The Traveler

I first found out about the Traveler because I was playing at Nuts with The Runt. I probably would’ve found out about him anyway sooner or later, because The Runt doesn’t know how to keep a secret, but he really was responsible, so to be honest, I have to give him credit.

We were playing Nuts on the third step from the bottom of the Temple of Venus Fortuna in the Little Forum. Up at the top, near the door of the temple, the steps are clean and swept every day, and the priests chase you off if you try to sit there. Down at the bottom, where the steps blend into the mud and the blown leaves and the ox poop, they don’t care. So, the drunks sleep on the lower steps of the Temple of the Skinny Venus. The workmen sit down to rest there, and the steps are deeply scratched with names and graffiti and playing boards. That was where Publius Marcurius, that’s The Runt’s real name, and I were playing at Nuts. The priests wouldn’t think it worthy of them to bother a couple of boys playing practically down in the dirt.

The way you played at Nuts was you took turns putting your nuts one at a time at the intersection of the lines on the board. When you put all four down, you took turns moving them, one at a time, from one intersection to the next. If you got three of them in a row, that means you won the game, and you got to keep the nuts you put down, plus you got to take all the ones your opponent put down.

We had been playing for a while. Even though The Runt started out with a whole little sack full, he really didn’t know how to play, and he’d lost almost all of them. I wasn’t that interested in winning all of his, but I couldn’t believe anyone could play so badly. So, I kept on playing to see if he’d figure out how to put the nuts down to block me, or how to move them after they were all down. Even after I started giving him help, he still wasn’t catching on. I figured it was my responsibility to keep beating him so he wouldn’t be the victim of some unscrupulous person.

Finally, he was down to his last four, and he was playing as badly as ever. I even told him what to do, I even played badly myself, but it was no use. I still beat him. I took the last of his nuts and put them in my bag. I was going to smile at him and say something about teaching him how to play properly when he suddenly broke down and cried, right out there in the public square.

He was embarrassing me, and I tried to get him to shut up before one of the drunks noticed. Even so, he wouldn’t quiet down. Those nuts were supposed to be his lunch. It was all his mother gave him. He couldn’t go back and tell her that he’d lost them playing a game, or she’d hit him. The Runt was so honest and so timid he’d never try to sneak a wedge of bread from the baker’s, like any ordinary person.

I couldn’t just give him back the nuts. You don’t do that. So, I looked him over and told him I’d give him half the nuts he lost if he’d give me that weird necklace he was wearing. It’s not like I wanted the necklace, but it would be a way to let him have the nuts back and still be respectable.

It was no good. He wouldn’t accept my generous offer. I thought maybe he didn’t want to part with his precious necklace, but that wasn’t it. He wanted ALL of the nuts back. He was afraid he’d starve without the whole lunch his mom gave him, or something. I wasn’t going to give in. If I did that, I’d lose respect, you know? In the Forum, or in the Alleys, everybody knows you have to keep respect. Everybody except The Runt.

I wasn’t sure what to do, but he finally quieted down and started to think. Better late than never, I figured. He made an offer. If I gave him all the nuts back, he’d show me something good.

What was it, I asked him?

The Runt was usually the last to know anything. If there was something worth seeing, I probably saw it already.

There was a crazy man, he said. His father saw him, and most people didn’t know about him yet. He looked strange, dressed strange, and hardly spoke any Latin at all. He mostly grunted, but that might be some barbarian language. He didn’t know about things, apparently.

I said I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure seeing a Crazy Man, even a Crazy Barbarian, was worth it. The Runt surprised me by saying I could hold onto the nuts. I could only give him the other half after I saw the Crazy Man, and decided if he was really worth it.

He was learning. I was so proud of The Runt, I agreed on the spot. We went off to see the Crazy Man. He turned out to be at the shop of Marcus the Blacksmith. I could understand that. Marcus always needed somebody to do the heavy work, what he called the Donkey Work, lifting loads, bringing in the charcoal, working the bellows. It probably wouldn’t matter if the Crazy Guy couldn’t speak, or even understand a lot of words. It was usually pretty noisy in Marcus’ shop anyway, with all the hammering. All Marcus would have to do was point.

We didn’t just walk in there, of course. Not even The Runt was that naïve. Adults figure any child in a shop is either there to make trouble, or else is going to get in the way. They thought a child would get hurt. We snuck in, around the side, and looked in through the window. There was Marcus, and his apprentices, and somebody I didn’t recognize. He had a great unwashed mop of hair, and was sweating as he worked the bellows.

