Meet Jackson Kingaree

In an earlier draft of chapter 11 in The Dragons of Ordinary Farm, we introduced the character Jackson Kingaree, who we believe is destined to become one of Ordinary Farm’s greatest enemies.

A short while later, we discovered that Jackson Kingaree didn’t belong in the story just yet. So we thought instead we would preview him here.

Lucinda is in the town of Standard Valley, and has just escaped from the general store, and the curiosity of the locals in there.

Lucinda managed to escape without too much more small talk, and walked out into the gray, storm-swollen day. She felt bad, because Ellen had seemed nice, but Lucinda could already see that too much conversation would cause problems. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she found it hard to understand how Gideon Tinker kept his strange farm secret. Maybe he and his most important employees wouldn’t talk, and maybe even the average workers wouldn’t speak up as long as they were living on the property and wanted to keep their jobs, but how could Uncle Gideon expect to make them keep quiet when they left.

A sudden chill rolled over her, but it was nothing to do with the clouds that had now filled the sky overhead. What if Gideon was killing people when they finished working for him? Feeding them to the dragon or something. He hadn’t seemed like the type, but he also hadn’t seemed like the type to have unicorns in a pen.

She had just convinced herself she was being silly when somebody behind her said, “Excuse me, child.”

Lucinda gasped – the voice seemed to come from right beside her ear. She whirled and almost fell over because the man behind her was so unexpectedly tall.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said. He must be six and a half feet tall, she thought, certainly inches taller than her own tall father, with a face so tan and creased it looked like old leather. His hair was black, as were most of his clothes and his wide-brimmed hat. He looked more like a gunslinger than a farmer. “I couldn’t help overhearing you talking with the lady in the store. You stayin’ out at the Tinker place? Gideon’s an old friend of mine.”

Lucinda just stood, mouth working. The man was smiling, but the smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “I…I’m not…”

“Don’t be afraid of me, child. I’m not your enemy.”

She shook her head. It was hard to swallow down the lump in her throat enough to make words. Something about this man made him seem as though the storm itself had created him out of the crackling, hot air. “I’m not supposed to talk to anyone.”

“Of course you’re not,” he said. “Good for you, child. Listen, then, I won’t trouble you none, I’ll just give you a message for old Gideon. You tell him you saw Jackson Kingaree, and that I’ll be coming by real soon so that he and I can talk about old times. You remember that?”

Lucinda nodded.

The man bent over. The smile was back, but it still seemed like a trick he’d learned, a dog taught to shake hands. “I’m glad to hear it. We’ll talk again, you and I.” He stood up and walked past her, his coat brushing against her hand as light as a bird’s feathered wing. His boots clicked on the sidewalk as he walked around the corner of the store and disappeared.

The first drops of warm rain began to fall on Lucinda’s face.

© 2009 Tad Williams and Deborah Beale. All rights reserved.