"Where exactly are you heading Ansel?" my granddad Lewis asked me. The silence that follows is filled with questions; answers and options that I don't dare speak yet. "I mean – that is why you've stopped here... to warn us and offer us shelter?" granddad asks almost shyly, his voice tight.
He isn't a charity type of man, seeking handouts.
At the same time, after ten years of aunt Michelle and my cousins living with him and grandma Valarie, I know there is nothing he would not do to keep them all safe.
It's just as hard if not more for him to ask me for help than it is deciding if I can offer him shelter.
Hell I hadn't told anyone but my dad, Antone, Kalenah, Angela, and Nova where we were going.
"I cannot tell-" Angela smacks me on my arm, shifting my gaze to her, she uses her chin to point our Naomi holding Danny Junior, Andy holding Genesis and Stella walking down the steps between them.
Without a backwards glance, Naomi walks towards us, her hair whipping around her face in the cold, but the temperature is nothing compared to the icy look in her eyes, and pale face.
When she's close enough to us, and closing the distance, she doesn't stop, instead under her breathe she mutters, "We cannot stay here, we need to leave, it is not safe." Startled, I glance at the house that my Lenah was inside, unsure.
"Granddad who is in there?" I whisper, on edge now, but when I shift my eyes to Lewis, he seems as confused as I. "Just the usual, your grandmother, Cheryl – the woman you helped and her daughter. The other you help, Stephen and his two daughters Kerry and Claire. Michelle's kids and the triplets teacher Berty," I frown, looking at the large barn home, the red paint bright and well taken care of.
"That's all?" Why would Naomi take Andy and the kids from inside?
"Well the people that you just brought here," he shrugs.
Jerking my head towards the bus, Angela heads in first, Lewis following her. Pacing, Naomi freezes for a moment when she turns and sees us, Andy and Stella looking up at her with a bit of fear and worry.
"Uhm," I try to get a read on Naomi, only sensing anxiety and much of it. Her heart races as she looks from me to the darkened windows, fixated on the house for a few seconds. "Andy, why don't you take Stella, DJ and Genesis to the back-"
"Uncle Ansel, I'm hungry," Stella pouts. Nodding, I go right to the fridge, looking for something to tide her over until I got answers from Naomi. I grab the first thing I see, apples.
Distracted and trying to keep my beast from erupting, I help Stella absentmindedly. "Here sweetie, have this now and we'll get food in a little bit," from the corner of my eye I observe Naomi as she paces until she stops her eyes darting around the bus.
Crazy eyes.
"Hmm," she holds the sound out until her eyes do a double take on some of the leftover white bulk paper, and pens near it from our print job. When she leans over the table, I start to actually observe Naomi. Not just her eyes, or the pacing, but truly take her in.
That is how I'm able to finally interpret her nervousness, she is not angry, she's afraid. Her hand trembles as she tries to take just one piece of paper and her stance is shaky at best. Sending Stella on her way with Andy, I go near Naomi, Lewis and Angela joining me.
"What..." I stop after uttering one word. Frowning when I see that she's written Berty Dee'Lanor. The name my granddad had just told Angela to check up on. My eyes dart from Lewis to Angela; back down to the paper she was currently holding in place while her hand shook like nobodies business.
Five inches below his name, she scribbles in the same catty print, Betray No Elder.
On edge, I'm in a debate. Do I run into the house and grab my Kalenah and get the hell out of dodge? My legs are primed, ready to flee and bring her on the bus. Yet I do not see where Naomi is going with her writings.
Suddenly, with enough force on her pen to slice the paper, probably leave a mark on the table, she begins drawing lines from the name to the corresponding letters below it. Until finally I see it.
"Oh shit," Angela curses, her eyes wider than I've ever seen them in all the years. "It's an anagram!" she whispers, and when Naomi draws the final line from the last 'R' in Berty's last name to the 'R' in Elders, my knees give a weak shake. The hairs on the back of my neck stand in attention and millions of goose bumps erupt on my skin.
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Naomi steps away from the table, and all I can do is think on loop, what the hell was going on in Ogden, Utah? What was – what did the name mean? The anagram? How... what... mind blown for the second time in less than three hours.
"I – he works for the Elders?" Lewis asks his face going pale, with a green undertone. With unmistakable terror in her eyes, she nods, "I – I've come across these t-types of p-p-people twice, one killed my Charge. The second time, I managed to escape." She reveals, clearing her throat at the end.
Alarms go off. Way off. Like tornado coming, siren ringing, passenger side door of the car pulled into the twister, off.
I look from Angela to the paper.
"I don't understand," Lewis says.
"He works for the Elders!" Naomi bites, running a hand through her jet-black locks. "They are loyal to the Elders, they do the Elders bidding," she looks at us hopefully. When the three of us stare at her blankly, she closes her eyes, biting her bottom lip until the blood pools.
"They do not even know about the loyal followers," she mutters.
"Why would he come here? Was he trying to get close to the girls? Why not just kidnap them? Take them?" she continues to mumble, each question never answered, but I don't think she was looking for that from us.
"What has happened in or around this town?" she stops with the ignoring us and firing questions to herself, eyes focused on Lewis. "Have there been riots? Or maybe trouble?"
Granddad shakes his head, "No – nothing like that at all."
"Do your granddaughters or grandsons have gifts?" she asks, "Do you?" playing information close to the belt, I tap a finger on the paper, my finger right below the letter 'B.' Would Lewis trust her to tell her of the triplets capabilities?
It's a moot point. Naomi does not give granddad a chance to even get a word in before she turns her gaze on me. "We cannot stay here and you cannot leave him alive." I stare at the young girl blankly.
Was she suggesting that I kill this man? A small voice inside me answer: no, she's demanding you do it.
