Read Online Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych by Joanna Ruocco - Free Book Online Page B

The doctor had smoked his first cigar with our father. The friendship did not end until they reached adulthood and quarreled over a woman. I never knew our father had been friends with a doctor. It must have been a wonderful friendship if the doctor remembered it so clearly. The doctor offered my brother a cigar. He did not offer me a cigar, although he admitted he had been very young when he first smoked a cigar with our father. Since becoming a doctor he could not offer a cigar to a child. He hoped I understood. My brother dropped his cigar on the floor where it was spoiled by the water he had poured from the tub. I had never seen my brother behave clumsily. He moved about the forge as though he did not know where he was. The doctor said he would take our father's body to his office. At his office, he would be able to reconstruct the last moments of our father's life using his new medical equipment. The doctor had traveled by ship to a conference where he received training on the equipment. The doctor was glad his first clinical trial would be with our father. The doctor said it felt right. My brother did not know how much to pay the doctor. He did not want to show his ignorance about something as important as doctor's fees. He gave the doctor a heavy bag of money, all the money our father had collected to deposit in the bank for the month. The doctor said our father would have been proud of my brother. Even though many years had passed since they played mumblety-peg on the wharves, the doctor still knew a thing or two about our father.
    Our father was always proud of my brother. My brother developed quickly. Customers often mistook my brother for our father. Customers who came to the forge greeted my brother by our father's name. Our father's name is also my brother's name. My brother responded politely to the customers. He said that he was not the blacksmith. He was the blacksmith's striker. When the customers saw our father, they realized their mistake. They asked if my brother and our father were brothers. They could not believe that my brother was scarcely more than a child.
    My brother did not expect to be blacksmith so soon. The first customers who came to the forge after our father died did not notice that our father was no longer the blacksmith. They saw my brother standing at the double doors of the forge. They were used to seeing two men at the double doors of the forge. They asked my brother what had happened to his striker. My brother said he needed to hire a striker. The customers suggested that he hire his son. My brother did not seem proud that I had been mistaken for his son. He did not respond to the customers.

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    The forge is on the hill. It has the highest elevation of any business in the town. Our house is behind the forge. Our house is smaller than the forge. There are two windows in the front of the house. You cannot see the bay from the windows. The windows look onto the back of the forge. There are boards nailed on either side of each window. It is as though the windows have shutters. The boards are not shutters. They have no hinges. Our mother nailed the boards alongside the windows for decoration. She liked decoration. I like decoration too. The boards alongside the windows are my favorite thing about the house. Our mother added decoration to the house, but she did not add decoration to the forge. The forge has not changed in any way since the time of our father's father. My brother tells me he will expand and modernize the forge. My brother is a wonderful blacksmith. As soon as he has a striker, he will expand and modernize the forge. I am my brother's only relative. It is best that I work as his striker.
    My brother works all day and all night in the forge finishing the job our father could not finish. My brother's lips are dark. The skin beneath his eyes is dark. I sweep the floor and pump the bellows. I watch my brother work alone at the anvil. Sweat pours from my brother. He finishes our