Feeling and Acting
“I have to admit that your reactions and instincts are well honed to notice me in this situation.” Jack said as he walked up to Connor. He looked at the construction work and seemed impressed.
“I will not ask again, Jack. Why are you here?” Connor looked at him directly, feeling trapped and at the whims of a man he didn’t fully understand.
“Calm down, Child. I meant you no harm. I’ve heard a strange sound all week and came to investigate tonight. I was bored today because Jillian had to run errands in the city, so I decided to come to take a look.” He smiled in the moonlight, wearing a fire red t-shirt and black shorts with no shoes. “I didn’t hear the clarity of your hammering until three minutes before I arrived here. This is a well thought out location and quite beautiful to look at if I might add.”
“Let’s go sit over here and talk.” He nodded as he followed Connor over the stream, to rest on the trailer’s rear step. Sighing in defeat, Connor grabbed two sodas out of the cooler “Well are you going to tell Sarah or Jillian about this?” and handed him one.
“I will not. This is your courting surprise for my daughter is it not?” He popped the tab and took a quick drink.
“This is only part of her surprise…. Well what do you think about it, Jack?” he raised an arm towards the construction.
“Luckily I am a good actor and my mate cannot read my mind or we would both would get into trouble with our mates.” He looked up at the moon as he spoke with a gentle smile.
“How so, Jack?” Connor asked despite his element of surprise being ruined.
“Remember our last conversation about how Balancer’s and our mates cannot read the others mind?” He began quizzing.
“Of course, but they can still read your emotions through the bond you share and they know what direction you are always in, and the distance separating the two of you.” Connor proved that he paid attention to the story.
“Very good, Connor, Jillian was right about how adept you are. Sarah will enjoy this surprise very much.” He looked down at the boy with ageless eyes to ask “You want to know something?”
Connor answered with “That all depends on what you have to say.”
“And that would be the contingent?”
“I don’t want to know anything about being a Balancer or what it entails. I would like to hear what it’s like directly from Sarah, but anything else you want to tell me, I’m game.”
Jack smiled pleasantly. “That is quite understandable, Connor. I just wanted you to know that I too built a home for my love before I became a Balancer, just as you are doing for my daughter. Over the centuries I’ve made many, but in England my first still stands.” He smiled, thinking back to a time long before Connor forefathers even existed.
“That’s interesting, but I do have a question if you don’t mind my asking?” he asked man to man.
Jack took his eyes off the moon to look at him “What’s on your mind, Child?”
“Is it too much to ask about your past? Where you were born, how you lived? And how you met your mate?” Connor asked in honesty because he didn’t know anything about the man except that he’s Sarah’s father and Jillian’s mate.
Jack chuckled quietly. “It is no problem to ask me, but do not go asking my mate or she will never shut up until you hear every little detail.” He leaned back to get comfortable and gazed at the moon again to tell this story.
“I was born over seven hundred years ago to an Icelandic fishing family. That is why my hair is silver and my eyes are a blue-green. It was a trademark of my people. I made fishing nets and large boats with my father and cousin until I turned sixteen, which was the age you became a man in those days. I joined an English military at seventeen and I fought and survived battle after battle, with little more than a scratch from my skirmish. On my thirtieth summer, I became a military commander and after my promotion, I was commissioned by the church’s bishop to raze a village suspected of witchcraft.
“As I saw helpless women and children getting slaughtered for no reason I went berserk and killed half of my own men, after I specifically ordered them to not kill the women and younglings. As I fought one of my subordinates; another came up and stabbed me in the back…literally.” He lifted the back of his shirt to reveal a three inch scar just above his right kidney. “You aren’t the only one with battle scars.” He pointed to Connor’s exposed and sweaty chest. “A man, shorter and bulkier than I, rescued me from the finishing blow and took me back to his home. He was able to save my life and I owed him my services for a life debt.
“I became his family’s personal soldier. It was only later that I found out that he was a Balancer and so was his mate. Ten years later, in my fortieth summer, I met their youngest daughter, Jillian. She was so young and beautiful yet little did I know that she was already thirty summers older than I.
