Down The Path Read online

  “Of course, I would love to go, and I’ve never had a beer, although one time a visitor came by our city, before my time, and brought a ‘stout’ with him.” Cooper was delighted to be able to add something to the conversation. “I was told the story just before I left, he was the last one to visit us, his name was…” In his excitement, Cooper was blanking on the name! “Seabee, that was it! And the elders drank the stout and said it was delicious. We tried to recreate it, but couldn’t.” With the last part, Cooper realized he didn’t like admitting another failure of his home city, but it was the story as it was told to him.

  “HA! Well, I know someone at the brewery who just might be able to help you.”

  And with that, the pair headed off down the road to the brewery, talking as they went. Lupe trotted alongside, stopping every now and again to taste a stick or sniff a leaf and then hurried to catch back up to them.

  21

  Once they reached the brewery, a big dog, all black with a blocky head but much less imposing looking than the other one he saw came running out to greet Lupe. The pair tussled and pawed at each other, spinning in circles and kicking up all sorts of dust.

  Then, from inside the small house a man’s voiced yelled, “Harley, quit playing and get in here.” The dog didn’t even pretend to hear the voice and continued roughhousing with the smaller Lupe, then they both darted off into the woods.

  Cooper was happy to see Lupe have so many new friends, almost as happy as he was to have so many new friends.

  From the wooden doorway of the small house, a man emerged. He was wearing a grimy shirt with short sleeves that clung to his belly slightly. He looked older than Cooper, but not so old to be considered an elder, and much younger than the man, Ceannt, he had seen. His face was wrinkled from the sun and his skin was still heavily tanned, like most from the village. He was sweaty and his face was red from work. The sweat was beading up on his bald head and running down through the hair on his face that formed a tight circle around his mouth and down his neck slightly. Some folks he knew in his city had face hair like that, they called it a goaty.

  Cooper had never really grown a beard, but his was getting fairly thick now and was starting to itch like mad. He made a mental note later to ask Ash if he had a straight knife he could borrow.

  “Hey Ash, is this the newbie?” the man with the goaty yelled while smiling big and raising his right hand, encumbered with a full mug, high into the air.

  Then he came stumbling down the steps and shook Coopers hand, “Hi there, I’m Seabee, where ya from?” he still had a line of foam on his mouth from his last drink as he took his next drink after speaking.

  Could it be the same Seabee? That name seemed very strange to Cooper, but maybe it was common here. It couldn’t possibly be the same man? He didn’t look old enough to have come by his city so long ago.

  “My name is Cooper, I’m from the north, in a city along a massive lake in the shadow of a much larger city, up the lake from us.” He was having a hard time explaining his city, and was wishing he had brought the map with him so could just point at it. He expected this question would come up more as he met all these people.

  “Oh yeah, I’ve been there. God, that carp you folks eat is not very appetizing!” He was wrinkling his nose and shaking his head slightly as he spoke. Cooper agreed, but was still in shock that this could be the same man.

  “I heard a tale of a man named Seabee visiting, but it was so long ago…I assumed you would be older.” Actually, Cooper assumed he was dead, never having made it out of the honeysuckle wasteland, but he chose not to bring this up.

  Rubbing his ample belly and taking a long swig from his mug he replied “Clean livin’, I guess.” That brought laughter from inside the brewery as well as cat calls to bring the newbie inside. With that, Ash guided the young redhead into his first makeshift tavern.

  Once inside the brewery, Cooper found the smell intoxicating. It smelled really floral, almost citrusy, but also like the cooked oats from his youth. Basically, it smelled like the most fantastic herbal soup he had ever smelled. He wanted to wrap himself up in that smell. It was amazing.

  Behind a very long and skinny table against one wall, the old man Ceannt was standing, pumping a lever and filling mugs. He slid two down to Ash and Cooper. “There you go gentleman, newest brew, it’s a wheat and carrot concoction that treats the body right.”

