“I can get you help for that.” Jimmy Joe flicked his head in the direction of her shoulder.
“What kind of help?”
“Meet me in the hayloft in an hour.” Jimmy Joe took off running at full tilt and left Piper in the field to make her own way back.
CHAPTER
22
The Miller barn, from the outside, was almost exactly the same as the McClouds’. Unlike the McCloud barn, it was filled with hay, feed, and animals. After an hour had passed, Piper cautiously approached the loft door, careful not to draw attention to herself. No sooner had she wrapped her hand around the latch than Jimmy Joe pulled her inside.
“Pa’s at the pigpen at the back of the barn, so keep quiet,” he warned. “C’mon over here.”
Jimmy Joe led Piper past banks of hay bales until they arrived at a table next to which stood Rory Ray Miller in a marine uniform. On the table was a medical kit that was about the size of shoebox covered in a green camouflage pattern, tightly packed with an array of battlefield necessities.
“Take a seat, soldier,” Rory Ray ordered, pointing to a bale in front of him. Piper sat down, and Rory Ray nodded to Jimmy Joe. “Get lost, pest.”
“I wanna stay,” Jimmy Joe whined.
Rory Ray kicked at him, hitting his butt. “When I need a whiny crybaby, I’ll come looking for you. Till then, beat it.”
Rory Ray was about twice Jimmy Joe’s size, and Jimmy Joe didn’t want Piper to see him get beat up, so he took off with what little dignity he could muster. He hated it when his brothers treated him like that. One day he was gonna show them.
“Where’d you get hit?” Rory Ray demanded of Piper.
“I fell down. You know that.”
“I asked you a question, soldier!” Rory Ray barked.
Piper pointed to her shoulder, and Rory Ray pulled out some surgical gloves and snapped them on. When they were in place, he lifted her arm with surprising gentleness and moved it about.
“Don’t think it’s broken, but you’ve got some bruising. I’ll bind it up to relieve any strain and get you back to active duty.” Rory Ray took out a bandage and began to wind it over Piper’s arm and shoulder.
“I ordered this online,” Rory Ray explained when Piper wondered at the kit. “Every good soldier needs to be trained in basic trauma care to help themselves or a fellow soldier if they require medical assistance while in the line of duty.”
It sounded to Piper like Rory Ray was reciting something he’d read. She tried to stay still while he worked on her and watched as Rory Ray bit his lip and bunched his eyebrows together, focusing all his attention.
“I didn’t know that you wanted to be a soldier, Rory Ray.”
“I’m going to be a marine,” he corrected. “And why wouldn’t I want to be a marine? We live in a great country. It needs to be defended and protected, and it’s up to the armed forces to do that. It’s a privilege to serve.” Rory Ray shook his head as though explaining such a thing to someone like Piper was useless. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Why wouldn’t I understand?”
“You and your type don’t care about things like that.” Rory Ray wound the bandage over Piper’s arm and crossed it over her chest snuggly.
Piper was affronted. “All we do is try to stop threats to this country and other countries too.”
Rory Ray snorted, disbelieving. “Yeah, right.”
“Just what do you think we’re doing all the time?”
“I see you flying off places, acting all important. And those friends of yours, putting their noses up in the air, like they’re so special. Probably going off to parties.”
Piper was aghast. “We never put our noses up in the air. And we never once went to a party, and I wasn’t acting important when I was flying: I was busy. Max is out there right now probably blowing up some building or poisoning some water source or heaven knows what, and I can’t even help with it.”
Rory Ray looked skeptical.
“That’s the truth, Rory Ray. And, by the way, you know that drought we had last year that was killing all the crops? If it hadn’t been for Ahmed and Nalen bringing in some rain, your fields would have withered and died.”
This information caught Rory Ray’s attention. “No way.”
“Yes way,” Piper insisted. “They’re weather changers. Whipping up a rainstorm doesn’t even cause them to break a sweat. They’ve got enough power in their fingertips to start hurricanes and enough precision to train a gentle wind to move a cloud at no more than one mile an hour.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I am not making it up.” Piper suddenly winced. “Ouch.”
