Bonesetter 3 -summer- (Bonesetter series)

by Laurence Dahners

  Sandro stared at it, obviously not getting the idea.

  Pell came out of the cave behind them. He said, “The stick makes it like your arm’s longer.” He bent over and picked up a rock, then held it out to Sandro. “Try to throw this rock while holding your elbow bent so your arm’s really short,” he said, demonstrating by moving his own arm through a throwing motion while keeping the elbow bent so that it remained quite short.

  Sandro took the rock, then with it in his hand, went through a throwing motion a couple of times with his own elbow bent. “It feels wrong,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Pell said, “and the rock won’t go far either, try it.”

  Sandro tried throwing the rock, and sure enough, his throw was pitiful.

  Pell picked up another rock and pulled a stick out of his own belt. “The same thing happens throwing rocks. If you put a rock in a cup on the end of a stick,” he said, putting the rock in his stick, “you can throw it a really long way too.” He stepped forward and slashed with the stick, sending the rock not just all the way across the meadow but even across the stream.”

  Sandro stood staring after the rock for a moment, then turned to look at the throwing spears lying back beside the pig. “Why do those spears have tails?”

  “Oh, Gia had that idea yesterday. She pointed out that all the animals had tails, even the birds, so she thought her spears should have tails too.” Pell shrugged, “I thought it was silly, but, believe it or not, I think the spears with tails fly straighter than the ones without. I’m pretty sure everyone’s spears will have tails in a few more days.”

  Sandro frowned, “What kind of tails are they?”

  “Squirrel tails. She just wraps them onto the back end of the spear with a bit of the fine cord like we use to sew skins together. She says since the spears fly like birds, she thinks they’d do even better with tail feathers. She’s going to try that as soon as I get her a bird.”

  “You should get her that one then,” Sandro said waving off to the right toward the downstream end of the meadow.

  “Where?” Pell said, lifting the little far-seeing chip of wood he kept on the necklace around his neck.

  “Just this side of that big tree,” Sandro said.

  Manute could see the bird, but knew Pell didn’t see well at a distance without using his necklace. The bird was much too far away for Pell to have a chance of hitting it with a spear. However, there was a good chance that one of Pell’s traps would catch it in the next day or two. To Manute’s surprise, he saw Pell reach into his pouch and pull out one of his stones. He loaded it in the cup of his throwing stick, then squinted and threw. He didn’t hit the bird, but he almost did, making the bird thrum into the air and disappear into the trees. Manute laughed, “That was way too far. You just wasted a rock!”

  Pell grinned at Manute, “Sandro challenged me. I had to at least try, didn’t I?”

  “Wait a minute!” Manute said, staring. “That’s a different throwing stick! Let me see it.”

  Pell handed it over and Manute quickly saw that it had a big back-tilted cup for throwing rocks on one side and a smaller forward-tilted cup for throwing spears on the other. Almost involuntarily, he said, “Who showed you this?” Then he winced and followed up with, “Why would I ask that? It’s another one of your ideas, right?”

  Pell shrugged and, as if it explained everything, said, “I didn’t want to have to carry two different sticks.”

  ***

  Sandro began to worry as the afternoon wore on and no one seemed to be doing anything about Jomay’s arm. He found Pell talking to an older man who was helping roast the torso of the pig. Kneeling and opening his pack, he said “Bonesetter, I’ve been worrying about when you’re going to fix Jomay’s arm and I’ve realized that it might be because I haven’t paid you yet. I realize you probably don’t want the flint spear points I brought, but perhaps you’d like some salt?”

  The bonesetter shrugged, “We don’t need salt.”

  Apprehensively worrying that the bonesetter was stonewalling on Jomay’s treatment or bargaining for a higher price than he Sandro had goods for, Sandro nervously said, “Well, no. No one needs salt, but it tastes really good. Have you ever had any?”

  Pell nodded, “We make our own.”

  His heart in his throat, Sandro pulled out some of the beadwork and two pieces of the white leather his tribe was known for. “Necklaces? Bracelets? White leather?”

  Pell squatted down to study them more closely. He frowned, “What are they good for?”

