by Jody Klaire
“Hot in Serenity, well warm, and it was freezing in boot camp. Don’t think it matters.” I shrugged and dug my fork into my waffle but Frei whipped it away.
“Strip.”
Didn’t that earn her a blank look and a “huh?”
“I have an idea but those clothes are too heavy. Less will be easier to get you out should we encounter a problem.” Her accent filled with traces of a German lilt that I’d never heard so strong before.
She strode to the hole in the middle of our living room and started fiddling with a panel under a tile. Water burst out of the sides and gushed into the tiled hole.
“It’s just a big bath?”
Frei waggled her hand in a “sort of” gesture. “You could call it that.”
I frowned. “If you ain’t telling me, I ain’t getting in.”
She raised her eyebrows at me. I guess from the petulant tone, I was a pouty lip away from being five but I didn’t like healing. Well, I did, just not the process.
“It’s a luxurious bath or a small pool. A large Jacuzzi if you will.”
“A what?”
She strode to the stairs. “A whirlpool. Think bubbles.” She hovered at the bottom of the stairs. “Staff like to entertain each other . . . slaves, music, food . . . that kind of thing.”
The tone of her voice was enough. “I am not getting in that.”
She chuckled and her shoulders jostled up and down. “The villa is brand new. Old one burned down.”
I wasn’t buying it. “Who burned it down?”
“Who knows, but the fact there was a vacancy for Head of Physical Education meant whoever it was, they’d been inside.” She shrugged. “Brand new.”
“I still ain’t buying it.”
Frei sighed. “They clean it. It’s no worse than river water, Lorelei. Strip and I’ll try and find you something lighter to put on.”
“Can’t I just wait until—?”
“Strip.”
I sighed as she marched up the stairs. She was right. It would take me ages to get my top off anyhow. “You’re still the Frankenfrei I know inside,” I yelled up at her.
Her chuckle reached my ears as I sat eying the filling bath. Me and healing had a prickly relationship at best. I didn’t want to try. It looked clean. It did look new too.
I couldn’t afford to be injured. What if I had to dangle from another roof?
The water swirled around and I shut my eyes in prayer that I could be able to heal without hurting myself or Frei.
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, I sat in a jersey and shorts with my feet in the water. It was nice and warm but the villa was air-conditioned to the point I was shivering. Frei wanted to make sure I didn’t overheat. I was starting to wonder if she liked seeing my lips turn blue.
“Are you planning on turning me into a popsicle?” I muttered through chattering teeth.
“Tempting . . .” She was in an electric blue one-piece and looked like she could grace the cover of a magazine.
I looked like I’d raided a kid’s locker then figured I wanted to play basketball, surf, and run track at the same time. My shorts were skin tight as in I didn’t know how I put them on but I was sure I may need to cut myself out of them. The jersey was a big basketball one but it wasn’t cut out for my chest so it rose half way up my stomach and I had a rope on my arm like I’d lost my surfboard.
I looked like I felt.
Crazy.
I would have thought Frei was doing it to humiliate me but the sad fact was, there weren’t swim suits for someone as big as me.
“You stand in it and you will be up to your waist,” she said, slipping into the water. “The sides are a few steps away so if you faint you won’t hit yourself.”
“You ain’t allowed in too.” I didn’t want her getting hurt, no matter how much better it would make me feel to have a spotter. “You can’t touch me ’til I’m dry.”
Frei held out her hand. “I was with you in training. I’ll be fine.” She pointed to a wooden cross on a lace necklace and pulled it out to show me. “Armor, remember?”
“You know about that?”
“Yes.” She smiled at me like I was five. “Lilia always wore it. Now stop delaying.”
That gave me the prompt to sink into the water and wade out to the center. I stared at my legs in the water and chuckled at how funny they looked. Frei was watching me and no doubt was wondering what was so amusing.
“Not many baths fit me.” I smiled at her. “If I don’t think of the entertaining going on in here . . .” I sighed. “It’s kinda like a bath made for me.”
