Andrew stared at the woods, frustrated and confused. Why was Danny so upset at Yitzy? Ok, so he did some funny things. Andrew knew about that, what with his dad’s new kick. His old friends were all freaked that his mom was pregnant again, even making some rather crude comments about ‘old people’. But why was Danny so upset about it, even embarrassed?

And what was the difference between them, anyway? Every time that Andrew thought he had something figured out, one of the two of them were different about it. Danny spoke Hebrew badly, but it sounded like Yitzy spoke it well. Danny inhaled his milk but Yitzy had to have water, and in a paper cup, too. What was up with that?

“Andrew! Where is the house?”

“What?” Andrew said, looking back uphill through the trees, “I dunno. Up there somewhere. We didn’t come in the woods that far.”

“But I can’t see it.”

“It’s probably just behind one of those bushes or something,” Andrew said. “Listen,  you can see the creek from my room, “So you’ve gotta be able to see my room from the creek. Let’s walk up the creek a ways.That will keep us closer to the house, anyway, so we’ll be able to hear Yitzy when he comes out.” Andrew continued, pointing down to the creek just below them. What was Danny so freaked out about? Was the kid not used to walking in woods? They’d only walked a minute or so, downhill. The house was obviously behind that stand of trees.

“Ok…,” Danny said, sounding doubtful. “I guess I just thought we should be able to still see the house from here…”

Andrew didn’t see what the big deal was. They had only walked about a minute away from the house. Yitzy would be able to yell out when he came outside and they would hear him!

Andrew led the way toward the creek, Danny following but glancing back and around all the time. A couple of times, through the trees, Andrew saw glimpses of that balloon or whatever Danny was looking at. Maybe it was an ultralight! Maybe all costumed up with a dragon outfit thing for some event or whatever. It sure had looked like a dragon the first time he saw it, and it still did! Not even all that far away, either. And he couldn’t hear it, like you would think you would with an ultralight.

“I’m gonna wade,” Andrew said, when the reached the creek, and sitting down and taking his shoes off. “I did that at camp the other summer, and its fun. Do you ever wade?”

“Yeah, sure. Swim, too, when we find a pool deep enough. But where is the house?” Danny asked again, looking back uphill.

“We’ll see it!” Andrew insisted, going down into the water. “We’ll just go up and down the creek a bit. I told you, I can see it from my window. It’s just up there. Chill. Haven’t you ever been in the woods before?”

“Oh, umm, yeah, yeah, I just got turned around, I guess,” Danny said, turning red and sitting down to take his own shoes off.

“Hey, what’s with you and Yitzy, anyway?” Andrew asked. “He seems a nice enough kid. Why are you on his case?”

“Oh, he’s nice. It’s just all of this religious rules.”

“I don’t understand. You’re Jewish too.”

“It’s complicated. Yitzy is Orthodox, which means they keep a whole bunch of rules and things.”

“I know about that!” Andrew said. “My dad has gotten us into a bunch of new stuff. Natalie’s kind of ticked. There’s all sorts of clothes she’s not allowed to wear anymore. At least, not around boys like you.”

“Is that what happened t his morning?’

“Oh, yeah. If Dad had seen her she would have gotten a big lecture.”

“I didn’t see anything wrong with what she wore. Anyway, they have all sorts of rules that don’t even make sense anymore. Pork used to have some diseases, so the old Jews couldn’t eat it. But we know, now, that you just have to cook it really well.”

“I can’t imagine not being able to eat ham,” Andrew agreed. “It’s one of my favorites.”

“Say, he said, after a minute, “I like his name. Yitzchak,” he said, trying for the sound that Yitzy had made. “I wish I had a name like that. Well, maybe not for all the time, but for fun. What would my Bible name be?”

“I dunno. What does ‘Andrew’ mean, anyway?”

“Righteous Warrior,” I think. Mom told me, but I kept forgetting.

“Ummm… I’ve never heard of a name like that.”

Danny stopped and looked up the hill, while Andrew pulled out his iphone. “Lohem-Tzedek!” Andrew said triumphantly.

“What?”

“Lohem-Tzedek! That’s my Hebrew name!”

“Oh, Andrew, don’t be silly. I’ve never heard of a name like that! Look, don’t you think we better go down the creek now? I’ve been watching the whole time and haven’t seen your house.”

The turned downhill, with Andrew leaping in front of Danny causing Danny to yell a bit when the cold water splashed his thighs. “Come on!”

Andrew was a bit surprised that Yitzy’s bread blessing thing was taking all this long. How did he get anything else done in the day, if he had to spend this long on each meal? It’s not like it was thanksgiving or something!

Danny recovered and chased Andrew, both boy’s shorts getting a bit wet with all of the splashing. And at one point, when Danny caught up with Andrew, Andrew tripped and plunged to his knees in the water.

