Billy - Part 4

No one knew why Father Joseph died and even though everyone looked solemn at his funeral, Billy secretly believed that he was not the only one happy to see him go. Billy did not think there was anything strange about Father Joseph’s death and he was completely oblivious to the wary looks that the town’s folk gave him and his mother. His mother was not so lucky. She had heard the whispers and the rumors that went around behind her back and she was not pleased. People were becoming fearful of little Billy, teachers ignored him in class, the children stopped taunting him and the neighbors completely avoided his mother. She was appalled by the things that were being said about Billy, that he was touched by the devil and that the marks on his face were the devil’s mark. She loved her son dearly but she did not understand him anymore than the town’s folk.

It wasn’t before long that Billy was asked to leave the school, no one wanted to come near him, so his mother began to educate him herself. She did not know much about schooling, having had very little of it herself, but she used what little money she had to buy books. She was determined that Billy make something of himself, and even though no craftsman would take him as an apprentice, she began to teach him the only thing she knew how to do, weaving. Billy was a fast learner. His ability to read and write quickly exceeded that of his mother and she gave up on educating him further, but since he was a curious boy, he continued to read all the books his mother bought for him until he had read them all. He also excelled in weaving, his dexterous hands weaving complex patterns unlike any that his mother had ever seen. His mother had made her living on selling her cloth, but with these patterns, it soon became impossible to sell them in town. Everyone knew that Billy had made them. When her meager savings dwindled, she packed the cloth carefully, some dried food and cooking pots loaded on their old mule and set off with Billy to the closest town.