The Wanderer - Floating Rice Husks - Chapter 2

 The Wanderer

(Book 11 of the Guardian of the Spirit Series)

Author: Uehashi Nahoko

Translator: Ainikki the Archivist

 

Floating Rice Husks - Chapter 2

 Tanda's father and uncle were up before sunrise. They went outside the rice paddies that came right up to Tanda's back door and prepared their tools and supplies for a day of work. The family ate a quick breakfast of mixed grains. Tanda's father frowned all the while. He went out to the well to wash his face before breakfast was over, then came back.

 "You kids go and get the smoke sticks ready," Tanda's father snapped when he returned. Smoke sticks were covered in a substance called zeko that was like sticky oil, then wrapped in many layers of bark. Smoke sticks burned and created a lot of smoke for a short time. They could be used to startle birds and insects out of the fields.

 Tanda flinched. Even his brothers looked troubled.

 "What's the matter?" Noshir asked. "Are there blackbugs in the fields?" Smoke sticks could be used to kill blackbugs, a pestilent insect that especially liked eating rice. Blackbugs were only about as big as a baby's fingernail, but when they appeared in large numbers they could devour an entire year's harvest.

 Tanda's father nodded. "They're swarming, though I didn't see a single one yesterday. Your uncle's gone to the neighbors to see how things are doing there."

 If Tanda's family didn't eliminate the blackbugs quickly, they'd lose the rest of their harvest. The insects would spread to their neighbors' fields if they weren't contained.

 "Tanda, run to the bell tower as fast as you can and tell them to sound the alarm," his father said. "If blackbugs are a problem elsewhere, someone else might be headed there already, but if they aren't, then it's our responsibility to warn everyone."

 Tanda nodded in understanding, then rushed off to the bell tower. His parents, clearing away the little that remained of breakfast, called out the code for him to give the bell-ringer.

 "Zen, mon, jin." Tanda repeated the code to himself as he ran. It meant that the bell-ringer should ring the bell three times fast, one time slow, and two times in quick succession. That code meant there was a blackbug infestation, since three meant "danger," one meant "insects," and two meant "hurry."

 Kanchi, who lived near the Yamahata fields, gave Tanda a cheerful wave as he ran past. "Is it blackbugs, youngun?"

 "Yeah!" Tanda shouted. He was getting close to the bell tower now, but the ringer wasn't there. Tanda couldn't possibly climb all the way up there and ring the bell. He wasn't strong enough yet.

 "Let me do it," Kanchi called out, running over to Tanda. He climbed all the way to the top of the tower and rang the bell: three times, once, twice.

 Tanda put his back to the bell tower and started running home. His older brothers were probably getting the smoke sticks ready. The smoke sticks were very effective at killing blackbugs, but the smoke was so toxic that some people would almost certainly fall ill, too. The smoke burned the eyes and lungs.

 When he was back at his house, Tanda bent over and wheezed, catching his breath. A large tree with white bark grew in the rice field above the ones that Tanda's family worked on. "Ah! The naya tree…"

 If you take a handful of that bark off a tree and boil it in water, it makes good medicine. Torogai had told him that once. She'd said that it was good for soothing pain.

 Tanda suddenly wanted to try making medicine from the tree bark. I wonder if it's true… He climbed up the steep slope of the terraced rice field and approached the tree. He removed his own knife from his belt and cut off a piece of bark about as big around as his palm, very carefully, so that he wouldn't harm the tree.

 The naya tree is very sacred and important. You must only take off a little tiny bit at a time, and you must never cut too deep.

 Removing a bit of the top layer of bark caused a bit of tree sap to leak. It smelled sweet and fragrant. Tanda looked at the sap in alarm, as if it were blood. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Mr. Tree. I'm sorry." He frowned, feeling that in harming the tree he had also harmed himself.

 Tanda cupped the bark of the naya tree in his hands carefully and ran back home. His father and brothers were already gone. There was no one near the well when Tanda drew up water in a bucket.

 When Tanda went inside with the bark and water, Cheena was helping his mother pack rice cakes into bamboo leaf wrappings.

