Defective

stumbled inside, quickly regained his balance and headed straight for the loft. He could smell him. He was up there.

  "I wouldn’t do that if I were you," he heard a voice call from above. Bull stopped in the middle of the barn and looked up; at the railing stood the Landlord.

  Bull's eyes were drawn to the floor; he saw his brother lying in a darkened pool. He took another step forward.

  "Have it your way Bull."

  Bull saw the Landlord toss Marvellous’ strung up body over the railing and ran to catch her but caught only air instead. The railing creaked loudly but held. His aunt dangled from a rope above his head. She moaned.

  "Don’t touch her or I let go of this rope. Get away from her. You too, Jones."

  Bull looked to his left and found his younger brother beside him, his knife drawn.

  "You may be fast but you won't be fast enough." He nodded his head towards the back of the barn. "None of you can stop me."

  The boys looked and saw their sisters and brothers crowded around the back of the barn doors.

  "Bull, is Mixer there?" Santa called.

  Bull shook his head at her. She took a few steps closer and stopped. She could see something by the stove; she looked again at her brother. He shook his head again. Tears came into her eyes.

  "All of you get over there. The others should be here anytime now."

  The Landlord gestured for Bull to take the others to the table. Forest and Narrow each took one of Santa's arms and helped her across the floor. Forest wrapped his other arm around Jelly. Bull shepherded all of them to the far side of the table then took a seat by himself on the side closest to the railing. Thunder rolled overhead.

  ___

  Titania woke up feeling something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Peace. Unbidden, her arm raised itself so that her hand was before her eyes. It was her hand. The scars had disappeared; they weren’t merely hiding below the surface of that other person’s arm, that person who took her over from time to time. Slowly she raised the hand to her face and gently placed her fingertips on her left cheek bone. The boiling water had dug a channel through the skin and the scar was deep and long. All she felt was smoothness. With both hands she explored her face; her eyebrows which, before the accident, had been long and thick were back and the pock marks at her hairline were gone. She brought a handful of her hair in front of her eyes and found it fox red.

  A flash of sheet lightning lit up the sky outside her window; moments later a roll of thunder passed close overhead. She got up from the bed, went into the main room and put on the beaver skin coat. Santa had taken some of it to make Mixer’s coat and it was shorter than before, but, Titania realized now, easier to move in. She felt the luxurious fur. It was beautiful.

  She turned and faced the mirror. It took her a moment to recognize herself. She lifted the mirror from its hook and gazed into it, amazed. Her red hair was tousled and dirty; thick and oily like the coat. All of her old scars were gone. She took a deep breath, lifting her whole body up straight and looked directly into her own green eyes. Yes, she said to herself.

  She suddenly realized how hot it was. She took off the coat.

  I won’t need this, she thought. She gently laid the coat on the table and left the house. She walked gracefully to the back of the barn and up the ladder to the loft.

  ___

  Porkchop and PC Pierre arrived at the front door of the barn. Porkchop saw everything in a glance. Mixer lay on the floor; her other brothers and sisters huddled at the table. She saw Marvellous dangling from the railing and behind the railing the Landlord. He waved the frying pan at them. He was sweating; dirt smears lined his face. His eyes rolled in his head.

  PC Pierre took control of the situation.

  "Sir? Are you feeling all right?" he said. He took a step toward the railing.

  "Oh shut up Constable. Looks like you won't be getting this farm after all. Too bad none of you are getting it either." He laughed. "Just need one more person to make this party complete. Well, maybe two if your father shows up. If he doesn't," the Landlord shrugged, "I'll deal with him later."

  Porkchop looked up through her hair and into the man's eyes. "May I check on our brother?" She looked over her shoulder at Mixer on the floor.

  "If you'd like, but I don't see why you'd bother. He won't be a nuisance to you anymore."

  Porkchop walked to the table.

  "Jelly, come help me." Jelly obeyed her sister. "Where’s Titania?" Porkchop whispered when Jelly knelt down beside her.

  "I don't know."

  PC Pierre regarded the Landlord warily. He'd seen the man drunk but even at his worst he was always in control, even jovial. The man's eyes seemed to wander independently of one another and he paced back and forth by the railing like an animal trapped in a too-small cage, the rope tight in his fist. He'd never seen the Landlord behave this way.

  The children gathered around Porkchop, Jelly and Mixer. Santa wiped her face of tears.

