Craft

by Lynnie Purcell

  “I swear I will have you home before dawn. Then, you can go back to doing whatever chores Neveah makes you do,” he said. “It’ll be like you never left.”

  Ellie did not take his promise lightly. She knew he meant it. “Alright, but if I’m not back before then, I’m telling Neveah it was your fault. Then, you’ll have her to deal with.”

  “Okay,” Thane agreed.

  Caw swooped back into the clearing. He had bug in his mouth. He landed on a log, ate the bug, and then looked between them as if he had overheard every word of their conversation. His beady eyes questioned their meaning; he questioned where they intended on going. Ellie frowned at the bird. She knew he could keep up with a car, but she did not want someone to see him. It was not safe. A dozen fears ran through Ellie’s head as she looked at Caw. She would not risk her friend on a momentary adventure.

  “Maybe Caw ought to be changed for our ride,” Ellie suggested. “I don’t want someone to see him and try and hurt him.”

  “Good thinking,” Thane agreed.

  “Is that okay, Caw?” Ellie asked her bird friend.

  Caw gave a low sound of understanding, though his dark eyes were not happy. He stood as still as possible as Ellie raised her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she changed him into the necklace she had worn in town. The silver dropped to the earth as the bird became metal. She put the necklace around her neck.

  Ellie’s craft done, they both stood. For the second time, Thane led Ellie through the forest. They walked deeper into the woods instead of toward the road as Ellie had expected. After ten minutes, they reached a small access road overgrown with weeds and pine trees. Thane’s car was parked along the edge of the road. He got in the car and waited for her to do the same.

  She hesitated on the passenger side of the car. Her doubt had not quite left her. A part of her could not let go of the fact that she was always alone. No one wanted to take her places out of the kindness of their heart. It had to be a joke or a setup. His family had put him up to befriending her. She would pay for her trust.

  Ellie shelved her bad feelings away and opened the door to his car. She was willing to believe in her hope for the time being. When she sat, her legs moved in a constant state of agitation. She could not stop the fear that something bad would happen because of her daringness. Thane started the car and drove them down the narrow road. He noticed her agitation. It was impossible to miss. He was eager to take away her fear.

  “Your turn. Tell me about growing up here,” Thane said.

  “I was born, I grew older, and here I am,” Ellie said.

  “I told you stories,” he complained. “And put up with all your questions. You owe me for that.”

  Ellie laughed at his petulant tone. It was childish, but sweet. It was completely different from her initial thoughts of him. “Alright, keep your britches on. Just try not to fall asleep from boredom,” she said. “We’ll wreck if you do.”

  “I’ll try,” Thane said.

  Ellie shared stories of growing up at the house, her momma, and living life within a two-mile radius. She told him stories of the craft she had learned over years of practice and the feud she had gotten used to, also from years of practice.

  Thane knew some of the stories of the feud – from the Cooper perspective – but he never argued with what the Coopers believed and what she believed to be the truth. He let her tell her side, and it made for a better story. It gave him perspective to how his family’s actions had affected the Bumbalows. He asked as many questions as Ellie had, though Ellie was more patient in answering them. She liked the questions – they meant he was not bored. Her stories took on a life of their own and all her fear at leaving the house dropped away. The distraction was a lingering one.

  Thane drove them through one tiny town after another. Ellie was too distracted by her stories to focus on the towns any more than acknowledging the shift from dark to light back to dark again. Thane did not seem to have a destination in mind. He simply drove.

  Finally, Thane pulled the car into a parking lot. The parking lot was half asphalt, half gravel. The asphalt was cracked and showed signs of abuse. A large fence separated the parking lot from a large collection of amusement park rides. They were at the fair. A Ferris Wheel was the center point of the park. The large, circular structure stood over the smaller rides; kid rides, fast rides, and rides that would have made Ellie sick, were placed at strategic intervals around food stands and shooting games. It was easy to imagine people walking in circles around the rides and stands. Ellie stopped talking and stared at the amusement park with equal parts confusion and fascination.

  “Where are we?” Ellie asked.

  “This is one of my favorite places,” Thane said. “Was…one of my favorite places. I used to come here every summer with my mom, before she got sick.”

  Ellie refocused on Thane. His words were real and sincere. His words were more real than the Ferris Wheel, which stood out from the park like a Titan. His words surprised her more than anything else she had learned about him.

  “Your momma is sick?” Ellie asked.

  “Yeah, uh…yeah…” Thane said.

  Thane coughed and looked around the dark parking lot awkwardly. He had not meant to share that piece of information with Ellie. The sight of the fair had made the memory easier to express than normal. He never mentioned his mother, not if he could help it. The pain was as real as Ellie’s at losing both of her parents to her father’s death.

  “I understand. We all have secrets,” Ellie said quickly.

  Ellie pointed at the Ferris Wheel in a distraction, though her mind lingered on the secret he had inadvertently shared.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “A Ferris Wheel. You want to go on a ride?” he asked.

  “The park is all closed off,” Ellie said.

  “Can you craft, or not?” he asked.

  “Better than you!” Ellie asserted.

  Thane shook his head at her assertive tone, but he did not argue with her. He knew she was right. “So, let’s go,” he said.

