Darkness upon the Land

Monday morning was the last day of April, and it rained lightly during the predawn as Alexia helped Reuben with getting Elsie loaded up with the vegetables, seeds, and herbs. A couple of retro burlap bags provided the means to transport three rabbits and two six-week old turkeys. She hoped there wouldn’t be much rain when he hauled the salt back, and as she watched him lead the horse beyond the curve of the driveway, she found herself thinking ahead. One of these days he would head that direction and possibly never come back. The three-day trip was going to be like a rehearsal for her and Mѐre, so there was something a bit somber about this excursion.

On Wednesday afternoon she and her mother sat on the galerie to take advantage of what coolness the breeze provided while they snapped some beans. With no dog to bark should anyone approach, they also lingered here often to keep an eye on the road. Except this time they also looked forward to Reuben’s return.

“Hopefully he won’t be very late getting back,” she commented. “At least the hours of daylight are noticeably longer now.”

“He’ll be hungry after nibbling trail food for the past three days,” Mѐre replied. “I know before he left he made some comment about trying to pack on a few extra pounds before heading out because he knows he’ll lose weight on such a long hike. Maybe we should feed him less so that he loses weight now and hangs around trying to get it back on.”

Alexia smiled. “He’d figure out what we’re doing and go shoot a gator so he could eat the whole thing himself.”

“It’s not alligator season. He’s kind of a stickler about such things.”

She paused in her work to look toward the road again and contemplate what they just said. Although these past three days had been busy and a little nerve-racking with just the two of them, she conceded it wasn’t just his prowess and strength they would miss. After three and a half years, she had grown rather accustomed to his reverence and drollery.

“It’s not necessarily quieter around here with him gone, but it is different.”

Mѐre glanced toward her. “As much as I hate to see him leave, I think you and I will be able to take care of things with him gone. It’ll be more like the old days.”

She thought about that comment for a few seconds. “Before I became a brat?”

“You were never a brat.”

Her mom was being generous. She remembered the years before she started popping light bulbs and interfering with electronics. The two of them would work together peacefully in the garden, the swamp, the barn and the kitchen. It was nice to be able to sort of do that again.

“So, I was something else that began with the letter B?”

Mѐre smirked. “I’ve been meaning to comment how … well you’ve been handling all these recent events. I know I still grumble here and there, but in spite of that I’ve always been quite proud of you. These are harrowing, trying times, and you’ve done amazingly well under the circumstances. A resourceful young lady has risen to meet those challenges.”

Alexia felt some blood rush to her face. “Oh, don’t start getting mushy on me.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts because I can get crusty again in a heartbeat. You’ve been the center of my world ever since you were born, and when you started to show those … vibrations, I feared I would lose you. But worse, I feared what would happen to you if I ever did lose you.”

“Now how would you lose me?”

“I think I’ve sheltered you too much from how dangerous the world really is, even before it went dark. The fact you can do something so amazing means other people will covet it and want to use it for their own gain. They’ll gladly exploit you. For the love of God, don’t let them succeed.”

She cast a quizzical glance at her. “I still don’t see why anybody would want to duplicate this for themselves. I mean, yeah, it got a little handy a couple of times. But under everyday circumstances, what good is it?”

“You’re a kind person, so you’ve never thought about the possibilities of cultivating this ability for anything other than healing. But if we have ancestors who could focus what miniscule power they had compared to yours to dissolve growths, what would happen if you targeted a healthy organ? Could you cause a brain hemorrhage? Could you stop a heart?”

Alexia stared at her mother as a chill seeped through her. “There’s plenty of other ways to kill people.”

“That don’t leave any traceable evidence? Those who adore power, those who believe their code of conduct is superior to the moral code, will stop at nothing to take out their competitors or anyone who defies them. Their ability to murder, cheat and steal can only be enhanced by a talent like yours.”

Alexia frowned. “But there’s the flip side. Is it really worth it to them to live with my restrictions? Doesn’t that detract from the power they’d imagine?”

