by Amy Richie
“Unless you need to stay here,” Constantina hurried to offer.
The barter man looked up at the sky and took a deep long breath. “Might need to,” he said after a few moments of contemplation.
“Is it really that close?” Betna looked up too.
Following their lead, I too looked upwards. The sky appeared blue and clear to me. The ocean didn't speak to me though, not like it did to the barter men—or so I'd heard. As a child my father told me that the ocean talked to the people who learned how to listen to it.
“Let's get these supplies back to town,” Owen suggested, urging us all into motion.
Very soon, I had both arms full of a pile of blankets and was heading back down our well used path to the town we were trying to build. Dais was in front of me with a large bag of oats.
“Mama,” he half turned back to me.
“Yeah?” I grunted, tripping over an exposed tree root.
“There's a cave up by the shore. Did you see it?”
“A cave? What's it for?”
“I don't know. Can I go see what’s in it?”
My brow furrowed as I imagined what he could find in that cave. “You stay out of that cave,” I almost shouted.
His shoulders sagged. “All right,” he conceded.
“Take that bag right to the council building.” The command was unnecessary, we put everything in the council building to begin with. From there we would decide where each thing was most needed. Dais didn't comment, and I followed him all the way to the large building in silence.
Chapter 11
I let the box fall out of my arms and thud heavily to the floor. My arms were aching from the many trips from the ship back to the council building. Stretching tall, I kneaded my closed fist into the small of my back.
“Are you all right there, Rani?” I heard from behind me.
I let my hands fall back to my sides with a start. Tilly was suddenly next to me with a pad of paper in her hands. “I didn't realize anyone was in here,” I explained lamely.
“No?” One eyebrow arched high on her smooth forehead.
I shook my head.
“Is your back all right? You've been working hard these past few weeks.”
“We all have.”
“That's true,” she agreed. “But you're the only one who has not once complained about it.”
“It's not my place to complain about work.”
“Were all the gardeners on Ortec like you?” Her nose wrinkled with the question.
“I was a servant of Ortec.”
“I thought you were a gardener.” Her pen stopped scratching across the paper.
“My parents were.”
“Oh, I see.” Once again, her pen flew back into motion. “He brought so much this time,” she muttered.
Boxes and packages were piled along the entire wall of the supply room, with more coming even as we stood there. “Here,” she huffed, thrusting the box into my hands. “That one was a lot heavier than Owen said it would be,” she grumbled.
“What's in it?” I asked, trying to peek into the top while it was in my arms.
“Set it down here,” Tilly pointed out a bare place against the wall. “Then we can see.”
Careful not to let it fall to hard, I bent low to the ground and let it slide off my arms.
“Oh look, Rani,” Angelina exclaimed. “This box must be for you.”
“What is it?” I peered over her shoulder, my eagerness hard to hide.
“It looks like ...” She held up a small jar to show me.
“Seeds,” I finished for her. “Those are seeds.”
“Tomatoes.” She pointed at the hand written label. “And here are some potatoes and corn.” She placed several more jars on the floor beside the box. “And this one,” she had another one, “I'm not sure what these are. Tulips?” She looked up at me for an answer.
“These are flowers.” I took the jar from her and held it in my slightly trembling fingers. “My mother used to love flowers.”
“Why would anyone want flower seeds?”
“To plant.”
“You can see flowers anywhere; they just grow wild here.” She scowled up at me.
“They're pretty to grow next to your house.”
“For?”
“To look at.”
“What a waste of space.” She made a grab for the jar, but I clutched it close to my chest.
“You can put them back in the box.”
“I'll hold them.”
She rolled her eyes and let me keep the flower seeds in my hands.
“The guys want to make sure there're nails here,” Tilly announced, peeking into a few of the boxes. “Can you two see if you can find any?”
“That beats hauling more stuff up from the shore,” Angelina singsonged, crawling across the floor to another large wooden box.
I was reluctant to put the jar back into the box with the others, but I needed both hands to search for the nails. I was halfway through a box filled with small bags of flour and sugar when Constantina came in with another box of supplies.
“Nails are in here,” she announced as she set it on the floor. “The barter man showed them back at the shore.”
She half pulled out a large brown bag.
“Will that be enough to get the roofs on?” Tilly wondered out loud.
We only had the barn to put together and two other houses—how many nails would they need?
“Should be.” She nodded, dropping the bag again. “I think we're about done down there.” She slid down against the wall until she was sitting on the floor next to the box she had just deposited. “About time too.”
“Do you think there really will be a storm?” Angelina asked her.
“The barter men are usually right when it comes to the weather.”
“Do you think it'll be bad?”
Constantina was already shaking her head. “I doubt it, but we'll all stay in the council building until it passes.”
Tilly was nodding along with her. “That's a good idea,” she seconded. “Even if it isn't bad, we're better off safe than sorry later.”