 "Mom, can I borrow a pot?" Tanda asked.

 Tanda's mother looked at him with a curious expression. "What do you need a pot for?"

 Tanda showed his mother the naya bark and explained what he wanted to do with it.

 His mother nodded cautiously. "If it's something Torogai taught you, you can try it. The zeko smoke is always so awful..."

 Tanda grabbed a pot and poured the water he'd drawn into it, then added the naya bark. He was a little excited to be making medicine. Now all he had to do was boil it.

 "I'll go to the fields to help dad and the others now," Tanda said.

 "Can I come, too?" Cheena asked. "I want to kill all the blackbugs!"

 Tanda wasn't sure what he should do. It was true that his family needed all the help they could get to exterminate the blackbugs, but Cheena was still very young, and the smoke had made Tanda sick before.

 "Don't bother your brother," Tanda's mother cut in. "You can help by bringing breakfast to all the workers."

 Cheena's lower lip trembled. She was about to cry.

 Tanda gave her a firm nod, then faced his mother. "Mom, Cheena can come with me. She can help wrap the smoke sticks in bark. If it gets to be too much for either of us, I'll come right home. Okay?"

 Tanda's mother sighed, but then she smiled. "All right, all right. You can go. Just be careful not to inhale any of that foul smoke. And take the food that we've prepared already with you." 

 The rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves were still warm. Tanda put the rice balls in a basket, then reached for Cheena's hand. She took it, and they went out to their family's rice fields together.

 Tanda felt like skipping. He was excited and as light as air. He knew the village would be in bad trouble if the blackbugs ate all the rice, but that problem seemed distant in his mind.

 Some men were already smoking the blackbugs out. Tanda caught sight of his father and waved. "Dad! We brought breakfast!"

 "Put it down along the path between the rice paddies," his father called out, wiping sweat from his forehead. "We'll eat when we take a break."

 Tanda's brothers were sitting along the edge of the path. Tanda put the basket of rice balls down. His brothers were poking at hot coals to keep them glowing and wrapping zeko-covered sticks in bark. The oily zeko was stuck to a layer of bark first, then wrapped around a stick, which was further wrapped in bark so that it would burn longer.

 Tanda showed Cheena how to wrap the sticks. "See? You hold this here, then twist it like this."

 Cheena watched him carefully and nodded. Her first attempts were clumsy, but she was soon wrapping sticks at a rate comparable to Tanda's.

 "Stay by me when we start passing the sticks out," Tanda said. "And don't breathe in any of the smoke. It'll hurt your eyes and your throat really, really bad. You'll need to wrap a clean rag around your nose and mouth before the sticks are lit."

 Cheena nodded. "Okay!"

 Tanda let Cheena keep wrapping the sticks, then went out to the fields. He wanted to check that they were draining properly into the irrigation ditches. It wasn't very important for the harvest, but if the fields weren't draining properly when new seedlings sprouted, the men working in the fields could sink down in mud up to their knees.

 The rice stalks drooped as he passed them by. All of them were covered in blackbugs. Tanda and his family had worked so hard to grow this rice and had taken such good care of it...for all of it to disappear into the stomachs of these pests felt profoundly unfair to him. He hated the blackbugs for ruining everything.

 Then Tanda started nearing the smoke, and the blackbugs on the rice plants lessened. They lost their grip on the plants and fell off, rolling onto the ground before lying still.

 Tanda accepted a lit smoke stick from his father, then started dashing around saving rice plants. He was so consumed in his task that he forgot to eat. The sun was high in the sky before he realized how badly his throat and eyes hurt.

 "Hey! Tanda, stop! You haven't eaten yet!"

 The voice of Tanda's father snapped him out of what he was doing. He took a deep breath, then coughed from the thick smoke.

 Cheena had followed after Tanda and helped him as quietly as a shadow, but the moment she heard their father's voice, she broke down and burst into tears.

 "Don't cry," their father said. "Do your eyes hurt?" He patted Cheena on the head.

 Cheena bit her lower lip and stopped crying. She shook her head. "I'm okay," she said quietly.

