Kaiser whined. He knew Matty was fibbing. He knew the real reason he was to be left behind, he could hear Matty’s heart crying out, ‘You can’t come! I can’t let the Seed Lady have you! You must stay here and be safe!
‘You’re not to peep!’ He locked Kaiser in the bedroom and crept downstairs.
The parlour door was open and the silver box on the corner table. He took out the biggest cigar and put it in his pocket.
‘Is that for me?’ the Shadow Man was at the door.
Trembling Matty nodded.
‘What, just the one?’
Matty took another cigar.
‘Nah,’ the Shadow Man smiled. ‘I reckon you can do better than that.’
‘You mustn’t!’ Matty whispered. ‘You’ll get me into trouble.’
‘Gobble-gobble, you’ve got a funny voice, lad. You sound like a half-throttled turkey.’ The Man put the glass shepherdess that stands on the bureau in his pocket and the snuff box belonging to Mumma’s Papa. Then he gazed about as though planning to put the whole house into his pocket.
Matty held out the cigars. ‘Here you are, Mister Shadow Man.’
‘Shadow Man?’ The Man laughed. ‘That’s me alright.’
‘Please don’t hurt my Mumma.’
‘Where is your mother?’
Matty shook his head.
‘She’s out, ain’t she, across the Rise. I bet she don’t know I’m here, nor does your maid out in the lane with her boyfriend. I’ll tell you what.’ The Man sat in a chair. ‘I’ll wait for them to come back. Think what a nice surprise that’ll be.’
Matty put the cigars back. He knew no matter what he offered the Man would want more. He can’t scream, it hurts his throat to do that, and as the Man says he probably does sound like a turkey. People say his throat will get better. They say do this and do that but it won’t get better. Matty doesn’t need it to, the piano’s black and white keys speak for him.
He can’t scream but he can make a noise.
Closing his eyes and clenching his fists he put all the noise he’d ever heard into the cigarette box, the bass notes of a piano, a train rattling into the station and a barrel of Pipers Best newly piped at the Nelson, and then roaring he threw the box at the Man and ran.
He made for the front door and the Rise and Mumma and the Big House where all the lights were shining. But then Kaiser began to howl and pound the bedroom door.
‘Whoo! Whoo!’ A scary sound, it rose up into the night sky.
Matty stopped running. He knew Mumma would hear and come running down the Rise and the Shadow Man would be waiting to hurt her.
Matty loves his mother. She is his One and Only mother. He must do the noble thing and lead the Shadow away. He ran back through the house.
The Man almost got him! Red blood running down his face he came staggering out of the parlour. ‘Come here, you little sod!’
Matty ducked under his arm and ran out of the back door and didn’t stop running, and as he ran he sent a message to the Wolf.
It’s not the first time he’s sent. He sends all the time. Most messages are made of kisses, some are made of piano notes. This is a distress call.
SOS ....---..... Save Our Souls!
Julia ran. ‘Hold on, darling! Mummy’s coming!’
The Rise had never seemed so high nor the cottage so far away. She tried the path. Churned about by carriages it was treacherous with ice-filled ruts and she fell twice the cape tearing and her knees skinning. Thicker untried snow was heavy and she had to push but at least she’d a chance of staying upright.
It was snowing and bitterly cold but she didn’t feel it. All she saw was the cottage, all she heard was Kaiser.
Then she saw the front door open.
‘Oh, Daniel, look! He’s there!’
Matty was in the doorway! One moment he was there framed in the lighted doorway, a little boy in blue knitted cap and woollen dressing gown then he was gone turning back into the house and danger.
‘No! Not that way!’ she screamed. ‘Come to me!’
The kiddie was terrified and didn’t know what he was doing! Daniel could see that even from back here. ‘Go back to Greenfields, Julianna!’ he shouted skidding by her. ‘Tell Crosby to call the police!’
‘No!’
‘But we don’t what’s happening down there! You may have intruders.’
‘Intruders?’
‘Matty was running from something!’ Daniel kept going. It was pointless saying anything, best save his breath. He did think to saddle a horse but then this snow is heavy going and it would’ve meant unlocking the stables. There simply isn’t time.
