Cadence and Dog

by Lashbrook, Lillan

                  “Yes. I crawled in here to get away from all the madness and danger out there. I have decided to die. It is all too much for my old bones. I can’t run anymore. I can’t fight. God has forsaken his children, and this is the result.” He slumped farther against the wall almost disappearing into his rags. “There used to be angels. A long time ago, they helped us and the animals.  There were all kinds. Some spread flowers, others looked after children and the sick, some even whispered in our ears to do the right thing. They are all gone now.” Cadence finished cleaning and getting her sleeping things out. She came and sat by the old man refilling his water up even though he had hardly drunk any. “There are no angels.” Said the old man. His clothes hung off and gathered around his withered frame and his hair was just a few sprigs of fine silk. Cadence couldn’t tell if his face was scared or just so wrinkled it didn’t look like skin anymore. She thought he looks like someone balled up a piece of white construction paper and placed it on a pile of rags. He kept his eyes closed and facing away from her. “They are gone, left the world a long time ago.  The Angels grew jealous of us. God’s beloved children. We were given everything. Even the freedom to ignore all the gifts and beauty he had bestowed onto us. The freedom to defy and denounce Him. As their jealousy and hatred grew so too did the unrest. They gathered together one day on the far end of heavens domain. There was only way they could become mortal. In a great cry of pain and sorrow they ripped off their wings.

                  “They fell calling out their love to god with the hopes that he would save them from the fall and let them live amongst the humans. But he only turned his tear-filled eyes away. They fell through the sky and never touch the soil as they continued into hell. But they didn’t land there either, their personal hell was to fall together for eternity with the knowledge of their only sin. They fall forever knowing they broke God’s heart” The old man had been leaning his head against the side of the bill board. Now he dropped it to his chest and began to cry. Cadence didn’t know how to comfort him and his story had only upset her worse. All her life her father and grandmother had taught her the bible and sent her to Sunday school. And she supposed that this hell like world could be explained by the old man’s story. With nothing of her own to say, no way of knowing how to handle this situation, she did the only thing she could think of. She sat next to him, took his cold boney hand in her own and cried along with him. Dog lay across both their feet and the pile they made soon slept.

  When she awoke the next day, her muscles were sore from sleeping upright and in the cool of the night air. Slowly stretching she remembered the night before and looked over at the old man. His hand had fallen out of hers in the night. When she reached for him, he didn’t move. Cadence placed a hand on his chest and felt nothing. He had gotten his wish. She didn’t know about funerary arrangements or what would be proper. But she did know he was supposed to lay down and cross his arms. That’s what they did in the movies. So, she cleared a space, laid him down, and crossed his arms, even found a penny and a dime to put on his eyes like they did in daddies western movies. Then she packed up camp and headed out. Her focus was inward, thinking of the all the old man had said.

  When they got to the edge of the road she suddenly bent down and shuffled in the dust. Her fingers closed around something of their own accord. For a moment she impersonated a Neanderthal, her fists setting on the ground, knees under chin, face blank. After sitting that way and feeling the cold wet grass against her pants she slowly straightened. When she opened her hand, she couldn’t quite tell what the universe had given her this time. Smaller than the rock, weighs nothing at all. She tossed it into the air and was sure it would float there like a balloon. It had no string, even though there was a hole for one. But it too was so small she couldn’t believe anything would actually fit in it. Now that it was in her hand, she began to feel the same warm tingle as she had first holding the pond stone. It wasn’t shiny, wasn’t really pretty. It was dirty and scratched like it had laid there forever. But the more she rubbed at it, scared it would break every time she put pressure on it, it did become prettier. She started to see the knotted design on the front and back. There were more holes going down the sides. As if it was meant to hang on a bunch of lines at once but tiny strings, the kind a doll would use. She suddenly thought of her fishing line. Rifling through her scant belongings she pulled out the roll. It was braided and just barley fit with pushing and fighting. But finally, the small metal cross hung from her hand along the string. Suddenly it sparked! The sun came out from the clouds for just a moment and caught it in a ray and the same pale but beautiful colors she had seen float across the rock, still in her pocket, shimmered out of the light. She cut the length of fishing line and tied then ends together with one of the knots her book had taught her. Dropping the loop over her head and looking at the cross laying on her chest she felt a hot pin prick of pain for barely a second and was gone. Just like the rock it was perfectly normal in the end.