  Cooper instantly liked this man, Ceannt. He had an air of confidence and a deep booming voice, although he wasn’t sure if one was the cause of the other.

  “Cooper, damned glad to meet you boy. Welcome.” He said. His thick gray beard parted, revealing pearly white teeth with a smile that seemed to touch both his ears as well as both his eyes at the same time. “Most of these folks don’t remember what it was like when newbies weren’t so rare, we had traditions, dammit!” he said as he pounded his fist into the table. Then he turned around to pump another mug full.

  “Don’t worry about him pal, he’s just really big on traditions,” a man just down the table yelled.

  “He’s also really drunk” he heard another voice shout out, “and really big” the same man added.

  All the while Ceannt was nodding his head in agreement, then leaned back to take a long pull on his mug. “Well boy, take a drink, it’s not worth waiting for it to age at his point”. This brought another bawdy laugh from the group.

  Cooper was beginning to see what Katherine was talking about with the things the brewers said, they all seemed to be talking, there were nearly 10 conversations going on amongst the 6 people inside the brewery, but none of them really said anything. Cooper liked it and he took a long pull on his own mug.

  The liquid was not warm, but not exactly cold. He could feel sharp little bubbles in it, and sweetness, but also warmth to it. It tasted bitter, but still delicious and it made his stomach warm. Cooper decided right then that he liked this stuff called beer. He also liked the brewers.

  “So, how do you guys make this beer?” While speaking, Cooper was staring at the massive metal tanks that lined the back wall, each with a small cup of water on top.

  Nearly everyone in the brewery spoke up at once and it quickly turned into arguments amongst all of them. Cooper instantly regretted asking the question in such a setting.

  “Hey boys, simmer down. Let’s let the idiots that designed the system describe how it works,” said Ceannt in that booming voice of his. “Although, we won’t let them describe any of their recipes, since they’re terrible!” the whole brewery broke out in laughter again. It almost seemed you could say just about anything, as long as it insulted at least one of them, and the men would immediately begin hooting and hollering.

  The man he had met on the beach, Doc, stepped out of the back of the brewery and walked forward, still chomping on a cigar as it released its thin ribbons of nearly blue smoke. Another man was with him. He had hair as black as he had ever seen and it was pushed together from the sides, creating a high ridge of hair running from his forhead towards the back of his head. Cooper had never seen anything like that. The man had deep-set eyes that made him look very tired, but there was a warmth to them that set Cooper at ease.

  Both of the men were holding nearly full mugs and looked happy to be out of the room in the back. The black haired man spoke up first, “yeah, we built this thing and we’re the only ones working on it. These drunks just sit here and play grab ass.” He extended his hand out to Cooper while saying “Good to meet you, I’m called Lakewood.”

  He was still surprised at the strange names many of these brewers had. Hell, Doc seemed to be the only one of the lot that had a name similar to names from his city, Owen, and he chose not to use it!

  Doc clapped Cooper on the back and began describing how they boiled grains and things in the big kettle over the fire outside, then cooled it rapidly as it journeyed through some rigged up pipes to finally spill into the large tanks that lined the room.

  Lakewood broke in describing efficiency and
yeast selection along with something called hops. It was all fairly baffling to Cooper as he tried to understand the premise of how this great system worked.

  Finally, the two men realized that his eyes had glazed over and Lakewood spoke up again “Sorry, we can get a little in depth talking about this stuff. The important thing to know is we boil the ingredients in water out there,” as he pointed to the fire still burning outside the building. “Then we chill the liquid quickly, and put it into these tanks, after that we add yeast and the yeast convert the sugars into alcohol and we let it age a few weeks, to make it taste better, in these tanks.”

  “Yeah,” Doc chimed in. “Then we get these idiots sitting here to put it in barrels and it goes in the chamber underneath this building, where it stays fairly cold. Then we just pump it up and drink.” Doc took another hearty swig from his mug, obviously pleased with the system they had created.

