I didn’t know what to think about the giant’s dismissal of me. I guess she was right that I was in emotional turmoil. And, it was true that I was no threat to them. And, I had been hiding a lot. Still, I didn’t like being called a nothing. The giant straightened and relaxed her arms.
“This one has fire in her belly. She feels passionately about many things. She cannot control her emotions at times, but that is not because of losing her brain-band. She has never had a brain-band. She is brown, but her complexion is too perfect to be real. She has coloured her skin, which means that she is white. I sense hostility towards me – perhaps because I insulted her boy friend. I saw her trying to protect him earlier and she is still trying to do that. She feels a great attraction to him, which shows poor taste because he is a nothing. Now I sense her reaction to my words. She would be an enemy of mine – it would be an interesting battle, but she lacks something. She is used to hiding; she is soft; there is no iron in her spine. She also is not a threat to us – a firebrand who angers quickly, but who is a coward nonetheless. Wait. I sense …”
The giant reached out a hand towards Izzy’s clothes. Izzy’s hand snapped out and caught the giant’s hand before it could touch the sling. The giant tried to continue the gesture and then froze.
“She has a weapon hidden in her hand. The blade is touching my wrist. It is poised above my artery. I had no sense of her planning this. Now the blade is over my tendon. She is saying that she can kill or maim me and it is my choice. The weapon’s point has now pierced my skin – she is asking me what do I choose? I choose to apologize for an unthinking intrusion into her personal space. It was unwarranted and will not be repeated.”
Izzy maintained the stare for a second and then released the hand. The giant stepped back and nodded her head slightly at Izzy. She saw me standing in behind Izzy, my hand on her shoulder. What she couldn’t see was the invisible sky-sling ready for use.
“Wait.” This time there was no grand gesture with her arms – just two eyes flickering back and forth between Izzy and me. She turned and walked to where her father was standing. “Mother, I need you,” she called and a shadow emerged from the woods and entered the clearing. The resemblance was obvious. Same face, same carriage, same apparel – they could have been twins except for their ages. But, where her daughter was agitated, the mother was serene.
The giant pulled her parents into a huddle and whispered to them. Both adults turned and faced us while their daughter began to whisper more urgently. I heard the mother say, “Yollie, you’re the field commander. It’s up to you to make these kinds of decisions.”
The giant broke the huddle. “I need a runner,” she bellowed. A young boy – perhaps ten-years old ran into the clearing with what appeared to be a hand-generated walkie-talkie unit on his back and received his instructions. “Top of the mountain, quick. Message to the regional headquarters. Code three alert all the way along the IOF’s southwestern border. All SAM teams to the line. Have them ask the watchers shadowing the DPS camera installation crews if they've seen anything unusual. Those copters may be there for other purposes. Go, go, go.” And the little boy disappeared. The giant shouldered the SAM, kissed both parents on the cheek, turned and loped out of the clearing. She showed considerable speed and agility for someone her size. “I’ll be with Wolf,” she yelled and then became invisible in the darkness.
The words “They’re the reason for the unusual activity on the border,” echoed from the hillside a few seconds later in afterthought.
# # # # # # # #
The giant’s mother stepped towards Izzy and me. We had both been a little unnerved by the sudden actions of her daughter, so we were still standing close together. As the mother approached us, I charged up the sling but she stopped well short of us.
"My daughter likes to make dramatic gestures with the big arm swoops – performing on stage, I guess. I remember doing the same when I was her age.”
The words “Darn tooting, you did,” came from another sector of the dark woods.
“I think she may be over-reacting to the threat you pose but that is her call, and we would rather be over-protected than under-protected. I must amend a few things my daughter said. You were never surrounded – that could result in us shooting our own family members. We brought no firearms with us – they were not needed and we hoard our ammunition. Two bows were on you at all times, but they were handled by adults. Those bows have been put away. We mean you no harm. My husband and I act only to protect our children.”
