Elsa Crane's Arc

Chapter 31 of 66

Elsa brought Bodhi to Dahlia's door at first light. The ledger was under her arm. The teal journal was in Bodhi's hands, because she wanted him to feel the weight of it. Nora walked behind them, quiet in her yellow slicker. Three days sat between Nora and the date she had written beside her own name. Elsa needed to know if the boy would be ready. She had no way to measure him. The ledger recorded deaths. It did not record whether a child could read them. Dahlia opened the door before Elsa knocked. Her hood was down. Her dark-ringed eyes went to the boy first, then to the books. "Inside," she said. "Sit at the table. Both of you." Bodhi sat. Nora stood by the wall. Dahlia opened the ledger to the page with Nora's name and turned it toward the boy. "Read me this line," she said. "I can't yet," Bodhi said. "Then tell me what the marks mean." He touched the cross beside Nora's name. "She takes someone with her when she goes." His finger moved to the date. "Three days." Dahlia looked at Elsa. "He knows the marks. He does not know the letters. That is two lessons, not one." "How long?" Elsa asked. "For letters, a season. For the marks, he already sees them. I can teach him to write a circle by tomorrow." "Tomorrow is not enough," Elsa said. "I need a test. Today. Something that tells me if he can hold the book after Nora is in the ground." Dahlia thought. Then she took a stub of chalk from Bodhi's pocket and set it on the table beside the ledger. "Write a name here," she said to the boy. She tapped a blank line under Nora's. "Any name from this village. Then choose a mark. Cross or circle. And tell me why." Bodhi's hand shook. He wrote three letters and stopped. He drew a small circle beside them. "The miller's boy," he said. "Circle. Because he held the bear overnight and gave it back." Elsa's breath caught. The boy had not written the name to kill. He had written it to protect. He understood the ledger's hand was a choice. Dahlia closed the book. "He can inherit," she said. "He cannot inherit alone. I stay at the table until the letters come." "Agreed," Elsa said. She wrote it in the teal journal while Nora watched. Dahlia teaches until Bodhi reads. Dahlia signs beside every mark he makes. Nora set her hand on the ledger. "Two days now," she said. She had not spoken all morning. "I moved it forward. The wolf came to my door last night." Elsa's stomach dropped. She had bought the boy a teacher. She had lost a day.