The Light: Who do you become when the world falls away? (New Dawn Book 1)

by Jacqueline Brown

  “Thanks,” I said, feeling grateful for Jonah’s honesty.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “Why has this day sucked for me?”

  I nodded.

  “Evil stood in my backyard,” he said, emotion starting to rise in his voice.

  “What did he do?” I felt guilty for asking, but I asked not for the pleasure of knowing, but out of a desire to be closer to Jonah and his family, my god-family.

  “It’s not mine to tell. If it were, I would tell you,” he said, looking in my eyes as he spoke.

  “Okay,” I said, feeling stupid for asking.

  “I really would tell you if I could,” he said, trying to make me feel better.

  I nodded. “Did you tell the police or anything?” I asked. It seemed impossible to me that whatever Mick had done had been legal, not with the amount of hatred everyone felt for him.

  Jonah paused as if wondering how much he could divulge. “We did, but then we stopped pursuing prosecution,” he said.

  “Why?” The question was out before I realized I was asking it.

  “It’s complicated,” he said, and I knew by his tone we were done discussing Mick.

  I nodded once. We sat in silence.

  “Where were you this morning?” I asked.

  “Sleeping,” he said.

  “Sleeping?” I didn’t try to hide the surprise in my voice.

  “I volunteered to take the first watch,” he said, watching Talin and Fulton drink from the stream.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He turned his head to look at me. “I stayed up until three, when Eli got up and relieved me. Someone always needs to be awake,” he said.

  “Were you all afraid of Mick?” I asked, wondering why someone needed to be awake.

  “Of Mick or whomever else. It’s just good to protect ourselves,” he said.

  I leaned my head back and watched the horses. Listening to Jonah and Charlotte, it was as if we were in imminent danger—and perhaps we were. I was tired, too tired to feel anything more than confusion.

  Jonah leaned forward and propped his arms against his legs. “I’m told you and I were best friends when we were younger. Mom said if we went a day without seeing each other, I cried,” he said, looking back at me.

  New emotion stirred within me as our eyes met. His were the color of the green sea glass I hunted for every year at summer camp. I turned away and watched Talin and Fulton eating grass near the stream.

  He stood, brushing the hay from his jeans. “The others will be wondering where we are,” he said.

  “You’re right,” I said, standing and brushing off the hay, happy at the prospect of food, and wishing I had more time alone with Jonah.

  Eight

  I sat between Sara and Blaise, the three of us in low folding chairs. Josh sat next to Blaise on a log. Jonah sat next to Sara, also on a log. She made sure to sit by him. I could tell she was angry that I’d spent time with him. Sara was one of my best friends, but when she set her sights on a guy she lost sight of everyone else.

  East sat next to her brother and Quinn sat between her and her mother. JP sat between his parents and Nonie and Pops sat between their son and oldest grandson. We made an impressive circle around the campfire. I felt safe. I knew the family was bothered by Mick, but I couldn’t imagine him trying anything, not when there were so many of us.

  “Since this is our Thanksgiving meal, I would like us all to say something we’re thankful for,” Quint said, taking me off guard.

  Every Thanksgiving before this one, I’d spent alone with my father and we never said what we were thankful for.

  Charlotte spoke up. “I’ll start. I am thankful that all of my children,” she said, looking at me, “and some of their friends are with us. You go next, John Paul.”

  “I am thankful my brothers and big sister are here,” JP said.

  “I am thankful my entire family is together,” Quint said, looking first at me and then at his parents.

  My mind drifted as the gratitude made its way around the circle. I tried to think of what to say. So many thoughts ran through my mind.

  “… and I am thankful I have the most amazing fiancé in the world,” Blaise said, giving Josh a hug. No doubt he had said something similar.

  It was my turn. I paused for only a moment. “I am thankful for the people who love me.” The words brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t realized they would. In the last eighteen years I may have cried half a dozen times, but today … I had spent most of it in tears. It was as if flood gates had been opened and I didn’t know how to shut them. I covered my face with my hands. Blaise and Sara both put arms around me.

