Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry [39]
"She knows all there is, the old woman," Jamison said. He looked at Kira's leg with apparent concern. "The walk is not too hard for you? One day we'll have the fire pit and the pots here for you. I'm thinking of preparing a place just below." He gestured toward the window, indicating an area between the building and the edge of the woods beyond.
"No. I'm strong. But —" She hesitated.
"Yes?"
"Sometimes I've been fearful on the path," Kira told him. "The forest is so close all around."
"There is nothing to be afraid of there."
"I do fear beasts," she confessed.
"As you should. But stay on the path always. The beasts will not come near the path." His voice was as reassuring as it had been the day of her trial.
"I heard growling once," Kira confided, shuddering a little at the memory of it.
"There is nothing to fear if you don't stray."
"Annabella said the same thing. She told me there was nothing to fear."
"She speaks with four-syllable wisdom."
"But, Jamison?" For some reason, Kira hesitated to tell him this. Perhaps she didn't want to question the old woman's knowledge. But now, feeling reassured by Jamison's interest and concern, she told him the startling thing that the old dyer had said with such certainty. "She said that there are no beasts."
He looked at Kira oddly. The expression on his face seemed a mixture of astonishment and anger. "No beasts? She said that?"
'"There be no beasts,'" Kira repeated. "She said it just that way, several times."
Jamison laid the section of robe he'd been examining back down on the table. "She's very old," he said firmly. "It's dangerous for her to speak that way. Her mind is beginning to wander."
Kira looked at him dubiously. For weeks now she had worked with the dyer. The lists of plants, the many characteristics of each, the details of the dyeing procedures, so much complex knowledge; all of it was clear and complete. Kira had seen no sign, no hint of a wandering mind.
Might the old woman know something that no one else — even someone with the status of Jamison — knew?
"Have you seen beasts?" Kira asked him hesitantly.
"Many, many times. The woods are filled with them," Jamison said. "Never stray past the village limits. Do not go beyond the path."
Kira looked at him. His expression was hard to discern, but his voice was firm and certain.
"Don't forget, Kira," he continued, "I saw your father taken by beasts. It was a hideous thing. Terrible."
Jamison sighed and patted her hand sympathetically. Then he turned to leave. "You are doing a fine job," he said again, appreciatively.
"Thank you," Kira murmured. She put her hand, still feeling his touch, into her pocket. Her special scrap of cloth lay folded there. She felt no comfort from it. As the door closed behind Jamison, she stroked the cloth, seeking its solace, but it seemed to withdraw from her touch, almost as if it were trying to warn her of something.
The rain still fell steadily. Through it, she thought for a moment that she could hear the child sob on the floor below.
14
The sun was shining in the morning but Kira woke groggy after a fitful sleep. Following an early breakfast she tied her sandals carefully, anticipating the walk to Annabella's. Maybe the clear, cooler air after the rain would wake her a bit and make her feel better. Her head ached.
Thomas's door was closed. He was probably still asleep. There were no sounds either from the floor below. Kira made her way out of doors, relishing the breeze that lingered after the storm and was pinescented from trees that were still glistening and wet. It blew her hair away from her face and the misery of her sleepless night began to subside.
Leaning on her stick, Kira made her way to the place where she ordinarily turned from the village and entered the woods on the path. It was quite near the weaving shed.
"Kira!" A woman's voice called to her from the shed, and she saw that it was Marlena, already at the loom so early.
Kira smiled, waved, and detoured to greet the woman.
"We miss you! Them tykes that clean up for us now