E Stricker - The Almanac

“Samuel,” he screamed, “get Samuel!” Her chest sounded like Benja’s old drum, he realized. Hollow. Fingers shaking, he felt between her ribs. He was terrified of making her worse, but he knew that something had to be done quickly to let the air out.

Illya took a deep breath and carefully pushed a knife between her ribs. A hissing stream of air came bubbling from the hole he had made. She took a breath, a little easier. He slid his knife back a little bit, now thinking about the lung re-inflating inside. He didn’t want to pierce it again, but he knew that he had to keep the hole open somehow.

At that moment, Samuel came up behind him. He took one look at the scene and slapped a hand tightly over the arrow hole. He took the knife handle from Illya then called for a hollow cattail reed from his bag. The Healer slid the reed into the opening before withdrawing the knife.

Samuel sighed. His shoulders relaxed visibly.

Illya sank to the ground. Soon, his mother and Molly were beside him, embracing him. Uncle Leo knelt beside Ada and stroked her hair off her face.

Guilt clenched his stomach. If he had been faster, if he had warned them sooner, they could have been ready. If he hadn’t tried to lead them, how different could it all be? The Patrollers would have still been out where they needed to be, not guarding a jail of thier own people. Maybe none of this would have happened at all.

But it had taken all of them to reach this point. No one person had made it happen. He wasn’t the devil. Impiri, who was now huddled over her sister, sobbing, and being comforted by Sabelle and Elias, was not the devil either. Not even Conna or the Rovers were the devil. The devil was a thing that hid amongst them, preying on differences and anger, wedging itself into those cracks to drive them all apart.

Samuel was right. They were fools to let it do its work.

IT WAS SPRING. Benja and Illya stood together, looking out over a field of tiny shoots. They made a soft green blanket over the earth, and Illya was reminded of the photograph they had seen once. A square of short, funny grass had sat behind smiling people in the house of the old city.

“You know, it’s probably a good thing all those sunchokes kicked it,” Benja said thoughtfully, stroking a scraggly beard that had sprouted on his face over the winter, resembling the sparse little shoots in a certain way. “They make me fart awful. Would have been a bad winter.”

Illya burst out in laughter, unable to hold back a flood of chuckles and hiccups. Finally, he caught his breath enough to gasp.

“Me too, Benj, me too.”

“At least Ma can walk and breathe at the same time now,” Benja said with a new note of seriousness. “There would be no air left in our hut if we had been eating those sunchokes all this time. She wouldn’t have been able to escape.”

It had not been an easy winter. The snows had come far too early and lasted too long. Even with the mass of red-stemmed creeper they had been able to gather, their stores had been too small.

After Illya had told them the truth about the legendary Terrors, the villagers had made hunting excursions beyond their old boundaries. The people had been hesitant to stay out after dark at first. A generations-old habit was not easily broken. But, with enough time and necessity, even the most nervous had ventured out to the area above the waterfall and beyond.

It had not been easy to go so far to get food, but no one had died from starvation. It was an incredible feat to make it through a winter without losing a single person, considering that once it had seemed that the entire village would go that way.

Perhaps the best thing that had come out of it all was the seeds. The field with its moldy plants had been burned. In the frenzy before winter, as the villagers gathered plants, they also collected and saved all of the healthiest seeds they could find. Now there were many kinds of plants sprouting in the freshly-tilled field. There were some new sunchokes, but they were only one of the numerous types of plants that made up the lovely green carpet.

“You are right, this is better,” Illya said.

After the terrible day of the battle, everyone had agreed that they needed big changes. Even with a new plant to eat and the promise of game outside their boundaries, it would not be long before the new resources, too, were depleted. They needed a new system, and, despite the pain of the previous failure, most had agreed to give planting another try. There were no more Enforcers. The Patrollers re-formed under Aaro, but every villager who could lift a bow now trained daily. Everyone needed to be able to defend themselves, and they would not be taken by surprise again.

The village was now led by a council of ten villagers with Elias as chairman. Ban was on it and Illya’s mother. Leya, somber and grief-stricken after the loss of Charlie, but possessed of wisdom and a level head, was too. Aaro was the youngest member. Conna had taken off. Everyone thought he had followed the Rovers after the battle, probably to join them; there was nothing left for him in the village after things hadn’t gone his way. Illya hadn’t noticed; he had been focused on Aunt Ada at the time. Conna hadn’t been seen since then.

Illya had also been offered a place on the council.

“You are the one who reads. We need to hear what you have to say,” Elias had said. Illya had turned him down. He was not a prophet. The Almanac was just a book and nothing more. Instead, he resumed his old place as Samuel’s apprentice. The village was going to need a Healer when the old man couldn’t work anymore, and Illya knew that he could learn to do it well.

He still read, but now Illya prowled the pages of the book for medicines, remedies, and ways of treating ailments. He devoured this knowledge, along with all that Samuel had to teach him, with the same excitement he had felt when he had first discovered how to read. They had found a few more books in the farther ruins, and Illya was teaching Molly, Benja, and Ban Jonstead how to read from a wonderful book called Robinson Crusoe .

Benja was still chuckling and wiped a tear from his eye. He hitched the thick leather strap of his drum higher on his shoulder.

Illya looked past him to see Sabelle walking by with Martha, looking beautiful, wearing a new blue dress that had been scavenged from one of the farther ruins. They hadn’t ventured to the city yet, but their world was much bigger now that they didn’t fear the night. She looked back over her shoulder and gave him a smile full of shared secrets. His heart thudded, and he returned it. Many things had changed, but some things were the same as they had always been.

He turned back to the plants. Later, he would dance with her beside the central fires. He would twirl her around and make her dress spin and watch her eyes sparkle.

There were new herbs to collect for Samuel now that the shoots were up in the forest.

For now, though, Illya was content just to be, to stand beside his best friend and see the miracle of shoots that had pushed up through the earth to find the sun once again.

Author’s Note. For inquiring minds, please know that The Old Farmer’s Almanac ® has been quoted in this book: Stillman, Janice. Ed. The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2013, no 221 (Dublin, NH: Yankee Publishing Inc. 2012) Kindle edition. Quotation on Pg 50: Location 3201. Pg 54: Location 3384. Pg 102: Location 3239. Pg 186: Location 1486.