CHAPTER 6: GOLDEN DEW

Tasted and yet not seen. 

Gen was on his usual route home from school, but it felt like school hadn’t yet left him.

The footsteps next to his weren’t that of Tymas’ - unceremonious and cocky, they were dainty and light. In her hands was a basket of herbs and a homemade brew of some sort.

“Gen, can I count on you to help Tymas catch up on the lessons he missed?”

“Yes, Ms Enka,” Gen replied.

Ms Enka smiled, then asked, “How much further?”

Gen pointed to the next row of houses down the street, “We’re almost there, Ma’am.”

Fiona received them at the door after Gen unlatched the front gate and strolled in like it was his own house.

She accepted the gifts from Ms Enka with gratitude and showed them to Tymas’ room.

Tymas was sitting on his bed, a wooden board on his lap. He was doodling away on a piece of paper. 

“Ty, Ms Enka is here to see you,” Gen announced as he walked into the room. A look of betrayal flashed across the brown-haired boy's eyes, but they were not directed at Gen. Putting the board and his drawing aside, he moved to sit at the edge of the bed, letting his legs hang off the side. Gen took his place beside him.

Ms Enka came forward and stooped down ever so slightly. A string of niceties followed, but Tymas responded to them less than nicely - there were one too many eye rolls and nonchalant ‘mhm’s. But that didn’t faze their equanimous teacher. She kept her smile steady and maintained that mellow, kind gaze.

“Tymas, did you finish the water? Your Ma said —” came Uncle Drewe’s voice, but it sounded joyless, surly even. He walked past the room and stopped in his tracks when he saw the unexpected guest, her umber brown hair making his heart skip a beat.

The boys didn’t know what came over him but the Uncle Drewe who was usually spontaneous in jest and witticisms suddenly stalled in wordlessness.

“Hi,” Ms Enka greeted him, with not so much surprise as a kind of restrained breathlessness. Then as if invisible strings were pulling on her, stood up and left the room.

Gen found the cup of unfinished water sitting by the bedside so he took it and handed it to Tymas.

Now that the adults were out of earshot, Gen could finally release the question at the tip of his tongue, the question he’d been preoccupied with all of last night and ruminating on all morning.

“What happened last night?”

There was a mischievous twinkle in Tymas’ eyes as he set the cup down without even taking a sip. “I spilled stew on Chief Whiner,” he said, a sly and smug smile spreading across his face.

“By accident?” Gen gasped.

“You can say that,” he pursed his lips. “But maybe I shouldn’t have. My Ma sent me to my room after that.”

“So you didn’t hear what they talked about?”

“At dinner they talked about fishing and spices…After I got sent to my room I heard something about neighbours.”

“Neighbours? That’s me…,” Gen said, a sinking feeling welling up in his belly, “What did they say about my Ma and Pa?”

“I couldn’t hear anymore. My Ma caught me listening so she made me stay in Uncle Drewe’s room. I fell asleep there.”

Gen recalled staying up the night before and keeping vigil by the window, fighting back heavy eyelids and stifling yawn after yawn just to see when the Chief and the elders left Tymas’ house. There was once his arm slipped from the ledge and he almost woke Leia but he steadied himself in time. The moon had risen beyond his sight by the time the guests stepped out the door. Even though Gen couldn’t make out their faces clearly, the moonlight cast a harsh shadow on the Chief making his exit and he looked like a thief in the night who had just taken something precious from the family. Seeing that the visitors had taken their leave, Gen let his groggy body take the lead and relinquished his determination to stay awake.

“Tymas, Gen, Ms Enka is leaving,” came Uncle Drewe’s voice, breaking Gen’s recollection. This time, it had recovered its cheery and uplifting quality.

The boys bade their teacher goodbye and didn't bat an eye when Uncle Drewe left with her. They’d pretty much already caught on to the way things were with them.

“What happened to Uncle Drewe? He sounded unhappy before he saw Ms Enka…”

“I don’t know. He was grumpy since this morning. He sounded like my Ma,” Tymas pulled a long face. “Anyway, look at this.” Tymas grabbed the piece of paper he had been drawing on before Gen and Ms Enka arrived.

“What’s that?” Gen asked, furrowing his brow at the strange network of lines and shapes that Tymas had drawn.

“It’s the pattern on Chief Whiner’s inner sleeve. Looks like it was stitched on there. I don’t know if it means anything but I was staring at it throughout dinner. Had it memorised.”

Gen took the piece of paper from him and turned it around in different orientations to see if it made sense. After a few moments, he shrugged and handed it back to Tymas. And just like that, the topic on what transpired the previous night was dissolved. 

“When can you come back to school? Ms Enka asked me to help you catch up on the lessons you missed.”

“The healer says I have to rest for three days. But I have to eat more of that medicine, bleh. I wish I had more nectar sticks.”

Three days passed and Tymas was back at school, feeling more bitter than ever. The basket of herbs Ms Enka had gifted was unwelcome, adding a medicinal taste to all his food in addition to the healer’s concoction.

Ms Enka was running a little late today and the students were already seated, waiting for her.

When she arrived, she announced that the activity of the day was a writing exercise and proceeded to write the topic on the board: What I want to be when I grow up.

