# # # # # # # #
Blinker, Winker, and Nod made almost simultaneous attempts to kill Lucas the next afternoon as he came out of a grocery store that sold energy drinks. The store was on his way to the gym and Lucas had used it before. Only one shot was actually fired – and it had come from Blinker's silenced gun. He had missed when Lucas made an abrupt turn to his left and accelerated away into a crowd. The other two had silenced guns too, and each had Lucas lined up after he had made a sharp turn and found one of them in his way. Each time, Lucas executed a sudden shoulder roll into their feet that knocked them down. Just like he had practiced in the parking lot.
All three assassins were frustrated. So was Doctor Sandman. He gave Nod another location to watch. He also told them to wear disguises since this drunk had now seen all three of them. Perhaps he wasn't a drunk after all.
# # # # # # # #
On the theme of being frustrated, Wizard's judo classes with Momaka were not going well. She was still in the early stages of the sport – teaching him how to take the sting out of a landing with map slaps and teaching him how to do shoulder rolls. Wizard had difficulty doing a somersault, so the lessons were progressing very slowly. Perhaps this sport wasn't for him?
Hank was the next stop on Wizard's find-a-sport quest. "Can you teach me how to box?" Wizard asked his dad.
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Chapter 30
The first winter storm of the season was blowing across the prairie. Poorly situated on the top of a small hill, Big House #4 creaked and groaned in the wind. The building was old, not insulated in any fashion, and subject to drafts. Fortunately, Pililiani's bedroom was in the middle of the house and happily, with only a thin wall between her and the kitchen stove. Pililiani made sure that the stove was kept hot well into the evening, solely in case either Big Daddy or Big Momma wanted a hot drink before bedtime.
Pililiani's bedroom contained a sturdy wooden bed frame, a thin mattress, and two blankets. Like all of the slaves, she had only two sets of clothes but with the kitchen stove nearby to keep her warm, she didn't have to wear both sets of clothes to bed. Her second set of clothes was hanging on a nail on the back of her bedroom door.
Pililiani also had an old ratty armchair in her bedroom – a gesture from Big Momma for her long service. As part of her evening routine, Pililiani would squeeze herself into the armchair, put her feet up on a stepstool from the kitchen, and pray for an hour before going to bed.
She prayed because a friend of hers had given her that comfort. Years and years ago, when Pililiani had been 23, her son had been taken from her. She died inside that day. She knew that some of the ranch's boys might return, but Pililiani's son never did. When she was taken out of the fields and installed in the house as assistant housekeeper, Pililiani's life improved. But she remained dead inside. Her only comfort was eating.
It was many years later, after Pililiani had assumed the position of Head Housekeeper #4, that she found a degree of solace. The senior-most housekeeper among the ranches in the area kept urging her counterparts to give their slaves some hope. "You cannot let them die. Give them something to hope for. Our lives are not hopeless. We can escape this life."
"It is hopeless," the second oldest had said. "The dog collars. The bosses with their guns. We can't fight them with rolling pins and knives."
"Our lives will change. Our youngest, Pililiani, will live to see it. Others too. If you stay alive."
"You say that, but how do you know?"
"I can see it. The Big Daddies and Big Mommas will die in pain. You have to help your women to believe."
"In what?"
"I follow a religion. It has rituals and ceremonies. It will save us. I can see our rescue coming."
Years after that meeting, and long after that senior housekeeper had been found excess to needs, Pililiani was the one who secretly preached that religion to her housekeeping counterparts and to her fellow slaves. She prayed every night, as did all of her women. And every year, at 2 a.m. on the day after their children had been once again stolen from them, the women of Ranch #4 would meet in the gully that was invisible to the house. They'd say their prayers and perform their rituals. At the end, when Big Daddy's and Big Momma's cloth bodies had been burned to ashes in their little bonfire, they'd go back to their beds believing again that their lives would change.
# # # # # # # #
Ranch #4's infants were kept in a nursery that was part of the little community of huts in the wind-protected gully around the small river that provided the farm with year-round water. During the day, the infants were cared for by a slave who would be excused from duty in the fields for that day. This was Pililiani's doing. She had also ensured that the entire floor of the nursery was covered in blankets, in part to stop the crawlers from picking up slivers, and in part to protect the babies from any drafts that would sweep across the floor in winter.
It was in this room that Karita was now spending most of her time. The day after Pililiani had taken her to see the nursery, Karita had wandered on her own to the nursery hut, sat down on the blanketed floor, and had begun hugging any infant who crawled near her. Those babies who were too young to crawl? She waited for them to cry before picking them up and holding them tight. The 21 year old in charge of the nursery for the day told Pililiani that Karita had the magic touch. That morning had been the quietest she had ever experienced. Pililiani had come down to the nursery ready to punish Karita for missing her lunchtime chores and not telling her where she had gone. When she saw Karita lying on the floor with two babies sleeping in her arms, she decided to give her another work assignment.
