Water is Thicker than Blood

Water is Thicker than
Blood

(A Post-Apocalyptic Blues
novelette)

By

Julie Ann Dawson

Smashwords
Edition

©2013 Julie Ann
Dawson

Bards and Sages
Publishing

www.bardsandsages.com

Cover image by

Rafael
Garcia-Suarez

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Agreement

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Water is Thicker than
Blood

Rue had suffered just about
all the crap from Hank she could abide.

The water purifier was
still broken, even though he had promised not once, not twice,
but
three times
to
get it fixed before their stockpile ran out. But the stockpile of
clean water was gone, and even the little bit of gray water she
kept on hand for washing was almost done. She sure didn’t have
money to pay $25 a gallon at the market for fresh water.

She walked over to the
relic of a sink in the kitchen. It was dark with stains but there
wasn’t much she could do about it. The only thing that would clean
it was bleach, and bleach was more expensive than water. She turned
the rusty knob of the faucet. Nothing came out. Not that she
expected anything to come out. Apparently there was a time before
Doomsday that you could walk over to any sink, just turn a knob,
and clean, fresh water would come out. Sounded like craziness but
it was true. She’d even confirmed it with Old Man Blue, who was a
boy before the war and remembered.

Rue took off her grimy
apron and walked out onto the porch.

Maybe Lula would let me
borrow some water,
she thought. A shiver
shot through her as soon as she finished the thought. Rue didn’t
have no quarrel with Lula; she was a good Christian woman and been
a dear friend all their lives. But that boy of hers surely did not
know the fear of a Righteous God. Her son Joseph had fallen in with
those people at the Circle of Magi. Even the Queen’s Circle showed
proper respect for the Lord. But those people at the Circle of
Magi, they didn’t seem to respect nothing but their hocus-pocus and
what it could afford them.

Joseph had changed his name
to Joshua Dunwich. Lula had said it was something to do with his
occult research and realigning his identity to his path. She didn’t
say more than that. Rue sure hadn’t pushed the issue. It was
painful for Lula to talk about.

But Joseph (Rue refused to
call him by that Devil-name he had chosen for himself) continued to
be a good son and care for his mama. So maybe God still had an
opportunity to set the boy back straight.

Rue took a deep breath and
walked across the street to Lula’s house. There were no lights on
in the house, but it was the middle of the day and most folks
didn’t waste candles or generator fuel if they could just make due
with natural light. Old Man Blue said there was a time when all you
needed to do was flip a switch and you could get light in just
about any building you walked into. Some folks even had light bulbs
in their closets to better see the color of their clothes. More
crazy-sounding talk. But he was alive back then so she guessed he
knew for sure.

She saw the front door was
open, but she didn’t see anyone in the living room. She knocked on
the screen door. “Lula? Girl you home?”

Joseph emerged from the
kitchen. He waved and smiled. Rue’s blood ran cold.

“
Why good morning, Ms.
Rue,” he said. He opened the screen door and joined her on the
porch. “What can I do for you on this fine day?”

“
Is your mama
home?”

“
No, ma’am. No she is not.
She went off to the Quarter to see about finding a dress for the
Court’s open session this month.”

“
She got trouble with
someone that she need be calling on the Court?”

“
No, no. No trouble, Ms.
Rue. She just heard tell that the Court was taking petitions in
regards to the reconstruction efforts. And you know well as I that
whenever the Court speak on
that
subject Lady Rae always there to make her opinions
felt.”

“
Oh, that’ll be some
fireworks for sure. I’m gonna hate missing that. Just let your mama
know I was looking for her when she gets home.”

“
Now Ms. Rue, wait a
minute. If the Mister ain’t home from his scavving in time, you are
more than welcome to accompany mama and me to the Courthouse if it
is you don’t want to go alone.”

Rue took a deep breath. It
was hard to be hating on his Devil-worshipping ways when he was
being so polite.
He used to be a good
boy
, she told herself. Being nice to him
might help bring him back to the Lord. “It ain’t no part of wanting
to not go alone,” she said. “I just ain’t got no money to buy a
proper dress for the occasion. Can’t show up at the Courthouse
wearing rags. Would be disrespecting on the Baron.”

“
Why Ms. Rue, that does
settle the matter, then.” Joseph flashed a wicked grin that set the
hair on the back of her neck to standing. “If I recall you do have
a birthday coming up soon.”

“
Lawd, I been trying to
forget.”

“
Don’t be silly. Birthdays
worth celebrating. On that we can all agree. And I know mama been
wondering what to get you.” Joseph reached into his pocket and
pulled out a wad of money. Rue’s eyes widened. She hadn’t ever seen
a wad of money that thick. He pulled a few bills off the pile and
handed them to her. “Now why don’t you get yourself a nice dress,
and then I’ll be escorted both you ladies to the Court come the
open session.”

“
Oh boy, I can’t be taking
that from you!” she said as she held up a hand in protest.
“Besides, I can’t waste good money on no dress when…” she hung her
head and sighed. “Just have your mama come over when she be
home.”

