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Myers snorted in her sleep, crossing flabby arms across a protruding belly. She sought a more comfortable position in the chair. She mumbled around a wad of tobacco in her cheek. It was something she had taken up while living as a prisoner of war in a rat hole of a town called Meio, down in America del Sud. It helped to kill the hunger pangs.
Boyde slipped in, a coarse wool blanket over one arm.
A look close to love on her face, Boyde covered the old woman and tucked the edges in. No matter what Myers had in the way of faults, she was one of the finest, most caring nurses Captain Boyde had ever met. She dropped a light kiss on the woman's wrinkled brow.
Myers opened her good eye, the other had been damaged from a beating the druggies gave her over an escape attempt. She scowled at Boyde. "Here now, ain't you never seen a sleeping woman?" Myers grumbled to herself and pulled the scratchy blanket up under her chin, giggling as the wool tickled the long hairs there.
Captain Boyde snorted. "Ol' war-horse." She spun and walked away, a grin on her face.
"Thanks, kiddo," Myers whispered to the closing door, and steeled herself to watching the sleeping boy.
Holding the bandaged hand as gently as he would an infant, Two Swords held watch. Myers had drifted off again, and he let her sleep. She was old, perhaps not long on this side of the Veil of the Sun, but that matter was not up to him. All he knew was that when she made her trip Home, she would have a far greater place waiting for her than many who professed to be servants of the God. The Warriors of the Sun would sing the Brave-Heart song to this one, and listen with patient joy to her long winded and rambling tales. She deserved the best because she was the best.
"Dohi:yi, Old-Woman," Two Swords said gently to the tears wetting the wrinkled face. "Soon you will be young again, you will hold your child again, beyond the Veil of Tears." He smiled, humbled, at her Guardian, a massive Amazon of a Guardian.
She gave Two Swords a short, stiff nod, then her cold eye sockets turned to her charge and they softened to a shining gold.
"Will he live, do y' think?"
Two Swords' head shot up. "He better, lady, or I'll kick his can across the Trail of Stars and back again."
His gaze went back to his charge and she spoke with a slow smile. "He will live, Warrior Two Swords, if he has your heart, and do it with style."
The Guardian chuckled. "He is a mean little cuss."
The heavy chest rose and fell. A minute later it did the same. He sighed and watched a machine breathe for his charge.
"Your fathers, Little Wolf's Cub Person," he said, "They would be so proud of you. Hewa, Listen to the Wolf. Ben is so proud, and Carl -" Two Swords shook his head and thought of where he had last seen Carl. Floating in the Pit of his own making, tormenters feeding on the man's sanity until nothing was left but the pain and the shame.
"Papa Bear, too, is proud of you, Little Wolf's Cub Person," said Myers' Amazon. She shrugged. "What was so in this Dream-World, still is so in the next, no matter where you spend eternity. Your life follows you, Wolf-Person. Carl loves you." She nodded. "He would do the same, no matter what."
Di:nenepi, imps, gather in a stinking, maggot-infected crowd, just beyond the reach of the swords. A circle of minor Guardians kept them at bay.
Benny slipped from his body. Two Swords growled at him.
The massive Guardian reached for him.
Even with the help of the breather, he was barely alive.
With a shout of "No," Benny twisted away from him.
He stumbled, falling through a wall and into a dank, winter chilled room. Damp air slid through cracked bricks and into the room. Eyes wide and shocked, Benny eased to his feet. It was Sue.
A huge man grunted and sweated over her, panting, heaving his bulk in a groan and the narrow army surplus cot creaked and sagged under him.
Benny shuddered at the jiggling fleshy buttocks, a dead white in the yellow light of a sixty-watt bulb.
He saw her face then, pale and vacant, eyes blinking at the water stained ceiling. Sue turned her head and looked at him. She moaned. The man on her chuckled and nibbled her ear.
"You sure love it, don't you, honey?"
"Benny?"
"I ain't, but honey, I'll be anything you want, if you'll give me another ride."
She turned to the man, her arms rising.
Laughing, he shook his head in regret.
He heaved his bulk from the bed and Sue, shivering in the cold air. A faint snuffle from the doorless hole in the wall made him turn a sour glance at it.
"I'm comin, JJ, dammit." Fishing around in his pants, he took several reds from his wallet and lay them on the dresser.
Just to annoy her father, he bent over the girl and planted a heavy kiss on the cold brow.
