Oh Well is a short story in my upcoming novel of short stories set in the world of Kingdom. It is about a young servant girl who meets a rich landowner at a wishing well.
Radiance Hartstone and Roger Jolly are two characters in my short stories and novels I come back to over and over. You may wonder what happened to Roger and Radiance after the events of Oh Well. The following narrative tells that story.
Roger Comes Home
When Hollander Jolly, called on Roger Jolly in his small cabin of a house, Hollander didn’t expect to see his brother still in his bed. Hollander roused him, growling. “’Tis almost noon, Roger. Wake, and join me in reviewing today’s produce.”
His unshaven, dirty brother threw his threadbare sheet down. “What is the point of that?”
Hollander sat in a small chair by the bed while Roger sat up. Hollander leaned toward his younger sibling. “My point is this idleness cannot go on. You have but to count your blessings: you have your life, you have your home, you have me and my wife to look after you. You could resume your farming.”
Roger glanced down at the space where his toes should be. “Without a leg?”
“I have money,” replied Hollander. “We will make you a leg. With a little magic, you shall nearly be yourself again.”
Roger looked at the blank wall. “I will never be myself again. I am a man without a kingdom.”
Hollander shifted in his chair. “I am not comfortable speaking about this subject.”
Roger’s face snapped around to face his elder brother. “You serve a false king.”
“I never believed our king was merciful only effective.”
“We lost, Holly. How can you say our land, Kingdom, is effective? Our enemy province of Nor continues to make inroads into Kingdom led by that brute of their leader and her bloodthirsty daughter. The town of Bremen doesn’t pay the king’s tax but extorts money from its residents. We are brewing murderers in Exile, and God only knows what the king is creating in Tusk. The world is in chaos.”
Hollander said, “The royal city remains resplendent. I was there a short while ago and it is always a marvel to see the royal palace.”
“And how many pixie scalps did you pass? Most of the money flowing from Town comes from this type of low enterprise.”
“Some compromises must be made to—”
Roger interrupted, “You forget a pixie named Bali saved my life after our king sent me to die in the Forest of Death! Listen, I do not want to fight. My life is over. Let me remain here and die.”
“Your life is over on the cusp of your twentieth year?”
“Yes, a one-legged man is not much use to anyone.” Roger stared forlornly at his missing limb. “Is that not what King Shade said to me when I returned? Didn’t he call me a disgrace to his forces?”
Hollander examined a spot on the floor. “Roger, perhaps the king was impatient with you, but your townspeople love you. They wish to see you again. Come to the festival. Enjoy yourself.”
Roger rubbed his thigh above his missing leg, a habit he had developed after losing it. “They love a shadow. The man they seek died in the Forest of Death along with his friends.”
Hollander stood. “I see there is no getting through to you in this mood. I will try again.” He walked to the door. “Again and again. I love you, Roger. Not a shadow, but the man you are, and the man you could become.”
He left the cabin and Roger fell back on the bed.
***
When Radiance heard her sisters whispering, she couldn’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation. She had a guess as to what they were talking about, and she was right. Roger Jolly had returned from his tour of duty in Kingdom’s army. She had run to Soro’s Well, their well, to greet him upon hearing the news, but Roger hadn’t shown up. Disappointed, Radiance returned day after day but the young heir of the Jolly estate never made an appearance. She wanted desperately to see him, but she knew her stepmother wouldn’t allow her to visit him.
Today, she had distinctly heard her older stepsister say his name while cleaning the walls in the visiting room. Her sisters were in an adjacent room. Radiance put her ear to the thin wall and strained to listen to her sisters Nita and Clyde. She found this an easy endeavor as Nita’s voice was shrill, and Clyde talked as if she were outside all the time.
“You saw him? You saw Roger Jolly?” asked Clyde.
Nita. “Yes, Hollander was with him. They were in the market. At first, I didn’t recognize him.”
“Because his muscles have increased from his tour of duty?”
“No,” sneered Nita. “Because he has lost his leg and has let himself go to waste.”
Clyde. “What? Lost a leg?”
“Yes, he was leaning on a crutch like a common cripple. There were rumors that I didn’t tell you Clyde. I had hoped for your sake they were not true, but they are. He is spent, and it is useless to continue to dream about a pairing.”
“But, could he not be useful in some way?”
Radiance could picture Nita frowning at his sister when she replied. “Are you going to do the farming? He cannot. Are you going to wait on him? If it were not for his handsome brother, he would be a beggar now. One of the long line of people we pass on the way to the market with their bowls in their hands like dogs. And that is not the worst of it.”
“What could be worse?”
Nita. “His appearance. Grizzled, long beard. Scraggly hair. He was a disgrace. He looked far older too. The war changed him, Clydamonte.”
“It is not fair. I love him.” When Clyde said love, it sounded like whining not pining.
“You will not love him any more the next time you see him. If you ever see him, they say he is living in the cabin on their father’s property and that he refuses to see anyone.”
Clyde replied, “Perhaps, with the right wife, and a magical restoration of the leg, he could become the person he once was.”
“I warn you, Clyde. Mother will not allow it. She sniffed at him when she passed. Do you know who else we saw at the market? Thomas Weir? Do you remember him? He has grown up, and what a man! Now, I saw him first Clyde, remember that. I plan to approach him and…”
Radiance stopped listening, her tears streaming down her face. She was grateful he had returned alive but worried he had changed. She resolved right there to speak to him. But how?
Radiance looked at her clothes which were torn and covered with dirt. She didn’t know how, it might take a wish at a special place, but she would see Roger Jolly again!