  “I am thankful for my friends new and old,” Sara said, holding me while glancing at Jonah.

  “I am thankful for the return of an old friend and for new ones,” Jonah said, looking at me.

  “I am thankful for Quinn,” East said.

  “Hey, what about me?” JP said, and I laughed out loud, along with everyone else.

  “She likes me better. We are sisters,” Quinn said, sticking out her tongue at her brother.

  I laughed even harder.

  “I am thankful for you too, JP,” East said, shaking her head.

  * * *

  The meal was amazing. Quint and Charlotte were excellent cooks. It was a shame they wouldn’t have the ingredients to cook many or possibly any more meals like this. There was plenty of food and we ate until the sun started to set. We drank water that East and Quinn had gathered from the stream and then boiled and set aside to cool. There was a little bit of dirt in it, but it mostly settled to the bottom. Even with the dirt the water tasted better than any bottled water.

  As the sun set and the wind started to blow, Quinn said, “Momma, I’m cold.”

  “Okay, Quinny, let’s go inside. East, would you come start the fire in the house?” Charlotte said as she stood and led Quinn toward the house. East walked behind them, carrying as many plates as she could.

  I shivered and leaned in closer to the fire, its flames being pushed sideways by the wind. With the sun gone and the wind picking up, the temperature was dropping quickly. Silver shadows began to inch toward us. The moon was rising, and by the looks of things it was a full moon.

  “This wind isn’t good. You know, they predicted a snowstorm for the weekend. The weather guy said it was going to be a brutal winter this year. Said it was going to start early, last long, and be cold throughout,” Pops said, holding on to Nonie’s hand and leaning toward the fire.

  Nonie looked at Pops and said, “If it freezes, everything in the garden will be ruined.”

  “If we harvest everything now, we won’t have any fresh vegetables until the next crop in late spring,” Blaise said, concern in her voice.

  “I don’t think we have a choice. The root vegetables will last for a few months in the cellar, but if the freeze hits them, they will be mush by morning,” Nonie said.

  “We better get going. It feels like it’s dropped ten degrees since Mom took Quinn in,” Eli said while standing and stretching.

  Quint stood and walked toward his father. “Dad, I’ll help get you in. Mom, you need to get in too. No point in having everyone freeze. Jonah, put out the fire. It’s too dangerous in this wind,” Quint said.

  Nonie gathered as many plates as she could carry, and Pops collected the rest on his lap.

  Jonah stood and dumped a nearby bucket of water on the fire.

  I knew losing the heat of the fire would be painful, but I had no idea how painful. The temperature had gone from seventy degrees when we sat down to dinner, to now probably forty degrees, and dropping every moment.

  “Let’s get this done so we can get inside,” Josh yelled over the wind as he strode to the garden. He and Blaise led the way. The rest of us followed.

  At the garden, Blaise took the lead on the harvest. “We have to leave some carrots in the ground so they can go to seed. We’ll have to cover them with as many lay
ers as we can. Pile up the dirt around them, like this. Then we’ll need to get a blanket for them,” she said.

  “I’ll go get a blanket and tell Mom what we’re doing. She may want to come supervise,” Eli said, running toward the house.

  “Sara and Bria, start picking the rest of the carrots. Don’t worry about cleaning them off. We can clean them once we aren’t all in danger of freezing. Josh, you and Jonah start digging up the potatoes,” Blaise said.

  I knelt in the dry earth and began pulling carrots. I had never gardened before, never pulled a carrot from the earth. It was fun, even in the awful circumstances that surrounded the picking of these carrots. The earth hid the secret of the carrot and not until it was pulled from all it had ever known did I discover its size and shape. Some were long and straight. Others had grown too close together, twisted around each other, both of their growths stunted. Others grew close but had room, their fine, threadlike roots connected to one another, yet the carrots themselves strong and healthy. Their leaves looked silver in the moonlight and the carrots were a variety of colors. I had never seen a carrot any color other than orange, but here I knelt, pulling them from the earth. Some white, some a deep purple, others orange.