  Cooper asked if he could help brew sometime and take notes so they could replicate the process back home and everyone agreed they were happy to have him help, but he would be put to work; no sitting around in here! Everyone who happened to be sitting around broke into another raucous bout of laughter.

  22

  As the men all finished up their pints, Aria stepped into the brewery. Her dress fluttered in the breeze as she stepped through the doorway. Walking gracefully and taking a seat at the long table, Cooper noticed her big dog sidled up right next to her chair and plopped down with a “harrumph”.

  “Hey you old bastard, what’s a lady gotta do to get a mug around here?” She said while staring at Ceannt. Everyone broke into laughter yet again, with Aria laughing nearly the loudest.

  “What’ll it be sweetheart?” Ceannt said while reaching for a mug that was behind the bar, but in a separate cubby. Cooper noticed that this mug actually said Aria on it and it appeared cleaner than most of the others.

  “You know the way I like it, high alcohol and hoppy,” she said while winking at Cooper. The old man placed the full mug in front of Aria and then went back to making fun of Doc.

  “So, Cooper, have you enjoyed your tour?” Aria said while sipping on her mug. Little bits of foam were sticking to her upper lip.

  “It has been wonderful. I can’t believe that just this morning I woke up on that mud flat, all alone. Everyone here is so kind”

  “These good people came together because we’re not just trying to survive, we’re trying to be happy while doing it. Speaking of which, we’re almost ready for the gathering to begin. Katherine said she sent for some clothes that should fit you and she should have them now if you wanted to get cleaned up before dinner.”

  With all that had happened, Cooper hadn’t paid any attention to how his clothes must look, or how he must smell. He had completely forgotten. Now he was acutely aware of it and his face flushed so red that he imagined his hair even became redder.

  Aria noticed this instantly and said “no, dear, I’m not implying that you’re filthy, just letting you know we have some clothes for you that you might find more comfortable.” Aria had a very soothing way about it her and Cooper appreciated it.

  He glanced at her mug and found it completely empty. He wondered how she had been able to drink that beer so quickly. His thoughts were interrupted when Ceannt sidled back over.

  “Another for the pretty lady?”

  “No, I should be on my way” she said while standing. “Come on Fry, let’s go see what Tom brought in from the gulf.” The big dog groaned slightly, stopped to sniff at Cooper for only a second, and loped out of the building in front of her, apparently perked up at the mention of Tom. She gracefully left the brewery, all the men obviously staring at her as she walked out.

  The brewer called FZ began to say something and Ceannt shot him a look and said; “Now boys, we have a guest.” The whole place burst into laughter yet again and Cooper decided he would go ahead and get cleaned up. With a quick thanks to the brewers, he ran out of the brewery and after Aria.

  Much to his dismay, he discovered that she was already long gone. He had forgotten how quickly she walked because of how easy it all seemed to her. He continued walking down the path and stopped into the house he was staying at. Neither Katherine nor Ash were home, but Lupe was waiting on the front porch, sound asleep.

  Heading into his bedroom, he noticed that not only did he have new clothes, but his old clothes, even his rags, had been washed and were hanging out in the breeze behind the house to dry.

  His new clothes seemed very nice; he didn’t see a single hole in any of them, although two shirts had small patches. This would certainly be the nicest collection of clothing he had ever gotten to wear. Following the instructions left on a note atop the pile of clothing, he found a small shower house directly behind the building along with a fresh bar of the most wonderful smelling soap. It smelled of citrusy fruits and some kind of pungent oil.

  After a deep scrubbing he put on his fancy t-shirt and shorts and sat on the porch with Lupe. He sat there for a brief time, waving at strangers as they passed by. Some stopped to chat for a second and others simply waved and shouted a welcome.

