“Wow, thank you. I’ll think about it. Part of me wants to make it to sanctuary. Like a goal, but if the invitation will stay open.”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“Hannah,” I said. “If you want to stay…”
“Not without you, Calvin,” she said. “You need me. You saved me.”
“What?” I laughed.
“Calvin’s a hero?” Mavis questioned.
“Yep.” Hannah nodded.
“Oh, I am not a hero. Never was and probably never will be. I don’t have it in me. I’m an accountant. Besides, you…” I pointed my fork at her. “You saved me. You saved Edward.”
“That’s how you saved me,” Hannah said. “Them men, they weren’t nice men. Not at all. They were at Pastor Jim’s. Pastor Jim sent me with them to Mr. Mills.” Then oddly, she grew sad and spoke in a serious way like I hadn’t heard her do. “The night with you and Edward. Two of them had me. Said they wanted to have fun. Then Edward kept fussing.” She looked at Mavis. “He was doing that scream thing he does. Over and over. The men stopped ’cause they said they wanted to go get him. Kill him. Crush his skull. Kill Calvin. They left me and I followed. They didn’t touch me. So you see, Calvin, you being there saved me.”
Mavis laid her hand on Hannah’s. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“That’s the way it is, right?” She shrugged. “It was tried before so I went to Mr. Mills. Always was told to go to an adult. Well, he just said, ‘Girl, deal with it, you wanna live here, live anywhere, you’ll do what it takes.’ When them men got me, I guess I thought I had to do what it takes.”
At that instant, I got sick. I jumped up with an “excuse me” and darted out the door, trying my hardest not to get sick. I grabbed the back porch railing, trying to catch my breath, stop the gagging. Then when I spotted George eating that mouse, I lost it.
Every bit of my stew left my body. My stomach wretched. I was so focused on getting to sanctuary, my survival, Edward’s, even Leah’s, I never paid attention to what was happening in the world around me. That poor girl lost everyone and still was getting hit hard. It sickened me, physically sickened me.
I got my bearings and went back into the house.
“You alright?” Mavis asked.
“You okay, Calvin?”
I nodded and crouched down before Hannah. “I am so sorry for everything you have gone through. Everything. I can’t do anything about what happened, but I can about what’s gonna happen. You are a kid, Hannah. A kid and you should never have to do what it takes, not in this world, not in any world. As long as you are with me, you’ll be a kid, never more than a kid and I’ll try my damndest to make sure you never have to do… what it takes. Got that?”
She nodded a couple times and wrapped her arms around my neck.
I had seen Hannah as a child, but sadly it never registered. It would from now on. I made a promise to myself. I may not have been the strongest man or the bravest, but I would do what I could to protect Hannah as much as I did my son. They were our future. Not me, not Mavis and not those things out there… the children were.
Unfortunately, there weren’t many left.
19
À LA CARTE
September 7
Hannah’s twelfth birthday was not forgotten. Not by me and not by Mavis. She made her some applesauce to go, and we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ over a pancake. Hannah was thrilled, her eyes lit up and she smiled.
Mavis also gave Hannah a necklace of fake pearls and just because she wanted it so badly, and since Leah was calm, I put one of Mavis’ house dresses on her.
We were packed up and ready to go and I actually felt bad taking Hannah. It was a good place, a safe place for her. Mavis was a motherly type that would take good care of her. Hannah insisted she didn’t want to stay without me.
“If I don’t go with you, who’s gonna feed Edward?” Hannah asked.
“Me,” I replied.
“No offense, but I don’t think you do it right. He always eats for me and gets quiet.”
“I guess he does.”
“Mama Mavis said we can come back. If Sanctuary City sucks, can we do that?”
“Yes, without a doubt we will do that.”
We hugged Mavis goodbye and took that back road that would cross the highway. I knew once we crossed that highway, we’d stop again and be even closer to Sanctuary City Sixteen. I couldn’t figure out why Hannah wanted to stay with me, why she picked walking a beaten path to a tent city instead of staying in a clean and warm farmhouse.
I felt guilty taking her even though she wanted to come. More than likely, she had developed a trust in me.
She was the best company. I felt better, my body was less sore. I had already taken three doses of antibiotics and I swore they were working and making me stronger. Plus, I rested and ate really well.
Hannah commented on how much better I was doing, then she had to comment on Leah.
“Don’t she look pretty in that dress?” Hannah asked. “It’s big, but she looks pretty. Don’t you think?”
Leah didn’t look quite as ‘pretty’ as Hannah said. It had been five days since she had died. When I would see a Vee, to me they all looked the same. With Leah, I noticed everything that was happening to her. She had taken on a greenish appearance, with the exception of her legs, which were purple and black. Sheaths of maggots covered sections of her body. So many that they looked like patches of sheep’s fur. Some sort of dark red foam seeped from her nose and mouth and she started moving differently, more rigid.
I thought about Mavis’ husband George. How the photos of him in the living room showed a robust man. His clothing was huge on me. Yet, in the turnaround, he was thin, his skin looked more like a leather covering. As if all his body fluid, fat and tissue had left him and all he had was skin covering his bones.
“Calvin?” Hannah called for me. “Don’t you think?”
“For her state, yes.”
“Bet she was really pretty before all this.”
“As a matter of fact, Leah was beautiful,” I said.
“What did she do? Did she have a job? Or did she stay home?”
“She was a first grade teacher.”
“Oh, then she loved kids, huh?”
I nodded. “She did.”
“Was she excited about the baby?”
“I don’t think anyone was more excited about this baby than Leah. We really wanted a child. We had a couple babies that just didn’t work out and she lost them. So she was thrilled and scared about Edward.”
“Did you ever think that might be why she’s following you?” Hannah asked. “For the baby?”
“Maybe.” I looked back at her. “I think it’s just instinct, that’s all.”
“What’s that noise?”
“I’m sorry, what?” My head spun when she changed subjects.
“That noise? Listen.”
I stopped walking to hone in.
There were three distinctive sounds. A clicking, a buzzing and a fluttering sound.
It was coming from up ahead of us and I picked up the pace to see what it was.
The entire trip on that back road, up to that point was uneventful. We had walked steadily, stopped periodically, but saw no one. The noise just echoed.
About a quarter mile up the hill and around the bend, we spotted the source of the multiple sounds.
On the side of the road, a horse-drawn cart was tilted in the depression between the road and grassy hillside. A single horse lay on the road, he struggled with the reigns, shaking his head, he tried to get up when he saw us, but his legs gave in and he fell back down.
“Stay back,” I told Hannah, and lifted the carrier from my chest and handed Edward to her. “Let me check it out.”