The Reaper

No one made a sound until the count was finished. Heads of households would make their counts and report them to the village minister. Once the minister had totaled the count and compared it to the count from the day before, he told the magistrate to ring the bell. The silver bell hung in a belfry that looked over the roofs of every home in the tiny village. If the count was the same as the day before, the bell rang twice. If the count was less than before, the magistrate rang the bell only once. The villagers sat huddled together in their homes, waiting for the bell to break the silence. To hear it ring just once would be awful enough, but the anticipation before the bell was even worse. Simon’s mother held him close to her side but his father pulled him away.

The magistrate drew the bellpull twice and the entire village sighed as one and they quickly moved to begin their day. The women and girls of each house began preparing breakfasts for the men and young boys. Father dressed Simon himself, reminding him of his responsibilities and reviewing all the important things he would need to know. Simon assured Father he would not disappoint him like Alfred did. Father looked away from Simon after that remark and told him to come to the table.

Breakfasts are usually a cheerful thing, but today Simon’s mother is crying. It’s his birthday. A man grown he must join his brothers, Father, and the other working men of the village to work the soil. Women stayed at home, mending clothes, nursing children, preparing food and the girls cared for the sick and the old and played with the young boys when they were not helping their mothers.

At the table Simon ate with Mother, Father, his two brothers, and his grandmother. Mother didn’t eat and she gave her plate to Simon, asking him to be safe in the fields. His two brothers promised they would help him, but after a stern look from Father, the two boys said they would only help a little. His grandmother did not eat either but stared into space with her one crooked eye.

Father and his brothers said their goodbyes to Mother and walked out the door. Mother kissed Simon on the head and told him to listen to Father. But before he could leave, his grandmother coughed and asked Simon to come see her. She sat in her chair, her one crooked eye looking at Simon’s feet as she hacked and blew mucus out of her lungs. When Simon got close she grabbed his arm and pulled him to her face, her one eye now crazed and hot, looking into Simon’s eyes. She said, “The Bunny takes naughty children to the cabbage patch where they run and run and run and run and run!” Simon wrenched free from her claw and hurried out the door as his grandmother cackled into a cough.

The walk from the village to the fields gave the men time to sing, pray, think, whatever they wanted. They walked on lush green grass at a comfortable pace and the sky was a calm blue and with the sunlight on their shoulders the walk was almost pleasant, but to the men it was akin to a funeral march. Most men stayed quiet on the walk, alone in their head, but Father prayed out loud and sang hymns for everyone to hear. He reminded Simon of all his duties and reminded him to be thankful for all they had.

As Father started another hymn, Simon thought of his older brother Alfred. The night before Alfred turned 8, Mother cried and begged Father not to let him go to the fields. She said he was too weak and too sweet and Father said it was his duty. They argued all night and when it came time for Father and his two eldest sons to go to work, Alfred stayed home. Father agreed to wait one year out of the love he had for Mother. When Alfred turned 9 Mother asked if they could wait another year but Father refused.

Alfred had proven to be too weak to work the fields. Father beat him for his transgressions. Alfred had help from his two brothers, but when Father found out he beat them too, so they stopped. For days Alfred struggled and toiled under the hot sun. Father told him that the Reaper was just and generous to those who honored the pact and those who didn’t would face judgment.

The men of the village worked the fields to feed the Reaper. The Reaper had come to their village and plucked those he wanted indiscriminately in the night: men, women, boys, and girls. Finally the villagers had made an offering of produce, a scant gift of cabbage, and placed it at the foot of the hills. The Reaper was kept at bay and so the covenant was made. The belfry was built and the bell was hung to commemorate this covenant and the count was instituted for the sake of their faith. Two bell tolls meant grace, one bell toll meant immorality.

Most believed the Reaper lived on the dark mountain out west, while some of the old men with broken backs swore he lived underground, underneath the village. The women had taken to calling it the Bunny when explaining him to young children, saying that the Bunny needs to be fed or else he will eat naughty boys and girls.

Alfred woke his mother one night and told her he saw the Bunny in his dreams. Mother begged Father not to take him back to the fields. Father raged against her, saying he had already cost his son one year, he would not do another. Father said that Alfred would grow strong, and when he has a family, he will teach his sons. The next morning, Father made his count as the head of the household, but he could not find Alfred. Father checked every home in the village but his son did not turn up. The village minister harrumphed with impatience when Father finally came to give his count. Father gave his report and the minister hung his head. He told the magistrate to draw the bellpull just once and the bell moaned across the valley and the echo carried through the hills but broke upon the dark mountain.