  “Alright!” Ellie agreed.

  Ellie jumped out of the car and ran for the fence. She giggled as she ran, happy beyond words to be away and doing something so unlike herself. The freedom of it was incredible. Thane reached her just as she reached the fence. Thane raised his hand and cut a thin line through the metal. He held the opening for Ellie to crawl through. She moved to the other side and did the same for him. Thane led the way over to the Ferris Wheel. Ellie kept craning her neck to look at the sights. The park was as interesting as town, more even. There were so many shiny things that held no other purpose beyond entertainment.

  Despite Ellie’s joy being infectious, Thane was somber as they walked. He was still thinking about his mom and his admission to Ellie. He could not contain his thoughts. It was difficult for him to talk about his mother, but he could not hold the thoughts in. They circled his brain until he could not take it any longer.

  “My mom got sick from magic,” he admitted to Ellie after a moment.

  Ellie stopped walking. She looked at Thane as if she had never seen another person before. “Sick from magic?!” Ellie asked.

  She was incredulous. She had never heard of such a strange thing. Practicing craft had always been her refuge from the fighting and the bullying. The idea that it could make someone sick was startling and more than a little disturbing. She could not believe it. Thane’s face said otherwise. He was not lying. The pain in his expression was too real. Thane stared at a ride in the distance, his eyes sad. He took a moment to answer her question.

  “Yeah. She was experimenting with powerful magic, searching for a way to end the feud…she thought if she was more powerful than your side, she would be able to end the fight by simple intimidation. Your family would be too scared to fight any more. Fear would keep you in check. Her experimenting went bad, she couldn’t control her crafting, and she went…crazy. She just sits there at the hospital my dad put her in. She
doesn’t speak, doesn’t move. She just sits.”

  “That’s so sad,” Ellie said. “I’m sorry.”

  Thane waved her apology away. His eyes cleared and he realized what he was saying. The admission was something he had never shared with anyone outside of his family. He wanted to downplay its importance. “I went to see her today. It always puts me in a weird mood.”

  “Why?” Ellie asked.

  “She used to be so happy,” Thane admitted. “Now, she’s just a shell of a person. She’s the only reason I could never get up the nerve to run away…I can’t leave her for good. It’s not fair to her. It just makes my dad angry to see her…Dad blames your family for her state. He thinks that it’s the Bumbalows’ fault she was driven to practice her magic the way she did.”

  “It’s easy to blame others for what happened,” Ellie said. “Neveah blames the Coopers for her unhappiness.”

  “Why?” Thane asked.

  “Your lot killed my daddy,” Ellie admitted. “My momma couldn’t handle the pain, so she took to traveling the world. She only comes around now and then...once or twice a year, if I’m lucky. Even then, it’s like she’s not really here. She always thinking about leaving, even before she gets here. When the Coopers killed my daddy…it was the day our world fell apart. Neveah has trouble letting that go.”

  Ellie looked up at the Ferris Wheel. It was even taller than the buildings at the shipping dock. She saw seats spaced at regular intervals and wondered if a person was really supposed to sit in such a flimsy seat while so high up.

  Ellie turned to Thane, who looked shocked at her admission. He seemed to be looking for a way to apologize or comfort her. He did not know how. He felt as if her dad’s blood and her mother’s abandonment were on his hands. Ellie ignored the look in his eyes. Focusing on the ride was easier than dredging up the past. It hurt less, and she was not eager to make Thane feel guilty for something he had not personally done. It had not been his hands that had crafted her dad’s life away.

  “How do you work it?” Ellie asked, pointing up.

  The words Thane had been fighting with were lost with the question. He went over to a set of controls in front of the Ferris Wheel and pushed a button. The engine roared to life and lights on the ride kicked on. Thane grabbed Ellie’s hand and pulled her over to the seat. He pulled a small bar across their lap, then raised his hand. He flicked his wrist and a switch on the control panel moved up. The Ferris Wheel started moving in a circle. Ellie grabbed the seat in reflex. She was afraid to fall out, not trusting the small bar to keep her from certain death. Thane noticed her fear.

  “We’re not going to fall,” he assured her.

  “Feels like it,” Ellie said nervously as the bucket swayed a little with the wind and the upward movement.

  “Are you afraid of heights?” Thane asked. He had not considered that before deciding on their adventure.

  “I dunno, this the highest I’ve ever been,” she said.

  “You look pretty afraid to me,” Thane said.

  “Well, I am a bit,” she admitted.

  “Don’t look down,” Thane said. “Look straight ahead. Maybe if you look hard enough, you can see your house from here.”

  “You think so?” Ellie asked, looking out over the flat horizon of trees.

  “Maybe,” Thane lied.

  Ellie searched the landscape, but one light in the distance looked like all the other lights. She gave up her search after a while, but her search had done its job. By the time the Ferris Wheel made another circuit around, she had relaxed. She was not going to fall out. She enjoyed the view from the top and ignored her fear, realizing she could make herself stop falling before she hit the ground. The craft was simple enough.

