The Extraction List (16 page)

I ignored her and kept giggling.

Hannah handed me a plate of pancakes. The natural sweetness surprised my mouth after so many granola bars and beans. I let it linger on my tongue before I swallowed it down. “How come you guys cook out here and not in the kitchen?” I asked.

Charlie answered between bites. “We don’t want anybody to know we’re still here if we can help it. If we use electricity, the electric company will know we’re here. They’re supposed to think we left with the rest of the neighborhood. Most of our neighbors left when they set up the Taskforce, most having young kids and all. The rest trickled out after that. That’s why we do our bathin’ in the creek out back too. It’s cold but it gets the job done. Portable toilet’s back there too if you have to do your business.”

I laughed at the way he described going to the bathroom. Everybody did the same business so I don’t know why people need a code for it. But older people seemed to have a way of being overly proper, and there wasn’t exactly an overflow of manners floating around anymore, so its charm wasn’t lost on me.

Suddenly, Jordyn stood up, tall and proud, as if she had something very important to share.

I waited as our group fell silent.

“Charlie, Hannah, I wanted to ask you both something. Cain and I talked about it last night, and we were hoping that you both would come with us to the compound. You’ve been so wonderful to my brother and we would love to have you with us.”

Bo dropped his fork on his plate, making a loud clang that cracked through the air, but didn’t say anything. His lips parted a little though, and I thought the food might topple out of this mouth.

Hannah smiled, and her glowing white teeth sparkled in the morning sunshine. “Thank you, dear, really. But this is our home. We raised our children here. The last memory that we have of our granddaughter is here. We appreciate your offerin’ though.” She looked at Charlie and he nodded, grabbing her hand. He still wore his cufflinks.

Jordyn looked at them both, as if she might argue with them, but the steadiness of their faces and the grip of their hands let all of us know that there would be no changing their minds. “Okay, if you’re sure. Just please be careful.” Jordyn got up and embraced them both. So did Xander.

Xander looked up at his sister. “Do we have to leave right away?”

Jordyn looked at Cain before answering. She knelt down and looked her brother in the eyes. “We have to leave by tomorrow. But we can stay here for today.”

“YAY!” Xander threw his arms around his sister, then Cain. “I’m gonna go get my board game. We can all play it!” He ran inside, feet clopping up the stairs of the porch and back into the kitchen. He almost managed to stumble over his shoelaces as he went but righted himself at the last moment.

Bo went off to take the first bath in the creek, and the rest of us helped Hannah and Charlie clean up. Dirty dishes went into a cooler to be washed later, after we all had our turn in the creek. Nobody wanted to step on a soggy pancake when they were bathing themselves.

Hannah sat in a rocking chair after breakfast, knitting herself what looked like a scarf. I saw that her windows, now shut tight and covered with thick blinds, used to face the neighborhood. I imagined at one point she could watch as children rode their bikes around the cul-de-sac as she knitted. But now, even if she could have opened the blinds, there would be nothing but overgrown plants and asphalt.

I noticed a locket around her neck, gold and sparkly, with a little engraving of a flower on it. It almost looked like the same one that graced both her thumbnails. “That’s pretty! Can I see?” She nodded. I gently grabbed the locket in between my fingers. Not thinking, I opened the locket without asking her first. A picture of a little girl, who looked about five, stared back at me. I realized that I shouldn’t have invaded her privacy, but it was too late. I shut the locket. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry.”

“Oh no, dear, I don’t mind. I wear it so I can keep her with me always. Gives me at least a little comfort. It’s how I try to stay close to her.”

The question flew out of my mouth before I could stop it. “What happened to her?”

Hannah sighed. “Eviction.”

“What do you mean?”

Her fingers kept working as she spoke. “My daughter Mira got evicted from her apartment. Just like everywhere else, jobs were in short supply and she hadn’t been able to find another one since she got laid off from a pizza restaurant downtown. She hadn’t even passed the one-year unemployment mark.” Hannah reopened the locket and looked at her granddaughter as she told the story. “We told the Taskforce that my daughter and her daughter…Abby’s her name…could live with us, were on their way to moving in. Packed and everything. But they wouldn’t listen. Their paperwork said that Mira was homeless and couldn’t provide for her child. So they took Abby anyway.”

