“Observation”

Saradoc stared down at the papers that covered his desk and tried to concentrate. Something was annoying him and he didn’t know what it was. He frowned. He felt as if there was something nagging at him in some way but he couldn’t put his finger on the cause of his irritation. It wasn’t the paperwork. He’d long ago resigned himself to that. A large smial like Brandy Hall required paperwork to run properly. He looked up from his desk and spotted the cause of his irritation peeking out at him from underneath one of the study’s armchairs. Two curious grey eyes stared back at him unwaveringly. He was being watched! The nagging feeling was the same one that he always got when someone read over his shoulder. “Merry, is there something you need?” he asked his young son.

Merry was lying underneath the armchair with his face resting on his hands. The youngster was watching him intently. “No,” Merry said shaking his head. The child made no move to get out from beneath the chair.

Saradoc smiled. “Are you hiding from someone?” It must be a game. The lad and some of his cousins were probably playing and Merry, being the youngest of the group had probably hidden in the study thinking that none of the others would dare to bother the Master in his study. Only Merry would do something like that.

“No,” Merry said still watching him with those intense grey eyes that reminded Saradoc so much of his own father’s eyes.

Saradoc frowned. “Do you need something?”

“No.”

“Are you certain that you didn’t want to ask me something?” Saradoc was at a loss now.

Merry seemed to think about this for a minute and then he shook his head. “No.”

“I see,” Saradoc said but the truth of the matter was he didn’t. “I’ll just go on with my paperwork then, shall I?” He looked at the ten-year-old.

Merry nodded and continued to look back at him.

Saradoc tried to continue his work but soon gave up the task. He couldn’t just sit there at his desk working while Merry stared at him from beneath the chair. It wasn’t natural. The child had to want something. Getting up from his chair, Saradoc walked over and leaned down to look at Merry. “Why don’t you come with me to the kitchen and we’ll ask your mum to fix us something to hold us over until tea,” Saradoc suggested.

Merry sighed and crawled out from underneath the chair. “If you want to,” he said reaching up and taking his father’s hand.

Saradoc wasn’t certain what was going on but something was. Merry seemed disappointed that they were going to have an unscheduled meal. Merry had always had a very healthy appetite. Maybe the lad was coming down with something.

*****

Saradoc smiled at the two stable hobbits. “No, I think he’ll be fine. You were right to bring him in from the fields. The lad has just been in the heat for too long.”

“He’s in the back room on one of the cots,” the older of the two staple hobbits said. “I don’t think he realized how warm he was getting. The lad didn’t mean any harm.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Saradoc said wanting to assure them that he wasn’t at all angry with the lad. “He’s new. It’s his first summer in the fields and I think he just got carried away. He was only trying to do a good job. Have him rest today and tomorrow but reassure him that his job is still his. I’ll stop by in the morning and speak to him.”

Both of the stable hobbits relaxed at this pronouncement. Saradoc could see the relief in their eyes. It never failed to surprise him that others at Brandy Hall often thought that he meant to be stern with them. He was rarely unfair and on the few occasions that he had acted rashly he’d been quick to correct his mistakes. Being the Master of Buckland seemed to be all about proving that you weren’t a tyrant some days. “Splendid. You both acted commendably by bringing him in out of the heat so quickly. The healer seems to think that the lad will be fine with some rest in a cool place and lots of water,” Saradoc said. He watched them beam with his praise. Suddenly he felt someone’s eyes on him and he wondered if it might be the unfortunate young lad from the fields.

“I’ll just go in and tell the lad what’ve you’ve said,” the older stable hand said. “It’ll ease his mind and then he’ll rest better. He was dreadfully worried that he might lose his job.”

Saradoc shifted in an effort to rid himself of the uneasy feeling he had but he responded to his employee. “Do that. Tell the lad to rest and not to concern himself. Everyone over does it from time to time. He’s not the first and he won’t be the last,” Saradoc said and then turned to look behind him. He was certain that he could feel someone’s eyes on him.

Having completed their business with the Master, the two stable hobbits went off to share the good news with the young field hand whom they had brought into the barns from the heat. Saradoc didn’t look in their direction as they left. He was looking around the huge barn to see who or what might be watching him. Just as he began to think he was being silly he spotted two grey eyes above a wide upturned nose. Merry!

The lad was standing just behind a support post watching him. Merry was peering around the post so that only his curly head, those intense eyes and that Brandybuck nose could be seen. Saradoc cleared his throat and looked at his young son. “Merry, did you want something?”

