| I.1.002 |
|
Carl's family are well respected, prosperous members of the community and his house
reflects their status. It is a single story building, solidly constructed from large logs, planks,
old bricks and pieces of concrete with a sloping roof capped with a rough chimney from
which a plume of wood smoke is always rising. There are two windows and a door at the
front of the house and the same at the back. Above each are brightly colored tokens
fashioned from pieces of metal, wood, plastic and glass in the form of faces to ward off the
evil spirits of the forest: demons and cellar ghosts. At the front of the houses a small
flower garden and a lane; at the back is a yard and here Carl's mother Rebecca is
washing clothes in a large metal tub set on a wooden table. Becky is in her late twenties although she looks older. Her hair is quite gray; her cheeks a little sunken in. To us she appears all skin and bone though she is really quite well nourished in comparison to most of her contemporaries. She has born ten children in the last twelve years but six of them are dead. Carl is her eldest son and she loves him dearly, though she worries continually about him because he is, unlike most boys in the town, too independent and too inquisitive. Just like now! Gone for hours! Always running off! 'One of these days...' she mutters to herself, feeling guilt as well as anger while she pounds and scrubs. 'Darn boy, always somewhere else. Hasn't he learned? Doesn't he know there's work to be done? I'll teach him!' There are three fields that the family owns behind the house and beyond them a screen of trees along the creek where all the water they use comes from - there is no sanitation. Carl is in the distance, having passed through the screen at a point where two rows of trees intersect. He is ambling up the path the divides the corn from the soybeans, whistling, prodding at the earth with his staff. He is close by before she hears him and looks up. 'Hi Ma!' The path leaves the fields, borders a vegetable patch then goes beneath the shade of a magnolia tree before loosing itself in the confusion of the work area by the back door. 'What you doing, Ma?' There is a brief pause while Becky regards her son, her arms immersed in murky water. 'Where you been?' 'Around.' Becky's face is impassive but she is irritated by the self confident glint in her son's eye. She straightens up, temperamentally inclined to shoot first and ask questions afterwards. Carl is aware of this trait in his mother but he knows also that having done wrong she will get him anyway, sooner or later. Thus when she strikes out at him he does not move. Her hand lands squarely on his ear and water lashes across his face and shirt. 'Where you been? You tell me now! You been across that line again, haven't you? Down in them ruins looking for what you can find instead of working back here like you're supposed to. What'd your father say if I told him where you been? You, the Shopkeeper's son, breaking the law like that! It'd break his heart wouldn't it? One of these days you'll be Shopkeeper yourself. Then what'll people think if they find out how many rules you broke?' 'Yes Ma.' Carl tries to appear repentant and rubs his stinging ear. His eyes fill with tears. But Becky puts her wet arms around him and hugs him to her. She is well aware he gets his independence from his mother's side. |
|
|
