Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych by Joanna Ruocco

from investments in his town. Men no longer lose hope. They do not build small boats to cross the bay. Only the monks cross the bay in small boats. Sometimes the monks take young boys from town back to the peninsula in their boats. By welcoming newcomers and taking young boys, the order of monks has prevented itself from dwindling. Now that there are no newcomers arriving on the peninsula, the monks must take as many young boys as they can. Luckily, the captains play games with the monks and most of the monks arrive face down by the wharves. Those monks cannot take young boys. Instead, they are taken by the doctor, taken to his office at the end of the dead end street.
    I wonder if the monks can see our forge from their monasteries on the peninsula. Nothing blocks the view of the forge. The monks must be able to see the red light across the bay. We cannot see the red light of the monks' forge, but the monks' forge might be located on the other side of the monasteries, facing the ocean, or it might be located near the bottom of a ravine.
    There are stories of monks taking the young boys from the town in their boats and devouring them down in the ravines of the peninsula. I do not believe these stories. The boys who are taken by the monks must be kept alive so that they can receive instruction. It is important that the next generation of monks learns how to make the jams and the talismans and the boats. If the monks devoured the boys, there would be no young monks to carry on the practices and beliefs of the order. The practices and beliefs of the monks might involve devouring boys, but I do not think the order could have lasted so long if that were the case. Beneath his hair and beard, the monk I saw by the overturned boat did not seem old. Not too long ago he may have been a boy in the town.

11
     
    Today is the first of the month. If our father were alive he would go to deposit the heavy bag of money in the bank. My brother gave the heavy bag of money to the doctor. My brother has nothing to deposit in the bank. For as long as my brother can remember our father deposited money in the bank on the first of the month. This month my brother will have to take money out of the bank to buy the iron for the forge. As I work with my brother, I think about the hardware store. If my brother took just a little extra money from the bank to buy paint, I could carve handles for his axes and paint the handles. Our axes could compete with any axes sold in the hardware store.
    I make more mistakes at the anvil than ever before. My brother throws down his hammer. He asks if I am thinking about a girl I saw in town. I am surprised. My brother does not throw his tools or speak about girls in town. He is in a peculiar mood. His face is pale despite the heat of the forge. His lips are dark. I tell my brother that I am thinking about the hardware store. My brother has not heard about the hardware store. He grabs my arms and shakes me while I tell him everything I remember. I do not remember the hours or the prices. I tell him about the different colored handles on the hammers. I tell him about my plan to paint different colored ax handles, bright ax handles in as many colors as the handles of the hammers. My brother shakes me hard so my teeth close on my tongue. Blood comes from between my lips. My brother rubs his shirtsleeve against my mouth. He brushes my hair from my forehead. He says it is not my fault. It is not my fault that no customers come to the forge.
    The forge is not in a good location. It is strenuous to travel up the hill to the forge. The path is steep. There is no shade on the hill. Customers never minded traveling up the hill to the forge but now the town is prosperous. In a prosperous town, customers do not want to travel up the hill. By the wharves, the foreigners are building new storefronts. They have built a new district by the wharves, with stores and hotels. The foreigners stay in their district. They stay close to their