The World Viewing Room
One day when the old potter had been lying in bed all day, she called Deelie to her and said, “When I die, this house and all my land will belong to you. The people of Split know that if a master dies with no children, he often leaves his things to his apprentices. But not all masters do...
Deelie and Tma and Grandmother Potter were the ones who dealt with practical matters, like food, and cuts and scrapes. Deelie taught the ones who wanted to learn to make dishes, all about clay from digging to firing. Aluli taught them drawing and making figurines, Tma taught them gardening and...
One day, after the shortest day of the year but before the day was as long as the night, a man was seen, leading a loaded donkey along the path to the potter’s house. Aluli started yelling, “He’s here! He’s here! “ “Who’s here? somebody asked. “The...
One day three strangers and five donkeys came over the path to the potter’s house. One of them asked, “Is the girl who draws here?” They all looked at each other rather blankly. “What do you mean? Deelie asked. The man took out one of the clay tiles Aluli scratched a...
Deelie made different designs and some of these evolved into ones she repeated; some didn’t, but remained unique. Of course, they were all done by hand, so no two really came out the same. After several weeks Aluli reported that some of the other kids had collected shards bearing these...
The next morning, she went to the potters earlier than usual, but the old man and his helper were gone, and the potter was not yet working in her shop. There was no sound to be heard from the house. Perhaps the old woman had gone to the spring.
Deelie sat down and began to work, but before she...
Deelie’s mother had many things for her to do that day. She was not free to go to the potter’s til after the evening meal. But then she did go. The potter was not at her worktable, nor in her house. Deelie started up to the spring, but then she thought what if she’s sitting in...
"You can call me Grandmother if you want. “
They worked for a while in silence. Then Deelie asked, "Grandmother, why do you live over here by yourself and not in town?" The old woman said, "Firstly, because there's good clay here. I can just dig it out of the ground and don't have to...
Deelie sat in the hole where the where the Dabberstone used to be, crying. Cruddly Poot’s bad smell drifted downstream with the slight breeze and there was no sign of him or of the Dabberstone, but there was the memory of her dog trampled in the road. The memory of her dog burned like a...
THE DABBERSTONE
by Terron Dodd
For hundreds of years the miserable village of Split lay strewn along the banks of the Mucky Scundgewater River. It was called Split because it was where the road that came over the mountains split to go down two different valleys. And it was miserable because the...
