Scorched

by Theresa Shaver

  I don’t want to humor her on this but there is much to do, so I just nod and then pull her into a fierce hug. She grips me just as tight and whispers in my ear.

  “You make me so proud. I’m honored that you were my child to raise, know and love.”

  She pushes me away and turns to the house, calling over her shoulder as she goes.

  “Go get your sister. I will start preparing the supplies. Be careful and no word of this to Silvia!”

  I want to argue that we should warn them of what’s coming but the screen door slaps and she is gone. I make my way around the house and head towards the center of town. My thoughts are full of everything I’ve learned and seen today. I glance up at the sun and wince at the heat and brightness of it before pulling my scarves further over my head. It’s hard to believe that the day is only an hour or so past noon. There are only four or five hours left before darkness falls and we can start loading up all we will need. I feel slightly shell shocked by the change of our circumstances. It feels like minutes ago I was pumping the well in despair. I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I don’t even see the group coming toward me before I hear them.

  “Indigo, Indigo! What a treat for me to see you twice in one day. It was very rude of you not to stop for a conversation with me on your way back from the stations. But I forgive you, I was, after all, ...occupied with another matter.”

  I refuse to speak to this jackal of a man so I just stare him down and wait for what he will say next. I hold myself rock stiff as he scans my body from head to toe even though I can feel the tremor of fear wanting to break free. I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

  “Look at you, all grown up, proud and strong. I like that in a woman. I’ve been considering settling down lately. You are just the kind of girl I would do such a thing for.” He’s smirking at my discomfort as his pack of thugs laugh and shove each other. “You even have some nice curves. Most of the women left in this town are nothing more than stick figures.” His eyes narrow as he looks me over again, this time with suspicion and I feel a bolt of real fear flow through me. We might not have a lot of food but I know we have way more than most. He may be coming to the same conclusion. My eyes finally leave his as I look to Beck but he’s not looking at me. He’s glaring at his brother with such hatred and loathing I’m surprised that Boyd doesn’t go up in flames. My attention is brought back to him when he speaks again. This time his tone isn’t soft and menacing but hard and sure.

  “I think now would be a good time to have that conversation.”

  I swallow hard and brace myself to run but just as he lifts his hand to grab me, an urgent voice calls out his name causing him to turn away.

  “Boyd! Boyd, you’re not going to believe what I just heard at the station! This is major!”

  He waves his arm to all his men to move off down the intersection that goes away from where I need to go. He turns just his head back in my direction and the coldness I see in them has me sucking in a breath.

  “To be continued...soon.”

  I don’t move a muscle as they all walk away and turn the corner. Once they are out of sight, I double over with my hands on my knees and gasp for breath. He’s coming for us. I could read it in his eyes! We have to go. We have to escape before he and his men come for us. I have a very good notion of just what his man learned at the station and once they start planning for a life without rations, they will come for everyone else’s. I surge upright and dash forward. I have to get Gloria and get back to the house. I can’t help but peek around the corner to make sure the gang is far enough away before sprinting across the street but I keep my head turned to watch their backs, afraid they will change their minds and come for me now. My heart misses a beat when one of the men at the very back of their pack turns and looks my way but I realize that it’s Beck watching me so I keep going.

  I'm surprised that he has so much hate for his brother in him, but then again, I haven’t known his mind since we were children. My feet fly the rest of the way to Silvia’s where I collect Gloria but I’m too out of breath to have much of a conversation. I wave goodbye and thank her for watching my sister before I practically pull Gloria down the street. When we leave Silvia’s street she finally manages to pull her arm out of my tight grip.

  “Día, stop! I can’t go so fast!”

  I don’t want to scare her but it’s time for her to know a few things. “You must, Glo! I have been stopped by gangs twice today. It’s not safe out here. We have to get home as quick as we can!”

  I feel horrible as her eyes widen in fear and she looks all around like monsters are about to jump out and snatch her. Sadly, there are monsters and they could show up at any moment.

  “Come on Glo, we don’t have to run but we must be very quick, ok?”

  She nods, her eyes brimming with tears, and slides her small hand into mine. When we make it back to our street without seeing anyone else, I send a quick prayer of thanks up to the God I don’t believe in, just in case. I send her up the stairs to her room to get cleaned up and changed as I head further into the house. I head straight for the atrium. I tell myself that it’s to check the soil dampness but I know it won’t matter after today. They will all be dead once I’m gone. Other than my family and survival, the plants have been the only thing that I’ve cared about since I was a tiny girl. There’s never been anything in my life that I could do to make things better in this world. But my plants, I could tend them and nurse them and see them flourish into something good. I hope I will be able to grow more if we make it to the valley.

  I push the door open and the sheer destruction has me falling to my knees in physical pain. There is soil covering the floor with most of the pots overturned. All the fruit and vegetables have been taken, there are only leaves and stems with roots exposed laying in discarded piles. My eyes flash to the corner but both of my small trees are gone, pots and all. A low moan escapes me at what I’ve lost but my next thought is for my family. I’m too late! Boyd’s gang has beaten me here. I have to find my family and try to protect them!

