Ch.5 Athena's Gift

Chapter 5


“Force without wisdom falls of its own weight” - Horace

Jill met us on the steps of the back porch, cigarette in hand. I kept waiting for a bottle of whiskey to appear in her other hand to complete the picture.

She stubbed out her smoke carefully and ushered us inside.

“This is where our medical facility is housed, such as it is. If you have any drugs, over the counter or otherwise to spare we would really appreciate a donation.” She said as she walked briskly toward the living room area. Seated on an old floral couch in a sunny room was another woman, we would come to know as Suzanne. They were sisters who had come down from Michigan to help get this site off the ground. Suzanne had the same air of self-confidence that her marked her, more than anything else, as Jill’s sister.

“Suzanne is our Medicine Woman until we get someone trained to take over. We have a guy who was in Med school before he came here, but he hasn’t fully come to terms with our methods for healing. Hopefully we can get him turned around so we can get back home to Michigan.”

Jill sat down next to her sister. Suzanne poured out six small cups of fragrant tea and passed them around. The room was uncomfortably quiet. Suzanne looked me directly in the eye as she handed me my tea. I was taken aback at the intensity of her study; she had a momentary pause before moving on to Jeff.

She paused again when she got to Jason, and leaned over to whisper something to Jill.

“Excuse me.” Jill said as she got up to leave the room.

“We are so glad that you were able to stay for a while.” Suzanne began, smiling at us warmly. “What will you be doing during your stay with us?”

“We were just about to sort that out I think.” I responded, “What do you need done?”

“Well, we always have something to be done. There is a maintenance list posted at the back of the large pole barn, but mostly people just see a need and fill it. What are you good at?” She asked encouragingly, looking at Jason.

“Jason is a great mechanic!” I volunteered, Jason just nodded his head. A bead of sweat trickled down his face near his ear. “And we can help with your windmills if they need anything. I love to garden and wouldn’t mind spending some time in the fields if I could.”

I was fairly gushing. The guys looked as if they might try to get a word in, but I wasn’t having it. I was compelled to tell it all if I could.

“And Jeff has a really important talent. He can deal with Demons and Demon Touched. It’s amazing even if it is a little hard to believe.” I continued, in spite of flags going up in my mind and an evil glare from Jeff.

Suzanne turned her smile on me and looked over to Jeff. She turned it up a few watts for him, but didn’t say anything.

“Well, it sounds crazy when she puts it like that.” He began, clearly on the verge of a lengthy babble.

Jill came back with an older gentleman. He looked to be about ninety and half blind, with a severe tremor. She helped him to sit next to Suzanne.

“Jason, would you please scoot your chair forward.” Jill said as she began to slide the coffee table from between Jason and Suzanne. She gave Chris a nod and he jumped up to help her.

I was sooo tempted to ask what was going on. But at the same time, I had a lump forming in my throat that I couldn’t seem to speak around. A sudden wave of dread threatened to overtake me.

Jeff got up and walked over to me. He took my hand and my heart began to pound in an ominous fashion.

“Chris, why don’t you sit down over here with me.” Jill directed, indicating that he should take the chair she had just moved to her side of the room.

“Umm, sure…” an unspoken question hanging in the air.

All attention was focused on Suzanne, the old man and Jason. The room fell silent as Suzanne and the old man reached out and took Jason’s hands. After a moment the old man turned to Suzanne and said something to her in a quiet raspy voice. He sat back on the couch and stared ahead with all the patience in the world.

“Jason, I think that you have something to say. I think you have something you need to say.” Suzanne said calmly, watching Jason carefully.

Jason gripped the arms on his chair, but he didn’t look away, didn’t say anything. Suzanne flicked a glance at me, and I stilled my swirling thoughts. Everything in the room came into sharper focus and my breathing sounded loud in my ears.

“It’s okay Jason.” Suzanne tried again, in a reassuring voice. “You’ll feel better when it’s done.”

“Please,” Jason began, a pleading tremble in his voice. He looked over his shoulder at me. The look of anguish on his face was heartbreaking. “Please Lucy.”

Oh God. Whatever you need Jason, tell me what you need…

“Jason, tell her what you want. She needs to hear you say it.” Suzanne was firm this time.

“Lucy…let me go.” He said in a small voice.

I felt like someone had hit me in the face with a sledgehammer. My head rocked back and I experienced a blinding pain behind my eyes.

“Ask again Jason.” Suzanne said.

“Lucy, you have to let me go. I can’t stay with you.” Jason said in a stronger voice, dripping with regret and guilt.

Jeff moved behind me and gripped my shoulders, keeping me from dropping to my knees.

Before my eyes a strand of...something…materialized. It stretched blackly between Jason and me. I could feel the tension on it, about to break.

“What? What is it?” the panic edging into my voice was palpable. I had a sudden urge to go to Jason and breathe into his face. I was confused and I shrieked out “What is it, what’s happening?”

“Lucy, let Jason go. It’s past his time. He doesn’t belong here with us anymore. I’m sorry honey, but you have to let GO!” Suzanne yelled out.

So I did.

Words can’t describe the sense of loss and abandonment. I suddenly just knew what my brain hadn’t been letting me see, and it was crushing me. Jason was gone. He had been gone since the hotel in Danville. And though I couldn’t fathom how, he had stayed among us through some feat of my will.

Through the streaming tears I saw Jason slump forward in his chair. Chris jumped forward trailing Jill behind him. He was in a confused rage, yelling and trying to wake Jason up. He turned an angry glare on me and I had to look away. I couldn’t hear anything but the rush of blood in my own head and strangely, the beat of Jeff’s heart as he held me.

