Beware the Clopper!

by John Bemelmans Marciano

  “Let’s see,” she says, coming over to look. She wants to help, especially if her knowing how to read can for once be something useful rather than freakish. “He has lots of stuff about the Romans. He loves the Romans.”

  “You can really read all that?” Primo says skeptically, pointing at the titles on the spines.

  “Pretty much,” Maria Beppina says, feeling proud. But she can’t find any books about augurs, or Roman religion, or anything like that. “Daddy says these encyclopedias are the best, but they’re in French.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t know French.”

  “Oh,” Primo says, nodding. “So you can’t really read.”

  “Well, not every language!” she says. “But here, there’s got to be something in one of these.” She pulls out a different encyclopedia and looks up Augur.

  “In ancient Rome,” Maria Beppina begins, “augers were priests who read the will of the gods through natural phenomena.”

  “Come on, come on,” Primo says after a few more paragraphs like that. “Get to the good part! How do you do it? Like split the stomach open and stuff.”

  Maria Beppina begins to skim. It turns out that auguring is about a lot more than innards. Anything can be a sign. “There’s something about lightning moving from left to right bringing good fortune,” she says hopefully. “And that it’s bad luck to meet a raven when you go outside.”

  “But what about the animal guts?”

  “Oh wait, here’s something,” she says. “The main way to discover the will of the gods was to examine the organs of animals killed for sacrifice. Priests believed that anything peculiar should be taken as a warning.”

  “Anything peculiar?” he says. “Like what kind of peculiar?”

  “So this is where you’ve been!” comes a voice from outside.

  Isidora pushes through the partly open door. “Come on, you lazy toad,” she says to Primo. “We have to do the washing. And no getting out of it this time!”

  As Primo rolls his eyes, Isidora shoves the basket of laundry she’s carrying into his gut. “Oof!” he says. “Hey, watch it!”

  Isidora sees Maria Beppina’s sack of laundry and tells her to come along too. Maria Beppina hems and haws but follows. The reason for the hemming/hawing is the Theater, which they will arrive at soon.

  As in now.

  Maria Beppina clutches at her lumpy bag of dirty things and feels her heart race, looking across her field of fears.

  She has been taking the long way around the Theater ever since the Clopper almost caught her, walking along the city walls or taking one of the far gates out of town. She’s not sure she can make it across, especially with this big heavy sack. But she can’t act like a coward in front of her downstairs cousins, who are off and running! She takes off too.

  How can the Clopper already be so close? Maria Beppina feels her shoes too loose, her heart thumping out of her chest, and clutches onto the bag like a pillow during a nightmare. And that’s what it feels like—the mares at night, when they ride you, suffocating you, and you try to wake up and you can’t and you can’t and you can’t.

  When she does make it across, Maria Beppina can hardly believe it. She puts the laundry sack down so she can take full gulps of air. Primo and Isidora are already walking ahead, like it’s nothing. Which to them, it is.

  Maria Beppina follows her cousins downstream to the wide shallow part of the river. Everyone does their washing here—it's far away from Manalonga, and the water is warmer. Except today it’s freezing! Maria Beppina can barely stand it as she wades in.

  She plucks a hair off her head—ouch!—and drops it into the water as an offering to Gallie, the kind spirit who lives in the river.

  As the hair floats away, Maria Beppina sings:

  Maria Beppina goes to where Primo, Rosa, and Emilio are standing near the far bank, arriving just as her cousin is telling the Twins about his scheme to augur an animal, specifically a fish. He insists he knows how to do it because of what he—or rather, Maria Beppina—read in a book.

  “Isn’t that right, Maria Beppina?” Primo says.

  Now everyone is looking at her, and she can feel her face burn. Maria Beppina hates to lie, which is what it feels like Primo is asking her to do. She didn’t read anything on how to actually augur an animal! Still, she doesn’t want to disappoint her cousin.

