Craft (22 page)

Ellie put a grumpy Caw on her shoulder
and waved a silent goodbye. She paused once before she left their
clearing. She turned to him with a smile on her face.

“I’m glad you came,” she said. “You’re
not bad company…for a Cooper.”

“Thanks,” he said. “You’re not
either…for a Bumbalow.”

Thane and Ellie shared a smile. It was
tentative and uncertain. Their friendship was not rooted in as
solid ground as they would have liked. Ellie turned and walked away
from their clearing. As she stumbled back to her shack on tired
feet, she felt a warm bubble of happiness settle around her heart.
Everyone she knew just wanted her to do stuff, not speak her peace.
He had actually asked for stories. He wanted to hear her side of
things. He wanted to know more.

Around her sleepiness, she felt tense
at the idea. She hoped that he would not think her silly or boring.
She was worried he would not want to come back again when he
realized how little she had done in her life. Ellie, like a child
with a new toy, was not willing to give up the new thing she had
found. Unlike a child with a new toy, Ellie appreciated exactly
what she had. The newness would not wear off anytime
soon.

She worked extra hard to get her
chores out of the way the day of their next meeting. It was easier
without the cousins mucking up the house. Neveah noticed Ellie’s
hyper-focused cleaning as Ellie rushed about the house. Neveah
teased her with the possibility of meeting a boy as she lounged on
the sofa. Her words were mocking and sharp; they questioned if
Ellie could find someone beyond her dustpan to have a conversation
with.

At first, Ellie thought Neveah had
seen Thane in the woods, or had caught wind of their meeting
somehow, and felt a moment of panic, but then Neveah made her
disdain obvious. The way she dissolved into peal upon peal of
sarcastic laughter was clue enough. Neveah did not notice Ellie’s
moment of panic or know how close she had come to the truth.
Careen, however, did notice. She watched Ellie’s face as Neveah
laughed. Careen saw the panic in Ellie’s eyes and the relief when
Neveah’s teasing was made apparent. Careen’s eyes narrowed
thoughtfully as she watched Ellie try to hide her fear.

At Neveah’s laughter, Ellie breathed a
low sigh of relief and went back to her hurried cleaning. Careen
joined in with Neveah’s teasing with her usual willingness to mock
anything associated with Ellie but she watched Ellie with new eyes.
She knew that something strange was going on. She knew it was
something she could potentially use to her advantage. It was a
moment that Ellie did not notice. She was too busy preparing for
her meeting with Thane.

Thane was already waiting when Ellie
finally finished her chores. It was past ten. He was early by a
couple of hours. Ellie was surprised to see him. Her plan had been
to get there first, so she could rehearse the stories she wanted to
tell him. She wanted to go over her memories, so she did not mess
up the telling. He was stretched out on the forest floor, his long
legs searching for room on top of the broken leaves and vegetation.
He waved once in greeting when she stepped into the clearing. She
waved back and sat on the ground opposite from him, though she did
not look nearly as casual. Caw immediately jumped off her shoulder
and took flight, blending in seamlessly with the night as he
swooped around in search of prey. Thane looked surprised to see her
so early but he did not comment on it.

“How was your week?” Thane asked,
mirroring their last meeting.

“Long,” Ellie admitted. “Neveah keeps
inviting people over, and they keep leaving messes for me to
clean.”

“Why is she inviting people over?” he
asked.

“That’s what Neveah does. She
maintains the family. She organizes them and makes sure everybody
is taken care of the best she can. She’s been doing it since
Grandpa Bumbalow got too old to fight and my momma…”

Ellie stopped talking abruptly. She
did not want to start their meeting out on a depressing note and
talking about her momma always depressed her. Her stories would not
be fun if she dwelled on a past she could not change.

“Neveah is sort of like my dad, then,”
Thane said thoughtfully. “He does the same sort of things for my
family.”

“I guess,” Ellie said.

Thane shook off the thoughts of the
feud and looked at Ellie seriously. His eyes were full of a secret
pain. It was pain he did not feel like sharing just yet. “You want
to go somewhere with me?”

“Somewhere?” Ellie asked, slightly
afraid of his meaning. “Like, town?”

Was he going to take her back to his
family? Would there be another adventure that would result in
someone getting hurt?

“No, not like town,” Thane said. “We
could go the other direction, away from the feuding.”

“What if we’re caught?” Ellie
asked.

“Nobody knows us in the other
direction,” Thane pointed out. “And we could sit somewhere that
isn’t a log.”

“I don’t know…” Ellie said.

“Don’t be a chicken,” Thane
said.

“I’m not being chicken!” Ellie said.
“I’m being a person who don’t wanna get dead on account of
you.”

“We won’t get dead,” Thane
promised.

Ellie thought about his offer. Her
stomach was in knots. She was excited at the prospect of seeing
more places outside of her house, places where the feud did not
exist. She wanted to go, but her fear kept her in place. The last
time she had gone on an adventure, Thane’s aunt had suffered the
consequences. The feud had almost escalated beyond the scope of her
expectation. She did not want to face such escalation again. Thane
seemed to understand her thoughts. He put a hand over his heart in
a solemn promise.

“I swear I will have you home before
dawn. Then, you can go back to doing whatever chores Neveah makes
you do,” he said. “It’ll be like you never left.”

Ellie did not take his promise
lightly. She knew he meant it. “Alright, but if I’m not back before
then, I’m telling Neveah it was your fault. Then, you’ll have her
to deal with.”

“Okay,” Thane agreed.

Caw swooped back into the clearing. He
had bug in his mouth. He landed on a log, ate the bug, and then
looked between them as if he had overheard every word of their
conversation. His beady eyes questioned their meaning; he
questioned where they intended on going. Ellie frowned at the bird.
She knew he could keep up with a car, but she did not want someone
to see him. It was not safe. A dozen fears ran through Ellie’s head
as she looked at Caw. She would not risk her friend on a momentary
adventure.

