Shelby: Translucent Savior

by Lisa Glenn

  “Okay, you first,” José said handing the cup to me.

  “Oh no, you don’t, you go first. You made the challenge!”

  “Fine,” He grumped. He held his nose and drank half the cup and sat it down. I held back laughter as his face first turned beat-red, then he began coughing and gagging, jumping up and down like a rabbit with its tail on fire.

  I looked at Daniel. He was looking at José with a smirk on his face. After a few minutes, José picked up the cup and handed it to me. He smiled evilly.

  “Your turn.” I noticed his eyes were now bloodshot, and I could have sworn he had said, "Your shurn."

  I quickly tried to think of a way to get out of this, but I knew José would never let me live it down if I didn’t at least try it. I looked down at the clear liquid. How bad could it be, anyway? I plugged my nose and closed my eyes and swallowed. Instant fire burned my throat all the way to my belly. My eyes watered, I guess to put out the fire in my belly. It didn't help. I covered my hand over my mouth, so I wouldn’t throw up. I kept swallowing even after my mouth dried up, hoping to put out the fire and keep the bile down. With tears running down my face, I looked at José. He was laughing at me. I was afraid to look at Daniel in case he was laughing too.

  It wasn’t long before the fire subsided in my belly and turned into something warm and fuzzy. I grinned.

  “Huh, that wasn’t sho bad.” I giggled. “Daniel, itsh your shurn again.” If we had any common sense, we might have stopped right then, but no, that wasn’t the case because we didn’t have any common sense; at least José nor I had any. Daniel, on the other hand, had plenty.

  “I think I’ll pass.” he replied as if bored.

  “Oh, you big baby.” I said and giggled again. I felt wonderful. I felt almost light, as if I could fly. Well, not that light, but almost. I took his hand. “Come on, jush one ship!” I pleaded. He shook his head and smiled at me.

  He is so cute, I thought.

  “We need to get out of here before the guy who owns this comes back.” He turned his eyes on José, “Let’s go...now."

  “Shhhh!” José held a finger to his lips.

  I stopped moving and listened. I could hear twigs breaking under foot and whispers carrying on the breeze. I froze. Daniel motioned us to follow him. We walked quietly but as fast and as far as we could without making a sound. When we reached a good distance away from the moonshine still, we ran as if our pants had caught fire.

  The following day, I had a headache that sang to me in bursting colors and on what had to be volume eleven in Dolby stereo surround sound. It pounded right along with my heart-beat, pulsing with every pump. For fun, my stomach joined in, and it didn't take me long to find a quiet place to almost barf out my shoes. At least I wasn't alone... José was only about ten feet from me, crouched and holding his head moaning, "Never again sweet Jesus...just make it go away. I swear to you never, ever again."

  I knew the feeling.

  Daniel had scrounged up some food for us to eat. Oreo hadn’t laid any eggs for the last 2 days. She was probably stressed out from all the action we’ve been getting lately. Or, I figured, it could have been the cow poop she ate on that train. I was kind of relieved. I was getting tired of eggs. Daniel had gone into town and came back with some biscuits and honey and by now, I had given up on asking him how he got things. I never got a straight answer, anyway.

  We sat alongside the same creek bed we had been following since yesterday and ate our biscuits. Daniel sat next to me, his shoulder pressed against my own, making me warm and fuzzy inside despite the headache this was still admonishing me.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  The biscuit stuck in my throat. “Yep,” I mumbled.

  “Shelby?” After a long pause, he asked, “How did you end up here?”

  I gulped as my heartbeat sped up. I knew what he was asking me, and it was not how did I end up here, but how did I end up running. I always knew the question would come up eventually, but I still dreaded having to answer it. I let out the breath I was holding and glanced nervously at José, who was scooting closer as well. He wanted to hear my tale, as well. I picked up a pile of dirt and let it run through my fingers. I watched as the tiny pebbles hit the ground and took my mind back to that place.

