53: Up the Path

The walking south, with five, was slower than the walking north, with two, had been.

It was slower because the lame boy and Lao Wen — by the small specific accumulating arithmetic of the past two days that Heizi had not, until this morning, been carrying in his head — were each at the small specific careful walking-pace of bodies that had not, at the past moons, been at long winter walking. The lame boy's foot, at the noon of the first day, had begun to stiffen against the new hand-deep snow at the small old herders' paths in a way it had not stiffened in five months. Lao Wen's old hip, by the same noon, had begun to give the small specific intermittent dull ache that the old man — by the small specific reading of the small even way he set his sandal at the small angle of each stop — had been managing for many years.

Heizi walked behind both.

Wang Er led. The smith's son — by the small specific accumulating reading of the household's small specific arrangement — had taken the small specific role of breaking the path through the new fresh snow. He walked with the small steady weight of his slow honest body, setting the small specific track ahead of him with the small specific careful angle Heizi had not, in his own walking yesterday with Lao Wen, been quite achieving. The smith's son had — by the small specific instinctive reading of a young man who had spent his life at the bellows and the splitting axe — a small specific natural gift for laying a clean even track in fresh snow.

An Ashi, behind Wang Er, walked second. The boy was — by the small specific reading at the noon of the first day — at the small specific accumulating fitness of three months at the camp. He was no longer the small thin Sogdian boy of the snow gully. He was a young man — still thin, still small, still in the small specific recovery from a year's hard road — who could walk, at this winter day, at the smith's son's pace without the small specific intermittent rest the lame boy and Lao Wen required.

Heizi himself walked third. He carried the larger of the two small bundles — the millet sack from Lu Wen-han, the salt-pork jar, the larger of the small clay pots, the small bow and quiver. The bundle was perhaps half the household's stores. The remaining half — split with care, by the lame boy's small specific allocation at the morning of departure — was on Wang Er's back and An Ashi's.

The lame boy walked fourth, in the small place of safety in the middle of the line. He carried only his own small bundle, with the small carved horse and the small finished elm-wood bird and the second wooden bowl folded inside. The bad foot, at the slow careful pace, took the new snow without the small specific cracking it had taken in autumn. The salve from the eastern-pine hermit's small clay bottle was — by the lame boy's small report at the morning fire — almost gone; he would need, in the next moon, a new one. Lao Wen, by the small specific reading at the first turn south of the lip, had said he had — at the hut — a small clay bottle of his own salve, of a different recipe, that the lame boy would test against the foot in the first week.

Lao Wen walked last. The old scholar set his own pace.

By the dusk of the first day, they had walked perhaps four *li*.

By the dusk of the second day, perhaps eight.

By the dawn of the third day, they were — by Heizi's small specific accumulating arithmetic of the path — perhaps a *li* north of the small flat hollow at the foot of the bear-back.

They came up over the lip at the noon of the third day.

They came down off the lip slowly. Lao Wen — by the small specific reading of the slow careful walking of an old scholar at fifty-five who had made the same trip down at the start of the storm five days ago, at his own pace and alone, and who had now made the same trip back up with five — paused at the lip for a long moment. He laid one hand on a small thin pine at the lip's edge. He breathed. He let the small specific accumulating fatigue of two and a half days of walking come into his small old chest and rest there for a quarter hour.

The brothers waited at the lip.

They did not — by the small specific accumulating discipline of the past three months at the small flat place — hurry the old man.

When Lao Wen had taken his quarter hour, he straightened up — slowly — and went on.

They came down the small slope into the small flat hollow.

The small flat hollow, at the noon of this winter day, was — by the small specific accumulating layer of new winter snow over the past four days — a small white bowl. The small clear pool at the center, where the three streams met, was a small white-and-grey roundness of clean ice with a small thin layer of fresh snow above. The small old herder's path that went up the western face to the grove of twelve pines was — by the small accumulating snow — a small thin line of slightly-more-trodden snow that Lao Wen and Heizi had laid at their dawn descent five days ago and had laid again in some small accumulating reverse at the present coming-back.

The grove of twelve pines stood on the small terrace at the foot of the bear-back's western face.

There was a small thin column of smoke rising from it.

Lao Wen, at the bottom of the small slope, looked up.

He nodded — once, slowly.

Heizi understood, by the small specific change in the old scholar's face, that the column of smoke had been a thing the old man had been — at the small interior level of an old scholar at his own small specific careful homecoming — quietly worried about. The hut had been left for four days. The small live coal under the small banked fire had been left at the dawn of the storm's last day, with a small specific careful reading of how long the small live coal would, by the small accumulating ash, hold.

The small live coal had held.

The hut, by the small specific reading of the small thin column at the noon, was — at this homecoming — at its small banked fire's small low warmth.