Worry worked at Angelina's forehead. “I suppose we've lived through plenty of storms before.”
“I think there's plenty of time to gather some firewood with Dais first though,” Constantina pushed herself off the floor with a slight huff. “Where is he?”
“He must be down at the shore,” I answered, my mind reeling. She actually seemed excited at the thought of going with him.
“I just came from there,” she reminded me. “He wasn't there.”
“Oh.” My frown creased my face.
“I hope he didn't run off without me.” She left the room, returning moments later with Sasha.
“There you are,” Sasha set the box down with the others. “Dais was looking for you.”
“He was? Where is he?”
“He went off to explore,” she sighed. “That boy can't stand still for longer than ten minutes.”
We both grinned.
“I hope he comes back before the storm hits,” Angelina scowled darkly.
“Dais is a smart kid,” Sasha assured her. “He knows when to head back home.”
Sasha is right, I thought as I bent low over the box of seeds. Dais liked to run around and explore, but he knew when to come home so I didn't worry about him. “Look at these,” I called out to Sasha. “They're flowers.”
“Like that one you have in the pot?” she hurried over to look.
“Not exactly like that one, but these will probably be just as pretty.” I almost laughed out loud at her look of excitement.
Chapter 12
The sky overhead was starting to gather fat gray clouds when I set out to take a handful of blankets to the house Angelina and Betna shared with Betna's baby daughter. The rain hadn't started yet, but I knew the barter man was right about the storm coming our way. I shivered and pulled the blankets closer to my chest, hurrying my steps to get back i
nside again as soon as possible.
Betna was inside with Edna when I finally rushed inside and closed the door behind me. The baby was crying. “Is she all right?” I asked with a grimace. The sound of a baby crying had to be the worst sound in the entire world.
“I think she's hungry,” Betna replied with the same grimace. Since her child was born, Betna wasn't able to produce the milk she needed to survive. Luckily, Katrina was there to help at the perfect time.
“Do you want me to go for Katrina?”
Betna was already shaking her head before my words were all out. “She'll be coming soon,” she assured me. “We need the cow soon, then Edna can have cow's milk again. She might be happier then.”
I held my arms out for the baby. “I'll take her,” I offered.
She gave the baby willingly; as soon as her hands were free, she used them to cradle her head. “Doctor Gourini said I can start feeding her regular food more often,” she mumbled from behind her hands. “As long as I chop it up real fine.”
“That will help,” I grunted, bopping the baby just how I knew she liked to be bopped.
“She's always hungry,” Betna wailed. “Why is she always hungry?”
“She's growing,” I crooned. “She needs a lot of food to help them bones grow.” Edna's crying slowed down as she eyed me.
“This move hasn't been easy.” Betna raised her head slowly to watch us as I paced with Edna. “I think she feels the stress.”
Edna had lived her entire short life in the comfort of the big house, never cold or too hot or short of milk. She had never known the struggles she would have lived if she had grown up on Ortec like she was meant to. Then again, if we had stayed, maybe Constantina would have sent Betna away from Ortec—she wasn't married and she had a child.
But so did I.
“Where is Dais?” Betna asked suddenly, making me wonder if she could see what I was thinking written all over my face.
“Out there getting more firewood.”
“That kid,” she smiled, shaking her head. “He sure does take his job seriously.”
“I think he just likes to explore,” I chuckled, tickling Edna under her chubby chin so she would laugh back at me.
“He's a good child,” she said after a while, surprising the smile off my face.
“I think he is,” I agreed weakly. The world I had always known seemed to be shifting before my eyes. Dais was being accepted, despite the brightness of his hair and his green eyes.
There was a sudden noise outside and the door bursts open, jolting us out of the awkward moment. Katrina stood in the doorway, breathing hard and pushing her hair back out of her face. “Wind is picking up,” she gasped.
“He said there was a storm coming,” Betna pushed past her and pulled the door back closed. “Where is Emily?”
“I left her at the council building with Sasha.” She came all the way in the house and flung herself into one of the large fluffy chairs. “She was sleeping.”
“I hope we'll get the cow soon,” Betna began, her tone dripping with an unspoken apology. “Then you won't have to feed her anymore.”
“Nonsense,” Katrina cooed, holding her arms out for the baby. “I don't mind feeding this little doll. She's not yet old enough for cow's milk.”
“She's almost a year old.”
“She's months away from a year old.” Katrina scowled, settling herself back in the seat with Edna cradled in her arms.
“Here's your blankets,” I muttered to Betna, sidestepping back toward the door.
“Thanks, Rani,” she called, settling herself on the floor next to Katrina and Edna. “We'll head up to the council building when she's finished.”
“I'll see you later then.” Although she wasn't looking my way, I smiled wide at the trio. Just as she thought Dais was good, I thought her child was also good—it just didn't take me as many years to realize it.
