Chapter 51: A Friend in Need

When Hugo had briefly taken over Harper Valley, it had been awful, but over quickly. Over the matter of a few hours, Wil had defeated him with Isom’s help, and it was over. There was an aftermath to deal with, but it had been relatively easy, overall.

Nothing about losing Bram’s house was easy. Even if it weren’t secondhand loss, Wil grieved for the hours spent at the kitchen table or cellar, drinking with friends and working. After all this time, Bram’s house had felt like another home to Wil. Now it, and their summer of work, was little more than smoldering slag.

There was nothing to be done for the house, nothing that could be saved. The faricite had damaged the foundation when McGinnis’ explosive cannonball had hit. The entire thing would need to be leveled and rebuilt from the ground up. The only things that hadn’t been damaged were the brewery itself, and the majority of the land. Of course, they had torn it up long before the explosion. The leyline itself was out of shape, and Wil saw no reason to twist it back into a rune. There was nothing to power anymore.

The three of them sat at Wil’s kitchen table the day after Bram’s party was supposed to have happened. They spent the lost day getting Bram some temporary clothes and toiletries and moving him into Wil’s wizard tower, as he liked to consider his home. Normally the thought would bring him amusement, if not comfort, but he nursed his beer without any enthusiasm or excitement.

To his side, Bram did the same. He’d been drinking most of the day, and with his size, he was finally starting to get drunk. Wil knew because more tears filled his eyes, but didn’t yet spill. Bram didn’t make a sound. He stared off into space until someone got his attention, and then he would go back to his emptiness afterward.

“We need a plan,” said Darlene after the silence stretched on for too long. She’d missed almost all the excitement, but things were far along enough now that she didn’t complain. Even trying to keep her head up and look forward was a great strain.

“What’s the point?” Bram raised the bottle to his lips and drained it. He didn’t slam the bottle down so much as let his hand drop to the table.

“They’ve won,” Wil agreed. “I don’t like saying it, but we have less than a week now. We could probably wrangle a few rough things in time for the presentation, but it won’t be anything impressive. It won’t be shields of light, or Thomas’ War Chariot.”

“There’s Mack’s Shack,” Darlene said. She looked between the two of them for any cracks in their depression. “And we still have a couple of cars. Including the one that can be powered by a leyline, right?”

Wil grunted in the affirmative. “Wouldn’t be too hard to show it off on Mack’s land. Not great for driving, but it could work. It would prevent us from being completely embarrassed.”

Bram said nothing, but he reached for another beer. Darlene pulled it away from him.

“Dammit, stop acting like we’ve lost!” she snapped. “This is the worst we’ve ever gotten hit, but this isn’t the end.”

“My house blew up.” Bram reached over and snatched the beer out of Darlene’s hands. “I think I deserve to be able to wallow a bit.”

“I’m with him,” said Wil. “Doesn’t feel good to wallow, but I don’t see myself doing anything else for at least another couple of hours. Solution later, pain now.”

Wordlessly, Darlene stood up and waddled off, cursing under her breath. Will and Bram exchanged looks. A few seconds later they heard the front door open and slam shut.

“Think I should go after her?” asked Wil.

Bram shrugged and popped the beer open. “Probably. I don’t know how to handle relationship problems. Maybe I should’ve gone after Gallath instead of sticking around here. Maybe then I’d still have a home.”

“Would it matter if that house was still standing if you were in Faerie permanently?” Wil asked, before realizing that he was being pedantic. “I mean, of course it matters. Sorry. You’re free to stay here as long as you like. And read all of my books.”

“I’ve already read all your books,” said Bram. “Half of them blew up with my house.”

He supposed it made sense that nothing would or could get through to Bram. Wil couldn’t imagine that kind of loss and what he would do if it happened to him. He didn’t like thinking about it. They sat in silence for a good half an hour.

Something had to give. Despite Wil’s words, he didn’t want to just sit there and give up. Not when they had been so close to an overwhelming success. Not with his name and freedom on the line. With Thomas’ contributions, it might be enough to save his ass. If Thomas did as he said he would and would speak in Wil’s favor.

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He didn’t much trust Thomas anymore, even when he believed him about not taking part in destroying Bram’s house. His assessment held up. The man was a coward, trying to play every side and come out on top.

Thoughts of him made Wil go to the fridge for another beer. They were getting low, and Bram hadn’t been brewing as consistently since they’d started their projects. Who knew how long it would take for him to get back to it now.

“I fully mean it when I said you can wallow as long as you like,” said Wil. “It seems like a reasonable thing to do at the moment. But I don’t want to see you give up either. Not when you’ve put in more time and work than anyone else.” He popped open the beer and took a sip.

Bram grunted his acknowledgment, but remained hunched over the table like a man only alive because he had to be. “It’s all gone. Our notes too. There’s only so much we can do by memory. Only so much we can do without tools and equipment.”

