How we found Sprite

One Saturday morning just at first light Bro went to the small wooded park near his house to look for stray or injured animals. He did this once in a while but this time he saw something different. A small thin shadow was running away from a clump of bushes at the far edge of the park. It ran across the road into a section of makeshift dwellings known locally as Settlement. Bro waited for more light and then went to the bushes, shielding himself from sight of the other side of the road. He parted the bushes and saw what looked like a primitive guitar or banjo.

He first reached in to take it out. As he touched it he thought better and backed away from the bushes closing the branches back. He wondered at what he saw. It was a large dried gourd, light brown with a large hole in the side. A long round stick went through the gourd to make a neck. There were maybe four strings that went over a bridge to the rear of the hole and tied around the portion of the neck that came out of the back end of the gourd. At the front of the neck the strings were wrapped around nails driven into either side. 

Bro remembered the old banjo they had at home that nobody used because his mother could never get him interested in learning to play it.

Bro wondered about the home made banjo and would go to the park in the days following. Sometimes he found it. Other times no. Then one late afternoon Bro saw a young girl running across the road and walking towards the bushes. She could be the shadow. He waved and smiled but did not move towards her, instead being sure to walk the other way and not look back until he got to the other end of the park. He could see that she took the banjo from the bushes to a table behind some trees at the middle edge of the park.

Bro could hear the banjo. She made it sound much better than it looked. What would the world sound like if those gourds growing in the ravine by the side of the park were all made into banjos? Bro came back to the park on other afternoons. Most times she wasn’t there. When she was he did not go too close to her table. He got the courage to say hello one time but from not closer than maybe twenty feet. He saw that she seemed confident and fEarless and had a bright smile. He also saw her bruised cheek and slightly swollen eye.

And Bro thought about where she lived. Settlement across the road looked much like a junk yard. Some of the people who lived there were decent and made the best of the materials around them. Others lived in the worst squalor. Several responsible dwellers kept a fire going in the middle to burn trash and waste. Bro’s experience with animals led him to conclude that the girl was thin but not suffering from serious malnutrition. The City Government provided some food intended for the children there. Neighbors would often bring fruits and vegetables that grew in their gardens. A few people in Settlement would distribute these.

So City Government helped a little but they had to accept the way things were or the people there would be living on the streets or under bridges. Some neighborhood people helped the children in Settlement by giving them books and toys. The Government was less successful in getting the children to attend schools all the time. The girl Bro saw liked to wear light blue and did the best she could with what she selected from the donation boxes. She had very light colored, almost white, hair and green eyes. Her hair looked like she cut it herself, more likely she and a girlfriend cut each other’s hair.

After seeing the bruises Bro told his mother about the girl and the banjo. His mother immediately started to the park to see for herself. About half way she stopped and asked Bro to go back and bring their banjo from home. And to bring some clean dust rags. Bro’s mother took the banjo from Bro over to a table more to the front of the park near the children’s playground. Bro left. She cleaned and polished the banjo with the rags and started tuning the strings. Bro’s mother never played much, more the violin for her. But she could get a banjo in tune and play a few practice pieces.

She went to the same table with the banjo several days off and on. Bro stayed away. She hoped to see the girl soon as summer was ending and schools starting. One afternoon just after she arrived and played a few notes she heard another, more primitive sounding banjo, echo the same notes. Bro’s mother continued to play and walked towards another table closer to the sound of the other player. The slight slim figure walked from her table behind a clump of trees and sat on the other side of Bro’s mother’s table. They played simple tunes together that first day. They did not talk.

And they did not the next day. The time after that Bro’s mother brought some food for lunch. After they played for a while she offered the girl some fruit and bread. And she introduced herself “my name is Judy. Some call me Mother Judy, and most of the time just Mother.” The girl did not reply, just seemed embarrassed. Then Mother asked  “what is your name?” The girl looked confused. “What do your people call you?” The girl answered with a series of ugly, obscene, and vile terms. Mother had the composure to reply “well you are magic to meet in the woods so I will call you Sprite.”

They played a little more before they parted. Mother told Bro about the day. With that and the bruises, they agreed that they could not do nothing. Now what to do? Mother went back to the park but the next few times Sprite did not come. Bro checked the bushes for the banjo, it was there until one morning it was not. As he started back out of the park that day he heard some noise coming from the ravine. Someone was climbing back up the embankment into the park. Bro waited to see that it was Sprite carrying a large gourd.   

Her face was bruised again. Bro blurted out ”where is your banjo?” Just then Mother came up and asked “what happened?” To their surprise Sprite answered “he broke it and threw it into the fire. I am going to make another one again.” “Did someone hit you?” Mother asked, looking at the bruises. Sprite looked away embarrassed. “You come home with us. You can make a new banjo and keep it there.” Sprite shook her head. Mother continued “you can play my banjo. I know you can already play it better. And we have a lot of recordings.  You can learn more songs.”

To their surprise Sprite came with them. Bro carried the gourd. At home they sat around the table and had something to eat. Mother explained that it was not right that anyone hit her. And that she was not going to be hit again. Mother asked Sprite about school. Did she go? She was not allowed to attend school often. Mother asked her to read from a simple book. She did. How did she learn to read? One mother of a girlfriend in Settlement taught the two to read. They helped each other learn, They had some books from the neighborhood. They kept them at her friend’s house so they wouldn’t get burned.

Bro and Mother looked at each other determined to bring Sprite into their family. They asked her to take them to where she lived in Settlement. As they walked through the Park Bro picked up an old discarded horseshoe by the side of the road they crossed over. The Settlement was made up of houses that could hardly be called houses. You could smell smoke and garbage long before you got there. Tents, blankets, and large wooden boxes were used as shelters. As they waked through they met a girl about the age of Sprite. She is holding a very young child who has dark brown eyes.

The girl has copper colored hair and a large smile. An old couple come out of the shelter behind and greeted Sprite. Sprite and the girl hugged. The man comes near, holds Mother’s arm fast with his aged hand and says ”Please help her!” He had an Old World accent. The woman gives sprite a kiss and looked at Mother with tears. Mother answered. “Yes!” Mother, Bro, and Sprite went further into the Settlement until they came to a pile of wooden boxes and blankets. Strong smell of spirits, filth. A drunk woman and a drunk man come out and “oh, the Cops!  What did the little ***** do now?”

“Soon you might wish we were Cops!’ Mother answers. “What do you want?” Mother slowly “We know this child” her hands on Sprit’s shoulders “is the victim of severe violence and neglect.” The woman answers “you think you can do better, take her!” “Thank you” Mother replies and starts to turn away. The man says something to the woman and then “Hey, OK, but it will cost you!” Bro faces the two drunks, shows the horseshoe in his hands and pulls it apart until it is straight, gives it to the man saying “Yes! Thank You!” No answer as Mother, Sprite, and Bro walk away.