  I use the door frame to pull myself to my feet and hurtle down the hall to the kitchen. I come flying to a stop at what I find there. Abuela is at the table with an open wooden chest. She is wrapping plant cuttings in damp rags before rolling them up in cut up sheets and placing them into the chest. I let my eyes wander the rest of the room, still in shock. There are canvas bags piled by the door with the missing harvest peeking out and next to them stand the pots with my small trees in them. I heave out a half sob causing Abuela to turn my way with an apologetic expression. She comes over and guides me to the table where she pushes me down into a chair.

  “I’m so sorry, Día. I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it so I took that burden from you. But look, look - I have cuttings from every plant. They will last in this chest as long as you give them a little water every day. Once you get to the valley, you will replant them and have twice as many to tend! This will all be a new, better start for you and your sister. Let the past go and look to the future.”

  I nod my head in agreement but I still need a few minutes to accept all these changes so I just sit and watch as she finishes wrapping the last plant cuttings and places them in the chest. She closes the lid and latches it before patting it gently.

  “Here is your future. Protect them well.” She turns to me and pulls me from the chair. “I need your help for the next part. I still have some strength but my knees are not what they used to be.”

  I let her lead me to the rarely used door that leads down into the basement under the house. It’s been a few months since I’ve been down these steps. There’s nothing of value that I know of stored down there as we eat everything almost as soon as we get it from rations or our plants. There are only three small cots that we use to sleep on a few months of the year and some old shelving. Halfway down the steps, I feel the temperature start to lower. By the time I hit the bottom, I’m closing my eyes and breathing in the earthy tang tha
t fills the air as a delicious feeling of coolness rushes across my body. I can’t remember the last time I felt this way. It’s an amazing feeling that I want to enjoy for a few minutes so I ignore the noise Abuela is making as she moves things around over on one of the walls. It is never this cool down here in the summer months and I didn’t realize it would be this cool during the rest of the year or I would have come down here every day. When she calls for me, I think about ignoring her. I think about just laying down on the hard-packed ground and sleeping right there, cool for the first time in my life but I know just how much there still is to do. Boyd’s hard eyes flash across my thoughts and that’s all it takes to get me moving again.

  My tiny Abuela is trying to move a large shelving unit away from the wall so I rush over and pull her away before getting a good grip and swinging it away from the wall. At some point, while I was wallowing in the air temperature, she has lit an old glass lantern. She holds it up and squeezes past me to get to the wall. I’m surprised when what I thought was hard-packed soil turns out to be a sheet, colored to look like the soil. She tugs hard on it until it drops away and then lifts the lantern up to light what’s been concealed behind it.

  At first, I don’t understand, then I don’t believe it but I rush towards it anyway and run my hands over jug after jug of what looks like water. When I can finally tear my eyes away from all that precious liquid, I turn to her and whisper, “How?”

  She looks past me with satisfaction. “Eighty-two years, I’ve learned a thing or two! This, this I started when you were just a tiny girl after we lost the water wars. I knew there might come a time when the well would dry up so I built in a safety net. I used to rotate them out regularly but I had to stop around ten years ago. My knees just wouldn’t take the stairs anymore. So, the water will be stale and probably have a plastic taste to it but it will keep you alive until you get to the valley.”

  She turns to meet my eyes and gives me a devilish grin. “Start hauling!”

  Chapter Six

  By the time I’ve hauled up ten jugs, the cool air no longer feels good. Instead, it makes the sweat on my body cold and clammy. I pause as I leave the jugs by the back door and try and calculate just how much water three people in the middle of the desert would need. I have no idea how long it will take us to get to the valley so it’s impossible to calculate. I don’t think we will need as much while we’re in the handcart but once we start on foot, we’ll go through it faster. Shaking my head, I turn and head back down the stairs. It’s better to have too much than not enough. Space will be an issue but I can hang the jugs from the sides of the car if necessary and we can discard some of the jugs once they’re empty. Except for a small bag of clothes and personal items, all we are taking is food, water, and the plant clippings as well as her medical box and a few household things. Abuela says that the house has everything we need from when her husband built it, so hopefully she’s right, or I’ll need to learn how to make household goods from scratch. I try and picture myself making furniture or casting pots but that’s outside my skill set so I have no choice but to go on faith that there will be what we need there.

  I haul up six more jugs before Abuela pushes me into a chair at the table and places a plate with leftover tortillas filled with bean sprouts and protein paste that we got in our ration boxes. The paste has no taste at all to it but the dried spices she makes from our herb garden give it a nice flavor. I watch her as I eat. She’s busy at the kitchen counter making up more filled tortillas and wrapping them in used paper and then clothes for the trip. I scan the kitchen and feel weary with exhaustion at all the piles of supplies that need to be moved across the yard and out to the handcart. It’s already been a long day with the afternoon coming to its end so I try and brace myself for a long evening of loading supplies and then an even longer night of pumping the cart to get us away.

  I’m distracted by Gloria bouncing into the room. I try not to smile at her complete look of shock at the state of the kitchen. Her eyes fly to mine with a look of confusion.

