Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych

Chapter 10

115 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH My brother closes the double doors of the forge. I look at the iron door pulls. They are the same as the monk’s talisman. That is why the monk’s talisman looked familiar. I feel close to the monks now that I know their talismans are modeled on the pulls of the double doors. The man who sold our father’s father the forge had lost his family to a disease. They could not keep any fluids inside their bodies and even their skin lost its moisture and shrank. It was a common disease. The man buried his family behind the forge. He had no living relatives and so he no longer had any hope for the future of the forge. My brother says that is why the man sold our father’s father the forge. He did not care that our father’s father changed the name of the forge. The man’s name was no longer important. He decided to become a monk on the peninsula. Monks do not have names. They are called 10 116 JOANNA RUOCCO brothers. Brother is how they greet each other unless they have taken a special vow. In that case, they exchange only gestures when they meet. Before the town became prosperous, it was common for men to lose hope. It was good that the peninsula was so close to the town, right across the waters of the bay. Men could leave the town for the peninsula. All they needed was to build a small boat. Speeding ships did not drive over small boats in the bay. The men arrived safely on the peninsula. The monks would welcome the newcomers, even though the newcomers had no hope for the future. Monks do not have sons. If the monks did not welcome newcomers, they would not be able to replace the monks who have died. The order of monks would dwindle. Nobody would inhabit the monasteries on the mountains . The monasteries would become dens for animals, the wild boars that live on the peninsula. Rose bushes would fill the lower stories, the branches would crack the panes of glass in the windows, they would grow through the windows. The windows would become bright with the hips and flowers of roses and the jagged pieces of broken glass. The monasteries are definitely inhabited. The windows are dark. Now that the foreigners have come, every townsperson benefits from investments in his town. Men no longer lose hope. They do not build small boats to cross the bay. Only the monks cross the bay in small boats. Sometimes the monks take young boys from town back to the peninsula in their boats. By welcoming newcomers and taking young boys, the order of monks has prevented itself from dwindling. Now that there are no newcomers arriving on the peninsula, the monks must take as many young boys as they can. Luckily, the captains play games with the monks and most of the monks arrive face down by the wharves. Those monks cannot take young boys. Instead, 117 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH they are taken by the doctor, taken to his office at the end of the dead end street. I wonder if the monks can see our forge from their monasteries on the peninsula. Nothing blocks the view of the forge. The monks must be able to see the red light across the bay. We cannot see the red light of the monks’ forge, but the monks’ forge might be located on the other side of the monasteries, facing the ocean, or it might be located near the bottom of a ravine. There are stories of monks taking the young boys from the town in their boats and devouring them down in the ravines of the peninsula. I do not believe these stories. The boys who are taken by the monks must be kept alive so that they can receive instruction. It is important that the next generation of monks learns how to make the jams and the talismans and the boats. If the monks devoured the boys, there would be no young monks to carry on the practices and beliefs of the order. The practices and beliefs of the monks might involve devouring boys, but I do not think the order could have lasted so long if that were the case. Beneath his hair and beard, the monk I saw...