The Snake: Chapter 2

The Second day of the third cycle, 3983.

         The door crashed open violently. Daddy must be home. Eric, only three, sat in the small, dirty living room of his one story house. The man he knew as daddy always came home angry. Besides his Mom, nobody in the house was ever happy. And, despite all she did to keep the peace, mommy couldn’t keep Daddy and brother from fighting. When Daddy and brother fought, which seemed like every day, Mommy would inevitably have to come between them, making herself a part of the fight.

It had never come down to violence before, but Eric was always afraid when they started yelling. It wasn’t simply anger. Daddy seemed to hate Brother, and brother felt the same. Mommy was usually able to calm them both down, or send one of them out of the house, but at times Mommy’s soft voice was overpowered by the yelling, and the fights would last for hours.

“Why are you trying to protect him ?”

Daddy’s voice carried all the way into the living room. Eric pulled down his stack of blocks, starting the building process over again. As long as brother wasn’t home, mommy would be able to calm daddy down. Until then, it was best to just tune things out.

“Stop yelling. You’ll upset Eric.”

“I’ll stop yelling when you stop taking his side ”

“I’m not taking his side. But he’s my son, of course I’m going to protect him Doing otherwise would make me a bad mother ”

“He’s a religous nut ”

“He’s your son ”

The shouting stopped. Neither Mother nor Father had any thing else to say. They’d both had this arguement hundreds of times before, and it always ended the same. They continued once they had thought of new ways to yell at each other. Always the same. Eric didn’t know what they were arguing about, but it was always the same.

Finally, when he had managed to build his tower of blocks, tear it down and rebuild it twice over, the fighting stopped.

“You know where he is, don’t you?” There was no anger left in Daddy’s voice. Just as always, mommy had calmed him down.

“No... he stopped sending letters a week ago. Why, what are you going to do?”

Daddy sighed. It was a deep, sad sigh that came out so fast it sounded like a cough. “If it comes to war, I refuse to sit at home and wait for those nutcases to come and tell us he’s dead. If he refuses to come to his senses.... I’ll do what I must to protect the family.”

Mommy began to cry when Daddy retrieved his sword. Eric had never seen Mother cry, even when the arguing got it’s worst. She shrieked as Daddy left, clawing at his clothes and pleading him to reconsider. Daddy ignored her, keeping a stony face as he dissapeared behind the hills that surrounded the house. Eric had no idea it would be the last time he saw Daddy.

!~~~~~~~~~~!

The fifth day of the ninth cycle, 4003.

         The sun was shining as brightly as it could. Up above, floating lazily in the summer breeze were the fluffiest of clouds, so white that it looked like an entire section of the sky had simply been erased. Eric, now almost twenty, feared neither dehydration nor heat stroke as he gazed up lazily into the sky. It was not hot, it was not cold. It was just... perfect. Time and war had refused to dirty it’s hand in the small farming community in which he lived. The black woods that surrounded the entire community, boxing it up against the mountain may have played a small in the lasting peace, but that was far less poetic.

The road opened up into a large clearing, circling around a small cottage that sat atop the hill, then following down the hills slope until it reached the river, and the large Barn that sat next to it. Eric had been here many times before, but never had he seen it in such shape The shutters on the windows were old, the paint chipped and worn away. Weeds and vines twirled their way across the houses sides, reaching up until they threatened to touch the roof. Out in the pastures stood a few horses and cows, nearly all of them gaunt to the point of starvation. The barn stood in stark contrast to this all. The paint was bright and umblemished. It looke almost new.

Just as he had been here many times before, he had known the owners that lived here for years. It was this knowledge that allowed him to see past the properties apparent ruin. Mister and Misses Malgony had always been kind to Eric as a boy, and just about everybody who had lived near, or had met them. Their passing over the winter had been hard for everybody, but especially their son, who had been left behind alone to care for their ranch.

Some had said that he was too young to own his own ranch, and that the rich riverside lands should be sold off to nearby property owners. A few years younger then Eric, it was hard to argue with those who doubted the young mans ability. Nevertheless, he had kept his land and his animals, and to the best of his ability he had run the ranch. As time went on, money and food had become scarce. To all eyes it would seem that the young man had failed at keeping the ranch running, and if ever there had been a time when the nay-sayers may have been able to convince the folks of the community to seize his land and sell it off, it would have been now. Whether or not he may have succeeded under different circumstances would never ne known, but he would keep his land. When times got rough, it affected everybody in the community, no matter how wealthy they were, and nobody could afford to buy his land even if he were to sell it off.

Eric had walked almost four miles in the mid-day sun to see this man. When most men would have been working right now, trying to support their families, the young owner of this ranch probably would be lazing off in the shade somewhere. It wasn’t in the shade, but when Eric finally found him he was, indeed, lazing off. A thin screen had been hung over the porches awning, shielding the inside of the house from bugs and wind. A Thick cloud of smoke seeped out of the small openiong in the screen, most of it coming from the large fire that had been built up in a small pit on the porch.

