A Threefold Cord
Howard Goldenberg is a family doctor and a family storyteller. Although he has been creating stories for children for at least sixty years, Howard has never before published a book for children. His grandchildren became increasingly peeved as he wrote and published a series of books for adults. He created A Threefold Cord for those same grandchildren who pleaded with him to turn it into a book. (A grandchild of the publisher at Hybrid, a number of schoolteachers and a surprising number of others, both adults and children, joined in that chorus.) So here it is, a print book and an ebook.
Also by Howard Goldenberg
My Father’s Compass
Raft
Carrots and Jaffas
Published by Hybrid Publishers
Melbourne Victoria Australia
© Howard Goldenberg 2017
This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to the Publisher, Hybrid Publishers, PO Box 52, Ormond 3204.
First published 2017
ISBN: 9781925272291 (paperback)
9781925281415 (ebook)
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Goldenberg, Howard, author.
Title: A threefold cord / Howard Goldenberg ; illustrated by Isabeau Colls.
Target Audience: For Primary school age.
Subjects: Adventure stories – Juvenile fiction.
Children’s stories.
Other Creators/Contributors: Colls, Isabeau, illustrator.
Illustrations and cover image by Isabeau Colls
The characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Chapter One
Nystagmus and Jennifer sat at the table, waiting for their friend Snoth to join them. On the table stood three mugs and three plates. Steam and a perfumey smell rose from the mugs. A large brown onion sat on each of the plates. A sharp knife rested at the side. The two waited for quite a while. Finally they both spoke at once: “Where’s Snoth?”
The door opened and in tumbled Snoth, his face red, breathing fast. He looked excited. His friends could see something important had made him late.
Snoth was so short of breath he couldn’t speak at first. But the three friends had Special Secret Rules. No-one could speak until after the Ceremony. First they had to drink then they’d eat, then they would recite the words. After that Snoth could tell them what he had seen or heard or discovered.
Snoth sat down. Without talking, all three raised their mugs, took a long deep sniff and started to sip. They drank in silence until the mugs were empty. Then all three raised the sharp knives and began to peel the large onion that sat in the middle of each plate. As they peeled, their eyes started to sting. Tears formed and fell from three faces. No-one wiped an eye, no-one spoke. Three knives peeled and peeled, tears flowed down cheeks, onto chins, then onto the table. No sound was heard but the soft scrape of knife on vegetable and the quick sniff of runny noses.
A meeting of the Threefold Cord
Nystagmus finished first, as he always did. He was the quickest peeler. He had peeled onions in his grandparents’ shop since he was five years old. He loved Yaya and Papou, his grandparents. And he loved to help them. Nystagmus waited, unspeaking, while Jennifer completed her onion, followed by Snoth, still breathing hard.
Three faces looked at each other, three heads nodded, then three hands raised the onions and all three friends began to chew. Still no words. Just tears, more tears than at a circus, more than at a funeral. Wet faces, chomping jaws, sniff-sniffing noses and swallowing sounds.
Snoth finished his onion first. He waited and when his friends had swallowed their last fiery mouthful, Snoth burped like a trumpet. Jennifer burped her small squeak and Nystagmus let rip. All three friends nodded. Solemnly they recited the lines of The Threefold Cord:
“If one is all alone, without friend or brother, this is vanity.
“Two are better than one, for if one fall, the other will lift him up.
“But a threefold cord is not easily broken.”
Finally Snoth spoke.
And when he did speak, Jennifer and Nystagmus sat up straight and blinked. At first they wondered if Snoth had made the whole story up, or imagined it, or had a bad dream. But his red face, his urgent voice and his trembling hands told them it was true: every frightening word was true. And they would have to act.
(I know what you want me to tell you – the recipe of their secret drink. I might share that with you in a later chapter. Meanwhile, would you like to know what Snoth told Jennifer and Nystagmus?
I’m afraid that will have to wait until you come to Chapter Two.)
Chapter Two
The three friends held their meetings every Sunday morning. At the meetings they always followed their Secret Rules: first the Secret Drink, second the Onion of Weeping, then the Threefold Cord; finally they could talk.
Jennifer spoke: “We have drunk the drink of courage and strength. We have eaten the onion to remember. We have recited the Cord that binds us. Now Snoth, the time of speaking has come.”
Snoth began: “I saw a boy, he was really little, too little for school. And a cat. And I saw what was happening. The boy was hurting the cat – on purpose. He did it again and again. It was … it was … teacher?”
Snoth’s friends looked at each other, puzzled. He said, “Not teacher, another word, sounds like teacher …”
“Torture!” said Nystagmus and Jennifer together.
“Yes! That’s what it was, torture! Come with me, come quickly. If we hurry we might still be in time.”
The friends saw how worried Snoth was. They knew the matter was urgent. The three hurried from the clubhouse, climbed the back fence and ran down the lane, Snoth leading.
Snoth ran fast. His boots made a clattering sound on the cobblestones of the lane. Nystagmus and Jennifer wore sneakers. They made a sound like horses galloping in Ugg boots. They ran and they ran, turning from the lane onto the dirt track along the bank of the creek. They ran so hard they could feel their breath burning in their chests. At the bridge Snoth raised his hand, signalling to Nystagmus and Jennifer to stop.
Snoth turned and pointed at a fence on the far side of the little wooden bridge. He placed his finger over his lips. They understood: they were very near and they must not make a noise. But their hearts beat so hard anyone near that fence would surely hear.
They need not have worried because a loud noise, a screaming mixed with a sort of hissing came from the far side. It was so loud, strange and sudden they thought their hearts might stop. Nystagmus felt panicky. He wanted to run but then he thought of the Drink of Courage they had all drunk and the Cord they shared, and he did not desert his friends.
The sounds came again. The children were terrified. They all wanted to run away. But they did not do that. They remembered the Onions of Weeping. And when Snoth started to