“Hold still.”
Piper paused to let the pain settle. “All I’m saying is that we want the same thing. And you can believe that or not, but it’s the truth.”
Rory Ray completed his work and carefully packed away his materials into the case. “Ma always said that you aren’t right in the head.”
Piper sighed. Getting to her feet, she turned to him. “And do you believe that?”
“Ma says—”
“I know what your ma says, but what do you think?”
No one had ever asked Rory Ray what he thought. It was a strict policy of Dick Miller’s that if there was thinking to be done around the Miller place, he’d be the one doing it. What did he think? For the first time, Rory Ray attempted to venture into parts of his brain that had never been touched. It made his head feel itchy.
“If you’re going to be a marine, you’d better be able to think straight and clear,” Piper said. As she walked away, she realized that the bandage had relieved all the pain in her shoulder, and she was grateful for the help. “It feels better,” she said, stopping. “Thanks, Rory Ray, you did a good job.”
“It’s what marines do,” he said, and shrugged.
CHAPTER
23
That night, as Piper lay on her cot in the darkness of the cellar, she could hear Mr. and Mrs. Miller talking above her.
“I want her out of this house,” Dick said, not bothering to lower his voice. “If I have to see her face at the table for one more meal, I’ll throw something.”
“Oh, Dick, no.”
Stomping feet made the floorboards quake above Piper’s head and sent dust showering down over her.
“Betty and Joe McCloud probably don’t want to come back and get her. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to figure a way to dump her off on us.”
“You can’t think that!”
“Can’t I? Betty’s got her hands on a nice new baby with nothing wrong with it, and she won’t want that youngen anywhere near it. I wouldn’t.”
“Shhhh, Dick, you shouldn’t say such things.”
“I’ll talk as I see fit, Millie Mae. Mark my words: they won’t be back to pick her up anytime soon.”
“Now, Dick—”
Stomp. Stomp.
“Dick, don’t get yourself into a state!”
Slam! went the front door.
“Dick, come back!”
Dick didn’t come back, and eventually, Millie Mae’s soft tread padded across the floor and mounted the stairs, and the house was quiet.
The cellar was blackness, and Piper lay still. Above her, Dick Miller’s words wormed their way through the floorboards, wafting down and burrowing into her skin. Piper curled into a ball beneath the thin blanket, shielding as much of her body as she could. She felt a burning in her stomach and back. It wasn’t physically painful, but it was uncomfortable; it felt like a brewing storm of sadness, doubt, and confusion. Suddenly, a red glow filled the room, and, looking down at herself, Piper saw that the light was coming from her—from inside her. She was glowing just like one of the bugs.
Taking the blanket, Piper wrapped it tightly around her middle, blocking out the glow in the only way she could think of. Conrad’s warning blazed in her mind, and she took great care not to move. It took several hours more for her to find sleep.
CHAPTE
R
24
There wasn’t a sound at the Miller table except for the ringing of the phone.
Ring. Ring.
Piper kept her eyes on her plate and didn’t move a muscle, didn’t breathe. Even so, Dick Miller was on the verge of blowing, every ring of the telephone notching his anger and frustration to new heights. His hands, curled into fists around his fork and knife, were planted on the table. He glared over his roast beef at Piper, willing her to give him a reason to lash out.
Ring. Ring.
Piper silently prayed for the phone to stop. After the day she’d had, this was the cherry on top. Dick Miller had sent her out to the south field to pick rocks all morning. After every spring plow, new rocks came to the surface and had to be hand picked and thrown off to the side of the field. This was a thankless task, more punishment than anything, and Dick Miller felt it was just the thing for Piper to do. After that, Millie Mae had handed her a basket of clothes that needed mending. While Piper was bent over an old pair of Dick Miller’s underpants, attempting to darn a large hole in the rear end, Millie Mae told her in no uncertain terms she was completely useless with a needle and showed no hope of ever improving.