  He thought about how long he would stay there, how long it would take him to acquire as many skills as he could to benefit his city as much as possible. It was into summer now, so if he wanted to be home before winter, he would need to rush. Christopher had always told him that rushing led to mistakes and accidents.

  He also needed to talk to Aria about how long he could stay, realizing that had never been brought up in the excitement of the day. The last few folks who walked by all mentioned that the festivities were starting and that he should come on down.

  As he got up from his chair he saw Tom, the fisherman, coming down his path.

  “Hi there, fella, they get you all settled in?” he said smiling and leaning down to give Lupe a good scratching.

  “Yes, everyone is so friendly, and thank you again for saving me this morning and certainly for bringing me here”

  “No problem, son, and you weren’t even the biggest thing I caught today! Wait ‘til you see what’s for dinner, we’ve done this up right.”

  And with that, they walked together towards the party. Cooper hitting Tom with what seemed like hundreds of questions about the types of fish he caught in the gulf and Tom happily answering every single one; he always loved to talk about fish.

  23

  Over the course of the next several months, Cooper’s mantra became ‘what better way to learn, than to do’. It was given to him during one of his many afternoon conversations with Aria.

  In early summer, Cooper had been taken out to burn off a large swath of forest that hadn’t been burned in many years. As he walked up to it, he could see it was thick with small trees, most as tall as he was.

  The burn crew was small and they had spent the morning pushing the leaf litter back off the walking paths that served as a barrier between the area to be burned and the area not to be burned. They had a dozen people spread all over to watch the fire and make sure it did not progress out of the land they had designated for the flames.

  The other side of the area was so far away that he couldn’t see the people working over there. As soon as they saw the smoke from the other side billowing over the horizon, his crew began calling out that is was time to begin lighting. The crew members lit their small torches over a small starter fire and began dabbing the fire onto the dry foliage along the edge they had created.

  Cooper watched the flames start from small little things and quickly grow to giant angry walls of heat that he had to back away from and shield his face. The amount of heat rolling off this massive sheet of fire was incredible and he felt it burn his cheeks as he tried to back up further.

  When he had finally reached a safe distance, he saw the fire creep up the ridge and no longer felt the searing pain. He could fully open his eyes and see what the fire had done to the land.

  Nearly all the small trees were burned to a crisp, with a few pockets that had
somehow escaped the rage of the fire. What had been a forest, thick with grasses and other plants was now just a blackened land devoid of anything except for the large nut trees with their spreading crowns.

  Those bigger trees had not grown leaves yet and they didn’t seem damaged in the least. It was really an amazing adaptation and he wondered if the honeysuckle wasteland would burn as aggressively. When he had made campfires from it, he found it to be weak in the ways of heat production, but perhaps on such a vast scale it would be different.

  The crew watching the fire had stayed until well after the fire went out. With large sticks they walked around pushing any of the smoldering plants and sticks well off the area closest to the path. Once the ground had cooled, Cooper walked out into this vast, blackened moonscape to find the trunk of one of the giant trees, glowing orange in the setting sun.

  The lanky figure of a brewer named FZ strolled into the blackness to stand next to him. “Hey Coop, you like the glow?” With the soot covering his face, he was nearly unrecognizable. “Kinda matches your hair nice!”

  Cooper, still enthralled by the sight, merely nodded. Wondering what FZ was doing out here, he asked “did you lose a bet, I thought you were a brewer?”

  “We all do many things; I tend the forest, so the fires are kind of my domain.” His chest puffed up comically as he said this. “I harvest seeds too and spread them around to attract the wildlife for the hunters as well. We all do whatever it takes to keep the machine running.

  The pair stood there together admiring the glowing tree for some time before FZ headed back towards the village.

  Cooper decided to stay longer and pulled his sketchpad out, which was a gift from Aria that he carried everywhere now, and began to sketch the radiant old trunk. He had never been much of an artist before, but his skills were growing the more he tried. Cooper found sketching to be very peaceful, much like everything else in the village.