She headed towards the door, but someone else came in as she tried to go out.
“Ruth? Jeremiah? Come help me with dinner.”
Eleanor guessed the older woman to be in her mid-thirties. The light caught at blonde hair pulled back into a loose bun. Eleanor imagined she had been pretty once, but an air of exhaustion blurred her fine features.
The woman faced Eleanor.
“Saw you come in during the storm.” She pointed to the camera and sensors set deep into the shadows above the door.
Eleanor opened her mouth to speak, to explain, but the woman cut off her stutters.
“Asleep you couldn’t start any trouble, so figured you may as well rest for a while.”
She scrutinized Eleanor. “I’m Laura. Why don’t we talk some inside.”
Without waiting for a response, Laura scooped up Jeremiah and placed him on one hip and took Ruth’s hand. She called back over her shoulder, “Close the shed door behind you and come on into the kitchen. I could use extra hands.”
Eleanor grabbed her pack and followed the family towards the main house. What have I walked into? Water from the vanished storm dripped from the narrow yellow leaves of the twisted trees surrounding the yard. They entered the well-lit kitchen through a door decorated with small animals resting under the outspread branches of a caine tree. Newfol scampered around the hooves of aurox, and in the branches sunbirds preened their feathers. Ruth wrenched free from her mother’s grasp and raced through. Laura’s free hand brushed the carved tree for a moment as she passed.
Once inside Laura put Jeremiah down. “Ruth, play with your brother for a bit.”
The children wandered off to look for something to entertain them. Laura motioned for Eleanor to take off her coat and pull up a chair at the long table that took up one side of the room. The warm kitchen featured molded plastisteel in soft whites that formed the cabinets and counters, all accented with delicate worked pieces of wood.
I wonder if the same person crafted the door as well. They’re beautiful. She returned her attention to the older woman and forgot about the unknown crafter.
Laura’s face was set, lips pressed together, eyes narrowed. “What are you doing in my barn? You don’t look any bigger than my oldest girl, and she’s not old enough to go tramping about on her own, I’ll tell you that.”
Eleanor struggled to remember any pieces of the story she had concocted during the long walk. “I’m visiting my Uncle Joel. He’s a prospector and I’m heading for his camp.”
Laura said nothing, but rested her elbows on the table, her chin in her palms. Under her steady gaze, Eleanor flushed.
“I’ve got a map I figured it wouldn’t be a bad hike, so...”
Laura shook her head. “Stop. I have five kids. I think I know when I’m being had.”
Eleanor tensed her legs, eyes flicked to the door. I can make it, one quick dash.
“Oh, relax.”
Eleanor gaped at the other woman.
Laura grinned. “You’re wound up like an old toy. Let’s get a few things clear, okay?”
Eleanor nodded.
“I want to ask you a few questions and get some answers. Play straight with me, or I’ll know.”
I’ll bet she will.
“Is someone after you? Are you running from something?”
“I’m not running. I don’t know. I doubt anyone’s going to look for me, though.” She could barely hear her own whisper.
Laura waited.
Eleanor winced away from the pity in the woman’s eyes.
Laura pushed herself up from the table, jerked her chin over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up and in fresh clothes and see how things are then.”
Eleanor grabbed her pack and followed the woman as she headed out of the bright room and into a narrow hallway with doors branching off into unknown areas.
“Through here,” Laura said.
A room lined with a low counter and three fold down sinks. Mirrored sections alternated with rows of hooks. Laura raised an eyebrow at Eleanor’s open mouth.
“You try getting a mob of teenagers through the bathroom in the morning. You’d over-plan things too.”
Behind a shoulder-high partition Eleanor could glimpse the slick walls of the bathing room.
Laura patted her shoulder.
“You head on in and I’ll start on dinner. Come find me when you’re ready.”
Alone, Eleanor placed the pack on the counter and gaped at herself in the mirror. No wonder Laura didn’t know what to make of me. Three days of walking had embedded dirt and grime into her skin. She felt gritty, even where her clothing had covered her.
With a frown, she peeled out of her clothes and folded them in a pile of the floor.
In the mirror she caught site of the wings of the necklace. I’d forgotten already. She ran her fingertip over the chain. No matter what, I can’t go back.
She eyed the pack. I could probably take it in with me, it should be waterproof. And she remembered talking to Laura, the trust the woman had shown her so far.
But she hooked a strap with a free finger and hoisted it behind her.
A tiled ledge kept the pack off the floor and out of most of the water.
She toweled off, then eyed the stack of dirty clothes, reluctant to put anything back on her newly clean self. Laura’s words from the hall rescued her. “Your clothes are filthy. I put some of my daughter’s on the counter. They should fit well enough. Get changed before you come into my kitchen and we’ll wash yours during dinner.”
Eleanor changed, noting the other girl stood taller, bigger in the chest, too.
She came into the kitchen and Laura glanced up from where she chopped vegetables. “That’s better.” She handed a large spoon to Eleanor. “That pot over there needs stirring. It’d be helpful if you’d tend it while we talk.”
