Craft

by Lynnie Purcell

  When Ellie finished cleaning the entire house, she started dinner. By the time the chicken had finished baking, her sisters came home again. They did not come alone. Ellie heard the sound of chattering and the slamming of car doors before the front door opened. The sound was loud and full of cheer. Ellie knew what it meant. The family had come to visit.

  In the next moment, her house filled up with more people than it could contain. Aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and extended family circled the living room, the den, and the kitchen where Ellie was standing. It was like a wave of people breaking over Ellie’s house: a dirty, sweaty, wave of people. Dirt was tracked all over her clean floors as they entered. She would have to clean them all over again. No one looked at her. No one even noticed her standing by the kitchen table.

  Cousin’s wife, Eugenia, wrinkled her nose when she saw Ellie’s tiny chicken on the table. She waved a hand and rows of delicious food appeared, all but making Ellie’s chicken invisible. Ellie’s family instantly turned at the crafted food, not needing words to know it was there. They had a second sense about food and drink. They always knew where to find both. They dug into the food, even as their chatter filled up the space between people.

  Ellie was resigned to the scene playing out in front of her. She knew that there was nothing she could do about their mess or their presence. She had no say in such matters. Instead of trying to keep the mess in check, she focused on why they were there, the reason they had come to her house.

  From the talk surrounding her, Ellie was able to figure out that the retaliation to the attack on Cousin had gone well. Her kin had come to celebrate the victory. She was not sure what had happened exactly, but she knew the Coopers had certainly paid for hurting Cousin. Neveah, Careen and Cousin had put them in their place.

  Deciding the heat was unbearable with the added bodies, Ellie moved through the crowd and went outside. As she wove her way around her family, she saw Neveah in the far corner of the kitchen talking with her boyfriend. Careen was at the food Eugenia had crafted. Cousin was missing, though it was difficult to see beyond what the kitchen offered. The people blocked the living room from view. No one noticed Ellie as she forced her way through to the kitchen door.

  There were a lot of people milling around on Ellie’s yard, but the air was not quite so thick. Bodies were not pressing into bodies, with limited space to move, making the summer evening feel hotter. The noise from the house followed her outside. People called to each other across her yard. Cousin was setting up instruments near the steps of her front porch. Someone had crafted food for the people outside. Tables were placed at random intervals; cars lined the interstate and filled up her driveway. The summer evening was alive with the feel of so many people at her house. Ellie went to Cousin, hoping for news of town.

  “Hey, Cousin,” Ellie said.

  “What’s going on, girly?” he asked in his gruff voice.

  “Usual. Nothing changes around here,” Ellie said.

  Cousin nodded approvingly. His light-colored eyes and weathered face reflected his approval. He was not as opposed to things never changing as Ellie was.

  “Things is that way for a good reason,” Cousin said.

  Ellie sighed. She had heard those words almost as much as she had heard words of hatred for the Coopers. It was best not to reach for more. Things were ‘that way for a reason.’ There was never an explanation of why things had to stay the same. No one ever told her why her adventures could not step beyond her imagination. Things just were. Things would always be that way. She had her place in the family. It was best not to argue with that. Their unexplained logic frustrated her. She did not try to argue with Cousin. It would get her nowhere quick.

  “Did you get the Coopers back?” Ellie asked him, hoping for a story.

  If she could not have her own adventures, she would settle for his.

  “That we did, girly,” Cousin said.

  Cousin plucked at his banjo, and a foul note resonated around the yard. He stuck his tongue between his front teeth and started tuning the instrument. He immediately forgot about Ellie. He focused on tuning the pegs, not offering the story behind their attack on the Coopers. Ellie was used to such treatment. People often forgot about her, even when they were talking to her. It happened so much she had come to expect it. Ellie was not as interested in the attack as she was the idea of where Cousin and the others had been. She wanted to know about town. She wanted someone to give in and tell her the truth about what it was like. She wanted the truth to go with the visuals she had formed in her mind.

