“Please be silver,” I whisper to the candlesticks I carry in my hands. I dust them off with the hem of my skirt. They are the same cool gray metal as Mother’s good spoons. The one she used at holidays. I walk through the city streets. My destination is Shanty Town, outside London’s city wall, where I might trade the candlesticks for food.
Since Lem took me when he did his trading, I can navigate the lanes to Shanty Town all by myself. I’m used to its filth. Now, I easily walk around the animals, those dead and alive. Swat the flies away from my face. Know to stay clear of strangers.
“Whatcha doing here, lassie?” snarls a man, with a Scottish accent, sitting outside a shack. His hand grips a large bottle of beer. His shirt is rumpled and unbuttoned. His beard is clumpy and dirty. His breeches are filthy and torn. A tramp. He sits in the muck. Shoeless. Hopeless. Dangerous.
“Come ’ere, you” he invites. He staggers to get up but loses his balance and quickly sinks back into the muck. “Come ’ere.” He motions at me.
I quicken my pace. I run down a lane. Then, down another lane.
To the broken-down wooden shack with the faded black door and large wooden knocker. This is a place my brother had brought me to many times.
I knock slowly … three times … as Lem always did.
Amon opens the door.
“Hey, Rose,” he welcomes me.
His mother’s voice rings out behind him. “Who’s that?” she says.
Amon’s mother uses him as her doorman to scare off people. I’m sure he could be deadly with his size and strength. But I got to know Amon when Lem brought me here to trade. Amon is a gentle giant of a boy.
A black, scruffy beagle rushes to the door.
“Hello. What’s your name?” I ask.
Amon replies, “Named him Dodger.”
“We aren’t keeping that thing!” he mother snaps from inside the house “Put that dog out! And I asked who’s that?”
“Hello, Amon,” I say.
“Hello, Rose. Mama, it’s Rose!”
Dodger jumps up on my legs. I pat his head. He wags his tail and barks.
“May I see your mother?” I ask.
“Nobody home. Go away,” his mother rudely says.
“But Mama … It’s Rose,” Amon says.
“I have a candlestick,” I say over Amon’s shoulder, trying to tempt his mother. “Silver. Valuable.”
Amon opens the door a little more for his mother to see. He looks over his shoulder too. His mother stands by the fire.
“Be off with you,” she says.
“Sorry, Rose,” Amon says sadly.
“I will throw in its twin for free,” I say, producing the two candlesticks in my hands. I know from seeing Lem’s trades before that Amon’s mother likes a deal.
“Free?!” she grunts, coming up behind her son in the doorway. “There is no free in this life.” She looks at the candlesticks and then at me.
“Come in. Come in,” she relents.
“Boy, put that dog out right now before I beat you both,” his mother warns.
Amon opens the door and welcomes me in. I have the feeling he doesn’t get to see many other children. Shanty Town is no place for kids. He snaps his fingers to get Dodger’s attention and points for him to go out the door. Dodger obediently follows Amon’s commands and goes outside. Amon closes the door, leaving his new pet on the other side.
This trading shack is filled to the walls. There are small mountains of desks and drawers. Hills of boots and blankets. And mounds of pots and pans.
I see a fire burning in the fireplace. Hanging from a black metal chain over the fire is a big black pot. It boils something smelling of fish.
“Without your brother?” Amon’s mother inquires suspiciously.
“He sent me to trade in his place,” I lie.
“Curious. He sends his little sister to trade?” Amon’s mother says with suspicion.
“He did.”
“Is this the truth, my dear?”
I don’t want to tell her the truth. Who tells the truth to a witch?
“He expects to meet me by the fountain in half an hour. If I’m not there, well, he will certainly come here. Seeing as this is where he sent me,” I say. “And he will not be pleased at my delay.”
“Uh-huh,” she answers, though she doesn’t look convinced. “Let’s have a look, shall we?” she says.
Amon’s mother walks up to me to see what I have to trade.
I show the candlesticks. “Silver,” I say.
Amon stands beside us. Towering over the witch and me. Silently watching.
“Not silver. Rubbish,” says Amon’s mother.
“Valuable,” I counter. “And there’s two.”
“Worth not a coin,” scoffs Amon’s mother.
“I will take them elsewhere, then.” And with that, I turn to leave.
“Wait a minute. Wait a minute,” exclaims Amon’s mother.
She wants them. The candlesticks. She is the sort that likes shiny things.
“I’ll take them off your hands,” she says generously, “for a hat?”
Amon’s mother walks over to a table covered with odds and ends and pulls out a hat.
“Money, please,” I reply.
“I have a ladies’ frock,” she says. She pulls a large blue dress with a white lace collar out of a clothing pile.
“Food?” I request.
“Everyone wants food. No one gets food. Stupid girl.”
“Food or no trade,” I say sternly.
Amon is surprised by my tone. “Rose, where is Lem?” he whispers to me.
I hold the candlesticks out to his mother.
“Will you trade or not?” I ask.
“Trade, Mama. Please. It’s Rose.”
The lady gives Amon an angry look but then looks at the candlesticks. She caves in.
“Fine. Fine. Fine!”
She puts the candlesticks onto a table with her other traded treasures. She walks to the fireplace and stirs the pot. She spoons out two chunks of fish and wraps them in paper. She adds two flimsy slices of bread to the package.
“This be our supper. You best be grateful, girl,” she says.
“Not true, Ma. I got two other fish from the river today. They are cooking in the pot,” Amon volunteers.
“Hush up,” hisses his mother, betrayed by the honesty of her son.
Amon’s mother looks at me. Sizing me up.
She hands the food to Amon who hands it to me.
“Off to meet yer brother?” she asks, returning to stirring her pot.
“Yes,” I reply. “Thank you.”
Amon walks me to the door. Dodger barks.
He opens the door and the dog snaps to his feet with his tail wagging.
“Get home quick,” Amon warns as I walk through the door. “It’s scary in the night in these parts,” he whispers as I walk past.
I nod my head, understanding his warning.
“Stay outside, Dodger,” he sadly says to the dog.
I leave the shack with the faded black door and large wooden knocker. I hurry round the corners and down the lane, being watchful for the shadows in the night. I sneak through a hole in the wall of the city. Then, I rush down the streets. When I see rakers coming out to clean, I quicken my steps.
I wonder where Lem is tonight. What would he think of my stealing and trading?
Now, we are both thieves.