by C. L. Stone
The twins nodded their agreement. Thomas’ back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face or if he agreed.
“I’m going to leave shortly. Do you have my clothes?”
“Leaving?” Quinn choked on his coffee. “Where will you go?”
“Not sure. I’m hoping to get some kind of job in town. Save a bit and get passage to Mars Station. My parents used to live there; it’s where I grew up. They’ve left. It might be okay for me to go back. My best friend is there. I haven’t seen or heard from her in a long time. She might be gone or not want to hear from me. But it’s a place to start.”
“Mars Station.” Quinn’s eyes went dull, and he looked down. “Don’t go there. Not after the Sisterhood. Stay off Earth and Mars itself. The Venus floating city is a bad idea and …”
Thomas whirled around. “Stop.”
Quinn got up from his seat and walked to the back of the house. I wasn’t sure what I’d stepped into, and I didn’t want to stick my nose where it didn’t belong. Keith covered his eyes with his hands. Clay sighed loudly.
“I know Mars Station is always in the middle of something bad. I get it. Still, it’s home. I should go there. How much is a ticket?”
Thomas shook his head. “You want to go to Mars Station; we’ll go to Mars Station. I’ll take you in two days.”
“Not by yourself, you’re not.” Clay shook his head. “We’ll all go.”
“Can I speak to you in the other room? Now.” Thomas stormed off with Clay behind, leaving Keith and I alone in the kitchen.
He pulled his hands from his eyes. “Don’t go to Mars Station. Stay here. With us. You want to work downtown? Work there. Live here. We’ll keep you safe.”
“You’re leaving at the end of winter.” I remembered the tidbit from when they’d arrived at the Sisterhood.
Keith shrugged. “Come with us.”
“We’re strangers.” And I wasn’t naïve anymore. I didn’t trust men simply because they told me something. These four had been very kind. It was time for me to go. I’d make my own way.
He nodded. “A stranger is someone we haven’t gotten to know yet.”
“That’s a nice sentiment.” I wished I could believe it.
“How old are you?” He got off the chair and walked until he was right in front of me. “Quinn and I are twenty-four. Clay is twenty-five and Tommy’s the old man at twenty-six.”
“Your mother was very busy for a little while there.” I covered my mouth. What was the matter with me? I looked at the floor. “Do you know where my clothes are?
“Those horrible things you wore with the Sisterhood? They’re in the closet of the room you woke up in. And you’re right. For those four years, my mother was pregnant constantly. She died in an explosion. Nothing to do with her constant pregnancies, fortunately. Quinn and I were babies.”
I raised my gaze to meet his. “I’m sorry.”
“I hear she was a really nice lady.”
I nodded to him and rushed to put on my clothes back in the room where I’d been sleeping. A girl with curves as round as my own couldn’t spend all day bra-less and without pants. What had I been thinking wearing nothing to breakfast or even leaving the room at all half-dressed?
I shoved on my clothes, which someone had cleaned, leaving off the petticoats. I carried those out, folded them, and stuck them in the McQueen’s garbage. I wasn’t wearing them anymore. Keith wasn’t in the kitchen to give the black shirt to, so I folded it and placed it on the counter.
It would be rude to leave without saying goodbye. Following sounds, I ended up running into Quinn as he came out of the bathroom. He had a towel around his waist, and he was wet like he’d just showered.
I looked anywhere but at him. “Sorry to invade your privacy.”
“You’re not. Well, I mean I’m not naked. I’m covered. Shit, I just said naked to a girl. I don’t know how to talk to women.”
I stepped back. “I came to say goodbye and thank you.”
“No, wait; don’t go because I ran off. That’s not because of you. I’m not right in the head. I’m harmless, mostly. I’ll do a better job of making you feel welcome.”
“Oh, Quinn. It’s not you.” I shook my head. Right then, I felt nothing at all. I knew I should. My life was in upheaval. I’d nearly died, walked through the dark for help. But I couldn’t bring up a single emotion except the need to flee another situation where I wasn’t welcome. “I can’t impose on all of you. I have to figure out how to live in the world. Okay? Please be well. I’ll work things out. Thank you for saving me last night. I think you talk to girls just fine.”