  “I lived with Mamie and Jack, who was her husband, but not my real daddy. I also thought that she was my real mother but...” I looked up and smiled at them, “she wasn't. Mamie got real sick, and then she died. I found this letter she wrote me the very night she passed away in the hospital.”

  I took the wadded-up paper and handed it to Daniel. I watched his face as he read it. He then passed it to José.

  José asked me the dreaded question. “Were they mean to you, then?”

  I looked down unable to meet their eyes and possibly see the pity in them. “Why are you asking me that?”

  “You talk in your sleep, Shelby,” José whispered.

  "No," Daniel interjected, "You scream in your sleep, sweetie."

  My face burned, but there was nothing I could say to that. I couldn't keep my walls up when I was defenseless and sleeping, after all. I supposed a girl can’t keep her secrets forever.

  “I guess they were sometimes mean ... but Jack was, I mean he was...”

  I clamped down on that and shut down. I didn’t want to talk about this. Not now and not ever! I stood up. “José, what’s your story?”

  José shrugged and glanced at Daniel, who nodded to go ahead. They both sensed that I gave them everything I was willing to share at that point, and let's drop the subject, thank-you-very-much.

  “My parents didn’t want me, so they gave me up for adoption. I heard they were drug addicts, and they sold me for drugs.” he shrugged. “I was bounced around from one foster family to another, but I knew none of them wanted me, so I left.”

  “Well,” I said. “We’re your family now. Aren’t we, Daniel?” Daniel smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. I frowned, wondering exactly what his story was.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Cabin

  Summer was leaving us behind, and fall was fast approaching. The leaves were turning pretty shades of oranges and browns, and the air held a crisp bite to it. It was time to get rid of the shorts and acquire some long jeans, sweaters and a jacket. When I suggested this to José, he agreed. We found another Goodwill store and picked up some winter clothes, which we traded for our summer ones. Not a good trade in my opinion as we left with less than we came in with and honestly, think they just felt sorry for us and accepted the trade.

  I picked out two new pairs of jeans and a nice warm jacket, foregoing the sweater as the lady just shook her head at me when I brought them up.

  "You have to give up something, honey," she informed me in a dour voice.

  Daniel and José did the same. We found a church that served hot food, and they even packed us a lunch to take with us so for the moment at least, we were warm and fed.

  We had just left another small town in Mississippi and were following a river when thunder boomed overhead, and a lightning bolt snapped right ahead of us. I didn’t mind the thunder so much, but I hated the lightening. Soon after the downpour began, I was running with Oreo tucked into my bag toward an old hunting cabin we had spotted and were relieved it was both vacant and unlocked. I opened the door, groaning it opened with some resistance.

  Inside was bare except for an old wooden table and one, three-legged stool. Against the far wall sat a single box spring that I assumed was used for a bed. We all piled up on the springs and lay shivering from the cold and dampness that settled into our bodies from our wet clothes. We stayed inside throughout the storm with the constant lightning flashes across the sky, being our only lighting in the dark cabin.

  José went snooping in the cupboards and found us a few cans of chili and a small pot and pan.

  Now we could boil water for Oreo’s eggs. No more fried eggs! Yippy! The next day we built a fire and José warmed up the can
s of chili in our new pan. I didn’t think the chili smelled too good, so I declined. Daniel warned José not to eat it. Later that evening José got sick, throwing up everything his stomach had to give while he was gripped in cramps. Daniel reminded him that he had been warned, which earned him nothing more than the old hairy eye from José. We decided to stay another night in the cabin, but instead ended up staying for three.

  The reason being the storm lasted for all of those three days. We stayed inside, only venturing out when there was a brief break in the clouds. It usually only gave us enough time to gather something to eat and some more wood which we would drag in and set like tiddly-winks in the corner to dry out. We told jokes or sang songs. Daniel showed us how to play a game of marbles using rocks.

