The Nine Pound Hammer

by John Claude Bemis

  * * *

  Redfeather was bobbing for flaming apples as he finished his performance. The crowd was roaring. Sitting at the back of the stage, Ray was frustrated. Frustrated with Conker. Frustrated with Nel. Frustrated with his father. But mostly, he was frustrated with himself. He had been holding the rabbit’s foot when he slept, talking to it, rubbing it, trying to figure out some way to make the rabbit’s foot do something, anything!

  He had no idea what he was supposed to do. How could they stop the Gog?

  After he helped Nel sell the tonics to the last of the crowd, Ray took his cap from his head, wiped his sweaty hair, and plopped on the edge of the stage to rest his feet. A few people from the audience remained, as they often did, to talk to the performers.

  Ray watched Marisol as she let a trio of children pet Javier. She smiled and spoke encouragingly to the kids. Ray raised an eyebrow. This was not a side of Marisol he saw very often. She could be kind, when she wasn’t ingratiating herself to Seth.

  Looking around, Ray saw Seth at the far end of the tent, speaking to a man. With his stiff bowler hat, somber dark suit, and serious expression, the man did not look like one of the usual types of people who attended the medicine show. Seth said something, and the man gave a sour smile, a gold tooth flashing from his mouth.

  “Ray.”

  Ray turned as Buck approached. “Oh, hey, Buck.”

  “Jolie says you haven’t visited her since you got back,” the cowboy said in his low, crackling voice.

  “Yeah, I will,” Ray sighed.

  “Something wrong?” Buck asked, his eyelids parting a moment to reveal the pale orbs beneath.

  “No,” Ray said. “I’ve been meaning to.”

  “How about now?” Buck said. He held out the key.

  Ray grimaced and took it. “Thanks.”

  He hopped from the stage and walked slowly down the train until he reached Jolie’s car. He knocked at the door as he unlocked the latch. “Jolie,” he called, turning the handle.

  There was a splash of water and then the smack of wet feet on the floor. Ray blinked as he came in, letting his eyes adjust to the dimness. Jolie stood before the tank, smiling at Ray.

  “Hey,” Ray said. He tried hard not to think of those eight years his father had been away.

  “Hello.” Her smile faded as she looked at Ray curiously.

  He propped his hands in his pockets. “How have you been?”

  She shrugged. Ray looked at her face. Her complexion looked worse, even more ashen, with darker circles hanging beneath her eyes.

  “Buck said you left,” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “Away.”

  “Oh,” Jolie said softly. “Has something upset you?”

  “No.” Ray glowered at the floor.

  “Oh,” Jolie repeated. Awkward silence lingered as Jolie stared at Ray and Ray stared at his brogans. Finally, Jolie said, “Why did you come here, Ray?”

  “Because Buck wanted me to,” Ray said.

  “Is that the only reason you have been visiting me all these times?”

  Ray clinched his jaw. A hurt look welled up on Jolie’s face, and she turned away, her wet, tangled hair slapping across her bare arms. Then she spun back to face Ray fiercely. “I thought you were my friend, Ray. At least, I thought we were becoming friends. I did not realize this was just out of pity for the poor siren. Well, I will give you permission. I will let Buck know. You do not have to come here anymore.”

  “Fine,” Ray said.

  “Fine!” Jolie snapped back, but Ray saw bright tears flash to her eyes.

  Ray got as far as the door when he stopped. She doesn’t deserve this, he thought. He walked back to Jolie, who was about to climb over the glass into the tank.

  “What?” she said, a dark tangle of hair veiling part of her face. “Why are you being so terrible?”

  “I know I am,” Ray said. “It’s not your fault. It’s not even my father’s fault. Conker tried to tell me all that.”

  Jolie dropped from the glass back to the floor. “What are you talking about?”

  “Jolie, I left because I found out my father is Li’l Bill.” Ray took out the rabbit’s foot and showed it to her. As Ray sat on the wooden floor, Jolie knelt beside him, listening intently. Ray explained about everything that he had discovered. He also laid out all the anger and resentment that he had felt toward Jolie. She nodded sympathetically as he spoke, but did not interrupt.

