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Zedec Jacobson was not the wealthiest farmer in Gloaming Dale, but he was a calculating and frugal man, so it came as little surprise to his neighbors when one day in early spring a golem was seen plowing in his fields. Other farmers could perhaps more easily afford one, but their worth was invested in other things—slaves or land or excessively luxuriant villas. Zedec had saved for years with this end in view, and so he was the first in that community to possess a golem. Joshua Zacharite, Zedec’s nearest neighbor, was the first to stop by Zedec’s farm and ask about it. They sat down together on Zedec’s front porch. Zedec offered him tea and cakes; they commented on the weather—the usual formalities—before Joshua brought up the golem. The two men had a friendly rivalry, as their fathers had before them, so Zedec grinned thinking that Joshua was already calculating how he could draw together enough money to go and acquire his own golem. “So, Zedec, I noticed you have a new worker in the fields,” was how Joshua came around to the subject. “Brath get too lazy and insolent?” Brath was Zedec’s full-time hired man. “No, Brath still works for me,” Zedec chuckled, sipping his tea. “I have him mending fences today.” “That new worker,” Joshua persisted, “he’s kind of tall, isn’t he? A good head taller than anyone I’ve ever seen, I would wager. And—of course—I only saw him from afar, but I’d say he has bad skin. All pock-marked and chalky, I could tell from where I stood on the road. I imagine all that sun isn’t good for him.” Zedec smiled. “Well now, I suppose a little sun might be good for some skin conditions. Sunlight is healthy for a man, who wasn’t meant to live in the dark like a mole.” “A man?” Joshua asked with raised eyebrows. “Another thing about your new ‘man’ out there. He’s plowing, only—unless my eyesight is failing me in my old age, and I must admit I can’t see quite as well as I used to—only your man is plowing without a horse. Call me crazy, but I’d say he was pushing the plow himself. That’s a good sight stronger than any worker I’ve ever had the fortune to employ.” Zedec burst out laughing, and slapped his knee as if he’d heard a fine joke. “There now Joshua, you’ve had your fun—I’ve let you run on long enough. You know very well that’s a golem I have out there.” Joshua raised an eyebrow in mock concern. “Why Zedec—I never would have laid such a suspicion at your door. After all, I have heard the temple has deemed such things unlawful—an unnatural work of witch craft.” “Oh, if the priests want to tell me how I can farm, let them come out here and bend their backs to plow my fields. Anyway, a little extra in the offering and they look the other way.” “How much does a thing like that cost?” Joshua asked. Zedec grinned, knowing Joshua had finally come to the point. “Well, now, Joshua—between you and me, as neighbors who grew up like brothers, just between you and me—my business is no one else’s affair: I will tell you, it was by far the most expensive thing I have ever bought, the most valuable thing I own. Aye, that creature is worth as much, perhaps more than this farm. There are some, I am sure, who would pay more for it than they would give for this thousand acres of toil and trouble.” Joshua nodded thoughtfully. “So why didn’t you instead buy yourself another thousand acres?” Zedec barked a single derisive laugh, and pulled at his long, graying beard. “And how would I work twice the land I have now?” Then he leaned forward and added: “With that golem out there, on the other hand…The prospects are wide open. You have seen his strength, and he can work without tiring. He does not need food or sleep like Brath—heh, especially like Brath, with his bottomless gut and endless capacity for napping. Yes, I could work two thousand acres with him.” Joshua scratched at his short red beard. “I am getting along in years, slower than I used to be. I could appreciate a worker that did not tire, and could keep on at it while I rested my sore joints.” “I will tell you, though, Joshua—it was expensive, but it cost more than gold and silver.” “Eh? How is that?” “The Matron will give you a list—special ingredients she needs. And it takes some time—I brought her what she required last summer. She already had it roughly formed then, but it took her all of fall and winter to animate it.” “What sorts of things does she require?” “Oh, some of them are innocuous enough, things you can find a day of tramping through the woods and fields. Others are a bit…odder. The menstrual blood of a virgin, for instance.” “How did you manage that?” “Sarah came of age last summer—just in time. Her mother saved some.” “My daughters are all married,” Joshua said. “Well, if you decide to go ahead with it before I marry Sarah off, perhaps we can work something out.” “Bah, it’s a crazy business,” Joshua said dismissively. “I never thought I’d be dealing for menstrual blood. Perhaps the temple is right; perhaps it is unnatural.” “Perhaps you are right. And I will be content to watch my fields unnaturally plowed, and my crops unnaturally planted, and unnaturally harvested in the fall. And I will reap my rewards at market, quite naturally.” When Joshua took his leave, Zedec could tell his mind was preoccupied, planning. Zedec’s wife Anna came onto the porch, back from feeding the livestock. She asked, “I don’t suppose that thing is going to cut down any of my work around here, is it?” “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you could teach it to sew.” “Hah!” she laughed. “Maybe I can teach it some tricks in bed.” “I was not aware you had a shortage of help on that front,” he said slyly.
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