Scorched

by Theresa Shaver

  When I crawl over the edge to level ground I lay there and float away for a while. A parched throat finally has me rolling over, sitting up and fumbling the water container to my lips. All I want to do is lie back down. I don’t even care about the pounding sun. I just want to lay here and sleep until I recover. Thoughts of Boyd discarding my friends like he did their belongings flood through my tired brain and that’s all I need to reach down deep to find the will to climb to my feet. Those two girls are all I have left in this world. They’re my family and I’m not going to let the man that calls himself brother take them away like he has everything else. Not stopping and resting now might kill me but it will be worth it if I can catch up to the girls and end my brother. At least I know I’ll die doing the right thing. I have a lot to make up for after years of going along with Boyd’s will.

  I take one last drink of water, cap the container and start moving again. I drop my head and focus on the ground at my feet, find a decent rhythm and zone out. I know time is passing by the burn of the sun as it drops down my back but I just keep going in a zoned-out daze until I hear something different causing my head to snap up.

  “I think it’s time we had that...talk.”

  My eyes focus on my brother not more than twenty feet away. A split second later, my eyes drop and meet Glo’s who is standing beside him. Her eyes flare wide when she sees me just as she goes flying backward and drops from sight.

  I think I hear screaming but my roar of anguish drowns them out. Boyd’s got the stupidest grin on his face like pushing little girls off cliffs is all fun and games but it quickly morphs into shock when he sees me. My hand was reaching for the gun as soon as I saw him but froze on the handle when Glo disappeared. I yank it out of my pocket, cock the hammer and point it at him. He has one second to halfway lift his hand like he’s asking me to stop before I return the greeting he gave me the day before.

  “Goodbye, brother.”

  I pull the trigger. The shot echoes against the rock as he flies backward just like Glo did and disappears from view. The gun drops from my numb hand and my head turns to Día when she yells out Glo’s and then my name. I didn’t even see her there. I thought Boyd had pushed her over the cliff too. At least I got here in time to save her but I doubt she’ll forgive me now that Glo’s gone. I take one step towards her to tell her how sorry I am that I failed her but the adrenaline that has been keeping me on my feet has left and the ground rushes up to meet me.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Gloria! Beck, Boyd! What just happened? I feel like I’m going to puke as I try and process WHAT JUST HAPPENED. I stagger towards Beck who has fallen flat on his face but change directions when I hear Glo scream my name. What the hell! He pushed her. He pushed her off the edge! How could he do that? How could anyone do such a thing to a child? I’m gasping for breath as sobs rack my chest when I drop to my knees at the edge and cling to the pillar so I can look over it. I can’t see the bottom it’s so deep and dark with the sun almost set. I can’t see Glo either but I can hear her sobbing my name and the rope under my hand on the pillar is twisting. She’s there, she’s down there! He tied her up before he pushed her!

  I grab the rope and start hauling on it but it’s so heavy and it keeps twisting in my hands.

  “Glo! Glo, I need you to listen to me!” I keep yelling until she finally answers back.

  “Honey, I need your help to get you back up! You need to stop twisting. Can you feel the wall? I need you to put your feet on the wall and walk up as I pull on the rope! Can you do that? Can you help me?”

  Silence greets me and I think I’ve lost her. I’m about to yell again when the rope twists a last time and then goes steady and her small, scared voice floats up to me.

  “I’m ready, start pulling.”

  I don’t waste my breath on any more yelling, just start hauling on the rope. One agonizing foot at a time it comes up until I finally see her head come into view and her tiny hands clutch at the edge. I keep hold of the rope with one hand and grab her wrist to pull her the rest of the way over. We collapse in each other’s arms sobbing and clutching at each other.

