Trail of Lightning

Chapter 21

Grace’s daughter leads me to that impeccable trailer out back. She points out a bathroom where I can wash Kai’s blood off, hovers until I’m done, and then escorts me to a tidy living room and commands me to wait. I look around at Grace’s private home, somewhere I’ve never been allowed before. Two oversize couches dominate the space, decorated with bold lavender floral patterns and small matching throw pillows, scattered tastefully between two white wicker sitting chairs. Another handful of pillows is piled in a heap at the foot of the sofa, as if groups of people often gather and the pillows serve as extra seating. The walls are painted a pale purple and clusters of white-framed photographs punctuate the empty spaces. The first photo that catches my eye is that of a woman, her deep brown skin freckled by the sun, her hair pulled back in a dreadlocked braid and a smile on her pretty, younger face. Grace is hugging a very pale man with a mess of red curly hair and friendly blue eyes.

I move closer, drawn to the picture. I’ve never seen a picture of Rick, Grace’s husband. She doesn’t talk about him, at least not to me. I know he died shortly after the Big Water. Rumor is that he was murdered outside his franchise sandwich shop in Tse Bonito for the change in his pocket. People say that there were a couple of Law Dogs there who saw it all and stood around and watched Rick bleed as the thief rummaged his pockets. That certainly would explain Grace’s hatred for Law Dogs.

I lean forward to look more closely. How happy they seem. Like a family. The rest of the pictures are similar. One of Grace with all her kids—the twins, an older boy I don’t know, and a big-eared baby who has to be Freckles from the gate. Another of Rick and the twins as toddlers, and then one each of the twins’ high school graduation pictures, back when there were real high schools and formal education. I only made it to freshman year before the Big Water hit, so that makes the twins at least a few years older than me.

The rest of the house is just as neat and orderly as the living room. I spy a nice open-seating kitchen decorated in the same shades of lavender and white as the rest of the house. There’s even a tabby cat sitting on a windowsill. In this place, time seems to have stood still, as if the horrors of the Big Water never happened. Except, of course, for Rick.

I hear a door close and see Clarissa coming back from down a long narrow hallway. “You can come on back now,” she says, and waves me forward.

“So, Clarissa,” I start.

She cuts me off. “It’s Rissa. Only my mom calls me Clarissa. You call me Rissa.”

“Okay, Rissa,” I say as I follow her broad back down the hall. I’m not a small woman, but Rissa has a good three inches and thirty pounds of muscle on me. It’s impressive. “I heard you carried me to my truck one night a few months back.”

She flips a thick auburn braid over one shoulder. “It happens sometimes. You were no trouble.”

“I didn’t rant and rave? Call you names?”

“Not me, anyway. Although that Neizghání sounds like a real dick.” She clears her throat. “If you don’t mind me saying.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

We stop in front of a closed bedroom door. “Your friend’s in here. Last I checked, he was asleep, but if you want to go see him, it should be okay.”

“How is he?”

“You saw his face. Broken nose, black eyes. Likely concussed. Surprised he’s in as good a shape as he is, considering how badly he got his ass kicked. He’ll probably piss blood for a few days.” She flushes red across her freckled cheeks like she wasn’t supposed to say that. Moves to open the door, and suddenly I can’t. I reach out to stop her. She pauses, looks at my hand on her arm, then at me.

“No,” I say, my throat suddenly dry. “I don’t need to go in. Let him rest.”

“You sure?”

“If you’re sure he’s okay.”

“A few days of bed rest, but otherwise . . .” Another shrug, and she watches me, her hazel eyes no more than curious.

“Yeah. Sounds great.” I let go of her arm and turn to walk back down the hall. Away from Kai. Hesitate before I say, “Tell him I bought him twenty-four hours with Grace, and after that he’ll have to work out his own deal.”

Rissa frowns, curiosity turned to confusion. “Why can’t you tell him yourself?”

“Because I’ll be gone.”