Children of the Sanctuary

by David Pollitt

  Chapter 26

  Back To Sanctuary

  Keel and the others with Maggie had seen Lydia off to find Freckles, then they turned their attention to getting back. They didn’t have any trouble getting to the farmhouse. Farmer Ted was waiting up for them with the lights out. He didn’t want any "strango" soldiers, as he called them, peeping in. He was using a flashlight in the backroom, which didn't have windows. The group could see it shining against the floor of the kitchen linoleum.

  "Hey, Ted, we’re back. Are you home, Ted?" Keel tried to see in through the screen door, then saw the shadow of Ted coming through the hall with his flashlight aimed at the floor.

  "Yeah, right here, Keel. Come on in. Be careful, don’t shine any lights. The soldiers will notice. They’re a bunch of scoundrels. They love to sneak around and peek in. Nothing is private anymore. I heard the news on TV a little while ago. That newscaster guy blew the lid off the soldiers’ deal. The way he was calling for a federal investigation was great. All those prisoners will be going back to prison soon. I wonder if they know it, yet?"

  "I don’t know, but we really need to get back to Sanctuary. I believe all hell’s going to break loose in the next couple of days. If they know they only got a short time, they won’t waste it down here." Keel seemed to sense the urgency.

  "Right, well here’s Missy. Can you take care of her for me?" asked Ted.

  Keel was surprised at Missy’s homeliness. "No, ugly," thought Keel. It was as if Ted had created another clone of himself in drag.

  She smiled and everyone saw the worst case of buckteeth protruding out in different directions, and she gurgled when laughed. She shook hands with a powerful grip that made Keel’s hand ache afterwards.

  "Man!" thought Keel, "she’s an orthodontist’s dream come true."

  "Glad to have you on board, Missy. What’s that you got there?" Beside her was this mongrel dog. It looked about like a Doberman and German-Shepherd mix. But, it’s head was too large, more like a Pit Bull's. What a combination, looking terribly fierce.

  "This is Bambi. I can’t leave him behind."

  "Bambi," said Keel, and he turned his back barely able to contain his laughter. The girls caught it too, but Maggie was oblivious. She knelt down and rubbed his ears and kissed gently on Bambi’s head.

  "What made you call him Bambi, Missy?"

  "'Cause he likes to kill deers. He doesn’t care whether wes shoots them or not." She smiled broadly and fell to the floor, hugging Bambi this time. Keel and Hunter excused themselves for a minute, still barely able to hold back their giggling.

  Outside, they finally spoke between, laughing outbursts, "Can you believe that dog?" remarked Hunter. "Boy, they make a good pair."

  Ted followed out a little later, "You guys okay? I know what you’re thinking. My Missy is a little goofy, isn’t she? That dog of hers isn’t much better. He won’t let me near him but doesn’t mind Missy. They even sleep together; they’re quite a pair." He spoke in his long drawled-out accent. Every word was like slow-motion speaking.

  "But, she's all I got. She's the 'spitten' image of her mom, Daisy. Boy, I miss Daisy. Now, let’s load up. I’ll get you to the gate."

  As they piled into the truck, it was obvious, only four could fit in the extended cab and two in the front bucket seats with one left out.

  "Hey, Missy will get in the back," volunteered Ted. "She likes to pretend she’s dead sometimes, and I put a tarp over her while Bambi sits on top of her. She loves it. Thinks, it’s a hoot."

  "Missy?" said Keel, "do you know that we’re going to stop at the gate and run up the mountain on foot, don’t you?"

  "Yep, Pa tolds me. I’s to acts like a deer and scamper throughs the woods keepin low. He bought me dees here. They's black, running digs justs so I’s could hides better. I gots a pair of his army boots to keeps my feets sturdy. I don’t likes shoes, you know, but I’s do it for Pa." Keel shook his head. He felt like he should expect to hear "Dualing Banjos" at any moment.

  Maggie said as she smiled at everyone, "Isn’t she a cutie." A beautiful angel thought Keel but completely naive, been in heaven way too long.

  Ted turned off the truck lights and crossed the field, easily dodging the stowed jeep. He came out in exactly the same place they entered this morning. When they got to the open field, he turned left, and there was a small jeep barely blocking their way onto the paved road. Everyone except a couple of soldiers were asleep. They looked drunk while stumbling all over the far side of the road.

  Ted said, "Hold on!"

  Keel heard Bambi being thrown all over the truck bed, and Missy was rolling wildly from side to side. He thought, "Man, that could give her brain damage." He thought badly of himself when he thought, "Improvement."