  “I know I was wrong, but I couldn’t help it,” Ray said, feeling much better when he finished.

  “Ray, I am sorry,” Jolie said, resting her chin on her knees. “I know it does not make up for all that you have had to go through, but Little Bill did speak often about his family. He did miss you and your mother. Of course, he never knew about your sister, but I am sure he would be sad to know that he had missed her birth and her childhood.” Then Jolie winced, a sad expression falling over her face. “I have caused so much trouble.”

  Ray shifted uncomfortably. “Jolie—”

  “You were right to be angry with me. All the others must hate me for the danger I am bringing. I would not blame them. I wonder if it would be better if I just ran away.” She shook a long lock of hair over her eyes.

  “You know that’s not true!” Ray said.

  Jolie shrugged, running her fingers through a puddle on the floor.

  Ray watched her a moment before saying, “We’re going to find a safe place for you. Nel and Buck are trying. Don’t worry.”

  “I just wish I could understand why the Gog is after me …,” Jolie murmured.

  “I think I know.”

  Jolie looked up at Ray, her eyes wide. Ray sighed and then said, “It’s your song. He wants to use it to control people. To lead them to his Machine.”

  “I would never do that!” Jolie growled. “I would never help him.”

  Ray nodded. “You used your song on me … that time you thought I was after you. What does it do? Can you just make people do whatever you want?”

  “In a way,” Jolie said. “I have never used it much. I have never had a need, except when hunting. The sirens tell of sisters who rescue drowning sailors and use the song to make husbands of them. A siren born this way is a full siren. My father gave his love freely to my mother. That is why I am only part siren.”

  She seemed to struggle a moment to take a breath. Her complexion looked pale, paler than usual. She continued, “Love given freely like that means it can be taken away again. My father left my mother and she died because of it.”

  Ray waited before asking, “But if the Gog’s agents came for you, couldn’t you just use your song to stop them?”

  Jolie shook her head and for a moment seemed dizzy. “My powers are not the same as my sisters’. Their song could stop a great number. It is why the sirens have escaped captivity and notice … for so long. I do not think”—she was breathing heavily now, long slow gulps—“my song could control more than one at a time.”

  “Are you okay?” Ray asked, coming closer to Jolie.

  “I do not feel well.” Jolie staggered as she stood, and Ray grabbed her elbow. “I … just need to get into … the water.” She fell, and Ray dropped quickly to one knee to catch her.

  “Jolie?” he asked. Her eyes were swimming and she did not answer.

  “Help!” Ray called. “Buck! Anyone!” He turned back to Jolie, trying to place her gently to the floor.

  Conker was through the door first, followed by Buck and a gaggle of faces on the vestibule beyond.

  “Get her into the tank!” Buck ordered.

  Conker lifted Jolie effortlessly, and she opened her eyes to look at him and then over at Buck. “You’re going to be okay. … You’ll be fine once I get you in here …,” Conker said soothingly as he placed her over the glass into the water.

  Jolie sank a moment, but then a cloud of bubbles burst from her nose and she waved her arms to swim. She brought her head bac
k to the surface and said, “I am … fine. Thank you.”

  But Ray could see that she still looked washed out, her eyes ringed in dark circles.

  “Everyone out!” Buck growled. “Jolie, I’ll get Nel to bring you a tonic.”

  “Thank you,” she mumbled, her eyes blinking heavily. “I just need to rest.”

  Ray followed Conker out to the crowd parting around the train. “She going to be all right?” Conker asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ray said. He looked back once more at her car.

  The following day, Si found Conker and Ray trying to escape the afternoon heat in the shade of the train.

  “How’s Jolie?” she asked.

  “Better,” Ray said. “Not great, but better.”

  “Well enough to get out?”

  “I guess,” Ray replied. “Why?”

  “I have an idea,” Si said. “Let’s go into Ray’s room so I can tell you.”

  It was cramped with Conker filling most of the space. Si sat by Ray on his narrow bed while Conker squeezed onto the floor.

  “What are you thinking?” Ray asked Si.

