Chapter 9
Daniel pulled the tractor into the barn and they climbed down.
“Looks like we won't have to hurry to much, Duncan's car isn't here.” Daniel said closing the barn door.
Tarla met them at the door. She squinted as she eyed the boys and shook her head. “Tarla was beginning to think you boys were not coming back. Looks like your pale hide is starting to glow with the fire of the sun. It's going to hurt you tonight. But I give you something to put on it.”
Daniel grinned at her. She was right, his back and rear end were already feeling tight.
“Thanks, I think you're right. Duncan's car is gone, is he going to be late for supper?”
“Master Duncan and the Mistress, they's go out to a fine fancy restaurant to celebrate Mistress Kelli quitting her job. So it just bees the three of us. So you boys get you a shower and remove that lake water smell from you.”
“Lake water?” Jimmy's eyes widened looking at Daniel wondering how she knew.
“Her nose, knows.” Daniel laughed. “You can't get nothing by her.”
“You wait and I'll get you something for the skin burn.”
Jimmy stood and watched her walk away. His amazement was showing on his face. “Does she know everything we do?”
“I hope not.” Daniel said, as the thought of the things that had been happening splattered across his mind.
“Are we going to meet Lynda tonight?”
Daniel nodded. “As long as Mom and Duncan's back before too late.”
Tarla came back with a clear bottle filled with a green lotion in her hand. “Here this will help the hurts and more. So now I want you to go and shower away that stink and rubs this in all the places you might be burnt.” Her eyebrows rose slightly. “And I do means all them places. It will keep your hide from leaving your body.”
Jimmy and Daniel grinned. Daniel took the bottle and stared at it. “What's in it?”
“Snakes skin, frogs legs and idle words from young boys who think they be men. Now you scoot and we will eat when you finish.” She gestured for them to run along with her long graceful fingers.
Daniel showered first and with a towel wrapped around him went to the chest of drawers pulling out some clean clothes. He laid his clothes on the bed and pulled off his towel just as he heard Jimmy turn on the shower. He started to dress but remembered the lotion Tarla gave him. He unscrewed the bottle and automatically stuck his nose close.
“Ugh!” His face scrunched up face. Probably is full of snakes and frogs, he thought, but if Tarla said it was good for sunburns then it probably was. He poured out a generous amount and began to rub it all over his body. He had finished all but his back when the shower finished. After a moment Jimmy came out of the bathroom still drying himself.
“Hey you're getting the floor wet.” Daniel complained.
Jimmy glanced down at the floor as he walked over to Daniel. “It'll dry. You're actually using that stuff.”
“Yeah, but it stinks.” He handed the bottle over to Jimmy to smell.
“P! U! ... Laski! That smells worse than Pulaski.” Jimmy coughed and held the bottle out. “I'm not putting any of that shit on me.”
Daniel shrugged. “Have it your way but would you rub some in the middle of my back I can't get it.” He reached over his shoulder and them up behind to demonstrate.
“Okay, but just don't bend over.” Jimmy plopped a big gob of the lotion in his hand and then slapped it on Daniel's back. “I just hope my hand don't rot off.” Jimmy sloshed the lotion around several times and then smacked Daniel on the bare ass. “Okay finished, I don't think you'll have to worry about Lynda kissing you tonight, or anything else. She probably won't even get near you.”
They finished dressing and went to eat. As they left by the small porch that connected Daniel's room with the rest of the house, Jimmy stopped. “What is this room?”
“Duncan's study.” Daniel kept walking.
“Nice fire place.”
“Yeah, if you like blue fireplaces.” Daniel glanced over his shoulder at the enamel painted surface of the brick.
“Wonder why they painted your side of the fireplace red and this side blue.” Jimmy mused, not expecting an answer.
Daniel didn't answer as he left the study and crossed the living room and started down the hall towards the kitchen. He kept wondering why it was blue. Red, he could understand, but blue.
“We're here.” Daniel said.
“Good.” Tarla gave them a bright enamel smile. “As Tarla gets older she gets used to eating at certain times. Habit makes her stomach moan when it thinks it's forgotten.”
They sat down and started to dig into the mashed potatoes, fried chicken and peas. They hadn't realized how hungry swimming made them. After several minutes of dishes rattling, spoons clanking, and their mouths stuffed with food they settled down to a slower pace.
“I smell that you boys use Tarla's lotion.” Tarla finally said.
Daniel nodded. “It stinks, I just hope it works.”
“Oh, it'll work all right.” She eyed Jimmy for a moment. “I don't think you used it?”
“Sure I did, smell.” Jimmy stuck his hand out for her to smell.
“I hope so for your sake.” She muttered quietly still eyeing him suspiciously.
“By the way, Tarla,” Daniel began as he separated a biscuit and knifed a pat of margarine between its flaky surfaces, “you were telling me the other morning about two families that lived around here. Something about them but then Mom came in and you never finished. I was just wondering what you were going to say?”
He tried to sound casual but he could feel her eyes on him.
“Yes, Tarla remember. She be telling you about their families. They old families, live many years in these mountains and have little to do with people, 'cepting when they needs something.”
“So they're hermits. That's no big deal.” Jimmy said.
