NOVEMBER
Patrick Ehlen
They walked the road while kicking at ragwort, walking to where the road came to fade around the wide end of the reservoir, the sky calling down with gray ailment while camprobbers stole across the foul water, and there where the road became meadow the boys ran ahead, with Peter running behind and Peter’s brother running more swiftly, while Secret and Nino did not run at all but tarried there where the road ended and while watching the boys run with their swiftness defied them with purposeless wandering, as though they would tarry whenever a swiftness presented itself to them in time at a point when it served no purpose, or as if whatever the reaching tress of the water beside them would afford them was not to be afforded in that it served no purpose, or as though they would tarry wherever a road came to end as this road ended at a point where it served no purpose. As they tarried further the boys ran on, one with swift steps that tread down with even intent while the other ran after with fell steps behind, beating at time with the twig of his breath and uprooted anew with each step ahead as though with no aim other than to run with the steps of the one running before him, other than to span what distance persisted between the one and the other in feet or in seconds or years, in order that he might run where the one ahead ran until his steps were trod in time as the one ahead trod them, running in pursuit through the meadow just as the two who tarried at the water would not pursue the one nor the other as long as the pursuit was made through the meadow, though now even while wandering as they did at the water neither would tarry for much time before coming to take on pursuits of their own, with Nino now stretched in pursuit of an anglewing while Secret reached down in her own pursuit of Nino who looked to the sky while approaching the water. As Nino stood rapt with the shade of the vanishing anglewing, or with some superlunary phantom risen before them, the pursuit that came down from behind arrived as though not a pursuit in its way but more a shadowed moment of lofting from earth, disburdening from gravity and lofting up still as they made way along the shoreline, Nino’s inspection captive on the passing ground below and then on dull silver as they mounted the steel jetty that stretched out over the reservoir, moving along until they would stand at the jetty’s end, standing above water with eyes cast down through the steel grating to the flows beneath that rolled from in front to the shoreline behind, so that as they stood watching the steady motion of water with nothing to add for reference of vision save the steel jetty it became as if the motion beneath attested to a motion forward with the jetty as vessel, setting out as they would into the steep wind and into the bleak swindling of senses until Nino made effort to wrest free from the grasp that lofted up still above the moving water, Secret yielding one hand while the other held Nino still out and aloft until with a long crying pitch of her arm she delivered Nino released to a high arc above, cast into air and then down to where with the thunder of ruptured water Nino collapsed from the arc and sank beneath the surface.
Gilbert stopped running. Peter stopped also. Gilbert called out.
“Whadja throw ‘im in for?”
Secret stood as the two in the meadow advanced.
“I didn’t thrower in. She wantida swim.”
Gilbert came to the edge of the water with Peter coming behind.
“You stupid, cats dont swim. Now he’ll probly drown.”
They stood at the water while watching the surface, two at the shore and one at the jetty’s end, standing and searching in wait until at once there appeared to them a white orb in the flowing gray, surfacing to render a halting circle against the wake of the moving water for as long as the wake countered its efforts and until its own halting motion aligned with the tow that would oppose any motion save that of its own tiding, any motion that did not aim toward shore at that point where the shore ran more near, owing that the orb sustained its travail to that end as the three who watched sustained their anticipation, so much so that Secret walked a slow retrace along the jetty in step with the orb’s faltering progress and so much so that Gilbert stood motionless while Peter crouched to the dirt in quest of a stone from the shore that he turned once in his hand before pitching on a course that would engage the water’s surface at the side of the travailing orb, drawing the orb’s detained attention and drawing from Secret a strident cry of “Stopit!” and from Gilbert a swift sock at that shoulder still held forward and nimbly accountable. As Secret arrived at the convergence of steel and earth that devised the jetty’s origin, so also did Nino arrive at the convergence of water with land, making tall steps upon the stones of the shore while languid and infused with shuddering indignation, pausing where the stones dispersed through dead awns and twisting to gnaw at a tuft at its backside, Secret with lumbering resolve closing the expanse of shoreline to one side and the boys with no less