Hempstock farm

by oswin42

Summary:

Bod visits Hempstock farm and stays a while

Travelling was easy for NoBody Owens. Most of the time people didn't quite notice him on trains or busses. He wasn't really faded, but he wasn't really there either. He travelled all across the UK, followed by Europe and then the world. He found out why miss Lupescu called him Nimeni when he visited the old country she so fondly mentioned. He even visited the place he thought Silas called home.

 

Bod was 18 now, a lanky teenager in dark and practical clothes and good shoes, and he was walking down a small country lane in Sussex. He'd been reading a book in the back of a bus to Southampton when he noticed the faint dusty smell of magic. Not the-man-Jack kind of magic but… Bod could only describe it as homely. He pressed the stop button and got off at a small bus stop at the edge of a new neighborhood. It was almost dusk and the waxing moon had just begun to rise above the horizon. He followed his instinct down a country lane on his right. It was an hour later when he stopped in front of a farmhouse and knocked. He knew it was the right place. Something felt old there. Older than Caius Pompeius, even older than the sleer, but it was a friendly kind of old that reminded Bod of home. The door was opened by a friendly old woman. She smiled at him "Come in NoBody Owens. Dinner is almost ready."

Bod wondered how she knew his name, but was distracted by the smells coming from the kitchen. He smelled roast lamb and potatoes with rosemary which reminded him of a quiet pub in the north of Scotland where he'd been almost sure he'd seen Silas watching him. He followed the old woman into the kitchen. The kitchen was one of the old kind with an open fire and an old farm range. With a large wooden table he sat down at. He'd rarely felt this at home anywhere, not since he left the graveyard. The old woman poured hot water from the huge kettle that had been hanging over the fire into a cup and brewed tea. "Get that down you, you must be cold."

Bod took a sip from the hot liquid. It was tea, proper and soothing and with a hint of honey, just how he liked it.

"Thank you." he said, unsure of what else to say. He was burning with questions, but dared not ask them. A younger woman who looked about the age of his mother came in then, through the back door. She smiled at him, apple cheeked, as she took her wellington boots off and left them at the door.

"I did wonder what you were, dear." she said with a soft smile and checked on the roast lamb and potatoes in the cooker.

"Where am I?" Bod finally asked, "and who are you?"

"This is Hempstock farm, darling." the older woman said.

"Hempstock? Like Liza?"

"I expect so." the younger woman said as she took the food out of the cooker. She put them on the table which had been decked with three plates.

"She was a witch," Bod said and, after a moment of hesitation, continued, "but you aren't witches."

"That's right dear." the old woman said, "Now eat your food."

Bod only realized how hungry he'd been when he took the first bite of roast potato. He ate silently as the two woman talked about the farm. About the land rover that needed a new tire and one of the cows that was getting sick. Bod was content to just listen to their conversation. Once dinner was done, the younger woman, Ginny her name was, put a bowl of thick steaming custard with a slice of spotted dick floating in it in front of him. "Eat up dear. You look like you could use it."

 

Bod liked custard, it was one of the things he discovered liking once he left the graveyard, thanks to a girl that reminded him of Liza and who had cooked for him on a small stove in a squad hidden away in an old abandoned castle. But even that custard tasted like cardboard compared to the custard of Hempstock farm.

"This is delicious." he said when he had finished his bowl and had practically cleaned it out. "Do you need help with the dishes?" he offered kindly.

"Wouldn't dream of it." said the old woman and shooed him out of the kitchen "go sit by the duck pond. I think you'll like it." He stepped out into the back yard, the way Ginny had come in and was greeted by a full moon that shun down on a pond. It looked like a normal duck pond, but it felt like something different altogether. It wasn't magic, not like he'd seen before. Neither in the graveyard or outside it. He sat down on a conveniently placed bench and smiled softly as a black cat with a white spot on its ear jumped on his lap and curled up. He petted the cat softly as he looked at the pond. No. not a pond, he knew. It was the ocean. He didn't know how he knew, he just did.

Memories flowed into his mind, of Silas, of his parents, of the man Jack. And finally of the night that the man Jack had walked into the house on the hill and killed his family. He remembered everything now.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been there on that bench, the cat was still in his lap, purring contently, but the moon was higher now. The old woman, old mrs. Hempstock, he suddenly knew, sat down next to him.

"You are the boy who walked the borderlands." It wasn't a question.

"Yes." Bod replied

"You are the boy who ended the Jacks of all trades."

"Yes." Bod replied again.

"Good riddance, if you ask me." old mrs. Hempstock said with a cheeky smile. "Now dear, you have questions."

"I.." Bod started.

"Ask away darling."

Bod was quiet for a long moment as he tried to collect his thoughts, "the ocean?" he said with a frown, unsure of where to begin.

"You are a bright lad." old mrs. Hempstock beamed "yes, it's Lettie's ocean."

Bod nodded understandingly. Somehow he knew that Lettie was in there. "It showed me the day my family was killed."

"But that's not what you have questions about."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

Old mrs. Hempstock looked at Bod for a long moment, "I can't answer that to your satisfaction, darling. Everyone must find their own way in life, but for now, why don't you stay a while? It'd be nice to have you 'round the farm."