‘Someone’s coming!’
A figure appeared out of darkness. Bonnet askew and mouth open the maid ran back down the lane. ‘It’s Dorothy,’ panted Julia from behind him. ‘Oh where has she been? She said she wasn’t going out!’
Daniel ploughed on. What kind of night is this? Voices from hell and messages from the dead! His guts shrink just thinking about it.
Was it real, did the guy from Pretoria News talk through that wrinkled old mouth or was it a trick and she a ventriloquist’s dummy. But then any idea of fraud has to be absurd. Only Daniel knows what happened in Bloemfontein especially about the rabbit’s foot. Damn it he’d forgotten about it, how he washed blood off the miserable article and scrawled a note to Jack’s wife. It was a last minute thing. He didn’t sign it. As for sending money newsmen are always broke. Thinking the family could use it he’d enclosed a hundred dollar bill. But it was so last minute no one could’ve known.
Running at last into the Wall he threw the bolt on the gate.
‘Matty!’ Gown torn and wet with snow Julianna pushed by him.
‘Matty!’ She ran through to the parlour. ‘Darling, if you are in here hiding do come out! Mummy is here and so is Daniel!’
Upstairs the dog was going crazy battering the door and screaming.
‘Listen to that!’
‘He’s frantic! He must be shut up in Matty’s room.’
‘Wait!’ Daniel shouted. ‘Let me go up first.’ He raced up the stairs and across the landing. The door was half off the hinges. ‘Hold on, old boy!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll let you out.’ He got to the door, turned the key, and wham, it blasted open throwing him aside. Kaiser was down the stairs and gone.
Daniel followed. He couldn’t match the speed but the howling noise told him where to go. That dog! What a terrible sound, a child weeping or wolf caught in a trap who could tell!
Luke had never run so fast. Terror shifted him, the muscles in his legs driven by the noise in his head. Three years ago he ran this way for the same child. Shaken out of bed and tossed up and down, the Lord God shouting, he will never forget it. If God is once again on guard He hasn’t a hope of being heard above the noise in Luke’s head, Ma bemoaning the fact they’re thinking of going to America, Albert, pissed as a newt, and Julianna telling him to hurry, they’re falling apart! And all the while cutting in and out of the hubbub there’s Matty crying, ‘Mister Wolf, please come and get me!’
The thought of him getting hurt drained the blood from Luke’s heart. It can’t happen! Nothing must happen! They’re to be married tomorrow! No one to give her away, and none needed, she is to come down the aisle on her own, and her little lad, her pride and joy, to carry the posy when needed.
‘Can Kaiser walk with me?’ he’d asked his mother. ‘He is a good dog, and humble, and loves Gentle Jesus, and wouldn’t misbehave.’
‘Oh don’t!’ Momentarily Luke had to pull up. He was not sure who he begged only that again he offered his life for another. ‘Please, I’m begging you, not Matty! If you want a life take mine. If she loses her boy she’ll die anyway. ’
The woods in darkness and muffled and underpowered he ran. It’s been a bad year for animal life. A bitter wind and snow thick on
the ground those creatures that don’t sleep throughout the winter have nothing to forage during the day. It’s the same with birds. Last Monday was so cold some fell in midflight their wings frozen. For some reason Luke associates Matty with a bird, no one variety unless it’s the smallest the wren. The kiddie is so alive, so here and now, so vibrant and so infinitely fragile. He must not die mid-flight!
‘...wolf.....wolf....!‘
The plan was to lead the Man away. Now, cursing and crashing through bushes the Man is so near his breath melts the snow on the path.
Matty’s chest hurts. He can hardly breathe. He is small, he was born small. Papa in Heaven said he was born before his time but not to worry because ‘little is good.’ Being little was good for a while it helped him to hide in places where only little things can go. But he is so very cold now and so very tired he can neither run nor hide.
‘Oy!’ The Shadow Man reared out of nowhere. ‘Come here, you little bugger, or I’ll do you harm!’
Matty shrieked, dodged sideways, and scuffling on his hands and knees crawled inside the husk of a fallen tree.