Eleanor went to the stove, remembered evenings with her mother.
“I’ve been thinking,” Laura said, “You should have dinner with us and stay the night. My oldest girl is spending the week with her best friend; we’ve got an extra bed. We’ll eat when my brother and the boys get in.”
“Is your husband out too? Or did he take your daughter to her friend’s?”
Laura’s face became so still and frozen a breath could crack it. Eleanor recognized the expression.
“The flu?”
Laura nodded.
“I’m sorry. My mom...”
Laura reached over and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “We’ll be okay. My brother moved in to help take care of the farm.”
“Did you and your brother grow up here?” Eleanor asked.
“No, the farm was my husband’s – his father’s, really. Was his settlement after the war.”
Eleanor nodded, her mind far away. Ruth and Jeremiah played in a patch of sun in the corner of the room. “How many children are there? The little ones can’t help much, can they?”
Laura smiled. “These are the youngest. The twins, Matt and Davey, are off with Neil fixing the generator and Maria’s off visiting, like I said. She and the older boys are pretty good with the animals.”
She paused, looking out the window into the courtyard between the buildings at the gathering dusk.
“They’ll be in soon and hungry. We’d better make sure dinner is ready for them.”
They passed the rest of the time in companionable silence as darkness crept across the courtyard. The door opened and a tall fair man with narrow features came in and stopped, stared at Eleanor through small light colored eyes. Laura hurried over to take his coat.
“Neil, this is Eleanor. She’s passing through to see some family and I asked her to stay the night. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
Neil grunted and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m going to check the election news. When’s dinner?”
“It’s ready now, but we can serve whenever you’re done.”
He left the kitchen without another word. A look of exasperation passed over the faces of the pair of teenaged boys coming in through the door. Laura had called them twins, but they didn’t look anything alike to Eleanor. From the color of their hair to the shape of their faces, they held nothing in common but the grime on their hands and expressions of fatigue.
“Mom, we’re hungry!”
Laura’s eyes flicked to the door Neil had passed through. “Soon guys, I promise. Here, I’ve got some veg sticks you can snack on until he’s ready.”
The boy with the darker hair took a handful and kept talking. “Mom, Why -?”
Laura’s voice dropped to a whisper, cutting him off.
“Please, Davey, not now.”
At the sight of the tears welling in their mother’s eyes, both boys dropped their snacks and patted her shoulders.
“Hey, Mom, it’s okay. Really. Don’t worry about it. Matt and me, we’re going to go wash up for dinner. Clean hands and everything. We’ll even take the runt with us.” Davey scooped up Jeremiah and pulled his twin out of the room.
Eleanor stirred the soup to froth, tried to keep her eyes fixed on the pot.
Ruth held her mother’s hand, her face screwed up with trying to understand what had happened.
“Sorry,” Laura said.
“No problem. As far as I can tell, all families are like that.”
Laura nodded, a half-smile of resignation on her face.
Eleanor couldn’t be sure if the twins’ earlier outburst had influenced the mood at the table but she speculated it might always be that grim. Neil worked through his food and Laura made sure to keep his plate full. Ruth helped Jeremiah cut things into smaller pieces. The twins spent the meal kicking each other under the scuffed table.
Afterwards, Eleanor helped Laura clear the table and wash the dishes while Neil went back to watch the vid feeds again.
When they finished, Laura led the way out of the kitchen. “Let me show you to the girls’ room. We go to bed pretty early out here.”
Eleanor wouldn’t have believed she could be tired after her unexpected nap in the barn that afternoon, but she yawned as she grabbed her pack from the hook under the stairs and followed Laura.
The room on the second story of the house sat under the eaves. The ceiling angled down low to a row of small windows on one side and a larger window opened at the end and framed a large tree outside with branches reaching towards the windowsill. A small figure occupied one of the pair of beds that stood in the middle of the room.
“Your bed is the far one, closest to the window. I’ll wake you for breakfast.”
Eleanor placed her pack by the bed, her washed and dried clothing folded beside it. She reached inside the pack and felt the comforting presence of the vidplayer. She considered reading over Joel’s log again, but worried the light would wake Ruth. It could wait until the morning.
No sooner had she drifted off than she felt a soft shake of her arm.
“Eleanor. Eleanor!”
The insistent whisper wound its way through her dreams.
“Come on, hon. You’ve got to get up!”
Eleanor blinked.
Laura crouched by her bed, illuminated by the gentle light reflected from Ladril which streamed in through the window.
“What’s going on?”
Laura brushed her hand over Eleanor’s mouth. “You’ve got to be quiet. Get up, get dressed, but don’t say a word, don’t make a sound.”
Eleanor crept out from the covers.
“Neil’s called in to town, called the Guard. He said there’s a report on you on the news. They called you a thief, said you stole something.”