  I almost lost her. I almost lost the most important thing in my world. If not for...Beck! I set Glo aside, push to my feet and rush over to him. He’s face first on the ground and my hands hover over him afraid of what I will find when I turn him over. I finally swallow down the fear and gently roll him over. Again, I hesitate, but I need to know - so I press two fingers to his neck and wait. A shudder goes through me when at first I feel nothing. I drop my head as a wash of sorrow steals over me but seconds later, I feel it. It’s faint but it’s there, he’s alive! Glo drops down beside me as I look him over. He’s wearing a different set of clothes than the last time I saw him and there’s a piece of shiny silver tape on his forehead. I know Boyd shot him, I saw the pool of blood he was in as we left him so I gently lift his shirt. I find more of the silver tape wrapped around his waist with a bump where I’m guessing a bandage is under it. I don’t see any bleeding and I have no supplies to treat him with so I just lower the shirt and lean back.

  “Is Beck going to be ok? Did he push Boyd off the edge?”

  I wrap my arm around my little sister just to feel her near me. “I don’t know. I hope so. He shot Boyd and that made him fall off the edge.”

  “So, Boyd’s gone? Like forever ... dead?”

  I rest my head on hers and just breathe in the smell of Glo. “Yes. If the bullet didn’t kill him then the fall did. He’s gone, forever, and he won’t be able to hurt us again.”

  Glo sighs, “That’s good. He was really mean!”

  I let out a choked laugh at that understatement and we just sit there in the fading light of a horrific day. There’s nothing I can do now until the sun comes up so we eventually lay down next to Beck and go to sleep. I can only hope he makes it through the night.

  When we wake, the sun’s been up for a few hours. After the last two exhausting days, our bodies needed the extra rest. Beck is still alive but he’s also still out cold. I dribble some water into his mouth and see him swallow so I take that as a good sign and hope his body is just in healing mode. Glo and I eat a quick breakfast when we see that the sled is back to a full charge and bring it over to where Beck lies. I need to get him on the sled but I’m afraid moving him will hurt him. There’s nothing I can do about that so I just go for it. A little bit of pain is better than leaving him out here in the sun. I grip him under his arms and drag him up and onto the sled with a little bit of help from Glo. We pile the supplies around him and position the umbrellas over him so he’ll be shaded from the sun.

  Once we’re ready, I look at the bridge and past it towards my grandfather’s claim and then turn away. I don’t care about gold. I care about life. We retrace our footsteps from yesterday and at the steep hill, Glo gets on the sled and holds Beck in place so he won’t slide off. I don’t know why but it feels more manageable this time. Maybe it’s because we’re headed toward the valley and life, instead of a dead gold claim with a dead man. Maybe it’s the freedom from Boyd that makes it feel easier. We reach the top of the other side as the sun sinks down behind the rocks and I’m pleased to see all of our supplies still scattered around that Boyd had discarded. Glo and I go to work gathering it all back up into a pile beside the sled and she drags over a pack I don’t recognize. I can only assume it came from Beck so I empty it out and go through the contents. When I look inside the box with a red cross on it I’m happy with what I find. Beck’s wounds will need to be cleaned and the wrappings changed if we want to prevent infection and I now have the supplies to do that.

  We set up our meager camp and eat for the night and I decide to wait for the morning to address Beck’s wounds when the light will be better. I hope he’ll wake up soon. Glo and I have been taking turns all day dribbling water into him but he has to need more than that as well as some food to help him heal.

  I wake up to the sound of groaning and jerk to a sitting position causin
g Glo to flop off of me with a grunt from where she had cuddled up to me in the night. I swing my head around and a grin spreads across my face when my eyes meet Beck’s. I crawl over to the sled and reach out to put my hand on his cheek.

  “The hero awakens!”

  His eyes are filled with confusion for a moment and then turn to pain filled when the memories of what happened flood back.

  “Glo, Gloria. I’m so sorry, Día. I tried to get to you in time. I tried...”

  He trails off when Glo sits up beside me and gives him a little wave. Beck’s mouth drops open as he stares in shock at her and then swings his gaze back to me.

  “What? How? I saw her go over! I saw Boyd...”

