The Innisfree no. 6: Benni and Ray

Benni sat on the porch steps of his best friend, Raymond. The step sank a little under his weight. He made a note to replace the step next week. Everything was quiet inside the house now that Kaitlyn had finally fallen asleep. Behind him, the front door opened to a darkened hallway. A single candle fluttered in the kitchen at the end of the hallway, glinting like an eye in the gloom.

The moon was high and bright and it splayed through the bare persimmon branches, splaying twisted shadows through the winter stalks and seed heads of Ray's front garden. The wind blew the thin scrim of powdery snow around the yard, pooling in corners and around rocks. Benni shivered a little, then blew on his hands and stuffed them under his armpits.

He hard a creak behind him, and turned to see Symone padding toward him with a cup of tea. It steamed in the winter chill. Symone was barefoot, as was her usual custom, her footfalls almost perfectly silent, if not for the odd creaking floorboard. She sat down next to him, and he felt the porch step sag more under her added weight.

"I'll get this replaced tomorrow," he said, taking the cup of tea from Symone's outstretched hand. "There'll be a lot of people coming through her. Don't want anyone to trip."

Symone put an arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder as she'd done since they were kids, and Benni leaned into her while he shrugged around the steam of the tea. He didn't cry because he'd cried enough already, but Symone sniffled softly. He sipped the tea.

"Poor Kaitlyn," said Symone, and Benni nodded and they sat in silence for a long time.

"Poor Kaitlyn," Benni said finally, nodding again.

The wind gusted across the yard, and Benni heard a dull metallic clang drifting on the air. It was the wind rattle he and Ray had made together when they were 6 years old. They'd been very proud of it, and Ray had brought it with him everywhere he went, hanging it in some conspicuous place where the wind would catch it and neighbors would ask questions. It had been Ray's idea mostly. He'd been the one who found the little pieces of rusty metal and thought of the idea to turn them into a wind rattle. Benni had never heard of wind rattle, but Ray explained that wind rattles were a way to keep bad spirits away from your house. He said his Uncle Elijah had told him about them last summer. You had to make them out of rusty metal so they made a thudding kind of noise instead of a normal wind chime. Apparently bad spirits hated the sound of rusty metal clanking. Benni mostly believed everything Ray said at that age and so he went along, offering suggestions on the construction of their wind rattle. It was Benni's idea to add dried sticks and pieces of wood to the rattle to add another kind of sound. He also made the dye they used on the sticks to make them dark red. He used a couple of beets from the root cellar and his mom had been very mad at him. They tied all the metal and dyed sticks together with a few slender pieces of rope, and when they dangled it for the first time and heard the thunking and thonking, they were very pleased with themselves. It had become a bit of a symbol for their friendship, which had managed to make it to 68 years. Until this evening.

Benni stood up and hand the cup of tea back to Symone. She took it and looked up at him.

"I'm going to go to Luke's and let him know," he said. "And then I'm going to bed. There's a lot to do tomorrow."

He walked down the mulched lane that led to the road. The wind blew again and he heard the wind rattle. Tears dried on his cheeks.