  “Cousin…” she said after a moment of listening to him perfect the sound of the banjo. “What’s it like in town? I mean, besides the Coopers…”

  Cousin shook his head at her question. His tough, old skin wobbled in time to his headshake. He was not happy with her question. It was not her place to ask such things.

  “Too dangerous for a little girl,” Cousin said. “Run along now, we got a party to start.”

  Disappointed but resigned to his answer, Ellie walked away. The instruments ready, Cousin and four others started playing a high-energy song. People cheered as the music started. They immediately started dancing in front of the musicians with wild abandon and cheerful singing. Soon, laughter and song filled the air as much as the strong southern dialect of dozens of conversations.

  Ellie sat at the table farthest from the dancing and watched the festivities without joining in. Kids raced around the dancing people, playing tag and making up games as they ran. The adults who were not dancing talked in groups and in pairs around the yard. They made a lot of noise as they talked, their cheer spilling out over the yard as much as the music. There were plenty of teenagers her age scattered across the yard, talking and sharing secrets. They tried to impress each other with their craft and bragged about made-up fights with the Coopers. She did not seek them out. She had never been friends with her cousins. Neveah’s bullying had made sure of that. Anyone with any sense avoided Ellie to avoid Neveah’s acidic tongue and powerful craft.

  Instead of enjoying the people around her, Ellie focused on the mess they were making. She knew she would be the one to have to clean it all. It would take her most of the day tomorrow, and she knew Neveah would expect her regular chores done as well. She watched her family as an outsider would have, not able to help but laugh at their wild abandon and cheer, despite the way they acted as if she did not exist. They could not help but be entertaining.

  Occasionally, she would craft the trash away, but only when she was certain no one was watching. She took advantage of the fact that so many people were at her house and that no one ever noticed her. It was the only time she could craft openly. Though she was exhausted from a day of cleaning, Ellie did not try to retreat to her shack or leave the party. If Neveah found out, there would be hell to pay. Ellie had a responsibility as a Bumbalow to be at every party, no matter the reason for it.

  The summer sun gave way to a night almost as hot and muggy as the day. People crafted drafts of cool air around them as they partied, but even that was not enough to keep the heat at bay. It was overwhelming. The heat only added to the energy. It made the wildness of the Bumbalows feel as natural as the night. It kept the mood of celebration alive.

  It was close to midnight when Ellie felt the first signs of trouble. She had fallen asleep at the table, the party not entertaining enough to compete with a day full of taxing chores. She thought at first the others’ conversations had woken her up from her dreams of seeing town, but she knew in an instant that she was wrong. The feeling in the air was familiar. Someone was crafting. The strong pull of it had woken her up from a dead sleep.

  Her eyes unfocused, her mind weighted down with sleep, she searched her front yard for the culprit. She felt the craft ripple through the night again. It was stronger this time. It was stronger than when her sisters worked their craft. It made her think that it was not just one person crafting. It was a whole group working toward a common goal. There wa
s less peace to the feeling and more purpose. The craft had a mission.

  Ellie searched for a reason behind the craft and saw that most of her family outside had fallen asleep on the grass, on the tables, and on her front porch – anywhere that provided a semi-comfortable place to spend the night. Cousin was on the front steps, holding his banjo like a stuffed toy as he leaned against the railing in sleep. His weathered face was peaceful as he slept. The people who were still partying had moved inside. A lot of noise and merriment was coming from the living and dining rooms. No one beyond Ellie seemed to notice the feeling of purposeful craft in the air.

  Uncertain if the craft was originating from her family members inside, Ellie maneuvered around the snoring guests strewn carelessly around her yard. She was determined to understand the feeling. Her curiosity would not rest. She let the feeling pull her toward the person or people responsible. She figured some of her family was about to play a prank on those inside. It was not out of character. Ellie had spent hours cleaning up their pranks. She just hoped she was not on the receiving end of the prank. Again.