  As they came back around to the top for a third time, Thane flicked his wrist again and they stopped moving. The buckets rocked with the stop, causing Ellie to grip the seat again. She looked to Thane for an answer to the stop. He did not explain. He was eager for more stories. He started asking her more questions about her childhood, avoiding mention of her parents or the painful memories. Ellie answered him easily, finding a desire to talk that went beyond any she had ever known. Their talking erased the time.

  After her initial doubt was erased by Thane’s sincere interest, Ellie found herself talking more than she had ever talked in her whole life. She wanted to share her ideas, get them out of her head and have someone tell her their opinion on them. Thane did not agree with all of her ideas, but he never said she was stupid. He let her keep her opinions, just as she let him keep his. They were able to talk without judgment, without malice. Though he teased her often when her naivety seeped into the conversation, he also listened to what she had to say and seemed to respect her words. He did not try to make her stop talking.

  Around the exchange of ideas and stories, both were extremely aware of the feud. It breathed through every moment. Thane even brought it up again at one point. He was not able to drop the realization that the feud was not natural. He could not let it go. Living away from it for so long made him realize how unnatural it really was. Most people in the world did not feud the way their families did, not to the point of murder. Ellie did not have the same perspective, but she had come to the same conclusion. The conclusion did not change anything. The violence was a threat that hung around every laugh and every story told. It could not be stopped. Ellie was not eager to dwell on the reality for long.

  Between one story and the next, a car pulled into the parking lot. It circled around Thane’s car once then pulled into a spot close to the gate. Thane knew it was time to go. He lowered the Farris Wheel with a flip of his wrist and raised the bar securing them in place when they reached the bottom. Ellie was oblivious to the urgency of the danger facing them until she saw his face.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Someone is coming. If we’re caught, they’ll call our families.”

  “I don't have a phone at my house,” Ellie said.

  “Fine, they’ll call my dad…and he’ll punish me. I was supposed to be at a friend’s house. Hurry up!” he urged her.

  They ran through the fair, dodging equipment and trashcans, and back to the hole in the fence. Ellie saw a light in the distance as the person in the car got out with a flashlight. They had not seen them yet, but she figured that was only luck. They would find them soon if they were stupid enough to stick around. She ran faster at the thought. Thane’s wellbeing depended on it.

  Thane started his car as soon as Ellie was inside and they barreled toward the exit. Ellie saw the man turn his flashlight in their direction, but they were gone before he could do anything beyond stare in surprise.

  As soon as they hit the narrow, two-lane road that led back to her house, Ellie started laughing. The rush of the run through the fair and the risk of being found had caught up with her. The fear and adrenaline lent itself to amusement at getting away safely.

  She bent over as she tried to catch her breath around her laughing. Thane did not join in right at first. He was too busy watching his rearview mirror for signs of the man chasing them. Ellie’s laughter was infectious, though. He finally relaxed and laughed with her. Ellie was impressed by the change the laughter brought to his face.

  “You’re much better looking when you're not scowling,” Ellie told him around their laughter.

  Thane gave another chuckle. “Thanks.”

  “Sure,” Ellie said.

  Thane drove her back to the access road. Ellie’s good mood faded with her return to the road. She realized she was not ready to go home. She was having fun, more than she had ever had before. Home meant chores and bullying. It did not mean laughter and comfortable familiarity. She never thought she would know such things with a stranger.

  “I got you home before dawn,” Thane pointed out. “I kept my word.”

  “Guess so,” Ellie agreed.

  Thane looked out at the night. There was reluctance on his face as well. Leaving meant returning to his fath
er. “I’ll see you next week?” Thane asked.

  “Sure,” Ellie said. “Thanks for the fair. It’s the nicest one I’ve ever been to.”

  “The only one you’ve ever been to,” Thane pointed out.

  “That don’t mean it wasn’t nice,” Ellie replied.

  “Well, it was also the nicest fair I’ve ever been to,” Thane admitted.

  Ellie smiled, enjoying the idea that he had as much fun as she had. There was a short beat of silence between them. Ellie was stalling. She was trying to think of reasons not to go back. Part of her thought of the road they were on as a safe place, a place where the feud and the fighting did not exist. It was a place where someone respected her friendship. It was a break from reality. She could not think of something to say that would make sense in the moment. There was no reason to stay in his car.

  “Well…see you later,” she said awkwardly.

  Ellie waved a quick goodbye at Thane and got out of the car. Thane waited for her to step away, then he drove down the weed-choked road. In the next moment, he was gone.

  Ellie released Caw from his prison as soon as Thane was gone. The bird immediately soared into the air and circled above the trees. Ellie yawned as Caw circled overhead a third time and let out a long caw of enjoyment at being free. Without thinking, she set her feet toward her shack and sleep. Her pace was quick despite her exhaustion. She only had an hour or two before she had to start on her chores for the day. She would use the time to catch up on her sleep. She hoped it would be enough rest to suffer through a long day of being at Careen and Neveah’s beck-and-call.

  Ellie was more than a little startled when, close to her shack, a figure detached itself from the shadows. Ellie jumped and stopped herself just in time from using her craft on her sister. Careen, sleepy-eyed but full of excitement, stepped in front of Ellie. She blocked the path.