  Sandro’s distress worsened. Most people were quite excited when they saw his tribe’s decorative arts, but Pell seemed completely uninterested if they didn’t serve some useful function! Or maybe this was a negotiation strategy? Sandro said, “They’re pretty… Um, women usually like them…”

  Pell looked puzzled. Shaking his head, he opened his mouth to utter the denial Sandro was fearing, but Gia suddenly reached from behind to gently slap the side of his head, “You’d better not say you don’t want those either!”

  He turned to look up at her, still puzzled, “You want them?”

  “No,” she said, “you want them.”

  He turned to look at Sandro’s wares again, “I do? Why?”

  “So you can give them to your mate. She’ll be very happy when she gets them.”

  “Oh,” Pell said, actually blushing. He turned his eyes to Sandro, “If we’re able to get Jomay’s arm back in place, could I have a necklace, a bracelet, and a piece of your white leather?”

  “You can have that now! If you can get his arm back in place,” Sandro said, his emotions suddenly making it hard to talk, “you can have all of this.” Whenever he’d dealt with healers before, they’d insisted on being paid before they’d do anything—and they kept the goods, whether or not the healing worked. When you talked to them beforehand, they were full of promises and assurances that their treatment would certainly work. Afterwards, they’d tell you that your illness was a terribly difficult one that rarely got better. Sandro didn’t like healers because of the way they were so often dishonest, but he liked this one. He hadn’t promised anything and, Sandro was now thinking, he hadn’t even had intended to ask for payment.

  Sandro’s thought was confirmed when Pell said, “Oh no, that’s far too much.”

  Gia gave Pell a gentle shove and laughed, “You are the worst negotiator!” The rest of Pell’s nearby tribesmen joined in the laughter.

  “Will you treat his arm now then?” Sandro asked.

  Pell looked up at Gia, “How much longer until he’s ready?”

  “That’s what I came out here to tell you. I think he’s ready now.”

  Pell smoothly rose to his feet and strode into the cave. Sandro followed along, curious, though dreading what was about to happen. Pell spoke for a few moments with an ancient woman who was sitting beside the sleeping Jomay. When Pell knelt down beside Jomay, Sandro braced himself for the screaming to follow, but instead, Pell slipped his arms underneath Jomay and picked him up as easily as if he were a child. Pell walked out of the cave carrying Sandro’s cousin and started across meadow toward the stream. Soon everyone in the tribe who wasn’t tending the roasting pig was on his heels.

  Sandro blinked when Pell laid Jomay down beside the stream and immersed his elbow in the cold water. Jomay moaned and squirmed a little bit, but whatever medicine they’d given him kept him from really protesting. Sandro said, “Why’re you holding his arm in the water?”

  Pell looked up at him from where he stood, bent over in the water holding Jomay’s arm. “Have you ever noticed how you can’t feel your fingers or toes when they get really cold in the winter?”

  With a forced chuckle, Sandro said, “So, are your feet getting numb?”

  Pell grinned up at him, “I guess that would be one way to tell when his arm’s been in the water long enough, wouldn’t it?”

  The apprentice stepped into the water, saying, “I’ll hold his arm for you master.” Sandro found i
t bizarre to have the older man treating the younger one so deferentially.

  Pell looked up at him and said, “Did you bring that soft leather we got out?”

  The apprentice’s eyes went up to the cave, “Oh, no, sorry. Should I get it now? Or, Falin,” he said to a boy, “would you get it for me so I can stay here with my master?”

  After getting a description of the leather and its location, the boy took off at a run. The apprentice took over holding the arm and Pell got out of the water. He looked around as if trying to think about whether everything was ready. One of the other men said, “Did you already make your healing splints Bonesetter?”

  “Oh,” Pell said, sounding a little bit surprised at the idea. “I’m pretty sure Jomay’s elbow is dislocated, not broken. I don’t think we’ll need splints once it’s back in place,” he shrugged, looking a little unhappy, “if we can relocate it. The only dislocations I’ve treated have been fingers and even they’re hard to put back.”

