Goldeline by Jimmy Cajoleas (i read books txt) 📕

“Naw,” says Lance, “we’re from Moreberry, about thirty miles thataway. Still too close to Templeton for comfort though. What with that dadgum Preacher stirring everybody up. I like to know what durned religion he thinks it is he’s preaching all the time, ’cause it sure ain’t no gospel I ever heard.”

When he mentions the Preacher I get real sad. We can’t stay here, me and Tommy. Not if the Preacher’s coming. It won’t take long till he finds us. And who knows what he would do to Lance and Chester if he found out they helped us? He would kill them both. I wish Bobba could help us. I know she’s out there in the woods somewhere, still speaking to me somehow in my noggin. But I guess our best hope is just to get Tommy to Aunt Barbara’s as soon as possible, to make sure he’s safe.

“Think Tommy will be able to walk soon?” I say. “At least with a crutch or something? I could make him a crutch from a walking stick, if I had some rags.”

Chester looks at me a little weird. “Honey dear, Tommy’s not going to be able to walk for quite some time. A few days at least. He needs to lie flat, just where he is, else all that work I did will come undone real quick.”

“But we got to go right now,” I say.

“What’s the hurry?” says Chester.

“You’re worried about him hunting you, ain’t you?” says Lance. “It’s the Preacher, Chester. That Preacher’s after them. Saw him when I was out hunting us some rabbits.”

“The heck are they doing out here in the woods?” says Chester.

“That’s why me and Tommy got to go, and got to go now,” I say. “Because he’s not gonna stop looking for us. Not me at least, and not ever.”

“You knew the Preacher was after them, Lance?” says Chester. “You knew that and you brought them here anyway?”

“He can’t push us around anymore,” says Lance. “We moved once, out to the woods, to our own land. Ain’t no law out here. He’s got no authority over us.”

“You should have told me,” says Chester.

“I couldn’t just leave a couple of kids out in the woods, could I?” says Lance. “The boy would be dead right now.”

“Have you thought about what will happen to us if the Preacher comes here?” says Chester. “What he will do to you and me?”

They’re fighting because of me and Tommy. I feel awful about it. Everywhere we show up, something terrible happens. That’s why we got to get out of here soon as we can.

“Hush, dangit,” says Lance. He walks over to Chester and puts his arm around him. “You know good and well if that Preacher comes knocking, I’ll be ready.” He nods over to his rifle propped against the doorframe.

“And you think that will help us?” says Chester. Tommy hollers out in pain. “Lord. I’m going to get the boy some more water.”

Chester walks outside. Lance sighs real loud.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble with y’all.”

“Aw heck. Don’t mind Chester. He’ll come around,” says Lance. “It just ain’t been easy for us since the Preacher showed up. I got a feeling you know all about that.”

Chester comes back in with a bucket of water. He sets it on the ground beside where Tommy’s laid up.

“I’m sorry,” he says to me.

“The Preacher scares me too,” I say.

“Both y’all need to hush up with your worrying,” says Lance. “I’ll stand watch all night if I have to. Besides, who’s a better shot than me? Name me one person in the whole dang county who can shoot half as good as ol’ Lance?”

“No one,” says Chester. He smiles a little. “Best shot I ever seen.”

“We’re getting mushy in front of the kiddos,” says Lance.

“I don’t mind,” I say.

Tommy groans over on the table and I go and sit down by him. I put a new cold rag on his head. I sing a silent song for him to get better.

Chester sets to clearing the kitchen. Lance pulls a chair up by the window and sits, smoking, looking out, gun ready. All of the books they have, and I want to read them all. But there isn’t any time. I have to be ready. Because the second Chester and Lance fall asleep is the second I bolt. There’s no way the Preacher would do anything to Tommy with his leg all busted up, harmless and alone.

But if I’m here, people will get hurt, and bad. Because I know why the Preacher wants me dead now. I know so much more about him now, maybe more than anybody else in the whole world knows. I’m the key to what happened to him. I’ve seen what a hypocrite he really is. I’ve felt those words tangle themselves in the air, I know the way they can worm their way into a gentle mind. I know he’s using magic to kill off anybody who disagrees with him, to cleanse the Hinterlands of anybody who doesn’t fit in with his way of doing things. And if what he said in that memory’s true, then I have magic in me too, and the Preacher’ll never stop until I’m dead.

Somewhere far off there’s a thunder grumble, a blink of lightning. The air smells sweet with rain. I know something big is coming, something that will change me and Tommy, change all of us forever. I know it’s close as can be, just on the edge of the forest, ready to come like a tornado and blow us clean away.

The white kitty Princess Mona rubs up against my leg, a purring that tells my heart to stay. I scratch her behind the ears and she scrunches her face up. I’d love to stay here. I’d love to be Chester and Lance’s daughter, to read books and cook and shoot guns for my whole forever, hidden out here in the woods cabin. But a storm