The Aftermath: Parts I and II
Page 6
Their eyes all cast down a bit, no matter how long it had been no one liked to hear a person's outbreak story. Not the story of where they were or what they did, but the story of when they started to lose all they had left in the world.
“My grandfather became a problem. He would wander off, wanted to be too nice and trusting with strangers, and of course brought a lot of unwanted attention down on us. I dealt with it as long as I possibly could. One day I left to find supplies and told him to just wait and be quiet. I came back to discover he had wandered off. I found him surrounded by a few of them. He was yelling and drawing the attention of more. I might have been able to save him, but he was far enough I could sneak away.”
Eyes were completely averted at this point. They had all left someone before, but it didn't change the gravity of what they just heard.
“I would like to know yes or no if you think I did the right thing.”
All four set of eyes quickly looked up at Tess.
“I don't want you to worry about my feelings because I won't read this vote, but I want you to write it down and understand that's how you feel. Yes or no I did the right thing.”
No one wrote right away. They looked at her blinking slowly before shifting their eyes down and writing. None of them wanted the others to see what they wrote.
“Now that you've voted I lied” Tess said with a small smile, it was not greeted with warm faces. “It was actually my father. Yes or no.”
They looked even more shocked. Had she lied to them in order to get an honest vote or was she lying now? Were both lies?
“Vote.”
They all did.
“I lied again, it was my brother.”
They weren't surprised she said that, and they each reflected a moment before writing down a vote.
“Once again I lied, it was my nephew. He was just an infant who had not wandered off. Those responsible for him stopped watching and the dead heard him.”
There was a long pause before each person wrote down another answer.
Tess let out a slow exhale again, “Reflect on your answers than on a new page write your vote and hand it in.” Tess then wrote down her own vote and folded it in half holding it. Slowly yet surely all the votes came in.
Tess took her time carefully reading and sorting them. She turned to the group and told them the results. She offered to let each member see the votes, but they all declined. Maybe they knew the outcome, maybe they didn't want to be confronted with their own votes, or maybe they liked the idea of putting all the responsibility on the person that called out the vote. Tess would never know.
They walked out into the darkness, each of them carrying a candle. A few guards met them outside, and they began to walk towards the center of town. Most of the people were locked in their homes. Normally the night of a vote the streets were filled with onlookers, nobody was surprised that no one was out tonight.
Tess was the lead of the group when they reached the home. She raised her hand slowly and knocked. A woman of maybe thirty answered the door. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, her hair was in a mess. She saw the counsel standing before her and said nothing, but pulled the open door more. A man, who had also been crying walked up and handed Tess a baby. She looked at him as he was silent, she willed him to stay quiet. It didn't work though he began to stir and cry, and a guard moved forward to grab the baby.
The counsel turned back to the family, the cries began to fade into the distance until they stopped. The couple just closed the door.
The heat weighed down on the counsel as they stood silently on the porch.
“I will see you next week,” Tess finally said breaking the silence, breaking away from the group and walking back to her home.