Spring 81: help
Most beloved Zann,
Ran’s father and I finally talked. His name’s Jornay. He didn’t really understand, at the start, what I wanted. Or I suppose he didn’t understand that I didn’t want anything for myself. And then when he did understand he didn’t like it any better.
“So you’re some kind of do-gooder,” Jornay said.
I grimaced and twisted to avoid the word. “I don’t know. I just… I don’t want to not solve the problem. If Ran is throwing rocks at people, something’s not right. Well, maybe I could walk home a different way. That would be easy. Everything would be fine for me. But it wouldn’t mean everything’s all right. He’s just going to throw rocks at someone else. And maybe the someone else will get rough with him. Or worse. That’s no good either. So somebody has to fix it.”
“You think I can’t?”
“I hope you can. I’m not his father and he doesn’t like me. For all of that, I don’t like him. But maybe I can make it easier for you to fix it.”
“How? You going to give me money?”
“I might if I thought it would help.”
Jornay stared at me. “What did you think you were going to do, show up here every day and play longball with him?”
“Um. I don’t know. Maybe?”
“He wouldn’t. He’d, I don’t know, run off, or drop a brick on you, or something. Anyway the real problem is money. I had a good job in Cas Crid before the Nap. And my wife, Ran’s ma, was a wallpainter. But now Cas Crid isn’t there and I guess it took my wife with her, and I’m making do. If I could put fifteen silver cups together I could get Ran into the apprenticeship cooperative and that would… well, it wouldn’t fix everything, but it would fix the biggest thing.”
“Oh.” Fifteen silver cups? That was a lot of money, but we could probably do it…
“You don’t think I ever thought about this?”
“Uh…”
“The apprenticeship co-op is a lot better use of the kid’s time than longball or border-bridge or whatever the piss you had in mind.”
“Sure. Right.”
“Plus it wouldn’t leave him sitting around wondering what was next. If there even was a next.”
“Ay.” And then, “Fifteen silver cups? That’s a lot of money for apprenticeship…”
“Usually it’s eight. But you know Ran. He’s going to need… special attention. So the fellow there said, fifteen.”
I nodded slightly.
“So.” He stood up. “That’s the way it is, and I don’t care what street you use to walk home. Are we finished here?”
“Not quite,” I said, standing up and heading for the door. “I said I wanted to help and I meant it. I’ll be back with your fifteen silver cups. And it’s not charity. You can pay it back if you want to. I just won’t come around looking for it.”
Couple of hours later, when I handed it to him, he was surprised. I don’t think he should have been that surprised.
Love,
Ybel