"I'd like that." Bod said and he found that he would, indeed, like that.

 

The next morning Bod rose early, just as the sun came up. Ginny had brought him to a bedroom at the top of the house, had showed him the washbasin and the chamberpot, and left him to get settled. Bod, tired from the day travelling, had quickly fallen asleep in the four-poster bed. He got dressed and washed and headed down to the kitchen. He followed the black cat down a set of stairs that decidedly hadn't been there the night before and arrived in the hallway leading to the kitchen. He wasn't really surprised at this, though he could not have told you why. Ginny was in the middle of putting her wellington boots on when he came in. "good morning, Bod." she said with a smile. "Would you like to help me to milk the cows?"

Bod smiled softly, "I'd like that."

Ginny motioned to a pair of wellington boots that looked like his size, "Put these on, you don't want your shoes getting dirty."

Bod did so and followed Ginny out the back door and to the cow shed.

"You've been having trouble with your fading, haven't you?"

"I can't. Well. I can sort of fade, but not quite. It's more of a not fully there." Bod said with a frown, "I don't have the freedom of the graveyard anymore and so the lessons Mr. Pennyworth taught are rather useless."

"You ought," Ginny started while she showed Bod what to do, "you ought to ask old mrs. Hempstock about fading sometimes." she gave Bod a knowing wink as she checked how Bod was doing.

Breakfast was delicious. Bod had never had fresh milk before. He had Porridge with honeycomb and toast with blackberry jam which tasted nothing like anything he ever tasted before, all together with a cup of strong tea.

"Bod?" old mrs. Hempstock asked, "could you fix the old beehive behind the shed? The bees are getting ready to swarm and it would be a shame if we lost half of the colony."

"Of course, mrs. Hempstock."

"Thank you dear."

Bod spent the morning fixing the beehive and the afternoon learning the daily chores of a farm. He settled into a nice routine with the Hempstock women. Sure, he wasn't as quick as Ginny and he couldn't get the food as perfect as old mrs. Hempstock could, but an extra hand was helpful. In return, Ginny taught him how to drive and old mrs. Hempstock helped him regain the ability to fade.

 

Three weeks passed like this and once again he started to think about what he wanted to do after this. The farm was nice, but he couldn't spent the rest of his life there. One day he would have to leave. 'Men.' old mrs. Hempstock had said one evening, 'never stay long at Hempstock farm. It's not in their nature.' Bod had understood this instinctively. And, besides, he wanted to go to university and travel and live. And while the Hempstocks were obviously not dead like his parents, they weren't exactly alive either. For the time being, though, he was content to help out on the farm and listen to old mrs. Hempstock tell him stories about the old times, one older than the stories even Caius Pompeius could tell.

 

Or so Bod thought. On the night twenty-six days after he arrived, he had a dream. Bod often dreamt, of cities or the graveyard or his travels, but never like this. Bod was walking through a dark city that seemed familiar but he couldn't remember why. It was old, with small streets and alleys and a language Bod struggled to speak. He pulled his hat on tighter and pushed his hands deep into the pockets of his winter coat to try and protect himself from the snow and cold.

"Bod!" someone called from behind him. The voice betrayed no emotion, happy nor sad. It was also eerily familiar. He turned and saw a glimpse of the man he knew had called him before the man rushed into an alley.

"Silas!" Bod called and hurried after him. He turned into the alley, just to see Silas turn another corner. Bod ran as fast as he could through the snowy streets in pursuit of Silas.

"Silas!" Bod called again. Silas looked over his shoulder as he went into a pub. Bod, without a second of doubt, followed Silas. He stepped into the pub, expecting it to be full of people and noise and was greeted instead by a room that had no living people in it. Silas sat at one of the tables with two cups of tea in front of him. Bod sat down opposite him.

"Hello Bod." Silas said in his familiar, smooth, emotionless voice. He pushed one of the cups towards Bod and held the other between his hands as if he could warm them with it. Bod looked at Silas, frowning, "I didn't know you could dreamwalk Silas."

"It is not something I make a habit out of."

"How bad is it?" Bod asked. He didn't need Silas to tell him there was something wrong to know that there was.

"I believe you once told me I could call upon you if I ever were in trouble."

Bod nodded, "that still stands."

"I am afraid I require your help, Bod."

"Where do I go?" Bod asked. Now that he looked at Silas properly the man looked in pain. He was trying to hide it but he was undoubtedly in pain.

"There's an abandoned manor called Woodlawn house in Galway, Ireland. It looks abandoned, but it is not."

"And you are there?"

"Not quite. But you will find your way to me there."

Bod nodded gravely.

"And Bod," Silas said as the world began to fade to a dull gray, "be careful."

Before Bod could answer he woke up with a gasp and found himself in the four poster bed in the room on the top floor of the Hempstock house. Old mrs. Hempstock burst into the room a second later. She was almost out of breath.

"I could feel your distress all the way out on the field." she said.

"I have to go." Bod said. He started dressing quickly. "I have to go save Silas."

Notes:

Thanks to the amazing disgvises (as always) for being my beta.