There was something wrong about him, but I wasn’t sure what. His clothes didn’t look right. The way he moved was wrong, somehow. That was when I saw his face. It wasn’t the right shape or color. His eyes were wrong, and looked misshapen. Maybe he was an accident of birth, like that lamb over at the Tannery that was born with five legs. I paid a copper to see that, but it was worth it. With that thought, I gave The Runt the whole bag of nuts, including the ones I didn’t win from him.

Having paid, I figured I had a right to see him up close. I slipped in through the window. Everyone’s attention was elsewhere, and with the noise, they couldn’t hear me so it looked safe to do. If this guy was working in a shop alongside other people, and they trusted him around fire, he couldn’t be too dangerous.

When The Runt saw what I was doing, he tried to stop me, but he was too late. He certainly wasn’t going to come in after me. Instead, The Runt ran away, taking the nuts with him. Good.

I crept closer to the Crazy Man, who was facing away from me. I just wanted a closer look at his face, so I could see what looked wrong with it. He was so intent on his work he didn’t notice me until I was really close. In order to see, I had to work around the furnace, so there was nothing between me and him. He looked up from the bellows for a moment, and that’s when he saw me.

At first, he simply looked surprised—like he was wondering where I came from when there was no door over where I was. His expression changed as he saw my necklace, the one I’d won from the Runt. It fascinated him, even more than I did. He couldn’t take his eyes off it. He stopped pumping the bellows and started walking toward me, his hand outstretched toward my neck.

So, I backed up, trying to put the furnace between us. He kept coming around, and I realized I was in a dead end. Before I could get up into the window and away, he’d grab me. The only other way out was past him.

I didn’t hesitate. Most adults are slow, and easy to dodge. The Crazy Man’s befuddlement made him seem even slower, so I was sure I’d evade him. I was wrong. He was fast, and snaked out one hand to grab my arm. I responded without thinking, kicking out at his knee. That always stops the grown-ups in the alleys. While they recover, I get a chance to run away.

Not this time. The Crazy Man did something I still can’t figure out. He twisted around somehow and my kick went somewhere I hadn’t intended. I ended up facing sideways, his hand still gripping my arm. I was starting to get worried. At that point, he did something I didn’t expect. He spoke to me.

“You…where…you…pebbles?” he asked.

I think he was asking. His voice had that lift at the end. I thought I should answer him.

“Let me go, you crazy grunt,” I said. For good measure, I shouted,” Marcus!”

“No!” he said. “Pebbles! Where?”

With his other hand he reached for my neck. I tried to draw back, but he was too close and too fast. Only he didn’t reach for my neck. He grabbed the necklace and pulled. The string broke, and the beads he wasn’t holding dropped off onto the ground. The Crazy Guy lost all interest in me. He dropped to the ground and started looking for the beads.

I started to run past him, thinking I was free. I ran right into Marcus, who’s as big as one of the columns of Venus’ temple.

“What are you doing here?” he growled at me. “Are you bothering my worker?”

“You, why did you stop pumping the bellows?” He addressed this last question to the Crazy Guy, who was on his hands and knees, scrabbling through the ashes for the scattered beads.

I turned away from Marcus, because I saw a clump of the beads. I picked them up and nudged the Crazy Man, because I figured that ‘helping the Crazy Guy’ would explain what I was doing there. He looked up at me, and I saw his eyes didn’t look crazed any more. When he saw the beads in my cupped hand, he said something I couldn’t understand, but his meaning was clear. He smiled at me, and nodded his head up and down.

“Tenobius!” yelled Marcus “Back to work!”

He illustrated this by pointing at the bellows and mimed pumping it up and down.

Tenobius, this must be the Crazy Guy’s name, nodded his head rapidly up and down. He got up from the ground, and I thought he was going back to work, but he grabbed my hands together and pumped them up and down like a bellows. He smiled at me.

“You…more…pebbles,” he said, then went back to work.

“And you,” Marcus said, standing over me with his hands on his hips, “Beat it!” I did.

As I ran from Marcus’ blacksmith shop, I realized I lost the nuts, and I lost the necklace. I had nothing to show for my morning, except that I saw Tenobius, the Crazy Guy, up close. If I wanted to see him again, he would be eager to see me, if only I brought more beads.