by Reyna Favis
The older boy smirked and raised a pale hand to point at Lucas. “I will tell you how he will die.” Turning back to Cam, he showed more teeth. “And you, old man. You’ve lived long enough, don’t you think?”
“The girl… tell that story. That’s the best of them all.” The younger boy spoke excitedly, hopping from foot to foot like an imp. His eyes lit up with delight.
“Shhh…don’t tell. It’s a secret.” The little girl giggled and hunched her shoulders, pulling a braid in front of her smiling lips.
The air chilled further making my scalp contract and the hair stand on edge. As the children played their game, pointing at us and whispering to each other, sniggering and joking, vitality poured out of me like blood from a mortal wound. Thoughts of death and the futility of life flooded my mind and I looked to Cam to give me a reason to keep going. His face crumpling, Cam drew his hands up to cover his eyes. I bowed my head in defeat, my hands clenching at my sides. Our future was bleak, with no escape from demanding spirits who would feed on our energy like worms on a corpse until it was our turn to join the danse macabre.
“Bloody useless. It’s all bloody useless.” Cam muttered from behind his hands as he swayed forward, bending at the waist.
I lacked the energy to speak and would have sunk to my knees if it hadn’t been for Lucas. Grabbing both of us by an arm, he turned us away and pulled Cam and me towards the edge of the clearing. We had no will and obediently staggered on feeble legs from the miasma of despair flowing from the children.
“Look at me.” Lucas touched my cheek and forced me to look up. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled something out. “Lenora said to give you this if things got bad.” He put a small, drawstring pouch into my hand. Grabbing Cam, he forced another pouch into his hand.
The pouch was warm and surprisingly weighty. An herbal scent wafted towards my face and slowly engulfed me, displacing the miasma and giving me a sense of comfort. Doula, herbalist, rodeo trick rider – what else could this woman do? I immediately felt stronger and shook off the last of the dark thoughts from the recesses of my consciousness.
Cam put the pouch in his shirt pocket and squared his shoulders. “Ready?”
I nodded and did the same with my pouch. We approached the children again, but this time with a weapon to combat them. The giggling stopped when we returned to our place behind Zackie and they shifted uncertainly when they saw the thunderous expression on Cam’s face. He was out of patience and done with their games.
“Tell me how you died.” Cam growled the question to the older boy and then crossed his arms, waiting for the child to answer.
After a moment, the child was compelled. “It was the kiss of death.” The older boy shrugged as if he didn’t care, but a tear leaked from his eye.
“What do you mean ‘kiss of death?’” I took a step towards the children and they flinched, raising hands to protect themselves. I froze, suspicious of this response, and asked the next question softly. “Did someone beat you?”
The girl raised her chin defiantly. “Sometimes. We worked in the wool mill. If we were too slow or if we fell asleep, the man would hit us. He said it would make us learn.”
“You’d fall asleep? How long did they make you work?” I worked three jobs at one point to make ends meet. It was exhausting and I was tired all the time, but I never fell asleep at work. What had they done to these kids?
The older boy scuffed his foot in the dirt and put his hands in his pockets. His brows came down angrily over his eyes. “We worked twelve to fourteen hours a day. Every few minutes, we had to suck the thread through the hole in the shuttle.”
“It made me cough all the time. I’d swallow lint and dust and I’d cough.” The other boy patted his chest and his face contorted. “It made me sick.”
“No one cared.” The girl crossed her arms and scowled.
“I’m sorry.” Cam’s features softened and he reached a hand towards the children. “Let us help you.”
The children exchanged uncertain glances, but then the older boy shook his head and glared. “No, you’ll send us back to the mill.”
“We won’t do that. I promise, we’ll never you send you back to the mill. You can trust us.” I said this with every ounce of truth in me, to get them to believe, but they stared stubbornly back.
“No, adults can’t be trusted.” The girl’s eyes grew even sadder as she said this and I imagined she was thinking about her parents, how they let her work in such a hell hole, probably for pennies a day. Cam had been right – forget trying to send her to her mom.