“You can’t do nothing,” Millie Mae sniffed. “You can’t cook or mend or knit or fold. I don’t know what you’ve been doing with yourself all these years, but it sure hasn’t amounted to anything.”
As this sentiment was settling over Piper, it was time for supper. No sooner had the table been set and the blessing said than the phone started.
Ring. Ring.
Betty had called first thing that morning to say that she wasn’t expecting to be released from the hospital. Was this ringing phone bringing more news? How was the baby?
Despite Piper’s yearning to talk to her mother, it no longer occurred to her to reach for the phone, and it was a mercy when at last the phone gave up and stopped ringing.
Dick smacked his lips, gaining satisfaction that at the very least Piper had been thwarted. “A man can’t eat his meal in peace with all this,” he said, nodding at the phone. “I won’t have it.”
“I made your favorite for you,” Millie Mae said, fussing. “Get some of that in your stomach and it’ll make you feel better.”
Dick roughly tore some meat off with his fork, jamming it into a pool of gravy. He lifted it to his open mouth, ready to enjoy his meal—
BANG! BANG! A fist hammered on the front door.
The unexpected thrashing sent every single person at the Miller table onto their feet.
Dick Miller threw down his uneaten food. The fork landed in the gravy, which splattered in all directions. He pounded his fist upon the table. “Sit down!” he barked.
Everyone sat.
“We DO NOT answer the door during dinner!” he roared at Piper as though somehow she were responsible. “That door stays shut.”
The front door swung open.
Standing in the threshold was none other than Stark Raven, the sight of whom made Dick Miller take a step back and Millie Mae gasp.
“I knocked as loud as I could,” Stark Raven said, sweeping into the room uninvited. She was wearing a bright yellow top with baggy purple pants, over which she had thrown a thick woven cape of every shade of green. In her hand was a walking stick, worn smooth from use, and on her shoulder perched a blue budgie that hopped about excitedly.
“How do, Millie Mae?” Stark Raven nodded. Nervously Millie Mae returned the greeting with a faint wave of her fingers. “You haven’t come calling to my door in a long time.”
“Oh, no, I haven’t,” Millie Mae muttered.
“I’ve been looking for you!” Stark Raven said, pointing the stick at Piper.
Piper cast a nervous glance in Dick Miller’s direction to see if there was any danger that he might be taking off his belt. The redness was draining from Dick Miller’s face, and his beady eyes cast back and forth as though looking to escape his face.
“We’re eating dinner,” Dick said, but his voice had lost conviction. “We’re not having visitors right now.”
“Well, I didn’t come to see you, did I?” Stark Raven said. “I’m here to talk to Piper McCloud.”
Piper bit her lip to stop her face from turning into a smile. Dick Miller rocked from side to side like a top.
“She can’t talk right now,” he said. “This is my house and my rules. You’ll have to come back.”
“Well, I’m not coming back,” Stark Raven stated flatly. “I’ve got important business with Piper, and it’s up to her whether she wants to talk to me or not. It’s no business of yours.”
Dick Miller raised a finger in the air to make a point, but Stark Raven ignored him and turned to Piper. “Piper, I’ve got some news that I think you’ll be wanting to hear. Let’s talk on the porch away from”—Stark Raven waved her hand dismissively at Dick Miller—“any distractions.”
Piper sprang to her feet and followed Stark Raven out of the house and onto the porch, keenly aware that the Millers had abandoned the table altogether and gathered around the windows overlooking the porch to spy on them.
Stark Raven was filled with an excitement that fueled a pacing back and forth. “You should sit yourself down,” she instructed Piper, pointing her stick at the porch swing. Piper sat as instructed, albeit perching on the edge of the swing in a state of acute curiosity.
The sun was setting, and the fireflies were blinking across the lawn behind Stark Raven, creating a flickering halo around her. Now more than ever, she appeared part witch, part mythical creature.
