A sudden thought flows through Dagwood’s head and he looks away from Salomon and turns toward Puk.
“Maybe you’re right, Puk! What if the disease doesn’t come from the mines, from the air, or something we eat. Or from another human. What if it comes from the inside, and not from the outside as we’ve thought all along?”
A quiet humming of voices joins the crackling of the flames and wonder spreads among them. Suddenly the humming is interrupted by a whisper from the person they least expected to hear something from.
“I think it does …”
Salomon’s voice is low, but still high enough for everyone to hear him. He continues without looking up, and keeps looking at his hands that are in his lap.
“I once felt this uncomfortable and burning sensation in my body. My skin was itching all over and it hurt terribly. The pain came from the inside. But it was only for a short period then it stopped again …”
Instinctively he lifts his hand to his chest and starts scratching outside his shirt but stops quickly again as he becomes aware of his movement. Puk jumps from his seat with the sleeping Twice in his arms and walks to him.
“But that means that the disease can be cured or stopped. You’re not dead. Maybe the answer lies with you, Salomon!”
Dagwood looks at Puk and smiles at him.
“You’re right, Puk. Maybe we can find the answer with Sal.”
He looks at Salomon and asks: “What do you remember from the time … you became ill or felt that burning feeling inside you? Did anything special happen? Did you have contact with other sick people?”
He stops his river of words. Salomon looks confused, and suddenly he’s afraid that his line of eager questions seems more like an interrogation. It takes a while before Salomon finally starts speaking again.
“A lot of things happened back then … and after. I should’ve died … I deserved to die …”
Dagwood interrupts him: “Deserved to die? What are you talking about, Sal? Why did you deserve to die? Do you mean die of the disease … or do you mean something else?”
He looks confused at Salomon, who answers: “I did something inhumane back then. I hurt someone. My thoughts were dark and suddenly my body started burning inside. It was as if the sickness found me and punished me … I know that it sounds strange, but that’s what it felt like.”
All eyes, large and small, are looking at Salomon. He turns his gaze towards his hands again and doesn’t notice that Skye is trying to catch his attention with her eyes.
“But does that mean that my parents hurt someone since they became sick?”
Evi’s voice sounds more fragile and nervous than normal, and Skye immediately stands up and starts speaking.
“Of course not, Evi. It makes no sense, what Salomon’s saying. A sickness can’t find anything at all! Or choose one person over another … It’s foolish talk.”
Evi answers: “But it did find Hackett after he hurt Twice, isn’t that so?”
“We’ve killed animals too, and we haven’t become sick.”
Skye’s voice is more agitated than she likes it to be, and her cheeks are burning. She feels like running away from the others. Away from Salomon and his stupid opinion.
Puk says: “But it’s different with Hackett. He tormented Twice. For fun. Not for food. That’s the difference …”
His words confuse her thoughts and she turns around, upset, and quickly walks away from the fire. Dagwood looks at her in surprise. He doesn’t understand her reaction. He starts walking after her, but Flo stops him by grabbing his arm and asking him a question.
Skye sits by the river’s edge with her legs pulled up under her shirt. The evening air is chilly, and she’s freezing. The warmth of the fire left her body long ago and she looks at her cold, bare feet. She’s furious. Who does Salomon think he is! Where does he get his crazy ideas from? No one in their right mind would connect horrible actions together with a disease. She snorts into the air at the fact that she felt some kind of sympathy for that foolish boy at some point. No, her first impression of him had been right. In the future, she’ll stay far away from him and his dark and reclusive personality.
Suddenly she sees a small figure moving on the other side of the river. She squints to see better. A small animal with red fur moves silently down to the water and sits as its bushy tail curls elegantly around its feet.
Skye tilts her head and looks at it. It looks like it’s looking at her too, and she suddenly recognizes it. It’s the small furry friend she’s met before. She can’t really remember when, or whether it was in a dream or in reality, but it looks very much alive right now as it sits there watching her. All of a sudden it raises its ears and stretches its neck. Obviously it sees something behind her. She too hears a noise, and turns around.
“Are you okay?”
Salomon stands a little away from her. It’s as if he’s heard her thoughts and is afraid to get closer to her. The moonshine lights up his dark figure and the wind’s blowing his long, dark hair in front of his face. His eyes are shining like two small stars in the sky, and Skye can’t see anything else. She gets up and tries to move backwards, but the edge of the water creates a natural barrier for her retreat.
“Why do you want to know? Go away and leave me alone …”
Her voice is shaking and she can’t conceal her anger. Salomon stands looking at her, but he doesn’t do anything. She raises her voice.
“Why aren’t you leaving? I don’t want to listen to any more of your disgusting opinions. Just because you’re sick from the evil, it doesn’t mean others need to be.”
Slowly he steps closer to her. He looks serious and sad at the same time. The worried look she saw in his eyes earlier today by the fire has returned and almost turns off the light in his turquoise blue eyes.
“If I’m right … about the disease, then I know what I did and why the disease has found me. Maybe I’m wrong, but deep inside you know there’s a chance that I’m right.”