  As their adventures continued so does her understanding of the world she has fallen into. Self-sufficiency skills and leaving as little behind as necessary were first to evolve. Those first few weeks she treated everything with the disposable “I’ll get another one” mind of the child she had been. At 7 her family had provided for all her needs, and had only recently begun the process of teaching her self-reliance. They had started with microwaveable food, choices for supper, allowances and chores, and all the usual things to show that the world was not a hand out but a cooperation. But there had always been clothes and food and toys. She hadn’t played or just sat around doing nothing for a while now. She couldn’t think of the last time she had just spent the day enjoying herself. She began to wonder how long she had been walking, how far? What state was she even in? What day is it? She could tell time of day by the sun, and with it sinking in the west she could tell direction. But what month was it?! It was still warm, but not hot during the worst of the day as it had been. Meaning it was fall right? But wasn’t cold at night so early fall or late summer? Maybe she should go farther south. It will be warmer down there. Or should she find somewhere to stay through the winter? Or maybe…

  Suddenly a crash off to her right! Something was coming fast from around the corner. She had enough time to get out of the street and behind a burned husk of a car that had been flipped over. Just as she got low to the ground her wagon as far out of sight as she could get it a mad man, the biggest she had ever seen came barreling down the cross-street crashing into the signpost and bending it!  He weaved back and forth still going full speed across the intersection. Crashing into the building on the far side and smashing out a window. Flailing his arms about he seemed to be reaching for something on his back. Before the madness hit him, he must have been a bodybuilder, and hadn’t since lost a single mussel. He was a pile of ripples and mounds, and well over 6 or maybe even 7 foot tall. The same bloody scars and symbols were etched all over him and the same glass and nails and chains. But on his back was a vibrant and colorful tattoo.  A mandala made out of all colors (not that she knew what a mandala was) and a small boy was clinging just beneath the neck of this hulking madman. Cadence couldn’t see what he was hanging from, but he was. And every time the behemoth swung around the boy planted a foot or an arm to keep him-self right where he was. They slammed into another wall, and another.

  The boy laughed, LAUGHED! As if riding that monstrosity was fun! It dodged into another building and ran down the street. Finally, the monster tripped over a light post that had fallen over in some storm or riot. Its already bloody and twisted face smashed into the ground as it slid a full foot further across the pavement. Cadence was sure there was no way it could get up again but it tried. It began to roll over and that was what finally got the boy off the giants back. He pulled something up with him as he jumped off, a long thick blade. That’s what he had been hanging onto as th
e tremendous flesh pile had bludgeoned itself on every possible thing. Before it could roll all the way over the boy stepped up to the side and slashed the knife across its eyes. It roared and rolled back and forth holding what was left of its face. The skin had sheared off most of its skull, the nose was just a hole. The white of bone shone out between its fingers; blood flowed like twin rivers from the now empty eye sockets. The knife was too short to stab any internal organs behind all that bulk. But it could make the giant bleed. Quicker than Cadences tired eyes could see the boy had covered the bellowing deformity in a dozen or more fresh wounds, almost all of which had been located at the joints, where the tendons connected. Its shoulder’s, elbows, hips, knees, all hung at odd angles. It fell forward again and again, its parts refusing to hold him up. Finally, the boy had had its fill of the show and climbed back atop his horrific mount. Pulling back at the head that was almost as big as he was, he thrust the knife into the side of the things neck all the way to the hilt and pushed outward cutting clean through. Its roars cut off abruptly.

  Slowly the beast stopped thrashing and a pool of black ooze spread out beneath them. Cadence wasn’t sure if she should stay hidden until he left or run out there to tell him he was crazy. He was the first normal person she had seen since she got separated from her father when the Madmen found their hiding place. She shuddered trying to make her mind focus on something, anything else but her mind wouldn’t obey. She didn’t want to remember. Didn’t want to remember how it had looked at her.

  Not like food, but with recognition. It stared at her with big eyes. Its mouth chewing on words she couldn’t understand. It reached for her slowly, so slowly, like it didn’t want to scare her away. It made noises like it was purring. Her grandmother had behaved the same way when a hurt cat had gotten in the basement and didn’t want to come out. She looked around for something to throw at it or hit it with. Some way to escape. Behind it was a window. If she was quick enough, she thought, she could smash it and get away. Grabbing the first thing her hand landed on that gave way to be picked up she swung it at the Madman and straight out the window. Perfect shot! And the Madman had dodged enough for her to slip by. Out the window she went and a few feet away looking back for her father. She called as loud as she could and at first nothing. Then her name! He screamed it out the window and told her to run. Having always done as she was told she didn’t change the habit now. Running, running, running, running, her legs felt like lead and her lungs burned. She had no idea how far she had gone, or how long the sun had been down. But by the time she finally tripped over her own shoes in exhaustion she was lost.

  Now here was a human, or at least a new breed of Madmen. She had never heard anything but animal noises come out of a mad man. This one had laughed. He also had clothes on. And for as far as she could see the only blood on him was from the monster. She watched him jump on the dead body as if it was an old mattress. The skull of the madman jostled in what was left of its skin. The boy, stopped bouncing and just looked at the head for a moment. He squatted, held the big thick knife out in front of him, his arm straight out edge down, and then just dropped it. It landed flat against the scull. Sliding his hand and the knife down he peeled it like an orange. He held it up turning it back and forth. The white of the bone shone out under the half-moon between the thick black slimy strings that use to be blood. He dropped it and bounced it on his knee like a soccer ball. Then his foot. Then his shoulder. This time when he dropped it back down, he kicked it straight at the car cadence was hiding behind. It hit with a loud crash and Cadence yelped out of surprise, fell backwards onto the grass and gave away her position.