“You’re six five not seven five, Lorelei.” Her tone was the usual unaffected bored tone but I snorted with laughter. I guess water made me giggly.
“What is up with that accent? And why the monotone?”
She took my hand as I wobbled. I felt drunk all of a sudden. “English is far from my first language.”
“You pull it off pretty good.”
Frei took my other hand as my legs started shaking. Her eyes stayed gentle, calm, unworried. I focused on her, as much as I could.
“Years of practice.” Her voice sounded further away than it should have. I wanted to make a break for the side. She held my hands tight. “When I first learned, I speak much like this.” The accent was thick, German but smooth. A flash of a scared, skinny blonde girl with hair down to her waist. She clung onto a howling toddler, water swirled around them.
I snapped my eyes to hers. “I saw it.” The shock of seeing her thoughts made me wobble.
“Sorry, water terrifies me.”
And there she was, at her core, vulnerable. The little girl who had cared for her sister. The heart of a woman whose life had been ripped from her by a storm. Being in water terrified her. Water replayed that point in her life when she’d lost it all, her freedom, her parents, her dignity. And yet she had dived into a flooded concrete pipe to drag my butt out. She was standing beside me in a pool.
If I wasn’t so woozy, I would have swept her up into a cwtch as we called it in Oppidum. A bear hug to other folk.
“You don’t have to do this.” My legs felt like stone. I couldn’t move now if I tried.
“But I will because I want to.” She looked down at my feet and frowned.
“So the hair, what is with the hair?” I stared up at the ceiling to avoid seeing the concern in her eyes.
“Girls had to have long hair. Many of them didn’t pass no matter what they did.” She moved in and put her shoulder under mine. “With some artful dressing, most of the time I passed for a boy.”
“Pretty beautiful boy.” My torso seized up, locking me in place. The warmth of the water spread upward through me.
“That was sometimes a challenge in itself.”
“So the cool haircut is just for show?” I managed, gasping as the warmth crashed over me. I felt like I was diving under water, the air sucked from my lungs. Frei moved around the back of me as the water dragged me downward. I had no choice but to trust she’d be able to get me out and rested my head on her.
“No, it was defiance. Girls weren’t allowed to cut their hair and so I did.”
I smiled in spite of the fact that the warmth was now prizing my ribs apart and plunging through my insides. “You look good. Wouldn’t change a thing about you,” I grunted as the pain grew steadily worse. “Specially now.”
Fuzzy flashes popped in my vision. My ribs on fire. I yelped.
“So, why did you never learn to cook, Lorelei?” Frei was trying to keep me as calm as she could. I could feel her arms strain to hold my head above the water.
“Nan . . . never . . . spoke . . . she had . . .” I grunted, gasping for breath. “. . . routines . . . I was young, wired . . . kept me on practical stuff . . .”
“And better for her back.” Frei’s voice held a trace of strain. I was glad she was so strong. The water was building in power, sapping every hurt away.
“Not . . . so . . . good . . . for yours.” Breathing hur
t, thinking hurt.
“I can take it.” Her grip got tighter. I knew she was strong physically but there was something coming from inside in her words. Belief, determination, sheer force of will, and spirit. “How are you doing?”
“Think . . . I did . . . a lot . . . damage.” A loud crack made me wince, yelp, and whimper all at once.
“Thought so. How are your hands?”
My hands? They were on fire. I felt like I’d shoved them in a tub of acid. “Better.”
“Let’s wait until it resets your shoulder and fixes the fracture in your hip and we’ll get you out.”
The harder the water pulled the more Frei stood firm and oddly, I felt safe.
I yelped as a rib under my left arm popped. My shoulder crunched in my ear and a shooting pain shot straight through my leg. It was like the water listened to her. I could feel my left hand which was nice. “Think we got it.”
“On three . . .”
“Three,” I yelped.
Frei dragged me back to the edge and I was up on the side before I realized she’d lifted me. She had some muscles. I lay, unable to move, on one towel with a pillow under my head and another towel next to me.