Skye looks at him and wishes he’d keep his mouth shut. Why does he insist on talking to her, tearing into memories she doesn’t want to remember. They’re her memories that he wouldn’t know anything about if he hadn’t invaded her and Ecco’s secret den. But he was wrong. She didn’t know anything deep inside. How was a secretive and mysterious outsider going to tell her what her inner thoughts and feeling were?
“I know what you want me to say. That my brother got sick from evil and dark thoughts. But my brother wasn’t evil! He was looking after me and protecting me from the enemies around us. You think you know something about him, but you don’t. You didn’t know him …”
Her heart’s racing so fast that she’s almost short of breath just from speaking, and her eyes fill with tears. Salomon says nothing. He just looks at her. Not with a judgmental look. It’s as if his eyes fill with tears too, and he looks sadder than ever before.
Skye’s confused, and lots of thoughts fill her head. Quick glimpses of Ecco’s face and his smile mix with images of the faces and bodies of the murdered boys lying lifeless on the ground. She shivers inside and starts shaking of cold.
“You mustn’t be upset …”
Salomon’s whispering almost disappears into the darkness of the night, but she hears him loud and clear. The care in his voice makes her release all her tears, which slowly find their way down her cheeks. Her nose starts running and she looks at the ground to hide her red-eyed, snotty face. Clumsily she wipes her nose on her sleeve and tries to pass him, to get away. She doesn’t want him to see her red eyes and running nose, or see her break down over something he said. But Salomon takes her arm and stops her.
“You’re not responsible for the actions of others, Skye. Not even your brother’s.”
Without looking up she answers him with a crying voice.
“But you don’t understand … It wasn’t just my b
rother. It was me too.”
He releases her arm and takes her hand instead. She doesn’t pull it back but leaves it in his. Quietly he tells her: “We’re more similar than you think …”
She’s about to object, but remains silent. The leaves rustle in the wind and she’s forgotten that she’s cold. With her gaze fixed on the ground she remains standing, afraid to move. Afraid that she’ll completely give in to the sadness in her body if he says one more caring or understanding word. Still, it’s the only thing she wants him to say, and she hopes he’ll hug her and never let go.
“They’re here, Dag.”
Flo’s voice kills the moment between Salomon and Skye that seemed to go on forever. Skye looks at her, surprised. Dagwood appears from the darkness behind Flo and looks at them. His eyes find their hands holding each other, and Skye quickly pulls her hand back.
“Are you coming to the fire with the rest of us? We still have a lot to talk about.”
His tone is surprisingly hard, and she hurries towards them as she dries her eyes. Salomon waits a few moments before he follows them. Soon they’re all gathered around the fire and their talk of the returning sickness continues until the break of dawn. Neither Salomon nor Skye mention their conversation by the river, and Ecco’s secret remains untold.
CHAPTER 33
The weather has changed. The warm wind has turned into a keen, cool and penetrating wind, and the generous rays of the sun that previously gave the days warmth have disappeared. For the past several days it’s rained, and the ground around the camp is muddy and cold.
Puk lies on the ground of the hut with Twice and the dogs. He still has to help his little mutilated friend to eat. Twice is too weak and can’t squeeze out the milk from the dog’s buttons, so Puk has to help get it out.
Puk looks at Dagwood, who sits on one of the beds repairing his shirt. Soon they all need to start preparing their clothes for the cold times coming, and many of them need extra clothing to stay warm. The little pieces of fur they have from the long-ears are hard to sow together, and they have few tools to help them with the job. When they escaped the villages they only packed the most essential things that were easy to carry. Back then, there were other things they were more concerned about. Luckily, some of them had taken tin steel, kitchen equipment and tools.
Dagwood sits with one of Evi’s needles that she brought with her from her father’s shoemaker workshop, and he’s trying to sow a patch on the worn-down fabric by the elbow. Puk sees that Dagwood looks thoughtful. He looks more into the air and at Salomon than he does at his shirt. It looks like he’s watching him, but Puk doesn’t understand why. In fact, Dagwood has been in a different mood than normal for the past couple of days, and Puk’s worried he’s taken the entire responsibility of the disease on his shoulders. But why does he keep looking at Salomon? Have they been in a fight after they returned with Twice, or has something else happened that Puk doesn’t know about?
Dagwood looks up from his shirt again, but this time his gaze is directed at Skye. For a long time he looks at her as she sits and talks to Evi, but he doesn’t look happy and smiling when he looks at her, as he normally does. Puk throws a small dry root at Dagwood to catch his attention.
“How’s your tailoring coming along? I was thinking that you might as well make a small fur coat for Twice so he can keep warm when the snow comes …”
Dagwood looks at him and answers with a smile: “Do you want it with three or four legs?”
Puk smiles too, and is happy that Dagwood’s good mood has returned.
Skye’s finally finished her shoes, but it’s obvious that she hasn’t tried weaving before. The weaving is loose and unstable, and after just one walk outside the heavy, wet dirt sticks to all the openings and cracks.
“I’m going to have to make some new shoes, Evi. These aren’t good enough.”
Skye looks enviously at Evi’s perfectly woven shoes drying next to the small fire in the hut.