  The truck knocked into the left front fender of the small jeep and pushed it sideways like a toy. Before the guards responded, they were up the mountain out of sight and weaving freely all over the road.

  Ted said excitedly, "You know, we might be able to run the blockade. It should only be one of those wooden-guard things. What do you all think?" Keel felt he might be getting into this adventure a little too much.

  "We saw the gate from the top, and it looked like there were at least a hundred troops there. I don’t know?" Keel didn’t want to commit suicide if he didn’t have to.

  "Oh, no, that’s only during the day. They can’t sleep on the side of this mountain, too steep. They leave four or five, only a few are awake. I’ve seen them when I hunt for ‘coons’ at night. The rest are back at the bottom." He seemed proud of his expertise.

  The wooden blockade came in sight, but there was a pickup truck blocking the road. They’d have to hit it to knock it out of the way, and it wouldn’t be as easy as the jeep. Ted never took a vote or slowed but gunned the truck. It was obvious that he was going for it. A couple of soldiers woke and rolled out of the way as Ted turned on his brights coming straight for them. Ted hit a soldier with his left fender and crashed into the truck, then rocked it over about five feet. He put the truck in four-wheel drive and gunned it from a dead stall while grinding away at the pavement and moving the pickup another foot. He backed up and gunned it again, then turned a hard right into the pickup; it was enough. Shouts and shots rang out, but Ted turned left, then swung the truck through the opening. Bullets

  were hitting all over the truck from automated fire, then the back window shattered in an explosion that had all the kids screaming. They almost made it around the next curve when the back tires were blown out, and the truck lurched forward to a dragging stop, but Ted gunned it again just when the right front tire went too.

  Maggie was sitting in the front seat oblivious of the danger. She was enjoying the roller-coaster ride when the front tire blew out and threw her head against the doorframe. Her pinned hair went in all directions, and one of her gold hair clips went flying out the window into the woods.

  "Those stupid, aggravating humans! They knocked my hair clip out. It took me hours to fix my hair for my Bobbie, and they messed it up."

  Keel yelled, "Everybody out! We got incoming!"

  The kids rushed out both doors, pushed Maggie out, and piled on top of her. Ted rolled out on his side onto the road and ran back to turn out the headlights, then everything went pitch black. The three soldiers remaining could hardly see their hands in front of their faces. Anne and Carey ran to the woods first and were far into the trees before Keel and Hunter even made it off the paved road. Missy was still trying to get her balance, but finally the soldiers jumped out. She was on the wrong side of the truck and completely disoriented from the bruising ride. She didn’t run into the woods as planned but ran around to her dad and ducked down in front of the truck.

  Ted grabbed her face, pointed it towards the woods, kissed her cheek, and said, "Run, go, fast Missy, now!"

  She hesitated, "But what’s about Bambi?"

  Maggie was still looking for her hair clip. Not finding it, she stomped angrily and
said to Missy, "Never mind him. I need him. I’ll bring him to you. You get going."

  Missy wasn’t short on woods agility. She climbed and passed all of the rest like a mountain goat, then turned to help the others. In a frustrated moment, she pulled off her boots, tied the shoelaces together, and slung them over her shoulder to continue barefoot.

  Keel heard her spit out, "Stupid shoes."

  The guards fired at the dark shapes and shadows still standing, Ted and Maggie. They hit Ted in the arm, and Maggie took one in the stomach and another in her chest while blood soaked her clothes.

  "You stupid, lousy, ingrates! If I get my hands on you, you’ll learn to fly! Fly right off this mountain!" yelled Maggie.

  Bambi came running up to her just as the soldiers stopped firing. They had made lucky shots like the tires. If it hadn’t been for automated fire, they’d never hit anything to begin with.

  They were 15 feet away when Maggie bent down and whispered to Bambi. "Bambi, get the deer, Bambi. See the deer?" and she pointed at one of the soldiers. All Bambi saw was a big deer on two legs, and he lunged for the nearest soldier. Before the soldier realized what was happening, Bambi had him by the crotch, tearing mercilessly into him. The other two soldiers were shocked and didn’t move, but Maggie could. She walked briskly up to the first one and knocked the gun out of his hand with a swift kick.

  Then, she punched him in the face and started messing up his hair, saying, "How do you like it when your hair is messed up?" The other soldier couldn’t figure out whom to help. Shoot the dog and hit his friend or stop his other friend from having his hair messed up.