“No worse than selling their soul to the devil. And have no doubt that anybody capable of the things I described would be capable of disregarding your humanity. You’d be nothing more than a lab rat to them, a commodity to be utilized and harvested. I’ve witnessed all the advances in genetic technology to know they’d be able to extract and manipulate your DNA until they achieved their goals.”

Her gaze drifted across the overgrown yard to the burned-out, reloaded pickup truck that still stood sentry. “Did Reuben know about all that?”

“Of course he did. Why else do you think he’s put up with me over the years, keeping watch over you? He knew what the stakes were.”

She experienced a slight resurgence in her old enmity. “How come you never told me this before?”

Mѐre smiled apologetically. “I wanted you to have as happy and normal a life as you could. I didn’t want you to be always looking over your shoulder. Well, we’re looking over our shoulders now, so since you’ve … been forced to grow up too quickly, you might as well know.”

As Alexia continued to regard the truck, she remembered that afternoon only around a month ago when Reuben suggested she should learn to use her talent. He had only suggested she could knock things over, not encouraged her to focus the full force on somebody’s head or heart. Yet he had known. And because of who he was, she suspected why he had respected her reverence for life while he was forced to lay his aside.

Every traiteur she’d ever heard about credited their healing ability to God, not themselves. They were only His instruments, they claimed. It was not their own power that produced the results. Even though a scientific explanation had been provided for her ability, he would have still honored that Divine attribution. He did not want her to use this power to cross that line.

And she was grateful to him for that.

Later in the evening, just before dark, she heard the familiar whistling of Gather Us In as she started lighting an oil lamp. She called out to Mѐre that Reuben had returned, and strode through the doorway and across the yard. He led the horse that could barely slip around the nose of the pickup, and beamed a wide grin as they approached each other.

“How was the trip? Did you have any problems? Are you happy with how much salt you got?”

“Interesting. Only minor. Yes.”

She couldn’t resist grinning back at him as she patted the horse’s neck. “So those bags must be full of salt.”

“It’s about thirty-five pounds. Those folks were really happy to see the rabbits.” He waved toward the house as Mѐre shouted a greeting to him upon stepping out on the galerie. “How’d your mom do?” He quietly asked.

“She’s still managing to get around, but that darned pain just won’t go away.”

After they unloaded Elsie and released the mare into the field, he washed up and they sat around the dining room table to update each other.

“We made pretty good time, even with the rain.” Reuben fulfilled their requests to tell what all happened. “There was an older fellow in our party who actually went by Tee Tom, and he was sorta the trail boss. Nice guy, very sociable. I spent quite a bit of time gleaning nuggets of wisdom from him, and Frank was there too and asked about you. By the way, your friend Baron asked how you were doing, and I said you were up and about again.”

“Who? Oh, Baron. From the infirmary.”

Mѐre frowned slightly as she glanced at Alexia. “Up and about again?”

She almost glared at Reuben, who gazed back at her with an innocent façade. They still hadn’t told her mom about the outburst during the battle, and she didn’t want to bring that up now.

“It was an exhausting night.” She kept her attention on him. “Anybody else there we would know?”

“There was nobody else from the church, but Martin from the feed store came along. I don’t know if it’s because of the hard times he’s been going through, but he’s closer to crazy than I’d originally realized.”

Her mom started to break into laughter, but then stopped abruptly and winced. She seemed to wave away their concerned glances. “You’re just getting to know the real him.”

“We got to the salt mine around mid-morning on Tuesday. After the guards there sized us up, the wheeling and dealing began. Tee Tom is quite the negotiator, and I think everybody was pleased with what they got. We headed out before dark, pitched camp one more time, and continued on this morning.”

Mѐre regarded him almost disdainfully. “You call that a story?”

“I was giving you the condensed version. Now that you know how it ends, you want me to go back and tell you how Martin missed his calling and should’ve been a dancer? Our first morning out he found a tarantula in his boot.”

They chatted and laughed for much of the evening, which Alexia wished could have gone on forever. Like the stormy night Jinx kidded in the barn, it seemed for a while their troubles had faded. But reality, lurking under the name of Brent Rayburn, would return soon enough. In a way, she almost wished it would be sooner than later, because the burden of the wait seemed to grow heavier.