Eva's Sins.

LXXII

  „Memories are like a two-edged knife: they warm your soul on one side while on the other they destroy you"

  After Keen's departure, the old smith stared for long at that old maple tree under which he and Bardain saw Colby that day, waiting for the old teamster and lurking on him. Yet, even if there was a dark night with a thick fog that you could cut with a knife and one couldn't see anything at half a step in front, the old man preferred to stare at the night and the night at him, as if they were two enemies spying on each other in their desperate attempt to put two and two together and understand what the hell happened that Bardain Jones decided to vanish so unawares and without even sending word where he went or what happened.

  Yet, both the night and the old man were stubborn and they didn't say too much to each other: they only preferred to remember fragments of what happened, to later split up when the old smith closed the door, unbarring it.

  „Something happens, Abel?" the wife asked him when he got again back to the living room, for she didn't go to sleep while her man talked to the stranger, for she felt something weird in her heart, more hearing the old smith saying so many times that he was worried for Bardain who didn't say a word before disappearing.

  „Nothing important," said the old man sullenly, sitting again at the table. But even if he stretched again his hand to take that jar with strong liquor in which was something more left on the bottom, he didn't pour more in his glass, but remained so, with his hand stretched and with his thoughts wandering somewhere. Only when his wife put a plate with hot pie in front of him, did the old man winced and looked at his wife, who sat down on the same chair on which Keen has sat before, and, taking the jar from her man's hand, she poured some liquor into his glass, for she knew her husband for more than 50 years already and, even if she knew that he doesn't like to drink a lot, there were still days when he was thoughtful, as if out of reality, when he wanted to be alone, with a glass of strong liquor in front and... nothing more.

  Yet, even if thoughts also weighed on her, with a lot of questions spinning in her head, the woman kept silent and stared at her husband who took a piece of pie, bit it, and slowly chewed it, staring at his wife's hands which were slowly caressing that table cloth, as if trying to „goose those crow's feet," seen on her hands.

  „Listen, Eillen, how do you think: is it sometimes better to reveal others'secrets?" the old man asked eventually, touching the edge of the glass and caressing its wet side.

  „It all depends on the secret," the old woman murmured, kindly smiling. „If those secrets can kill, then it's better to keep our mouth shut. But if by revealing them we can save someone's life, then it's better to talk about them."

  „What if we aren't sure about if it's good or not revealing them? What should we do then?"

  „Then we should listen to our heart, old man, and if our heart tells us to open our mouth, then it's better to do that. But if it tells us to keep our mouth shut, then even if we feel tickles on our tongue and we want to tell stories about what we know, then we should bite that tongue, till the blood if necessary, but don't allow it to bring troubles in our life."

  His wife's wise words made Abel smile, for even if they were both scanty of words and preferred to understand each other from a single word, there were still days when they could talk more, like that day, when melancholy took over them and they could give each other wise guidance.

  Eventually, the old Eillen Miller stood up and while heading toward their room, she put a hand on her husband's shoulder, kindly saying: „don't stay to think long about what happened, Abel, for even if it's hard on your soul now, there's also a day of tomorrow when you must awake at dawn, work for a whole day, and only put your head on the pillow late in the evening." After that, she slowly crawled her legs on that wooden floor, heading toward the room, for it was already late night and it was the perfect time to go to sleep. But... she was also aware that it can also be that kind of night with a tormented soul and a heavy sleep.