Eric strode onto the porch, pausing to take a look into the dark liquid that bubbled inside the large pot sitting over the fire, then took a seat across from the man he had come to see.

“It’s a little late to be cooking soup isn’t it?” Eric leaned in, giving the pot a sniff.

The young man looked up lazily. The rocker he sat in creaked back and forth, a large floppy hat pulled down over his face. From somewhere beneath a pipe extruded from the mans mouth, slow even puffs billowing out from his mouth and adding to the smoke from the fire. “Yes, if that were soup.” The man flashed a smile, then rested his chin back on his chest.

“Not more bootleg alchohol” Eric groaned, pulling his head back in disgust. “The store bought stuff is bad enough. This stuff is going to kill you.”

The man lifted his hat lazily with a finger, giving Eric a long, tired stare. “A man is allowed his vices. Besides, if someone must kill themselves, drinking is much better then the alternatives.” The man gave a sly smile at Eric before dropping his hat back over his eyes.

“Are you sure the smoknig won’t get you first?”

“Well, if it does,” The man said, blowing a puff of smoke out the side of his mouth, “it can’t be much worse then drinking myself to death.”

Eric shook his head. People had the strangest habits. “What’s your wife say about it? And where is she by the way?”

The man in the rocker groaned, stood up and put his pipe out. “Off to her mothers for the day. With the baby coming, she knows I’d go mad without my liquor and smokes.”

“Ah yes, the baby. How long is it now?”

“A few weeks. She almost convinced me to have the baby at her mothers. I can’t imagine how horrible that would be.”

“Her parents aren’t that bad.”

“Says the man with no wife. Trust me, as soon as you take their daughter away they hate you for the rest of their lives.”

Eric chuckled. “There’s probably more reasons then that if they don’t like you.”
“Probably,” he said, pacing back an forth in front of the screen. “They just haven’t thought of them yet.”

“Give them some time,” Eric said, getting up to stand next to him. “They’ll think of something. They always do.”

It was time for the hatted man to chuckle. “So the village still hasn’t forgiven my holding on to the farm?”

Eric shrugged. “All I can say is you’re lucky they haven’t been up her lately.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“It’s not?” Eric asked sarcastically. “The only thing that looks decent is the barn, and I’m the one that painted it ”

“If you’re so worried about it,” the hatted man parted the screen and stepped out into the sun. “then you can be the one to fix it all.”

Eric smiled and followed him outside. “So how long do we keep dodging the real reason I’m here?”, he said, gazing up at the clouds that had taken on an ominous dark color.

“I was planning on at least a few more minutes,” the hatted man replied. “But now it seems I have no choice.”

Eric forced a chuckle. All the comfort of the conversation had fled. “Well, there’s no avoiding it now. Have you made a decision?”

The hatted man didn’t say anything for the longest time. He just sat there, string at the ground as he kicked the pebbles. “It’s not an easy decision.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have asked it of you.” Eric apologized.

“No, you shouldn’t have.” The hatted man chided him. “But I’ve made my choice nonetheless.”

Eric waited patiently as the hatted man thought. They’d been friends for years, and he knew how this must be tearing up his friend on the inside. Hearing him say no would be hard enough, but Eric couldn’t imagine how hard it would be if he said yes.

“When do you plan to leave?” he said after a long while.

“Next week tomorrow.”

“So I won’t get to see my son be born,” the hatted man muttered silently to himself. “My father promised yours that he would take care of you and your mother. Now that he is dead, the responsibility falls to me...”
Eric cringed, knowing what was coming next. He’d hoped that he would say no, decide to stay home to see his son bored and let Eric leave alone. “You don’t have to go. That promise doesn’t apply to you.”

“Yes,” the man sighed, pinching his nose in frustration. “Unfortunatley it does. And after what happened this winter.... There’s no real choice. Give me time to explain things to my wife before you come tomorrow. I doubt she’ll take this well.”

Eric nodded, a lump growing in his throat keeping him from saying anything else. He wanted to say something to make it easier, but words eluded him and in the end he could only watch as his dear friend walked dejectedly back into his house. The sky had darkened considerably. Large dark clouds had come together into a large, violent storm front that began to rain as he made his way home. It was a perfect ending to a horrible day.

!~~~~~~~~~~!

         “Did you get him to agree?”

“Yes, I did. But I still don’t understand why you need him to go with me.”

         “That’s not for you to know.”

“I understand why you want me to go, but why-“

         “All you need to know is that your mother will be taken care of. Your brother went out on a limb for you here. Don’t screw it up by asking stupid questions.”

“Yeah, alright.”

         “There will be a carriage waiting for you at the end of the road. Both of you better be there before noon.”