by Jan Tilley
Some city folks told Malachi that there’s a video on the internet of the ghost conductor, searching for his train. Never having owned or even worked a computer, he had no way of knowing if that was actually true. But, the video has brought out many a thrill seeker, searching for their own adventure and that made it all worthwhile for Malachi. It’s what keeps the town alive and the visitors stopping by. Whether the locals like it or not, Malachi believed that it just had to be done.
Malachi remembered what it was like to be young. There was no greater thrill than camping out by those old railroad tracks with your friends, holding your breath, waiting for the conductor to make his ghostly appearance. He loved keeping the memories alive for the visitors because he still remembered those good times.
As the days slowly passed, Malachi found himself getting antsy. It was only six weeks until All Hallow’s Eve, the biggest event of the year. Tourists and locals would flock to the area in droves. He needed to be ready.
It made the hair on his neck stand up and butterflies fluttered nervously in his stomach. Taking deep breaths, he tried to clear his mind from worry and focus on getting the store ready for the visitors.
Four
Malachi arose early from a restless night’s sleep and hiked up to the sugar camp on Silver Creek Ridge. The weather was starting to cool off and soon he would need to burn off this year’s syrup residue in preparation for next spring’s harvest. He usually got to it earlier, but this year time had gotten away from him. No sooner had he stocked the store with syrup, when people flocked in. There was such a constant flow of customers that it was summer before it crossed his mind again and by then it was way too hot to burn. Cooler air was settling in and it was time to get the chore done.
The weather was perfect. Malachi breathed in the fresh, crisp air and stretched his sore back. As he meandered back to the mill, he picked up twisted sticks and branches along the way. The birds were singing and the sun rays poked through the canopy trees in vibrant ribbons that speckled the forest floor with heaven’s illumination. Beautiful golden leaves crunched under his feet as he slowly made his way home.
He dropped the wood by the back door and made himself a fresh cup of orange pekoe tea. It was time to get to work. Gathering his tools from the shed, he made himself comfortable on an old wooden bench out back. Inspecting one of the branches intently, he cocked his head and nodded.
Sometimes it took him a while to see what was inside. This one in particular wanted to be cut into silver dollar slices that would be carved with detailed designs. He pulled out his trusty hand saw and clamped the wood onto his workbench. Painstakingly, he cut each slice with precision and care.
He was completely fixated on his task. With sweat on his brow, he methodically worked his way up the branch. Something caught his attention. He paused and cocked his head as birds fluttered in the trees around him. The animals always noticed things far before he did and he’d grown to trust their warnings.
Not long after, he began to hear leaves crunching and twigs snapping behind him. The hair bristled on his neck with the realization that something was out there and it was approaching him.
Armed with nothing but his trusty hand saw, he turned around quickly. As he pivoted, he came face to face with someone. Malachi reared back and focused on the face. It was Travis.
“Hi, Malachi. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Malachi took a deep breath. “Well, you did. Gave my old ticker quite a startle.”
“I tried the front door, but it was locked. I thought you might be out here tinkering with Rosie. Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
Malachi nodded and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. He was working up a sweat cutting wood, but the panic of someone creeping up behind him really sent him over the edge. He wasn’t accustomed to people coming around to the back of the mill. Usually it was just him and Mother Nature. He took a few deep breaths and smiled. “What brings you out here, Travis?”
“My mom let me use her car. I was just taking a drive and thought I’d stop by and say thanks for the other night. It was really nice of you to give me a ride like that.”
“Not a problem at all. I was glad to help.”
Travis looked around and curiously asked, “What are you doing with all this wood?”
Malachi sat down on the bench and took a sip of his tea. He smiled at Travis and said, “Pardon my manners, would you like some tea, son?”
Travis wrinkled his face and replied, “Yuck, no thanks.”