Another man in tow, JJ came eagerly into the room. The man glanced at Sue and the mess the last john had left for him and shook his head.
"I don't take sloppy seconds," he said and stalked from the room. "Get her cleaned up for me or there won't be no next time, JJ."
JJ glowered after the man. Wanting to beat him, he bared his teeth, but his fists trembled and he knew he would lose. Pain, like work, was something to be avoided at all costs.
Benny crowed noiselessly at the towering coward with his beer gut and jowls quivering with indignation and fear. The silent laughter was cut off when the man turned his rage on the slight, smiling girl with all the life of a piece of wood.
JJ scooped a piece of tattered lingerie from the floor. He grunted at the effort it took, and began to mop at Sue. In disgust he grimaced at the sperm and k-jell, and threw the ragged panties to the floor. "'Manda," JJ bellowed. "Get your lazy black ass in here, you old whore." His hands went to his zipper, and he fingered it, a hard look on his unshaven face.
"Girl, you are worthless. Trash. Just like all your mama's 'breed family." JJ's piggish eyes narrowed. "Stupid bitch." He grunted, tugging up his pants. He went to the dresser.
Money stuffed in his pocket, he gloated over the amount. With much tugging and a small groan of protest when the damp, warped drawer finally released the top drawer came out of the dresser. JJ took a small black box and extracted a pellet, a dirty needle, and a strap.
In helpless disgust, Benny watched the man light a candle and melt the pellet. Nightmare rides until dawn slid in.
JJ strapped Sue's flaccid arm and tapped a vein. The needle slid in and he released the strap. The plunger slid down and Sue's face grew horrified.
"No," she mumbled, fighting the drug, fighting the demons that reached for her.
In a clumsy, mocking gesture of parental affection, JJ patted her on one blanched and drawn cheek.
"'Manda," he bawled, "get your ass in her, woman, and do like I told you."
A whimper came from the hole in the wall. Benny spun and glared at the old, haggard woman. She padded in on bare, silent feet, uncaring about rat pellet and cockroaches.
Amanda stared with yellowed blood-shot eyes at the needle. Her lips trembled. She licked them, pleading in silence with JJ. He gave a scornful shrug and held out the black box, then snatched it from her hands. He roared with laughter at the tears pouring from the old woman's eyes. They flooded the wrinkled cheeks and ran from her face.
"Clean her up first." He snapped the box shut and stood back to watch with greedy eyes.
Barely lucid, Amanda nodded. She fumbled in the dresser drawers. Her Guardian threw JJ's a bleak stare. JJ's Guardian sagged and pulled a robe up to cover the shame in his eyes.
The drawer clattered to the floor. Amanda stared at it, her mouth working. She glanced at JJ and terror lit her face. "Please," she said, and raised her hands.
"What?" He glanced at the empty drawer and it dawned on him what she was trying to say. Where's the dammed douche, woman? You fo'got again, or did just blow my money on tar?"
His fist balled and he smashed it into her stricken face. JJ smiled and kicked her hard in the side. "You go buy some, whore." He reached into his pocket for one of the red. "I want every penny of change back. Everything I got coming, including the receipt."
Holding her side, the woman reached eagerly for the money. Too eagerly. JJ scowled and she sank back to the floor, a pile of stinking rags, unmindful of splinters and what hid under the trash in the room.
"I best get it," he told her, "You'll just blow the money." A crooked smile passed over his face and for a moment he was almost handsome. Cruelty lit his eyes. Just to be safe, he pocketed the box, and strode out.
Amanda huddled on the floor and wept bitter tears. Compared to the ache in her guts, the fire in her side was nothing. "Please," she said to the empty doorway. "Please don't you do this, JJ. Please." Her dark, wet eyes grew savage. She whispered harshly, "You right on one thing, on the money, JJ Hanna. By the Wolf-God, By the Wolf-God, I swears you'll get what you got comin to you. On the Eagle-Woman, the Mother of mothers, I swear."
Riding the dark horse of the night, Sue whimpered. Crab-like, the old woman darted to her. Amanda patted and stroked the trembling face with gentle hands, her rusty voice a rough croon.
"You my own cousin's baby, Sue, honey. You and me are light night and day in color, but we family. I'm here, baby. Your Ama's right here for you. Ama love you. Ama love you, sugar." She lay her head next to Sue's, her long wiry hair mingled with the pale blond tangles and their tears ran together on the greasy pillow.
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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