Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych

Chapter 2

89 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH The forge is on the hill. It has the highest elevation of any business in the town. Our house is behind the forge. Our house is smaller than the forge. There are two windows in the front of the house. You cannot see the bay from the windows. The windows look onto the back of the forge. There are boards nailed on either side of each window. It is as though the windows have shutters. The boards are not shutters. They have no hinges. Our mother nailed the boards alongside the windows for decoration. She liked decoration. I like decoration too. The boards alongside the windows are my favorite thing about the house. Our mother added decoration to the house, but she did not add decoration to the forge. The forge has not changed in any way since the time of our father’s father. My brother tells me he will expand and modernize the forge. My brother is a wonderful blacksmith. As soon as he has a striker, he will expand and modernize the forge. I am my brother’s only relative. It is best that I work as his striker. 2 90 JOANNA RUOCCO My brother works all day and all night in the forge finishing the job our father could not finish. My brother’s lips are dark. The skin beneath his eyes is dark. I sweep the floor and pump the bellows. I watch my brother work alone at the anvil. Sweat pours from my brother. He finishes our father’s job. It is a feat to finish the job without our father, my brother alone, working all day and all night at the anvil. He will not be able to finish more jobs alone. The work is too hard without the help of a striker. My brother must hire a striker. It is best for a blacksmith to have a son for a striker. You do not have to pay a son wages. A son works to earn his name. I want to work for my brother. He does not have to pay me wages. My brother and I live together in the house behind the forge. I do not know what I would do with wages. I could decorate the house with paper notes. The gray and pink paper notes are more appealing than the coins. The coins are nothing special. My brother could strike far finer coins. My brother would not allow me to decorate the house with wages. It is best that I work as his striker for no wages. The wages will be reinvested in the forge. Finally my brother agrees that it is best. He calls me to the anvil. He hangs a leather apron from my neck. He folds my fingers around the handle of the sledge. I lift the sledge. It wobbles. The sledge wobbles but I hold it upright. I am officially my brother’s striker. My brother takes the sledge from my hand. He says we should smoke the doctor’s cigar in celebration. My brother had set the cigar to dry in the pritchel hole of the anvil . Now it is dry. You would never know the cigar had lain in the water on the floor of the forge. It catches fire just like a cigar. The doctor smoked his first cigar with our father. I am smoking my first cigar with my brother. The end of the cigar crumbles slightly on my lips and I lick my lips and spit like my 91 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH brother. We go to the double doors of the forge and stand together looking down at the town. I cannot see the doctor’s office, but I remember that the doctor’s office is on a dead end street. His office is the same faded color as the other offices in town. It is hard to imagine that inside the doctor’s office there is new equipment capable of reconstructing the last moments of a person’s life. Ships are moored in the bay. My brother points to the flags that fly from the gaffs. He tells me the flags are called “civil ensigns.” The ships are merchant ships from foreign countries. Foreigners are taking an interest in the town. More businesses in the town are thriving and my brother tells me that when a certain number of businesses thrive in a...