The old man let out, very small, a single small breath.

He said, in the small low voice: *lads.*

They looked at him.

"My hut is — by the small specific reading at the noon — still mine. We will go up. The lame brother will, by the small specific reading of the slow walking of the past two days, take the steepest part at his own pace. The smith's son will go ahead. The boy will come behind him. The big brother will walk with the lame brother and with me, at the slow pace at the back. We will, by the dusk, be at the hut."

They went up.

They went up the small old herder's path slowly, in the small specific arrangement Lao Wen had laid. The smith's son, at the front, broke the path through the small accumulating new snow. An Ashi followed. The lame boy and Heizi and Lao Wen came at the back, at the slow careful pace.

By the third turn — the same turn Heizi had been at five days ago in the storm — Tie-zhu's bad foot had begun, by the small specific accumulating cold and the small specific accumulating steepness, to fail.

He did not — by the small specific accumulating discipline of five months — say so.

Heizi noticed. He filed it.

He did not — at the third turn — call out to the brothers ahead. He fell back beside the lame boy. He laid one hand, briefly, on the lame boy's elbow, in the small specific way the brothers had — at certain specific small moments at the small flat place — used to take a fraction of weight off the bad foot.

The lame boy looked at him.

He nodded.

He took the small specific offer.

They walked, the two of them, at the slow specific pace of the lame boy's bad foot, with Heizi's hand at the elbow taking perhaps a small specific fraction of the lame boy's weight at every uneven step.

Lao Wen, behind them, walked in the small specific careful way he had been walking for two days.

By the fifth turn, the lame boy was — by the small specific reading of his small still face — at the small accumulating edge of his foot's day. Heizi understood that the lame boy would, in the next twenty paces, fall.

He stopped.

"Lame brother. Sit. We will rest a quarter hour."

The lame boy did not — by the small specific accumulating discipline — protest. He sat down on a small flat stone at the edge of the path.

Lao Wen, behind them, came up. He sat — slowly, with the small specific careful unfolding — on the small flat stone beside the lame boy.

The two of them — the lame boy of eighteen and the old scholar of fifty-five — sat at the same small flat stone, in the small thin grey of the early afternoon, with the small accumulating new snow at their feet.

The lame boy, after a long beat, said in the small low voice: *grandfather. The foot.*

"Yes, lame brother. I see."

"It will — by the small specific accumulating cold — not, by the next turn, take the steeper place."

"No."

"We will — we will need, perhaps, the smith's son to come back."

"Perhaps."

Lao Wen looked at the lame boy.

"Lame brother."

"Yes, grandfather."

"Will you let me — for the next two turns — walk in front of you, so that the smith's son can break the path beside you? The smith's son will, by the small specific reading I am giving now, take half your weight on his shoulder for the next twenty paces. You will then sit again. We will, by the small specific accumulating arrangement of three rests, come up to the hut by the dusk."

"Yes, grandfather."

Lao Wen called, low, up the path: *smith's son. Come back. We will need you at the steeper place.*

Wang Er — by the small specific reading of the call — stopped at the upper bend. He turned. He came back down. An Ashi followed.

The smith's son came up to the small flat stone.

He looked at the lame boy, at his foot, at Lao Wen, at Heizi.

He nodded.

He said, in the small low voice: *lame brother. On.*

He crouched at the lame boy's side. He took the lame boy's right arm across his own shoulder. He stood up — slowly — taking, by the small specific careful way of a smith's son's slow honest weight, half of the lame boy's weight onto his own shoulder.

Tie-zhu set the bad foot down at the small specific angle the new arrangement allowed.

The angle was easier.

They walked the next twenty paces at the slow steady pace of the smith's son's careful step. They sat, at the small specific natural rest at the next turn, again. They walked another twenty. They sat. They walked.

By the second hour of the late afternoon, they had reached the top of the small old herder's path.

The grove of twelve pines opened in front of them.

Lao Wen led.

He led, at the small specific careful pace of an old scholar at his own homecoming, through the small specific cluster of the old pines. He walked past the first, the second, the third. By the fourth, he turned inward.

The hut stood — at the small grey of the late afternoon — in its small specific shape.

The small thin column of smoke rose from the small clay-pot chimney at the back of the southern wall.

The hempen flap at the door was as Lao Wen had left it five days ago.

At the small flat stone beside the door, the small piece of pine bark with the *出* character was — by the small specific accumulating snow — covered, but the small flat pebble that had weighted it was still visible.

Lao Wen came up to the door. He bent — slowly — and brushed the snow off the small piece of pine bark. He laid the bark on the small flat stone. He took up the small flat pebble and put it back in his coat pocket.

He turned. He looked at the four young men.

He said, in the small low voice with the small specific southern-Henan accent:

"Lads. Come in."