His reaction tickled Malachi. He looked at the young man for a spell. There was something different about this kid. He reminded him of himself many years ago, trying so hard to be a good kid, but kind of getting lost along the way. He grinned at Travis and before he could stop himself he blurted out, “Can you keep a secret, son?”
Travis nodded. “That is one thing that I’m good at.” He shuffled his feet in the dirt and shoved his hands into his baggy pants pockets. “Might be the only thing that I’m good at, actually.”
Malachi felt compelled to share with the kid. Maybe there was a way he could help bolster his confidence in himself. “Well, see all these branches here?”
Travis nodded and looked a bit perplexed.
“They’re just old pieces of wood from the forest out back there. But, with a little encouragement, they become the magical amulets that I sell in the store to the tourists.” He sat back and winked. “They think they’re some fancy ancient artifacts. Actually, it’s just old sticks from my back yard. Makes me laugh every time I sell one. Pure profit! But, I do have to cut them down to size and carve them up a bit, to make them look fancy enough for folks to justify spending five dollars on them.”
Travis grinned and glanced at the saw. “Looks like a lot of work.”
“Time is something that I have plenty of. Just wish that I had more energy.” Malachi picked up a few pieces of sliced pieces off the ground and began to smooth them down with an old sheet of tattered sandpaper.
Travis watched him intently and then chimed in, “Do you need any help?”
Malachi’s face lit up at the offer. “Thought you’d never ask.”
He stood up and carefully showed the young man how to work the hand saw and cut the branch into half-dollar sized pieces. Travis eagerly took over and went right to work. Malachi watched him as he sat and sanded the slices down into smooth circles. Travis focused intently on the task. Malachi was afraid to say anything to him that might muddle his concentration.
Travis finished the entire branch without pausing for a second. When he was done he turned to Malachi with a look of accomplishment on his youthful face. “Wow, that’s quite a workout, isn’t it? My arms are burning.”
“Haven’t you ever worked a saw before?”
Travis shook his head. “Nope… first time ever. It was kinda cool.”
Malachi smiled. “Ready to take a break and have a drink?”
Nodding, he wiped the sweat on his forehead away with his shirt sleeve. “Sounds really good, actually.”
“Follow me,” Malachi said as he motioned around the side of the building. They made their way to the front of the store where an old pop machine rested on the front stoop. Malachi pulled out his keys and opened the door. He stood to the side and smiled at Travis. “Take your pick, son.”
Travis dove right in and grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew. “Thank you, sir.”
Malachi shook his head and testily replied, “Now, I thought we already discussed this. Name’s Malachi, not sir.”
Travis finished his swig of pop and smiled. “Malachi, sir.”
Malachi laughed, closed up the door and hit him upside his head jokingly with his palm. “Smart aleck.”
He startled Travis and a little bit of pop went up into his nose as he drank. He shook his head, laughing and whining at the same time, “Owe, that burns like hell.”
“There you go. Now you know what it’s like down there, and that you don’t want to go. It’s a painf
ul place. Shoo now and get back to work.” Malachi motioned for them to head around back.
“Slave driver, aren’t you?”
“Yep, that’s me. That’s why they call me ‘sir’.”
“Ha! I won’t do that again.”
They returned to the back of the mill and took a seat on the old bench. Malachi sipped his tea, which had cooled to room temperature by this point, while Travis swigged his pop.
Malachi observed Travis’s nervously twitching leg again. He remembered it from the ride into town the other night. He couldn’t resist, and had to ask, “What’s with the leg, Travis?”
Acting like he didn’t even notice it, he looked down and put his hand on his knee to stop it. Embarrassedly, he replied, “Nerves, I guess.”
Malachi tried to ease him into a conversation. “Nerves, smerves. What’s a good-looking young man like you have to be nervous about? You’ve probably got the ladies swarming all over you at school, although you do have rather poor taste in friends from what I recall.”