My cheeks heated up. I wasn’t naturally reticent, but it had been driven into me since birth and beaten into me at the Sisterhood. I was a burden to anyone but myself, which meant I could only rely on myself.
“Hey, wait, P.” He let out a loud breath. “I can call you P, right? I like it. Keith did it, but I’m stealing it because it works. You have a beautiful name. I shorten things when I like them.”
I couldn’t imagine I’d be seeing him much after this. “Sure. Was that your question? What you could call me?”
“No.” He laughed. “My question was, what did you do to get sent to the Sisterhood? How bad were you? Murder? Stealing? What?”
I’d always known I would have to someday face this question by a person who didn’t know. I opened my mouth, but then a noise behind me indicated the presence of someone else. I turned around and saw it was Thomas. He might as well hear, too. He didn’t like me anyway. They could share the information and be done with me.
“When I was seventeen, I had sex with a boy who was not going to be my husband or even someone I knew very well. I ruined both my parents’ reputation and my own They shipped me off so I wouldn’t destroy my sister. They had to leave Mars Station after that because they were so embarrassed.” Although I sometimes wondered if they left because they couldn’t really tell Diana’s family how they’d shipped me off. Melissa, Diana’s mother, would never have condoned their decision. She couldn’t have stopped it, but she’d have made my dad very uncomfortable if he’d spoken to her about it. I didn’t want to open the dam that came with this discussion. Numb worked. Numb meant I didn’t have to deal with anything I didn’t want to. “Thanks again for being there when I was alone.”
“That’s it?” Quinn tugged on his towel, hoisting it up a bit. “They locked you up for five years because you had sex? Once?”
“Quinn.” Thomas shook his head. “In the upper crust of society, or for those who want to be in it, the virginity of a girl is a commodity. What she did would have been a very big humiliation.”
My cheeks officially burned. “Thank you. That’s very succinct.”
I turned and ran past Thomas. I had to get out of the house.
“Thank God we’re not in that world anymore. I couldn’t have dealt with so much bullshit.” Quinn’s voice followed me out. If Thomas responded, I didn’t hear it.
****
Finding a job didn’t prove very hard. There was a lot of work at the local inn. Apparently the area got quite a bit of traffic due to the fishing season. Farmers who lived far out would come for weeks at a time to store up on fish for the winter. The owner had seen a number of girls run from the Sisterhood, and given I’d survived a bombing, the old man told me he was inclined to be kind to me. I could scrub the floors, cook some light lunches and dinners, and help wherever else he needed me. In exchange he offered room and board in a small broom closet-like room in the Inn. He suggested if I worked for him for four weeks, I’d be able to purchase a ticket on a shuttle that came through every two months.
He also suggested I could ask those McQueen boys, who had a lot of shuttles. Maybe they’d be heading to Mars Station sometime soon.
I thanked him for the suggestion, put on my maid outfit, which was similar to my Initiate outfit, and got to work. I’d never done a day’s work in my life that ended with me being paid. Technically, my family had paid for me t
o work for others. My parents wouldn’t have allowed me to sully myself with menial work, and I did tasks for the Sisters but never got paid for my slaving over anything.
The good news was they’d given me some discernable skills. At the end of the day, I passed out on my hard cot. It wasn’t the McQueen’s luxurious bed, which I would always miss, but it was mine for now.
A knock on my door roused me too soon. It wasn’t morning yet. Had something gone wrong? I got up and cracked open the door to see Thomas McQueen on the other side.
He held up one hand and waved. “Hi.”
Out of everyone I could have pictured on the other side of my door, he was the last I would have expected. “Hi.”
I swung open the door. I’d slept in the shirt of my work uniform, a white dress version. I needed at some point to get some clothes. I’d have to save for those, too.
“My brothers tell me I was not very welcoming to you.” He pursed his lips. “I’m not good with people. I’d like to make sure you know you’re welcome with us. In fact, if you could get your stuff and come with me right now, I’d prefer that. Come on home.”