  There were days I often wondered about Daniel. He never talked about himself. When I tried to bring it up, he always changed the subject. He never got dirty, he never got sick, (I myself along with José had come down with a cold about three times now) and I don’t even think he sweated like José or me. He hardly ever raised his voice, certainly not like me, anyway. He was kind, smart, patient and seemed to know something about everything. He knew which plants were good to eat; he knew what berries to eat and what berries not to eat, he had this second-sense of trouble around the corner and always just gently steered us away until he felt it was 'safe'.

  When José had been sick, Daniel had carried him on his back for miles. He never complained. If the sun hit him just right, I swear I could see a halo. I wanted to know who or what he really was and more importantly...why was he here?

  “It’s okay if you like him,” José stated out of the blue on our last day at the cabin. He sat down beside me.

  I pretended I didn't know what he is talking about. “I like you both, José.”

  “I meant, it’s okay if you like him more than just a friend.” He eyed me with a bit of humor in his eye. "Yea, I know...I can read you like a book by now, Shelbs." He had picked up his new nick-name for me a few weeks ago and seemed to have fallen in love with it. I didn't mind.

  I smiled. I did like him more than just a friend, but I won’t admit it; at least not to José and definitely not to Daniel.

  “Thank you for giving me your permission, José, but I like you both as just brothers, okay?” I wrapped my arm around him.

  José smiled at me, not fooled in the least.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Birthday Wish

  Time seemed to fly out here. Days ran into weeks that ran into months and the next think I knew; it was my birthday. I would never have known if José hadn’t found an old newspaper someone had discarded. We were in a camping park and had just got done swimming and goofing off. José dug around inside a garbage can--looking for only God knows what, nothing I was going to eat that’s for sure--when he found the wadded-up paper. He opened it to see what was going on in the world when I saw the date stamp was September 4th, my birthday.

  “How could I have forgotten my own birthday?” I said under my breath. Of course, Daniel overheard me.

  “It’s your birthday, Shelby?”

  “Yeah, September 4th,” I mumbled. Some birthday this was, I thought. However, it ended up becoming the best birthday I had ever had. I forgot for a moment that it probably wasn’t my real one, but it was the only one I knew.

  Once Daniel found out it was my birthday, he went off to do some searching. At least that’s what he said. What he did was speak to some nearby campers and between all of them, José and Daniel had put together a little party with balloons, brownies, instead of cake topped with candles. They all sang happy birthday, and we were invited to a wiener roast afterward.

  Later, I thought it odd that not one person had asked where our families were. I knew this wasn't the way most grown-ups acted. Here we were, three kids in a campground with backpacks on our backs and no grown-ups with us. What does that tell someone? Usually, this revelation would send the average adult into a game of twenty-questions, one fired after the other. I realized at those points I didn’t ever what to be a grown-up if it meant harassing kids all day long if the opportunity arose. Coupled with that, you could look in their eyes and see they weren't even interested in the answers! They were an uncaring lot. When I asked Daniel about it, he said it’s not that they didn’t care, it’s that they were too busy with their own life’s problems and generally asked as it was what he called, ‘conditioned response', whatever the heck that was.

  I guess in a way I was glad they were too busy to notice, but on the other hand it made me angry. Maybe, if someone had cared just a little about me, I would have been found before Jack showed up.

  The few kids that I did see with their parents seemed to be happy enough. They laughed and played and to my amazement, when I looked for marks or bruises on them, I didn’t see any.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Deer

  Daniel swung his arm out to stop us.

  “Look.”

  My eyes follow the direction to where he is pointing. Three deer stood to the right of us along the other side of the road. “It’s a doe and her babies.”

  I stopped and watched as they ate and played. They darted across the road just as a truck veered around the corner from out of nowhere, barreling right toward them. I screamed and waved my arms, but it was too late. The momma deer ran and got away with one baby, but the other lay broken in the road. The truck swerved, slowed then sped away again.