Frei pulled herself out and dropped down next to me, her head on my stomach. “Saves me moving to check you’re breathing,” she mumbled, sounding as exhausted as I felt.
“You’re a great healing buddy.” I couldn’t move. I felt like ice had encased me.
“Cold?” She fumbled with something and another towel covered my legs. I heard something beep and the whir of the air-con stopped.
“That’s the smoothest it’s ever gone.” It was a relief but I didn’t understand how.
“Maybe because your gifts are low?” I heard the sound of the water emptying.
“So there’s a big ol’ plug like in the not-so-fancy baths, huh?” My teeth clattered together. My body shook.
“No, there’s a safety switch.” She sounded sleepier by the second. “Looks like you kept your knack for healing.”
“As much as I’m happy. I would have preferred to help Catalina.” My eyelids were heavy. I tried to stay awake but I felt warm, dozy, and sleepy.
“You did your best. If you had healed her, she would still have been running the gauntlet like the rest of them.” She squeezed my leg. “It’s better if you step back sometimes.”
“Meddling in other folks’ lives.” I sighed, that sounded familiar. “Guess that nut didn’t fall too far from the nutcase, huh?”
Frei squeezed my leg again. I knew it was the only action she could manage. “Not meddling. You can’t know what is planned for someone. It’s nice to help but some people need to overcome things themselves.”
I could see that she had been having this argument with my mother for a long time. My mother didn’t listen as much as she should.
Frei was of few words but great wisdom.
“Unless I ask, I’m meddling though, right?” That illuminated a lot for me. There I was getting angry at my mother when I’d run roughshod over what people may want and inflicted what I thought they’d want on them.
“Something like that. Sometimes scars and pain remind someone why. Suffering helps you see others’ pain. If you take that away, they can forget how and why they survived.” She sighed and it turned into a yawn. “Everyone is a sum of their parts.”
“Like Renee?”
Frei was quiet for a second and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep. “I would have done the same thing. Someone up there wants you to understand you can’t heal everyone.” She yawned again which made me do the same. “Taking it away helps you realize how not helping . . . can be what is needed.”
It made sense. I had a lot to learn about how to fit in with people. I had a lot to learn about myself and my burdens. I would be too tempted to step in when, maybe, sometimes it would be better for me not to. Like Catalina. Now she was free. She had a road of recovery to follow, sure, but had what none of the other kids did.
“You charge for this service?” I asked in a heavy voice, glad that life had returned to my legs.
“No. The smart-ass is free.”
“Yeah, you are that.” I smiled when she poked me. “Free that is.”
Frei mumbled something but it faded as she drifted off to some dreamscape. I let myself relax, feeling safe and secure. I felt understood too. Maybe I was freer than I’d been before. Yeah, free. Free was warm, cozy, restful security. I hoped Frei felt that way too.
Chapter 31
WHAT WAS IT about a knock at the door that fires shock through the system? Frei and I were in the same position that we’d fallen asleep in. We’d been there a good amount of time too as the sun had moved around when I peeked my eyes open. It looked like late afternoon. Guess we’d been tired.
“You hear that?” I whispered, hoping that it was somebody else’s door. Then the thought entered my head that we didn’t have neighbors.
“I’m hoping they will go away.” Frei’s groggy tone sounded like I felt. It made me chuckle and I hauled myself to sitting.
“You doing okay there?”
Frei groaned as she rolled over. She unearthed a flip-flop from beneath her. “Am now.”
The knock sounded again. I glanced at faces peering in through the glass. It was my group. “Looks like we’ve been spotted.”
“Hopefully it’s not another drama,” Frei muttered, getting to her feet. She headed to the kitchen and pulled shorts and a t-shirt off the stool.
She’d got a change of clothes. I wasn’t sure I could get out of my shorts. They looked like hot pants.
I sighed and clambered to my feet. I felt like I was walking on a ship in a storm. I felt woozy. Miroslav must have been with them.
“Might want to get some salt and water,” I mumbled Frei’s way.