Travis laughed. “They’re not really my friends. Junior Barnett isn’t anyone’s friend. You just do what he says so that he won’t beat you up. I’ve had that unpleasant experience several times.” He leaned back against the bench seat and continued, “And, as for the ladies, well that’s not really happening either.”
Malachi shook his head in disbelief. “What’s wrong with girls these days?”
“I keep asking myself that all the time!” He replied with a grin as he tossed his head to get the loose curls out of his face.
Malachi was curious about his home life. “Is your mom working today?”
“No, she’s got the day off. But, she’ll be sleeping most of the day and then go over to her boyfriend’s place,” Travis replied with a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Don’t see her much, do you?”
“Nah, she works at the factory and bartends on weekends. She’s not home very much. Then, when she is, she sleeps. Gets real mad if I disturb her, so I try to get out of the house on those days.”
“Do you have any siblings?”
Travis shook his head and his leg began to twitch again. “I had a little sister, but she died.” He nervously rolled his tongue around in his mouth and played with his tongue piercing.
Malachi could sense that this was a sore subject and didn’t want to push him. “I’m sorry to hear that. It’s tough.” He wanted to change the subject. “Okay, so I just have to ask. What the heck is that thing in your mouth?”
Travis pushed his tongue out of his mouth, exposing a small metal bar through his tongue with balls on each end. He smiled, exposing a solitary dimple on his left cheek and said, “It’s a tongue piercing.”
Malachi reared back in his seat, shocked at what he was seeing. “Why in tarnation would anyone want to pierce their tongue, for goodness sake?”
“It looks cool. Plus it gives me something to play with when I get bored.”
“How do you eat? And doesn’t it hurt?”
“I just eat around it. And, yeah, it hurt like hell when I did it!”
A look of sheer terror consumed Malachi’s face. “What do you mean when you did it? You did it yourself? You didn’t even go to a doctor or a professional?”
Travis grinned and shook his head. “Costs too much. I just numbed it with ice, sterilized a small nail with a lighter and jammed it right through.”
Malachi cringed, reared back and clutched his stomach in pain. “Oh, dear Lord. You have got to be kidding me.”
Laughing at his reaction, Travis shook his head. “No, I’m not kidding.”
“Why didn’t you stop? It had to be extremely painful.”
Shaking shaggy brown hair out of his eyes, he said, “Honestly, I got half-way through and it hurt so bad that I had tears running down my face. But I couldn’t stop there. I just took a deep breath and detached myself somehow from the pain. I grabbed the nail and in one forceful thrust, shoved it the rest of the way through.”
Malachi gasped and covered his mouth.
Travis laughed and continued, “Yeah, I think I kinda passed out after that. When I came to, there was blood all over and this nail sticking out of my tongue. It was pretty gnarly.”
Just the thought of it made Malachi break out in a sweat. He took the handkerchief from the back pocket of his faded old blue jeans, wiping his forehead and upper lip as he moaned. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and looked at Travis. “Kid, you’re one messed up dude.”
Travis was so tickled at Malachi’s reaction that he couldn’t stop laughing. He’d told the story to a couple of kids at school, but they just blew him off like it was no big deal. No one had reacted the way Malachi had and Travis thought it was hilarious. He kept sticking his tongue out and showing it to Malachi, watching as he cringed in horror and looked away.
Malachi took a deep breath and stood up abruptly. “Okay, back to work. Work, work, lots of work. Focus on work.”
Travis finished his pop and asked, “Can I do some more?”
“Sure, if you keep that nasty tongue thing of yours inside your mouth. I don’t want to see it.”
Nodding, he grinned and replied, “Deal. Hey, I have my nipples pierced too. Wanna see?”
Malachi threw his hand in the air, blocking his view of Travis and said, “You lift your shirt and I’ll use this saw on you, young man.”
Travis laughed. “I’m kidding. I was just messing with you. I don’t have my nipples pierced, but have you ever heard of a Prince Albert?”