  Just fingers?! Sandro thought, a sick feeling welling up in his stomach. But then the boy came running back with the requested leather. Pell lifted Jomay and moved him further up on the bank. He wiped the water off of Jomay’s forearm wrist and hand, then wrapped the soft piece of leather around it. He had the apprentice grasp Jomay’s wrist over the soft leather and told him to gradually start pulling.

  The apprentice said, “I’m supposed to pull through the leather?”

  Pell looked up, “No, but his wet hand will be slippery without it.”

  “Oh,” the apprentice said then started pulling.

  When Jomay’s body started to slide across the grass, Pell had the apprentice put his foot in Jomay’s armpit so he could pull even harder. Jomay started to moan and thrash so Sandro knelt beside him and tried to calm him.

  Pell turned to the apprentice and said, “Keep pulling steadily.” He grasped Jomay’s elbow and, to Sandro’s horror, bent it backwards. Several other people moaned in dismay. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who found the sight of the elbow bending backwards quite disconcerting.

  Jomay’s shoulder moved away under the pressure Pell was putting on the elbow, causing the apprentice to hop a little bit to keep his balance. Pell grasped the apprentice’s arm to steady him; then he knelt to lock his forearm behind Jomay’s elbow and put one hand on Jomay’s shoulder. “Keep pulling!” he admonished his apprentice; then bent Jomay’s elbow even further back than he had before.

  There was a sudden clunk and a shift in Jomay’s arm. He’s broken it even worse! Sandro thought, squinching his eyes shut in dismay. Then, despite the anxiety of the moment, he thought, Though, it could hardly be worse. Jomay’s arm was already useless.”

  The people crowding around gave exclamations of amazement. Sandro opened his eyes and saw Jomay’s arm bent up onto his body confirming Sandro’s thought that Pell had indeed broken the arm—it hadn’t bent like that since his injury… His eyes flashed back to Jomay who looked relaxed, and to Jomay’s elbow, which no longer had a big lump on the back of it. “Spirits!” he whispered, settling to the ground in sudden weakness.

  One of the men caught him from behind when he started to list off to the side, saying, “It’s okay. Go ahead and lie down.”

  Chapter Three

  The bonesetter tied Jomay’s wrist to his neck, saying, “We need to keep his elbow from going all the way straight. If it does, it might slip out of place again.

  Jomay spent the night, at first unconscious, later incoherent, and finally slurred and drunken as if he’d chewed a lot of hemp.

  Sandro was sitting beside his cousin in the morning when Jomay lifted his head muzzily, “Wha’, where?”

  Sandro put a hand on Jomay’s shoulder, “The Bonesetter put your elbow back in place last night. Your head’s probably still somewhat cloudy because Gia fed you strong herbs.”

  With an effort, Jomay rolled partly to his side, then sat up. He bent his head forward and seemed to be looking down at his arm. When Jomay didn’t say anything for a bit, Sandro asked him, “Can you move your arm… yet?” He immediately felt bad about hesitating before saying “yet.” He felt like he’d implied it might not move. Nonetheless, his eyes focused on Jomay’s arm, hoping against hope that he’d see movement.

  After a moment, Jomay’s fingers, then his wrist both moved. A few heartbeats later, the elbow moved a little bit. Jomay’s head lifted, and his pained eyes sought Sandro’s. He said, “Ow…” making Sandro’s heart skip a beat.

  Then Jomay smiled, “But it works…”

  Pell’d apparently been watching. He said, “Can you move your shoulder?”

  Jomay lifted the arm away from his chest, wincing a little. “It makes my elbow hurt. Is that normal?”

  Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve never put an elbow back before. But, it was hurting before it went back in place, right?”

  Jomay nodded. Sandro started to say something about the fact that Pell didn’t seem to know much for a bonesetter, but he subsided. He can get bones back in place. That’s way better than most medicine men.

  Pell said, “Putting the bone back in place doesn’t seem to make everything stop hurting right away like you might think. When I dislocated my finger,” he held up his pointer finger, “it hurt less every day after I put it back in place.”

  “You fixed your own finger?!”