Looking slightly annoyed to have been noticed Merry came out from behind the post and said, “No.”

“I’m finished with my business here, son,” Saradoc said gently. He was a very busy hobbit but he never wanted Merry to feel as if he couldn’t come to him with whatever he might need. He was determined to always have time for his lad. “If you need something all you have to do is ask. I’ve time to listen.”

“No, I don’t need anything,” Merry shrugged sticking his hands into his trousers.

“Where are your cousins?” Saradoc thought that perhaps Merry was at loose ends. Maybe the older lads had gone off with him.

“I don’t know,” Merry said with another shrug.

“Are you looking for someone to play with?” Saradoc asked.

“No,” Merry said.

“Merry, are you quite certain that you don’t have something to tell me?” It was very frustrating. Merry was not the sort to rattle on. The child didn’t always say what was on his mind. This was further evidence that there was very little Tookish blood in him. The Tooks were big talkers and they didn’t really have to have anything important to say at all. They would just begin talking and go on until you interrupted them. With Merry sometimes it was an all day job just to get him to speak his mind. If only the lad had inherited some of his mum’s Tookishness!

“No,” Merry said. “I’m going up to the smial now.” With that the child turned and left.

*****

Over the course of the week, Saradoc found Merry shadowing him several times a day. Always the resulting conversation brought no answers. Each time Saradoc turned and found Merry staring at him Merry seemed annoyed. The child never asked him anything at all. He just watched him and upon being discovered he left with no explanation as to why he might be watching.

“He’s starting to worry me,” Saradoc confided to Esmeralda late one evening when he was almost certain that Merry was in bed asleep. Lately he couldn’t be completely certain where Merry might be. It had got to the point that he felt the lad staring at him even when Merry wasn’t about. He was developing a nervous habit of looking behind himself. Other folks were starting to notice it too. The Master of Buckland was a bit jumping these days. “I think he wants something but I have no idea what.”

“Have you asked him?”

“Of course I’ve asked him,” Saradoc sighed. “I’ve asked him in every way that I can think of but he doesn’t seem to want anything. At least he says he doesn’t want anything but then I turn around an hour later and there he is again!”

Esmeralda smiled. “Why don’t you invite him along tomorrow when you go down to the barns? Maybe he wants to be included and just doesn’t want to ask you.”

Saradoc nodded. That made sense.

*****

“No thank you,” Merry said between bites of bacon.

Saradoc frowned. “You wouldn’t like to go down to the barns with me?”

Merry reached across the kitchen table and grabbed two pieces of toast and then got out of his chair. “No, I got stuff to do today,” Merry said looking important.

“Oh, well, all right then,” Saradoc said. He had taken his wife’s advice and invited Merry to come with him today but apparently the lad had other plans.

“Merry, darling, are you quite certain that you don’t want to go with your Father?” Esmeralda asked looking as confused as Saradoc felt. It wasn’t often that Esmeralda didn’t know her lad’s mind. She was a Took after all. She seemed to have a strange way of knowing most things. She always knew what Merry was thinking, well, until now anyway.

“No,” Merry said picking a couple of slices of bacon off of his plate and then running out of the back door. His very confused parents looked at one another and sighed.

Later, when Saradoc turned and found Merry behind him again while he was in the barn his confusion doubled but he still got no answers from the lad.

*****

“Again today?” Merimas frowned looking at Merry.

“I have to keep trying,” Merry said. “He keeps catching me before I can find out anything.”

“Why don’t you just ask him?” Berilac said.

Saradoc had come upon his son and his two nephews deep in discussion. He didn’t usually listen in on Merry’s private conversations. He trusted his lad. Still, Saradoc was desperate to know what was bothering Merry and why the lad was following him. As Saradoc had passed the door to the main parlor he’d heard the lads talking and had decided to keep out of sight and listen. If Merry wouldn’t explain then this was the only choice open to him.

“I can’t ask him,” Merry said looking annoyed at his older cousin. “That’s not how it works. I have to watch him when he isn’t looking. Frodo said that was how to do it.”

Saradoc frowned. This strange behavior on Merry’s part was Frodo’s idea? That didn’t make much sense. Frodo was very levelheaded these days. Despite having been quit a handful at Merry’s age, Frodo had grown into a fine young lad with a rather practical mind about him. All the same, now that Saradoc thought about it, Merry’s strange behavior had started just after Frodo had visited Brandy Hall. Saradoc stood quietly with his back to the wall just outside of the parlor and listened. What had Frodo told Merry?

