Riddley Walker (25 page)

Goodparley he wer leaning tords Granser he wer lissening hard. When he talkit then his voyce soundit like he wer stil Pry Mincer. He said, "Thats the 3 of the 1 is it? The 3 of the 1 Littl 1 is yellerboy stoan and Saul & Peter and chard coal?"

Granser said, "Thats it Abel there you have the knowing what ben kep safe right the way from time back way back which it ben the chard coal berners and the dyers done that safe keaping nor no 1 else. Ours the salts and us the savers."

Goodparley said, "Wel wel wel here I ben stressing my self and straining and wearying and worrying this long time and all that time this here knowing ben right unner my nose. 1 Littl 1 who wudve thot it."

Granser said, "O yes there bint nothing else like that savit ben there. O no that 1 Littl 1 thats the onlyes banger any 1 knows of. I tel you Abel that yeller boys going to come up this here rivver 1 day and wewl make such a noys then yes we wil my good old boys."

Goodparley said, "Whatre you going to do then?"

Granser said, "O therewl be big zanting I can tel you that. Therewl be hy telling and seakert rights in the Ful of the Moon o yes therewl be big doings."

Goodparley said, "Then what?"

Granser said, "Wel then wewl have it wont we. Then wewl have that

Seed of the littl seed of the wyld

Seed of the berning is hart of the chyld

Goodparley said, "Granser dont you take my meaning Im asking what youre going to _do_ with that 1 Littl 1 when youve got it."

Granser said, "Abel havent I ben telling you that same and very."

Goodparley said, "Whos the Big Man of the chard coal berners?"

Granser said, "O it aint that kynd of thing Abel the chard coal berners aint no fents nor form nor Mincery weare the childer of the woodlings."

Goodparley said, "Ah. Childer of the woodlings. Howd you get to be a chyld of the woodlings then?"

Granser said, "It ben you what done that Abel it ben you what happent that for me when you stuck that knife in me and lef me for dead. You have in memberment where it wer you done that do you?"

Goodparley said, "Good Mercy Form."

Granser said, "Which there it is that same and very place whats jus acrost the rivver from us right this minim. That same and very where you stuck your knife in me nor you dint show me no good mercy at all Abel no you dint. Nor them formers dint nyther whatd they care for a old roader and him mosly dead. Only 1 of the dyers them bloaks what boyl up the pig shit they all ways stink like any thing they mosly keap to ther selfs he seen me lying there and red with my oan blood my oan seed of the red you see what I mean. That dyer he cudnt tern his back on dying me becaws the seed of the red is seed of the berning you see its hart of the chyld which theyve swoar on it and ben swoar to it. That dyer took me down to the rivver which he put me in a boat and he rowit me over to you know where dont you."

Goodparley said, "This here wood where we are now."

Granser said, "This same and very aulder wood. Which the healing and the healf is in the hart of the wood you see. The hart of the wood by the run of the rivver what goes to the dead stoan hart of Inland where the stoan wood lives. Right here in this wood is where the chard coal berners healft me back to life. Abel you know I wer jus only joaking when I said I wer Drop John I never meant to ride your hump for what you done I never hevvit no gilt on to you. What you done to me I brung it on my self with what I done to you when I wunt let you be come your oan man. I wunt let you be come what you wer going to be nex. Thats the woal seakert of the 1 Littl 1 you see."

Goodparley said, "Whats that seakert then?"

Granser said, "It wants to be its nex thing you see its a showing of the Master Chaynjis in littl. Them wite kirstels and that black chard coal and that yeller boy theyre coming to gether to show you the Power in the changingness of things. Which is the hart of the Girt Chyld of the Every Thing and the worl aint nothing only a idear in the mynd of that chyld. Which that chyld wants us to think all the diffrent parts of that idear to keap the worl in good hart and healf." Granser wer looking at poor old Goodparley with his blyn rapt up head he said, "Abel be you thinking on how the 1 of the 2 of us come a part and gone 2 diffrent ways?"

Goodparley said, "Yes Im thinking on that."

Granser said, "You gone with the Mincery and I gone with the chard coal berners. What do the chard coal berners do. We bern 1ce to bern agen you see the blip of it. Ben thru the fire in the hart of the chyld and ready to bern agen. The Mincery and all the other mincerys what ever ben they dont know nothing only to bern 1ce and go every thing a way. Go the worl a way. Keap them poor crookit peopl in a hoal and asking roun your Fools Circel for whats long gone and far pas."