Everyone got to work while she walked down the rows, checking in on the students and helping them with their spelling.

Both Gen and Tymas wrote about being fishermen, of course. When Ms Enka came to their table, she leaned down and picked up Gen’s paper to have a read. An amber crystal, which had been hidden within her dress, slipped from the neckline and dangled from her neck.

The boys eyed it curiously. Other than its eye-catching vibrant shade, they caught a whiff of a sweet and fruity scent emanating from it, though faint.

Without affirming, discouraging, or acknowledging Gen’s ambition, she set his paper down and picked up Tymas’ next. If she was expecting anything different, she would have had her hopes too high.

Class ended with Ms Enka collecting their papers and as usual, the reciting of the village creed. When Gen and Tymas stepped out the doorway, they saw Ms Enka at the end of the classroom block, handing off the stack of papers to one of the village elders. She then bowed her head in subservience before withdrawing. Gen and Tymas looked at each other, but didn’t think much of the ‘transaction’.

When the boys arrived home, they had a surprise awaiting them. Drewe was waiting for them in the yard and he beckoned them into his room.

Closing the door behind him, he picked up a tray from his bedside, its contents concealed by a cloth.

“Remember I told you I’d get you something sweeter and better than nectar sticks?” He spoke softly, as if leery of being heard. The boys nodded.

Uncle Drewe uncovered the cloth and revealed two sticks with a kind of golden-brown sauce spun around it. Like a nectar stick but different. It was stickier, drippier, and there was a fruity-floral aroma as Gen and Tymas picked it up, hands trembling with anticipation.

Drewe watched them savour the treat, their eyes growing wide with delight, the viscous liquid dripping down the side of their mouths. He was more than pleased with how much they were enjoying it.

“What is this? It’s soooo sweet, and my teeth don’t hurt from biting into it. Waaay better than nectar sticks!” Tymas exclaimed, licking up every drop.

“I call it golden dew. Found it on some trees growing beyond the lake.”

“It’s from the outside?!” Tymas gasped and Drewe told him to lower his voice.

“Why can’t we tell anyone, Uncle Drewe?” Gen asked, taking a pause from devouring the sweet treat. Golden dew began to dribble all over his hand.

Drewe cast his eyes to the ground for but a moment. When he looked up again, he leaned down and brought along a mischievous smile and a finger to his lips, “I didn’t bring back enough for everyone.”

“So it’s just for us?” 

Drewe nodded. Gen beamed, then proceeded to slurp up golden dew from his hand.

While his friend was entirely enraptured by the rare taste of the outside (that is, besides fish), Tymas noticed the necklace that fell out of Uncle Drewe’s tunic. It took him a few moments, but eventually understanding settled in.

“You lied,” he said, coldly.

When Drewe gave him a puzzled look, Tymas continued, “You brought back golden dew for Ms Enka too.”

Drewe winced like a dragonfly had nipped him.

“Just for the both of you, and Ms Enka,” he corrected himself, and placed a hand on Tymas’ shoulder in a bid to pacify him. As much as Tymas wished to stay unrelenting and unsympathetic towards his sheepish uncle, he suddenly broke out in a coughing fit. Drewe ran out of the room lightning fast to get him some water, worried that the (clandestine) golden dew had some unforeseen side effect when consumed.

Thankfully, the coughing fit stopped and the episode made Tymas forget what he was determined to be angry about.

When Gen returned home, he met Ma by the door. She stopped him in his tracks and grabbed his face with a hand.

“What’s this?” She asked, swiping her thumb down the edge of his mouth.

Gen realised it was the residue of golden dew. But Uncle Drewe had told them to keep it a secret. He stared at Ma and subconsciously swallowed every lie forming at the tip of his tongue. 

Instead, he smiled broadly and quickly ran past her into the house. Ma shook her head, but didn’t think much of his childish antics. She was pretty certain that Gen and Tymas were hiding things from the adults, but then again, what could younglings know? Piddling matters, she thought.

Gen sought refuge in his room. He had a premonition that had just begun to settle in… If the adults knew about golden dew, it wouldn’t just be a problem of Uncle Drewe not bringing back enough. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but the mere thought caused his heart to feel heavy.

Leia was in the room, sitting on her bed counting dried apple slices and popping them into her mouth as she went.

Gen sat on his bed opposite from her and fished out the folded piece of paper from his pocket. It was the drawing Tymas had made of the pattern on Chief Whiner’s inner sleeve. Tymas had given it to him as a challenge to have it figured out.

As he studied the lines over, he felt the bed dip beside him.

“It’s like when we play ‘tiger in the grass’.”

Gen turned to look at Leia, then back to the drawing.

“When we stand in the box we’re safe from the tiger,” she continued, tracing a finger over the rectangles on the page.

She was right! It did look like the boxes they would draw using bent sticks in the red earth both at school and in their yard. But why would Chief Whiner stitch a children’s game to his sleeve? 

“Thank you, Leia!” Gen chirped, hopping off the bed. He stowed the folded piece of paper in his drawing basket by the foot of the table. He’d share his findings with Tymas and see what he thinks. 

That night, the boys fell asleep to the lingering aftertaste of golden dew on their tongues and its sweet scent a fragrant memory cutting through the earthiness of the far West.