“I heard something,” she said, waving her stick as she spoke. “It’s not important how I heard, but the rocks can speak if you find the right one. It took me a while.” She waved the stick again as though dismissing the whole thing altogether. “This is what they had to say. Turns out them bugs are thousands of years old and used to be as common as houseflies. Quiet peaceful creatures that nested in forests and didn’t bother no one. Then one day this boy came along, and he tricked them.”
“A boy?” Piper jumped to her feet. “I bet it was Max. That sounds like something he’d do.”
Stark Raven waved her down so that she could continue. “The bugs got a shell, and they get to a certain age and they’ve got to shed it, like a skin, and then they become something else. I don’t know what. Max jumbled up their thoughts so that they forgot how to shed their shell. Then they all got stuck inside themselves and caught up and couldn’t get out. They grew big, but the shell kept them small, and this drove them mad.”
Stark Raven got a look in her eyes like she was going mad, or at least understood the madness. “That’s when people found a way to put the bugs to sleep, for their own protection.”
“I saw a cave drawing,” Piper said. “The bugs started attacking people.”
“That’s what happens when you don’t feel comfortable in your own body—the pain starts bursting out and going all over the place.” Suddenly Stark Raven sat on the railing, exhausted. The blue budgie on her shoulder, which had been hopping about during her explanation, now nuzzled her earlobe comfortingly.
“It would be just like Max to cause trouble like that.” Piper could picture the whole thing in her mind’s eye. Max was always on the lookout for mischief. “He loves to cause problems and then feed off the energy so that he’ll stay young.”
“Hmmm.” Stark shook her head in bursts. “It’s a terrible state. Terrible. Those bugs will die if they don’t shed their shells.”
Piper thought about the blasting that they did and wondered how that was related to the shedding. Was it possible that they were trying to blast their shells off?
Stark Raven got to her feet, shaking herself slightly. “Well, I’ve got to be going.”
“Already?” Piper followed behind her. “But wait—I want to help. What am I supposed to do?”
“Dunno.” Stark Raven trudged down the steps and started across the yard. Piper stayed close on her heels.
“Did you find out anyth
ing else? Is there a way to help the bugs shed?”
“Dunno.”
“But how come I can’t fly?” Piper tugged on Stark Raven’s shawl. “And Conrad says I might be in danger. He says I’ve got bug venom in me and it could blow. What should I do?”
“How should I know?”
“But Millie Mae says there’s no point to me and I’m a waste of time.”
Stark Raven stopped in her tracks. “Now why would you listen to a word that comes out of Millie Mae Miller’s mouth?”
Piper bit her lip. “But I’m normal like they are now. Wouldn’t she know?”
Stark Raven snorted. “You ain’t normal. You’re never gonna be normal. There’s no such thing as normal. We come into this world, and each one of us is as different as snowflakes, none of us like the one that came before. Some folks trick themselves into thinking they’re the same, but they ain’t. It’s up to you to decide who you are and what makes you special, and no one’s gonna help you do that, least of all Millie Mae Miller.”
Piper remained frozen, letting Stark Raven’s words settle into her insides.
Stark Raven patted Piper on the arm. “The only answers you’ll ever find are inside yourself. No one gets to decide what you’re worth—only you. That’s what I say.”
* * *
Dick Miller pressed his face to the window and watched as Stark Raven merged back into the forest, leaving Piper alone in the yard. Now that Piper was no longer with Stark Raven, his anger returned with greater force so that by the time she turned back to the house, he was a kettle at full boil.
Piper quietly opened the front door and stepped inside, and this was all it took to make Dick Miller explode.
“I want you out of this house right now!” he yelled. “GET OUT!”
Piper considered Dick Miller’s lobster face and his red, throbbing finger pointing outward.
“You don’t belong around decent people. OUT! Get out!” Dick waved his finger some more.
“I wanted to get to know y’all,” Piper said quietly. “I thought maybe I could be like you. I may not have done a good job, but I did try my hardest.” Piper looked to Rory Ray and Jimmy Joe. “We’re neighbors. It’s crazy that we don’t know each other better and think all these things about each other that aren’t even true.”
The Girl Who Fell Out of the Sky Page 12