  When he saw his friend flying through the air off the mountain, he turned to see Maggie marching towards him. He started to pull the trigger but noticed that she was already hit and bleeding profusely.

  He thought, "She can’t last much longer."

  He fired again anyway, but it didn’t stop her. She slapped his face twice, grabbed him by the back of his belt buckle and the collar of his shirt, and threw him off the mountain. She could hear him screaming as he rolled over 1000 feet into rocks and brush before stopping.

  "You see, Ted," she said, "they made me break my oath. You see; I’m not supposed to hurt people, but they messed up my hair. Can you believe it?"

  Ted stood holding his arm and yelled at her, "I don’t give a hang about your hair! Get in the truck! Let’s get out of here! This truck can’t go up this mountain like this, but it sure in the heck can go down!"

  "I’m supposed to go with the kids. Don’t you understand?" said Maggie in frustration.

  "I understand plenty. From what I saw, you’re an angel, and it doesn’t matter much where you have to fly from, you’ll make it. I might need your help getting me back down this mountain alive." They both jumped into the truck, and Maggie quickly put on her seat belt.

  "Don’t forget to buckle up, Ted," she suggested as Ted looked at her strangely.

  As he started the truck, he asked, "Are certain parts of heaven more isolated than others?" This lady was way too flighty for him, then he had a warm thought. She reminded him of his Daisy, "God rest her soul."

  "Keep your head down low." He whistled a shrill, double-finger blast, and Bambi came running, "Tell her mutt not to bother me, will you?"

  Maggie opened the door, and Bambi came scrambling up and jumped in her lap. He had the front of the soldier’s pants still in his mouth with the zipper intact. "Good dog, Bambi, good dog. Be nice to Ted."

  Bambi growled, dropped his prize, and licked Ted’s face lovingly. Ted gunned the truck, turned the wheels as he braked, and swung the truck completely around. He let gravity pull them headfirst down the mountain road with the tire rubber peeling off in all directions.

  They could tell the camp was alive with activity as they neared the bottom. Before they got there, they plowed through a group of soldiers marching to the gate to check things out and scattered them like bowling pins. As they got near to the bottom, a transformer exploded that sent showers of sparks and fire hundreds of feet over the soldiers and ran everyone for cover. Ted whizzed through the middle of them and kept to the main road this time.

  “Wow, what luck, that transformer going off right then." They passed a telephone utility truck parked only feet away from the road when Maggie recognized the truck.

  "It wasn’t luck! That was my Bobbie, my hubby! He must have been following us! Isn’t he the greatest?"

  Ted headed for his house, and the lights of the utility truck followed shortly after. Maggie jumped out and ran back till she met Bobbie’s truck halfway up the driveway.

  She hitched a ride on his passenger side rail. "Hi, sweetie. Thanks for the help."

  "Any time, dear. You look a little beat-up. Can I help?" he asked while reaching over and flicking some broken glass off her face.

  "What you got in mind, mister?" and she winked at him, then jumped into truck beside him.

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  Too Much Sorrow

  Lydia thought she must have the worst job in the angel legions right now. She had Freckle’s body and had to take him back to the kids. They knew about this for days, but nothing prepared them for it. It was too hard to imagine the pain of this. As Lydia appeared over the horizon, Irish saw her. She knew Lydia was carrying Freckles, and she braced herself, then she saw Enya looking Lydia’s way. Enya could tell Lydia had someone hanging lifelessly in her arms, then Nash came up behind Enya and knew as well.

  He spoke out-loud, "No, not this!" He grabbed Enya’s hand and squeezed it. Now, she saw Freckles clearly.

  "Oh no, not Freckles!"

  Enya ran hard as she followed directly under the landing pattern of Lydia. When Lydia was almost touching, Enya grabbed Freckles from her and held him to her chest crying, "Not you, not you! This is wrong! This isn’t fair!"

  When Nash came over and tried to take Freckles away from her, she pulled away from him and ran towards the arena. She held Freckles around his chest and carried him like a rag doll hanging limply from her handhold. She fell to the ground and sat with her arms around him and cried while she held her face against his, moaning. Nash ran after her and noticed the far distant look in her eyes; her mind and heart were somewhere else.

  God spoke to Nash, "Leave her be."

  The kids and the angels surrounded her, some silently, some crying, but no one touching her, just waiting. The kids were expecting another miracle. Why not? Hadn’t God done it before?

  Nash approached Irish, "You knew about this, didn’t you?" He felt offended as he said it.