The head cook didn't mind losing Karita. She was only letting her work in the kitchen so that she'd be warm anyway. However convincing Renfrew to allow Karita to work in the nursery during the day would be more of a challenge. Pililiani confronted her head-on. "I know you're drugging Karita and connecting her up to some sort of machine. Why don't you connect her up to that machine at night instead? You could leave her connected for longer periods." Renfrew had to check with Jenkins and he agreed that a longer exposure to the language lessons might be more effective. Karita wasn't learning her new language as quickly as she had before coming to the ranch.
That had been early October. Today, when Pililiani went down to the gully to bring Karita up for supper, she found her completely surrounded by laughing infants, all playing a game where they had to crawl over her, or under her, or around her and, in the process, they'd receive a giant hug and a smooch. Pililiani's trip down to the nursery was necessary; Karita wouldn't leave otherwise.
# # # # # # # #
This blustery evening, Karita was sitting on the arm of Pililiani's ratty chair. This chair was now part of Karita's own getting ready for bed routine. Pililiani had decided to teach her how to read.
Reading was not encouraged at Ranch #4. Arriving as 14 year olds, the girls knew how to read, but recreational reading materials of any sort were banned from the ranch. Kitchen slaves were allowed to read recipe books, but that was it. They had no access to electronic books, and since that's how almost everybody in the world read these days, the slaves in Ranch #4 had nothing to read. Nor did they have the energy.
Pililiani knew that somebody had already taught Karita the alphabet. She decided to take her further. Even though she knew that Karita would one day leave the ranch, she'd leave knowing how to read a bit.
But how to do that without children's books? Pililiani would have to make up the stories. So she did. Immediately after the dinner meal, she'd write a story on the back of the papers she had received from Big Daddy's office trash that day. It would be a simple little story. One page long, perhaps two. She'd read it to Karita. Then she'd explain how to sound out the words. Pililiani now had ten stories hidden away safely for when Karita wanted to hear them again. Tonight, Karita was sitting on the arm of her chair waiting to hear story #11 for the first time. Pililiani had gotten the inspiration for the story from
what one of cleaning girls had found inside the toilet lid of the closest bathroom to the hair salon that morning.
Once upon a time, a little girl lost something that she liked a lot. She lost her mommy and daddy. The little girl looked all over but couldn't find them. She waited and waited. She was hoping that her mommy and daddy would find her. She even tried to help them find her by leaving hidden messages. But they didn't work. The little girl was very sad. Until the day that her mommy and daddy found her. After that, all three were very happy.
Pililiani looked up at Karita. Normally she'd have questions about the story. This evening Pililiani saw something different about Karita. Her eyes were hard and suspicious, not soft and friendly. She stared at Pililiani for the longest time before asking, "What was the little girl's name?"
"Her name was Maddy."
Again, silence for a moment. Then, "Maddy’s a baddy."
"Maddy's not a baddy. Maddy's a very brave little girl."
Silence. Maddy looked at the paper in Pililiani's hand. Then she slid off the chair's arm and into Pililiani's lap, put her legs and feet on Pililiani's thighs, and leaned back into the cushion of Pililiani's ample body. "Would you read me the story again?"
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Chapter 31
Granny was settling in to have a relaxing ten minutes in her favorite armchair with a mug of hot chocolate steaming on her lap. A couple of deep breaths to relax. A quick touch of the chocolate against her top lip to check the temperature. Almost ready. There was a tap-tap at the door. It opened and Reese's face peeked in. "Hi Granny."
"Reese! Come in. You know where my secret stash is. Help yourself." Granny blew on the mug to help cool the chocolate down. Blow, blow.
"How many cookies can I have?" Reese's voice from the kitchen.
"Five." Blow, blow.
"Where's the apron?"
"Hanging by the fridge." Blow, blow.
"Do you want some cookies too, Granny?"
Granny felt the hot chocolate mug. It was still too hot. She wouldn't be able to drink the hot chocolate before Reese came out of the kitchen. "OK, but I have a rule. The cookie that I eat can only have five chocolate bits showing on top. You look through them until you find one like that, OK? Take your time." Blow, blow. Blow, blow.
"OK."
Granny took a sip. Then another.
"Granny, I can't find any fives. Would you like a six? You made a lot of those."
"Just a minute. Let me think." Another sip. A gulp. Another gulp. "A six is good." Gulp. Blow. Gulp.
Reese came into the living room while Granny was hunched over her mug, put a cookie onto her lap, settled down on the couch, and spread the apron around his body.
Granny looked at his face. No signs of worry. Just nibbling away at his cookies like he always did. She decided to take a chance and pulled the last of the hot chocolate into her mouth.
"Granny," Reese said. "Am I too young to get married?"
"Ack."
"I'll get a wet cloth."
# # # # # # # #
"So are you in love?"
"No. I'm not even in like."
"Why are you thinking of marrying then?"
"I'm not. I don't want to get married. I'm too young. I was hoping that you'd agree."
"I do agree. No marriage for you right now."
"Good. I'll tell Annika No."
"Annika proposed?"
"I don't know what proposed means."
"Did she ask you to marry her?"
"No. She asked me if I would walk her home."
"And that means marriage to you?"
"It could. I get kind of clumsy when I walk next to her."
"You better start at the beginning."