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I’ll try to give better instructions next time.” Evi laughs as she sees Skye’s muddy shoes. Skye can’t help but laugh too and she drops her shoes to the ground. Dagwood looks at them, and smiles when he sees Skye is laughing. It’s the first time since she’s been in the camp that he’s seen her laughing this much. She looks cute, and for a moment he forgets the sight of her and Salomon holding hands in the dark. Skye and Evi’s laughter soon spreads to the others in the hut and the mood seems anything but dark and gloomy like the weather outside. Or the thoughts of their future.
“Are you coming, Evi? We need to go and fetch some roots before dark …”
Their laughter is interrupted by Flo’s voice. She’s standing next to Evi with her hands on her hips, and Skye looks at her, slightly irritated. Yet again Flo’s interrupted her in the middle of a conversation with someone, and she doesn’t seem apologetic or embarrassed to do so. Rather the opposite. Flo throws a linen bag on the ground in front of Evi and turns around. Evi quickly gets up and follows Flo out of the hut.
The rain’s getting heavier, and Evi shivers at the thought of lying on her knees in the cold mud digging up roots. She walks behind Flo, who covers her from most of the rain, but she’s still almost soaked already. Soon they’ve almost reached the little piece of land where Flo planted some old roots a while back, and everywhere green shoots are coming out of the ground. Flo smiles at Evi and points at the plants.
“Look how large they’ve grown. I think they’re ready to be harvested.”
She gets down on her knees and takes out a large knife from her belt. With strong movements she hacks in the ground, digging up the plants. Evi sits next to her and feels how the cold, wet ground immediately gets ahold of her. The thought of the warm hut, a large meal, and getting dry make her dig vigorously in the wet mud. She hasn’t brought her knife and instead she uses her hands to dig. Soon she finds some roots in the dirt but they’re all small and sludgy. She quickly digs some more but none of the roots she finds are any better than the first ones. She moves on to the next plant but she doesn’t find anything edible there either. Evi looks at Flo and sees despair in her eyes too.
“They’re all rotten and spoiled …”
Flo collects a couple of the roots and throws them far away as she shouts her despair into the air.
Evi understands her frustration and knows from experience that she shouldn’t talk to Flo when she’s angry. They’ve been close since they left their village and she knows her so well – both her good side and bad. Once she was afraid of her, or her temper. But Evi’s learned how to avoid her when she gets upset and this is how she’s spared herself a lot of hard words and yelling. The best way is to keep quiet when it happens. Then Flo will only shout at herself and won’t blame her for something later.
Flo gets up and walks to some plants a bit further away. Her hair and face are wet from the rain, but it doesn’t seem to bother her.
“Come on, let’s try to dig over here. Maybe they’re better than the others.”
Evi hurries over to Flo and feels hopeful when she hears the optimism in her voice. She’s always been a strong believer, no matter how hopeless things have looked. And if it hadn’t been for Flo’s strong will they might not be alive today.
After death came to the village, those who weren’t infected started to burn the infected bodies. Everywhere in the streets, piles of dead people were burning. The more sick people there were, the more fires were lit. Suddenly there were more dead people than the people still alive could burn. They became sick themselves and didn’t have the strength to carry the dead bodies into the streets. Instead, they started burning people in their houses and in their beds to stop the disease from spreading. They ordered all the older children to walk from house to house to find the dead, and also her brother Brogan. He didn’t want to leave her, but they showed no mercy and forced him to go with them.
Evi rememb
ers that a group of men came to their home and set fire to her mother, who was dead in the bed. The men were weak but agitated, and none of them had any thought for her, even though she begged them to leave her mother alone. She tried desperately to put out the fire, but it quickly spread from the bed to the rest of the house, and soon the entire house was on fire. The smoke made her dizzy and she couldn’t find her way. The only place she could escape the flames was in the food storage shed behind the house. And even there she was still caught by the blazing fire, which slowly ate its way toward her. In a panic she tried to open the small back door, but the lock was jammed. She was screaming for her life, but her screaming was drowned out by the rage of the fire, which would soon catch her.
And suddenly there she was. Flo. She’d smashed the lock open with an axe when she heard screams, and she quickly lifted her up from the floor and out of the shed. They waited outside all night until the fire died out and only the burned-out walls and furniture were left. Later, they found shelter in her father’s shoemaking workshop, and for several days they waited for Brogan to return, but he never came.
The burning and the confusion in the village was now so violent that they had to leave. She’d collected a few of the tools and left the rest for Brogan, and together with Flo she left the village and started to wander. Her lungs had been damaged during the fire and she was struggling to breathe and move. Flo could’ve left her several times. It would’ve been easier for her, but instead she carried her on her back until she slowly got her strength back. No matter how many times she was about to give up, Flo got her back on her feet and forced her to continue. She was unconquerable.
“They aren’t very good either. I’m afraid they’re all rotten. The ground is much too wet.”
Flo gets up and breathes deeply.
“I think we’ll just have to do with the roots we have left in the supply box. And then we’ll have to find some more food tomorrow. Maybe the weather will clear up by then …”
The Dawn of Skye (The Someday Children Book 1) Page 22
