Memoranda
by Jeffrey Ford
List Price: $12.00
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0380802627
Publisher: HarperCollins
In the years since completing a written account of the fall of the Well-Built
City, which told of my personal transformation from Physiognomist to humble
citizen and the inception of this once idyllic settlement of Wenau, I
never again thought it would be necessary to put pen to paper, but after
what has occurred in the past few weeks, I must warn my unsuspecting neighbors.
There is a demon loose in paradise--one that beguiles by resurrecting
the past. Its victims grow cold to the world, desiring only yesterday,
as their souls dissipate for want of exercise in the here and now. Memories
swarm about me, every bit as real as the day, and I will attempt to trap
them here in this manuscript, like slapping shut the lid on a box full
of bees. Then I'll flee northward in order to lose myself in the vast
wilderness of the Beyond. It would be a false assumption to think that
because I write this with my own hand, in the past tense, I came through
these adventures in possession of my life. Death, it seems, has many definitions.
It was not long after
the settlement was founded that the marketplace at Wenau developed into
quite a bustling center of trade. The citizens of our new community no
longer merely bartered among themselves but also attracted farmers from
Latrobia, which lay a considerable distance to the east.
River people from
as far south as the villages at Constance occasionally arrived on their
barques loaded with handwoven cloth, spices, homemade fishing gear, which
they hoped to deal for fresh game and vegetables. Our people became adept
at gathering and harvesting food, but the items the outsiders wanted more
than any others were those mementos of technology we had taken away with
us from the destruction of the Well-Built City.
Something as useless
as a single brass gear could be traded for a blanket of the highest quality.
The river people wore these remnants as amulets of power on cords around
their necks. Little did they know how pleased we were to be rid of them.
Everything balanced in the end, though, and there were no squabbles or
accusations of thievery. The outsiders, having lived closer to the land
for longer, were much rougher than we, but they adopted our peaceful ways.
This location we chose for our settlement, nestled between two crisscrossing
rivers, engendered its own spell of calm.
I went to the market
once a week to trade medicinal herbs, roots, and tree bark I collected
from the fields and forestsa practice taught to me by Ea and his son before
they left for the Beyond. It was on those days that I also met my neighbors
and took appointments to visit the women who were carrying children. Ever
since delivering Arla's daughter, word had gotten about that I was an
effective midwife, and, because of this, I was in some part responsible
for the births of at least fifteen children. My acquired role as that
of a healer of sorts pleased me, and I hoped that in the hypothetical
ledger of my life it would offset somewhat the harm I had previously done.
A few weeks ago, I
carried with me to the market something I never before would have thought
of trading-a certain piece of green fabric, the veil left to me by Arla.
For years, it remained both a bothersome mystery and a great comfort.
On those nights when loneliness surrounded me, I would take it out of
the chest beneath my bed and hold it fast for the peace it offered. At
other times, I would actually speak to it, as if her face still hid beneath,
trying to get an answer as to her reason for having left it with me. I
often wondered if it was a sign that she had forgiven me or if it was
meant to remind me of my guilt.
The night before my
trip to the market, I was called on to deliver a child. All went well
as far as the mother's health was concerned, but the baby came forth stillborn.
I worked for over an hour to try to revive him, knowing soon after I began
that my efforts would probably be hopeless. No one blamed me for this
tragedy, and, surprisingly enough, though I felt bad, I could not even
blame myself. On my walk home through the night, I stopped to look up
at the immensity of the starlit sky and for some reason, I still cannot
say why, I suddenly felt released from my responsibility to the past.
The thought leaped into my mind, "Cley, you will trade away that green
veil. It will not do to simply dispose of it. No matter how meager the
material worth of the item you trade it for, you must find someone who
wants it."
The market was crowded
the following day with haggling traders, children at play, and the old,
entertaining with comic and cautionary tales. I carried my sack of medicines
thrown over my left shoulder and wove my way amidst the practical confusion
of the place, searching out likely patrons.
At first, I went about
my business, selling what I could. People knew me well and knew that my
medicines were genuine. They described complaints to me, and I would tell
them exactly what they might use to alleviate their suffering. After making
a few trades for thread and fish-bone needles, salt and powdered orian
(a bean from the south that when mixed with boiling water made a beverage
that was a dull imitation of shudder), I took out the green veil and began
trying to trade it.
Excerpted from Memoranda © Copyright 2012 by Jeffrey Ford. Reprinted with permission by HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
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