  The little man who mostly got around using a stick under his arm said with an awed tone, “Yes, he did. I was the medicine man in his tribe and I couldn’t get it to go back in… so he did it himself.”

  Looking a little embarrassed by this, Pell shrugged, “But it was hands of days before it stopped hurting completely and,” he moved the finger a couple of times while they watched, “it still doesn’t bend or straighten completely, see?”

  Sandro stared at the finger, seeing that the knuckle seemed a little thicker than the others. Pell was right that the knuckle didn’t seem to move completely, but Sandro didn’t think he would have noticed if Pell hadn’t pointed it out. A healer who points out that what he’s done isn’t perfect?! That’s nothing like any medicine man I’ve ever even heard of before! He looked at Jomay, “If I were Jomay, I’d be pretty happy with an elbow that worked as well as your finger does.” He pulled over his pack to get out his bundle of trade goods. Holding the bundle out, he said, “I said you could have all of this if you got his arm back in place.”

  Pell shook his head without reaching for the bundle, “It’s too much.”

  On the other side of Pell, Gia shoved his shoulder with a laugh and a loving smile, “You were a terrible bargainer the first day I met you. You got a really bad deal on some medicines back then, and you haven’t gotten a bit better!”

  The old woman grinned and touched Gia’s shoulder, “I thought he was bad at haggling because he was distracted by your looks, but maybe he’s just naturally pathetic.”

  Pell blushed and looked down at the ground, then glanced over at Gia, “I was very distracted…”

  She leaned over and threw an arm around his neck, then whispered loud enough that everyone could hear, “That might be, but you’re still the worst negotiator I’ve ever seen!”

  Sandro laughed and unrolled his bundle. He got out his best necklace, bracelet and the largest piece of the white leather, laying them closer to Pell. “Here’s what you negotiated for your payment last night. But, as long as I’m doing so well in this negotiation, I’d like to offer this second bracelet in payment for an explanation as to why you keep such a tiny fire burning in your cave and why it’s beneath that funny vertical cave made out of clay?”

  Looking surprised, Pell said, “You don’t need to give us a bracelet for that. The fire’s small because we wanted to dry the clay slowly. Otherwise, we think it might crack like a pot that hasn’t dried before you put it in the fire.”

  Sandro gave a little nod at the wisdom of that. “Okay, but I’m still willing to trade you a bracelet for the reason you even have the vertical cave?”

&nbs
p; Pell shook his head again, “You still don’t need to give us…”

  He stopped because Gia had clapped a hand over his mouth. She laughed, “We want that bracelet!”

  Pell turned to her with a dismayed look on his face, “But we don’t even know if the smoke guide’s going to work!”

  She shrugged, “It’s time to build a bigger fire and find out. If it doesn’t work, he doesn’t owe us a bracelet.” She turned to Sandro and extended her hand, “Deal?”

  Thinking, smoke guide? Sandro shook her hand. “Deal.”

  ***

  They put more wood on the fire, a little at a time on the continued principle of gradually warming the clay. Sandro sat around watching this and getting bored with it. The fire wasn’t making any smoke, so he had no way of knowing whether the little tunnel—or cave, or smoke guide—or whatever you wanted to call it, was doing what they wanted it to.

  He’d gotten up and was studying it when he realized that the vertical ribs in the little cave over the fire were because the cave had wooden poles inside the clay like the wall of the cave. It had taken him a while to realize that the outer wall of the cave wasn’t natural but consisted of wooden poles plastered with mud. He’d thought that was a stroke of genius. Now he thought the way they’d built the tunnel over the fire was also brilliant. It looked like there were big poles at the corners of the guide and on each side of the opening they fed the fire through. There were smaller poles about the size of their throwing spears between the big poles. The muddy clay they’d apparently squished into the spaces between the poles seemed to be hardening in the heat from the fire. In fact, even when he put his hand pretty high up on the outside of the little cave over the fire, its wall was still hot.

  He had a sudden realization and turned to Pell who’d just entered the cave, “The fire’s not smoking! Why’s that?”

  With a laugh, Pell said. “Actually, it is. Come outside and see.”