Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych

Chapter 15

133 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH When my brother returns from town, he does not have the meat or the bread for dinner. I am lying on the grass outside of the forge. I prop myself up on my elbow when I hear my brother call. He calls to me. I see my brother’s empty hands, dirty and big, hanging by his sides. I do not call back to my brother. I do not ask about the meat or the bread. I have never seen my brother look so defeated. His big hands are trembling. It is strange to look at my brother standing up in his clothing without the leather apron. Across the anvil, my brother stands with the leather apron hanging down in one brown piece. It covers his shirt and trousers. As my brother approaches, I look at his shirt and trousers. The two fabrics meet along a line that crosses my brother’s abdomen. My brother’s abdomen is a slab with light and dark fabrics dividing it in two. He sits down beside me on the grass. He does not want to tell me his news, then he tells me his news. 15 134 JOANNA RUOCCO There will be no delivery of bar iron to the forge. We do not have money in the bank. My brother says that he now understands our father’s ledgers. Our father was not depositing money for safekeeping in the bank. He was paying the bank each month so that the bank would allow him to work in the forge. We had always believed that our father owned the forge. Our father did not own the forge. The bank owns the forge. Tears come to my brother’s eyes because he finally understands the ledgers. He had not cried when our father died. Then my brother thought he was our father’s survivor. Our father’s name survived in the forge. The forge survived because my brother was blacksmith. My brother’s good work would carry on the good name of the forge. My brother had no reason to cry. Now he knows that the forge should not be called by our father’s name. The name is really the same as the name of the bank. My brother had seen two soldiers stationed by the outer doors of the bank and two soldiers stationed inside, one on either end of the tellers’ long counter. At first my brother felt surprise when he saw the soldiers. Before the town became prosperous there was no need to guard the bank. Now the bank must be guarded. More and more money goes in and out of the bank. When thieves leave their strongholds in the wilderness in the south, they travel north until they reach a prosperous town. Before, the thieves used to pass by our town. The dilapidated buildings of the town could not interest the thieves. Now the thieves note signs of prosperity. The buildings in the town are faded, but civil ensigns fly from the ships in the bay. Tall buildings are being erected in the foreign district. Thieves can see these tall buildings from far away, from far down the coast. The thieves head straight to our town. They target the foreigners ’ investments. The soldiers have been stationed at the 135 THE LEAST BLACKSMITH bank to keep the investments safe. They have received orders to shoot any thieves on sight. In a prosperous town, thieves are recognizable. It is easy for the soldiers to shoot the thieves. My brother stood behind the draper in the line at the bank. The draper was depositing large bags of money. He seemed pleased to see the soldiers stationed at either end of the tellers’ counter in their clean, smartly ironed uniforms. The draper is happy that the soldiers take such good care of his uniforms. The draper does not have to worry that the soldiers will be too careful with the uniforms, so careful that he will not need to produce more. Every time a soldier is injured or killed, his uniform is spoiled. No matter how careful a soldier may be, eventually he will either spoil his uniform or he will attain a new rank. When soldiers attain new ranks, they qualify for new uniforms. When soldiers are injured or killed, they are replaced by new soldiers who require uniforms. The draper could not be happier. There is...