughter’s head. Her other hand pointed at a stevedore. Men milled about the deck, and men milled about the dock, but Rachel’s mother had been pointing at precisely that stevedore. “Rachel, go over to that man over there and tell him that his wife knows,” said Rachel’s mother.

The stevedore wasn’t particularly tall, but his neck was as thick as a tree. He had a sour face, bent all crooked, like he had spent so much time in his life angry that he couldn’t untwist what he had spent so much time doing. The stevedore stacked boxes onto the pallet that a crane would lift into a ship’s hold.

Rachel didn’t want to go over to the man.

“It’s okay, little one,” said Rachel’s mother, “He’s harmless. I’ll watch and make sure he doesn’t hurt you.”

Rachel carefully stepped over to the man. She tapped the man’s knee.

He looked down. He had angry eyebrows, like two caterpillars trying to push the skin between together. “What?” he grumbled.

Rachel took a step back. She looked over her shoulder at her mother. Rachel’s mother smiled serenely and gestured for her daughter to go ahead.

The man crossed his arms. “What is it, kid?”

Rachel crossed her own arms. “Hey,” she said, “My mommy wants me to tell you something.”

“Yeah?”

“She says to tell you that she knows something.”

“Well, little one, you tell her to leave me alone,” he said, “I’m working.”

Rachel shrugged. “Well, that’s what my mommy says to tell you. She says that she knows something about you,” said Rachel, “Your wife knows it, too.”

“Huh,” said the stevedore. He bent down on one knee. He looked Rachel in the eye. “Your mother, she’s a Senta?”

Rachel nodded.

The man looked past Rachel’s shoulders at the woman across the dock. He fumbled into his pocket for some coins. “Give your Ma this,” he said. He pressed coins into Rachel’s hands. “Tell her ‘Thanks’.”

The man stood up. He went back to work.

Rachel walked back to her mother, staring at the coins. Rachel handed the coins up to her mother. “He gave me this,” she said.

“Good job!” said the Senta. She slipped the coins into her pocket.

“Why’d he do that?” said Rachel.

Rachel’s mother smirked mysteriously. She looked back at the man working. “I saw that he had a wedding ring in his nose. That’s where the wives mark their husbands up here. A man like that always keeps secrets from his wife. And, their wives always know the secrets, too.”

“What secret?”

“Any secret at all,” said the Senta, “Remember that trick, Rachel, and you can make a few coins doing something besides begging. Did you see how mean he looked?”

“He was scary.”

“Well, when you see a scary man and he’s married, he’s keeping something from his wife. And, she knows about it. You pass on this simple truth, and he will be grateful. He will give you coins. But, only stop a scary man if he is working. Never stop a man who is doing nothing at all. Nothing is scarier than a scary man with nothing to keep his hands busy.”

***

Djoss jumped into a ring of boys. Two boys in the center whacked at each other with long sticks. Djoss grabbed both of the sticks at the ends. He smashed the two boys together on the ends of their sticks. He tore the sticks from their hands. He swung the sticks around heroically. “A guilder for the boy that can beat me!” he shouted, “One whole guilder!”

A cheer among the boys and a challenger jumped down. Djoss tossed the stick at the boy. Djoss was younger, but he was about the same size. The boy spun his stick elegantly in the air, showing-off for his friends. Djoss ground his knuckles into the wood like a bull stomping before a charge. Then, he charged.

The other boy jumped sideways. Djoss managed to jam the tip of his stick onto the boy’s boot. The boy’s legs spread. His hands thrust out to catch his fall.

Djoss smashed the boy’s stick hard. The boy dropped it.

“Ha!” said Djoss.

The boys were cheering.

Rachel sat on a fence near the boys. She watched her brother, watched the boys cheering him on.

Her mother had told both of the children to stay there and read from their books. Djoss had handed his book to Rachel, and had jumped down to play with