by Ann Pino
On top of it all, Galahad is acting weird, sneaking around the upper floors. And I haven’t seen Leila all day.
I wish my parents were here, or anyone who could tell me it’s all okay and that there’s something I can do to make my life make sense. It seems like even the smallest things I do come to nothing. I have no idea how a grownup would handle this, but it seems like they had answers for things, even though they weren’t always good ones. I don’t have any answers at all, and it sucks.
CHAPTER NINE
Cassie carried her cup of lukewarm coffee into Doc’s clinic. She didn’t like unsweetened coffee at any temperature, but it was so remarkable that there was any at all that she was forcing herself to drink it. After a restless night like she had, the caffeine was welcome.
She found Doc bent over little Bethany’s foot, murmuring encouraging words. But when Cassie drew closer and looked over his shoulder, she immediately wished she hadn’t. The wound was oozing pus, turning green and black around the edges. The smell made her breakfast of cornmeal mush rise in her throat, and she stepped back and forced herself to drink some coffee.
“Sorry,” Doc said. “I guess I should’ve warned you.” Bethany squirmed and he patted her knee. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll make it better, but you have to be brave. And no more chasing after the older children. This is what happens when you can’t keep up.”
“We must be out of antibiotics,” Cassie said.
Doc got to his feet. “I have some from an earlier trade, but they don’t seem to be helping. Not all antibiotics are good for the same things and I can’t tell if this just isn’t the right kind, or if it’s no good at all. The Pharms sometimes pass off fakes and expired drugs as the real deal.” He went to a cart and selected a roll of bandages made from strips of hotel sheets. “What I’d really like is to get my hands on some sulfa. A lot of these kids have been so pumped up with traditional antibiotics all their lives that things like ampicillin and erythromycin don’t do much good, and we can’t afford the Pharms’ price for Cipro-class drugs.”
Cassie only partially followed this line of discussion and frowned over the last of her coffee. “I wonder if May—”
“Not without a major lab upgrade and some decent supplies.” He went back to Bethany and began wrapping her foot. “At the rate we’re going, we may have to go with Kayleen’s suggestion, after all.”
While Bethany looked at him with curious eyes, not knowing what he meant, Cassie considered. “There’s got to be some other way. How about we try sunlight? We could take her to the garden and let the wound get some fresh air and light.”
“We have to keep stuff out of it,” Doc said.
“But since it’s already infected….”
They discussed the matter and finally agreed that sunning the injury wouldn’t make things worse. Since Bethany was so small, Doc had no trouble carrying her to the third floor. Cassie tried to make her comfortable on a chaise lounge in a sunny spot among the rose bushes while Doc went back downstairs and returned a little later with a cup of rose hip tea laced with willow. Following him was the teacher, Alaina.
“Drink it all,” Doc told Bethany, holding the tea to her lips.
The girl scowled at the sour taste, but when Alaina sat beside her and nodded, Bethany did as she was told. Alaina had brought a book and read aloud while Bethany was having her medicine. After the girl had drained her cup, Alaina asked to see the injury.
Doc unwound the stained wrapping, positioning her foot so it would get maximum exposure to the sun. Cassie expected fashionable Alaina to be repulsed, but she examined the oozing wound with a thoughtful expression, then said, “Sugar.”
“What?”
“Sugar. It’s what they used on soldiers in the Civil War when drugs got scarce.”
“I’m sure they used snake oil too,” Doc said, folding the bandage and putting it under Bethany’s foot like a pillow. “It’s not like they had penicillin. They didn’t even believe in germs.”
Alaina sighed in exasperation. “I’m telling you, when the doctors ran out of stuff to put on wounds, some of them tried sugar. The ones who got the sugar treatment got better. My dad taught history at the university. I know this kind of stuff.”
“That's nice, but where are we going to get sugar? I couldn’t even get honey for Bethany’s tea.”
