“Exactly who is this Theresa Kim?” George Fayne asked Nancy Drew one sultry Sunday afternoon in July. Nancy, George, and their friend Bess Marvin were standing beneath a blue-and-white banner welcoming visitors to the Third Annual East River Junction Crafts Festival.
“Whoever she is,” Bess interrupted, “I’m glad Nancy decided it was worth the trip here to see her.” Bess finished slathering sunblock on her shoulders and straightened the straps of her pink halter top. “I adore crafts fairs, and this one is supposed to be really special.”
“All I know is that Dad got a call from a lawyer colleague, John Kim, who said his daughter was here for the summer, and he left her e-mail address for me,” Nancy said.
“So you e-mailed her we were coming today?” Bess asked.
“Actually, no,” Nancy replied with a sheepish grin. “I thought it would be fun to walk up and surprise her. To see if we still recognize each other.”
“Then you have met before,” George said.
“Once, ages ago,” Nancy explained. “Dad had some business with Mr. Kim and took me along to see him in Boston. I was about ten, and Theresa had just graduated from high school. She was too old for us to be friends. I did like her, though. She was already a pretty incredible artist and had won some big scholarship to study ceramics at a famous college in Upstate New York.”
“Theresa must be pretty terrific,” Bess said. “This place has a great rep in the crafts community. I can’t believe it took me so long to check it out in person, considering we live only two hours away.”
“Two long, hot hours, even in a convertible,” George remarked, pushing back the red baseball cap that covered her short, dark curls.
Nancy smiled to herself. Sometimes she wondered how she could have two best friends who were as different from each other as fire and water. Though George and Bess were first cousins and the best of friends, they didn’t look remotely related or even share interests. Fair-skinned, blue-eyed Bess had long, straw blond hair and a curvy figure, while dark-haired George was tall, slim, and athletic. Bess had an artistic streak, and her favorite sport was shopping; George’s current passion was rock climbing.
Bess and Nancy wandered over to pick up maps at the information booth while George got a cold drink.
Nancy studied the map. Each exhibitor was listed alphabetically, with a number next to his or her name. The numbers corresponded to the booths in the layout. Nancy tucked a strand of her thick reddish blond hair behind an ear and surveyed the maze of vendor booths and tents, trying to orient herself.
“I’m impressed,” Nancy told Bess. “Last time I saw East River Junction it was deserted.”
“Not anymore!” a friendly voice said. Nancy turned to face the young woman who was standing behind the information counter. She wore a purple tank top beneath her overalls. Her name tag identified her as Andrea Washington, Woodworker. “Hi, I’m Andrea. And you’re the first person I’ve met who was here before the Junction became a crafts village.”
“I wouldn’t call it ‘being here,’” Nancy said, liking the forthright young woman instantly. “My dad and I just drove through on the way to someplace when I was still in elementary school. I can’t believe how it’s changed!”
Nancy took in the patchwork of farm fields. The festival had transformed the hilltop meadow they were standing in into a vast open-air market. The meadow sloped down gradually toward the East River, a ribbon of silver barely visible through a stand of trees along its bank.
“What was it like before?” Bess asked as George walked up.
“What was what like?” George wondered. “Did I miss something?”
“How East River Junction went from deserted to this,” Andrea replied. “Simply put, some rich guy who had a thing for crafts left money in his will with instructions to buy the town and some of the surrounding farmland. Then he set up a foundation, to be run by the state arts council. Crafts artists and apprentices apply for grants to live and work here for up to two years. In exchange for studio space and rent-free housing, we have to give workshops and do exhibits. This festival’s pretty major, and it makes up a good part of our year’s business. You know, if you like demonstrations, the last part of the pottery raku demo will be starting soon. She pointed to a far corner of the festival grounds where a plume of black smoke rose lazily into the sultry air.
“I’ve never been to a raku ceramic firing, but I’ve always wanted to see one. Could we go before we look for Theresa?” Bess asked. Nancy and George nodded. Bess then glanced at her schedule and groaned. “Oh no, it started forty minutes ago.”
“That’s when the pottery was loaded into the kiln,” Andrea explained. “It’s due to come out now—that’s the really exciting part.”
The girls hurried across the field toward the raku demonstration, where grass had been cleared from a broad section of the field. At the edge of the grass, a couple of tables had been set up. One held a large jug of water and cups; the other was half covered with finished raku pots. Several beat-up lawn chairs were set up near the tables, but most of the onlookers had retreated down to the shade of the trees near the river or were hovering near the kiln, chatting with the potters.
Buckets of water and the last couple feet of a hose that ran up from the river ringed the perimeter of the firing area. Four metal trash cans were lined up a few feet from the small kiln; several more cans were standing on the grass. Thin trails of smoke drifted out from beneath the lids of the trash cans.