  “Well, we did read about auguring,” Maria Beppina says, choosing her words carefully. “And it was in a book.”

  That seems to satisfy everyone, and Maria Beppina concentrates on washing while Primo and Rosa get to fishing.

  She is nearly done when she sees Sergio arriving on the path from town. He can barely walk for the two sacks of laundry he’s carrying. Leaving Primo and the Twins to augur and argue, Maria Beppina wades to the other bank of the river, where Sergio and his bags have come to rest.

  Maria Beppina has a secret—very secret—crush on Sergio. It must be said that Sergio is an unlikely person to have a crush on. He’s a little funny looking, for one thing, with big gaps between his teeth and a sometimes squint in his eyes on account of his not seeing so well. But there is something cute about Sergio that makes you want to take care of him, like a puppy. Maria Beppina always wanted a puppy.

  She sets her one small laundry bag down next to Sergio’s two giant sacks. He is completely overwhelmed by what’s inside of them: diapers. “How can three babies go caca this much?”

  “Come on, I’ll help you,” Maria Beppina says.

  She opens the first bag and catches a whiff that is so bad she starts breathing out of her mouth. Now her eyes start to water.

  “It’s not so bad,” she says, forcing a smile.

  While they wash, Maria Beppina talks about all that’s been happening—like the eel and the Manalonga and how the Clopper is getting closer and closer to catching her. “And the Janara mischiefs are worse than ever at Rosa and Emilio’s!”

  “I don’t understand why everyone’s so worried about the Twins having a few days of Janara trouble,” Sergio says. “I’ve had a whole life of ghost trouble!”

  Sergio’s ghost—whose name is Bis-Bis—demands two offerings a day, and they are a lot more involved than plucking a hair and saying a rhyme. If Sergio doesn’t satisfy him, Bis-Bis will haunt the house and Sergio’s family will have to move out.

  Most of what Bis-Bis wants is food, but not only. “Today he wants me to get him rope,” Sergio says. “What can a ghost possibly need with rope?!”

  “Got one!” they hear Rosa yell from the far bank. She has a fish flapping on her spear, and Primo is hopping mad that she caught one first. Rosa always beats Primo at everything.

  “I’ll never finish all these diapers!” Sergio says, even though it’s been Maria Beppina doing most of the work. “I can’t believe my mom makes me do this!”

  “Well, my dad wouldn’t even let me go to the Twins’ yesterday,” Maria Beppina says. She wants to complain more about her father, but Sergio doesn’t seem to hear her. When it comes to listening, he isn’t much better than anyone else she knows.

  “Hey, guys—come over and look at this!”

  Primo is yelling and waving them across the river, where he and the Twins are huddled around something on the ground. It’s the fish Rosa caught, lying cut open on the muddy ground. But what Primo wants to show them is a ring. A gold ring.

  “Where did you find it?” Sergio asks.

  “There!” Primo says, and points to the gutted carp. “Inside the fish!”

  At first, Maria Beppina thinks he’s kidding. How could a ring—a beautiful gold ring—come from the inside of a fish? But it’s true.

  What was it that book said about auguring? Anything peculiar should be taken as a warning.

  6

  THE FIRE

  THE next morning at Primo’s stand, all the kids gather to he
ar what may be Primo’s craziest scheme yet: He wants to go find the Tree of the Janara. Tonight!

  Maria Beppina chokes at the thought of it. The Tree stands miles outside the city walls at the Bridge of Ancient Ages and is where witches gather before a night of mischiefing.

  The reason Primo wants to go is the ring. He’s convinced that the ring belongs to a Manalonga and so will protect them from Janara and demons. But how can he be sure?

  “He’s crazy!” Sergio says as they leave Primo at the stand.

  “Do you think we’ll really find Janara?” Maria Beppina asks on their way down the hill. “And demons?”

  She wonders if she might see the rooster that attacks her dad. But how will she recognize the rooster in its demon form? Will it still have black feathers? A beak? Chicken feet?

