The three travelers came upon another village late on the afternoon of the fourth day after Martin arrived. It was laid out just like the villages of Dusk and Drear: a well in the center, a small stream running along the side of the village, and the huts and homes built around the center of the village.
The travelers walked slowly into the center of the village. There were some cut logs lying along the side, clearly there for the villagers to sit on. Ham and Hal and Martin went to the logs and sat.
The villagers, typical of Huddlers, shuffled on their errands, heads down, with that slightly fearful look on their faces at all times. Some would glance quickly under their lashes and brows at the strangers sitting on their logs in the center of their village.
One young woman shuffled up to them as they sat, quietly, absorbing the village.
“Strangers?”
“Yes,” said Ham.
“We are,” said Martin.
“mmmm,” said Hal.
“My name is Rachel,” the young woman said.
Hal cocked his head to the left, looked her in the eye, cocked his head to the right, gave a small smile, brought his head to the center and said “Hal.”
Ham and Martin exchanged a brief look, Ham’s eyes opening just a bit wider than usual. Martin nodded as if to agree with something.
“We’ve just come to your village. I’m searching for the man known as the ‘Lightbringer’. Have you heard of him?” asked Ham.
Rachel looked at the dirt at her feet, shuffled her feet forward and back a bit, hunched her left shoulder, then her right, and said “…don’t think so.”
Hal grinned again.
Ham said “Oh, well. What is the name of this village, Rachel?”
Rachel looked at Ham, her eyes a bit wide. It seemed clear that she was surprised that someone wouldn’t know the name of her village.
“Wait.”
Ham waited for a minute, during which there was the sound of a slight breeze blowing across the roofs of the huts and homes in the village. When Rachel didn’t say anything further, Ham asked again, “What is the name of this village, Rachel?”
“Wait.”
Again Ham waited. Had Ham looked to his left, he would have seen Martin’s small, satisfied smile.
After another minute, Ham asked “What are we waiting for, Rachel?”
Rachel looked confused. She hunched her left shoulder, hunched her right shoulder, and said “Nothing.”
Now it was Ham’s turn to look confused. He looked at Martin on his left, and saw that Martin was smiling. He looked to his right, and saw that Hal had his head cocked to the left.
Hal cocked his head to the right, smiled at Ham, brought his head to the center, and said “…name is Wait.”
Ham paused for a moment, and then started laughing. He laughed himself right off the log, and onto the ground. He laughed so hard, tears cleared a path through the dirt on his cheeks. He laughed so hard, his belly hurt and he had trouble catching his breath.
While Ham laughed, Hal cocked, Rachel hunched, and Martin smiled.
“Wait,” Ham gasped, “the name is Wait!”
And off he went into more laughter.
Other Huddlers from the village of Wait began to gather. In all of their lives, none had ever seen someone laugh like this. Most looked confused, while a few looked afraid.
Finally Ham stopped laughing, picked himself up from his bath of dirt, brushed himself off – as well as he could – and sat back down on his log.
“Wait,” he said, with a grin.
“May we stay here tonight?” Ham asked, to no one in particular.
Villagers looked from one to the other, huddling, shuffling, and shrugging. Finally Rachel said “there is an empty house on the north side. The people who lived there died some time ago, and they had no children, and there have been no other folks who needed a home. So it might not be clean, but it’s empty, and you can stay there.”
Ham just stared. This was the longest speech he’d ever heard from another Huddler, except for Martin. Hal smiled, cocked his head back and forth, and said “…thanks.”
“I’ll show you.”
Rachel led them to the north side of the village. There was a small, browngray structure somewhere between a hut and a house. There was a leather curtain for a door, a hole in the roof for smoke to get out, two windows with rickety shutters, and a yard that was all dirt.
Ham walked into the hut and looked around. There was a cot on one side of the big room, a couple of roughly made chairs, and a fireplace under the hole in the roof.
“Thank you, Rachel. This will do just fine.”
The three travelers took off their carry packs.
There was no wood or scrap in the hut, so Ham went off in search of some wood to make a fire. As he strolled through the village, he noticed the Huddlers of Wait looking at him almost expectantly. He didn’t know why, and saved the question for later consideration.
When Ham got back to the hut, he saw that Hal had taken his cooking pot and gotten some water from the village well. Martin had dusted off the cot and the chairs, and was quietly sitting on the cot, looking at Hal and Rachel, who sat in the chairs.
It was an odd tableau. Four relative strangers sitting in companionable silence.
Ham cleaned the fireplace, laid in some wood shavings, and proceeded to strike his firestarters.
“Oh, you’re a firemaker!”
“No, I’m a woodcutter. I learned to make fire from the firemaker in a village we passed.”
Then Rachel saw the walking sticks that all three carried. “Then is one of you a woodcarver?”
“No, not really. I figured I’d need a walking stick, so I learned how to carve them from the branches of trees.”
While he was talking, Ham poured some water from his water bag over his hands to clean them.
“And where did that bag come from? Do you have someone who makes those in your village?
“Um – no – I made that, too. When I decided to go on this journey, I knew I’d need water to drink. So I figured out how to make a bag to carry water in, since there wouldn’t be a well around all the time.”
Rachel looked a bit stunned. “You make fire, you carve sticks, and you make water bags. But no one does all those things. Firemakers make fire, carvers carve tools and implements, and bag makers make bags. How can you do all of those things?”
Martin, with a grin, asked “Yes, Ham, how?”
“Well…” at which point Ham proceeded to tell Rachel of his dream, his vision, his quest, and the journey thus far.
Rachel sat openmouthed through most of the telling. She never interrupted. Once or twice she hunched her left shoulder, then her right, and Hal would smile.