I half jogged back to the council building, noticing how much darker the sky looked in just the short time I had been at Betna's.
“Rani!” Sasha called when I opened the door. Figuring Dais had come back, I made my way back to the supply room. Sasha was there on the floor with jars all around her. “There you are,” she exclaimed with a frown. “You've been gone a long time.”
“The baby was crying,” I explained. “Dais isn't back?”
“Not yet,” she mumbled without looking up. “These will go over to the hospital.”
I took the pile without hesitation. “Ask the doc while you're there if he needs any more sheets.”
“All right,” I shook my head quickly. “If you see Dais, tell him to stay close.”
“He'll turn up,” she assured me with a halfhearted smile.
“The sky is getting darker.”
“Are you worried?”
“No,” I shot out a little too fast.
Sasha noticed, like usual.
“I'm sure he will come back soon,” she repeated, this time stopping her actions to look up at me more closely. “Try not to worry.”
It was easy to agree with her, not so easy to actually not worry.
Chapter 13
By the time I finished delivering at the hospital and got back out the door, the rain had started to come down. Thick, fat raindrops fell at my feet, rustling the dirt we had been walking on for weeks. The wind was bending the branches on the trees behind the hospital building until they actually scratched against its roof.
“Rani!” I heard someone calling my name, and looking around, I saw a figure standing in the doorway of the council building waving me on. “Rani!”
Confused and more than a little worried, I quickened my steps until I was running to reach Constantina.
“Dais?” I gasped. My heart dropped when she shook her head.
“He isn't here,” she shouted over the roar of the wind. “We have to get the others into the council building.”
“What about Dais though,” I called back, forced to yell to be heard. “I should go look for him.”
“I'll help you,” she cupped her hands around her mouth to help amplify her voice, “but first we need to make everyone else safe.”
“But ...” The sky had grown alarmingly dark over the past few minutes and I was reluctant to put off finding Dais. What if he was scared? What if he had run into trouble and couldn't find his way back? Who would go looking for him if I didn't?
“Betna and the baby are still at her house,” Constantina urged me. “Katrina came back without them.”
“Why?” I found myself asking. Why would she leave them?
“Betna is afraid,” she told me, joining me outside when I didn't move forward to join her. “She thinks she can just wait out the storm there in her house.”
“Alone?”
“With the baby,” she corrected.
“Will the roof stay on?”
“I don't know. It's better for her to come here.”
She had to come with us to the council building, and she needed to come now before the storm got worse. We still weren't sure what to expect, but if the rapidly swelling sky was any indication, we were in for a rough time.
“Okay.” I nodded my head like a crazy person. “I'll go and get them.”
“Hey,” Sasha hurried toward us, “are you going to get Betna?” She grabbed tight onto my arm, her eyes filled with the same fear that was clawing at my throat.
“Yes.” I blinked the water out of my eyes so I could see her better. “I'll bring them here.”
“I'm going for Doctor Gourini,” Sasha yelled, then dashed away again just as quickly as she had appeared.
“Tilly is gone to help Mindi put the chickens in the house,” Constantina told me. “I'm going there to help them.”
“Okay,” I panted. “I'll be back soon.”
As I turned away, she called me, yelling my name again.
“Yeah?” I called back, eager to be gone so I could get Betna and the baby back safely.
“Be careful.”
“Yes,” she said seriously, “be careful so you don't get hurt.”
“I won't get hurt,” I replied blankly, still unsure what she meant.
I watched as her shoulders heaved up and then back down again. “Hurry up then, and I'll meet you back here in a few minutes.”
There was no time to worry about Constantina's strange behavior. Katrina and Edna needed my help and Dais was still out there somewhere. I retraced the steps I had taken just a little while before, back to Betna and Angelina's house.
The door flew open before I had the chance to raise the latch myself. “Rani!” Betna screeched, her eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”
“Came to help you,” I shrugged, squeezing inside next to her so the rain was off me. “Are you ready to go?”
Betna looked past me, up at the dark sky and heavy rain. “It's not safe out there.”
“It's not safe here.” Already there were raindrops falling into the house from a roof that had hastily been put up just days before.
“What about Edna?” Fear squeezed her voice into a tube and only let it come out in bursts of sound and faint whispers.
“I'll carry her,” I immediately offered. Betna didn't stop me from taking the baby from her arms.
“Rani ...” She pressed her hand against my arm as I turned to lead the way back out the door.
“What?” I glanced back at her, not understanding why she would hesitate to get somewhere more secure.
“I'm scared,” she admitted.
“It's okay to be scared,” I assured her. I was afraid too, especially when the wind whipped the still open door back so hard that it broke free of the hinges that held it in place.
We both stared down at the thick wood that was now lying on the ground and seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time. “Let's get out of here,” Betna said loudly, nudging my back.
“Good idea,” I whispered.
