Thursbitch by Garner Alan

Author:Garner, Alan [Garner, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2004-09-01T23:00:00+00:00

17

WITH THE FIRST nine stars, the people led their cattle towards Jenkin from the farms around. Across the lane, wood and bones were stacked together, and cut turves piled apart. The cattle were penned with hurdles as they arrived, and the people gathered in silence before Jenkin.

Martha Barber gave a bundle of cloth to Jack. He unrolled the bundle and held the two sticks that were in it. One was flat, with a charred hollow at its centre; the other was rounded and the charring was at one pointed end.

Jack laid the flat stick on the ground and knelt on one knee, holding the stick firm with the other foot. He took the rounded stick, placed the sharp end in the hollow, and began to roll it between his palms, backwards and forwards, fast, not stopping. The people watched. The only sounds were the restless shifting of the cattle and the whirling of the wood. Though small, it made a noise that echoed from Jenkin’s face: a rhythm of the air itself breathing, roaring.

Jack did not falter, but watched. He nodded, and Martha Barber crumbled dried heather into the hole. Soon a smoke rose, and she trickled more of the heather dust. The smoke became white, and at the last pale of the day a glow appeared in the wood. Martha lifted grass in her hand and held it close. A brief flame ran; but before it died she bent over with heather sprigs and caught the flame. Mary Turner brought more; and between them they passed the flame from thicker to thicker sprigs, until Martha Barber held a torch. She gave the torch to Jack, and he lit the heather inside the stack of wood and bone, so that the fire took and the stack became a blaze.

The fire shone from the whiteness of Jenkin, and the curled stones in the rock gleamed.

Then the people sang, and the young men and bigger boys jumped through the flames, and, laughing, chased the girls and dragged them to leap hand in hand with them back over the bones.

When they had caught all that they could, they opened up the fire and drove the cattle through. The light was in the bellowing and the eyes, and the panicked beasts scattered to the pastures.

The people gathered the embers, and each family lifted a turf from the stack and carried the turf to the fire. Then, still singing, they walked back to their hearths, spreading out from Jenkin under the stars, holding stars in their hands, kindling summer.

Martha Barber wrapped the two sticks into their bundle and went her way.

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