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“SO YOU were the reason for all the commotion last night.” Mara looks at me almost reverently. “Saul was flipping out, and now I get why. He lost The Book. At last.”
This morning, Saul had still been anything but calm. He’d gathered all the strong, older boys to help him search the camp and the grounds around the manor house – his minions, as Colin always snidely calls them. The buff boys who lack the strength or intelligence to seize power themselves and blindly follow the leader who’ll give them a sense of importance.
Mara bumped into me on her way to the kitchen this morning, and now we’re sitting under the old oak tree in front of the house, having breakfast and whispering softly to each other. I’ve filled her in on a lot of things already – my discovery of the man in the manor’s cellar, The Book, my grandmother’s letter – but I haven’t told her about the most important thing yet. Or anyone else, for that matter.
“I have to tell you something big,” I hiss, cautiously looking around one more time before I say the words. “You see, I didn’t hide The Book near the Wall. I ran into a Fool in the forest. He was our age. And he took it with him; he promised to keep it safe for me. It’s in his village now, where Saul will never be able to find it.”
Mara nearly chokes on her smoked fish sandwich, staring at me wide-eyed. “You what? Seriously? What did he look like? Was he scary?”
“Well, uhm,” I start out, pondering her question and staring ahead. I have to concentrate to remember his face and determine whether my best friend would think it was a scary face. I know I don’t think so. His brown eyes looked gentle in that strange light he was carrying with him, and there’d been a dimple in his cheek when he smiled. He had light-blonde hair. No one on our side of the Wall has hair that fair. He definitely looked nice, albeit a bit arrogant.
“Ahem,” Mara coughs, looking sideways with a wide grin on her face. “Are you going to answer me, or are you going to sit there daydreaming Foolishly?”
“I wasn’t,” I protest. “I was just thinking.”
“Yeah, right. With googly eyes like that? I don’t think so, girl.” Mara pokes me in the side. “So, are you gonna share him with me? Can I meet him too?”
I can’t bite back a smile. “Sure you can. He looks very different from the boys around here.” Before I’ll be caught starry-eyed again, I jump up. “It might be a good idea to go together, actually. We’ll grab some baskets from the kitchen and tell everyone we’re gathering roots and leaves today. Which we are, by the way. We won’t meet up with Walt until noon.”
“Walt,” Mara repeats after me. “Sounds good.”
His name or my plan? I don’t bother asking, but get up and make my way to the kitchen to get two big baskets from the cupboard.
When I get back outside, Ben and Saul are watching Mara, standing a few yards away. She’s turned away from them and is seemingly undisturbedly eating the last few bites of her sandwich. Smart girl. This way, they won’t be able to see her hands shake.
“There you are,” she exclaims in relief when she sees me approach, jumping up from under the tree quickly.
“Where do you think you girls are going?” Saul inquires gruffly, his dark-brown eyes boring into mine from between his black fringe.
“To the forest in the west,” I reply. “To gather food.” I hold up the baskets in explanation.
His frown deepens. “Together?”
Mara turns around and glares at Saul. “So?” she challenges him softly, taking a step toward me and reaching for my hand.
“Well, off we go,” I say, smiling triumphantly when I catch Ben looking at our intertwined fingers as if he’s about to chop off our hands. Before he can do anything – such as offering his ‘protection’ and tagging along – we walk down the hill toward the gate together. I look back one more time and beam at Ben before sliding my arm around Mara’s shoulders. That’ll teach him for harassing her.
“Wow, aren’t you all cuddly today,” Mara giggles. “Practicing for your encounter with Walt this afternoon?”
I sigh. “Knock it off. It’s strictly business. He has something I need.”
“Uh-huh, I bet he does,” Mara chuckles, diving away from the punch I’m trying to land on her back. My best friend’s been giddy ever since she admitted to liking Andy. It’s getting tiresome.
“No, actually. I layered on the love to needle Ben.”
“Ben? How so?”
I quickly debrief Mara about Ben’s misguided ‘lesbian-lovers’ assumption. Mara’s eyes sparkle when I tell her the whole story. “Awesome! What a joke. We have to keep up the charade, you know – being all over each other in front of the others so Ben will finally leave me alone. Although I’ll have to tell Andy what’s really going on then.”
“Uh-huh. You and Andy.” I raise an eyebrow. “So, what’s up with that?”
She blushes. “Well, nothing’s up. Things are going fine. He wanted to go on another date. But if Colin’s planning a rebellion with him, he’ll probably be too busy right now.”
“If it feels right, don’t question it,” I say with a smile.
Slowly, we’re making our way through the forest, collecting wild plants and edible roots. It’s a good thing Saul’s ‘army’ already passed through this morning, or we would have tripped over one of his soldiers in search of The Book at every step.
Some of the blackberries are already ripe, and we pick some to quench our thirst and curb our appetite. I can hear birds scrambling around in the low shrubs, but we leave them alone since we haven’t brought our bows and arrows. Archery isn’t my greatest talent anyway – I usually leave that to Colin. I like fishing better, and I’m good at it, too. We have that river running through the valley that comes from the top of one of the mountains on the island.
Two years ago, I was sitting at the summit of that mountain, catching my breath from the steep climb, when I saw a Fool’s ship sailing in the distance. Strangely enough, I couldn’t make out any sign of life on the western part of the island. Just endless trees. For a minute, I thought I saw a plume of smoke trailing up toward the sky, but for all I knew it could have been my imagination. Now, I’m starting to think I was actually right about seeing that lifesign.
The Fools are a part of our world, and it’s time we open up to them.