  “Jolie’s not used to living on a train, eating our food, being cooped up indoors. But not only that. She can’t do it. She’s a siren. She needs to live like a siren, not like a person.”

  “But we can’t do nothing about that,” Conker said.

  “Conker’s right,” Ray agreed. “With the Gog searching for her, she’s got to—”

  Si held up a hand. “I saw a pond in the woods a little ways away. Not more than five minutes’ walk from here. We need to take Jolie to it.”

  “Buck ain’t going to let us do that,” Conker said.

  “Buck’s not going to know, now is he?” Si said.

  “It’s too dangerous,” Conker argued. “Nel said we shouldn’t do anything foolish.”

  “Quit being such a petticoat!” Si sneered. “If we—”

  Before she could continue her argument, Ray stopped her. “Let’s do it tonight.”

  “So you think it might help?” Si asked, looking relieved.

  Ray nodded. “It’s worth a shot.” But what worried him more than running into danger from the Gog, more than getting caught by Buck or Nel, was whether they could trust Jolie not to run away once she returned to the wild again.

  “YOU’RE LATE,” SI WHISPERED FROM THE DARK OUTSIDE the sleeper car.

  The night was thick and muggy, and Ray’s shirt was damp with sweat despite the late hour. Haze clung to the bone-white midnight moon. There was a tinkle of glass, and as Ray peered in the dark, he saw that Conker had brought three bottletrees, as well as the Nine Pound Hammer.

  “I nodded off,” Ray said as they headed for Jolie’s car.

  The door opened to Jolie’s car and she descended the steps. “Si said you have a surprise for me?”

  “Follow us,” Conker whispered. “Quietly. We don’t want Buck catching us.”

  As they followed the side of the train to where the tracks led into the dark woods, Conker handed a bottle-tree each to Si and Ray. Jolie curiously eyed the stripped cedar branches, each with a dozen or so colored bottles placed where the limbs were broken off.

  “What are those?” she whispered.

  “Bottletrees,” Ray said.

  “What do they do?”

  Conker answered, “The empty bottles trap evil. Least that’s what Buck says. I ain’t sure otherwise, but they’ve got to be stuck in the earth to work and they ain’t doing us much help here, so let’s keep moving.”

  “But where?” Jolie asked.

  “You’ll see,” Si replied.

  She led them a short distance down the track. Holding her hand up to the sky, she consulted the glowing patterns and then nodded into the trees. “Down here.”

  They stepped through the bracken and low vegetation to where the land sloped down. Had they not been so close together, Ray was sure he’d be lost in the woods at night. Soon the dark jumble of shrubs opened into what at first seemed a clearing. With the moonlight reflecting off the surface, Jolie gasped as she saw it was a pond not much farther across than the length of three train cars.

  “Why are we here?” she asked.

  “Si had the idea,” Ray said. “We’ve been worried about you, about how you’ve been so sick. Si thought that maybe if you could swim in a real body of water, it might do some good.”

  “I … I do not know what to say,” Jolie said. “You did not ask Buck? He will be angry?”

  “If he finds out,” Si answered. “We’re going to keep a good watch. That’s why we brought the bottletrees. We’ll scatter around the edge of the pond, but if anything happens, you should get to Conker as quickly as possible. He’ll protect you.”

  Jolie looked down to see the heavy hammer wedged in Conker’s belt.

  “We can’t be out here too long,” Conker warned. “I’ll give a whistle when it’s time. Go on.”

  Jolie nodded, smiling at each of her friends in turn. “Thank you.” She ran to the water’s edge and with a soft splash disappeared into the inky water.

  “I’ll stick here,” Conker said, planting his bottletree in the moist earth by the pond. “You two spread out.”

  Si went to his left and Ray followed the curve of the pond to the right. He made his way until he thought he was about halfway around the pond. Even in the thin moonlight, he could see Conker’s shirt, ghostly against the dark across the water. Gripping the cedar pole with both hands, Ray worked it into the ground until it stayed upright. He felt a mild reassurance at having it there and hoped it worked as Buck had said.

