"I’m sure it drives Brucie nuts to see that Kenny’s got no responsibility. Of course, I also think Kenny can defend himself."
"Oh, come on, Kenny may be a giant little boy, but it's not his fault both his sisters died as babies--look, there's Judith with the flax. Go talk to her," she ranted before she turned around and disappeared.
There was Judith carrying a basket of flax for the textile shed. She looked almost as different from her cousins as Charlinder from Roy; she was tall with curly hair and a soft mouth. She agreed to talk with Charlinder over dinner about teaching, and he stayed with her for hours after.
"How do you think you'd do the job?" he asked her late in the evening.
"Probably like you do," she answered. "At least until I get comfortable."
"But how do you know how I teach?"
"You've got a few more months before you leave, right? Can I come in and observe?"
"Yeah, I guess you can. Come see what you're getting yourself into."
"I don't think it'll scare me off," she said with a smile.
"Just how long can you see yourself doing this?"
"I'm not going to leave the schoolhouse abandoned while you're away, if that's what you're asking."
"So how long do you think I'll be away?"
"If you just walk to Italy, find what you're looking for, and then come back, then I guess a couple of years, but I don't know that you'll come back to stay, either."
"You're afraid I'll die doing this, too."
"Or you might find a better place in the world than this, and decide to go home to there," she offered. "Or you might come back and decide teaching kids isn't what you want to do anymore."
"And you see yourself being their teacher through all that time?"
"Sure. Why wouldn't I?"
"How old are you now, seventeen?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I didn't start teaching until I was eighteen."
"My parents say they had a teacher for a while who started when she was only sixteen."
"Yes, they had her for a while, but she didn't stay with it for more than a few years, and there's a reason for that."
"You mean teaching isn't a good job for a mother of small children," she said, not asked. Charlinder nodded.
"In a few years, you'll be just the right age to start," he pointed out.
"That's what everyone keeps telling me, but I don't need to do it that way."
"You don't need to do it in what way?" Charlinder asked, inwardly cringing at the thought of the reaction she would get if she didn't intend to have children.
"I don't need to have a kid when I'm twenty. I mean, that Eileen Woodlawn didn't have her son until she was, what, forty?"
"Forty-one," said Charlinder. "It's risky to wait that long, though. Even Eileen was afraid she wouldn't come out of it so well."
"Of course I won't wait
that
long, but my brother is only twelve now, so..."
"You'll need to wait a few extra years," Charlinder finished. If their society was horrified at a woman who declined to have children altogether and puzzled at a mother with only one child, it was nearly as frowned-upon for a woman to start her childbearing when her nearest brother was still a kid.
"We won't be ready until I'm at least twenty-five. I’d like to teach other kids in the meantime."
"I like that attitude. Can you come to school tomorrow to start observing? Maybe you can even help me out a little."
"I'd love to."
He walked back towards his and Roy's cabin by the horse pasture feeling appropriately satisfied with this turn of events, but when he got there, for some reason found that he didn't want to stop. He was within shouting distance of the woods bordering the village, and something caught his attention from between the trees.
He didn't know whether it was a flicker in the dark, or a rustle of leaves that he didn't usually hear, but Charlinder headed into the woods to see what was going on.
Just before he passed the first trees, he considered that he might not like what he found in there, but that was just a bridge he would have to cross when he came to it. As he grew closer, he focused on the noises coming from ahead. Something was struggling in the woods, much bigger than a pair of squirrels and angrier than a couple of deer.
Through the weak, reflected light filtering through the trees, he saw Kenny’s bloodied face thrown back against a tree trunk.
The other face was not visible; it was bent down in shadow and focused on beating Kenny; but in the unintelligible rant muttering in the darkness, Charlinder heard Bruce’s voice.