 Tanda's uncle and brothers had come along with his father to get them. Their father passed a jar of water to Cheena.

 "You did well being out in the smoke for so long, Cheena," their uncle said, patting her affectionately on the head.

 Cheena glowed with the praise.

 By some trick or miracle, their uncle's eyes and throat didn't seem to be affected by the smoke at all. Tanda's older brothers rubbed their eyes vigorously and gulped down water.

 Tanda's eyes and throat hurt so bad that he wanted to cry, but he didn't. He drank his share of water, then stuffed his cheeks full of rice balls.

 Everyone sat down at the edge of the rice field to eat. Tanda gazed out at the fields. Countless blackbugs had fallen into the mud and were now still. He had delighted in killing them, but seeing them now with their little legs to the sky made him feel a twinge of regretful sadness.

 Two years ago, there had been another blackbug infestation as bad as this one. Tanda remembered asking Torogai, "Is there any way to kill all the blackbugs and make it so that they never, ever come back?"

 Torogai had laughed. "Even if there was a way, no magic weaver would ever do it."

 "Huh? Why?" Tanda had asked.

 "Because many birds eat blackbugs, and exterminating them would cause those birds to starve," Torogai had said.

 "But the birds can eat other bugs…and isn't the rice more important than the birds, anyway?"

 Torogai's eyebrows had shot up in surprise. She'd smiled a somewhat unsettling smile. "It's your people's job to grow and watch over the rice plants. Magic weavers are always hard at work watching over and protecting something else."

 But no matter how often Tanda had asked, Torogai wasn't able to explain exactly what it was that she was protecting.

 As Tanda thought about these things, his father stood up, brushing crumbs and grains of cooked rice from his lap. "It's time to get back to work."

 Tanda and his family worked on exterminating the blackbugs until dusk. By the time they all went home, they were all deeply sunburned and urgently thirsty.

 Tanda went out to get a drink and wash his face by the well. He washed his hands thoroughly like his mother had told him to. Then he went inside and retrieved the pot he'd placed his naya bark in earlier in the day.

 He set his finger tentatively in the naya-infused water and was astonished when the sunburn on that finger went away.

 He flexed his finger. It didn't hurt.

 Tanda pulled out a clean rag and dipped it in the medicine water. He wrung the rag out, then dabbed it around his eyes.

 "Ow ow ow ow..."

 The medicine stung, but after a few seconds, the pain in his eyes began to ease.

 Grandma Torogai was right. It really does work!

 Tanda went over to Cheena first and used the rag to apply the medicine water all around her eyes. At first, Cheena flinched and tried to push him away, but then she realized that her eyes really did feel better.

 "What is that stuff?" Cheena asked.

 Tanda's older brother heard them talking and came over to him and Cheena. When Tanda explained what the medicine water was, he said, "Fix my eyes, too."

 Tanda handed the rag over to him. He dipped it in the water, wrung it out, and dabbed the naya bark medicine all over his own eyes.

 In short order, Noshir, Tanda's father and his uncle all lined up to make use of Tanda's medicine water. Tanda's father gave him some unexpected words of praise.

 "Huh...this stuff really works."

 Tanda had rarely been so happy in his life.

 Tanda's father looked at him with a solemn expression. "Bring this medicine to the neighbors, too," he said gruffly. "You know how much smoke Nī inhaled today, and he doesn't take it well."

 Tanda nodded in understanding. "I'll take it over there right now!"

 Tanda picked up the bowl of medicine and was about to leave when his older brother called him back.

 "Wait a minute!" Noshir called after Tanda. "I'll take it instead. You're so clumsy that you might drop it before we get to the neighbors' house. You should get more naya bark and make more of this stuff."

 Tanda hesitated. Noshir gave him a bitter kind of smile.

 "Don't worry, I'll go with you and give you credit. It's quite an achievement. People should know that you did it."

 Tanda blushed faintly pink, but he nodded.

 Noshir left the house with the medicine water. Tanda went to the kitchen to get another pot so that he could make more medicine. His mother handed him one of their pots and said, "Use this one. It's old and I don't use it for much anymore."