  Glo answers him while I just grin. “He tied me up to the post on the bridge before he pushed me so I didn’t go all the way down! Did you know you can walk up a wall? I didn’t know that until Día told me I could!”

  He chokes out a laugh that turns into a groan. “I’m very happy that you’re ok. I thought I had lost you.” He swallows painfully then asks, “Can I have some water?”

  Glo and I jump into nurse mode, getting him propped up against some boxes and trying to give him water from a jug. He tells us about the built-in water canteen with tubing in his pack so we top it off and leave it beside him so he can sip from it instead of the heavy jug. We make him eat a small meal even though he claims not to want anything and once he is done I set the med kit on the sled beside him and open it.

  He eyes it warily. “I think it’s fine, Día. We should just leave it to heal.”

  I give him a patronizing look. “And then it will fester with infection and you’re dead. Sorry Beck but that tape is coming off!”

  He looks away with a grimace and lifts a hand in a go-ahead motion. I get his shirt off and then lay him back down before going to work on removing the tape that’s wrapped all the way around his waist. The skin pulls in a few places but a lot of it is barely hanging on from the motions of his body and sweat since he applied it. When I finally get the last of it off and peel back the bloody and spongy gauze that’s stuck to the wound on his front, I see an ugly hole that’s red and swollen. It hasn’t started to smell yet but it’s definitely on its way to being infected. I sit back on my heels and think about what we have in the supplies that Abuela had packed. With all the hospitals and clinics in our town closing years ago, she had been forced to use herbal remedies from plants in our atrium for many of the small injuries and illnesses that Glo and I had growing up. I know she packed a box with her dried herbs that she called her medical kit so I get up and start searching for it.

  When I find what I’m looking for, I bring it back to the sled and sort through it for the dried garlic bulbs. Abuela has packed the small ceramic bowl and pestle so I crush the garlic and add drops of water until I have a decent paste. I pull out a small stack of clean rags that she has in the box and after cleaning both the front and back wounds I apply it generously to both areas. I saw a tensor bandage in the med kit from Beck’s pack so I unroll it and wrap him back up.

  “That stinks!” He complains when I’m done.

  I smile while tidying everything back up. “Yes, it does - but it will hopefully stop that infection from taking hold and it should also help with some of the pain.”

  He grabs my wrist as I start to stand. “Claudia, thank you. Thank you for taking care of me and...for not blaming me for my brother.”

  When he looks away in shame, I grab his chin and force him to look at me.

  “You are NOT responsible for your brother! He made his own choice and he chose to be a horrible person. That’s not on you. Besides, you saved us. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, well it was about to get really ugly so let it go. He’s gone, we’re free of him now.”

  He gives me a small grateful smile and eases back down on the sled so I set the umbrellas back up to shade him and Glo and I work on arranging the rest of our supplies around him so we can get going. He spends most of the day sleeping, as Glo and I hike, only waking for water and a little bit of food. We take it easy and don’t push our speed even though I’m starting to worry about how much water we have left. Even though I’ve committed to the belief that the valley is there waiting for us, I’ll still hedge my bets and keep at least two jugs of water in reserve.

  By the end of our second day of hiking, Beck’s able to walk beside the sled for twenty minutes at a time. His wounds are no longer red and he shows no sign of a fever so I know with time he will heal. I also know that once we get to the valley, I’m going to have to stitch those holes up with the needle and thread he had in the kit. I keep that information to myself for now otherwise he might turn and bolt in the opposite direction!

  When we wake on the third morning, I know we are close. There’s nothing on the map ahead of us but the valley. All the urgency I felt about getting there has drained away and I find myself stalling once the sled is back to a full charge. It’s like I’d rather just keep the idea of the valley instead of taking the chance of being disappointed by the reality of it. Abuela said it’s there, the pictures show it’s there, even my grandfather’s old friend Charlie said it’s there, but I just can’t help thinking it is too good to be true.

  I find myself following behind the others and the sled as my steps are slower today. Glo is skipping out front while Beck walks beside the sled with the remote. My head snaps up and my feet freeze in place when Glo calls out.

