Shadows Have Gone (8 page)

Carly watched as Justin headed across the commons and wondered where he was going. She supposed she’d find out soon enough, so she and Kaden started down the street.

Shadowfax apparently felt that Carly wasn’t giving her enough attention and nibbled playfully at Carly’s shoulder while Carly led her toward the barn. Dagny laughed as the horse’s breath tickled the top of her head.

“Let me take Dagny,” Kaden said, eyeing the horse with eyes sharpened by caution, and Carly agreed, slipping the baby carrier from her shoulders. As much as she loved her animals, she knew they could hurt the toddler without meaning to, and they had to be careful.

Carly kept pushing Shadowfax away, but the mare would dart in as soon as Carly’s eyes drifted away and start again. Carly stopped the wagon to give her a hug. Shadowfax laid her head over Carly’s shoulder and lifted a foreleg to hook it around Carly’s hip.
 

“Whoa,” Kaden said. “What is
that
?”

“It’s the way she hugs people,” Carly said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Well, she’s a special girl.” Carly patted Shadowfax’s neck.

“No, I think Justin’s right about you. You’re some kind of animal whisperer.”

Carly laughed. “Not quite.” She drew back, and Shadowfax turned her large head to gaze at Carly with one large brown eye. Carly stroked her velvety soft nose. “I’m sorry, girl. We’ll be able to spend more time together now. Sam’s mad at me, too, you know.”

She scratched the itchy place in Shadowfax’s mane near the top of her head, and Shadowfax gave a soft snort of enjoyment.

“I’ll put Shadowfax away,” Kaden said, taking over Carly’s grip on the horse’s halter and handing Dagny back to her. She propped Dagny on her hip and eyed him with speculation.

“Thanks. You okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

She raised an eyebrow. “No, really.”

“I will be.” Kaden shuffled his feet against the grass. “That’s the way it is, you know? You have to be okay these days.”

She gave him a hug, awkwardly with one arm but full of love nonetheless. “You don’t have to be okay all the time, you know? And when you’re not okay, we can talk about it. It really is better if you do. Ask Justin. He’ll be the first one to tell you that keeping it all bottled up inside isn’t a good idea.”

Kaden gave her a slight smile. “Yeah, but he still does it.”

“He’s working on it.” Carly bumped his shoulder with her own, and his smile grew. “Come inside when you’re done with the animals, and I’ll make you some dinner.”

“Okay.” Kaden headed toward the barn and then paused. He looked back over his shoulder. “Carly?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

She nodded. “Any time.”

“Absolutely not,” Pearl said. “In no uncertain terms. No.”

“You’re the only one who can.” Justin raked his hands through his hair in frustration. They’d been having this argument from the moment he arrived, and now they stood on her front porch, both of them glaring.

“I said
no
.” Pearl turned and marched inside, banging the screen door shut behind her.

Justin gave an exasperated huff and yanked the door open to follow her inside. Pearl spun around in outrage. “Get out! You can’t just barge into my house!”

“Pearl, listen to me. I don’t trust this kid yet. You’re the only one I feel comfortable putting him with.”

“
You
take him, then,” she retorted.

Justin rubbed the back of his neck and wondered if he should have had Carly try to talk Pearl into this instead. Carly was so much better at this shit.
 

“I can’t. Carly and I already have Dagny and Kaden. You know how Carly is. She’d see this kid as something that needs fixing, and she’d be worrying about him constantly. She doesn’t need that additional burden with all the other crap she has to deal with. I need your help, Pearl. Please.”

“Why me?” Pearl tossed her hands up, but her glare was softening.

“Because I know you’ll keep a sharp eye on him, and if he is stupid enough to try anything, you could knock him on his ass.”

Pearl tilted her head. “You think he’s violent?”

Justin considered and shook his head. “He doesn’t seem like the type, but he’s scared. And scared people sometimes try some stupid shit.”

Justin gestured through the screen door to the teenage boy standing on her lawn, looking as dejected as a puppy at the pound. His hands twisted the canvas strap of the duffle bag containing toiletries and a few changes of clothes that Mindy had packed for him.

“Look, I don’t think he’s a bad kid, but he’s been with some bad people for a few months. That’s bound to leave a few scars that we don’t know about.” Justin paused for a moment and slowly exhaled.

He was thinking of Michael, the silent young boy who’d been brought to Colby by Stacy and Mark. They called him Michael because of the St. Michael medallion he wore—he wouldn’t tell them his name. Wouldn’t say anything, actually. He’d been a silent shadow in Colby. Until Carly came down with malaria and began twitching and muttering due to the high fever. Something about seeing her like that had triggered Michael and broken him out of his silence into violence. He might have killed her if help hadn’t arrived.

Justin still hadn’t managed to completely forgive the boy, though he seemed sane enough now. Carly was more understanding. She said all of them hadn’t dealt with the trauma they’d experienced during the Infection. The struggles of survival hadn’t really given them much time for introspection and to sort out their emotional fallout from seeing the world literally die in front of them.