Only a few desperate men ever tried to escape from the valley. One man lost his son and told Father that he was going to find him beyond the hills, before he got to that awful mountain. He left before reporting his count so Father did it for him. The man had headed west for the hills and he must have heard the bell peal across the valley, tolling for his son’s death and foretelling his own.

Arriving at the fields the men went to work. Today was harvesting day. The heads of the households, fathers, grandfathers, and a few teenage boys, were to haul loads to the foot of the hills. The younger men were to reap the produce from the soil and load them into the hand-driven carts. Simon saw rows of carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and cabbages. Beyond them lie the hills, and then the mountain, which looked so far away Simon thought a man might die of old age before he ever reached it.

Simon collected and loaded the crops into the wagons and carts, bent over, cutting them away from the earth with his blade. The cutting and hauling worked him to the bone. His sweat fell into the soil and he hoped that he did not make the ground infertile. When he needed a minute of rest, his brothers carried the produce for him. Up and down the long rows and among the many patches the boys worked as men, the way their fathers and grandfathers had taught them.

The men carried their loads towards the hills and then returned to pick up freshly packed carts to take on another voyage. Near dusk the men returned from their final delivery and took their boys home. Father told Simon he had done well. Simon beamed with pride and joined his father in singing a hymn on the walk home. The setting sun behind them, the sky above was a serene purple.

Mother stood in the doorway and ran to Simon and hugged him tight. Dinner was ready inside, she said, and told the men to come to the table. It was a meager dinner but Simon was too full of pride to feel hungry. Lying in bed that night Simon hummed to himself a hymn, but he stopped when he heard Mother crying in the other room. She told Father she thought the illness would finally take her. Simon kept his ear to the wall and felt hot tears run down his face. He would make Mother better. He was a man now, and he would take care of her. He had honored the covenant so why should he not receive a blessing?

When everyone else was asleep, Simon slipped out of his bed and quietly crawled out of his bedroom window with a sack over his shoulder. He headed west, towards the fields, where he would gather some of the remaining crops left to harvest for the next day. The new moon offered no light and the stars were patched over with gray clouds. Strangely, the only thing he could see in the dark was the mountain far out west, silhouetted with a faint glow. The mountain gave him a fixed point to head towards and he began the long walk.

The clouds above swirled and ran across the sky and finally all the stars were choked out and the green grass underneath his feet became a black ocean. He looked back and couldn’t see the village. The mountain had faded into darkness, as well. He turned in all directions, looking for something to anchor himself, but all he saw was the dark valley stretching into infinity. Panicking, he ran straight ahead. Towards what, he didn’t know.

The night was humid. It felt like damp ghosts were clinging to him, begging to be delivered from the valley. Fog slithered across the ground and through the air, leaving Simon all but blind. Running, his chest on fire, he tripped over something and he gave the dirt a hard kiss. Simon felt the round lump he tripped over and brought it close to his face, cutting through the fog. It was a ripe cabbage. He had found the patch. If Mother had better breakfasts and dinners, she wouldn’t be sick anymore, so he filled his sack with cabbages, cutting them away from the earth.

The fog slowly lifted and the clouds above lurched across the sky until the stars peaked through. Simon could now see the ground around him and saw cabbages, stretching into infinity in all directions. But this couldn’t be. He had worked hard all day and there hadn’t been this many when he left. Turning in all directions the cabbages confounded him, but when he saw the dark shape across the rows, he halted.

The shape was taller and bigger than any man in the village, with two long appendages on the top, reaching for the sky. Simon could not make out any features in the dark, except for the two red dots glaring at him. The shape was far away, he could out run it. He dropped his full sack and ran in the opposite direction, in between the rows of cabbages. The dark mountain was glowing again and Simon ran towards it. He looked back and saw the shape gaining on him.

The next morning Father could not wake Mother and he hoped that the Reaper had shown her mercy. Father entered the boys’ room and saw that Simon was not in his bed. He woke the two boys and asked where was Simon but they didn’t know. Father checked all the other homes in the village and refused to report his count. He insisted his boy was still alive, that he must be in the fields already working and he would find him there. The magistrate drew the bellpull for one solemn ring, and the echo carried through the valley, over the hills, and towards the dark mountain as Father walked alone towards the fields, singing a hymn.