  The feeling of the craft tugged against her senses in a unique caress. The closer she got to the road the more the craft crept around her body, reeling her in with the power. She felt the usual hypnotic dance of force against chaos. It was the pulling in of energy to make chaos do one’s bidding. It was a whole world stuffed inside the world she lived in. It was a world she could not imagine having to live without, even for a day.

  Ellie finally stepped out to the small two-lane road in front of her house. It was only then she realized the craft was not coming from her house or from any of her kin trying to play a prank. It was coming from an entirely different source.

  A blue light, which anyone without craft would have found supernatural, appeared in a field on the opposite side of the road from Ellie’s house. It was two-hundred yards away from Ellie. The light was dim at first, small enough to be mistaken for a lantern, but as she watched, it grew in size. It stretched to the size of a basketball, highlighting the dark shapes of several people creeping through the field.

  With her sleepiness surrounding her, it took Ellie a moment to realize the light was crafted and not from a lost hunter or hiker searching for a friendly house to stay the night, which had happened a couple of times. Neveah had always turned them away. No outsider had ever stayed at their house. Ellie knew no one in her family crafted light the milky blue color she was seeing. Her family always made warm oranges and burnt reds - colors that reflected the earth they tilled.

  Since the Coopers and their extended kin were the only family that lived within distance of her house, Ellie knew they had come. They had come for retribution for whatever mischief Cousin and her sisters had stirred up in town. It was that simple to Ellie. No one else could be responsible for the craft she was feeling.

  For the first time in her life, Ellie was about to witness an actual attack by the Coopers. At first, her fear locked her body in silence. The Coopers had killed her father. They were insane; they were wild. They were as heartless as any person she had ever met. Then she realized if she did not do something, more of her family would die under their craft. She was the only thing between the Coopers murdering her entire family. Ellie found her courage.

  “The Coopers are here!” Ellie yelled, startling the night with her voice. “They’re gonna attack!”

  The crickets, which had filled the night air with relentless sound, went silent with her call. Everything else in the night seemed to pause as well. The earth held its breath for one eternal moment. The light from across the field stopped moving at her call. It flickered with its crafter’s uncertainty. Ellie felt the feeling of craft grow until it was unbearable.

  In the next second, everything around Ellie turned to chaos. Her call had stirred her family to action. Many who had fallen asleep awoke with her yell. Her warning repeated across the yard as those she had woken up noticed the light in the field. Those who were not too gone with hooch ran to the road to fight the Coopers. More blue lights brightened the field across the way, joining the first light. The lights appeared suddenly, as if the night had shifted with Ellie’s call to reveal all its secrets.

  Ellie watched the lights form without realizing the danger she was in. She had never seen dark craft up close. She had never fought a battle against the Coopers, nor had the fight ever come close to her house. She was not prepared to face the repercussions of her warning.

  All at once, dark waves of ghosting craft lashed out across the field. Ellie was mesmerized at the sight, awed and terrified of the power in front of her. The feel of it was unlike anything she had ever known. It was similar to standing in front of a powerful tornado without the ability to move or act.

  Before Ellie could find the good sense to duck, she was pushed to the ground by Neveah. The darkness crackled over Ellie’s head with electric deadliness, sizzling the very air with its power. Neveah caught the dark craft with her own electricity, the air burning with the meeting of currents. Without hesitation, Neveah sent the electricity back to the Coopers. The craft she sent was powerful but more familiar to Ellie. She could have picked Neveah’s craft out of a hundred crafters. The rest of her family joined the fight. The earth quaked with the meeting of Bumbalow and Cooper.