There was a friendly rhythm knocked into the front door. Wil set his drink down and answered it. Anthony Bahks stood there, a big toolbox in his arms. “Hey there, Mr. Wizard. I heard about what happened, and everything you’ve lost. I brought some spare tools over, if they would help.”

“I…uh, yeah, they might,” said a dumbfounded Wil. “That’s exactly what we need. I can give them back when we’re done.”

“Sure, whenever. I’m not in a hurry.” Anthony handed the toolbox over to Wil. He gave a jaunty salute. “Good luck with the presentation.”

And then he left, leaving Wil standing on his front porch, unsure of what happened. He went back inside and set the tools down outside the kitchen. “That was weird,” he said to Bram. “Anthony Bahks just came by with tools.”

Bram shrugged. “That’s great, I guess. We’re going to need a lot more than tools.”

Another knock on the door made Wil look over his shoulder. Through the window on the door, silhouettes of two people waited for him. He opened the door.

“Hi!” Mr. and Mrs. Higgins looked happy to see them, or as happy as circumstances allowed. “We know you and your friend Bram are going through it, and wanted to open our farm up to you, if you need it for your experiments. We’re doing pretty well this year, and can take a hit. Although if you could speed up the growth of crops…”

After they left, Wil was touched and confused. He didn’t have much time to ponder it, because the doorbell rang. This time Bram showed up, looking bleary and unsteady. Of all people, it was Jonjon.

“Hey, sorry to bother,” he said, with uncharacteristic caution. “But I heard about what happened, and if you need some faricite, I can let some go at cost.”

“What’s going on?” Bram asked when Jonjon left. “Is this Darlene?”

Another knock at the door.

“I think it might be,” said Wil.

After Jonjon, the Pattersons came by with their daughter Pearl along with a platter of sandwiches. They wished them well, and Pearl ran inside to give Bram a big hug around the legs. That had been the first thing to pierce his fog all day, and Bram had gently patted her back as thanks.

After the Pattersons, Mr. Carrey came by to deliver backhanded, passive aggressive comments about what it was like to lose a house, but he offered to help pay for Bram to get a new wardrobe, made from the fibers from his beanstalks. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever heard the old man say.

Things became a blur after that and seemingly the entire town showed up to pay their respects and offer their help, if needed. Eventually Bram took over answering the door, and his unshed tears fell. He seemed okay with it, and slowly he came back to life with each new brief conversation. When the final people came, he had to call for Wil to join them.

Mack and Candy were there, along with a line of other people behind them. Darlene had finally come back, and stood with Wil’s parents and Sarah at the end of the line.

“Hey,” said Mack. “We wanted to thank you for all the work you’ve done. Business has never been better, and you were right. I’m saving more money than ever, and the stove burns cleaner than Betsy ever did. Darlene told us about your presentation and how hard up you are. If you want to work on the Shack more, we’ll do whatever we can to make it work and help you out.”

“And if the president eats at the Shack, that’s not so bad, right?” Candy added, looking excited at the prospect.

“Syl will definitely drag President Bullworth to the shack,” Wil confirmed.

Lonnie MacDougal offered his basement for brewing, and was politely thanked for the spirit of his offer. Sam Brown gave some money, and Dante Boswell offered to personally design Bram a new house, and that more than anything brought him back to life. It was one of the bigger offers they took up.

On and on they went, until it was impossible to stay in their funk. Eventually, it was Bob, Sharon, Sarah, and Darlene, and they came inside. “A lot of support showing your way,” said Bob. “I was gonna do something like this, but Darlene beat us to it.”

Wil beamed at them all. “We really appreciate it. And to think, all of this was her mad at us for giving up.”

“Well, obviously,” said Darlene as she took her spot at the kitchen table. She looked and sounded exhausted from going all over town. Wil felt equal parts gratitude and guilt for the necessity of it. “We’re not giving up. And no one in town will let you.”

“It’s true,” said Sharon. “We want our wizard to stay in town and not get locked up, so whatever you three need, we’ll do it. You gotta have some ideas on how to get out of this.”

Bram had been mostly quiet, but at this he nodded. “If there’s a way forward, we’ll find it. And we’ll wipe the smirks off those bastards who blew up my house. By the time we’re done, we’ll have more than enough money to replace it, right? No need to take that traitor’s money to do it.”

Wil agreed. With all of his family save for Jeb crammed into his kitchen, things felt different. It was one thing to know he had support, and another to be able to see and feel it for himself. He reached over to take Darlene’s hand in his and give it a grateful squeeze.

“I love you,” he whispered. “Where would we be without you?”

“Still wallowing,” replied Darlene. “Like a bunch of babies. We’re adults, dammit. We’ll work hard, win, and then enjoy our hard-won victory.”

It sounded like the start of a plan.