Desert Wake ✔

Ch. 15, pt. 2: Chosen by Spirits

When most people set their gaze upon the ocean fer the first time, that big stretch of endless water ain't quite conceivable to 'em. All caught up in the roaring surf and the feel of real sand 'tween their toes, they're bound to say they ain't never seen nothing as blue as the sky till that point.

But I have.

Ro's eyes gleamin' against the dust—cain't no other blue compare. It's what the ocean and the sky wish they was—the purity of a person's soul brought out to shine forth to the world. My eyes ain't blue, they're brown, brown like the dirt. I tell this to Ro and of course, he has a response. "They're like the earth, May, the earth after it rains, when it's ready to call up life. Your eyes are the fertile world."

Well, when he says it like that....

We approach the port at night, and we are barely in time. As Tegan had warned, the excursion with Callen and his men delayed us nearly to the point of failure. Had we arrived but two days later, we'd have come to the port only to watch the Good Lady Margarithe sailin' over the horizon without us.

Once in the bustlin' town surroundin' the port, I find us a place to stay until sign-up begins the followin' afternoon. I do all the talkin', nice and proper-like, while Ro and the rest wait on the outskirts of town. It's risky enough fer Ro to show his face down at the dock when he'll have no choice but to. Ain't no point in him shinin' that grin of his around all them people linin' the walkways and fillin' the taverns. It wouldn't be no surprise to have someone figure him fer a match to the man on the wanted flier that've been widely circulated in these parts.

Sure enough, what do I spy but one of them fliers tacked up to the wall behind the clerk's desk at the boarding house. Its yellow edges are curled up, and it's partly covered by the same New Pioneer's ad Tegan has in her possession. Don't look like anyone's paid much attention in recent times to its dire warnin' about a dangerous traitor roamin' the land, but it sure does make me glad I left Ro behind with the others. I gotta calm myself, git my breathin' out nice and steady, cuz Ro will be out in the open come tomorrow. One keen-eyed lawfolk is all it'll take fer all our hard work gittin' here to amount to squat.

The inn is full thanks to all the potential New Pioneers temporarily taking up residence at the port, but the clerk does let me rent an old supply shed down the road. He does so apologetically, and I have to remember to cringe like a Regions lady would at the prospect of sleepin' on the floor of a shack. In truth, it's the best shelter we've had since ferever. The shed ain't got but one high-up window, and it's well outside of the busiest parts of town, which will suit our band of illegals just fine. Once the clerk leaves me by my lonesome in our luxurious quarters, I go and gather Ro and the traders. Only Ro will be comin' back to the shed with me, though, cuz Tegan announces that it's time fer them to say their good byes -- not before they give us two last surprises, though. The first is tied to Gina with a hemp cord.

"I figured yer goat there could use a friend." Gina hands the leash over to Ro, who steps back so that Nessie cain git to the business of buttin' heads with her new acquaintance. I gotta smile at this, cuz a lone goat is a sorry sight, and Nessie's done her fair share of gittin' us this far and then some. She deserves a new companion. Reba comes to mind 'fore I cain help myself, but I gotta drown out the thoughts that come with her – granddad's passin', my parents, the farm, Orin and his pa, everything that got taken from me and everyone who did the takin'. This ain't the time to dwell on that.

The new goat bleats contentedly as I scratch her behind her ears. "Let's call this one Hopeful," I say to Ro. I like that, I like it a lot. But what I don't like is how quiet Tegan's being, as though she's got something to say but ain't quite sure how to say it. She's holdin' on to that last surprise, and fer a while, I think she'll take whatever it is and head back east with it.