“How does Frodo know?” Merimas asked. “Frodo doesn’t have a father so how does he know that this is what you do?”

“This isn’t about fathers,” Merry sighed. “This is something else. Oh, and don’t say anything to Frodo about not having a father. It isn’t nice.” Merry scowled at his cousin.

“I know,” Merimas said defensively. “I’m not saying it to Frodo. He isn’t here. I just don’t know how he should know about this when he hasn’t got one.”

“You heard Merry,” Berilac sighed swatting his younger brother on the top of the head. “It isn’t about fathers. Don’t you listen to anything?”

“I’m listening,” Merimas objected.

“Maybe if we came with you,” Berilac suggested looking at Merry. “We could help you watch him.”

“No, that wouldn’t work,” Merry said. “I have to be the one who watches him. That’s the point.”

“Tell me what Frodo said again,” Merimas said. The lad was still slightly confused about what Merry was doing.

In the hall outside of the parlor door, Saradoc was grateful for Merimas’ confusion. He was glad to know that there was someone else who didn’t entirely understand Merry’s behavior. He leaned forward ever so slightly and listened intently.

Merry sighed. “Fine. I’ll explain it one more time and then I have to go. I don’t want him to get too much of a head start or I will have to waste time searching for him.” Merry cleared his throat. “I asked Frodo if he thought that it would be hard for me to learn how to be the Master of Buckland when I was older and Frodo said that all I had to do in order to learn the job was to watch my father.”

Saradoc’s mouth fell open in surprise but he didn’t make a sound.

“Frodo said that if I wanted to do it right then I just needed to watch my father while he worked and I would learn all kinds of important things,” Merry said. “Frodo said that you can learn all about a job or a person if you just watch and listen.”

“Is it working?” Berilac asked.

“It can’t work because he keeps catching me,” Merry groaned rolling his eyes and pacing about in a circle. “Every time I find him and sneak up on him, he finds me before I can learn anything important. Frodo didn’t tell me that it would be this hard just to watch him.”

Saradoc suppressed a laugh.

“He knows when I’m there every single time. I can’t learn what he does when I’m not there if he always knows that I’m there,” Merry said.

“Maybe Frodo is wrong,” Merimas suggested.

“Frodo is not wrong!” Merry said sternly as if daring Merimas to say more. “He knows things. He reads all the time and he’s very clever. If he says that the best way to learn about being Master of Buckland is to watch my father then that’s the best way!”

Merimas blinked. ‘I’m sorry. It just doesn’t seem to be working.”

“I must be doing it wrong,” Merry sighed.

“Can’t you just tell him that you want to watch him?” Berilac asked.

“Of course not!” Merry said looking at both older cousins in annoyance now. “Frodo says that when folks don’t know that you’re watching you can learn a lot about how they really do things. If I tell him that I’m watching him then he might not do some of the things that I need to learn. I need to watch him when he doesn’t know I’m watching him.”

Grinning, Saradoc made his way back down the hall and into the kitchen. He was just getting a second cup of tea when Merry came into the room. “Hello, lad,” Saradoc said. “Sorry I can’t stay and talk to you while you have your breakfast but I have to get to the fields. I have things to see to. If you want to come by later then we can talk a bit.”

“I don’t think I want to come by,” Merry said shaking his head. “I won’t be anywhere near there all day long so don’t look for me.”

It was all Saradoc could do not to smile. He shrugged and then got up from the table to leave. “I’ll see you in dinner?”

“All right,” Merry said.

Ten minutes after leaving the kitchen Saradoc heard the sound of feet on the dirt behind him but he didn’t turn to look. All day he felt eyes watching him but he tried his best to ignore it. If Merry wanted to do this badly enough to keep at it then he wouldn’t spoil it.

After a few days, Saradoc got used to having Merry follow him and he no longer noticed it so much. By the time Merry had given up his project and moved on to something new Saradoc found that he had learned something of importance. He found that if he performed his daily tasks as the Master of Buckland as if Merry might be watching him that he took extra care and considered things more thoroughly. Years later this lesson served him well. He never did anything that he wouldn’t want Merry to see. He wasn’t certain if Merry had learned anything of importance but Frodo’s suggestion to Merry had certainly taught him something of value.

The End

GW 05/26/2007