Malachi placed his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and replied, “Actually, I have. He’s the Prince of Monaco, I believe. That’s the only Prince Albert that I wish to know about. Now, back to work!”
Travis smiled, and then hesitantly said, “Hey, Malachi, can I ask you something?”
Malachi nodded. “Sure. Ask me anything.”
“What happened to your finger?”
Looking down, Malachi rubbed the stump of his index finger on his right hand. “Ah, potato picker. Sliced it clean off at the knuckle when I was ten years old.”
“Did it hurt real bad?”
“Honestly, I don’t even remember it. Maybe I blacked out like you did. Never did find the finger, either. I would love to have had it in a jar to show off to my friends when I was a kid. Most of them called me stumpy after that. I got used to it. They all moved on with their lives and the nickname was long forgotten. To be honest, I kinda miss it.”
Picking up a couple of the pieces of wood from the ground, Malachi wiped them off on his flannel shirt. He looked at Travis over the top rim of his glasses. “Ever done any whittling?”
“Nope, never. But, I’d like to try it.”
Malachi took two carving knives from his tool box and handed one to Travis. “Be careful with this now, these are razor sharp. It gets hard working with small pieces like this. I’ve taken some pretty good chunks out of my fingers when the knife slips. Not that you would probably even notice, with your high pain tolerance and all.” He grinned at Travis.
He looked over at Malachi and felt surprisingly proud of himself. “What do I carve?”
“Whatever strikes your fancy. But, try to carve away from your body.” Malachi shared his insights with Travis. “Whittlers believe that the wood will speak to you. The design already exists, trapped deep within the grain. It is the whittler's mission to let it out. Sometimes I carve a design, or some sort of pattern. If I’m real lazy and uninspired, I just carve a cross on it. Folks seem to love the religious stuff, makes them feel extra protected out here at night.”
Travis went straight to work carving his amulet. He studied it with intensity, and then slowly slid the knife over the wood with great caution.
Malachi couldn’t help but smile as he watched the focus on the young man’s face as he accepted this task with great honor.
Travis began his carving adventure with his annoying, twitching leg. But soon, he realized that it was not possible to carve accurately
with the constant jittering. Unconsciously, his leg calmed and eventually stopped shaking all together.
Malachi watched patiently as the nervous young man eagerly transformed into a confident carver. He gave Travis tips and hints on carving and he lapped them up like a thirsty hound dog on a hot July day.
The smell of fresh cut wood filled the air as Travis worked that slice down to a nub. He carved an interesting woven, crisscross design that was quite unique.
Malachi inspected the finished piece and praised him, “Excellent job, Travis. I couldn’t have done better myself.”
The young man brushed straggling bangs from his face and smiled. “Really? Do you think it’s any good?”
“No, it’s not good, Travis. It’s great! A real work of art, son. Good job.” Malachi patted him on the back and handed it to him. “You keep this. This is your amulet. Your good luck charm and protector.”
Travis took the piece in his hand and rubbed it, as though he were making a wish. His face lit up as he looked at Malachi and said, “Thanks. It’s really cool.”
As Malachi turned to grab a can of linseed oil, he couldn’t help but smile at how excited Travis was about the amulet. He picked up a rag and showed his young friend how to rub the oil on the wood to protect it. The grain darkened and the details emerged in the sunlight, like a buried treasure that had just been uncovered.
Travis stared at the wood with great admiration as he rubbed the oil into the nooks and crannies.
Malachi smiled as he gathered up his things. “Time to open up the store. You’re welcome to hang around if you’d like.”
Travis shook his head. “I’d better head out. I need to go to the store and get some groceries. The fridge is pretty bare.”
Nodding, Malachi gathered several more pieces of wood from the ground. He handed them to Travis, along with a carving knife and said, “Here, take these with you. Keep whittling, if you have some spare time. I’ll make a deal with you. I will give you three bucks for every amulet that you carve. Honestly, I can use all the help I can get.”