Goodparley said, "Granser whatwd you do if we put some of that yeller boy in your han wud you know what to do with it?"

Granser said, "Cernly I wud I tol you that knowing ben kep safe amongst the chard coal berners and waiting on the day."

Goodparley said, "Wel old cock this is the day becaws weve got jus a littl of that yellerboy stoan right here."

Gransers mouf hung open when I showit him the yellerboy stoan. He said, "Whered it come from?"

Goodparley said, "From over the water dinnit. There come over jus only 1 littl bag of it which this is � of that nor it dont look like a nuff for moren a try out."

Granser said, "Les try it out then." He took the yellerboy and gone in to the hut where he kep his exter gear and jumbling a roun in there.

Goodparley said, "Watch how he does it Riddley."

I said, "I dont want to know."

He said, "Eusas sake be you simpl or what? The way thingsre going it looks like every 1 in Inlands after the yellerboy and the knowing of what to do with it. Somewl have 1 and somewl have the other and somewl have the boath. And them what dont have nothing theywl be out of it."

I said, "Wel I ben out of it up to now enn I." I wer thinking of what come to me in Cambry when I wer looking at Greanvine. Keaping in mynd how much that face lookit like Goodparleys face. I said, "The onlyes Power is no Power."

He said, "O Eusa you aint going to weary me with that kynd of boar shit are you. Nex thing youwl be telling me the Littl Shyning Man hes jus what ever cant never be put to gether or some other kynd of Orfing qwickness."

I said, "I dont think he _can_ be put to gether."

Goodparley said, "O yes and whats our frend Erny doing right this minim Iwl give you odds hes trying his hardes to put that same and very Littl Shyning Man to gether jus as fas as he can."

I said, "You mean hes trying to make it right with the Eusa folk?"

He said, "I mean hes trying to do the same what Gransers doing this very minim. Befor Orfing took over he talkit like he wunt never Trubba no 1 he wantit the woal worl to love him. And all the time progamming to sneak me and parbly dealing for yellerboy even if you dont think so. Whatd he do soons he took over? Hung me up and put my eyes out dinnee. Yes it wer the Eusa folk done it but it wer him as let them. You think you can keap out of it thats your fearbelly talking. Running afeart wont help you nothing. 1 day youwl be blowt to peaces with some 1 elses doing then youwl wish youd lissent to your poor blyn old Nunkel Abel youwl wish youd stood forit like a man and took it in han."

"And wankt with it," I said. Yet I done like he tol me I gone in to that littl hump back hut with Granser. He wer pounding the yellerboy stoan to a fine powder. Then he done the same with some chard coal. Done it with a boal and pounder. He had the Saul & Peter all ready that wer kirstels like salt. He took littl measurs and measuring out yellerboy and chard coal and Saul & Peter. Mixing them all to gether then and me watching. It wer like the 1st time I seen a woman open for me I wer thinking: This is what its all about then.

Granser singing to his self wylst he mixt the 3 of the 1:

Wewl make such a noys

Such a noys

Such a noys

Wewl make such a noys

My good old boys

Granser said, "Now comes the las of the mixing which Ive got to say the words."

I said, "Wel go on and say them then."

He said, "O no I aint saying them words wylst youre lissening thems the fissional seakerts of the act aint they. You bes go off a littl way."

I said, "All right then" which I gone out of the rivverside gate and walking by the water I dint want to sit by Goodparley I dint want him to weary me with why wernt I watching Granser.

I jus begun to roal up a smoak when WHAP! there come like a thunner clap it wer like when litening strikes right close it eckowit up and down the rivver. There come up a cloud of smoak from the fents it wernt the regler blue smoak it wer 1 big puff of grey smoak and things wer peltering down out of the trees like when you shake down nuts. The dogs begun to howl.

I gone back inside the fents. That littl hump back hut where Granser ben doing the mixing it wernt there no mor it wer jus only sticks and sods scattert wide. Granser he wer like throwt a way on the groun he lookit emty like when you take your han out of a show figger. His head wernt with the res of him his head wer on a poal. The gate a way from the rivver it had a hy poal on each side of it and Gransers head wer stuck on the poynt of 1 of them poals jus like it ben put there for telling.

Nor that wernt the stranges of it. Goodparley wer stil where Id lef him sitting leaning agenst the other hump back hut. I wer stil looking tords the gate I said, "Gransers head is on a poal." Which he dint anser me nothing then I ternt to look at him and he had Gransers pounder sticking out of the front of his head. Clout stil rapt roun his head and that stoan pounder drove right in to his skul.