  "Yes, we know a lot of things that we can’t speak about. We follow God not man. If our Lord says not to say anything, we have no choice. We will always obey Him." She looked sadly at Enya.

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  Lucky’s Not Lucky

  The Exit 134 blockaders knew their assignment involved the kids, but many prisoners were taking a joyride at the State’s expense. They had no intention of harming or killing any children. They all thought the Westside blockaders were the worst lot of the prison soldiers. The Eastside prisoners were only petty thieves, car jackers, and even some moonshiners. They were somehow better than rapists, murderers, drug pushers, and child molesters. After all, there were things you just didn’t do.

  Their blockade was also more friendly than the others. Local people had been bringing them food since they got there. They enjoyed some special treats when some local bands came to perform. Even the churches from Soddy Daisy and Altamont sent a choir and their best Gospel quartets to perform. The soldiers considered this a good vacation more than anything.

  Most were troubled by what they thought was happening at the base of the mountain on both sides as well as the Westside, and there wasn’t anything they could do about it. They kept their mouths shut and laid low. Lucky was the worst person to come to

  them. He represented everything they didn’t want or liked. Discovering he
might be responsible for killing a kid, sent rumblings through the camp.

  A small group of soldiers went to confront Lucky on the killing rumors. Their spokesman asked, "We got word that you might have something to do with the murder of the kid?"

  Lucky looked at them through blurry eyes, swilled a swig of moonshine, and belched loudly saying, "Yeah, I saw the little bugger. He was trying to escape across a field getting away towards Cowan. What about it?" He still didn’t understand the significance of their visit.

  Lucky tried to stand but couldn’t. He sat down with his bottle between his legs and croaked out a rebuttal, "I shot him, but so did two FBI dudes. So what of it? That’s why they sent us to this mountain to kill the kids. If you can't kill them, go back to prison. I happen to enjoy my job, that’s all."

  "Lucky, you aren’t going to enjoy it at our expense. We know what most of your group is in prison for, but here we think about things differently. We got our own kids and families to go back to. We have no intentions of killing kids. We might take exception to killing a cockroach. If your intention is to kill kids, then we’d consider you a cockroach. Do you understand? Do we make ourselves clear?"

  Lucky raised his bottle to them and said, "You’re a bunch of wimps. You don’t got the guts like I do to take out a kid. You’re cowards." He rolled away from them and went back to sleep.

  There were six soldiers camped out by the Ruby Fall’s billboard near Lucky. At about 4 p.m. that same day, they all woke from afternoon naps and looked into the sky.

  "What’s going on, Joe?” said one to another.

  "I don’t know. Ever since I heard Lucky mouthing off, I’ve had a peculiar feeling that he’s not good to be around."

  "I know what you mean. I’ve had the same feeling."

  Another soldier peeked his head out of his tent. When he saw the serious looks on their faces, he shouted, "You talking about that Lucky guy?"

  "Yeah," answered Joe, "I think I’m moving my tent somewhere else."

  The rest were getting up and saw three of their friends moving their equipment. "Hey," another asked, "where are you going? Are you trying to get rid of your good 'lucky' charm?" He motioned to Lucky’s nearby tent.

  "Yeah, he’s bad news. If there’s a storm coming, I’m not getting near him. He’s not even sorry for killing that boy. He’s a regular lightning rod."

  Soon they were all dragging their equipment across the interstate and putting it in the median 100 feet away. Lucky came out and saw everyone setting up in their new spots and shook his fist at them and cussed them.

  "I heard what you guys said. I’m not sorry for killing that little guy; and if I get a chance, I’ll kill more. You don’t have the guts to do it."

  For some reason, they all looked up at the same time. Faintly, they saw a reflection coming straight down on the interstate. It went from being a reflection to a bright spot, to what looked like a fiery ball about the size of a grape fruit, then it was clearly as big as a basketball. They moved back even farther, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

  Lucky was still yelling at them, "I’ll show you how to kill kids if that’s what you want." The flaming rock struck Lucky in his chest and exited his back exploding him into a human torch. They all looked at each other, stupefied.

  One of the soldiers ran to his tent to get his Gideon Bible from his backpack. He jumped into his tent and zipped it up. He was having his own serious discussions with God.

  The rest ran over to his tent, "Hey, let us in! You got to read to us, man! We want to hear about the Bible, man!"

  "In a minute, let me take care of myself first." Minutes later, they all gathered together having a serious Bible study on "How to Get Saved."

  No one went near Lucky’s burning carcass, mostly ashes now. He was bad luck, and they didn’t want any of it rubbing off.

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