Chapter 13: Sandlot Rules
At midday, Roy walked back to the barn where he found a safe place to keep the book. He then made his way to the house to give back the basket. The family had returned and changed into older clothes, but they were not working. They were running around the field playing a game with a small leather ball about the size of a baseball that had a two-foot-long red ribbon attached to it. Roy watched, ascertaining that it was a game much like baseball, except with a little wrestling thrown in. It didn't take him long to quickly learned the basics of the game. The goal was to carry the ball to each four corners of the field in either a clockwise or counterclockwise order depending on which team you were on. You had to do so while the other team tried to tackle you to the ground and take the ball.
"Sandlot rules," Roy said to himself as it reminded him of some of the games he and his friends made up when he was a kid.
Rall looked over to see Roy watching. Wanting Roy to join in on the fun he ran off the field to Roy and grabbed his hand to drag him onto the field.
"Okay," Roy said with a chuckle, "I guess I'm on your team."
They all stood in the middle of the field, then shouted what he believed to be "One, Two, Three!" and then threw the ball into the air. It came down right in front of Roy who caught it without thinking and was quickly tackled into the mud. One of the boys grabbed the ball out of his hand and ran with it. The sting from his still healing ribs knocked the breath out of Roy for a moment, but he quickly recovered. Zohn, laughing, helped Roy to his feet and the two of them chased the older boys. The game went on with each side making some points, but no one was really keeping score. The field was soft with grass and mud; and by the end of the game, they all were covered from head to toe in mud and grass. Patting Roy on the back, Zohn indicated for Roy to follow. They went to the other end of the farm to a large four foot deep and 12 foot wide, water barrel that they had been using for drinking water. To Roy's surprise, they all jumped in and started washing off the mud, clothes and all. Roy thought it odd, but he didn't want to insult his host, so he jumped in too. They all stripped off their clothes, washed off as much of the mud as they could and then jumped out leaving their discarded clothes in the water. Roy was not an overly modest person, but he still found it a bit awkward to be standing out in the elements with a group of naked men. Fortunately, he didn't have to stand exposed too long, as Zohn threw some rocks into the water. In much the same manner that they cleaned their dishes the water bubbled and sparked, and after a minute Zohn scooped out the rocks with a large wooden spoon. The water settled and was as clear as a mountain stream, with no sign of any soil. They all fished out their clothes and hung them on a line. Then each of them shook as hard as they could to shake off the water like a pack of dogs. Roy concluded no one was going to be offering him a towel, so he followed suit. Once they were as dry as they were going to get they pulled some clean clothes off the line, and gave Roy some to wear too. The light started to dim as the shadows of the mountains and trees grew long in the late afternoon. A mouth-watering aroma of a large, hot feast filled the air and watered the mouth. Roy followed as everyone headed to the house where Mara had a supper waiting for them.
The dinner was the largest yet. On Sundays, the midday meal was the one large one because there was no evening meal. For them Sunday morning was for prayer and the rest of the day was for play and relaxation as a reward for a week of hard work. They spent the afternoon eating, drinking and relaxing. As they ate Roy listened to the conversations as he had been doing at all the meals for the past week, but for the first time, he was following the conversation instead of just picking up a few words here and there. Mara was telling a story about a woman in the village who was worried about her daughter because she was interested in a farm boy who wanted to move to another village to work on his uncle's farm. The woman didn't think her daughter was old enough to marry and move away. One of the older boys made some kind of joke that made the whole table laugh.
Without thinking, Roy spoke up and asked "So what is she going to tell her Daughter?" in their language. Everyone fell silent.
"What did you say?" Zohn asked.
"Did I say it wrong?" Roy asked, just as surprised as they were that he was able to do that.
"Can you understand us?" Mara asked. She had grown to like Roy but was still cautious about him because he was still such a mystery to them.
"Not everything," Roy answered. He struggled to find the next words. In a hesitating voice, he said, "But I am understanding... more. I hope my... Um... Accent is not too... a... difficult."