  “Forget Janara and demons!” Sergio says. “Everyone knows bandits are what you really need to be afraid of outside the walls. I heard that ’O Diavolino’s band hijacked the overnight coach from Naples last week!”

  “What do we have to worry about ’O Diavolino for?” Emilio says. “We’re not bringing any money, and we’re not going to be anywhere near the highway. It’s the bears and wolves that might kill us.”

  “You’re all a bunch of sissies! Wolves and bears are nothing my trusty slingshot can’t handle,” Rosa says, tapping her weapon. “And as for Janara, they can’t be too brave or they wouldn’t wait until everyone’s asleep to go sneaking around to do their mischiefs.”

  That afternoon, the kids who live inside the town walls—Maria Beppina, Sergio, and Primo—all tell their parents they are staying at the Twins’, and vice versa.

  At the end of dinner, Primo and Maria Beppina go and get Sergio, and the three of them meet up with the Twins on the mill path just outside the walls.

  The walk is definitely long, but hardly scary at all. They even stop to

  make a nice big fire and have a snack in a clearing near a shepherd’s hut.

  When they arrive at the Bridge of Ancient Ages, there are no Janara or demons and no tree that looks particularly supernatural.

  Maria Beppina is relieved but feels bad for Primo, who is obviously disappointed and keeps insisting that they just got there too early and the Janara will come.

  Sergio won’t wait. He tells Primo he has to go home. “I can lie to my mother, but not my ghost,” he says. “I can’t miss the morning offering.”

  Maria Beppina says she has to go back too. “I’m sorry, Primo. I hope the Janara come!”

  “Fine! Quitters! Who needs you anyway?” Primo calls after them.

  Bad though she may feel for Primo, Maria Beppina feels a little rush of happiness to walk home alone with Sergio. But she soon feels a rush of a different kind—fear.

  The two of them are too alone! Without Rosa and her slingshot, Primo and his confidence, and Emilio and his knowledge, it feels like they are going down a completely different path. The night has turned chilly, and Maria Beppina hugs herself as they walk.

  They get into a patch of brambles that seems to go on and on. She doesn’t remember having come through them the other way. And why haven’t they come to the clearing where they made the fire?

  “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Maria Beppina says.

  “Sure I’m sure! We’re following the river,” Sergio says, pointing. “You can’t lose a river!”

  Except that you can and they have. The river narrows into a stream and peters out. They somehow took a fork in the river.

  “Dang!” Sergio says. “How far back the other way do we have to go?”

  It is now really late, and every sound they hear is spookier and spookier. Maria Beppina can’t decide what to worry about most—Janara, demons, bandits, or wild animals.

  The two of them finally get back to where the stream meets the river and they turn down the path toward home.

  Suddenly, they hear the sound of something breaking a stick. Loudly!

  “Is it a wolf?” Sergio says.

  “No, just a cat,” Maria Beppina says as a tiger-striped puss dashes under a log.

  “Or a demon,” Sergio says, walking on. “Hey, what’s that up ahead?”

  Through the trees and underbrush they see a light. At first Maria Beppina wonders if it’s from the moon. But it’s not.

  “It’s a fire!” Sergio whispers, grabbing Maria Beppina’s hand.

  She imagines a cauldron stirred by demons and Janara flying, but Sergio thinks it’s something else.

  “Bandits!” he says. “We’ve stumbled onto a camp of bandits!”

  Sergio squeezes Maria Beppina’s hand tighter as they move forward. “I think I see one,” Sergio says. “I think I see three! They’re warming themselves by the fire.”

  They creep further toward the light, even though Maria Beppina isn’t sure why they aren’t running the other way.

  At the edge of the clearing they hide behind a tree. But there are no bandits—at least none they can see. “But they could be in that hut over there,” Sergio whispers.

  “Wait, that hut!” Maria Beppina says, recognizing it. “This is the clearing where we stopped. This is our fire!”