I leaned against the door. “Thomas, you don’t like me, and that’s fine. I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. When I lived on the Station I was too brazen. I got myself into humiliating trouble. Now, I can’t seem to not look at the floor. It’s hard right now.” I gave into the urge for a moment to relive the pain. Finally, I looked up. “Go on with your life and don’t worry about me.”
“Paloma.” He stepped away from the door. “Right now, it’s fishing season. It’s relatively safe. You’ve got fishermen here, and Buddy Crow is a good guy. I trust him. In two months, Buddy will leave. He only works here three months a year, then goes back to his ranch far away from here. He does it every year. You’re waiting on a shuttle that doesn’t come very often. Sporadic, to say the least. I think it’s been a year since it was here. When he leaves, a guy named Preston Dallas takes his place. He’ll be on you like it’s his job to get in your pants. The clientele changes then, too. It’s people running from something. So, I can either ask you to come with me now or pull you out then, if I haven’t already left. In the meantime, I can take you to Mars Station, which Clay says I did not offer nicely enough. I am apparently supposed to tell you I’d like to take you.”
I snorted before I leaned my head against the door to cry. I’d found a job. I’d had it for one day. So of course it was all going to hell. Why should anything work ever? I didn’t want to be stuck in a situation where I might have to fight off the attention of someone who wanted to have sex with me even if I didn’t want him. Not with my game plan to consider. If the McQueens left, there would be no one to help me.
“I completely respect that you are trying to make it on your own. I made a similar decision once.”
I raised my head from where I wept. “I guess I have to come and impose on you.”
“Take off your uniform, put the other one back on, and we’ll get out of here.”
I wiped my eyes. “One whole day working. Felt good, you know?”
“I do, actually.”
When we went back to the transport vehicle, I saw the other three McQueens sat there, waiting. “Hi everyone. I wasn’t expecting you all here.”
“They wouldn’t be left. I don’t think they believed I could get you to come.” He climbed into the driver’s seat. Keith patted the seat next to him, and I got into it. Soon, we were off.
Keith nudged my shoulder. “Come on, sweetie. You’re with us for a while until we get you safely off. Or you could just decide to stay indefinitely. I’d be fine with that, too.”
Quinn kicked him. “Don’t scare her off.”
In between the twins, I felt warm. I’d stumbled on these guys who wanted me a round for a few days. Maybe I could just assume I’d finally gotten lucky.
Keith touched his shoulder, and I leaned on it. “I wanted to come all day. You are a girl from Mars Station who got forcibly sent to live with the Sisters. You saw them all die. I think you need a break, not a work day.”
Clay, who sat next to Thomas in the front seat, turned around. “He really did. Tommy and I thought you deserved a little time and you’d come back. Then you didn’t. So we made Tommy go do what he should have done right off.”
The hum of the vehicle was low and comforting. Soon, my eyes were closing. Keith’s shoulder was comfortable, and Quinn’s hand on my knee told me I wasn’t alone.
I woke when the vehicle stopped.
“She’s got the cutest little snore. I could listen to it all night.” Keith spoke low over my head.
“And beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful woman I’ve ever been close to,” Quinn answered.
Thomas spoke over them. “Don’t get too attached boys. We can’t keep her. Even if we could, she might not want to. A woman straight from the Sisterhood can’t do what we do.”
I sat up, stretching my arms over my head, and gave them my best fake smile. It fooled everyone, always. The twins fell for it, grinning back. “Sorry I dozed off there.”
“It’s a ten minute ride. Don’t worry.” Keith shrugged. “I liked it.”
I followed them back into the house. Clay came up behind me, putting his hand on the small of my back. “Same room as last night. In the morning, we’ll get you some clothes. I’ll sleep better knowing you’re here.”
“I … I thought I hated you. That night after I saved your life, I hoped I’d never see you again. I’m so glad I was wrong. Thanks for coming back.”
He pulled me into a hug. I stood stiffly. It had been such a long time since anyone had embraced me I didn’t know what to do with the sensation. Eventually, I released my arms and hugged him back. He sighed.