"It's not too heavy," Mara said. She smiled, not just because he was finally talking to them, but because he was doing so in a polite manner. A character trait that she was happy to see.
Zohn had some questions for Roy and was glad he could finally ask them. "So who are you?" he started.
"My name is Roy. I am a..." not able to find the correct words; he made a walking motion with his fingers on the table.
"Walker?" Mican asked, puzzled by the action.
"Traveler," Zohn suggested.
"Yes, a traveler...from... Terra Firma." Roy used an old term for Earth that sounded like it could be a name of a place on their planet rather than say he was from another world.
"Tara Firma? Never heard of that." Orie said.
"It's an..." at a loss for the word he tried to think of how to pantomime a lie. He couldn't say he was from another planet so he had to come up with a believable place that they would not know or doubt. Then he had an inspiration. He took a little grape like berry and dropped it in a bowl of gravy.
"An Island!" Orie said excitedly enjoying the game like atmosphere.
"Yes...an island. We have been... alone, no...Um ... what's the word..."
"Isolated?" Mara suggested.
"Yes, Isolated. For many years. I am the first to travel to... this land. Shortly after I... arrived... I was attacked by a... a large animal. I lost my..." he paused and shook his head as if trying to clear his head. All eyes were on him as he searched his mind. After a few moments, he found the right words, "my pack. A lady found me and... helped me. If I can... if I can find my pack I can use a... a tool to... to... signal my ship. Then I can go... go home."
"Where did you lose your pack?" Zohn asked.
"It was by a...by, what's the word... water, large water." Roy tried to remember the word for lake.
"Pond" Mara suggested.
"River?" Orie said.
"Lake" Mican said.
"Yes. Lake." Roy said "A Lake with tall, hill? No." He held up his hands over his head in a point to pantomime the word.
"Mountain," Zohn said.
"Yes. Mountains with ice, um snow on the tops."
"That could be any number of places," Zohn said. "What else can you remember?"
"The animal... it chased me to a... a drop... cliff. I fell off a tree into an, a hole? Um, a not ditch...canyon. Yes, a canyon with a river running through it."
"That might be Windrock Lake," Mican said. "But that's nearly four days by Kanis.
Zohn thought for a moment then said. "The harvest will be done in two days. We will be taking the surplus to the Bryerstone market the day after. We can definitely use your help to bring it all in. With this year's harvest, I can pay you a small sum, enough to get some supplies to continue your journey. While we are there, we can request to use the King's library, which has maps of the entire kingdom. Maybe they can help you find where you were.
"Sounds good," Roy said. They spent the rest of the afternoon asking Roy questions about the island that he came from. Not wanting to reveal that he was a man from outer space he made up some stories about a made-up island of simple people who lived their lives much as they did. It was like an endless game of charades as he acted out the words that didn't come to him right away. He purposely tried to make it sound as dull as possible in the hope that they would get bored and stop asking questions. Yet they seemed fascinated by it all and kept asking question after question until the suns had set and Mara insisted it was time for everyone to get some sleep. Roy went back to the barn with a candle that Mara gave him. Once alone in the barn, he lit the candle and sat quietly replaying the events of the day in his mind. How was it that when he woke up that morning he only knew a few phrases of their language and then suddenly he was having long, detailed conversations with them? It didn't make sense. As he looked around the barn, he realized that he knew the names of everything in the barn. But more than that he knew things about them, like what each tool was used for and how they were used. Something had definitely happened to him. Somehow knowledge of the world he was on was being imparted to him. He had no idea of how it was happening, but he had a feeling it must have something to do with the woman Katreena, who had saved him and who kept showing up in his dreams. But if she was trying to help him in some way why was she so upset when he saw her in his last dream of her. None of it made any sense, and he was too tired to worry more about it. He got his haystack ready to sleep on, but before calling it a night, he pulled out the storybook. Looking it over Roy realized that he could now read every word. Despite being extremely tired he was also very curious. He ended up reading most of the book, only stopping when the candle burned out.