  An old tree had fallen long ago and settled out into the pond, its far end sinking beneath the surface. Ray pulled himself up onto its roots and walked on its trunk until he was several yards out over the pond. He peered around for Jolie but could not find her. A sick knot formed. Please don’t run away, he thought.

  Trying not to dwell on that concern, Ray dangled his feet over the water. The night was hot and thick, and Ray thought how nice the pond must feel. He looked again for Jolie. The surface of the water was still, and he could only hope she was simply swimming somewhere in the depths of the pond.

  Ray dug the red flannel toby out of his pocket and held the rabbit’s foot in his hand. It seemed silly, but he thought that it might somehow keep Jolie from leaving. He nervously ran his fingers over the edge of the smooth metal surface. Why was it so warm? Dim speckles of light formed on the golden skin. Startled, Ray jerked and the foot slipped from his fingers. The rabbit’s foot hit the log and bounced toward the water. Ray leaned forward quickly to catch the foot, but it was too late. It fell into the pond with a plop.

  Ray began frantically untying the laces of his brogans. Maybe it wasn’t so deep.

  Just as he was about to jump into the pond, the dark surface broke. Jolie smiled up at him. “I thought you could not swim?”

  Ray’s voice came out in panicked chokes. “I can’t. … The lodestone! I dropped it.”

  “I know.” Jolie held up her hand, the golden foot sparkling in the moonlight. “I was watching you.”

  Ray took the rabbit’s foot back gratefully, tucking it safely into the toby. “You were watching me? Where?”

  “Here. Just below the surface,” she said, waving her arms as she floated. “You looked worried.”

  “I was!” Ray said, stuffing the toby in his pocket.

  “Why?”

  Ray looked down at her, blinking up at him from the water.

  Jolie whispered, “Did you think I was going to run away?”

  Ray shrugged. “I just knew you felt guilty … it’s so silly.”

  Si broke through the underbrush and leaped onto the log. “Come on,” she said. “Conker just whistled for us to go.”

  Jolie clambered up onto the muddy bank as Ray tied his shoes and took the bottletree from the ground. The three hurried around the edge of the pond until they met Conker, who was peering into the dark up by the tracks.

  “I hea
rd voices,” he said urgently.

  “Voices?” Ray asked. “From where?”

  “Over there. Let’s get out of here.”

  The four moved quietly through the forest, away from the pond. They ascended the hill up toward the track, but before they broke from the tree line, Conker motioned for them to wait. He stepped out onto the gravel and crossties of metal and wood and looked in both directions. Conker gave a sudden yelp, jumping back off the track.

  “What’s the matter?” Ray asked.

  “Snake.” Conker pointed to the track. Even in the thin light of the moon, they saw the dark shadow of a snake wriggle off away from them.

  Si groaned. “You’re such a baby sometimes. Come on. Let’s go.”

  The four jogged quietly back toward the Ballyhoo. As they did, Ray whispered to the others, “Don’t you think it’s strange to see a snake at night?”

  “Naw. Not with hot weather like this,” Conker said. But Si stopped them with her hand. She bent forward and strained to see into the forest at their left.

  “What is it?” Jolie asked.

  “Something … I’m not sure. Thought I saw—”

  A rustle sounded from the dark foliage. Ray pushed Jolie behind him. Conker drew the hammer from his belt and raised it defensively, but Si was already going forward. “Don’t—” Conker began.

  “Seth?” Si asked, pulling back the underbrush. “It’s Seth.”

  Seth sat up, his eyes wild. “They took her!”

  Si sneered, “What do you mean? They took who?”

  Seth put a hand to his head and closed his eyes.

  “Seth? You all right?” Conker asked.

  His eyes fluttered. “They hit me in the head. I was … knocked out.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ray asked, squinting at Seth’s head. He saw blood in the boy’s blond hair by his temple. “Who did they take?”

  “Marisol!”

  “The snake,” Ray said. “That was Marisol’s snake we saw back there.”

  Seth cupped his hand to his temple. “Marisol and I were coming to look for …” He grew tentative, and Ray knew that Seth and Marisol had been snooping on them.

  Ray asked, “Do you know which way?”

  Seth shook his head.