  I ran over to where the fawn lay. He or she was still alive. He bleeped, and a tear ran down his face.

  “Daniel, we have to help him. Do something, please.” I was begging and crying at the same time.

  “Move out of the way.” Daniel picked up the fawn and carried it over to where José stood.

  “Come on, let’s find a spot to lay him down and see if we can find out what’s wrong with him.”

  "It's a he?" I asked, following him. Daniel didn't answer but silently kept walking. I follow them as they trampled through the weeds, looking for a good spot.

  José stopped and bent down. “This will do.” He brushed twigs aside and pulled some grass to make a soft bed. Daniel lay the fawn down his hands rubbing over the gentle creature’s legs and back.

  The fawn gasped, then lay limply. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my entire young life. I didn’t know if I could keep myself from crying, but I sure tried. My eyes burned, and the back of my throat itched.

  “He’s gone.” Daniel sat back on his heels. He looked at me with sorrow-filled eyes. That made me want to cry even more.

  José stood up and brushed the dirt off on his pant legs. “Well, looks like we’re going to have deer steak for dinner tonight.”

  I gasped and looked up at him in horror. “Are you crazy? I’m not eating Bambi!”

  José laughed and slapped his thigh. “You’re so funny, Shelbs. That’s not Bambi. If we don’t eat him, something else will. He’s already dead.”

  My eyes swung back to Daniel pleading for help but found none. He stood up and turned to me but didn't meet my eyes. “He’s right Shelby...its food and he’s already dead.”

  The coward couldn't even look at me when he said it. I couldn't believe these two. With my hands on my hip, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “I’m not going to eat him!”

  “Suit yourself,” José said nonchalantly, unimpressed with my outburst and grabbed a long stick. “Come on Daniel, let’s build a fire and get to cutting before the blood settles.”

  I ran for the bushes and threw up everything that was in my stomach, which wasn’t much to begin with.

  Unwilling to go back to camp to watch the procedure of whacking up the baby deer, I followed a trail that lead to a rocky cliff, reverently soaking in the beautiful horizon that was before me. I stood upon a large boulder high above the rock-strewn river that was rushing, spewing a mist to chill the morning air. All the golden colors of fall sure made everything more beautiful in their untainted state yet untouched by man’s progress in this
part of the woods. I could see José and Daniel from where I stood, cooking.

  “Are you all right?” Daniel asked me a couple hours later as I sat on a rock, my back to the river.

  “No, I am not all right. How could you do it?”

  “Shelby, deer were put on this earth to serve. There’s nothing wrong with eating it. Remember, we didn't kill it to begin with...it was already dead.” He touched my shoulder gently. “Did it ever cross your mind that it was killed so we could have food? There is a reason for everything that happens.”

  I look at him with moisture pooling in my eyes. “There’s a reason for everything that happens, huh? So, answer me this, why was I abducted when I was a baby, Daniel? Why?” I jumped up and balled up my fists. I stomped off for added effect, wanting him to know that in my opinion it wasn’t all right; deer were not just food, little boys didn't have to go through life as a dwarf, and babies shouldn't be taken. Daniel watched me huff off, saying nothing. He nodded to himself and was as always, patient.

  Late that night my stomach growled uncomfortably. By now I am so hungry I felt like I could eat a whole cow and wished I had eaten some of the doe, after all. I kept silent, though...resolved in my stubbornness as there was no way I would let them know I was a traitor to my own cause.

  On his side and rolled up in a thin blanket but not asleep, Daniel lay and listened to her tummy grump and growl, admiring her strong will to stick to what she felt was right.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alabama

  Welcome to Alabama, the beautiful

  The green signpost read the greeting with its signature eagle logo proudly. Beautiful what? I wondered as I marched past it. The boys dragged behind. Daniel was carrying Oreo, and I picked up my pace, excitement filling my belly. According to the map, we were almost there.

  Home.