She turned to face me and placed her hands a little ways from her waist – palms up. “My name is Yolanda, and your name is?”
Izzy pinched my waist, but I wouldn’t have answered. I just returned her glance.
“And yours?” she looked at Izzy.
Izzy shook her head.
“I cannot read either of you – you are too young. But, I feel the power. Yollie was right about that."
“Uncle,” Yolanda acknowledged Doc as she approached him and did the palm thing with him too. “My pardon, Uncle, but I am too young to read you.”
The mother went and stood beside her husband; their arms fell into long-accustomed habits and they merged into one – arm in arm like Izzy and me. I felt their eyes on us – Doc’s were too. It was becoming uncomfortable. Izzy’s chin was up – she was annoyed and becoming more so by the minute.
“Mother – would you mind?” Yolanda asked.
The darn-tooting voice from the shadows moved into the firelight. Hobbled was probably the better description. She limped noticeably, favouring her left leg or perhaps her hip. She held her gray-haired head erect – like her daughter a single, long braid fell to her waist. In her youth, she would have been like Yollie. Now, her posture was strained, but she was still a giant. I could not guess at her age. She carried a giant bow, but used it now as a walking stick. She stopped in front of us, and rested her weight on the bow.
She ignored me completely, choosing to focus entirely on Izzy. The head-to-toe scan was slow. Izzy was now really peeved.
“Strong emotions – fire in her belly. I imagine you would be quite striking without the dye. Pure white skin… red hair, perhaps?”
Izzy said nothing, but I felt her shrink into me. The grandmother was a little scary picking out her hair colour like that.
“Will you share your name with an old woman?”
Izzy shook her head.
“No matter. I sense the name. You go by … Missy, perhaps.” Then, she turned and limped to Doc.
“Cousin,” she said.
“Cousin,” Doc acknowledged.
“May I read you?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Doc said.
“I may use unconventional methods.”
Doc shrugged.
“Winnie, bring Granny her chair.”
A little waif ran into the clearing lugging a campstool. It was almost as big as her. The five-year old, I assumed. She opened it and her granny sank into its seat with visible relief. “In my youth, I was Yollie, then I married and became Yolanda. Now, I’m Granny and I need a chair near me at all times,” she sighed. “Bring your father’s chair too, Winnie.” Soon, Doc was sitting comfortably next to Granny, although somewhat lower than her. She saw the discrepancy and instructed little Winnie to bring in her sleeping bag that formed a pad that brought Doc’s head even with hers. “Better,” she said. Then, she did something that surprised everyone in the clearing. She took Doc’s hand in hers, felt it for a second or two, and then lifted Doc’s arm and draped it over her shoulders. Her inside arm snuck around Doc’s waist.
“Mother,” Yolanda hissed.
“Are you comfortable?” Granny asked Doc.
“Entirely,” Doc responded and there was a little flash of ice from the mother to her daughter.
“I’ve never seen a reading done in this fashion,” Yolanda chided.
Granny turned to Doc and said loudly enough for all to hear. “Just because you teach your daug
hter everything she knows, that doesn’t mean you have taught her everything you know.” Then, she wriggled a little and snuggled even closer to Doc. He smiled.
“Have we forgotten our manners? Is this how this family treats guests? Everyone into the clearing!”
I counted five as the children streamed out of the woods. The runner would make #6, Yollie #7, and the unseen Wolf #8. The entire family lined up for introductions starting with Hank, Yolanda’s husband and proceeding all the way to Winnie, the youngest. Then, four of the children formed a line in front of Doc while the others found a seat around the fire.
“Great uncle, may we use your water?” the first said.
Doc nodded. Three other requests were similarly granted.
“Great uncle, may we use your fire?”
“Great uncle, may we use your fire wood?”
“Great uncle, may we use your willow branches?”
The kitchen crew was a well-oiled machine. Soon, we were all sipping hot chocolate with roasted marshmallows on sticks as a separate treat.