“Caramel is sugar, isn’t it?” Cassie asked. When the others looked at her, she added, “There were some people selling some in the street yesterday. That’s all caramel is, right? Burnt sugar?”
“I think so,” Alaina said. “I was never much for cooking.”
“What did they want in trade?” Doc asked. “Do you know if they’ll be there today?”
Cassie shrugged. “Maybe Julilla noticed something I didn’t.”
“It’s worth a try, I guess,” Doc said.
Alaina handed the book to Cassie. “Read this to her again. I’m going to find Julilla.”
Alaina strode into the building and Doc ran after her, leaving Cassie to murmur a silent prayer that all the crazy talk about sugar wouldn’t lead to another day of trouble.
* * *
Cassie spent the next hour reading to Bethany and puttering in what was left of her garden. Finally Doc returned and announced it was time to wrap Bethany’s foot and take her back to the clinic.
“Did Alaina find Julilla and ask about the caramel?”
“Yeah. Turned into a major parley, with those two plus Alex and David. I think Julilla is going to go with the forage team this afternoon to where you saw the caramel vendors and see what their game is.” He finished wrapping Bethany’s foot, then held out his arms so he could pick her up.
“Was Galahad at the meeting?”
Doc was walking toward the door and didn’t bother looking to see if Cassie was keeping up. “I don’t think so. They couldn’t find him this morning.”
Seeing that Doc couldn’t manage the door with the child in his arms, she opened it for him. She followed him inside and forced herself not to steal a glance down the hall in the direction of Galahad’s room. “I guess he had other chores.”
Doc looked at her over the top of Bethany’s head. “I guess.”
Cassie helped Doc get Bethany down the stairs and settled into the clinic, then excused herself. “I haven’t seen Leila since yesterday, and since you say David is around….”
“She’s not with David.”
Cassie looked at him curiously.
“Alaina and I saw her about half an hour ago in the breakfast room. Paul had her cornered and was reading to her from the Bible.”
“Oh, God.” Cassie gave a small sigh. “But if she’s been doing even half the things I suspect, she probably needs it.”
“Tell her to pay close attention. I hear she’s been staying out late at night and I don’t need another Nisha, if you catch my meaning.”
“I understand.”
“Good.” He turned back to his small patient with a sigh. “I always wanted to be a doctor, but I never thought it would be like this.”
* * *
Cassie found Leila in the lounge, sitting at a banquette and looking bored while Paul leaned toward her, reading earnestly from a leather-bound Bible. When she saw Cassie, Leila straightened up and waved.
Cassie hurried over as Paul placed the ribbon marker and shut the book. “Too nice a morning to be indoors,” she told him. “You should’ve come out to the garden. Just because the potatoes got stolen doesn’t mean we don’t still have carrots to weed and soil to build.”
“We were discussing God’s plan for us,” Paul said.
“I’m sure God wants us to care for the growing things of his world instead of just talking,” Cassie pointed out. “Tending a garden is God’s work.”
“I’m not interested in God’s work or anyone else’s,” Leila said. “Seems like we’re always having to work for someone.”
“Well,” Cassie said weakly, “That’s just life, isn’t it?”
“Rende
r unto Caesar—” Paul began, but Leila silenced him.
“Haven’t we had enough Bible for one morning? It’s almost lunchtime and we still haven’t finished picking up the trash. I have to sweep the lobby, too.”
“I told you I’d help,” Paul said.
“But first she has to come help me with something,” Cassie told him. At his questioning look, she thought fast and said, “Girl stuff.”
Paul turned red and reached for his book. “Of course.” He scrambled to his feet.
Just before he could flee, Cassie asked, “Have you seen Galahad?” She searched her mind for an excuse. “Doc was wondering where he was.”
Paul clutched the Bible to his chest. “He was out late last night and up early this morning, saying he had an important errand to run.” He shook his head sadly. “I try to read the Good Book to him, but I don’t know how much it helps.”