A wiry young man was peering into an opening in the side of the kiln. He wore a Chicago Cubs baseball cap backward, with a blue-and-white bandana under it. Welding goggles shielded his eyes, and thick suede gloves came halfway up his forearms.
“Almost ready!” he said, turning to the small crowd. “Make sure the cans are ready for the pots when we unload,” he added, then spotted Nancy and her friends. He hung his goggles from the belt loops of his jeans and peeled off the gloves, revealing a tiny tattoo on his wrist.
“Hi!” He welcomed them with a quick smile. “I’m Danny Acero, and I’m in charge of the raku program here in the Junction. I’ve already given some background info, but I’ll catch you guys up on things as we go along.”
“Uh, great,” Nancy replied. The guy was definitely in the hunk category. Only a couple of inches taller than Nancy, he had a lean, compact build. He was obviously used to working a crowd.
Danny motioned for everyone to gather around. “My assistants, Karen and Tom, will show you how to prepare the trash cans for the next step—the exciting part, when we take the pots out of the kiln.
“Just keep in mind,” Danny went on, “raku can be a very safe process if you work calmly and in teams. Follow my—or Tom’s or Karen’s—directions exactly. If anyone gets excited and runs around, it can be very dangerous. So, designated helpers, make sure you wear the protective gear we give you. We’re going to produce a lot of smoke and some serious fire in these cans!”
“That explains why everyone involved is wearing long sleeves and heavy hiking boots,” Bess remarked. Like Nancy and George, Bess wore shorts, and she had plastic jelly sandals on her feet. “Guess that means we’ll just watch this round.”
“You can help set up,” Karen said, having heard Bess.
George followed Tom to help cut open bales of hay, while Nancy and Bess helped Karen tear newspaper into small pieces, then put them into a big rubber barrel.
Danny glanced over at them and winked. “You guys are naturals, real team players,” he said. “You know, we’re starting a raku firing workshop on Wednesday. This demonstration is to whet your appetites.”
“What if you haven’t worked with clay?” Nancy asked.
“No problem,” Danny told her. “We’ll teach you how to form some simple pinch pots, which will look terrific after they’re fired.” Danny glanced around at the crowd. “Who knows what raku is?”
“A way to fire pots quickly,” a small boy answered.
Danny laughed. “True—but that’s not the whole story. Actually, raku is what we call a glaze-firing technique. Glazes are what give pots their finish. Glazed pots usually go into a cold kiln that’s then heated slowly to a super-high temperature. Then it takes at least a day before the kiln is cool enough to open.
“But the fun of raku is that the firing all happens in forty minutes or so,” Danny went on. “You put the glazed ware into a very hot kiln, then take it out while it’s still almost molten and plunge it into either water or into a trash can to give it its special finish.”
“Hey, Danny, they’re ready!” Tom said from over by the kiln.
Karen handed out pairs of long suede gloves and bandanas to the helpers. “Okay, now tie one bandana over your hair and the other over your mouth bandit-style,” Danny instructed them. “Teams of two will manage each barrel. As soon as I put a piece into the barrel, one member of the team will toss in burnable material: newspaper, hay, leaves. The other person will put the lid on immediately.”
As soon as the helpers all had their bandanas in place, Danny turned off the gas supply to the kiln. Tom and Karen hoisted up the kiln door, and Nancy gasped. The pots inside were so hot they glowed like burning coals. The three potters skillfully unloaded the kiln, using long-handled cast-iron tongs. After they deposited the pieces into the barrels, the hay and paper inside burst into flames and smoke billowed out.
Nancy’s eyes began to water, but she blinked back the tears and angled herself upwind of the smoke so she could snap some pictures.
“Tom!” Danny cried suddenly as he lifted a particularly tall jug from the back of the kiln. “This piece needs its own barrel.”
“Wait!” Nancy cried. “What about the cans over here?”
“Grab one,” Danny said. “Someone take off the lid and throw some burnable material in.”
Nearest to the paper, George obeyed while Bess lifted the lid.
“Careful, you guys, you don’t have the proper gear!” Danny warned as he hurried over to the barrel, carrying the heavy pot at arm’s length. “Is there hay inside?” he asked.
“Plenty,” Bess answered, peeking inside.
“Stand back,” Danny ordered Bess. “Then put the lid on as soon as I dump this in the container.”
Bess nodded, and Nancy lifted her camera to take Bess’s picture.
Danny lowered the pot into the container. But before Bess could put on the lid, flames, followed by a plume of oily black smoke, shot high into the air. Coughing and gagging on the noxious fumes, Bess stumbled back as sparks and embers showered down around her.