‘.......wolf............wolf......!’
Dark eyes glowing and teeth sharp the Wolf is coming, Matty can feel him pounding through the snow. But now he is more afraid. He thinks he may have brought the Wolf to harm as he might’ve brought Mumma. And Oh he is so sad because the Seed Lady told fibs. Being chased through darkness by a Shadow who wants to hurt people there’s no good purpose in that. Love is a big thing and so very heavy. It is too heavy for a little boy to carry.
‘Got yer!’
The Shadow Man reached out, grabbed Matty’s foot and began to pull. Matty didn’t struggle. He couldn’t! So weary he couldn’t do anything but lie still and pray to Gentle Jesus and close his eyes so not to see what is coming. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I meant to get it but couldn’t. The box was in the parlour.’
Luke was coming. He saw it happen but in slow motion and as though viewed through treacle. The moon was high and floodlit the world. That bastard Sherwood swung his fist at Matty. Then the dog arrived.
Fur glistening Kaiser hurtled out a patch of scrubland like some ancient heraldic dragon beast. Claws outstretched and jaws gaping, poetry in motion and justified anger, the dog launched into the air. Whump! He landed on Sherwood’s back knocking him forward.
For a moment there was silence, or so it seemed to Luke, though the dog savaging the man, tearing at his face, there must’ve been a hell of a racket.
Matty was motionless, a curled up foetal shape, a frozen child, a dead child for all Luke knew. Then he moved and cried out and straight way the dog released Sherwood to go to his young Master.
‘No!’ Luke knew what would happen. ‘Stay put Kaiser!’
Sherwood scrambled to his feet and snatching up a piece of wood ran at the dog. That’s when Luke’s mind turned to treacle. From then on all was slow and so damned painful it might have been coming from the other side of the world.
Snarling, protective, the dog crouched over Matty. Sherwood swung the piece of wood. There was a terrible yelping and Kaiser lay still.
Filthy words, curses, nothing worth repeating Sherwood hung over Matty brandishing the clump of wood. The dog, God help it, wouldn’t give up. Knowing his beloved boy in danger Kaiser crawled forward inch-by-inch and lay across him. Sherwood raised the clump of wood.
Luke came crashing through the trees. ‘Get away you murderous swine!’
Sherwood ran.
Several things happened then. Daniel Masson arrived with Julianna. White and trembling she fell on her knees cradling Matty in her arms.
‘Is he alright?’ asked Daniel Masson.
‘I don’t know,’ said Luke.
‘He doesn’t seem to have any bones broken, just badly shocked.’
‘Get them home, Masson, and call a doctor,’ said Luke.
‘Sure. I imagine one already on the way. Crosby will have sent.’
‘Look to the dog.’ Luke turned away.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Where d’you think.’
Daniel Masson didn’t try to stop him. He couldn’t stop him. No one could have stopped him.
Luke strode on. There was no need to run, he knew where Sherwood lives, a caravan by the quarry with the rest of the raggle-taggle mob.
The wood and the night heavy with time past and time present he pushed through the snow. Three years ago he came this way for Matty. A decade before that he came again, laughing and happy, a wild young fellow wanting to coax some bit of a girl into his arms. It was his dead brother he carried away.
Matty says there is a good purpose in all things, the Seed Lady says so. Where that miserable shit Sherwood is concerned there is now a definite purpose. Luke never comes near the quarry. Whatever the season or job he’ll make a wide detour sooner than walk on tainted land. That he comes now suggests a Divine Purpose that has him undoing his collar and stuffing his tie in his pocket.
‘I mean, it has to be the quarry, doesn’t it, Jacky boy?’ he muttered. ‘Looks like I’m bound to do what I should’ve done years ago.’
Luke holds no anger in his heart only cold determination. If he needed to stoke a fire he’s only to think of Matty lying in the snow and Julianna’s face, her beauty drained away in fear. If that is not enough then there is Kaiser!
Sherwood threatened his family. There’s no getting away with that!
