Sophie Littlefield - Banished

“That’s what they call the Banished in Poland,” Prairie said.

“Yes, the people who came from old country. Anyway, after they left Ireland, sometimes a Healer woman is born who is not right. The gift is too much for them, they are not strong enough to use it right way. They turn mean, families have to lock them up. Usually very sick, die young.”

“Gram was…” I couldn’t think of what to say. She was so many things, all of them bad.

“Anyway, now you are with aunt, with our Eliza-our Prairie-much better.”

Prairie sighed and reached out to touch Anna’s hand. “I owe you so much. You were right. You told me to leave that job, and you were right. I don’t know what else to say… except that I’m sorry.”

That must be it, the reason they’d grown apart. Anna shook her head, eyes cast down. After a moment she squared her shoulders and met Prairie’s gaze. “There is no need to speak of it again.”

“But… all those years. I thought I’d lost you. And Kaz… he’s a man now.”

Kaz looked from one of them to the other. “That’s what you argued about? Prairie’s job ?”

“Don’t be angry at your mother,” Prairie said. “It’s my fault. Your mother asked me what we were doing at the lab, and I lied. I felt terrible about it, but Bryce made me sign a confidentiality agreement. He said we were getting funding from the university. I didn’t find out it was coming from the government until a few days ago. And he told me what to say… told me to tell people we were working on a vaccine, for livestock.”

“I can tell when you lie,” Anna said sadly. “Kaz, too. You are not good liars.”

“But Mom, how could you send Prairie away like that?” Kaz was angry now.

“I had to,” Anna said. “She was trying to do science with Healing gift. There is no good in that. Bajeczny powers were meant for one village only, czarownik cursed those who left. Banished maybe should die out. Since the people left Ireland, the men lose the visions, there is fighting and crime. The women are weak, they forget history.”

“What about me? What about Dad? And Prairie? And Hailey?” He looked at me as he said my name. “Do you wish we hadn’t been born?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, do you want us to do something good with our lives? Something important? Or do you want me to be an accountant or a shoe salesman or something?”

“There is nothing wrong with honest trade,” Anna shot back. I could see how they escalated each other’s tempers. “Be shoe salesman-be good shoe salesman, I don’t care.”

“ You didn’t marry a shoe salesman,” Kaz muttered angrily.

“Your father was warrior. You know that. He was hero in Iraq.”

“And Prairie is a leader . An innovator,” Kaz said. “She can’t help it if her boss is crazy.”

“Thank you, Kaz.” Prairie cut in. “But I made mistakes and I have to make up for them. Terrible things are happening because I was stubborn, because I refused to see what your mother tried to tell me. Now I have to fix them.”

“This is conversation for tomorrow,” Anna said. “Now is time for everyone rest. Tomorrow is Sunday, salon is closed, everyone get some sleep.”

“What about…?” I asked. As welcome and safe as I felt in Anna’s house, as relieved as I was that Prairie was going to be all right, I couldn’t stop thinking about Rattler, seeing him holding his hand to his face, blood streaming through his fingers. “What if Rattler comes after us?”

There was a brief silence. Anna and Prairie glanced at each other. I could tell they were troubled, that they weren’t saying what they were thinking.

“ Please, ” I whispered hoarsely. “Don’t keep things from me, I have to know.”

“I think… we are safe for now,” Prairie said carefully. “The injury… I wouldn’t be surprised if Rattler loses that eye. The blood loss alone will be enormous. He won’t be able to do much of anything until he gets some help. Even if he tries to just rest and wait until he’s well enough to travel, it’s not going to be tonight.”

“Your aunt, she describe… what you do.” Anna made a stabbing motion with her hand and I flinched, the memory of the hairpin going into his flesh more than I could bear. “She say it went in far, to eye? Is possible there is damage to brain. Possible he gets much worse after you are gone. You are very brave girl,” she added quickly.

I knew what she was worried about: that I would fall apart if I thought I’d killed Rattler or even disabled him. But that wasn’t going to happen. I wouldn’t grieve over him. I hoped he was lying on the floor even now, his blood leaking out until he was too weak to say his own name.

And I also felt, deep inside where instinct worked against reason, that he wasn’t dying. That whatever damage I’d managed to do to him, it wasn’t enough. That after he healed he would be as strong as ever, and as determined, and that when that happened he would come after us again.

But I had bought us some time. For now that would have to be enough.

Prairie allowed me to help her stand up. Kaz rushed to her other side and together we helped her down the hall, Anna in the lead. Anna opened the door to her bedroom, where a pretty comforter was turned down on the wide bed.

“I will help Prairie freshen up,” she said. “I have nightgown and robe. Now you two, go to bed.”

Kaz offered to take Rascal out for me while I brushed my teeth and washed my face. They weren’t gone long, and Kaz gave Rascal an odd look as he said goodnight. I closed the door, glad for the solitude. All the tension from the day welled up in my heart and I knew I was close to breaking down.

Instead, I climbed into Kaz’s bed and patted the mattress next to me. “Come, Rascal,” I said, and he jumped up and lay down.

It felt good to put my arms around his warm body, to feel his heartbeat strong and regular under his fur. It almost didn’t matter that he’d lost his personality, that he didn’t ever play anymore. I closed my eyes and remembered the way he used to be, and as I stroked the soft ruff of fur around his neck, I felt a little better.

Until my fingers touched something that shouldn’t have been there.

I worked my fingertips through the dense fur and found a small, hard object embedded in the skin. Anxiety raced along my nerves as I rose up on one elbow and switched on the bedside lamp. I parted Rascal’s fur and looked closer. A little bit of black metal protruded from a swelling where the skin was growing over the object. I felt its outlines with my fingers. Small. Knobby.

A bullet.

I jerked my hand away and sucked in my breath, scrambling away from him. My legs were tangled in the sheets and I half fell, half crawled out of Kaz’s bed. Shock mixed with disgust as I wiped my hand against the carpet, hard, making my skin burn. “No, no, no,” I heard myself whispering, and when I closed my mouth and tried to stop, the words became a desperate moan.

I remembered Rascal waiting in the yard at Gram’s, with blood on his back-he must have been shot when Bryce’s men first came to the house. They must have tried to kill him to keep him quiet.

Maybe it had been a superficial wound, just a minor injury that Rascal was healing from on his own. I clung desperately to that thought, even though I knew it was unlikely, as I forced myself to look at him. He hadn’t moved; he was lying still and indifferent on the mattress. I had to know. Nausea roiled through me as I approached the bed on my knees, staring at the place in his fur where the bullet had entered, trying not to look at his expressionless eyes. I gritted my teeth and reached with a shaking hand and touched him, and when he didn’t respond, I felt like I was touching evil itself and my entire body resisted, my heartbeat pounding a crazy tempo.