As he walked away, Cassie tried to stifle the rising sense that Galahad was up to things she might not want to know about. He didn’t have a girlfriend, did he? Maybe more than one? Or was he involved in some other sort of secret dealings, perhaps with the Pharms, or worse?
“Thanks for getting rid of him,” Leila said. “If it’d been anyone but Galahad’s cousin, I’d have told him to stuff that pious religious garbage a long time ago. But Galahad is David’s friend, and—”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You sure have been hanging around David a lot, staying out late, acting like…well, you know.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Ask him. He says it to me all the time.”
“Okay. But is he something else?”
Their eyes met and Leila looked away with a shrug and clatter of her long earrings. “I’m a grown woman. As grown as any of us can be before the Telo gets us and we die.”
“But Leila, is that smart? David used to be a Kevork.”
“Lots of people used to be Kevorks.” Leila fixed her with a defiant gaze. “Even your precious Galahad.”
Cassie grabbed the table’s edge and sat down. “That’s impossible.”
“If you say so.”
“Who told you that?”
“David. How do you think they met?”
Deep breaths. Kevorks were killers.
Leila touched Cassie’s hand. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” She frowned. “Okay, I did mean to make you a little mad, but you really like him, don’t you?”
Cassie drew her hand away and didn’t answer.
“Galahad has changed his ways. That’s why they call him that. David said he used to be called…well, something else. But when he turned all goody on them, joining the Regents, David gave him the name Galahad. The pure knight from King Arthur, you know.”
“Yeah,” Cassie said weakly. “He’s so pure that Paul needs to read the Bible to him and no one knows where he disappears to at night.”
“I’m sure there’s a good explanation,” Leila said. Seeing that Cassie wasn’t reassured she added, “Let’s forget I said anything, okay? You wanted to lecture me about my evil ways.”
Cassie gave a little half smile. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, come on. I know I’m being bad.”
“It’s not about what’s good or bad. It’s about what’s going to help us survive.”
“But what are we surviving for? The Telo will get us anyway, so why not enjoy whatever time we’ve got left?”
“Our parents taught us that’s not the right attitude.”
“And look what it got them.”
“Galahad says it, too.”
Leila grinned. “You do like him!”
“But not if—”
“Don’t be that way.” Leila stood up and tugged on her sleeve. “Let's go. It’s almost lunchtime and I’ve heard it’ll be something good.”
“When did you become an optimist?” Cassie asked, getting to her feet and following her down the hall.
“When David told me what they foraged yesterday.”
* * *
To Cassie’s surprise, lunch was macaroni and cheese. The noodles were overcooked and sticky, but no one cared. Although Eleven allowed no seconds, his refusal came with a smile. “There’s enough that we can all have some for dinner if we’re careful, so mind your portions.”
Cassie had been assigned to lunch cleanup, but tried to find Leila afterward to see if she could help with her chores. When she didn’t find her, she rounded up a few children who were disrupting Alaina’s reading lesson and took them to the garden to help weed carrots and water roses. The pleasant lunch and simple task of working in the soil quieted her earlier concerns for awhile, but as the children grew bored and wandered away, the doubts crept back.
Galahad a Kevork? It was ridiculous. The KDS had started with good intentions. Telo was a nasty way to die, bleeding from the eyes and nose while slowly choking to death on one’s putrefying lungs. There weren’t enough drugs and doctors to make medical euthanasia available to all, so some people made their children promise to kill them. The teens of the Kevorkian Death Squad came together to trade duties so that no one would have to kill someone they knew. But as the bodies piled up, they began drinking and doing drugs to mask their trauma. Soon they were taking out their anger on police, government officials, doctors, and pharmacists. New members joined the KDS, troublemakers looking for an excuse to kill, rape and rob. Before long, the Kevorks were a menace, killing wantonly, even killing their own, until they fell apart from the force of their own violence.
