James The Wonderer: Chapter Three

Read Chapter One: a bishop and a jump here:

The older boy stepped forward uncertainly and moved closer to his young companion. “My name is Samuel, and this is James. We’re sorry to have startled you, but we needed a place to sleep for a few hours and this seemed safe”. He spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable with care.

The boy in the doorway frowned, then replied a lot quicker than either of them expected. “You do not need to speak slowly. I am not dumb”.

James butted in, fully awake now. “He didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just with your accent and all…”

“My accent?!” the boy replied. “What about your own? You both sound like foreigners to me, you speak your words thick and long”.

The three of them stood there staring at each other, before Samuel broke the silence.

“…What language do you think we are speaking to you, friend?

His voice was calm, though James could see the tendons in his leg grow tight. Calling him friend was a good move.

The farm boy looked at them as if they were the dumb ones. “Greek. We speak Greek here in Ephesus. Where are you from that you don’t know this? How could you ask me that question without speaking Greek?”

Greek. Ephesus. The pieces fell into place with a thud.

“And you understand our…Greek?” James cut in, with a quick glance at Samuel.

“It is not good. A six-year-old boy would make more sense than you both” the farmhand replied with a shrug. “Your accent makes it hard to understand, but yes, of course. We are talking, are we not?” and he raised his hands as if to say ‘what else could we be speaking?’

“Of course we are” Samuel agreed with a broad smile. “You are right, our Greek is a little rusty- we don’t speak it so much where we are from”.

James just stood there trying to take it in. What in the heck was going on? How could they both understand each other? He didn’t speak Greek! And the other two boys seemed to be speaking English, though the stranger had an accent.

"Well wherever you two are from, they need to learn to speak properly” the farm boy said. He glanced the two of them over then jerked his head in the direction of the field. “Where do you go now?”

When they didn’t immediately answer he followed up quickly. “Would you repay your night’s stay with an hour of work?”

The boys looked at each other in question, and sensing their uncertainty he added, “I can provide breakfast for you both if you help. With your hands we can finish the work in a third of the time”.

James’s stomach rumbled in answer, and the three boys laughed. Feeling the tension slide, he answered for the two of them. “That sounds fair. Work for food, right Samuel?”

Samuel nodded in agreement. “Breakfast would be a great start to the day, even if it's still dark outside” he said, gesturing to the pink-grey light seeping through the doorway.

“You think this is early?” said the boy. “I have been awake for an hour by now” he smiled.

James and Samuel both stared. “An hour? But it’s like…six in the morning” James sputtered.

“Those who lie in bed past time, risk losing the day when the sun puts forth its shine” the boy replied with a serious expression on his face, turning towards the door.

“Great, we have a Greek poet on our hands. The irony” Samuel muttered under his breath so that only James could hear.

James stifled a grin, and they followed the Greek boy out of the barn. The sun was still waking up, but colours were ever so slowly creeping into the sky, the black fading to grey and then pink even as they walked. The boys headed for the small hut nestled against the main house, which James guessed was where their new friend slept.

“I am Tobias” he called over his shoulder, moving with quiet but confident strides. Bending under the doorframe they entered a living space that could only be described as modest. A bare earthen floor covered the inside of the house, with just enough room for Tobias to walk across in four steps and move a thin square of grey cloth covering an open window- a hole in the wall with no glass, James noticed. A little wooden table gave the bare room a lovely touch, adorned only by a solitary yellow candle and a wooden bowl. To the side nearest James hung a larger curtain taller than he, which separated Tobias’s sleeping quarters from the open living space. James peeked through and spied a few blankets strewn across the ground, which instantly made him feel grateful for last night’s hay.

Tobias bent over the table and pulled a solid loaf of bread from a cupboard-like space in the wall. He tore a generous chunk off for each of them and laid it on the table, then placed a bowl of some dark liquid beside it. A bit more rustling around below the table and he popped back up with a large handful of what looked like red olives, along with what looked like small oval-shaped yams.

Motioning for them to begin, Tobias ripped part of his bread and dunked it into the liquid in the bowl, before beginning to eat. His other hand reached for a few olives and they were quickly devoured.

James stood there staring. He wasn’t sure what kind of breakfast he had been expecting an ancient Greek farm boy to eat, but this was something very different to Cocoa Pops and milk.

Not wanting to seem rude, Samuel followed the farm boy’s actions while James scanned his face for a reaction. What was the liquid- olive oil? Vinegar?

“It’s wine,” Samuel remarked with surprise.

