Give Them Wineby Mary Brunini McArdleBook I
|
General Synopsis |
| Chapter 6 |
In the mid-22nd century, a mysterious apocalyptic event has destroyed the world as we know it. In the Mississippi delta country, survivors reorganize in isolated enclaves and live in primitive conditions with little knowledge of their own history.
Donas, a beautiful, bright, curious girl on the verge of womanhood, discovers that her community is hiding a terrible secret: drug-induced conformity. She flees, taking her younger brother Mak and sister Rani with her. They make their way south and find a new life with a new people. They find hope, love and maybe some trace of their own past that might point the way to the future.
The high ground to the west was sparse in vegetation. As the long, hot days and humid nights continued, Donas, Mak, and Rani were compelled to venture constantly into the forest where the wild carrots, plums, and berries were plentiful. Donas knew her food supply would be insufficient if not supplemented by fresh edibles on the way. The foraging expeditions were essential.
Twelve full days passed before the group encountered their first storm. The white puffy things overhead in the blue grew layers taller and darkened. Distant thunder sounded, making the pony shy and rear.
‘We’d better find shelter right away, even though it’s only late afternoon,’ Donas thought. Far ahead she saw a huge structure. It seemed to stretch over the broken path to the left. Several of the large objects like those Donas had observed outside the motele’s gate were in view, the structure itself twisted and leaning, parts of it glowing in the purplish light of the approaching storm.
“What is that?” Mak asked.
“It looks like a building without walls. Perhaps we can get under it.”
As the cart drew closer to the structure, Donas could see that the strange objects had metal trim reflecting the distorted sunlight and sporadic lightning. Some of the objects appeared to be upright; others lay on their sides. Donas had to step down from the cart and lead the nervous pony between them. There was plenty of room. A “roof” made of some kind of stone arched high above.
“Look, Donas,” Mak said, pulling at one of the objects. “These things have doors.”
The two girls tied the pony to a jutting beam and joined their brother. “There is a door!” Rani exclaimed. “I can see inside.”
Donas lowered her head. She caught a glimpse of something white, the size and shape of a person, but without flesh. It was in a sitting position.
‘I knew those things looked big enough for people,’ Donas thought. Curious, she reached into the hot interior of the object and touched what looked like long, thin fingers. She drew back in horror as one of them crumbled away and the top, rounded portion of the figure rolled off and bumped out across Donas’s feet. Two dark holes stared up at her. Below them grinned a double row of teeth.
Then a legless animal slithered out the door, dropped to the ground, and disappeared under another of the objects.
“A snaker!” Rani screamed. Mak ran over to the serpent’s hiding place and kicked at it. “Go away; go away!”
“Mak, come back — you know better. Leave it alone.” Donas was angry; Mak was completely unconcerned.
Donas sighed. “We’ll wait out the storm and leave.”
Unfortunately the storm lasted until dusk, giving Donas few options about a camp for the night. “Nothing’s troubling us under this arch,” she said. “I think we can sleep as long as we stay between the things and not in them. I don’t want to share a bed with snakers.” Or anything else, she added silently.
The next morning the stifling heat had broken. Donas decided to take a half-day off from traveling and to spend some time in the forest. Pleasant weather and twelve days’ distance from the motele would provide an opportunity to bathe and wash clothes.
“I wonder what those things with the doors are,” Mak said. “Can’t I look inside the rest of them?”
“No, we need to go, Mak. It’s going to get hot again.”
‘I’d like to know what those things are, too,’ Donas thought. ‘I’ve always wondered about them. But I don’t think we should waste time here. This weather is temporary and we must take advantage of it.’
After an hour’s search, she found a stream and a clearing covered with clover. “Mak, stop scratching.”
“I can’t. My legs itch.”
Donas sighed. “Well, try. I’ll let you get in the water soon. First, let’s wash one extra set of clothes and spread them out.”
Mak grumbled but gave in quickly. Donas went over to the edge of the stream when the chore was done. The water was nearly clear; the bottom graveled. “Come, let’s undress. We can wash the clothes we’re wearing in the water with us.”
Donas insisted that her brother and sister wash not only their clothes but also their hair. She nearly became impatient with them — Rani was grabbing little fishes and squealing when they slipped from her hands; Mak was splashing after a frog.
Suddenly Donas realized something. At the motele, their bathing time was limited. She had to put five children to bed and she couldn’t afford to be late. In fact, life at the motele was so structured the children had never had unlimited time at their disposal.
‘We can take as long as we want!’ she thought, delighted. ‘We have the whole morning.’
“Donas, look! This water’s different. It moves!” Mak held his frog in his hand and pointed at the stream.
“It sort of ripples,” Donas agreed, watching bits of leaves twirl around as they floated past, the little fishes like silver shadows around her legs. Although she had never been outside the gate at the motele, she had heard serving women talking about washing clothes in streams and she knew the outside men hauled water for bathing. She had seen the fish they sometimes caught for food. ‘This is so different from the tubs,’ she thought. ‘And there’s so much room! I can stretch out my arms and legs — it feels good.’
After a while, Donas gathered up the drenched clothing and stepped out to spread it alongside the rest — already almost dry. “When you’re finished, you can do whatever you want,” she said to the others. She went over to a stump and sat down, fluffing her wet curls with her hands.
Mak and Rani were content to cavort unclothed beneath the trees, running and chasing and rolling in the soft clover. Mak was nearly hysterical with glee, showing off his youthful maleness and shouting without restraint.
‘It does no harm,’ Donas realized with amazement. ‘No one can hear him!’
