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

ships. They do not like to walk through the town even as far as the bakery. Foreigners have been attacked on their walks to the bakery. Now the foreigners have their own bakeries in the district by the wharves. The town is not as safe as it once was. There is more theft in a prosperous town. There are more things to be thieved. The townspeople have begun to shop in the foreigner's district. The foreigners have hired soldiers to patrol their district. It is pleasant to shop without fearing the thieves.
    My brother is certain that some of the new storefronts in the foreign district are still unoccupied. My brother could rent a storefront in the foreign district. If my brother could rent a storefront he could display his metalwork in a good location. Customers could purchase andirons at the storefront. They could drop off their tools for repair. I could pick up the tools each week and my brother could repair them at the forge. I could bring the repaired tools back to the storefront and collect the money from the locked box my brother would mount on a heavy piling by the storefront. The locked box and the heavy piling would be unnecessary precautions. Soldiers would protect the money we made at the storefront. Foreigners would pay the soldiers to protect my brother's investment.
    My brother becomes excited by this idea. This is one way to expand, opening a storefront in the foreign district in the town. The location of the forge would no longer hinder my brother's success. My brother smiles at me and I smile at my brother. I smile with my lips closed to hide the blood on my teeth. My brother picks up his hammer. He says we can put my ax handles in the display window of the storefront. Maybe I will be good at painting handles. My brother looks thoughtful as he says this. He is wondering what I am good at. I am not a good striker. My brother does not say I am not a good striker. He spoke in a great rush uncommon for him and now he is done with speaking. He does not say anything more. Soon the sounds of hammer and sledge make conversation impossible. I know my brother is thinking I am not a good striker. My sledge hits off-center on the iron. I strike with the sledge again and again. My arms hurt. My back hurts. I cannot hit the right place. I have not grown. My improvement is too slow. I cannot strike the iron where my brother indicates. Now that business is slow my brother can fix my mistakes but when he expands the forge he will not have time to fix my mistakes. I need to improve more quickly. I am good at some things surely, but what does it matter if I am not a good striker, if I cannot do the thing my brother needs.

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    My brother has used up our father's bar iron and rods. My brother's metalwork is stacked against the inside walls of the forge. It is very impressive. I wish customers would come to the forge to praise my brother and buy high-quality tools for their homes and businesses. Now my brother has only scrap metal to work with. He cannot make high-quality tools from scrap iron. He must go to town to take out money from the bank. That way he will be able to purchase fresh bar iron for his high-quality products.
    Without iron to work, we have nothing to do in the forge. My brother and I sit on the hill watching the ships. My brother says the ships come from the ports of distant cities. He says I cannot possibly imagine the foreigners' cities. There are many more girls in these cities and they are nothing like the girls in town. My brother asks me to describe the girls in town. When I was our father's helper, I went into town more often for the meat and the bread. I must have passed many girls. Girls must walk on the streets in town. They wear uniforms that are all one piece, like the monks. I do not remember if I saw girls or monks on my trips into town. Girls and monks wear their hair very long, but the monks have long beards. The uniforms of the girls are shorter than the uniforms of the monks. This is not the