Galahad was too nice to have been one of them. There was no way it could be true. Nevertheless, when he came out to the deck in late afternoon, Cassie refused to go to him and instead waited for him to come to her. When he was finally standing over her, she said, “People were looking for you today.”
“I had something important to do.”
Cassie looked away, feigning lack of interest.
“I have something for you.” When she gave him a questioning look, he added, “It’s downstairs. I’ll need a little help with it.” Gingerly, he tugged his left sleeve over his elbow, revealing a bandage spotted with blood. “I got into a little ownership dispute over it, but Doc fixed me up. I don’t want to risk breaking open the stitches and your present is pretty heavy. Think you can help? I can’t find David or Paul.”
“They’re probably fighting over Leila,” Cassie said. “I don’t want you stealing things for me. It’s not right.”
“Well, it’s not strictly for you,” he clarified. “I mean, I got it because of you, but—just come with me, okay?”
Cassie followed Galahad to the first floor, down a dim hallway and into the loading bay where they kept the van. He opened the back and went inside. From where she stood, she could hear something being dragged across the floor and see the van swaying. Then Galahad jumped to the ground and pulled something to the edge of the doorway. He turned to her with a grin. “Check it out.”
Cassie looked. “Potatoes?”
“They’re at least as good as the other ones, maybe better.”
“I hope it’s not too late in the season.”
“Don’t say that. Not after I risked my life for these things.”
Cassie smiled. Kevork or not, Galahad came through in a pinch. “I’ll have Alaina bring her students to help with the planting. You’re right. These will grow.”
“I ran into Alex when I was on my way to see Doc and he said he’ll give us a guard this time. No worries about these getting stolen.”
“Great,” Cassie said. “To think we’ve come to a point where we need an armed guard to watch over potato plants.”
“Not very civilized,” Galahad agreed. “But neither is starving. So where should we put these? We can’t leave them here and I don’t want to put them anyplace where they could get stolen.”
Putting them under guard in the storeroom was the obvious choice, but Cassie worried that they might accidentally end up in a soup pot, so after some additional debate, they decided on Cassie’s
room.
Getting the heavy sack up to the third floor was no easy task, but once they reached the hall they could drag it the rest of the way. When Galahad made to follow her into her room, Cassie hesitated, remembering some of the worst rumors about Kevorks and what they did to girls.
“Did you forget to make your bed or something?”
“I don’t need any more help,” she said. “Thanks.”
“I want to help. Save your strength for getting these to the garden tomorrow, in case I’m not around.”
Reluctantly, she let him help bring the heavy bag inside. She was glad she had emptied the toilet bucket that morning so the room wouldn’t stink. They stood for a moment looking around, Cassie wondering where to put the potatoes and Galahad taking in the colorful scarves and necklaces decorating Leila’s side of the room.
“How come no pictures?” he asked.
“What?” She had been wondering where she would put the chair if she stored the potatoes under the desk.
“That’s your side, right? The one with nothing on the walls? The other side is definitely Leila’s style.”
“So?”
“How come you didn’t decorate? I thought it was something everyone did.”
“I haven’t got anything I want to put up.” At his questioning look Cassie added, “At home I had framed posters of endangered species, but it seemed silly to bring anything with me that wouldn’t be useful. Besides, we're the endangered species now.”
Galahad didn’t say anything to this and helped her stash the potatoes in a niche near the closet. By now the children were running up and down the hall announcing dinner, so Cassie and Galahad went downstairs.
Doc saw her before she saw him. “Julilla got the sugar for us.”
Cassie scanned the room. From the guards’ table, Julilla gave a little nod of acknowledgment.
“I made a poultice and we’ll see if it helps. If it does any good, Julilla says she’ll recommend a mission to lay in a proper supply, but for now we’re going to do a trial run with Bethany as our test subject. I’ve set up a chart, a schedule and everything. It’s important to do this scientifically.”