Tears slid down my face when the brave old woman glanced up at me with glossy eyes. “That’s not fair! She would have been fine just living with you! I don’t get it.”

“You and me both, dear. The paperwork said no. And that’s all they seem to care about now.”

I bit my lip, afraid to ask my next question. “Where’s your daughter now?”

“Gone. We lost her to the depression. After they took Abby, she never recovered. We tried to argue with the Taskforce, but by the end of the year they said Abby…oh, how did they put it…’had become acclimated to her new circumstances’ and if we kept arguing with them we would be prosecuted. Mira ended her own life one year to the day after they took Abby away.”

I had absolutely no idea what to say. The poor lady had been through so much. I couldn’t believe she and Charlie were still helping us. She couldn’t possibly know who my mother was.

I was wrong.

As if she read my mind, Hannah spoke again. “I don’t hate your mother. I truly don’t. Or Bo. Cain told us Bo works with her, but no matter. I know what they were trying to do. What’s that old saying? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and whatnot? We’ve all paved our way there at some point or another. But God always helps us find our way back. All of us.”

I just looked at her. There was no bitterness in her eyes, no anger, just sadness. I bet if she kept smiling constantly every day for the rest of her life, that sadness would still never leave her eyes.

“Ironically enough, the bill actually helped our other grandchild.”

“Who?”

“We have a son. Gregory. Always a troubled kid. He made a baby with a woman who was in and out of jail only slightly more than he was, so he got custody. Couldn’t be bothered to take care of his child, so the Taskforce came in. He was older than Mira, so it happened during the time that the law still had ways to give the children to family members instead of the boarding schools if they could find a relative that matched the law’s parental criteria…before they believed that the family tree was poisoned all the way through if there was one bad branch. So we took him into our home and straightened him out. Had him for quite a while, ‘til he got into a fellowship program in Australia for real smart kids. Doing great. Keeps begging us to move there to be close to him, but we just can’t leave our home.”

I smiled weakly, not knowing what else to do. I wished I’d never opened that locket. “I’m glad your grandson’s doing good… I’m going to go find my mom. Thank you.” I gave an awkward wave. I had no idea what I was thanking her for, but it seemed the polite response. Thank you for not cursing my mother’s existence? Thank you for letting me out of such a super awkward conversation? It was probably a little of both. I looked back over my shoulder and saw that Charlie had come over to his wife and put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up and placed her hand on one of his. Both their wedding rings seemed to twinkle at me.

Though I told Hannah that I had gone to find my mom, I really wanted to go find Cain and continue my lessons. The lesson from the night before had left me with an aching to feel that way again, like I could take care of myself, that I was more powerful than before, and I could actually navigate through all this mess with my body and my sanity still intact.

I ended up finding both of them sitting on the edge of the deck. Bo was nowhere to be seen. I guessed he was taking an extra-long bath. Maybe he was trying to scrub away the guilt. I guessed he would need more than a little soap and water for that job.

When I got closer, I realized that Mom and Cain were playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt, using a twig to draw the x’s and o’s. Mom won.

“You won again! How do you do that?” Cain said as Mom gave him a playful shove.

I answered for her. “Mom and I used to play that for hours. It was my favorite game when I was little.” I smiled and sat down next to her. “She always beat me too.”

Mom gave me a quick hug. “Sorry, Cain, you’re dealing with the master!” she laughed.

“Well maybe I better get to something I’m actually good at. Riley? You ready?”

I nodded.

We stood in the middle of the yard, facing each other. My skin tingled and I wondered what I was in for now. I think Cain could sense it and his eyes shone. At least it was daytime.

By the end of my lesson, I wanted to go back to playing hide and seek in the pitch black night like the first lesson. For lesson three I had to learn how to use the movement of others against them. Apparently, in order to learn that, I had to experience it firsthand, and Cain ended up throwing me to the ground over and over again. He made me come at him as if I meant to hurt him, and he used the force of my own movement to throw me away. I winced as my body hit the hard earth, and my jeans were covered with wet grass stains by the time we were done. After I pulled myself up from the ground following each pretend attack, he came at me instead to see if I had learned anything. I found myself on the ground once more.

