ROAD TO CORDIA (12 page)

     “How did he die?” she asked.

     “He wents to sleep,” said Little Piet.

     “And he didn’t wake up,” added Jari.

     “How long has he been dead?” Ja'Nil asked, looking directly at Sa'Ari.

     Finally, reluctantly, she answered. “Yesterday afternoon.”

     Ja'Nil looked around, river, grass, a few trees, but no signs of human habitation.

     “Where’s the rest of your people? Don’t Mummers always travel as a troupe?”

     “They’re with our Da,” said Jari.

     “Where’s your Da?”

     “Cordia,” answered Sa’Ari in a flat voice.

     So the three children had been alone with the dead man all night long. She remembered the interminable night that she had spent with her dead aunt, and shuddered. Poor little diggers. They must have been so frightened.

     “What are your plans?” Ja'Nil asked of the nine year old, feeling ridiculous as she did so. She expected a nine year old to have a plan, while she herself was adrift and planless?

     But Sa'Ari surprised her. “We’re going to the Lady’s Keep,” she said. “We always do, this time of year.” She sounded as if she expected Ja'Nil to argue with her.

     Good, thought Ja'Nil. It removed any feelings of responsibility she might feel for the three lone children.

     “You know how to get there?” she asked.

     “‘Cause I know how to get there,” said Sa'Ari. While at the same time, Jari was shaking her head, no.

     “Good.” said Ja'Nil, ignoring Jari‘s head shake. Little Piet took his thumb out of his mouth and examined its wet wrinkled surface. “Umh, about your Gramps.”

     Little Piet beamed at her. “Gotta do monious,” he informed her.

     Ja'Nil gave up. “What’s he talking about?” she asked Sa'Ari.

     “Ceremony for the dead,” she mumbled.

     “Make it ceremonious,” elaborated Jari.

     “Monious,” agreed Little Piet with a nod of his little head, thumb firmly back in his mouth.

     Ja'Nil wanted no part in any more funerals. Still… “Do you need any help?” She asked.

     “Yes,” said Jari.

     “Yes,” said Little Piet

     “I guess you could help if you wanted to,” said Sa'Ari, “We can pay,” she added.

     “Really? How?”

     “You need a tunic, don’t you?” she said, looking pointedly at Ja'Nil’s exposed breast and all the rest of her that was exposed.

     Ja'Nil looked down at herself and blushed. Her…ah, breasts seemed to have gotten a lot bigger in the last few days. Was that even possible? Certainly, she was more aware of them.

     “Nothing you own would fit me,” she pointed out. “You’re too little.” 

     “Gramps not too little,” said Sa'Ari.

     “Your Gramps is dead!”

     “So, he don’t need his clothes no more.”

     Ja'Nil’s first reaction was Ugh! Icky! Nevertheless, it was true that the dead man would not need his extra clothes. She looked around, but aside from the three children and Gramps, all she saw was a little red and yellow pull-wagon with some things tossed carelessly inside, presumably clean clothes. She did need clothes.

     “All right, I’ll help you. The first thing we do is dig a pit for the pyre. It should be about at least a foot deep,” said Ja'Nil. “Do you have some sort of digging tool?”

     “What’s a pyre?” asked Jari.

     “It’s like a bonfire.” She looked about. “You don’t happen to know if we’re on Red Horse Land, do you?”

     “Why do we need a bonfire?” asked Jari

     “We never go on Red Horse Land,” answered Sa’Ari at the same time. “They don’t like Mummers.”

     “Why do we need a bonfire?” Jari asked again.

     “For your gramp’s funeral pyre.” There was a sudden stillness following her explanation. All three children were staring at her in horror.

     “You burn up people?” asked Jari, wide-eyed.

     “Not while they’re alive.”

     “Cause that would hurt,” said a horrified Jari.

     Ja'Nil rolled her eyes. “We don’t do it when they’re alive.”

     “That’s good,” said Jari, greatly relieved.

     “Yeah that’s good,” echoed Little Piet.

     “You burn your people?” asked Sa'Ari.

     “Yes. Then we bury their ashes deep in the earth mother in order to continue The Circle. Don‘t you?”

     Sa’Ari, shook her head, no.

     “Let me tell. Let me tell.” Little Piet was jumping up and down in excitement.

     “You’re too little,” said Jari. “You don’t know nothing.”

     “Do too!” the little boy screeched and threw himself on his sister, seemingly intent on adding one more corpse to the ceremonies.