“You said you wanted the baby because you were lonely and bored. If you go with Zackie, there will be other children there. Would you like that?” Ever resourceful, Cam tried a different angle, but his efforts were met with defiant stares.
The older boy huffed out the group’s response. “No. There were other children at the mill too. That didn’t make it a good place.”
I caught Cam’s eye, hoping he had some other ideas. He gave a tiny shake of his head, that he had nothing. “They’re too dangerous. We can’t just leave them here, Cam.”
“We can’t force them either. They have to go of their own free will.” Cam put his palms up helplessly and was about to say something else when a blast of light from behind caught us by surprise.
My hands shot to my eyes and I gasped as my body reflexively hunched forward in a protective posture. Recovering as quickly as I could, I spun around to see what new threat was emerging. Striding out of the woods, He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief approached. He looked resplendent in his buckskin and his red face was radiant.
The children murmured excitedly and the girl said, “Oooh, it’s the Indian man.”
“What? You again?” Cam was as surprised as I was. “I thought we’d done with you.”
The Lenape spirit grinned and shrugged.
“What the f– Can he do that, Cam? Can he come back? I thought this was a one way trip.” I looked rapidly back and forth between my mentor and He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief, confused as all get-out.
“What’s going on? Something’s happening.” Lucas looked like he was about to burst. He had waited patiently as we talked with the children, hearing only one side of the conversation, but now he could no longer hold back his curiosity. I quickly filled him in before his head exploded. “Why’s the Lenape man back?”
I whispered to Lucas that I had no idea what was going on and then handed him my radio and told him to keep the others updated. This gave him something else to keep him occupied, instead of asking questions. As grateful as I was for the initial intervention, I needed a bit of peace to sort this out.
“I’ve come to take the children across.” He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief assessed the children with a scowl on his face. “Do not try to run from me again.” When they nodded submissively, eyes downcast, he turned to Zackie. “With your permission, Ancient One?” Zackie favored him with a long gaze and then stood and shook off. Stretching first, she loped off to sit with Maggie.
The children found their courage and stared openly at the Lenape man, eyes wide with wonder. The older boy stammered out a question. “Are you with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show?”
He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. “I do not know this man. But I will take you to the Land of the Spirits, in the country of good hunting. Would you like that?”
The children glanced at each other with wrinkled foreheads, their hands twisting together nervously and their feet shuffling as they fidgeted. At last, the girl spoke. “We’re afraid.”
“I will take you to live with my people. You will join our tribe.”
The older boy took a tentative step forward. “Will you teach me how to ride bareback?”
The Lenape spirit smiled gently. “We will teach you many things.”
The other boy joined the older boy, holding his hand. “Well, that’s good. ‘Cause I only ever wanted to go to school and learn.”
Still not convinced, the little girl looked at
the Lenape man from under her brows. “You won’t take us back to the mill, will you?” Crossing her thin arms, she stood her ground, testing him.
He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief curled his lip. “No. No mill ever again.” He reached out both hands to the children. The little girl shyly took his left hand and the older boy, still tightly grasping the other boy’s hand, took his right. He smiled gently at the children, and together, they walked out of the clearing.
Knowing what was about to come, I swung away and shielded my eyes just before a blinding bright light erupted. Standing straight after the blast, I stared at Cam. My eyes must have been as big and bright as the full moon. “Is he a psychopomp now?”
Cam bit his lip and nodded, also stunned by the turn of events. After a moment, he expelled a deep breath. “I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised. He was following this path when he helped all the victims of Tom Quick make the journey. I’ve just never seen this happen before, but I suppose he’s been training at this for centuries.”
“But why would the children go with him? Why did they trust him?” I was thrilled that the children would find peace and the baby was safe from them, but none of this was making sense to me.