He didn’t even have time to worry that Bruce might hear his footsteps and turn on him; his only impulse was to
get out of there
and find reinforcements. Charlinder ran back towards the cabins. He kept running until he found Jess and Theo. When Miriam saw the three of them rushing back to the woods, she asked what was the matter. They had no time to answer, so she followed after. When they got back in the woods, Bruce was still pounding the blood out of Kenny, who was now unconscious. Jess and Theo took one look at Bruce and froze in their tracks. Bruce flung Kenny's limp body on the ground and went on punching him in the face. Theo kicked Bruce in the nose, knocking him aside and breaking him out of his fugue. Theo and Jess grabbed Bruce by the arms and pushed him face-first into a tree while Charlinder took Kenny by the upper torso and dragged him out of the way. Bruce wrenched himself free of Jess and Theo, but didn't turn on them. He lunged back toward Kenny, where Miriam was helping Charlinder look for signs of life. Miriam raised her fist as a reflex and landed a lucky shot in Bruce's neck, sending him reeling backwards in a choking fit. Jess knocked Bruce's feet out from under him and Theo followed by kicking him in the groin, which got them the first yelp of pain they'd heard all night.
"Don't beat on him, guys, just hold him down!" shouted Miriam.
"Look what he did to Kenny!" Jess protested.
"Will you just restrain him!" she insisted.
Miriam stood up from her spot to walk over to the struggle, her long skirt obscuring Charlinder's view. When she'd gotten far enough to let him see, Bruce was pinned to the ground on his stomach with Theo holding his wrists and Jess at his ankles. By that time he was breathing heavily and still coughing slightly, and Charlinder could see just enough to tell that Bruce's eyes were fixed on Charlinder and Kenny, but he now looked dazed instead of unhinged. Miriam planted her foot on Bruce's head, over his jaw and neck.
"Are you finished yet?" she demanded.
"Let me, let me go," Bruce panted.
"I said,
are you finished yet
?!" she repeated.
Before Bruce could give a coherent answer, new footsteps crunched through the dry leaves and twigs, and another woman's silhouette appeared.
"What's going on out here?" asked Yolande. "Nadine said you all were running this way--stop that!" she cried suddenly, upon seeing that Miriam was standing on her brother's face. "What are you doing to him?!"
"We just stopped him from killing Kenny!" said Miriam.
"I wasn't trying to kill him," Bruce protested, while Yolande looked in Charlinder's direction and saw what was left of Kenny.
"Kenny?!" she cried and rushed over for a closer look. "Is he okay?"
"He's breathing," said Charlinder.
"Oh my God, Bruce, did you do this to him?" she demanded.
"Yolande, where's Stuart?" asked Bruce.
"I left him with Mom, now
did you do this to him
?" she repeated.
"Yeah, he did," said Theo. "So take one guess why."
"He wouldn't listen," Bruce grunted towards Yolande from under Miriam's foot.
"He wouldn't listen to
what
?!" Yolande demanded. "The blood coming out of his eyes?"
"Guys, let him go," said Miriam, taking her foot off Bruce's jaw. Jess and Theo looked at her. "I said, let him go. Yolande, take your brother home. You and your family can deal with him until I get the Council together."
Yolande took Bruce by the upper arm and led him back towards the village. Kenny continued to breathe, slowly but steadily, but otherwise didn't move.
Chapter Nine
Changed
The Council met the next day and agreed to lock Bruce in the Cell, an empty cabin isolated in the woods, for a month or until Kenny was up and about. Their mother, Theresa, and two younger siblings helped Yolande look after Stuart until Bruce was released. Kenny was in the charge of Darrell, who expected that he would be laid up for several days, though he regained consciousness the day after the beating. Charlinder went to see him the following day. Miriam was already there. Kenny appeared only dimly awake, though he smiled when Charlinder came in.
"I'm sure it's a stupid question, but how do you feel?" asked Charlinder.
"I've been better," Kenny grunted. "What happened to me?"