“One day a small troop of fifteen solders arrived at our village. As I fought to repay my debt to Jillian’s father, she was being cornered by two armored solders and she didn’t have the strength that she has now. I killed the two of them with one swing of my weapon. As they fell, I picked up Jillian and ran her away from the battle. Keeping her safe and in my arms, we fell instantly in love with each other. Her parents made it out as well and they gave me their blessing for the two of us to be together. Even if they are a little…demanding.” He strained the last word.
“Before becoming a mate to Jillian, I too built her a home for the two of us.” Jack looked down from the moon as his story ended. “By the way would you like me to assist you on this project?”
Connor stared at the silver haired man. “Did you have any help building a home for you and Jillian?”
“No, I did not… I see… I understand.” He smiled in understanding that this is a man’s personal project and both understood the reasoning. “Do not worry, Child. I will keep your secrets about this to myself and I never even saw you tonight. I just went for a walk and saw some animals. You have my word.”
“That was a good story and I would like to hear more one day, but I need to finish up and get some rest.” Jack stood without a word and left him alone with a wave of his hand. Before Connor knew what happened, Sarah’s father had disappeared from his side in an instant.
Over the next three weeks the cottage stood nearly complete and furnished. Finished with the roof and flooring that had been crafted out of hardwood, Connor shaped the doors, molding, windows, and insulated the walls. He built a kitchen with a sink and a self-contained indoor plumbing system. He even made a fireplace out of red brick and mortar for the long winters they would surely face. He painted the interior walls a healthy shade light brown and it came as an easy choice because Sarah’s hair color matched the natural scheme. He crafted all of the furniture using everything that was left over scrap, from the dining room table to making a king sized bed frame. He sat the new king sized bed onto its new frame and looking at the green drapes, Connor said to himself “Almost finished.”
The hardest project that took the most time was in making a water wheel that created enough electricity to power a kitchen fridge, lights and the water systems. Connor built the water wheel over the stream that ran beside the house. The most difficult part was lifting the four hundred pound wheel up and sliding in the axle into the exact center of the wheel without losing his grip and it falling on him.
After laying the silk sheets that his grandfather bought on the bed, he walked and sat down in the newly made chairs and the new table. Grabbing a plank of wood, a fine tooth chisel and Tool he started to woodwork a design for something ironic with Sarah and her parents. After the image came to life he nailed it over the eve of the front door.
And he smiled in satisfaction, knowing all was complete.
Returning to his grandparent’s farm, Connor walked inside and asked his grandmother, who laid on the couch reading some kind of romance novel “Grandma, I was wondering if I could take a few of your plants from the flower garden to put around the c
ottage. The place needs a little color.”
Closing her book she looked up with a smile. “That will be fine, but please don’t take too many. I like my house to be colorful too.” Connor left the inside and collected a variety of flowers that will go well with Sarah’s personality and beauty.
Two days later the cottage was ready for occupancy. Connor cleaned up around the cottage and anything that he didn’t use he threw back inside the trailer. His estimates were ideally close and very little material remained after all came to a close. David met Connor at the road as he pulled the now remarkably light trailer out of the brush and attached the trailer to the hitch on his truck.
Exhausted, Connor closed his eyes on the way back to the house. David tapped his grandson’s shoulder saying “Were home, Son. Go and take a hot shower and get some much needed sleep.”
As Connor stood out of the truck, he said weakly “I need it, thank you again.”
“There is no need for thanks, just get some rest, Son.”
Connor slowly walked into their home, not noting anything or anyone. Heading into the shower, he could feel every muscle in agony and some revealed themselves that he never knew existed. He took his clothes off and fell into the shower feeling the hot water erase the pain of his aching body. After finally stepping out of the relaxing shower, he changed clothes. And hunger pains needed to be filled, but sleep won out. Connor fell asleep within moments after falling onto the bed and didn’t awaken until morning.
As he finally awoke, he noticed that his muscles no longer ached. Connor walked down the steps and into the kitchen where Rhoda stood busy, cooking up something that smelled absolutely delicious. “Looks like the dead can awake for my cooking after all.” She chuckled and she wore a blue and white striped shirt along with silver spandex pants.
“You mean to say that I look that good?” She chuckled a little more.
