Iron Lace by Emilie Richards Page B

and held out his hand to the boy. “You follow?”
    Raphael looked at the water. He thought of what his mother would say when he returned with his pants wet and dirty. He thought of what Juan would say if he didn’t continue. Juan, who had known his father. He stepped in and sank to his chest.
    Juan nodded his approval, then started forward.
    The mud oozed between Raphael’s toes. His feet, as tough as shoe leather, still felt the prick of shells and roots. He thought of all the water creatures who could be lying in wait.
    They were on land again in a minute. Juan held out his hand and lifted him up. “Wha’ you hear?”
    Raphael listened. The marsh was strangely silent. He frowned. “Nothin.’”
    “Tha’s righ’.” Juan started toward the trees. “Nothin’. What birds didn’ leave, they listen, too. N’est-ce pas? ”
    “They listen for the wind?”
    “Mais oui.”
    Raphael stared at the trees as they got closer. From a distance, he hadn’t been able to tell that they were dead, but now he saw that they were mere skeletons of living trees, draped with mosslike funeral shrouds. He didn’t want to get any closer. The trees were dead, and he didn’t want to think about them.
    “Come, I show you somethin’,” Juan said.
    Raphael had little choice but to follow. As carefully as hehad watched their route, he knew he might never find his way back to Juan’s house or the village.
    He followed two steps behind the old man, veering from side to side, just as Juan did. Juan stopped at the edge of the vague shadow cast by the middle tree. “Can you fin’ the sun?”
    Raphael thought that was a funny question, since the sun was well hidden by thick black clouds. But he squinted into the sky, then pointed at the spot where he thought the sun should be.
    “Good,” Juan said. “Remember.” Juan took eight perfectly straight steps forward, then turned so that his shoulder faced the trees. He took eight more steps, also straight. Here the almost imperceptible shadows of two of the trees intersected. He turned again, at an angle to the third tree, and took eight more steps. Then he stopped and pointed to the ground. “Here.”
    Raphael ignored his fear of the trees and went to stand beside Juan. “What?”
    “Here. You dig. Here.”
    “Dig?” Raphael looked down. The ground looked no different from that surrounding it. He looked up at Juan. “Why?”
    Juan put his hands on Raphael’s shoulders and pushed. “Go back. Try again, hein? ”
    Perplexed, Raphael turned and walked back to the edge of the shadow of the middle tree. When he faced the trees again, Juan had moved away. “Now,” Juan said. “Again.”
    Raphael did everything Juan had done, even lengthening his steps so that they were as long as the old man’s. He ended up in what he was certain was the same place.
    “Non!” Juan came over to him and pushed him back to the spot where the shadows intersected, then turned him at a sharper angle. “Wha’ d’you see?”
    Raphael squinted. Far in the distance, exactly facing him,was a wide gap in the trees lining the horizon. He pointed. Juan nodded. “Oui. Now fin’ the spot.”
    This time Raphael ended up where Juan wanted him.
    Juan bent so that his face was only inches from the boy’s. “You can fin’, hein? ”
    “Oui.”
    “If this win’ takes me,” Juan said, “you come back, you dig. You tell your maman to take you far ’way from this place, far ’way where no one knows you, no one knows your papa. Vous comprenez? ”
    Raphael didn’t understand, exactly, but he knew he wanted to obey. Hadn’t he dreamed of leaving the chénière himself?
    “If this win’ don’ take me…” Juan shrugged. “Someday, somethin’ will.”
    “What will you do when the wind comes?”
    “I’ll get in my boat.”
    “And sail away?”
    The old man smiled. It was the first time Raphael had ever seen his expression change. “ Mais oui, cher. An’ sail away.”
     
    Lucien had stayed too