     “Stop it, you two,” said Sa'Ari, wading in with slaps to both her siblings’ heads.

     “Are you supposed to, ah…, hit them?” asked Ja'Nil.

     “They shut up, didn’t they?”

     “Not exactly.” Both of the younger children were sitting with their arms around each other, bawling their heads off.

     “If you don’t have funeral pyres, what sort of…ah…what do you do?”

     “We expose them,” said Sa’Ari.

     “To what?”     

     “Don’t you know anything?” asked Sa’Ari.

     “Explain it to me.”

     “We build a platform, render them naked to the heavens, and expose them to the Winged Messengers of The Circle.”

     “Winged Mess--Birds?”

     Sa’Ari nodded, yes.

     “You let the birds eat them?”

     “There’s music,” piped up a still sniveling Little Piet.

     “An’ meat pies and candies,” added Jari.

     “I likes candies,” said Little Piet.

     “And there’s dancing,” added Jari.

     “I told you we can’t do the music and dancing and we don’t have no meat pies,” said Sa’Ari angrily.

     “Candy?” asked Little Piet.

     “When we get to the Lady’s Keep,” promised Sa’Ari. That seemed to cheer both little children. At least they stopped crying and turned to watch their sister and Ja'Nil.

     “About building a platform,” said Ja'Nil to Sa’Ari. “I’ll be glad to help, but I’ve never built one before. Do you know how it’s done?”

     “The men build them.”

     “And the men are…”

     “In Cordia.”

     Ja'Nil turned to study the old man’s body lying in the shade of the Gumble tree.

     “Does it have to be a platform?” asked Ja'Nil. “What about a tree?”           

     “A tree?”

     “We could probably hoist him -- ah, get him up into the tree. At least to the lower branches. Would that do?”

     “How you gonna do that?”

    
Good question.

     “Is there any rope?”

     Sa’Ari nodded. “In the wagon.”

     “So will a tree do?”

     Sa’Ari nodded. “Gramps would like that. He likes -- liked trees.”

     “Specially Gumble trees,” said Jari.

     “He likes them green and pink leaves,” added Little Piet.

     Ja'Nil was examining the contents of the red wagon. It held a thick rope about 40 lengths long. There was also a half loaf of brown bread wrapped in a linen cloth, a stone bottle of ginger beer and three apples. What wasn’t there were clothes, no clean clothes, no dirty clothes, no small clothes, no large clothes. In short, how did Sa’Ari plan to pay her for helping to elevate Gramps? 

     “About the clothes,” began Ja'Nil.

     Sa’Ari nodded. “Jari and me gonna render him naked to the skies.”

     “You’re going to take clothes off a dead body and give them to me?”

     “Just his tunic,” said Jari.

     “You want his leggings? I guess that’s a do,” said Sa’Ari magnanimously.

     “Ja'Nil swallowed. “I can‘t wear a dead man‘s clothing.”

     “Gramps won’t mind,” Little Piet assured her.

     “I can wash them in the river,” offered Jari.

     “But he’ll be naked.”

     “He’s dead,” pointed out Sa’Ari.

     “He gots to be stripped anyways,” said Little Piet before sticking his thumb back in his mouth.

     “Mummers always go naked to the Messengers,” Sa’Ari explained. “Our Da says things go faster that way.”

     It made sense in an icky kind of way. And really, what choice did she have? Between Gramps going naked to the messengers or her being naked in the world, she figured Gramps would be the least discomforted.

     Ja'Nil knelt down near the old man’s body. “Have you made The Sign Of The Circle?” She asked Sa’Ari.

     Looking ashamed, Sa’Ari shook her head, no.

     So Ja'Nil leaned forward. “May you enter the Paradise of Forever,” she said as she gently inscribed a circle on the old man‘s forehead.. His skin was so cool, Ja'Nil was shocked. She felt no connection with this empty body.

* * *

     After Gramps was undressed, Jari, with Little Piet supervising, went down to the river to wash the clothes, leaving Ja'Nil and Sa’Ari to get Gramps into the Gumble tree.

     Ja'Nil knotted the rope under Gramps’ arms and around his chest. Then they dragged him closer to the tree and leaned his upper body against its trunk. A number of pink and green leaves fluttered down and landed on Gramps’ head and shoulders.

     “I guess the tree approves,” said Ja'Nil. Sa’Ari’s face actually brightened.

     “Do you think so?”