  “Hey! There’s a big hole here we have to cross!”

  I want to turn around. I want to just turn around and go back to the cart because I know now. The only hole in front of us on the map would be the valley and if she’s not screaming with happiness from all the green foliage and the gushing water then that means it’s not there. I watch Beck as he joins her at the edge, my eyes fixed on his back as he just stands there and stares down. When he turns and beckons me forward, it’s not with a smile but with a blank expression.

  I don’t want to go. I don’t want to look at it but my feet start moving forward anyway. I reach the edge and look down. I see brown, yellow, and hints of red here and there but I don’t see green and I certainly don’t see the most important...blue. My eyes follow the dried stream bed up the length of the valley to the rock wall that should have a gushing waterfall and instead see a glimmer of wetness that trickles down the wall to a tiny spec of the green I was so desperate to see. There was water here once but it’s long gone now. My eyes drift to where the house should be but even it’s gone. There’s just a sheet of rock where the picture showed it to be.

  I slowly sink down until I’m sitting on the ground and close my eyes so I don’t have to look at what isn’t there anymore.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “We should go down,” Beck says from where he’s sat down beside me.

  I don’t bother to open my eyes when I reply. “No, we should go back. Figure out where to go next.”

  He doesn’t answer me so after a few minutes of silence I open my eyes and look his way but he’s just staring intently down into the empty valley.

  “What’s the point, Beck? There’s nothing here for us. There might have been a long time ago but it’s all gone now.”

  He finally turns his head in my direction but instead of answering me he asks a question.

  “Can I see the pictures, please?”

  I shake my head. “It isn’t there, Beck! It doesn’t matter what the pictures show. THERE IS NOTHING THERE!”

  He just shrugs annoyingly and holds out his hand for the pictures. I huff out a breath of frustration but open my bag and pull them out for him. I turn away from him as he studies them and I look to Glo. She is sitting a few feet away with her matchstick legs crossed and her pointed chin resting on a fist as she looks longingly down into what might have been. I’m about to slide over to her and take her into my arms when Beck lets out a bark of laughter. Both Glo and I snap our heads in his direction and see him push to his feet with a grin on his face.

  He loo
ks down at us and says, “Your grandfather was just like the coyote!” When we just stare at him like he’s lost his mind, he laughs again. “He’s a trickster! Come on, I’m going down there and you should too!”

  I don’t get a chance to say anything before he powers up the sled and sends it down the path that zig zags down the side of the valley wall and then follows behind it. I turn to Glo who’s jumped to her feet and with a shrug and a grin at me, heads after him. I sit there and dig my heels in the ground to make divots and stall like a pouty child. What’s the point of wasting energy going down there and then having to climb back up? And what does Beck mean about the whole trickster thing? I kick up more dust and think about the tricks my grandfather has played to keep his mining locations a secret. A hidden hand cart that rides on overlooked, unused tracks. A cavern to hide away the cart with walls that look like rock but aren’t rock. Wood that looks like wood but isn’t. So is Beck saying that the empty valley isn’t empty after all?

  I push to my feet and look again but I just don’t see what he could have seen to change his mind from up here so I let my shoulders slump and trudge down the path after them. At the very least we might be able to fill some of our jugs from that trickle of water coming out of the end of the valley’s wall.

  It doesn’t take me long to catch up to them and when we reach the floor I mumble under my breath just loud enough for Beck to hear.

  “Total waste of time and energy.”

  He doesn’t reply, just nudges me with his shoulder and winks at me with that stupid grin of his. I roll my eyes but keep walking as he heads straight for the sheet of stone where the picture showed a house being there instead. The closer we get, the slower I walk as a flutter starts in my chest while I study the rock ahead. It looks sheer and smooth, nothing like the other rocks in this area. It almost looks like...I stop the thought when Beck grabs my arm and pulls me to a stop when we are only ten feet away from it. He reaches down and picks up a fist sized stone and holds it out to me.