Salamander

Chapter Seven: The Festival

Chapter Seven

The beach was already filled with over half the townspeople, all clothed in their best and walking about the stands and tents that had been aligned along one, big row. Much of the children were sitting at the hard, wooden benches of the puppet show that depicted the classic fairytale of a princess being saved by her knight in shining armor, which gave their parents either two options – to eat or to drink. Much of them chose the latter.

            An ensemble of twenty sitars and forty recorders rang throughout the festival grounds in an upbeat, minor tone. A long, wooden stage that sat before the musicians was filled with people dancing the classic Gig, all in perfect unison. Mr. Frank had left the carriage at a palm tree a little ways away from the beach, but not too far for him to not be able to keep an eye on his horses every now and then.

            “Oh, come on, Alan!” Mariam said as she pointed to a mutton stand. The town’s butcher, Chuck, was chopping away at lamb chops and throwing them into a pot of boiling water. “You know how much I love lamb!”

            “Ehh . . .” I said, not really feeling like eating at that very moment. My stomach hurt too much anyhow, considering the horrible thoughts I had just had about my father only minutes before. The sun was no longer at the center of the sky, but it wasn’t low enough for it to be considered “setting”. I saw a couple of seagulls flying overhead, scouring for any discarded food some people may have dropped. They cried out in a great chorus, almost like they were accompanying the sitars and the recorders.

            “Alan!” I heard a familiar voice say happily behind me.

            Oh no.

            I turned and saw who I already knew it was – Algo, Malgory’s ignorant, simple-minded son. “How you doin’?” he asked in his shaky, drawn-out voice.

            I smiled and shook his hand, though to be honest I felt like ignoring him. “Fine, just fine.” I casually wiped the hand I shook his hand with against my pants, noting how his fingers was covered with mud and food. Disgusting.

            He turned to his next victim, Mariam. “How you doin’, my fine lady?” He took her hand almost forcefully and kissed it for a prolonged period of time. She snapped her hand back and she too casually wiped it against her dress. She only nodded.

            We all stood there in silence for a couple moments. “Well,” I said as I rubbed my hands together. “Mariam and I are going to go now . . .”

            Algo gave me a disappointed look. “What? You don’t like me or something’?” He gave Mariam a greedy smile and wrapped his hand around her shoulder. She struggled against him, but his grip was firm and strong. Eventually she figured it was no use fighting back and just slumped against his body helplessly. “Come on, I’m a fun guy. Aint I?”

            “Aren’t I, Algo,” I corrected him a little bit rudely.

            He sneered ignorantly. “So what? While you were cooked up in a schoolhouse learnin’ English for god-knows-how-long –”

            “Three years,” I said.

            “– I was learnin’ how to do Blacksmithin’.”

            “Blacksmithin’–” Mariam wiggled her elbows and finally freed herself from Algo’s hold. “–isn’t a real word, Algo.” She stepped closer to me, hiding a little bit behind my back like I was some sort of barricade.