I kept looking at my mom, thinking that she would jump in and save me. She didn’t. She just sat there and watched me get pushed into the dirt, dust flying in my wake.

And seeing her sit there made me realize I no longer wanted to be saved. I wanted to save myself.

At the very end, I had him. I didn’t know if it was that I was actually learning or if my body just decided it would do anything to make the pain stop, but the last time he came at me I rolled over the side of his body and pushed him forward. Though he didn’t fall, he lost his footing for a moment. As he recovered from his stumble, he smiled at me. So did my mother.

At the end of our lesson, Bo finally came out of the woods. His hair wasn’t wet. “What took you so long? Your hair’s dried,” Mom half-asked, half-scolded.

Bo came up and embraced her and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Yeah, I guess after washing up I just hung out there for a while. Longer than I thought if my hair dried.” He spit out an awkward laugh.

“My turn! Finally!” Jordyn emerged from the house, rolling her eyes, which had become her usual response for every time Bo spoke about, well, anything really. “You know, you’re not the only one who wants to have a bath today. Geez.” She slugged Bo in the arm as she passed, and her body disappeared into the trees.

I felt a tug on my shirt and turned around. Xander looked up at me. “You’re Riley, right?”

“Yeah…hi.” I smiled at him. His big brown doe eyes were so much like Jordyn’s it was almost creepy. “Wanna play tic-tac-toe?” I knew he had wanted to play his board game, but he didn’t seem to mind putting it on hold. And besides, seeing Mom play had made me miss the game.

He grinned, nodding his head like a bobble-head doll, short and fast.

The afternoon rolled by, quickly and wonderfully ordinary. Mom and Bo spent the day with their arms wrapped around each other in the living room. Cain, Jordyn, Xander, and I played freeze tag outside. The only thing that reminded us of our situation was the silence. We had to play freeze tag without the normal squealing and giggling—too much risk of getting caught. I never thought that our country would be in such a state that children’s laughter could have gotten us all thrown in jail or worse. But we still managed to enjoy ourselves as we hissed the word ‘tag’ and pointed dramatically at each other. After the game, we went back inside the house, covered with dirt and happy.

A knock at the door took it away in an instant.

“Everyone! Hide!” Charlie hissed.

I ducked behind the kitchen counter, between Mom and Jordyn. Hannah hid on the stairwell across from us while Charlie went to the door. Cain stood behind him, out of sight. He only revealed himself after the stranger spoke.

“George? George, what are you doing here?” Cain grabbed him and shut the door.

“I came to warn you. Somebody figured out you’re here!”

We all came out of our hiding spots. “Who?”

“I don’t know. Somebody called the store and told me that police folks knew where you were headed. They’re on their way now! I got here as quick as I could, but since I was so far away, you don’t got much time! Get yourselves together and get out!”

Cain embraced him. “How did you know it was legit?”

George shrugged. “Didn’t. But I had to tell you. Known you kids for too long. Now get outta here!”

Cain nodded. George left as quickly as he came, speeding away in a car I hadn’t seen when we were at his shop. Cain turned to face us, all the peace we had experienced earlier erased from his expression. “You heard him. We have to go. Now.”

Everyone scrambled, throwing our supplies into our truck. Suddenly I heard shouting. “No, Hannah, Charlie, please! You have to come! They know you’re running a safe house. They’ll arrest you. Or kill you! Please!” It was Mom.

Cain spoke next. “She’s right, you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

Hannah grabbed Mom’s shoulders. “Thank you, dear, but like we said before, this is our home. And besides, we’ll just slow you down. We aren’t exactly built for runnin’. This place is where we belong.”

Mom reached for Hannah as she pulled away and headed toward the living room where Charlie already sat on the couch waiting for her.

“Take care of that baby of yours, Claire. There’s no blessing like a daughter. She needs you.”

Mom started to go after them when Bo grabbed her. “Claire, we have to go.” He wrapped his arms around her and flung her over his shoulder. Mom flailed and kicked at him, screaming Hannah and Charlie’s names. She reminded me of every classmate I had seen being taken by the Taskforce, kicking at anyone and everything they could hit as the Taskforce carried them away from their family forever.