  “What’s going on? Where did all this come from?”

  I push out a chair with my foot and wave her into it. I don’t want to scare her but she needs to at least be aware of what’s coming.

  “We’re going on an adventure! Things are happening in town that are making it too dangerous for us to stay here so we are moving to a new home.” Her little face crumples in despair so I add some spin to it. “We have a treasure map that will lead us to a secret paradise garden that has a waterfall and a pond you can swim in! For the first part of the journey, we get to travel in a train car and then we will use a flying sled to carry all our belongings. Doesn’t that sound like an amazing adventure?”

  Her face changes to wonder but just as quickly turns suspicious. “You’re making that up!”

  I shake my head. “No, I’m not. It’s all true but it will be hard and maybe dangerous so I need to be able to count on your help. Do you think you’re up for it?”

  She bounces in her seat with excitement. “YES! I can help. I can do anything you want! I’m not a little girl anymore, you can count on me! Are we going to where Mama is?”

  I try not to change my expression at the question. She doesn’t remember our mother. She was only one when Mama left us but Gloria has always hoped that she would come back for us.

  “No, we are going somewhere else. We must leave tonight. The gangs are going to be breaking into houses and stealing food and water from people soon. We have to be gone before then. It’s important that you don’t leave the house without one of us with you.” Her expression has turned from excited to nervous. “It’s ok, we have some time before they come but we have to hurry so I need you to go up to your room and pack a bag. Four sets of clothes and a few treasures you want to take.”

  She nods and bites her lip before asking, “Will we ever come back here?”

  I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know, Glo. Maybe one day if things get better.”

  Her bottom lip trembles slightly but then firms up and she gives a sharp nod before jumping up and running out of the room. I close my eyes in sadness for a moment as I hear her thunder up the stairs before looking over to Abuela. She looks as sad as I feel.

  “I’m sorry, Claudia. I’m sorry that you’ve had to be both mother and sister to Gloria. It’s not fair to either of you. I wish I had raised a stronger daughter. Your grandfather and I tried for years to have children and we had given up when Monica surprised us. I was already in my forties when she was born and she was such a blessing that we spoiled her. She was so young when her father died that I don’t think I raised her to be strong enough to do the right thing by you girls. I’m sorry, you both deserve better.”

  I push to my feet and cross the room, pulling her into a hug. “We have you. That’s the biggest blessing of all.”

  She pats my back a few times before gently pushing me away and then wipes at her eyes before changing the subject.

  “Bring a few more jugs up while I go get the sled, it should be charged by now. We’ll start transferring the supplies out to the handcart.”

  I’m surprised by that so I ask, “You really think it’s charged up already?”

  She nods. “Yes, two hours in direct sun will fully charge it to run for eight hours. The heavier the load the less run time it will give you, though.”

  “Oh, then we should leave it until it’s time to leave or it won’t run all night. I can carry all this out there myself.”

  She shakes her head with a smile. “No, we will use the sled to ferry everything out there to the cart, not to haul it down the track! There is a small trailer that attaches to the back of the cart. We will put the supplies in it and inside the cart. The sled then sits on top of the trailer. You will only use it once you stop and have to go on foot to the valley. The charge wouldn’t last long enough to travel that far on the tracks.”

  We go our separate ways to our tasks as I think of all the things I don’t know how to do as far as
logistics go to make this trip a success. I’m just thankful she will be with us to guide me. I bring up more jugs but take them straight outside to the backyard this time. Gloria joins me with her small bag of possessions so I put her to work carrying out some of the lighter boxes and bags while I run upstairs and fill my own bag. The clothes are the easy part to pick out. Some of my favorite books go into the bag but then I stall. What else do I want to take? There are a few old pictures that I grab but my hand hovers over the only picture I have of my mother. I had just turned ten the day she walked out and never came back. I let one finger drift down to the top of the frame and slowly pull until she crashes face first to the dresser. We are leaving this place for a new life and she will never be a part of it.

  By the time I make it back to the kitchen, Abuela is back with the sled and she and Gloria are loading supplies on it. I’m amazed at the quiet humming it makes and can’t help laying down on the ground to look under it. I feel the air it’s displacing against my face and understand its workings a little better but it still seems a little like magic to me. I get to my feet and blush in embarrassment at the look and eye roll Abuela sends my way but Gloria is laughing and clapping her hands so I take it in stride. We pile as much as we can on it but there is still more to take. I worry that we’ll have to abandon much of it once we are forced to go on foot but I’d rather do that than leave it for the gangs to fight over.

  Abuela hands me the remote control and guides me through the motions to get the sled moving. Gloria dashes ahead of us and through the gate. This is such an adventure for her. Like me, she didn’t even know there was more to the property other than the yard. I’m impressed with how the sled manages the dry ditch, thinking it would tip over but I hear the humming increase so it must compensate somehow. Once we reach the old building, she shows me how to lower and shut the sled off. I’m still standing beside it marveling at how we can transfer so much weight without breaking our backs when I hear Gloria squeal in glee. I turn around in time to see her climb up into the cart and disappear inside it.