# # # # # # # #
"Annika is the very nice girl at the school who sits in front of me and she had figured out that I was deliberately trying to earn only average marks on the tests and offered to give me just an average mark so that I wouldn't even have to do the test. She said that she knew that I'd ace the test anyway so it wasn't like she would be cheating. Besides the teacher never ever marks our tests but lets the kids mark each other's tests and they cheat all the time so that they'll end up with a final mark that they had already picked out."
Granny thought that she had already heard all the bad things about that school, but this was new. Yolanda, Reese is here. Did you know that his teacher never marks any of their tests? He lets the students do it.
Really?
"I asked Annika if she wanted me to give her a certain mark too, but she said that she'd never ask me to do that. She wanted to earn her mark and she was sure she'd get her A."
"Sounds like an honest girl."
"She is, Granny. All white colours."
"And the marriage?"
"Yeah. That. So I've told you before that I had made up a story that the vice principal wanted to see her so that she could escape from the two girls who were forcing other girls to flash guys in the woods. They can't do that any more, by the way, because Ms. Paulson, the new principal, hired some people to put up a big fence to keep the kids in the playground and she also told the teachers that two of them had to be in the playground all recess and lunch."
"Good."
"Well, when Annika went into the school to see the vice principal to find out why she wanted her, the vice principal said that she hadn't asked her to come in so Annika went looking for me all over the playground and asking people if they had seen me."
"I stayed invisible until the bell rang and snuck into my desk after everybody was working and she turned around in her seat and looked at me and I dropped my pen so that I could duck under my desk. When I put my head back up I found a note on my desk and it said Thank you."
"That was nice of her."
"Yeah. So things are good between us."
"You talk with her?"
"Oh no. I don't talk with her. We see each other in the hallway, she nods at me, and I nod back. That's what I meant by being good."
"I see. Carry on."
"One noon hour I'm invisible and listening in on the two girl bullies in our class and they were talking about Annika. They said they were going to wait for her and get even with her for not being in their group any more. And I found out that they were planning to wait for her at the shortcut to her home where she walks through an alley and I knew a different way that she could go home so I waited for her before she reached the alley."
"You know where she lives?"
"Yeah, of course. These bullies are browns and that means they're dangerous so I have been making sure she gets home safely. I knew they'd try and gang up on her."
"You could see what they were planning to do to her in your head?"
"No. I just knew because they're so mean."
Yolanda, Reese can't see into the future like Dreamer. But he is learning what people of certain aura colours are likely to do.
Thanks.
"I was at her locker waiting and told her that she should take the long way home this time and she asked me why and I said the shortcut was dangerous today and she thought about it and said that she would take the long cut. She asked me if I was going to stay with her to make sure she was safe and I said that I knew it was safe and left. But I did follow her invisibly in case the bullies changed locations."
"She kind of asked you to walk home with her."
"Yeah, she did."
"Why didn't you?"
"I'm too young to get married. I thought we agreed on that."
# # # # # # # #
"I'm confused, Reese. Why would walking home with Annika mean you'd have to marry her?"
"Because I'm all clumsy around her like I said. I know that I'd probably bump into her."
"Still not understanding."
"Granny, you know about the four bases, right?"
"Tell me."
"OK. Guys and girls have four bases that they go through. You know what a baseball diamond is, right?"
"W
ith you so far."
"So picture me and Annika at home plate. And say I'm holding her hand."
"Got it."
"Now that I'm holding her hand, that means that we can walk to first base. When I reach first base, I can kiss her. First base is kissing, OK?"
"Got it."
"After first base, the next step is touching her boobs. If I touch her boobs, then we're at second base. I can't believe you don't know this. Everybody knows this."
"I probably did but forgot."
"If I decide to touch her on her butt, that means that I'm now on third base."
"And home plate is?"
"Having sex. And if you have sex, you might as well get married because you're going to have kids."
"And you are worried about walking her home because...?"
"Because I'm clumsy and because of what would happen if my hand accidentally touched her butt. That would mean that I'd be on third base and I don't want to be on third base. But I don't know how to get off third base except by running to home plate and I definitely don't want to be there. I mean, once you're on third base, you're there. Right? You can't turn around and run backwards to second. Right?"
"Where are you finding your information about sex, Reese?"
"From the Internet."
"Pictures?"
"No."
Thank God.
"Videos."
Oh God! "You've downloaded videos of men and women having sex?"
"No."
Thank God.
"I've downloaded videos of men having sex with men."
"Reese, I'm feeling a little faint. Would you bring me a glass of water?"
Yolanda! Hank has to have the sex talk with Reese tonight. He's downloaded videos of gay sex.
Ack!
# # # # # # # #
"I'm ready. Tell me about the videos of men having sex with each other."
"OK. Gay sex is kind of interesting actually. You have two teams. One team is wearing uniforms of a certain colour; and the other team has a different coloured uniform. The men have sex in front of a huge number of cheering people in a giant open outdoor building. I don't think I'd want to have gay sex. I mean the crowd boos some times when a player fumbles the baseball. What would they do if they didn't have sex the right way?"