  Eli returned with Charlotte close behind. Both carried coats and blankets.

  “Here, put these on,” Charlotte said as she handed everyone their coats. She handed me one that belonged to someone in her family.

  One benefit of a large family is you’re used to supporting a large family. You have lots of coats, a large garden, a pantry full of food. In my apartment there was maybe a box of crackers and a few yogurts in the fridge.

  The coat was much too large for me, but I didn’t care. I zipped it up and pulled the collar around my ears. The wind stopped assaulting my body. It made the harvest far less painful.

  “Good idea to save some carrots for seed, Blaise,” Charlotte said as she knelt beside her and heaped dirt around the carrots. She then added a worn child’s bed quilt on top of the mounds.

  I carried a heap of carrots to the back porch. Jonah followed with an armful of potatoes.

  “I think the others can handle the garden,” he said. “I want to make sure Talin and Fulton are protected from the cold. Do you want to help?” He put the potatoes in a large empty box by the back door.

  I placed the carrots on top. “Sure. Let me go tell Sara. I don’t want her to think I skipped out on carrot pulling.”

  “Okay, tell them I went to the barn,” he said as he took long strides in that direction.

  I ran to the garden.

  “Jonah and I are going to make sure the horses are okay. Do you want to come?” I asked Sara. I didn’t want her to get mad at me for spending time alone with him.

  “No, that’s okay. There’s a lot to do here. You go. I saw you with Talin earlier. I know she means a lot to you,” Sara said, barely stopping her harvesting to speak to me.

  “Yeah, she does. I can’t explain it. It seems weird,” I answered.

  “It isn’t weird. Some people and some animals have a connection. You and Talin have that. Go check on her. I’ll get the carrots done and move on to the potatoes.” Sara stood to gather her pile of carrots.

  “Okay,” I said, before running to the barn.

  It was dark in the barn. The moonlight shone through the large openings on either side and the few windows, but the barn was dark anywhere the moonlight did not reach. The barn was silent except for the muted clucking of the chickens.

  “Jonah?”

  “Over here,” he said, his voice panicked.

  I walked toward his voice. As I got closer I saw him kneeling on the ground. Talin and Fulton were each lying on their side, next to him. Their noses nearly touched each other. Jonah stroked their necks.

  “What is it?” I asked, feeling terror rise inside me. All I knew about horses I had learned today or seen in movies. But I knew enough to know horses shouldn’t be lying down like this.

  “I don’t know. I found them like this. I don’t know what’s happened.” Jonah’s voice was small.

  “Stay with them, Bria. I have to get my dad. He’s a vet.” Jonah sprinted from the barn.

  I took his place kneeling between the horses, stroking their necks. Their breathing was shallow and quick. I looked in Talin’s eye. It was out of focus and glazed over.

  A few moments later Jonah returned, with Quint running behind him.

  He knelt beside them. He placed his ear near their mouths and listened for their breath. “I need more light. You two get a fire started, and get blankets on these horses. They are ice cold,” he said.

  “I don’t want to leave her,” I said quietly as I stroked her.

  “What she needs from you now is the fire I asked for and a blanket,” Quint said, commanding me to action.

  “Come on,” Jonah said, taking my hand and pulling me up and out of the way.

  He ran to the tack room, returning in an instant with two blankets.

  He threw me one of them. “Put this on Talin.”

  I laid it gently over her, kissed her head, and followed Jonah out of the barn. The wind hit me hard, driving me sideways into the barn wall.

  “You okay?” he yelled over the howling wind.

  “Yes,” I called, trying hard to stay on my feet. I kept my eyes on Jonah, the wind causing even his large frame to swerve now and then.

  We reached the wood pile and he handed me a few small logs, before turning to run back to the barn with his arms full. I followed as fast as I could.