     “Oh, absolutely,” Ja'Nil assured her.

     The tree was just right for their purpose. Above their heads, two study branches projected out almost parallel with each other for about a foot and then they separated into a V shape. A perfect resting place for Gramps. Ja'Nil resolutely refused to contemplate the arrival of the Messengers.

     Holding the end of the rope, her dizziness a thing of the past, Ja'Nil scrambled up the tree and carefully stood on one of the projecting branches. About four feet above the V was another sturdy branch. Ja'Nil threw the rope over that branch and let the end drop to the ground.

     “Jadµ,” she called down to Sa’Ari, “I’m going to pull him up now. I think you’re going to have to sort of lift him as I pull. Ready?”

     Sa’Ari nodded, yes.

     Ja'Nil began to pull. She pulled and pulled and pulled and Gramps stayed just where he was. “Not enough leverage,” Ja'Nil muttered to herself as she dropped down from the tree.    

     To her surprise, tough little Sa’Ari was quietly weeping. Ja'Nil wanted to put her arms around the little girl and give her a hug, but she knew that would just infuriate the girl.

     Jari and Little Piet, who had finished washing the clothes and hanging them over the bushes to dry, were standing next to Sa’Ari watching the goings on in open-mouthed wonder.

     Gramps had shifted a little, but basically he was still sitting stiffly against the tree trunk. In fact, it was the tree trunk that was impeding his levitation.

     “Jadµ,” said Ja'Nil with a bright lilt to her voice, intended to disguise her own dismay. “Sa’Ari I want you to... ah... tilt Gramps away from the tree trunk, but don’t let him lie down again.”

     Actually, it took all three of his grandchildren to position Gramps just so. This time, standing on the ground, Ja'Nil began pulling on the rope.

     “He’s moving,” shouted Sa’Ari. Ja'Nil felt as if her arms would break. Walking backwards, still pulling, she wrapped the rope several times around a nearby tree and took a breather.

     It made a bizarre picture. Gramps was now standing, sort of. His shoulders were slumped forward and his knees were bent, but he was definitely vertical.

     “Yeah, Gramps,” yelled Little Piet. Ja'Nil and Sa’Ari exchanged looks and then both began to snigger, then giggle, and then laugh outright.

     An enraged Jari, with tears in her eyes, yelled at them. “Don’t you laugh at my Gramps. Stop it.” They stopped.

     “Now what?” asked Sa’Ari when they both had caught their breath.

     “You get up in the tree,” said Ja'Nil. “When I pull him up there you sort of guide him so he’s lying across the two branches.”

     “Jadµ.”

     Ja'Nil gave Sa’Ari a boost up into the tree, and then returned to where she had tied off the rope.

     Using both the limb above Gramps’ final resting place and a slightly higher limb on the other tree, Ja'Nil was finally able to maneuver Gramps to the correct height. She had to tie him off again and go and help Sa’Ari position the body. Finally it was done. Sa’Ari produced a knife to cut the rope from around his chest. Perched on each side of Gramps, Ja’Nil asked Sa’Ari, “Is there any other ceremony that has to be observed?”

     “No, that’s all there is,” answered Sa’Ari. “My Da says travelers have to keep things simple.”

CHAPTER 13

     The leggings were still damp around the waist but the tunic was dry. For once, having big feet was a plus. She was able to fit into Gramps’ boots – they only slid around a little. Ja'Nil gave herself a quick wash in a secluded spot, then put on her new clothes with barely a shudder. They weren’t a bad fit; Gramps had been small and thin.

     She emerged to find all three Mummer children waiting for her. Little Piet was sucking his thumb again. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for three children when it was obvious she could barely take care of herself, still…”Which way is it to your Lady’s Keep?” she asked.

     Silently Sa’Ari pointed down river.

     “And how long will it take you to get there?”                      

     Silence.

     “A day? Two days? Maybe only a few hours?” she asked.

     “Don’t know,” admitted Sa’Ari. “Da always takes us.”

     “Why is your Da in Cordia and you’re here?”

     “He’s going out and gettin’ the bacon,” explained Little Piet.

     Sighing inwardly, Ja'Nil consulted with her annoying inner voice. As usual, the voice had no doubts whatsoever about what Ja'Nil ought to do.
“They’re babies,”
scolded the voice.
“You
can’t let them wander around the countryside by themselves. It’s your responsibility as an adult to see them safely to this Lady’s Keep.”