There hung over the place a kynd of scortchy smel a kynd of stinging scortchy smel and the grey smoak driffing thru the blue smoak of the chard coal harts. Twean lite it wer the 1st dark coming on. Bat lite it wer and dimminy the pink and red stumps glimmering in the coppises like loppt off arms and legs and the rivver hy and hummering. The dogs wer howling nor it wernt like no other howling I ever heard it wer a kynd of wyld hoapless soun it wer a lorn and oansome yoop yaroo it soundit like they wer runnying on ther hynt legs and telling like thin black men and sad. Crying ther yoop yaroo ther sad tel what theyd all ways knowit theywd have to tel agen.

I gone to where Gransers head wer on the poal. His eyes wer closd his mouf wer shut. I said, "Granser wil you tel?"

Lissening him then words come to me: What if its you whats making all this happen? What if every thing you think of happens?

I said, "I never thot of my father getting kilt did I."

Words come: Dint you?

Then I wernt sure. I said, "I wont think no mor."

Words come: That dont make no diffrents. If you dont think then some thing else wil think your thots theywl get thunk any how.

I said, "What can I do then aswl be my oan doing?"

Words come: Whats the diffrents whos doing it?

The dogsd stoppt ther yoop yarooing. They come to the fents I heard them wimpering like los and greaving childer. All roun I heard the twean lite lissening. I took a las look at Goodparley I � thot I myt see vines and leaves growing out of his mouf. Then I slung his fit up and my bundel on my back and off I slyd.

17

My feet begun to walk me down rivver tords Cambry. Thats where the senter is. All roun myt be a fools circel but the senter is stil what it is and where it is.

I kep wel in from the rivver side I kep wel wide of the coppises I dint want nothing mor to do with chard coal berners for a wyl. Dark nite it wer Dark of the Moon but where the woodlings littlt off to barrens I cud feal it on my face the open of it and I had a fealing inside me I never had befor. Sour groun and dead the barrens are you cudnt grow nothing on them only the dry dus blowing in the summer and the grey mud in the winter. Even the wind blowing the dus is some thing moving tho it aint jus only dead groun in a stilness. Seeds blow in the wind and what is earf but a deadness with life growing out of it? Rottin leaves and dead branches and naminal shit and that it all makes live earf on the dead groun and if you look at woodlings edge all roun the barrens youwl see the runty coming up where skin of earf growit back on nekkit groun. Nekkit groun what ben the bloody meat and boan of Bad Time covering its self with skin of earf and grass and woodlings. I thot: What ever it is its my groun. Here I stan.

We ben roading like all ways with the black leader josseling nexy but � way acrost the barrens he pusht his nose in to my han. He never done nothing like that befor I cudnt beleave it. Him what lookit like Death on 4 legs with his yeller eyes what dint even care if he livet or dyd and he wantit me to pet him. Thats when I cryd for the dead.

After a wyl I cud feal on my face a littl stilness where the wind wer cut off I cud hear the sylents of the stannings of the Power Ring. Feal the goast of old Power circeling hy over me. Only this time I fealt a Power in me what circelt with it. Membering when that thot come to me: THE ONLYES POWER IS NO POWER. Wel now I sust that wernt qwite it. It aint that its _no_ Power. Its the not sturgling for Power thats where the Power is. Its in jus letting your self be where it is. Its tuning in to the worl its leaving your self behynt and letting your self be where it says in _Eusa 5_:

. . . in tu the hart uv the stoan hart uv the dans. Evere thing blippin & bleapin & movin in the shiftin uv thay Nos. Sum tyms bytin sum tyms bit.

Looking up in to the black where the goast of Power circelt blyn and oansome like a Drop John roun the los hump of Cambry I larft I yelt, "SPIRIT OF GOD ROAD WITH ME!"

Dark of the Moon it wer. Pas the failing moon of my getting and fulling on tords the moon of my bearthing I gone to the hart of the wud I gone to the stoan wood in the hart of the stoan I gone to the woom of her what has her woom in Cambry.

The black sky dint change colour nor the stoans dint go wite nor the dogs dint runny on ther hynt legs with the shyning colours coming thru them it jus stayd solid black. No lerting from the dogs so I lit a candl. Up jumpt the shadders and shaking on the walls and rubbl. In amongst them stoan trees there wer what you myt call a notness of some 1. Some 1 ben roun there nor not too long befor me. No 1 there now tho. Lookit in the hidey hoal where Greanvine livet. Emty.