“Yup, I walked.”
Hal seemed to ponder this for a bit. He scratched his head through his floppy brown hair. He kicked at the dirt with his worn but serviceable brown boots. He pulled a bit of lint from his pants pocket and dropped it. He blinked, and he looked at Ham and asked…
“Why?”
This was a major step for a Huddler – curiosity.
Ham considered his answer carefully, since he didn’t want the conversation – such as it was – to end.
“When I was little, I had a dream… a vision… of a man. He was different from everyone in our village. He was taller and his hair was a different color and his eyes were a different color and he walked differently. And somehow, I heard a voice calling him ‘the Lightbringer’.
“Ever since the first time, I’ve had that dream over and over. I never really thought much about it until just a little while ago. And then, the other day, I knew… I knew that I had to go out and find the Lightbringer. I’m not sure exactly what that means. I just know that I have to do it.”
Hal looked at Ham for a while. He looked down at the tips of his boots and scuffed the dirt. He looked up at the dreary sky, and tipped his head to the left, and then to the right. He held his hands out in front of him, as though he’d never seen them before, and turned them over and then back again. He pulled a worn brown rag out of his back pocket and gave his nose a good blow, then wiped his face with the rag and put the rag back in his back pocket.
“Okay. Mebbe I can help?”
Ham was stunned. While the Huddlers huddled together for security and safety, and while they were not against helping each other, it never occurred to Ham that someone would offer to help him in his quest. At that moment, he realized that it was a quest of some sort.
Ham thought it over for the time it took two dull brown birds to fly across the center of the village and land on the roof of one of the drab houses that lined the space like silent, hunched Huddlers. The birds walked to the very edge of the roof and sat down, as if waiting to hear Ham’s next words.
“Then let’s get you ready to go, because I don’t know how far or how long this trip will be. Let me show you what I’ve got, and we’ll make the same things for you.”
First, though, Ham decided that he needed to add something to his equipment.
Ham and Hal walked out of the center of Drear and into the nearby woods.
Ham and Hal came to a small stand of oak trees. Ham knew, from his woodcutting, that oak is strong and straight and flexible when it needs to be. They searched for some fallen branches of the right length and size, and found several that would suit them just fine. They took the branches back to the bench in the center of the village.
While they were walking, Ham would look over and find Hal just watching him. Hal would tip his head to the right and then to the left.
When they got back to the bench, Ham began stripping the bark from one of the branches he’d picked up. It was slow but satisfying work, and he found himself enjoying the rich smell of the wood, the texture of the bark and the wood beneath, and the simple pleasure of the work. In its own way, this was much like chopping wood. Using his belt knife, which was honed to a clean, sharp edge, Ham would strip a section of bark, feel the wood beneath, rotate the branch a bit, and then do it again. With each strip that came off, he felt a strange emotion that he couldn’t quite put words to.
Hal watched Ham for a bit, and then began to work on a branch of his own.
“Why’re we takin’ off the bark?”
Ham was startled by the sound of Hal’s voice. He had been in a meditative state, totally absorbed in the task of stripping the bark from the branch. He realized that he had known, without really thinking about it, that they needed to strip the bark. Now he had to think about why he was doing it so he could explain to Hal.
“We’ll be walking, right?”
“Yup.”
“And while we’re walking, we’ll be holding our sticks, right?”
“Yup.”
“Well, I guess that the bark would be pretty rough on our hands, and if we take it off and smooth the sticks, it won’t be so hard on our hands.”
Hal got one of his looks again, tipped his head side to side, gave a short nod, and went back to stripping the bark from his branch.
When they’d removed all the bark from their branches, they used their knives to trim the ends flat, take off the little branches along the length of each branch, and smooth the wood. They did some scraping and smoothing until each staff was comfortable in their hands. Then Ham looked around.
In the center of the village was the village well, where the Huddlers of Drear came to fetch their water daily, just as in Dusk. Across from where Ham and Hal sat working on their staffs was the village smokehouse. Ham thought for a bit, then he got up and headed toward the smokehouse. Hal followed along, carrying his own staff.
When they got to the smokehouse, Ham went in and found the smoke pit with the huddled embers. Hanging from racks above the smoke pit were strips and haunches of meat. The smokehouse keeper was sitting on a small bench off to the side, where the drafts from a small window kept the worst of the smoke from his eyes.
Ham took his staff and put one end of it into the embers, twisting it around a bit until it settled in nicely. Sparks popped and flew. Hal watched, then followed Ham’s example. Hal, being Hal, looked at Ham and cocked his head to one side – just one side – and waited.
Ham said “Have you ever noticed how the ends of sticks that have been in the fire are sort of black and hard?”
Hal pondered. He looked at the toes of his boots and the backs of his hands before he answered.
“Sure, I guess.”
“Well, if we’re going to be walking with these and putting the ends into the ground over and over, maybe they’ll last longer if they’re harder.”
Hal’s eyes opened just a little wider, and he tipped his head from side to side, and said “hunh!”
They stood quietly, watching the ends of their sticks slowly charring, sparks floating and flaring, and the smoke drifting up and caressing the hanging meat on its way to the hole in the roof. Ham felt the closeness of the smokehouse both physically and spiritually, realizing that he was aware of Hal standing beside him and a curious bond that was forming between them.