Eggs, bacon and sausage with homemade bread quickly appeared on the kitchen table. “Oh Connor, there is a gift for you on the table.” She pointed with her spoon to a blue bag sitting on the table filled with blue stuffing paper.
He walked over and picked the bag up by its draw strings. “It’s really heavy.” Connor didn’t notice that the kitchen sounds had stopped. He pulled out the paper to see something dark and mildly reflective inside the bag. He reached in and pulled the heavy object out, it took up all the space of his hand. It was solid and dark with a slight amount of luster. “This can’t be!” “Grandma, is this the silver I asked for a month ago?”
“It sure is. I wanted to give it to you first thing yesterday, but when you came home you were so tired you couldn’t acknowledge little old me. You’re so like David, working yourselves to death. I held it for you till now.” She now stood directly behind him, enjoying his sincere expression.
“But this is bigger than my fist.” It was the size of a fist and a half.
“I told you that I would pull through for you, didn’t I? Oh and if it is too much ore you can just make something for me out of whatever is left.” She hugged his back.
“I just cannot even begin to thank you both for everything that you two have done for me. I haven’t forgotten about the agreement for this.” Connor tossed the metal in the air while smiling. Now the last project could get underway without delay.
After eating six scrambled eggs and several of the meats, Connor walked outside and into the smoldering forge. Inside the forge is a metal smelter that needs to be hand pumped by the billows. Its fuel is fire wood and charcoal. On the sooty walls hung many sets of tongs, hammers and chisels for many different carving and shaping purposes. Six troughs sat side by side, each filled with a different ink color used for quenching the metal to cool quickly. There are several stands meant for different metal bending and sizing options. Connor walked over to the smelter and used the tongs to grab a perpetually red hot melting cup. Setting the cup on the anvil made a slight hissing sound as he threw in the silver ore. After placing the cup back into the flames, pumping the billows a few times and adding a few logs, he grabbed two molding buckets.
Connor measured his upper arm with a chilled Bees wax ring and shaved it down into a flat circular ring before he got started on Sarah’s trinket. He remembered her ankle size so he made another circular ring out of the cold wax as well. Lost wax casting is a simple way to make special objects. Filling up each of the molding buckets with quick drying cement, he began placing each ring into each bucket, he submerged them only centimeters into the cement to cover them.
When the metal ore had completely melted over a period of a few hours, Connor scooped out all of the impurities that floated to the top. After that, he used the tongs to hold the melted silver and pour almost half of the red hot metal onto the now dry cement. As the silver burned away the wax, it replaced it and made a perfect casting in the cement. He used the same technique for his bucket. He then sat both buckets outside the forge for the metal to cool and solidify.
Eventually the silver cooled and he used a rounded hammer to carefully break open the castings. After removing the last of the concrete and grabbing the tongs, Connor picked up Sarah’s newly formed anklet and put it into the heater again and removed it when it started to glow an iridescent red. The concrete that clung to the metal either burned or flaked off. Grabbing several hardened files of different abrasions and setting the still hot ring in a pair of clamps, he started shaping and smoothing.
Starting with a rough abrasion file, he shaved off all of the visible burrs. After warming the metal up again, Connor used a finer file to smooth away all of the more subtle bumps and bulges. After a third firing the shaving was complete and now it needed to have a design. Using the finest blade and point on a chisel, a pattern started to appear on the anklet in the shape of what looked like a braded rope, but actually it was a continuous and linked X in the same shape of the mark of his chest. Using the dark black ink in one of his grandfather’s ink troughs, he painted in the crossing lines black with a brush, revealing the continuous black X and leaving the rest with the natural silver color. After the final firing to burn away the excess ink and setting the color into the metal, he began to polish the entire ring by hand until it had a beautiful sheen and it was finally complete. It became very dark outside as Connor realized that it has taken all day to do this one piece of jewelry. It was truly worth all the time it took.
The next morning Connor started to work on his armlet before dawn even broke. Instead of a circular anklet ring, his armlet was a flat ring that fit just over the muscles on his upper left arm. Using most of the same methods to remove the burrs and polishing techniques, the shape quickly took on the desired look. The only difference was the design placed upon the jewelry, using the fine tipped chisel again he made a perfect pentagram and between each point of the star he painstakingly designed a symbol for each of the elements; a tear drop for Liquid, a flame for Fire, mountains for Terra, a perfect circle for Pressure and finally a small diagram for Metal. After the armlet was finally complete Connor slid it over his arm and it fit perfectly, even as he covered it over with his sleeve. Due to the designs being too intricate he was unable to give the armlet any color, but it didn’t matter because it looked fine without it.