“Watch out,” Danny said. “If you get your shorts all wet you’ll have to go in and get changed.”

“Oh, my mom will never notice,” Andrew said. “Come on.”

He darted off ahead to where, just in front of them, the stream, ran went around a curve but when Andrew got around the curve he stopped, startled, and Danny plowed into his back. There was a boy, about his age, or a little older… definitely a little bigger, kneeling in front of Andrew, drinking from the stream with cupped hands and staring at them curiously.

And what a boy. Dark skinned, almost Indian like, dark black hair that Andrew could see peeking out from behind his neck, like some funny kind of ponytail. And wearing nothing except a pair of leather overalls!

“Greetings,” the boy said.

Andrew just stared, leaving it to Danny to say, “Ummm, hi,” and reach forward to shake hands.

The boy looked a bit startled, but turned his hand toward his mouth, spit on it, and, before Danny could react, took Danny’s hand, shaking it gravely, “May the blessings of Torren-Ra and your name gods be upon you,” he said.

Danny took his hand back, looking frankly appalled. But Andrew, remembering camp last summer, spit on his own hand and held it out. The other boy (without spitting again, which made Andrew feel a bit better) took it and shook it. “I’m Andrew,” Andrew said.

“I am Torren, son of Torren,” the boy said.

Andrew finally noticed that the boy had a bow on his shoulder, and a knife on his belt, a great big knife that looked handmade. This was way cool. Not only another new neighbor, but one that was into some kind of reenactment kind of game. The spitting part was clear enough, but Andrew found the overalls kind of weird. What Indian tribe had worn overalls?

“We have not met before?” the boy said. Andrew really didn’t know this dialect or whatever, but he tried his best.

“But we are honored by the meeting,” he said, trying to match the boy’s grave tone. “We hope we have not disturbed your hunting.”

“Well, splashing around in the creek will scare off the game, that’s for sure,” the boy said, breaking dialect a bit. “But I was not hunting at the moment. I was cleaning my kill.”

“Really?” Andrew said, excited.

“Surely,” Torren said, and pointed toward a tree, where a small deer was hanging half skinned.

“What!” Danny burst out. “You can’t do that! The rangers are going to kill you!”

The boy, Torren, whipped out his bow in a blur and had an arrow knocked. “Rangers? Who are they? Must they be fought, or can they be appeased? What kind of offering will they accept?”

“They’ll accept an offering all right, and it will be an arm and a leg.”

“Then I and mine will fight them rather than pay such a sacrifice. But who are these rangers? Never have I heard of them. Did they come with you from a far land?”

“What kind of…” Danny started to say, but Andrew interrupted.

“I and mine come from a far land,” he intoned, enjoying this game and not really caring about park rangers and a dead deer. The boy probably had a primitive hunting permit anyway. “Long we traveled from the Land’s to the East and South to arrive at… to come to my Great Aunt’s house,” he finished, lamely, not coming up with a good way to describe the house they were living in. Perhaps he should have said, “the house on the hill.”

“And you?” Torren asked, turning to Danny? “What is your name, and from where do you come?”

“I’m Danny, and I live down the road a ways, in the subdivision. I can’t believe you killed that deer.”

“It was not a hard shot,” Torren said, turning back to the deer. “It was unwary, eating in a clearing.” When he turned Andrew noted with shock that he didn’t’ have a pony tail! His hair was cut short all round, but it literally continued a few inches down his neck! Like to the top of his back. Andrew wondered if that was some kind of deformity or what? He knew he couldn’t ask. Way too embarrassing.

Torren reached way up and started pulling at the deer skin, having to stand on his tiptoes. Why on Earth had he tied it so high?

“It is perhaps difficult to hold standard form this long?” Torren asked, after getting the skin down a few inches.

“What is…” Andrew started, but Danny interrupted.

“Where is Yitzy!” he said. “His stupid prayers can’t be taking this long?”

“Yitzy?” Torren asked. “Another of your friends?”

“Yeah,” Andrew said, lapsing out of dialect as he realized that it had really be a while for Yitzy, and he wasn’t being a very good host, off playing with one friend while leaving another one at home with his mom and Natalie, who was probably talking his ear off. “We left him at my house, over there.”

Andrew turned back from pointing toward his house and saw that Torren had turned white. “Your friend… your house… you are from the Spirit House?”

“I didn’t know it had a name,” Andrew admitted, wondering why the kid was so freaked. “It’s that weird house with all of the gargoyles on the roof, and it’s got to be just over there somewhere. Look, we’ll be right back, OK, we have to find him. I want to see you gut that deer, it really looks cool. We’ll just find our friend and be right back, OK?”

“You… you are true humans?” Torren asked.

“Hey, more of the game when we get back, OK? You can explain the rules and everything. But we’ve got to find our friend.”

“Your will,” Torren said, and Andrew turned to follow Danny, who was marching up the hill.