She remained on the stump, watching, reluctant to join in the game. She had never felt shy in the bath with her group of six, even with her body undergoing subtle changes. But now...
‘I’m fifteen,’ she thought. ‘I’m too grown to run around naked with these little ones among the trees and wildflowers. It doesn’t feel right — I would be too — too exposed. As if I should be protected somehow.’
An uneasiness touched her at the idea of growing up. She tried to shrug it off. ‘I’ve nothing to fear about being an adult now, do I? Since we’ve escaped from the motele?’
The filtered sunlight felt hot on her bare back. She sighed, crossing her arms over her breasts. Looking down, she was amazed at their fullness. She stroked one, seeing the nipple harden and become more pointed. Feeling a warming far below, she remembered the way the mates had eyed her, and flushed. “I don’t want to be an adult. I don’t even want to think about it,” she muttered. But there was no way to deny that she had been bleeding regularly for nearly two years.
Raising her voice, she called, “It’s time to dress.”
As the miniature entourage prepared to continue its journey, Donas paused, reluctant to leave the peaceful, shady clearing. It had brought with it so many abstract thoughts — of privacy, of enjoyment, of freedom... of happiness. She did not know the words that went with the thoughts. Only one: ”safety.” She had felt safe in the clearing.
* * *
The heat increased as the afternoon progressed. “When will we get to the south?” Rani whimpered. “It’s hot. And I’m so tired of riding.”
“Don’t you feel cooler after your bath?”
“Not any more.”
“I miss Cherin,” Mak said. “She could run so fast. I don’t miss Lucee though. I didn’t like her.”
“Why, Mak?”
“I don’t know, Rani, I just didn’t.”
“I miss Thea the most,” Rani added. “Don’t you, Donas?”
Donas didn’t know how to reply. Finally she said, “I miss them all. I hope they’ll be all right.”
‘I never thought of this — Rani and Mak missing the others.’ Donas rubbed her hand across her face. ‘I suppose it’s only natural. I suppose they’re too young to understand the kind of decision I had to make.’
The countryside was undergoing a gradual change, becoming much less flat. The high ground to the west reared in steep waves, while the woody area to the east and the course before the cart took on the shape of gently rolling hills.
Donas found herself getting dreamy, as if the terrain was lulling her. The sun glowed a hollow red at the tips of the western bluffs. Rani slumped against her sister’s shoulder, half asleep. Even Mak was quiet.
Without warning Donas was jolted violently out of her trance. The pony screamed with anguish as his left foreleg dislodged a boulder, sending him sprawling. The cart lurched sideways, slinging its occupants around. Then it righted itself and came to an abrupt stop.
Rani flung her arms around Donas’ neck, nearly cutting off her breath. Donas finally managed to loosen Rani’s grasp enough to look behind. Relieved to see Mak had not been thrown from the back, Donas rubbed at her hands, which had been scraped raw when the reins were pulled away by the pony’s fall. Blood beaded on her palms. ‘Oh!’ she thought. ‘Oh, my hands hurt!’
Her surroundings began to spin as though time were out of focus. She was aware of a blurred figure which appeared from the west, rushing down the hills. The figure’s shape was grotesquely silhouetted against the glare of the bloated sun. Donas had no chance to take in what was happening as a strange male rider came to a sudden halt in front of the cart.
She stared in horror as he dismounted, and taking a sharp weapon, knelt and without hesitation slit the pony’s throat. Rani screamed as the blood poured out and the animal thrashed in involuntary jerks. “The pony! Oh, no, Donas! The pony!” Rani burst into tears.
Donas sat stunned as Mak took a flying leap from the cart, positioned himself in front of it, and spread his arms wide in a protective gesture. He had taken Ter’s words seriously the night of the escape from the motele: “You are the male. You must be strong.”
‘But I forgot,’ she thought in dismay. ‘I let my guard down. Here, in the open, with no place to hide.’
The stranger wiped his blade on the ground and put it aside, smiling down at Mak. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You killed it,” Rani sobbed. “You killed it!”
“Its leg was broken. It would have died slowly and in pain. I did what was necessary. I am apprenticed to a Horseman.”
The stranger had glanced briefly at Rani, but now smiled down again at Mak, who slowly lowered his arms.
Donas climbed down, unable to hold back her own tears any longer. She went over and sat down beside the dying pony, putting her arms around him and laying her head on his scruffy side. His blood blended with hers, spotting her freshly washed clothing. She held up her hands and let out a whimper of pain.
“You’re hurt,” the stranger said. “Do you have water with you?”
“I’ll get some.” Mak went importantly to the back of the cart, returning with the water.
The stranger knelt beside Donas and took her hands in his. He poured some of the water over them. “Later, they should be wrapped,” he said. He put an arm around Donas’s shoulder.
She stared at him. ‘Why, he’s not much older than I am,’ she thought, wonderingly. ‘Should we be afraid?’
She had heard the kindness in his voice; now she felt a desire to lean into the strength of his arm around her. His pony snuffled and pawed at the ground. ‘He was on it,’ she thought. ‘I’ve never seen a person on a pony before.’
The stranger’s animal was larger than Donas’s, yellow with a cream mane, and tail. It blended with the stranger’s clothing, which was a soft golden color. He wore brown foot coverings. His skin was tan and his hair the shade of sand and his eyes the color of the hot blue at full noon.
Donas was acutely conscious of the feel of his body. Her gaze locked into his, and she felt her nipples hardening and the familiar warming below, and suddenly she knew what it was for. And it didn’t seem a bad thing at all.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2011 by Mary Brunini McArdle