With only a little amount of silver left over Connor was able to create his grandmother a proper gift.
Later that early afternoon at the dinner table his grandfather asked “The way you look tells me that everything is finished on all of your projects.” Connor replied proudly. “Yes sir, all of my plans are complete.” A smile crossed his face.
“Really, everything is done?” Rhoda asked and he knew what the expression meant. “Even your other project as well?”
Connor didn’t answer her with words because he had to uphold the bargain with her as well. He leaned down and picked up two wooden boxes; which he crafted with the leftover wood from the cabin. Sitting across from his grandparents, he first revealed the larger box, opening it his grandmother gasped. “Oh how beautiful, you are a
terrific craftsman my boy. Is that for Sarah?” He nodded with a smile. Connor handed the other smaller box over to her because it was her present from him. As she opened the box she pulled out a pendant in the shape of a rose bud with a small ring at the bottom for a thin necklace chain to be threaded through. “You better enjoy it, that thing was difficult to make.” “Oh Connor it’s beautiful, but the amount of silver I obtained should be more than these two trinkets. Where is the rest?” Sliding up his left sleeve up to the shoulder, David smiled and whistled.
“These are masterpieces, Son. Especially that one on your arm.” Smiling, he added “So, when are you leaving to go back to your family and to see Sarah?”
Not wanting to drag this along “Today. I miss them too much and I’m not one to just sit by and wait.”
After the meal and exchanging hugs and other pleasantries Connor told them to be at his mother’s house around noon for the public opening. David drove him home to expedite the plans before nightfall. At around five in the evening they arrived at the house on Friday afternoon. School would be out for the weekend and both teachers and students would already be home. Connor walked inside his house with the filled duffle bag, Tool and the chest harness, but he first need to clean up from working at the forge all day.
Connor shut the front door and Kara yelled happily “BROTHER! You’re home!” Kara ran from the kitchen and tried to tackle him without any success again. Her spirit was refreshing and missed. She hugged him as tightly as her spindly little arms could manage. “I missed you, Brother. Are you finished with whatever surprise you have up your sleeve?”
“How did you know I was doing a surprise?” He asked before thinking.
“Well Sarah’s sister Jillian said that you have been up to something, but I figured out that it’s for Sarah myself.” She released her hug and stepped back to look at him. She was looking very happy.
Connor sighed because he couldn’t ever lie directly to his little sister. Keeping information away and secret, that was simple. “Yes, everything that I planned is complete. After I clean up, I’m going to go see Sarah. I might not come home tonight so not to worry. Don’t freak. I will show you what I made tomorrow.” Smiling at her, she beamed with satisfaction.
“Connor, is that you?” Connor entered the lively laundry room before he stepped into the shower. “Hi Mom, sorry, but I can’t stay and chat. I have to get going before it gets too dark out. I just wanted you to know that I’m finished and I will show you and everyone tomorrow what I have been up to. If you want another update call Grandma like you’ve done every day in secret.” She smiled, knowing she was caught. Connor hugged her and went into the bathroom to get ready and look presentable.
Before leaving the house Connor grabbed Sarah’s gift from the duffle bag. Wearing a black sleeved shirt and brown jeans along with hiking boots and Tool, he walked across the yard and into Sarah’s.
Upon the fated arrival Connor knocked on the garage door. “Coming… who is it?” Jillian called from inside. Opening the door she instantly recognized who it was. Knowing a similar personality he watched as she started to loudly say “CONNO…” He threw his right hand over her mouth to stop her from spoiling everything. Her eyes widened from shock.
Connor whispered to her “Jillian, please do not speak too loudly. Is my Princess here?”
Taking his hand away slowly she spoke softly “It is great to see you again, Connor. Yes my daughter is here.” Jillian turned away to say under her breath “She is going to be sooo surprised.” She giggled and went inside and he followed graciously after closing the door.