Читать книгу A Threefold Cord - Howard Goldenberg - Страница 6

Chapter One

Nystagmus and Jennifer sat at the table, waiting for their friend Snoth to join them. On the table stood three mugs and three plates. Steam and a perfumey smell rose from the mugs. A large brown onion sat on each of the plates. A sharp knife rested at the side. The two waited for quite a while. Finally they both spoke at once: “Where’s Snoth?”

The door opened and in tumbled Snoth, his face red, breathing fast. He looked excited. His friends could see something important had made him late.

Snoth was so short of breath he couldn’t speak at first. But the three friends had Special Secret Rules. No-one could speak until after the Ceremony. First they had to drink then they’d eat, then they would recite the words. After that Snoth could tell them what he had seen or heard or discovered.

Snoth sat down. Without talking, all three raised their mugs, took a long deep sniff and started to sip. They drank in silence until the mugs were empty. Then all three raised the sharp knives and began to peel the large onion that sat in the middle of each plate. As they peeled, their eyes started to sting. Tears formed and fell from three faces. No-one wiped an eye, no-one spoke. Three knives peeled and peeled, tears flowed down cheeks, onto chins, then onto the table. No sound was heard but the soft scrape of knife on vegetable and the quick sniff of runny noses.

A meeting of the Threefold Cord

Nystagmus finished first, as he always did. He was the quickest peeler. He had peeled onions in his grandparents’ shop since he was five years old. He loved Yaya and Papou, his grandparents. And he loved to help them. Nystagmus waited, unspeaking, while Jennifer completed her onion, followed by Snoth, still breathing hard.

Three faces looked at each other, three heads nodded, then three hands raised the onions and all three friends began to chew. Still no words. Just tears, more tears than at a circus, more than at a funeral. Wet faces, chomping jaws, sniff-sniffing noses and swallowing sounds.

Snoth finished his onion first. He waited and when his friends had swallowed their last fiery mouthful, Snoth burped like a trumpet. Jennifer burped her small squeak and Nystagmus let rip. All three friends nodded. Solemnly they recited the lines of The Threefold Cord:

“If one is all alone, without friend or brother, this is vanity.

“Two are better than one, for if one fall, the other will lift him up.

“But a threefold cord is not easily broken.”

Finally Snoth spoke.

And when he did speak, Jennifer and Nystagmus sat up straight and blinked. At first they wondered if Snoth had made the whole story up, or imagined it, or had a bad dream. But his red face, his urgent voice and his trembling hands told them it was true: every frightening word was true. And they would have to act.

(I know what you want me to tell you – the recipe of their secret drink. I might share that with you in a later chapter. Meanwhile, would you like to know what Snoth told Jennifer and Nystagmus?

I’m afraid that will have to wait until you come to Chapter Two.)