Tomas of Evermore

By Mary Elizabeth Hankins

Gathering his purple cloak around him and fastening his satchel securely to his belt, Tomas ran. With a stumbling urgency he continued to run through the heavy brush, around giant trees, and over frightened mutated animals. His head was now spinning, he was running a high fever, and his heart was pounding loudly as his hand continued to swell from the poisonous sting.
Tomas was hallucinating badly, and he was tired…..so tired. Bad turned to worse as Tomas began to fall. He stumbled, tumbled, and bumped as he fell and just kept falling. The darkness and fear overcame him, and Tomas waited for the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312875760

Book preview

Tomas of Evermore

Tomas of Evermore

Dedication

Dedicated to my sweet grandchildren.

©2007 Mary Elizabeth Hankins

All rights reserved.

All characters appearing in this book are fictitious.  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-312-87576-0

Introduction

Ezra, Ezra, sobbed Grace, Have you heard the news? Tomas is being banished from the village. 

Not Tomas, Grace, surely you are mistaken.  Why would Tomas be banished from Evermore?  

Oh Ezra, it is true.  Isn’t there something you can do?  The Watchers have placed a large black X on Tomas’ door.  At this very moment, he is packing his belongings to leave.  Please Ezra, please do something!

Grace, you know the law as well as I.  We dare not interfere with the Watchers.  A cool breeze parted the wiry white hair of the old man.  Ezra had seen many unusual events over his lengthy years but none puzzled him as much as this.  He scratched his head and squinted his eyes in the early morning sun.  How he wished for the wisdom to understand.

As Ezra’s bent body leaned heavily upon the stout, ornately carved wooden cane, his mind raced back to the day Tomas had presented him with this gift.   Tomas, wanting no credit for his benevolent deed, had propped the cane against Ezra’s chair while he was sleeping.  Ezra slowly shook his head from side to side bringing his thoughts back to the present and took his place among the crowd.

Mommy, what’s happening? The warm rays of the morning sun bounced from the golden head of an angel-faced girl child as she held to her mother’s skirt.  Dancing green eyes peered beneath errant strands of golden hair as she absorbed her last look at Tomas.  This was her friend and she made no attempt to hide her disappointment. 

Please Tomas, don’t leave!  Tears streamed unabashedly from the corners of her eyes, and she raised her palms asking for answers. 

People to the left and people to the right, small people, large people, short people and tall, two straight lines of human beings formed a long corridor through which Tomas was taking his final walk through his beloved Evermore.  Faces were grim as the crowd watched this sad event.  A dark cloud had settled over their village on this day and obscured the happiness the villagers had always enjoyed.   Melancholy hung in the air like a misty fog and was felt by every human, and even every animal, in Evermore.

Tomas was a tall, slender, handsome boy.  His dark hair protruded from the hood loosely covering his head. Dark brown eyes peered at the people from Evermore as he began his final walk through the village.  Bowing his head slightly as he passed through the sad throng, he uttered not a single word for he had accepted his dreary fate and was resigned to doing his duty.

Tomas had earned the respect of the entire village, at least everyone’s respect except the Watchers.  But no one earned the respect of the Watchers so this caused Tomas no grave concern. 

Pudge the Piper

Well, I don’t know what all the excitement is about.  It’s not like we’ve never witnessed a banishment.  Pudge the Piper was the village musician, that is when he could stay out of mischief long enough to focus on his music. When he set his mind to it, the music he played could melt the meanest spirit and warm the coldest heart.   Magical and pure, his music had been known to work minor miracles among the sick or downhearted. The children would form a line and follow Pudge up and down the village streets dancing and waving their hands in the air as he created a melody as sweet as bee's honey.  However, playing his pipes was the only useful thing Pudge could seem to do.

Disheveled red hair clung to Pudge’s ill-shaped head and unkempt teeth protruded largely from his food-stained mouth.   His diet consisted of only sweets, and he would never eat vegetables or any food that was good for him.  His nose turned up at anything that looked or tasted healthy.   Dirty sweat streaks always ran down his large round face as he had never been known to take a bath.   Not even the warm gentle rain that fell on Evermore was enough to clean his mud-encrusted body.  He was not a good example for the village children.

Pudge lived at the end of the village street with his parents and his pet pig, whom he had ironically named Smudge.  His bungalow was not difficult to recognize for it could be identified easily by the dirty handprints on the door.   He was never without Smudge, and it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the pig from the person.  Quite a spectacle they made as they would parade through the village street, Pudge with the hole snagged in the seat of his pants and Smudge following in his tracks.

Pudge never tried very hard to make friends and loved to