I opened the door and got a dusty blast of air in my face.
“Can we come in?” Jessie looked up at me, then averted her eyes as she reached my stomach. “Miroslav is gonna drop.”
I glanced back at Frei who nodded and I held open the door. All eight of my group bustled in.
“What are you doing, trying to walk in this heat?” I muttered at Miroslav as he staggered to the sofa. “You need to rest after yesterday.”
“Wanted . . . to . . . say . . . hi.” He sat forward, sweat dripping off him.
Frei walked over and handed him a cloudy glass of something.
“Hi, Miss Locks.”
Awww, the kid was cute. I noticed the quiet smile on Frei’s face as she dropped to her haunches and checked his pulse. He gulped his drink as she stared at her watch.
She smiled. “Dropping nicely.”
Miroslav’s cheeks filled with color and a crooked grin spread across his face. Smitten.
Frei was oblivious and headed into the kitchen as the rest of the group found any space possible to cram themselves into. Jed sat in Frei’s chair with Jessie on the arm. The frenemies, Leigh-Anne and Jane, were inseparable mode on one side of the sofa as close to Miroslav as possible while Ian, Ryan, and Ty sat on the side nearest to Jed.
Jessie cleared her throat and met my eyes. “Miss Samson, we have a card for you. We know that you probably don’t want it but we weren’t sure how else we could say thanks.”
She presented it to me like I’d won a trophy.
I took it. Someone’s exercise book had been de-covered. They had turned it into a work of art, at least to me. There was a picture of me dangling from the roof.
My throat tightened up as I stared down at it. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Someone, Jed by the detail, had drawn Frei in her red shorts.
I wasn’t allowed to tear up. I was a mean, badass criminal. I did not get sniffles over a card.
“You guys worked really hard,” I croaked, rubbing at my throat. Go figure how I could be so watery over an exercise book.
“Are you okay, Miss Samson?” Jessie asked.
I sucked at being a hardened criminal.
&nbs
p; “Kinda touched.” I was not going to cry. No crying. Mean, mean, lunatic.
I held the card out to Frei with a shaking hand as she brought over a tray of coke and glasses. The group all stared at the tray like it was treasure of some kind. Illicit treasure too.
“They don’t get soda,” she whispered to me. Her gentle tone was enough to put me on the edge of crying. I was a smushy ball of well . . . smush.
“How are your ribs?” Jed asked as I watched Frei grin at the card. She wasn’t one for sentiment either but I could see emotion bubbling in her eyes.
I turned to look at Jed, he looked away. I wasn’t sure if it was my bare midriff or something else.
“Nothing wrong with them.” I pulled my top up enough so he could see.
“How?” Jessie exchanged a glance with Miroslav. “When you were walking away they were already bruised.”
I glanced at Frei who was still examining the card. “Your shirt ripped.” She sounded deadpan and calm as always. “Dirt. It was just dirt.”
“From a wall?” Jessie’s eyes narrowed. Uh oh genius alert.
“From the roof,” I said, hoping that worked. “Not the cleanest place to lie down.”
The other kids laughed. Miroslav smiled but Jessie wasn’t buying it and sat scowling.
“Why don’t we celebrate?” Frei put the card on the work top and smiled at the group. They were so happy with their pop that all I could hear was gulping and slurping. Guess they’d need a refill.
I raised my eyebrows at her but she shot me a “go with it” look.
“It calls for a celebration,” Frei reiterated. “It’s not every day that Miroslav walks this far.”
“Uh huh.”
She shrugged as the kids watched us with interest. “How ’bout a pool party?”
“Miss Locks,” Leigh-Anne said, a lot more shyly than she ever spoke to me. “We don’t have suits.”
Frei waved her hand. “You are all wearing shorts and t-shirts. It’s hot out. You’ll be fine.” She glanced at the pool. “Plus this one has bubbles.”
Cue the excited chorus of oohs and chattering. I had to fold my arms to stop from hugging Frei. There were times when she was ultra-cool.