He lifted the hempen flap.

He held it open.

The smith's son, with the lame boy still on his shoulder, came in first. He set the lame boy down — slowly, gently — at the western wall of the hut, on the small low pad of pine needles Heizi had been at for three nights. An Ashi came in second. He stopped at the door and looked, for a long beat, at the small interior of the hut — the small low cot, the small wooden table, the small low altar with the three-name tablet, the small wooden corner-shelf with the small bound book and the small wooden box of inscribed tablets — and his small thin eyes took it all in with the small specific accumulating reading of a Sogdian merchant's son who had been raised in a small house with books on the small interior shelves and who had, on this winter afternoon, come into the first such house he had been in in nine months.

He did not, in the small interior, speak.

He stepped to the eastern wall and stood quietly.

Heizi came in third.

He laid his bundle at the western wall beside the lame boy's place. He set the small clay pot of millet at the small fire-stones. He banked the small fire's small live coal under fresh kindling. The fire took.

Lao Wen came in last.

He closed the hempen flap behind him.

He stood at the door for a moment, looking at the four young men.

He did not — by the small specific reading of his small steady eyes — say anything.

He went, slowly, to the small low altar at the back of the hut. He laid one hand, briefly, on the small wooden tablet with the three names. He stood at the altar for a quarter minute. He turned and came to the small fire.

He sat on the small wooden stool.

He said, in the small low voice: *lads. The hut is — for as long as you would have it — yours. You will sleep on the floor at the western wall. There is room for four. The cot is mine. The small low table is for eating and for the small old work of writing. The small altar at the back is — by the small specific arrangement of an old scholar's hut — only mine; you will not lay anything at it without my asking. The small wooden corner-shelf with the small bound book and the small wooden box of tablets is — by the small specific reading of a household coming up to a hut for a winter — also mine, but you will, in the next four months, by the small specific arrangement of the small daily teaching, see them and use them in my company at the small wooden table."

He paused.

"You will — at the small daily shape of this hut — wake before the second cock. The big brother will lay the morning fire and water. The smith's son will gather wood from the small kindling pile at the back of the hut. The lame brother, when the foot is up, will work at the small wooden bench I have at the eastern wall — yes, lame brother, there is a small wooden bench; you have not seen it; it is folded against the wall and I will set it out tomorrow. The boy will count and cook and keep the small specific stores. I will, at the small wooden table at the morning, sit and watch and read. We will eat at the noon. We will work in the afternoon. We will sit at the small fire in the evening. We will — by the small specific arrangement of the long evenings — read at the small wooden table."

He paused once more.

"That is the small daily shape, lads. We will, in the next four months, at the slow even way of an old scholar's hut at a winter, see whether the small daily shape holds for you."

He looked at each of them in turn.

"Lads. Sleep tonight at the western wall. There is room for four. There are blankets in the small chest at the foot of my cot — three blankets, plus the one at the head of the small low pad at the western wall the big brother has been using. We have — by the small specific accumulating count — four blankets. There are five of us. I will, tonight, sleep at the cot under my own coat. The four of you will, by the small specific way of four blankets, share."

He paused.

"In the morning, lame brother, I will make you a small fifth blanket. There is a small folded length of old hempen cloth at the chest. I have been, in the past five years at this hut, telling myself I would, in some unfound year, sew it into a small fifth blanket. The unfound year is — at this dusk — found."

The lame boy nodded.

He did not — at the small fire — speak.

That night, after a small portion of millet at the small fire that Lao Wen had cooked in his own clay pot — not Cao Ergou's, which had stayed at the camp — and a single small slice of dried venison each, the four young men laid out on the small low pad at the western wall.

They slept in the small specific arrangement Lao Wen had not — at the dusk — quite specified, but that the lame boy, by the small specific accumulating discipline of three months at the small flat place, had — at the small turning-down of the small fire — quietly arranged: the smith's son at the eastern end of the pad, where the eastern wall met the small wadded blanket; the boy at his side, with the lame brother at the boy's other side; Heizi at the western end, against the western wall.

The lame boy lay between the boy and Heizi.

Heizi, lying on his back at the western wall, listened to the four small specific even breaths of the brothers and to the small even breath of Lao Wen at the cot at the eastern wall.

The hut was — at this first night of the household at it — a small interior holding five young breathings.

He filed it.

In the small lighter catalog of moments, he set: *the small specific arrangement of four young men on a small low pad and an old scholar on a small low cot at the small old hut at the grove of twelve pines, on the third night after the small specific decision of the household's small medical-eye operator.*

He listened.

The shape of the silence on this night was — for the first time in nine months — the shape of a small interior household at a small old hut whose count had been, before this dusk, three names short of seven, and was — at this dusk — full.

He slept.