“Of course” Tobias replied, looking up from his third portion. “Barley bread dipped in wine, olives and figs also. You will find this in any household in Greece. You must live very far away to not recognize this meal” he said, studying them in puzzlement.

James reached for his bread before Tobias could ask any questions, and gingerly dipped it into the wine. He had never tasted wine before, except at church. Mum and Dad liked to have a glass with meals sometimes, and Dad would say that “it helps with digestion”.

The bread was chewy and hard, but the tangy wine softened it. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t amazing either. He reached for a handful of olives and a fig to wash the taste away, and they stood there chewing in silence.

Knowing he needed to eat, James managed to get a few more mouthfuls down, his teeth working overtime to break down the bread. At least the figs were soft and sweet. With everyone eating his eyes started to wander around the room, searching for anything he hadn’t noticed already in the space. He was struck by its simplicity and sparseness; there was more not to look at, if that made any sense. Nonetheless, he saw that it wasn’t completely empty.

Clay pots stacked in one corner, their reddish-grey blending with the dirt floor. A clean white tunic hanging from a wooden peg next to the doorframe. And up on the doorframe like a miniature sentry, a small figurine of what looked like a lady warrior- bow stretched, head back and eyes proud, long curled hair draped behind her shoulders, arms and legs taut and poised to act. She reminded James of a huntress- proud and strong.

"Did you make that Tobias?” he asked, spitting the last crumbs out the side of his mouth. Hunger had come quicker than he had thought, and had overtaken his initial uneasiness about the wine. He absent-mindedly wondered if he would get drunk now, and pictured a grumpy Samuel trying to help him stand as they worked.

“I did. It is hand-carved, and brushed in gold and black dye” Tobias answered proudly, his gaze set on the tiny statue.

“That’s real skill Tobias,” Samuel remarked while dunking the last of his bread into the dregs of wine with as much gusto as their host. Samuel had probably tasted wine before, James realized. “Is she based on a real person? Or from your imagination?”.

Tobias tilted his head, as if unable to make sense of the question. “She is Artemis. Goddess of the hunt”.

“Ohhhhhh” the boys let out a collective sigh of understanding. Greek. Well that should have been obvious.

“I made her to bless our home and land, and of course our hunts,” Tobias explained.

“Just like how Diana protects…” James began, stopping abruptly when Samuel cleared his throat.

“Diana?” Tobias’s eyebrows raised.

Of course. Romans. Not good.

“…Yeah, Diana is from where we live. Same kind of idea” James finished lamely.

Tobias cleared the bowl and jug away and started to rinse them in a large clay bowl filled with what James hoped was clean water. “And where exactly is it that you two are you from?” he asked without looking.

Samuel spoke first while James racked his brain for a plausible explanation, looking out the doorway for ideas.

“Quite far from here. Much further south. We’re trying to find our way into the city to visit a long-lost cousin of ours” Samuel explained, pointing in the direction of the white buildings they had seen last night. He spoke with such clarity that James almost believed it. Samuel was good at lying, and James made a mental note to let him speak first if they were ever in trouble.

“And the name of your town?” Tobias had stood up, and James became aware of just how strong he might be- there wasn’t a spare ounce of fat on him. A sure-fire promotion for breakfasts of barley bread dunked in wine if ever there was one.

“That, would be…” and Samuel paused, clicking his fingers as if it had just slipped from his mind.

“…outside!” James said with a bit too much enthusiasm. “Come on- we have work to do to repay our breakfast Samuel, and there’s no sense standing about all day. Right Tobias?” he glanced at the other boy.

Tobias seemed startled by James’s enthusiasm to get going, but nodded in agreement.

“You are right, of course. I think this will not take too long between the three of us” he explained, bending his frame under the wooden lintel and stepping outside, waving his arm to the two boys.

“Good distraction” Samuel muttered as they walked across the same field they had snuck through last night.

“Thanks. Someone’s gotta do the thinking around here” James replied, grinning when Samuel stared at him.

Tobias stopped at another field not too far from the barn, and kneeling in the dirt he scraped the earth with one hand, the rich soil trickling through his fingers.

“You see, it rained the day before yesterday,” he said, glancing up at the morning sky, still dark in places but lightening with every minute. “The earth is soft and dry now, so she must be tilled. We cannot plan crops unless this is done” he explained, looking at both of the boys as if to assure them of the importance of their task.

“Corn?” Samuel guessed, reaching for the pole Tobias was handing him- long and wooden, with a metal edge attached to the top.

Tobias shook his head, handing the other to James. “Barley. Our farm depends on the selling of this grain to survive. I can normally do this work on my own, but it will take me most of the day”.