  The energy surrounded Ellie as much as the crackling of the air as she remained belly down on the dirt. As both sides attacked and defended, the feeling of craft overwhelmed her. She had never felt such strong, deadly magic all at once. Shaking from the feeling, she put her hands over her ears, thinking it would help. All it did was muffle the shouts of confusion, pain and anger. It did not stop the feeling in her chest at all. She cowered on the ground, shaking and trying not to let fear rule her. She wanted to stand and fight, but her fear would not let her. She had long imagined the fighting. She had never imagined it feeling so raw and full of chaos. She had never imagined feeling so helpless and afraid.

  Her place on the ground was not safe for long. Dirt flew up inches from her head. Dark fire crackled with alarming closeness. All of Ellie’s hair stood on end. Ellie jumped at the feeling as the dirt landed on her head. She could not tell which side had sent the craft. The fight was getting out of control. No one knew what the others were doing. Anyone was fair game in the madness.

  Acting on instinct, Ellie crawled away from the spot the craft had landed. She crawled on her belly toward the edge of the road and the closest form of cover. A large trench had formed where her yard met the pavement. It was a new addition to her yard, but it was a welcome one. She reached the trench and rolled down to the very bottom. Fire exploded behind her as she rolled.

  She landed hard at the bottom of the trench and immediately put her hands back over her ears. She tried to keep a handle on the feeling of pressure in her chest. It was as if someone had gotten hold of her chest and was squeezing with all their might. She could not breathe. She could not think. It only added to the panic in her chest. She had never felt so scared.

  Around her fear, she was excited. For once, she would have her own story of the feud. She would not have to rely on the stories of the others to inform her of what the fighting was like. She knew what it was like. She could grow from the experience.

  If she survived.

  Chapter 2: A Choice

  The chaos of the fight seemed to go on forever. The craft did not die down as much as it slowly faded away. Ellie finally heard her sisters yell out above the sounds of her family crying out in a curious mixture of pain and glee. Their voices were not hard to hear around the other sounds. Ellie had spent a lifetime listening out for them.

  “They’re retreating!” Neveah called out from somewhere in the dark.

  “And don’t you come back neither!” Careen added.

  They cackled happily over the sounds of people fleeing back through the field and dark craft flying through the air as the Coopers retreated. Ellie had never heard her sisters sound so pleased with themselves outside of making life difficult for
her. Sounds of Ellie’s family calling out to their loved ones also filled the air around the Coopers’ retreat. People were hurt. They needed healing craft. The fight had not come without consequences. Ellie was not certain how deadly the consequences had been.

  She moved at the thought. Their pain gave her courage. She had to help. She had to do something. She climbed to the top of the trench and looked past the road to the field beyond. Amber and red filled the moonless night. The bright blue of the Coopers was gone. The Bumbalows had won the fight.

  The dark silhouettes of her kin moving around was the most she could see in the dim light. Some of the people were on the ground, while others crouched down near them. Ellie was not sure if anyone had died, but she knew she could help the injured. She did not care if Neveah punished her for using craft. She had to help. Healing the injured would take away some of her guilt at cowering in the dirt during the fight.

  She started to move forward purposefully, but Neveah and Careen stepped in front of her. Ellie had not noticed them near her in the dark.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Neveah asked.

  “To help the others,” Ellie said.

  “You shouldn’t have been here to begin with,” Neveah said.

  “I live here,” Ellie said.

  “Don’t get smart with me, girl,” Neveah warned.

  “I told you they were here, didn't I?” Ellie demanded. “No one else noticed them, did they?”

  Neveah’s eyes flashed with dark anger at Ellie’s tone. She repressed the emotion and her expression turned sly. “True enough, you did,” Neveah said. “But you shouldn’t have yelled in such a way. Now the Coopers know what you look like. They’ll be after you for sure.”

  Ellie’s heart started racing at the idea. She had not thought of that fact when she had yelled out. She had only been trying to save her family. Would the Coopers come back looking for vengeance? Would they blame her for their failed attack? Ellie knew vengeance was always paid. It was the whole basis for the feud. For the first time in her life, the Coopers had reason to curse her name.