Granny had given up her arm-in-arm reading of Doc to enjoy the refreshments, but she had stayed in contact with him by holding his hand. We all sat, our insides pleasantly warm, waiting for the reading. Granny seemed content to just sit.
“Mother, perhaps now would be a good time?”
“He’s a little small, Yolanda, but I'd hate to throw him back in. Let’s wrap him up and I’ll take him home with me. Winnie – bring me the duct tape!”
Winnie stood up, her little voice quivering a bit. “Granny, I don’t know how to make ducks into tape.”
“Mother!”
“Yolanda, we haven’t captured a single man my age in all the time we’ve been guarding this stretch of the border. Now, I’m expected to ignore this opportunity because… because why?”
“Motherrrrrrr!”
“I like to tease my children. Do you tease yours, cousin?”
“As often as I can.”
“Winnie, come here.” She whispered something into the child’s ear while she was lifting her onto her lap.
Winnie settled in with a big smile on her face. “Granny was teasing me,” she announced to anyone who might not have realized that already.
“OK, here’s the reading. From his hands, I have learned that the man sitting next to me is skilled in the woods, but he also has a gentle touch. I suspect a lifetime of caring for others – perhaps as a doctor. He is not entirely comfortable with his arm around a woman – I suspect that he has been alone for many years. However, passion did burn in his heart many years ago – a passion that was unfilled. He has great sorrow deep inside him – the love of his life was forcibly removed from him. He has never forgotten her.”
Izzy and I looked at each other. This woman was scary.
“The girl is not his daughter, as he has said. However, his eyes consider her as such. Their ages make that kind of relationship impossible. Granddaughter is more likely. The only way that this lonely man could project that love is if the girl were the granddaughter of his lost love. He has adopted her as his own because of some terrible event in the past.”
She paused to turn sideways and face Doc. “May I touch your head?”
Doc bent his head toward her in assent.
She began massaging his scalp. “I am now manually stimulating the temporal lobes of his brain to release information that he has been concealing from us.” She closed her eyes and kneaded away for a minute. “OK, I’ve found a few names.”
We all leaned forward as one.
“The girl is the grand-daughter of Melissa Stanley who was a dissident leader some fifty-years ago. Melissa Stanley was this man’s secret love. She was… Don’t fight me, now Cousin. If you try and hold it back, I could damage some important memory pulling it out.”
Doc relaxed visibly.
“Melissa Stanley was his … high school literature teacher. He had a great crush on her. He joined the dissident movement to be near her. He was in medical training when she was murdered. Now, I’m looking for his name… He’s being sneaky – concentrating on something else to stop me. I see hockey players. He was a hockey player and … aha! I heard your teammates calling your name when you scored. You were a good hockey player – that did you in, Cousin. Your name is Billy. Billy Bedard.”
I looked at Izzy – she shrugged her shoulders. I didn’t know Doc’s first name and apparently neither did she. Everything else was dead on, though.
“I go by Doc now,” Doc said. “Everything you have said is true.”
There was a stunned silence in the clearing.
“Mother, you can actually pull people’s names out of their temporal lobes?”
“You saw me do it, didn’t you? The trick is in using the pads of the fingers – don’t let your fingernails touch the scalp or that will disrupt the electro-kinetic emanations.”
Yolanda stared at her mother for a bit and then announced, “We’ve been had.”
“No, really. Electro-kinetic emanations. Temporal lobes. Just a matter of knowing how to press the right way.” She said this with a completely straight face.
“How’d you actually do it?”
“Billy and I were in the same school class. He was Mr. Hockey, I was Miss Basketball. We’re old friends.” Then, she leaned over and gave Doc a quick kiss on the lips. “Hi-ya, Billy.”
“Long time, Yollie” and Doc kissed her back.
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Chapter 6
From Will's journals: November 7, 2081.
“Doc and Yollie, sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G.” Izzy was trying to tease Doc, but wasn’t getting any reaction.