“No!” Eleanor hissed. “I’m not a thief!” A pain formed in her stomach, as if she had been kicked. “It’s my aunt, making life difficult. I don’t know why she wants me back, but I’ve never stolen anything in my life.” She pulled on her shirt. “Laura, I’m not lying to you. You’ve got to believe me.”
Laura shrugged. “I already made up my mind to.” She bent down to pick up a bag. “Done dressing? Good. I packed some supplies for you. Figure you’ll need them to get the rest of the way to wherever you’re going. No, don’t tell me. Uncle Joel or no Uncle Joel, it doesn’t matter to me. But I wouldn’t go down the main road.”
Eleanor tucked the bag of food into her pack and slung it over her shoulder.
Laura unhitched the latch to the window. “Don’t tell me town girls can’t climb trees, because that’s your way out of here.”
The distance between the sill and the branch yawned wide. Eleanor heard the rush of fear in her ears.
“Think you can do it?”
Eleanor gave a quick nod.
“Out you go then.”
Laura steadied her hand as Eleanor swung out onto the sill. As she put a foot on the branch, it dipped and she wobbled, grabbed air, then found her balance. She edged along the branch, let go of the window frame once she could reach the branches above. Over her shoulder Eleanor whispered, “I should be okay from here.”
When she reached the trunk she turned around. Laura still stood at the window.
“Be careful. Someone from SecDept will be out soon. I don’t know what they think you stole, but they don’t fool around.”
Eleanor edged around the tree and then stopped.
“Laura?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks. Just . . . thanks for everything. If I can, I’ll come back.”
“No problem. But get things settled with that aunt of yours. Now scoot!”
In minutes Eleanor had shimmied down the tree and crept away into the night. Shaken into alertness by the discovery her adventure had gone so wrong, she ran as long as she could. When she couldn’t jog another step she forced herself to walk for another two hours to put as much distance as possible between herself and the farm. When dawn came, she crawled under a patch of velvet leaved bushes and hoped for a small amount of rest.
Chapter Five
The afternoon shadows spread over the field below Adam Cole’s sleek silver flitter and highlighted the gold touches of the summer sun, but he paid no attention to the landscape.
“Stupid kid. Stupid thieving kid. What a lousy day.”
Adam had flown east over miles of fields and farmlands for over an hour in response to a call about a thief spotted on the run from Prime. The call had come in during the night, but there hadn’t been a working flitter available. The Navy had taken most of the mechanics and techs. The ongoing war to keep the machinery running would be lost by default.
“Wonder what she’s doing this far east. Why didn’t she take a flitter and get farther? Or go south to Secundus? Stupid kid.”
Adam ignored the mocking voice in his head that reminded him he hadn’t been much older when he joined SecDept. When the SecDept officer came by after Adam’s eighteenth birthday, Adam signed up right away. Not what he wanted, but no one could say when the Navy would return to Travbon. At least this way he could serve, be part of something. Make his grandfather proud.
He hadn’t been prepared for the old man’s reaction.
“You fool! Why couldn’t you have waited? You’ll never get out now. You won’t be able to enlist when the Navy comes. You’ll be stuck as a cop forever.”
Adam had argued. First with his grandfather. Later, when he realized his mistake, with the recruiting officer. But he had signed up and they weren’t letting him go. They made damn sure a Guardsman’s pay would never be quite enough to buy the contract back, get out early. Anyone with that sort of money wouldn’t have joined up anyway. A year had c
rawled by. A year of watching his hopes fade away.
After almost two more hours in the air a farmhouse appeared with small outbuildings gathered around it like a hen with her chicks. He double-checked the coordinates and initiated a search spiral. There, a trail had been broken through the fields like an arrow pointing to the distant mountains.
Eleanor shoved waist-high stalks of striped orange and blue nu-corn away from her. She ignored the stings of the tiny nicks that sliced into her arms as she guarded her face, forcing herself to keep running, keep pumping her legs, even though the growing pain in her side stabbed her with every breath.
He’s still there, her mind shrilled, he’s still coming.
She heard the hum of the flitter a little ways behind her. Its sleek sides forced the trail she had broken through the growth still wider, the brushing sound like the hiss of water in a hot skillet. She dodged, refused to give in. Not yet.
She tried to remember the map, how much further to go? Get to the trees, keep straight to the river, then north. Just make it to the trees. She kept her eyes on the line of dark twisted forms, willing them closer, hoping the flitter wouldn’t be able to follow once she reached their shelter.
She veered to the right, sought a less thickly planted area, one that would not betray her every step to her pursuer. No luck. No matter how she twisted, row after row of stalks stretched in front of her.
Her thoughts came in ragged gasps. I can’t do this anymore, I can’t run. I can’t. I’ll stop, explain, he’ll believe me. But she knew differently.
The flitter had come out of the sky, dove upon her as she had trotted further from Laura’s farm. She thought she had run far enough, that she’d escaped. When she heard the hum of the motor, she spun and saw the emblem of the SecDept on the nose of the craft. Then the tracers slapped the ground to either side of her and kicked up spurts of pebbles that stung her legs.
Mirror of Stone Page 4