“Maybe Caw ought to be changed for our
ride,” Ellie suggested. “I don’t want someone to see him and try
and hurt him.”

“Good thinking,” Thane
agreed.

“Is that okay, Caw?” Ellie asked her
bird friend.

Caw gave a low sound of understanding,
though his dark eyes were not happy. He stood as still as possible
as Ellie raised her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she changed
him into the necklace she had worn in town. The silver dropped to
the earth as the bird became metal. She put the necklace around her
neck.

Ellie’s craft done, they both stood.
For the second time, Thane led Ellie through the forest. They
walked deeper into the woods instead of toward the road as Ellie
had expected. After ten minutes, they reached a small access road
overgrown with weeds and pine trees. Thane’s car was parked along
the edge of the road. He got in the car and waited for her to do
the same.

She hesitated on the passenger side of
the car. Her doubt had not quite left her. A part of her could not
let go of the fact that she was always alone. No one wanted to take
her places out of the kindness of their heart. It had to be a joke
or a setup. His family had put him up to befriending her. She would
pay for her trust.

Ellie shelved her bad feelings away
and opened the door to his car. She was willing to believe in her
hope for the time being. When she sat, her legs moved in a constant
state of agitation. She could not stop the fear that something bad
would happen because of her daringness. Thane started the car and
drove them down the narrow road. He noticed her agitation. It was
impossible to miss. He was eager to take away her fear.

“Your turn. Tell me about growing up
here,” Thane said.

“I was born, I grew older, and here I
am,” Ellie said.

“I told you stories,” he complained.
“And put up with all your questions. You owe me for
that.”

Ellie laughed at his petulant tone. It
was childish, but sweet. It was completely different from her
initial thoughts of him. “Alright, keep your britches on. Just try
not to fall asleep from boredom,” she said. “We’ll wreck if you
do.”

“I’ll try,” Thane said.

Ellie shared stories of growing up at
the house, her momma, and living life within a two-mile radius. She
told him stories of the craft she had learned over years of
practice and the feud she had gotten used to, also from years of
practice.

Thane knew some of the stories of the
feud – from the Cooper perspective – but he never argued with what
the Coopers believed and what she believed to be the truth. He let
her tell her side, and it made for a better story. It gave him
perspective to how his family’s actions had affected the Bumbalows.
He asked as many questions as Ellie had, though Ellie was more
patient in answering them. She liked the questions – they meant he
was not bored. Her stories took on a life of their own and all her
fear at leaving the house dropped away. The distraction was a
lingering one.

Thane drove them through one tiny town
after another. Ellie was too distracted by her stories to focus on
the towns any more than acknowledging the shift from dark to light
back to dark again. Thane did not seem to have a destination in
mind. He simply drove.

Finally, Thane pulled the car into a
parking lot. The parking lot was half asphalt, half gravel. The
asphalt was cracked and showed signs of abuse. A large fence
separated the parking lot from a large collection of amusement park
rides. They were at the fair. A Ferris Wheel was the center point
of the park. The large, circular structure stood over the smaller
rides; kid rides, fast rides, and rides that would have made Ellie
sick, were placed at strategic intervals around food stands and
shooting games. It was easy to imagine people walking in circles
around the rides and stands. Ellie stopped talking and stared at
the amusement park with equal parts confusion and
fascination.

“Where are we?” Ellie
asked.

“This is one of my favorite places,”
Thane said. “Was…one of my favorite places. I used to come here
every summer with my mom, before she got sick.”

Ellie refocused on Thane. His words
were real and sincere. His words were more real than the Ferris
Wheel, which stood out from the park like a Titan. His words
surprised her more than anything else she had learned about
him.

“Your momma is sick?” Ellie
asked.

“Yeah, uh…yeah…” Thane
said.

Thane coughed and looked around the
dark parking lot awkwardly. He had not meant to share that piece of
information with Ellie. The sight of the fair had made the memory
easier to express than normal. He never mentioned his mother, not
if he could help it. The pain was as real as Ellie’s at losing both
of her parents to her father’s death.

“I understand. We all have secrets,”
Ellie said quickly.

Ellie pointed at the Ferris Wheel in a
distraction, though her mind lingered on the secret he had
inadvertently shared.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“A Ferris Wheel. You want to go on a
ride?” he asked.

“The park is all closed off,” Ellie
said.

“Can you craft, or not?” he
asked.

“Better than you!” Ellie
asserted.

Thane shook his head at her assertive
tone, but he did not argue with her. He knew she was right. “So,
let’s go,” he said.

“Alright!” Ellie agreed.

Ellie jumped out of the car and ran
for the fence. She giggled as she ran, happy beyond words to be
away and doing something so unlike herself. The freedom of it was
incredible. Thane reached her just as she reached the fence. Thane
raised his hand and cut a thin line through the metal. He held the
opening for Ellie to crawl through. She moved to the other side and
did the same for him. Thane led the way over to the Ferris Wheel.
Ellie kept craning her neck to look at the sights. The park was as
interesting as town, more even. There were so many shiny things
that held no other purpose beyond entertainment.

Despite Ellie’s joy being infectious,
Thane was somber as they walked. He was still thinking about his
mom and his admission to Ellie. He could not contain his thoughts.
It was difficult for him to talk about his mother, but he could not
hold the thoughts in. They circled his brain until he could not
take it any longer.

“My mom got sick from magic,” he
admitted to Ellie after a moment.

Ellie stopped walking. She looked at
Thane as if she had never seen another person before. “Sick from
magic?!” Ellie asked.