Bellmaker v. Bhikkhuni

The rain continues. The Bellmaker stands beneath the tree, the Bhikkhu's stinking robe over his head.

Then the rain stops.

The Bellmaker drags the body of the Bhikkhu to the pyre. He covers him with the robe. He walks to the creek. Then west, downstream. Every thirty paces or so he crouches and checks the soil at the bank. He pauses just east of the small tributary, spots something and kneels. Reaching out, he presses his thumb into a stripe of blueish clay running along the edge of the gulch. He pinches off a piece the size of an acorn and rolls it between his fingers. He smells it, tastes it, and determines it excellent clay for a mold.

He looks up.

The Bhikkhuni arrives from the road. She, unlike the Bhikkhu, has a robe of single cut. It's red. Her head is shaved. She carries a walking stick and an alms bowl. She affects a stern, purposeful look as she walks toward the Bellmaker.

He tells of her his discovery. She kneels and touches the clay. It's moist and frigid. He explains his intentions.

The two dig with their fingers until their fingers are numb. They collect the clay in the alms bowl. When the alms bowl overflows, the Bellmaker collects the clay in his shirt, lifting it to form a papoose.

They take the clay to the table. There, as the Bhikkhuni examines the guns, the Bellmaker draws a design on the bottom of the List of the Dead. Then, taking the deck of cards from his coat pocket, begins listing instructions. An instruction for each card, starting with clubs, in ascending order, alphabetically, to spades. Finished, he lays the cards on the table. He heaps the clay in the bowl, drapes the bowl with - after running to collect it - a damp rag torn from the Bhikkhu's robe.

While he runs the Bhikkhuni sees the diagram: a small bell, five inches in height.

Why this, she asks as he drapes the damp rag over the clay.

The Bellmaker doesn't know. It seems like the only thing he knew to do, at a time when the need to do something is strong.

They chose their guns and take the field, standing ten paces apart.

They raise their guns. Their guns go off.