  “But how could it have come back alive?” Sergio says. “Primo kicked dirt on it.”

  They walk out from behind the tree to examine the situation, and that’s when they hear something—a noise—coming from inside the shepherd’s hut.

  Snoring!

  Maria Beppina’s eyes go wide and so do Sergio’s. Someone is here! Whoever it is, though, Maria Beppina and Sergio will never know.

  They are already running home.

  7

  CURIOSITY

  TOC TOC

  Maria Beppina is happy to hear Primo’s knock. She’s curious what happened at the Tree of the Janara the other night, as she hasn’t seen him since. It’s almost like he’s been avoiding her, or maybe it’s everyone. He didn’t even come to dinner last night!

  As soon as she opens the door, Primo says, “Take it.” He’s holding out his hand, and Maria Beppina can’t believe what’s in it.

  It’s the ring.

  “What are you giving me this for?” she asks as Primo places the ring in her hand.

  Primo peers inside the doorway to look at Maria Beppina’s father, who sits working at his drafting table. His tools always spook Primo. “I want you to ask him about it,” he whispers, nodding over.

  “My dad?” Maria Beppina says. “Why?”

  “Because he can read all the books,” Primo says, and starts back down the steps.

  “Did the Janara ever come to your tree?” Maria Beppina calls after him.

  “Just ask your father about the ring!” Primo hollers up without looking back.

  “What’s going on out there?” her father calls from inside.

  Maria Beppina shows Daddy the ring and tells him how Primo found it inside of a fish. “What do you think it means?” she asks.

  “It means nothing. It’s trash,” he says. “People throw trash in the river. Fish eat trash.”

  “But it’s not trash!” Maria Beppina says. “It’s a beautiful ring.”

  “Well, maybe someone threw it into the river on purpose then. Or it slipped off their finger while they were doing the wash. People lose things, you know.”

  Maria Beppina stays upstairs for dinner that night. She doesn’t want to disappoint Primo with what her father said, and she barely feels like eating anyway.

  Sitting in bed, she takes out the ring and holds it up to the bright moonlight. How pretty it is! She never noticed the pattern.

  Then she notices something else—a symbol etched into the inner band. A hook, it looks like, or maybe it’s a J. Could it be a clue to who it belongs to? A Janara?

  In Benevento, curiosity is the most dangerous thing of all. Maria Beppina has survi
ved here by not being curious, but she can no longer help herself.

  Why did Mischief Season come so early? Did that eel really lead Primo to the Mana- longa? What would happen if the Clopper caught a kid? Caught her?

  And what about this ring? She slips it on her finger and holds it up again to the moon. It fits perfectly.

  Is it truly magical? Would it really protect her against witches?

  Maria Beppina has no earthly idea.

  8

  THE MOST AMAZING THING YET!

  “MARIA Beppina! Sergio!”

  Maria Beppina hears voices calling from outside.

  “Maria Beppina! Sergio!”

  At the same moment Maria Beppina and Sergio open their shutters across the alley from each other. Below, the Twins are calling.

  “We’re heading to meet Primo at the watchtower. We’re going to play Storm-the-Castle!” Rosa calls up. “Do you guys wanna come?”

  Storm-the-Castle! That’s Maria Beppina’s favorite game. She always plays the guard. Everyone else hates to, but she loves it.

  On her way out the door, Maria Beppina feels the ring on her finger. She still isn’t sure what to say to Primo. But that hardly matters at the moment—what matters is that they are almost to the Theater!

  Before she even knows it, the rest of them are off and running. She has even less hope than usual of catching up, and is stuck again in the repeating nightmare.

  Rosa is so far ahead, and now Emilio! Sergio turns back for a moment to look at her, but even he is starting to pull away. And her shoe! It’s about to fall off.

  The sound of her heart thumping in her head is overwhelmed by the clopclopclopping behind her. This is it, this is the time she is going to get caught! What can she do? She takes a big breath in. And she stops.