All but one of our visitors had departed last night soon after the fake mind-reading demonstration. The grandmother had stayed behind. She and Doc had walked hand-in-hand to the lake and were still there in the morning when Izzy and I woke. Shortly afterwards, she struggled into a canoe that her family had left for her and disappeared. Izzy and I had the porridge ready when Doc returned to the camp and we were swallowing contentedly with the occasional jibe from Izzy.
“How close were the two of you really?” Izzy was still digging away.
“We were in the same class for eleven years. Sat beside each other in every bus to every sports tournament we ever went to. Almost boy friend and girl friend when we were in the middle grades, but both of us were too shy. In high school, she knew I had been smitten by your grandmother. We lost touch when the killing started. I knew she had left Alberta to live with her cousins in B.C. and had thought that I’d never see her again.”
“When did you catch on last night?” I asked.
“That it was her family? I didn’t know she was there until I heard her say Darn tooting. But, I recognized the granddaughter as soon as she came into the clearing. She looks exactly like Granny did in high school. She used to do the same grand arm sweeps too, except she’d lick her two pinky-fingers and put them in my ears after she was done swooping. Gross! Then, she’d read my mind. Dead on, most of the time. She revealed her powers only to me and I was sworn to secrecy. Don’t be fooled by the little charade at the end. Granny was, and is, very good at knowing what you're thinking. I would guess that her daughter and grand-daughter are just as perceptive.”
“How much did you tell her about us?” Izzy asked.
“Not a thing. But, she realizes that her family is in a lot of danger while we're here. I told her that she was right, but not why. The Aboriginal Nation’s forces are spread very thin. They can stop the occasional DPS sortie, but they wouldn’t be able to stop a full-scale assault into a single valley. And, the three of us know that the DPS will come over that border with everything they have if they suspect that Will is here. In the south, the Aboriginal Nation’s territory extends from the continental divide westward up to, but not including the Okanagan Valley. It’s a huge area to defend without sophisticated weapons. They know that they’d be helpless against the DPS. The government of B.C. se
lls arms to the Aboriginal Nation to pen up the IOF in Alberta. And, by treaty, B.C. land and the A.N. land is considered one and the same in case of invasion. Zzyk used to have territorial ambitions, but the SAMs have kept him at bay. They think he’s been building up his air power recently but they can’t prove it. That’s why they’re so nervous. Zzyk is not a man who likes to be denied.”
“What’s the verdict about us?” Izzy asked.
“I can stay with them. They’ll take off my leg irons and hide me. They think they’re taking a big risk, even doing that. I couldn’t tell them that the DSP thinks I’m dead. In exchange for their protection, I’ll visit their communities, do some medical work, and train some of their people. The same as I did with the dissidents, except that these are honourable people.”
“And us?”
“You have to leave the Aboriginal Nation. Today.”
Both Izzy and I were stunned. We had thought that Doc would be able to convince them to hide us. Doc would help us figure out what to do against the DPS. The three of us would fight Zzyk together. All of a sudden, Izzy and I were alone again.
“It’s not right to jeopardize their children in a fight that they don’t want to have,” Doc said quietly.
“But Doc,” Izzy was clutching my sleeve, her voice breaking up. “We can’t hide in Alberta’s woods. The plains are even more dangerous. How are we supposed to survive?”
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Chapter 7
From Will's journals: December 21, 2081.
Doc had suggested that Izzy and I should disappear for a while. With the sky-sling, we could go anywhere we wanted, so why not spend some time learning how other jurisdictions were being governed. In a few months, tensions might not be so high. So, we flew east as far and as fast as we could. We stopped when we reached a very large city with tons of buildings sticking their noses out of what had to be the Atlantic Ocean. We saw signs that said it was a place called New York.
We mostly explored the city the first week we were there. New York had been a city of skyscrapers – every building in the city had been multi-storied. When the ocean water started to run down the city’s streets, everybody just moved their businesses and living quarters up one floor in their building and traded in their cars for boats.