The rat returning to its rat-hole a trail of blood in the snow led down the gulley toward the slate workings. Briefly it crossed Luke’s mind to arm himself, to pick up a rock or a piece of wood. Rats run in packs. In going to the caravan site it’s likely he’ll take on more than one. Then so be it! In the end it comes down to the same thing, the need to defend those you love.
The quarry has been here for years, all that was good in the earth gouged out over two centuries and the tunnels beneath flooded with water. Everything and anything gets thrown in and very few come up to breathe, as the Roberts family found to their sorrow. God knows how many animals have sunk below the scummy surface, and for that matter people. Every once in a while someone drowns. The village then is up in arms and the Local Council hammers a warning sign into the ground a skull leering. It’s a filthy disease-ridden pit and should be filled in and the filthy memories with it.
The tinker’s caravans are quiet, a thin curl of smoke rising from a damped down fire. This side of the quarry has no particular pathway. Steep and dangerous the steps are uncertain. Snow and ice heavy on the ground no one should attempt it especially not this time of night but Sherwood is down there and bloodsucking parasite that he is he must be winkled out and squashed.
When the bastard came at him, the lump of wood in his fist wet with a dog’s good blood, Luke was climbing down. Intent on keeping his footing he didn’t anticipate an ambush. He should’ve, this is no Field of Honour.
Sherwood swiped at the back of Luke’s knees causing him to stumble. He fell rolling over and over crashing through trees and bushes down into the quarry but he took Sherwood with him.
They hit the surface and were briefly held by a crust of ice. The ice cracked, the crust gave way, and they sank through a layer of shit into freezing water.
Lodged against the quarry wall they fought, sinking by degrees, cuts in the slate and roots of trees creating temporary foot and handholds. Luke managed to get free and began pulling back up the slate wall whereupon Sherwood hung about his neck and scrambling turned them out into deeper water.
Down they went Siamese twins locked in misery. The water was thick and foul-tasting. Sludge filling his boots and coat pockets it came to Luke then he might die in this awful place.
Boot-caps scraping his shins Sherwood held on. ‘Help me!’ Was the message in those clutching arms; ‘I can’t swim!’ It was too dark to see anything but Luke knew it to be the case, he could feel terr
or emanating from the man.
Too bad, he thought. My brother drowned in this. Now you know how it feels.
The rat-gnawed carcase of a dog floating by nudged Luke’s arm.
Poor Kaiser, the swine did for him! A brave dog, valiant! What was it old Joe Carmody was forever whistling, ‘He who would true Valour see let him come hither, One here will constant be, come wind, come weather.’
Dear Joe, he was valiant in his own a quiet way as was Kaiser. If Luke is to meet them on the Other Side maybe it won’t be so bad.
Arms to his sides Luke tried letting his body hang slack. Panic screamed fight! Get to the surface! Live and be happy with Anna and Matty! Every blood vessel busting he wanted to fight but knew he must force Sherwood to let go.
But Sherwood guessed the plan and hooking his right fist about Luke’s neck dragged him forward and began pounding his face. Briefly between seeing stars Luke saw and felt the same animal corpse float alongside.
He grabbed it, brought it up between them, and jabbed the dog’s head, maggot holes for eyes, hard into Sherwood’s hated face. The chap pulled back in revulsion. There was a jolt, the sense of cloth ripping and of brief pain, a pointed object scraping Luke’s chest, and then warm liquid wetting his skin.
Sherwood let go of Luke and seemed to float backward.
A shaft of moonlight split the water. Luke saw then that Sherwood was skewered to the quarry wall a metal spike driven through his gut.
Luke was free to move but so very tired. He kicked for the surface. He really did try but was getting nowhere. Everything weighed him down, his clothes, boots, and the knowledge he’d killed a man.
I’m tired, he thought. My lungs...can’t breathe... I just want to sleep.
Oh, Julianna, my own precious love, he thought, I am so sorry. I so wanted to love you and Matty but I don’t think I can.
Out of the dirt and squalor it seemed to Luke then an angel came to help. A figure made of moonlight swam toward him, an electric eel the water about him vibrating. A hand reached out and touched Luke’s chest a shock passing through his body a thousand volts of pure energy. Then another angel came, a human angel who dove into the water and grabbing his hands began to pull.
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