“Yes but they be more than just hermits. They practice strange ways, ways others don't.”
“What kind of strange ways?” Daniel asked.
“Ways of magic.”
“Magic? There's no such thing as magic.” Daniel protested. “It's just slight of hand. It's only illusion.”
Tarla's right eyebrow twitched slightly upward. “All that exists is magic.”
“That's science.” Daniel argued and watched as Jimmy nodded in agreement.
“This word science is only another word for magic.” Tarla explained. “The sun that warms the flowers is magic. The air that we breathe is magic.”
“The sun's hydrogen and the air is oxygen, it's explainable.” Daniel interrupted.
“The electric that powers the room is magic.” She continued nonplussed by his arguments.
“You're saying magic and science are the same thing?” Daniel asked trying to understand what she meant.
“Daniel, you say magic is slight of hand. What do you mean?”
“You know, it happens, it's caused by something you don't see. It's an illusion.”
“Do you see what holds the people to this planet?” She asked.
“No. It's gravity.”
“But until you know what it is that holds the people down it's an illusion. It deceives. It's illusion. It's magic. When you learn it's gravity, you still cannot see it. Is it not still magic.”
“No. It's gravity.” Daniel continued to protest.
“What is gravity?” She raised both eyebrows.
“It's, uh, like a magnet, kind of, but it's different.” Daniel shrugged and threw his hands in an empty gesture. “I don't know but science can explain it.”
“Just because you know how the magician makes the baby rabbit come out of the hat does not mean it's still not magic.”
Daniel was feeling frustrated. He didn't know how to convince her of the difference between magic and science. As he thought about it he realized what she meant.
“I see.
” He said excitedly. “Magic is the thing that happens but science is the thing that explains why the thing happens. The woman disappeared, magic. The woman slipped through the hole in the floor, science. Right?”
“Tarla think you stubborn but you finally understand.”
“You said these families practice magic. They practice science?” Daniel looked confused.
“They practice the science magic of the universe. They know the magic of gravity. They use the magic of the magnets. They use the energies of the glamour.”
“Glamour? You mean like the movie stars.” Daniel asked.
“Or pretty girls in bathing suits?” Jimmy interjected with a grin.
“The glamour it is powerful. It is also hard to explain but Tarla will try. Glamour is like your movie star or your bathing beauty, they attract you. The world we live in attracts us. It is glamour. It is illusion. It is like a liquid that we swim in. We find it and jump in and then we be living in the world. We live in glamour.”
“But the world isn't always pretty there's a lot of pain and problems.” Daniel argued.
“The world attracts us. Glamour attracts, but it is not always pretty. These families they know how to use the glamours, they know the tricks like the magicians know how to hide the rabbit until he makes it appear. They use the glamours magic, it is powers, it's secret science as you say.”
“So they know how to use science that's no big deal. We use it every day with electricity and cars, and things.”
Tarla nodded. “Yes, we do but they use the science that holds the glamours together. They use the powers for good and bad. These families are different from each other. They are the White Lodge and the Black Lodge. The White Lodge does good but the Black Lodge does not.” Tarla giggled like a young girl for a moment. “The Black Lodge is not black like Tarla, no they be black at heart. They do their magic for themselves. They be selfish. They use these hidden sciences for their own selfishness. Not so with the White Lodge. They be good.”
Daniel paused looking at Tarla for a moment wondering. “So they are good families and bad, so are a lot of people. Now a day it's no big deal.”
“Maybe.” Tarla just shook her head. “But they be very powerful. They do much good and much bad.”
“You say black and white, you don't mean color. I mean that's their hearts, good and bad. Uh, is that also relating to colors, like red and blue for instance?”
“Colors yes. White and black so far apart, just like your red and blue.”
“Like the red and blue fireplace?” Jimmy asked, not wanting to feel like a total idiot being left out of the conversation.
“The fireplace.” Tarla grinned broadly. “Yes, it is like that. Red in the young master's room and blue in Master Duncan's study. Like fire and ice. Red hot or icy blue. From boy to man. Is it not?”
“You mean it's like that for a reason?” Daniel gulped and a large spoonful of potatoes mixed with peas clotted slowly down his throat causing enough pain to make his eyes water.
Tarla watched as Daniel blinked away the tears and waited until he appeared to be okay.
“Everything has a reason. It's just sometimes we don't understands the reason.” She stood up and took her plates to the sink. “I've got to clean up now so you boys finish. Master Daniel still has his chores to do.”
Daniel and Jimmy finished the rest of their meal silently. Daniel was lost in thought and Jimmy sat there bored waiting for Daniel to finish.
They finally finished and put their plates in the sink. As they were ready to leave Tarla called them back.
“I forgot to tell you. Master Duncan called and said him and the Mistress were going to celebrates tonight and they would be getting a motel room so not to expects them back until tomorrow evening.”
“Great!” Daniel exclaimed. “Does this mean we still have to go to bed at nine. I promise I'll still get up early and do my chores.”
“It's okay by Tarla. She's not your mama but if you boys be sneaking out tonight you best remember your promise to be inside by one.”
“Thanks.” Daniel said and he spun around so fast he bumped into Jimmy almost knocking them both down.