  "Check that his neck isn't broken then we'll roll him over," Porkchop told her sister. Jelly probed along Mixer's neck and spine and down his legs and, when she was satisfied that nothing was broken, rolled Mixer into Porkchop's hands. A gash in the side of his head that had started to clot became a bright red spot again as she laid him down on his back. His eyes were open.

  Porkchop saw. Santa gasped and immediately covered her mouth. Mixer's had been the only blue eyes in the family. He was barely alive and his eyes were unseeing but they were now unmistakeably brown. Porkchop nodded to herself and stood up.

  She joined the Constable and called up to the loft.

  "Mixer!"

  The man stared down at her.

  "Mixer! Come down right now!" Porkchop sounded like Ma.

  "Mixer?" the Constable said.

  "That's not the Landlord," she told him. She took another step towards the railing; Pierre stepped with her.

  "No!" he yelled back, his grip on the rope almost slipping. Marvellous' body jerked down a foot or so then swayed back and forth. He regained his hold on the rope.

  "One more step and I let go. Just be patient. Isn't that what you're good at Porkchop? Waiting around?"

  "What do you mean he's not the Landlord?"

  "I don't have time to explain," she said.

  Santa began to hum quietly. It was the tune she always sang to Mixer when he wouldn't go to sleep.

  "Shut up Santa!"

  Mixer drew on the strength of the Landlord's body and let the frying pan fly from his hands. He'd meant to hit Santa but it connected with the Constable's head instead. Pierre fell to the floor. Jelly screamed and Santa stopped singing.

  "Shut up! Shut up!"

  He tied Marvellous off to the railing to free his hands then stood to face them, a pruning knife in his hand. Jones recognized it as the one his aunt carried.

  "Open your mouth one more time Santa and I'll cut this rope."

  The jolt had roused Marvellous; she couldn't see through the blindfold but could sense the air below her. With effort she thrust aside her pain and concentrated.

  Porkchop could see that Pierre was breathing and there wasn't any blood. She walked over to the table and stood in front of Bull.

  "Where’s Pater?" she called up to the loft.

  "Who do you think we're waiting for?" He paused then and cocked his head at her. "Oh, I see," he said, getting a glimpse in his head from Santa. "Very clever, getting him out of the way. All right, I'll deal with him later."

  Forest saw him waggle his fingers, felt the shock wave through his mind and put up a hand to shield his eyes from the lightning strike. He collapsed to his knees. The bolt exploded at the back of the barn splintering Narrow's water crates to bits.

  In the flash, Porkchop saw movement at the back of the loft.

  "Did you like that Forest?" Forest looked up with pain in his eyes. "Aw. What are you going to do about it? Predict the weather at me?" Another bolt took out the splintered back doors and half of the shelving units. Plant
s and earth exploded.

  "Mixer!" yelled Porkchop over the thunder that followed. Surreptitiously, she took the knife from her pocket.

  "Who’s Mixer?" he roared.

  He sent the knife flying from her hand. It twanged as it came to rest, embedded in the wall behind the stove. Narrow felt the breeze and looked down to see a lock of his hair, cut and resting on his shoulder.

  "Knives won't stop me. Nothing will stop me now."

  Jelly knelt beside Forest.

  "Looking for some cure-all Jelly? Oh yes, I know about that." He waggled his fingers and they heard another explosion from the front yard. "Oops. There goes the last of it."

  Bull sniffed the air. "Burnt cure-all," Jelly whispered.

  Marvellous gently touched the Landlord's mind; it was fuzzy but it was unmistakably his. She held on to it, checked her own defences then reached for Mixer. When she was in she pulled with all her might.

  On the floor, Mixer's body jerked upwards just as the Landlord's body stumbled forward into the railing. Titania lifted the shard up in one swift underhand motion. He teetered in place for a moment then fell forward, pitching over the railing, past Marvellous, and landed face first on the floor, the glass shard embedded several inches deep between his shoulder blades.

  Porkchop looked up and saw Titania — the real Titania — standing in his place. She smiled at her. Titania climbed down the ladder and gracefully stepped over the dead body. Porkchop met her at the base and hugged her.

  "I’m back," Titania whispered.

  "Welcome home," Porkchop whispered back.

  ___

  Hap pushed the bicycle up the long steep path to the farm. When he got to