  The strange possibly crazy boy looked at her, tilted his head and stepped off of his dead toy. By the time he had walked around to the far side of the car Cadence was on her feet and backing away. She couldn’t get to her cross bow in time. Scolding herself in her mind about not having it more accessible. He looked at her, smiled and waved his hands in front of him a little. Hands covered in blood he held one out to shake and be polite, as if he hadn’t just killed a giant madman and skinned its skull. She just stared at him. When she made no move to take his hand, he pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and wrote on the ground between them.

  “My name is Adreian, don’t be scared” Held his bloody hand out again this time with the chalk in it.

  “Cadence” she said pointing to herself. He shook his head and held the chalk out farther to her. Confused but willing to play the game, Dog hadn’t reacted to the boy, she wrote her name. Adrien made some more waving motions and smiled again. When he reached into his pocket again his hand came out with a fun sized candy bar and offered it to her like the chalk. She didn’t take it. “Daddy told me not to take anything from strangers. Not even other kids”

  Once more Adrien shook his head took the chalk back and bent to write on the ground. This time it was a drawing of an ear and a mouth then he crossed them out and pointed to his own ear and mouth. Cadence had seen those symbols before but she couldn’t remember where. Having never encountered a deaf person in her life she couldn’t have known that the way he was waving his hands was actually his language. Adrien had been deaf from birth and had gone to the proper schools and had good parents and community. He had learned many ways to communicate with hearing people, but speech hadn’t been one of them. His parents had even moved to a mostly deaf or impaired subdivision so he would have a better chance at friends. However, we can’t protect our children from everything and he had adapted to dealing with hearing people. His main trick had been the chalk, followed by slowly ‘articulating’ his ASL, American Sign Language. If they still didn’t understand he could just write out everything and hope for the best. This was one of those times. Squatting over a clean space of road, farther from the car and dead body, he wrote that he couldn’t hear her and that if she wanted to tell him something, she could write it out.

  “I am not one of those things, I’m sorry if I scared or upset you. It was attacking my camp, and I had to do something. Unfortunately, it ran farther than I was intending to go. So now I am far from camp. Would you mind if I stayed with you until sun up?”

  Still confused Cadence looked at Dog who leaned his head towards Adrien, sniffed, and seem to find him ok. Cadence nodded and started walking with her wagon away from the street towards what looked like an enclosed yard. Adrien followed behind dog. Her mind whirled. Kid out of nowhere and he liked to ride and kill madmen. But he was polite, and dog had no reaction. He carved a skull without any hesitation and played ball with it. Had nice clean hand writing and obvious manners. He had laughed as that monster had ran into everything like it was some amusement park ride. She didn’t know what to do. If Adrien was dangerous Dog would stop him from doing anything to her. They found a clearing in the debris and set up a pile of sticks and a ring of rocks, started a fire. She would have had one going much sooner but the situation had been different. The sun was all the way down now as they settled in for the night. Cadence felt a little bad that she couldn’t offer Adrien anything to sleep on or under. But with the fire going he should be fine as long as it didn’t rain.

  Come sun up Adrien helped her disperse the camp sight and asked her how she wanted her wagon packed. Once they were ready and found they were traveling in the same direction simple childhood curiosity got the better of them, they began to try and talk to each other. Adrien’s condition made that difficult, and he eventually explained about ASL and how he talked to his family and friends. Instantly fascinated Cadence asked him to show her some words. While this slowed their progress westward, they didn’t seem to notice or care. By the time they got hungry and found a place to stop and eat, Cadence was beginning to talk with her hands and had learned a whole sentence or two. By the end of the day she was running out of words to ask him for. One by one she mastered each gesture and word. They investigated a house Dog said was safe. Found food in the cupboards and some
bottles of water in the basement where the family had made a tornado survival kit. Most of that went into wagon including a sleeping bag for Adrien. The night was a pleasant one, just as the day had been. More sign language lessons, and between that and writing they got to storytelling. She told about losing her father and getting lost in the city. He told her about the little traveling camp he was in with his parents and that they were headed south west, where the madmen didn’t seem to be. And about how he ended up riding the giant madman far from camp. He said it should only be another half a day to get there.

  Cadence boiled some of the water they found and tried to wash. Adrien thought it was a good idea and copied her. Neither thought about going in a different room, or that one was a boy and the other a girl. So, when Adrien took off his pants and underwear Cadence got a shock to find that HE wasn’t a he after all, Adrien was a GIRL!

  “I thought you were a boy” she said out loud, but with her back to cadence she had no way of knowing she was being spoken to. Cadence turned Adrien around and said it again to her face. Adrien shook her head, and Cadence signed “you girl”

  “No” Shaking her/his head Adrien signed as he/she got out the chalk and wrote on the wall “I am a boy. I was born wrong, just like my deafness. My mom called it transgendered. But I am a boy.” Adrien went back to cleaning himself. The soap they had found in the bathroom smelled like flowers covered in sugar and now so did they. He dried with one of the oversized towels they had found in the closet and put his clothes back on. Cadence didn’t understand a lot about her new friend, but if he said he was a boy then that must be true. But that didn’t stop her from wondering about it.