Justin was no stranger to trauma himself, but he was certainly more aware of its effects on others now. He watched Austin pace around the yard and wondered how this kid would deal with it.

“I need someone I can trust watching over him until we know if he’s going to be able to stay here or not.”

“Why do you think he’s worth it?” Pearl approached the screen door and laid her fingers on its wooden sill. The late afternoon sunlight streamed through it, casting a golden grid on her light brown skin.

“Because I was once a worthless little shit myself,” Justin said. “I was picked up by some people who thought I had worthy attributes. Turns out they were some pretty bad people. But they saw me and they rescued me from what would have probably been a short and wasted life. In the end, I know I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for those people.”

Pearl didn’t look at him as she spoke. “Justin, I—I’m sorry, but . . .”
 

He saw her hands tighten on the frame of the screen door. He pressed on. “I look at that kid and I see someone who got a pretty rough shake. Someone who ended up in a place he probably would have preferred not to be but did his best to survive, like anyone would. Now, here we are, looking at him and wondering if he’s worth saving. I don’t know if he is. I guess that will be up to him, but I’d like to give him this one chance to decide his own fate. To decide what sort of person he wants to be. I don’t know how he’ll decide, so that’s why I want him with someone I know can take care of themselves. I want someone who knows how to watch. And I trust your judgment. If you tell me in a couple of weeks that the kid is a fuckin’ waste, we’ll toss him out and be done with it. But if you agree with my initial assessment that we might have something to work with . . . well, maybe we can save a life, you and I.”

“Justin . . .” Pearl closed her eyes. “I don’t want to be responsible for someone again.”

“Help me do the right thing,” Justin said. “This fucked-up world gives us far too few chances to do that. Here we have a chance. And maybe I’m being foolish and soft-hearted. Maybe I should have just shot the little bastard in Clayton and been done with it. But I don’t think so.”

The kid the yard shuffled his feet and kicked at a small rock in the gravel. He looked up at the house and then quickly away, as if he were afraid to be caught peeking.

“Justin . . . dammit . . .”

“Do me a solid,” Justin said. “Come on, what can I give you in return?”

“Your promise not to make me do any more of this kind of shit,” Pearl grumbled.

Justin gave her a smile. “Sometimes you gotta do things just because you’re the only person who can.”

It was the first town meeting since the Battle of Clayton, as people were calling it. Carly wore her mother’s pearls, the only thing she had managed to save from the fire that had burned their house. Their comforting weight against her collarbones under her T-shirt was like having her mother’s hand on her shoulder. She thought she had done the right thing, but she would have to now tell her friends and neighbors and face the judgment in their eyes.

As usual, their meeting was held at sunset in the courthouse, the largest structure in Colby and the only one capable of handling the size of the group. It was a squat stone building that boasted a sole courtroom, paneled in dark wood, with rows of pew-like seats. Kerosene lanterns were perched on tables to provide lighting, but it always seemed gloomy inside, even on the brightest of summer days.

Kaden used a pole to open the transom windows to try to catch a cooling breeze, but it was warm and humid, especially with all the people crowded inside. Everyone wanted to hear the details of the fight and where they were going to go from here. Even the town’s handful of children were squeezed in beside the adults or perched on knees.

As usual, Carly and Justin took a place at the prosecutor’s table. She put Dagny into her portable playpen on the floor beside her, with a dry erase board and markers to keep her occupied. Sam settled down beside the playpen, his head resting on his paws, but his ears twitched as he listened and watched the crowd of people. He took his duty to protect his “pack’s” offspring seriously.

Pete had once suggested Carly and Justin should sit in the judge’s bench, but both of them felt the elevated position was too formal and separated from their audience. Pearl always leaned up against the judge’s bench, not really with Carly and Justin, nor with the townspeople. Justin said it was so she could keep an eye on both.

Carly scanned the faces, taking a mental inventory to make sure everyone was present. Veronica and Stacy sat in the front row, Veronica holding Buttercup in her lap, a proud grin on her face as people admired the puppy. She saw Mark back by the window, talking to David, though Mark’s eyes kept drifting in Stacy’s direction.
 

Swiftly, she picked out each of her friends, the people she relied on to help keep this community thriving. She smiled and nodded when she caught people’s eyes. They began to settle into their seats, and Carly felt her brow crinkle. There was one face she hadn’t seen.

Miz Marson wasn’t there. How odd. Carly didn’t remember seeing her in the mass of people who had greeted them at the gate, either.

Mindy threaded her way through the crowd toward their table. She looked highly uncomfortable, but she smiled at those she passed. She hated crowds, and the governmental aspect of the community wasn’t something she particularly enjoyed, either. She would rather be home watching the kids, as she usually volunteered to do, but this meeting had called for everyone’s presence.
 

“Minny,” Dagny announced and threw her arms wide for a hug. Mindy obliged and kissed the baby on top of her head and gave Sam a timid pat when he came over to sniff her. Dagny showed Mindy the tangled, multi-colored scribbles she had drawn, and Mindy admired it before handing the board back to her.