Jeff moved me out of the room and outside to the back porch. He didn’t say anything, just held me. A few minutes later Jill and Chris came out and proceeded towards our tents. Chris didn’t even glance at me and part of me was relieved. Suzanne sat down on the step next to us and reached out a hand to try to comfort me. She said something to Jeff, but I was lost in my own despair and didn’t hear it. I realized that the broken sobs were coming from me.
*******************

I think it actually took me two days to stop crying. I was so dehydrated that I didn’t have any tears left. Jeff and Chris must have taken care of the arrangements. All I remember is Jeff coming in to ask me if I knew of any religious preferences Jason had. That pushed me into a new round of wracking sobs because in spite of knowing Jason for half my life, I had no idea what religious beliefs he held. I am sure I wasn’t much help with anything.

To make matters worse, everyone was of the opinion that I shouldn’t be near Jason again. I knew in my heart that whatever bond we had was broken and I couldn’t repair it. But the people around me were nervous. Jeff and I had a long talk about it and he finally convinced me that I was better off just remembering Jason the way he was before we started this horrific trip. So, I missed his funeral service and I never went to visit his grave. Part of me felt like I wasn’t paying the respect that Jason had more than earned in his life.

Everyday Chris and Jeff went out to make themselves useful. They worked on the windmills, they helped with meal preparation and hunting and occasionally Chris went out to the highway with the watchers to sit in folding chairs.

I, on the other hand, stayed in the tent. Time flew past and I was oblivious. I’ve never slept so much in my life. Chris and Jeff brought me food. Chris was over his initial anger, but something had shifted between us. He seemed somehow older.

I woke up a few times with Jeff asleep next to me. He always got up and walked with me to the latrines or to get something to drink.

After about a week of this I heard Jill and Suzanne outside the tent calling to me. I reluctantly sat up and opened the flaps. It was a grey drizzly day and I was in full wallow.

“We just came to check on you. We are a little worried about your mental health Lucy.” Suzanne called out, smiling when I poked my head out of the door.

“Yeah, you’re scaring people.” Jill added, also smiling but getting more to the point. “We thought it was time you came out of there and became part of our community.”

They had brought a picnic basket with them, so I cleared up my extra blanket and we sat down out of the rain. We had a nice talk, us girls. I had a tendency to just run off at the mouth when Suzanne was around. Before long we were laughing about the men around us and we had polished off all of the food. I must have had fifty visits from other people, dropping in to introduce themselves. Most of them brought small offerings of tobacco with them; two of the young girls brought me woven bracelets that I wore with pride. I knew that this was some sort of staged ritual engineered by Jill or Suzanne, but I did feel curiously better and welcome. We ended with an invitation to take a meal with the rest of the community later in the dining hall and an appointment in the garden with Suzanne the following morning.

It turned out that Jeff’s muscles were far more valuable than his Demon fighting skills. Apparently Mother Earth held more sway here in the community than Demons or Angels ever would. Yes, I said Angels. There had been sightings and even run-ins with them in the surrounding towns. It didn’t sound like Angels to me, but then not much surprised me anymore. At any rate, a haven from Demons was a good thing to know about.

Everyone was under the impression that Jeff and I were a pair. Jeff didn’t say anything to the contrary and I just couldn’t be bothered. Sometimes it’s just easier to let people believe what they wanted.

I learned some basic herbalism from Suzanne and surprised her with some knowledge of my own. She was with me when we came across a mother cat giving birth just under the edge of the pole barn. She had three tiny kittens and was pushing out the fourth. The poor thing was about to wilt when the last one dropped. She went to clean it but became agitated. It wasn’t moving as much as the others or making any noises.

I felt an inexplicable wave of instinct take hold. I picked the fading kitten up and blew sharply into its face. It tensed up and then relaxed, drooping. I blew again, harder. It tensed and hiccupped. Then it rolled its head as I blew again. It drew in a breath, hiccupping. It began to writhe around as the mother paced worriedly around me.

I put the kitten back down with its mother. As I looked up I saw that Suzanne had been studying me.

“That’s quite a gift you have.” She said quietly, a measuring look in her eye.

“Yeah, you know that’s how you get babies to take a breath when they cry so hard they don’t take a breath.” I said, trying to brush it off.

“I am not talking about the knee jerk reaction when you blow in a baby’s face.” Suzanne said pointedly. “ I am talking about whatever allows you to bridge between life and death. That kitten wasn’t dead when you picked it up, but it was going to be very soon. I could see a line extend from you to the kitten when you blew on it.”

“It’s gone now,” she said as she saw me struggling to see it. “ You aren’t even aware of it are you?”

“No, but I thought I saw something when Jason…” I let the thought trail off.

“Jason wasn’t the same. The closest thing I can compare to Jason is, and I am sorry I am so ignorant on the subject, zombies.”

“Zombies!” If I didn’t know better I would have been insulted.

“It isn’t like in the movies. The older guy that came in to our interview knows more about this sort of thing, but I could tell right off that something wasn’t right with Jason. People have what the New Agers call Auras. Jason’s Aura wasn’t alive, and it had an oily black coating on it. The black was probably from the Demon.” Suzanne explained, “ Anyway, when zombies are made, they keep the personality and memories they had in life for a short time, slowly degenerating until someone puts them to rest. There is obviously more to it than that, but that is the extent of my knowledge. I didn’t realize that a zombie could be created the way you did.”

Neither did I.