intrepitude closing to the other as Nino rested occupied and unheeding and slowed from gnaw to stroke to gnaw once more until with the tic of one ear it hearkened their closing advances along the shore at either side and quit its occupation and arched and leapt from the awns to the meadow and vanished among the high, dead grasses that quivered at the furrow of its agile escape. But yet and still the three advanced, advancing on the meadow to converge where the breached high grasses parted again for their pursuit, Secret treading down the grasses for Gilbert and Peter who followed looking over from behind, the fugitive Nino yet unseen and indifferent to Secret’s trilled summons of “Neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno-neeno,” sustained as the paths of the three pursuers in the tall grasses diverged, Gilbert bending to take hold of a felled branch that he cracked across one knee, discarding the shorter remnant that was at once taken up by Peter, who as well took up his brother’s lead of lashing at the tall dead grasses that concealed their quarry, Peter pursuing his lashing with a wanton violence that surpassed the judicious lashings of his brother, as if aiming only to lash at the tall grasses and to do so with greater fury, to surpass with the fury of these lashings the fury of light or the fury of air or of any stark instant falling before them, even while Secret called from the near distance with her enduring trill and Gilbert studied the grasses with calculated lashing and Peter made no study save that of his ardent razing, striving with each lash to sever the shoots of the grasses and watching enchanted as they flew, with each lash wielding the branch with greater violence until with an abrupt impulse the branch took flight from his grasp and spun through the air for a distance and dropped again to the grass where the flat meadow faded into the woods that shadowed the rising hillside where Nino ascended in furtive quietude.
Peter thrust a pointing hand toward the trees.
“Look! There he is.”
Secret and Gilbert looked to Peter and then to the mark of his indication beyond the meadow and into the trees where Nino gradually ascended, the three trampling down the dead grasses to bring their diverging trails to converge again where the meadow surrendered to dim woods mounting the steep hillside, the shaded sky receding to pines and Nino holding a firm distance ahead as they labored up behind, their wearied pursuit pressing upward until even Secret had long ceased her trilled summons and the meadow long fell obscured to the thick of trees that allowed sparse glimpses of the reservoir spread far now below and the road that enclosed its far shore, Nino still lingering ahead until their ascent leveled and the woods gave light to a clearing where wood lay stacked in incidental piles, the nearest pile unyielding as Nino brushed against it with one cheek and scraped against it longwise before turning and reclining with calm repose to observe and await the mounting pursuers. As Gilbert drew near with heavy steps Nino responded with little but a twitch of the tail, then hanging limp for the hands that lifted aloft, resting sedate in Gilbert’s grip and eyes peering in fixed astonishment at Secret who approached with brandished finger and the firm charge of “Bad Nino!” while reaching to secure Nino again in her own arms and to turn again to the direction from which they had only arrived, forsaking the clearing for the trees and descending once more even as Peter came to where his brother remained and slumped to Nino’s abandoned spot at the woodpile while grasping at breaths, the odor of smoke wafting upon them. As Gilbert surveyed the bounds of the clearing Peter rose again to remark with his brother the smokeshaft of a cabin set low in the woods, the boys crossing sluggish and down to where the cabin lay desolate, its windows obscured with soot and grime and its gashed door unlatched and ajar to betray the black interior, and as Gilbert jabbed his brother forward Peter leaned to take hold of a twig that he tossed into the open door and that went swallowed into the void without sound, Peter moving forward on dubious steps while Gilbert paused at some distance, Peter reaching out to meet the door with his palm while Gilbert eyed the dark it vaguely occluded, Peter pushing as the door gave way while Gilbert yelped and Peter looked from the door to his brother and then to the goliath now appeared and looming behind them, a pale grip around a dangling hatchet and hair and eyes bearing an infernal heat and grizzled beard snaring bits of gray, the goliath staggering forward even as the boys made flight for the trees, Peter in front and his brother behind, tumbling and pushing and pushing at the back of his brother who went hurdling before him, pushing him faster and farther down through the steep wood and grabbing as he stumbled and again pushing and again hurdling above the crackling branches and between the shadowing pines and through the sounding pitch of their tumbling descent toward the grassy glade and the dreggish reservoir and the vanished road that lay still beyond.