“Tobias…you don’t have one of these” James pointed out, jabbing his till into the firm earth with confidence, and nearly taking out one of his big toes in the process.

Tobias shrugged. “I do not need one if you are helping me. I can use the plough”. He disappeared into the barn and came out with the monstrous iron across his back.

“Yeah, lifting that thing every day would make you pretty strong” Samuel remarked drily, as they watched him heave the plough over his shoulder and hitch it to one of the cows that had ambled over from underneath the trees and through the now-open gate of the next field.

Once the simple leather harness was attached, Tobias set the plough into the ground at one end, and the metal sank under the soil. He pointed at the other half of the field, dragging his finger along an imaginary line to the other end.

“We will take this part, and you two cover the other. Try to dig low enough to turn the soil over with the blade, and wide enough for crops to grow. Fifteen rows should do it. Oh, and bend your knees as you move, not your back” he smiled. “We have an hour or so before the sun starts to warm, so it is best we begin now”, and he gave the cow a gentle slap on her brown flank to get her moving.

The two boys stared at each other, then made for their part of the field.

The next hour passed by without incident. That is, unless you counted James slipping repeatedly in his sneakers, Samuel being unable to count to fifteen, and the boys arguing over how deep they needed to dig.

Eventually their toil was over, and they lent heavily on their tills as Tobias came around to them, leading the trundling cow. In contrast to their dripping sweat and aching backs, he didn’t appear to have exerted himself at all, despite following along behind the cow to furrow in where the rows weren’t clean or straight.

“A good piece of work” Tobias said with a glance across the now-lined paddock. “I have an entire part of the day saved thanks to you two”, and he gave a slight bow of his head in thanks.

“What will you do with the rest of the day?” James asked, handing back the two tills gladly. “Does this mean you get the afternoon off?”

The Greek boy laughed then, but not unkindly. “To rest? Not quite James. Cleaning out the sty, re-filling the troughs, moving the animals, collecting eggs, shearing the furthest fields of corn and barley, adding feed across the paddocks, pruning and clearing the vines…” Tobias answered with a wry grin, sweeping back his long hair from his forehead. “A farmhand’s work is never done. But maybe I can use this extra time when the sun has gone to sleep, to carve or rest before bed”.

“That’s a busy day,” James said in awe. When did he find time to relax?

Tobias stretched his arms over his head and replied, “It is busy yes, but my hands are moving and my mind is at ease. I have done these tasks for many years now, so I can work without thinking about what I am doing, and that leaves me space to be somewhere else…in here” and he tapped the side of his head.

“…Where do you go?” Samuel asked, and he seemed to be genuinely interested in the answer, his tone curious and his eyes watching closely.

“To the sea” Tobias replied, pointing to the horizon over the little town, where the glistening blue ocean could just be glimpsed. It waited patiently for the morning’s ships to set sail, a blue blanket of calm for now. “One day, I would like to leave this farm and join the crew of a fishing vessel. We would work the nets all day, and at night I’d live on deck to see the stars, and learn to navigate by them”. He spoke with an earnestness the boys had not seen so far in his conversations with them, and the air seemed to pulse with the force of his words.

The three of them stood for a while, gazing at the sea in silence until Tobias broke it with a gentle laugh.

“Come, we both have more to do before the sun moves higher. I cannot become a fisherman and sailor until I have worked here a while longer, and I cannot work if I stand looking at the thing I want” he said. “You two also have a cousin to find, do you not?”

“Wha-yes, yes we do. Don’t we Samuel?” James caught the lie before it fluttered out of reach. “It’s time for us to move on”.

Tobias stepped forward to shake their hands, and his grip was strong and secure. James had no doubt that he would work hard to get off the farm and onto one of those ships.

“Goodbye Tobias, and thank you for helping us,” Samuel said warmly.

“We’ll keep your breakfast in mind for when we make it back home” James added with a grin.

Tobias laughed again, and they walked across the newly-ploughed field to the wall they had clambered over the night before.

“You never did tell me where you two come from” Tobias said slowly with a half-smile, “and looking at your clothes I know that it is not anywhere close to here. You are looking for something, and I do not think it is a cousin. But whatever it is, I hope you find it”.

Copyright 2024 © Joe O’Connor

Author’s Note: this is a novel I’ve been slowly writing since 2019. Most of it is still in my head, lots of it has been written, and some of it I’m going to publish here, chapter by chapter. If you have got this far and read through, feel free to let me know what you thought- I’m after honest, constructive feedback as it’s very much a work in progress, so no need to sugarcoat it😊