Cam’s eyes became serious and the fine lines stood out as he squinted. “I think he was so far outside of the children’s experience that they saw him as first and foremost a tribal man. The fact that he was an adult did not register because he was not from their culture.” Cam threw his hands up. “That’s the best I can come up with. Let me know if you think of something better.” He turned and marched towards Maggie and Zackie.
Maggie sat with her arms wrapped around Zackie, who lay companionably at her side. I took a quick survey of my energy and then opened the bottle of coconut water, taking a slug before handing the other half off to Cam to finish. The black-eyed kids had taken their toll and we weren’t anywhere near done yet.
We squatted down to get on Maggie’s level and after a moment of wobbling, I sat to keep from falling over.
“Good idea,” Cam grunted, as he joined me.
Maggie’s face looked worn, but her relief was evident. Her posture was relaxed and the wild, tortured look was gone. It seemed that her eyes were clearer and her thoughts more coherent. Maybe it was because she’d had time and wasn’t newly dead anymore, or maybe it was the absence of the black-eyed kids. She looked from me to Cam and breathed, “Thank you.”
“No need to thank us. It was He-Who-Counseled-the-Chief who brought them over, after all.” Cam quirked his lips. I took that expression to mean that he was still getting used to the idea that we had one more psychopomp in the world. The idea was giving me the shivers, but we had to concentrate on Maggie now.
“How did these kids come to be with you?” I asked, genuinely curious.
Maggie’s eyes drifted and she sighed. “It was at Greg’s funeral. We were at the cemetery and that was the first time I heard the voices. They were coming at me from all sides and I thought I was losing my mind because of the stress.” She swallowed and a shadow of the terror from that day passed over her face. “I held it together for as long as could, but Katherine had to get me out of there as soon as the minister finished speaking. Once I was away from the cemetery, the crowd of voices stopped, but the children’s voices stayed with me.” She rubbed her arms. “It was chilling, what they said.”
“So, you went to doctors to find a cure?” I didn’t have to think too hard to imagine how awful this must have been for her.
“Yeah, but it didn’t help.” Maggie shook her head and then eased the hair from her face with a shaky hand. “One night, I felt them right next to me. They said they were going to take the baby, that they would kill me to take the baby. I could feel her ¬¬– the baby –¬ kick and fight them, but they were so strong.” A tear rolled down Maggie’s cheek and she buried her face in her hands for a moment. She was crying in earnest when she looked up and she sobbed with naked grief as she told us the end of the story. “She fought them to keep me alive. She fought until the life went out of her.” Maggie collapsed forward and pressed her cheek against Zackie’s flank, breathing hard. “I felt her die and go still and I think I lost it then. I remember grabbing Greg’s gun and running into the woods because I didn’t want Katherine to find me. I remember a voice telling me I was giving up too easily, but I couldn’t let them have her. I thought if I died too, I could protect her in death because I didn’t protect her in life.”
Tears streamed down my face as I listened to Maggie. I wanted to hate the black-eyed kids, but they were the product of an uncaring and miserable world. My mind went black, filled with the thought that in this world, suffering bred only more suffering and there was no end to it. Lucas touched my hand and then put his arms around me. I buried my face in his shoulder and, between sobs, repeated what Maggie had told us. He held me, purging the darkness and giving me the strength to keep going, to finish the task. After a few more shaky moments, I wiped my face and asked him to tell Ron and Lenora. Then I willed myself to finish this. The suffering had to end.
“Maggie, will you allow Zackie to take you and baby through the portal?” Cam absently wiped at his eyes. He had also been affected by the tragedy of her story.
“I would go. I want to be with Greg, but the baby won’t go.” Deep lines of stress showed around Maggie’s eyes and turned down mouth.
“Why won’t the baby go?” Cam frowned with confusion.
“I don’t know why, maybe those kids…” Maggie sat up and then rubbed her belly in a soothing circular motion. “Maybe they infected her somehow? They wanted to stay here to taste life and maybe she feels like she’s missing something.” Maggie looked down sadly at her belly. “I know about life. I had my experiences, but this baby never even had the chance to set her feet on the earth.”
