Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry [47]
"You want to go down and look at what the workmen are doing? I'll go with you." Thomas set aside the carving tool he had just picked up. Kira noticed again, with admiration, how intricate the work was on the large Singer's staff. Thomas had been smoothing the tiny rough spots from the worn, ancient carvings and reshaping the infinitesimally small edges and curves. It was very similar to the work that Kira herself had been assigned, the repair of the Singer's robe. And the entire top of the staff was undecorated; it was smooth, uncarved wood, in the same way that the expanse across the shoulders of the robe was untouched cloth. Kira's work was approaching that unadorned expanse. So was Thomas's, she realized.
"What will you carve there?" she asked him, pointing to the undecorated part.
"I don't know. They said they'd tell me."
She watched as he carefully laid the staff across the table.
"Actually," she told him, "if you want to look at what the workmen are doing, I'll go there with you later. But that's not what I had in mind. Will you go with me first where I want?"
Thomas nodded good-naturedly. "Where's that?" he asked.
"The Fen," Kira told him.
He looked at her quizzically. "That filthy place? Why would you want to go there?"
"I've never been there. I want to see where Jo lived, Thomas."
"And Matt does still," he reminded her.
"Yes, Matt too. I wonder where he is, Thomas." Kira was uneasy. "I haven't seen him in two days. Have you?"
Thomas shook his head. "Maybe he found another source of food," he suggested, laughing.
"Matt could point out where Jo lived. Maybe I could even bring something back for her. Maybe she had toys. Did they let you bring things when you came here, Thomas?"
He shook his head. "Just my bits of wood. They didn't want me distracted."
Kira sighed. "She's so small. She should have a toy. Maybe you could carve her a doll? And I could stitch a little dress for it."
"I could, I guess," Thomas agreed. He handed Kira her walking stick. "Let's go," he said. "We'll probably find Matt along the way. Or he'll find us."
Together the pair made their way out of the Edifice, across the plaza, and down the crowded lane. At the weaving shed, Kira paused, greeted the women, and asked about Matt.
"Haven't seen him! And good riddance, too!" one of the workers replied. "The useless scamp!"
"When're you coming back, Kira?" another asked. "We could use your help. And you're old enough to be on the looms now! With your mother gone, you must need the work!"
But another woman laughed loudly and pointed to Kira's clean new clothes. "She don't need us no more!"
The looms began to click and move again. Kira turned away.
Nearby, she heard an oddly familiar, oddly frightening sound. A low growl. Quickly she glanced around, half expecting to see a menacing dog or something worse. But the sound had come from a cluster of women near the butcher's. They burst into laughter when they saw her looking. She saw Vandara in their midst. The scarred woman turned her back on Kira and she heard the growl again: a human imitation of a beast. Kira lowered her head and limped past them, ignoring the cruel laughter.
Thomas had gone ahead; she could see him far beyond the butcher's. He had stopped near a group of young boys playing in the mud.
"Dunno!" one was saying as she approached.
"Gimme coins and maybe I could find him!"
"I asked them about Matt," Thomas explained, "but they say they haven't seen him."
"Do you suppose he might be sick?" Kira asked, worried. "His nose is always running. Maybe we should never have cleaned him up. He was accustomed to that layer of dirt."
The boys, slapping their bare feet in the mud, were listening. "Matt's the strongest of the strong!" one said. "He never be sick!"
A smaller one wiped his own runny nose on the back of his hand. "His mum be yelling at him. I heared her. And she throwed a rock at him too, and he laughed at it and run off!"
"When?" Kira asked the runny-nosed boy.
"Dunno," he said. "Maybe two days ago."
"It were!" chimed in another. "Two days ago! I