 Noshir laughed at their mother. "Do you really care what the pot looks like so much, mom?"

 Tanda was barely paying attention to him. He was in an unusually good mood. He picked up the old pot and said, "I'll go get more naya bark, so wait for me!"

 Noshir nodded absently. The oldest son of the neighbors' family, Nī, was his same age and a close friend. Tanda could easily imagine that he wanted to rush over there as soon as possible, so he harvested more naya bark—more carefully this time—and ran back. Then he and Noshir went to visit Nī's family together.

 Noshir called out a greeting outside Nī's house. A middle-aged man called out a friendly greeting. When Tanda and Noshir entered, the family were all seated on the earth floor, deep in conversation.

 "Isn't it odd, though? We didn't see a single blackbug for the whole season until yesterday, and now they're swarming? What happened? Were we cursed or something? The Kawahatas seem to think so..."

 Noshir's friend Nī, the oldest son of the family, spat at the mention of the Kawahatas.

 Tanda's shoulders stiffened when he heard the word "curse." Was his uncle's restless spirit being blamed for the blackbugs, since he'd died right before they'd appeared?

 Tanda was about to say something, but Noshir made a cutting gesture with his hand.

 Nī looked up at Tanda and smiled in recognition. "Oh! Tanda, Noshir. When did you get here?"

 Tanda and Noshir showed Nī and his family how to use the naya bark medicine.

 "Wow! That medicine really works!"

 The family's eyes were still red even after being treated, but they said that they felt a whole lot better.

 Nī shook his head a little. "The zeko smoke affects me really bad. My eyes are always red for at least a day afterwards. At least it doesn't hurt as bad anymore." He wasn't as tall as Noshir, but his shoulders were broader. He looked like a full-grown adult to Tanda.

 Tanda took back the medicine bowl, then asked Nī what his family had been talking about when they'd walked in.

 "Oh, that stuff about blackbugs and a curse? Yeah, some people are saying that. You know that magic weaver lady who lives in the mountains pretty well, right? Was she the one who taught you how to make this medicine? You should go talk to her. She might know more about the curse, and how to break it."

 "Don't encourage him," Noshir said darkly. "He'll take any excuse to get out of working in the fields."

  Nī's father came over to his son and sat down, sipping tea. He rested a hand on his son's shoulder and said, "Noshir's right. You shouldn't speak too lightly about going to see that magic weaver."

 Noshir stood up and waited for Tanda to do the same. "That's all we came by for," he said. Noshir said goodbye to Nī. The family thanked them profusely for bringing over the medicine.

 When Tanda and Noshir went outside, it was already sunset. The sky was a thick sheet of clouds lit red-purple by the sun.

 "Noshir," Tanda said as they walked. "I want to take some medicine to our grandma in Tōhata."

 Their mother's mother was a full Yakoo and lived on the other side of the river. If Tanda started running now, he should be able to make it to her house before it was dark.

 "Right now?" Noshir said with a little frown. "It's dinnertime."

 "I'll go alone," Tanda said. "I'm sure grandma will feed me. I'll stay there tonight."

 Noshir shrugged. He could easily understand why Tanda wanted to bring their grandmother the medicine. "I always say you'll do anything to get out of working in the fields...but anyway, bringing some to grandma is a good idea. Go ahead, but be careful crossing the river. The bridge needs repair, and it was never in very good shape to begin with."

 Tanda nodded, clutched the medicine water closely to him so that he wouldn't spill, then started running.

 The shadows of birds crossing the sunset sky looked to Tanda like streaks of black in a woven tapestry. The birds called out to one another as they returned to their nests in the forest for the night.

 Tanda wanted to visit his grandmother, but she wasn't the only person he wanted to visit. He couldn't go into the mountains to see Torogai without a lantern, so he decided to give his grandmother the medicine water and ask her about his uncle Onza. He'd been born in the village of Tōhata. Tanda wanted to know if his grandmother thought uncle Onza's spirit had cursed them or not.

 

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