The Blue Book

The second chapter. Kol Fox.

Ever seen one of those forts that boys build when they're small? The kind that their families help them build and they decorate it with stuff they like. Or find. Or both. In this fort there were pieces of glass and crystals hung from white threads that shone in clear earth light. Those roughly shaven planks nailed firmly to a weather bitten chestnut tree. All those pretty rocks and shells coloured in bright khaki and eggshell white hanging from it. All of them dancing along with small figures of clay, joining the shards of transparent prettily twinkling pieces of glass. And amongst all of that sits a boy. A boy with hair coloured beyond raven black, beyond the blackness of night and beyond even darkness of space.
He was given the unimaginative name Kol due to his hair. At this moment he sat the way he always sat with ankles crossed and head leaned against the stem looking up at clouds that morphed and melted and flew away. He sat with his small yet rough hands holding tightly on to a book. Every once in a while he read a new one provided by the city jeweller. Every time he'd read every page from cover to cover he climbed down his fortress of glinting, shimmering items, he ran straight for the madam and wondered if she could ask for the jeweller in new. She'd smile and she'd ask;
'Will you at least tell me which one that is your absolute favourite one so far?'
The boy loved madams accent. He'd recently realised that not everybody had one, you see. She had this way of bouncing on the A:s, somehow.
In honour of their little ritual he answered as he always did.
'I would, ma'am, but I can't, since each time I finish the most recent one, that one is my new favourite.'
'Then I suppose you will have to let me know when you've finished the last one so that I'll know which one it is.'
The boy smiled his famous smile and handed his mistress the book. 'That is what I will have to do.'
The man came walking toward the property with elegant calm. The man walked with head held high scooping around his surroundings as if he'd never seen them, although he'd seen them every day for eighteen years. See, before that he probably couldn't walk or remember or remember that he'd walked. With his right hand he held the strap of some sort of saddle bag to the brim filled with all kinds of books securely placed on his shoulder, and the other hand held a bundle of various types of grass, barley and wheat.
After following Kit for awhile they were far enough from the estate so that the boy could let down his shoulders and laugh out loud at everything that seemed even remotely funny. He let Kit roll him down a hill over and over and screamed with delight when Kit chased him. He didn't care how silly he looked. How ordinary he was or how much he was a perfect picture of happiness. He was happy. The madam was amazing. He loved her. Of course he did. But something had happened to her, something she never spoke of, and the way she looked at him it was like all of her hopes and dreams were placed on him. He wasn't exactly watched at the estate, but neither was he free. Not like this. Not like he was with Kit. The others felt it too. Something that differed him from everyone else.
'Kit?' He began. He hanged like a sloth with his olive- coloured, scrawny legs and arms wrapped around a branch. The world was upside down and he could feel his black hair being tugged at by the wind. Up-side-down-Kit looked up.
'Yeah?'
He came to think of the thing his friend had brought that confused him.
'What will you do with the grass? Is it for the horses?' The boy asked and nodded towards the... Thing.
That earned him another of the mans unique laughs. 'No, it isn't for the horses.' It seemed as if he was finished with that but the boy stood his grounds (or rather not). He did have a clue, though.
'It's for the girl.' The boy stated without waiting further for an actual answer. 'You broke her heart and now...' The boy went silent. He didn't know what came after the heartbreak itself.
'Now I feel like the scum of the earth.' The man kindly filled in for him.
Silence. Pondering. Seconds passed.
'So you brought her grass?'
Another rumbling chuckle sounded. A heifer lifted her head at the familiar sound. The chuckle sounded even louder this time.
'Yes, I guess I did.'
More seconds.
'But... Why?'
'As an apology.'
'Yes, but grass? You're a jeweller.'
'So if you broke a girls heart you would give her your most precious book?'The man asked.
This is why the boy liked Kit Alder. He didn't talk to him like a child.
'Yes, I would.'
'Alright. Let's go back, Kol.'