I thought maybe we could get at least one of them to go. “We have a midwife with us on the radio.” I pointed towards Lucas, who was holding the device at the ready. “She can help you deliver the baby.” At least, I hoped so. We were in unchartered territory and lost in the wilderness. “You could go ahead and we would help the baby move on.”
Maggie compressed her lips and shook her head. “No, I won’t go without the baby.”
Cam made an exasperated sound with his lips. “But don’t you see? If you go first, we can convince the baby to go through to be with you. It will all work out.”
Maggie chewed her lip, her eyes wide and frightened. “I’m not sure…”
“Do you trust us?” I put my hand on hers and looked into her eyes.
“I –I do,” she stammered. “But what if I’m not enough? What if the baby still wants to stay here?”
Cam ran a hand impatiently through his graying mop and expelled a heavy breath through his nose. “Then we’ll take care of the baby until she’s ready to move on.” Casting an uncertain glance my way, he looked for me to add my support.
I rocked back on my heels and sat down hard on my rump. I knew nothing about taking care of babies and maybe this was entirely different, but the prospect scared the crap out of me. “We’re doing what, now? What the hell, Cam.” My voice rose shrilly as I searched for a way out of this.
“Look, I think the odds are in our favor that the baby will want to follow her mum. If she doesn’t go right away, we need a Plan B.” Cam silently pleaded with me to work with him.
I narrowed my eyes at Cam, resenting being put in this situation. But then I thought about the baby and what she had been through, how brave she was to fight. And when I looked at Maggie. Her expression was desperate, but there was also a grim determination in the set of her shoulders. If worse came to worse, she would stay here for all eternity to make sure the baby was not alone and was cared for.
My mind raced, trying to find another alternative. Maybe if I had a few days to calmly think this through, I could come up with a solution that worked for everyone. But right here, right now, my thoughts kept hitting a brick wall. Rubbing my face, I mumbled through my ha
nds. “All right.” Looking up, bleary-eyed, I made sure Cam understood how this was going down. “I’ll do it, but you are the primary caregiver.”
“Is this all right with you, Maggie?” Cam asked. When she nodded, he turned his attention to Lucas. “She’s ready.”
Lucas held the radio close to his lips and depressed the button to speak. “Ron, can you hear me?”
There was a little static, then we heard Ron respond. “Go ahead, Lucas.”
“Looks like we’re going ahead with the…with the, um…birth?”
“Okay, hold on.” The channel went dead for a moment. “Uma? See, hold the button like this and then talk. Here, just–” A loud siren alarm broadcast from the speaker and a light on the radio flashed urgently.
Lucas fumbled with the radio and then stared wide-eyed at it. “Here, you take it.” He sat down next to me and handed over the blaring mess. I held the radio at arm’s length and plugged the ear nearest to it with a finger.
After a few seconds, the noise stopped and a voice came through. “Sorry, she hit the panic button.” Ron’s voice shook with laughter. “I’ll just hold it while she talks. Go ahead, Uma.”
“…stupid piece of…Hello?” Lenora sounded a little far away, but we could hear her.
Cam made a rolling motion with his hands, for me to get moving with this. “Lenora? Maggie says she’s ready. What do we do?”
“You find a tree branch and throw that purple belt over it.”
I unclipped the webbing and threw it to Cam. “Okay, Cam’s going to do this.”
Cam grabbed the loose strand of the daisy chain to unknot the end and then flung out the webbing to release its full length. He gave his hand to Maggie to help her stand and they walked to the nearest tree. Cam threw the webbing over a stout branch and after centering the loop to make sure he had equal lengths on both sides, he called over to me. “Now what?”
I relayed our progress. “Okay, we have it looped over a tree branch. What do we do now?”
“You don’t do nothing. Maggie’s gotta grab the ends and use the belt to pull hard when she pushes. She’s gotta pull, bend her knees and squat until the baby comes.”