Miriam rolled her eyes but said nothing. Darrell gave a little knowing smile. "Bruce took you out to the woods and beat you up, don't you remember?" Charlinder asked.
"No, I don't remember it, but everyone tells me the same thing, so," he gave a twitch of the head and shoulders in an attempt at a shrug, "I guess he did."
"Do you remember anything from two nights ago?"
"I was leaving dinner, and Bruce came up and asked to have a word with me. I think I said yes, but then next thing I know I'm waking up in here, all messed up."
"I'm sure it's a memory you can do without," said Miriam.
"By 'everyone,' how many other people do you mean?" asked Charlinder.
"My mom came in with Yolande and Stuart yesterday. They were here when I woke up--that was nice," he added with a grin. "My brothers came in later. Then you and Miriam today."
"Then I guess you've already heard Bruce is in the Cell for doing this to you."
"What did I ever do to him, anyway?" Kenny wondered. "Other Faithful guys try to tell us what to do, but I haven't heard about them beating anyone up over it. How did I get Brucie so pissed off at me?"
"Whatever it was you did to get on his bad side in the first place, I think we can all see why he’s paid you so much attention," said Miriam.
"I won't stay away from Yolande, though," Kenny said stubbornly.
"Of course you shouldn’t have to, but I’m sure what she wants most of all is for this not to happen again," Miriam responded.
"I haven't gone near Bruce since the beating," said Darrell, "but I've spoken with Jess and Theo about the incident, and with Theresa," he explained. "From what they've told me, the beating had everything to do with Bruce and very little with Kenny. Bruce was in a divine rage that night. He was convinced he was doing God's work, is what his mother tells me. He might even still be convinced of that."
"Yeah, that's what I like to hear," was Kenny's sarcastic response.
"So we won't release him as long as he's out for your blood," Miriam reassured him.
While Kenny was not convinced, Charlinder could see that Darrell wanted something from Miriam. When he caught her eye, some communication appeared to go on between them until she relented. To Charlinder's surprise, Darrell went outside first, followed by Miriam, who beckoned to Charlinder to join them.
"My parents were in the first generation of descendants," said Darrell. "They grew up around most of the survivors, who came from the Information Age." Charlinder forgot his confusion and looked properly at Dr. Darrell, as they called their village medic. He was possibly the oldest person in the village, now over eighty, and he looked thin, frail and colorless. He also had the hardest laser beam stare and the steadiest hands in the village. "They remembered the September 11th and July 7th attacks, they grew up with conflict in Northern Ireland, endless media coverage of fighting in the Middle East, the civil war and genocide in the Balkans, then in the Sudan, and they had much better knowledge of history than we do, I can assure you. They knew what happened when people decided to make religion into a dividing line. They had a better idea than we do of how many people were killed because someone else didn't agree with how they worshipped.
"It's beginning," he continued. "We're a very long way from the conditions for that kind of power struggle, but it always starts with something."
"If Bruce had been allowed to continue," said Miriam, "we're pretty sure he would have killed Kenny."
"I could see that much," Charlinder replied.
"And that doesn't mean Bruce is beyond hope, either," Darrell continued. "It won't end with him, though. There will be more incidents like this, and worse."
Hadn't he, Charlinder, been saying the same things for months?
He looked away from Darrell's bright blue eyes boring into him long enough to see that Miriam was looking at neither of them, and then Charlinder understood to whom Darrell was really talking.
"So what do you suggest we do about that?" asked Miriam wearily.
"Nip it in the bud before all the nearby villages grow too big to stay apart," was the medic's answer.
When Charlinder looked back at Darrell, he found the old man now peering into Miriam's eyes.
"What Dr. Darrell wants to tell me is, you're going on your trip," Miriam said at last, "and Bruce just reminded us all why."
"But you don't sound like you've changed your mind."
"I still don't like it, Char. But I know you won't be talked out of it."
"Sounds like Dr. Darrell is on your side," said Roy that afternoon.