“You have been all I can think about, Paloma. I took that stick from her, and if she’d been a man, I would have beaten her to death. I didn’t know what to do. Why didn’t I take you from her and run right then?” He sucked in a breath. “I have this complicated life. That doesn’t mean I can be less than who I am. I’m sorry.”
“Mr. McQueen.” I used the name I would have at the Sisterhood. “You couldn’t have taken me and run. They would have stopped you, arrested you, and returned me. Then they would have beaten me with the stick. We just got it done early.”
He kissed my temple. “Get some rest. I’m here if you need me. We all sleep upstairs. Bathrooms are downstairs. Not the perfect layout. Your room has a bathroom, which you know. We didn’t build the house; we just bought it. Our other house … Never mind about that, I guess. Good night. See you in the morning.”
“I’m in someone’s bedroom, aren’t I? Who have I displaced?”
He shook his head. “No. None of us would have been able to sleep in the back of the house. It’s a thing. Room’s only been slept in by you. Night, Paloma.”
I walked to my bedroom. Clay’s hug had been really ridiculously nice. But I had to wonder what they were involved in that they couldn’t have a girl around. And I didn’t snore—cute or otherwise. They were just downright wrong about that.
The next morning I made them eggs again and gave Clay a list of stuff to buy in town. The twins didn’t get up for breakfast, so it was only Thomas, Clay, and myself around the table.
“We can leave tomorrow morning. My grey shuttle will be all set by then. It’ll be good to run it.”
I nodded. “What can I do to pay my way?”
He pointed at the eggs. “Make breakfast.”
I shook my head. “I have to do better than that.”
“No. What do you want to do once you get to Mars Station?”
I shifted in my seat. There was the question I dwelled on more than anything else. “They have hotels there too. I can clean, cook. The same things I was going to do here, I suppose. I never thought much about the future. It was always marry, produce babies. I’m pretty much off the market for that.”
Clay looked up from his food. “You’re a gorgeous, single, available woman. You’re not off anyon
e’s market.”
“On Mars Station I will be, which is okay.” I needed to change the subject. “Keith and Quinn work nights? What do they do? What do you all do?”
Thomas sat back. “I make shuttles and sell them to very rich people who want to buy them. Clay is a lawyer. The twins? They’re professional gamblers. They work through the dark enclosures. Online, through their tablets, at night. It’s not as nefarious as it sounds. They have sponsors and everything. We move a lot. Wanderlust.”
There was more to their stories than he was telling, although I believed him that was probably mostly what they did. I’d heard him loud and clear the night before. They couldn’t keep me. I did need to go.
I wouldn’t get comfortable.
“What can I do today besides cook? Can I clean?”
“No.” Clay shook his head. “We can clean up after ourselves. I don’t have a lot of work today. Could you keep me company? I’d like to take a walk. The weather will be cold when we get back from taking you home. Be nice to be outdoors today.”
Thomas narrowed his eyes. “Be careful out there. Lots of attention here. The authorities are going to be out in force since the Sisterhood was destroyed.”
I rubbed the back of my head. “I wonder if my parents will care.”
Clay took my hand. “I’m sure they’ll be heartsick thinking you’re dead.”
“Or they won’t.” Thomas shook his head. “They dumped her here. For five years. Their agenda does not seem to include caring very much about her welfare. Maybe they’ll be relieved.”
The McQueen I had saved from death covered his face with his hand. “Tommy. Damn it. Do you have to be so hard all the time?”
“I don’t sugarcoat things. It gets no one anywhere. Did I say I approved of their behavior? Am I impressed with her family? Fuck, no. Does that make it any less true? Paloma watched her home explode. She doesn’t need coddling.”
Clay hit the table. “Maybe a little coddling would be exactly what she needs.”
“Then do that. Take her for a walk. Act the part. Have at it. Don’t expect me to change who I am, what I think, or how I behave. I worked too hard to stop having to pretend.” He rose and cleared his plate. “Have a good day. I have deals to get done.”