  He threw the wood down and grabbed a rake. He cleared the straw away from an area in the center of the barn, not far from the stall Talin and Fulton were in. As the rake lifted the straw the wind blew it on its way through the barn.

  He knelt, gathering a small clump of straw and carefully stacking wood around it to make a teepee shape. He dug in his pocket and retrieved a lighter. The straw caught instantly and the wood ignited soon after.

  “Get that door closed,” Jonah commanded.

  As he ran to the back door, I ran to the front and pulled it shut. The wind blew hard and the door shook, but did not slide open.

  Jonah ran around pulling the wooden windows closed.

  The doors and windows rattled, but inside, the barn was still and dark. Moonlight seeped in at every tiny opening. Even so, the fire was now our only substantial source of light.

  I watched Quint use his stethoscope. He listened to Fulton’s massive chest and then moved to Talin. He pulled up her eyelid and peered into her eye.

  “Their pupils are dilated,” he said, more to himself than to us.

  A moment later he was up and running.

  “I’ll be back,” he said as he ran to the barn door, slid it open a few inches, and disappeared into the night.

  I knelt by Talin and petted her. Jonah sat with his back against the barn wall, his hand on Fulton’s head. His mouth moved but no words came out.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Praying,” he answered.

  The barn door slid open again.

  “What happened?”

  Sara’s voice surprised me. I expected to hear Quint’s voice. Charlotte, Blaise, Josh, and Eli entered with her. They lined the outside of the stall.

  I shook my head and bit my lip. I turned away from my friends. I couldn’t look at them without feeling the hurt more intensely.

  Charlotte came into the stall and knelt down beside me. She placed one hand on my back and the other on Fulton. Eli stood on the edge of the small stall. He pulled the beads from his pocket and began to say words that seemed vaguely familiar to me. I wondered if I had heard my mother say them. Jonah said the words with Eli and so did Charlotte. I turned when I heard Blaise’s voice join in the chorus of “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee ….” I didn’t understand the meaning of the words, but their methodical repetition was soothing.

  The words stopped when Quint rushed back into the stall. I moved to the other side of
Talin, careful to keep my hand on her. I wanted her to know I was there. That I believed in her. That she was going to be okay.

  “What is it?” Charlotte said as she stood to make room.

  Quint took her spot and emptied a grocery bag: out came water bottles, huge syringes, and a black powder.

  “Poison. It has to be. There’s nothing else that could come on this fast and strong and hit them both at the same time,” Quint said as he twisted open the top of a water bottle.

  “Poison?” Eli and Charlotte said in unison.

  I looked at Jonah. The muscle in his jaw tightened.

  “Has to be,” Quint said as he poured black powder into the syringes.

  “The stream?” Charlotte said.

  Quint nodded.

  “But we drank water from the stream at dinner,” Josh said.

  Quint said, “When I was inside, I asked East when she gathered that water. She said earlier in the day, before we got back from Mom and Dad’s. Before—” Quint stopped.

  “Before Mick,” Jonah said. I could hear the hatred in his words.

  Quint nodded.

  Jonah’s fist tightened. He wanted to kill him. I know he did. I wanted the same thing.

  “I’m giving them activated charcoal,” Quint said as he opened Talin’s mouth, pushing the syringe in as far as he could before emptying the contents down her throat.

  “Will that work?” I asked, my voice shaking out of fear and hatred.

  “I don’t know,” he said. He emptied the second syringe into Fulton’s mouth. “But it’s all I can do. That, and pray.” He sat back on his feet, petting both horses gently on their necks.

  Nine

  Eli lugged more wood into the barn. My friends carried in what was left of the uncontaminated water. Charlotte brought out as many quilts and blankets as could be spared. Jonah and I covered Talin and Fulton with four blankets each, leaving one for each of us. The wind pushed violently against the barn and the snow fell.

  Quint showed Jonah and me how to mix the activated charcoal with the bottled water and administer it to Talin and Fulton.