“
Ms. Rue, please,” he said.
He took her hand and placed the money in it. “This is something you
deserve. You a hard-working woman and you have as much right as any
to something nice for yourself. Now why don’t you tell me what
troubles you and let’s see if I can be of help.”

“
Don’t suppose you know
your way around a wrench? Water purifier is broke. Been broke for a
week now.”

“
No, can’t say I know much
about fixing things. Mr. Hank ain’t had no chance to fix it, I
guess?” Rue shook her head. “Well, if you need some water in the
meantime, I just conjured up a bunch for mama. She surely would
expect me to oblige you in your time of need.”

“
I’ll see it replaced soon
as the purifier is up and running again,” Rue insisted.

“
Oh, no need to worry about
that. We got plenty. It’s only right to share the bounty with my
mama’s friend.” Joseph went back into the kitchen and returned with
three gallons of water. “Would you like to me to carry it over for
you, ma’am?”

“
Child I can’t accept that
much! Your mama—”

“
Never you mind about that.
A good son takes care of his mama. No need to worry about
her.”

* * *

Rue slept in fits and
starts. Hank was late coming home from his scavving trip to the
Central Business District. She always fretted when he went out
there because of all the gangs in the area. He always said the
gangs don’t pay scavengers no mind and some of them were right
friendly. But if they were so friendly wouldn’t make no sense for
the Baron to pay bounties on their heads.

Usually Hank and a bunch of
his friends just scavved around for scrap metal and electronic
parts, as the Engineering Commission paid good money for anything
that could be recycled and used for the reconstruction efforts.
They normally stuck to the borders of the CBD, where they were
least likely to come across anyone that might be looking for
trouble. But this time Hank was on a special job for the New
Orleans Historical Society. Rue wasn’t up on all of the details,
but Mr. Horton had put out a call for someone to go out to one of
the old Consulates deep in the center of the CBD and see if there
was anything of historical importance there. Seemed a waste to Rue
to spend money on salvaging old books and painting with so many
people just barely getting by with enough food, but if they were
gonna be paying somebody to do it they just as well be paying
Hank.

But he had said he would be
home around Monday, and now it was Wednesday and no sign of him.
That left her to worrying whether or not he ran into
trouble.

It wasn’t just Hank being
late that had her tossing and turning in bed. Joseph had been
bringing water by every day for her. Rue had asked Lula about it,
and Lula had insisted that it was fine and that she had all the
water she needed. But Lula had seemed discomfited as she said it.
Like even though the water itself was clean, the way it was
acquired was less so. She remembered back to when Joseph had said
he had
conjured up
water for his mama. At the time, she had taken that as a
figure of speech. But after talking with Lula she wasn’t so
sure.

For the most part, whatever
conjuring those mages at the Circle did they kept behind closed
doors. Except for how some of them dressed funny, like how some of
them had taken to wearing long robes with odd symbols sewn into
them and pointy hats and other peculiar adornments, they didn’t
make a show of whatever it was they did. But one couldn’t help but
know
something
was
going on in there, because just walking by the place was enough to
make little bumps rise up on her arms.

She got out of bed and
walked into the kitchen. Two of the jugs of water he had brought
over were sitting on the counter.
Devil
water
, she thought. She unscrewed the top
of the jug and held the jug over the sink. She held it there for a
minute before setting it back down and replacing the
top.

Even if it was Devil water,
it was still water. A body needed water to survive. If she just
poured it down the drain, she’d resign herself to death by
dehydration. And doing that on purpose would be the same as
suicide. And everybody knew suicide was the one sin God could not
forgive.

Rue went back to bed, but
didn’t sleep.

* * *

“
Where you been, woman?”
asked Hank as Rue walked in the door. He had found his way home
while she and Lula were in the Quarter looking for Rue’s
dress.

“
I could ask you the same
question,
man.
”
She kept walking toward the bedroom as if she wasn’t happy he was
alive. “You forget what day it was? You were supposed to be home
Monday.”

“
I ain’t in no mood. What’s
in the bag?”

I ain’t in no mood,
either,
she thought. “Lula got me a dress
for my birthday for as me to wear to the Court next
week.”

“
Where the Hell she getting
money to buy you a dress?”

“
Lawd! Lawd! What do you
care where her money come from? You need to be worrying about that
water purifier you still ain’t fixed.”

“
I just got home this
morning!”

“
Uh huh. You got home this
morning and need to rest, right. That always what you say. Then
you’ll rest up and be off again and not do it.”

“
What the Hell are these
jugs of water then if you in such a hurry for me to fix
it?”

“
Lula’s boy been bringing
them over for me to keep me tided over until you drug your sorry
ass home.”

“
You taking water from that
Devil boy of hers?”

“
Lawd! The boy just been
bringing them here. It’s Lula’s water.”

He didn’t respond. At
first, Rue was pleased as she thought she had won the argument. But
he didn’t say another word to her the rest of the day. She asked
him about how things went on his expedition. He just shrugged and
said he was too tired to talk about it and was going to take a nap.
But when she went into the bedroom to check on him later he wasn’t
sleeping. He was just lying on his side, staring off at the
dresser.