27
It took nearly four hours to get to the meeting point. If Mawei had known the way she could’ve gotten there much faster, but she had to follow this longhaired human who seemed to move with an excess of caution. Helena was still wearing the man’s shirt and hat, and he’d given her socks too, but on their journey one had fallen off, leaving a foot exposed to the cold. Mawei held the naked foot in her hand to keep it warm as they slowly picked their way through the snowy woods.
Eventually they got to an empty two-lane mountain road, and walked about a half a mile on it before they came to a pickup truck idling on the shoulder. They approached it from behind and Mawei could see a thin man in a baseball cap sitting in the driver’s seat. He was listening to the radio and he didn’t notice them until they were right outside his window. He looked up at Mawei and, in a blind panic, scrambled back in his seat away from her before recovering enough to throw the truck into drive and tear out of there with a screech. Ruffer’s longhaired human screamed for him to stop and ran after the truck waving his arms, but it went around a bend and was gone.
“I guess he didn’t like the look of us.” Mawei said to the man as he walked back to her and Helena.
“He’s just scared. Hang on I’ll call him.” He took out his small glowing device and dialed up his friend. He sounded angry and was standing in a posture of annoyance. When he was finished he put the device back into the front pocket of his army coat. “He’s coming back,” he said.
“Would he tell other humans about this?” Mawei asked.
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s not exactly what you would call a reliable witness, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t get any pictures.”
Mawei didn’t know what he meant by ‘pictures’ but she felt reassured. The truck came around the bend and moved toward them slowly. It stopped about forty feet away and the lights flashed. The longhaired human told Mawei and Helena to wait and ran up the road to the truck. He spoke for a long time to the man, who kept looking out the window at Mawei and Helena, as if he wanted to make sure he wasn’t imagining the whole thing.
Ruffer’s human jogged back to them and shook his head, a gesture Mawei didn’t recognize. “He’s afraid,” he said in yeti. “He wants to help, but if you give the child to us and we bring her to her grandmother’s house there will be questions. We can’t say a beast with large-feet brought her to us, and no one would believe that she survived in the wilderness all this time on her own. They’ll want to know why we didn’t bring her home sooner.”
“You don’t understand.” Mawei said. “I’m not going to just hand the child to you. She’s my responsibility and I have to see her to safety myself. I just want you to show me which dwelling belongs to her grandmother because they all look the same to me. Tell your friend that all he has to do is get us there and I’ll do the rest. No other humans need to know you’re involved.”
The longhaired man jogged back to his friend and they spoke for a minute before he waved for them to come to the truck. As Mawei approached, carrying little Helena, the man in the truck stared at her, slack-jawed.
“You can lie flat in the back of the truck with the tarp over you and no one will see you back there.” Ruffer’s human said. “The girl can ride up front with us.”
“No.” Mawei said. “She’ll ride with me in the back.” Mawei stepped into the bed of the truck, lowering it considerably on its shocks, and sat down with Helena beside her. She shook the snow off of the tarp and pulled it up, halfway over them. Mawei’s large body took up most of the space in the bed of the truck, and even lying on a diagonal she had to bend her legs to fit. Helena curled up in the crook of her arm and Mawei pulled the tarp the rest of the way over them. It had a strange smell and the light coming through turned Mawei and the child blue. Mawei held Helena close to her as the truck began to move.
It was a winding mountain road and Mawei and Helena were being pushed from side to side with the turns. Mawei felt every bump in the road through the bed of the truck slamming into her hip, but she grit her teeth and took the pain without comment. When they went around a particularly sharp curve she noticed Helena looking at her. “What?” Mawei asked.
“You’re scared.” Helena said.
“I’ve never been in one of these things before.” Mawei said. “We’re going very fast.”
“You’re scared of riding in a truck.” The child said. They went over a bump and Mawei winced.
Eventually the blue light coming through the tarp started to fade as evening turned to night. Mawei wasn’t sure how long they’d been traveling because the smell of the tarp mixed with gasoline and exhaust had made her lightheaded and seemed to be warping her perception of time. It could have been one hour or three, she couldn’t tell.
The truck began moving at a much slower speed and finally stopped. Mawei pulled the tarp back and sat up, breathing in the fresh air. The road they were on had human dwellings on either side in neat rows. “This is my Nana’s street!” Helena said in sound language, jumping up in the back of the truck.
Mawei could see what her uncle had meant when he said that humans lived in a world of light. Each dwelling had rectangular openings with light shining from inside, and there were also strings of small, multicolored lights on the houses and even on some of the trees.
Mawei climbed out of the back of the truck and picked up Helena. The longhaired human got out of the cab. “This is it,” he said in yeti. “The girl’s grandmother lives in the one back there that doesn’t have any lights up.”
“Thank you for your help.” Mawei said.
The man stuck his hand out sideways at Mawei. “Humans grasp each other’s right hand as a sign of respect.” He said.
Mawei took his little hand in hers and held it for a moment. He looked directly in her eyes, as if he were afraid he would miss some detail of the moment, and then turned to Helena. “You’re a very lucky little girl,” he said, “you should try to remember this.” He got back in the truck and shut the door, and Mawei watched it move down the road, hoping she would never have to ride in another human vehicle ever again.
She went toward the only dark house on the street. It was a small place with yellow paint peeling off the front porch. There were no lights coming from any of the windows, but Mawei saw a bluish glow coming from around back. She crunched her way up the gravel driveway, past a beat-up old car, and came into a small backyard. The glow she’d seen was coming from a television that flickered in the living room, behind sliding glass doors. Mawei went up onto the cement patio, holding little Helena, and walked up to the glass. At first she thought the room was empty, but there was a woman sitting on an old couch. “Is that your grandmother?” Mawei asked the child.
“I can’t see.” Helena said. She reached up and banged her tiny fist against the glass three times. “Hey Nana!” She shouted.
The woman in the room jumped to her feet as if ready to fight or run. She stared at the sliding door, unable to make out what was on the other side. Helena banged her fist on the glass again. “Nana let us in!” The woman held her hands up to her mouth and cried out as if she were being tormented by evil spirits or just plain losing her mind. She walked stiffly to the sliding door and opened it just enough to stick her head out. She saw Helena and stepped onto the patio, but then froze when she got a clear view of Mawei.
Mawei set little Helena down, and the child walked over to her grandmother in the too-big shirt and one bare foot. The woman silently fell to her knees, took the wool cap off of her granddaughter, looked at her for a moment, and then threw her arms around her. Tears were streaming down the woman’s face and she was shaking violently.
She looked up at Mawei and then stood, lifting Helena. Mawei could see that she was terrified and couldn’t understand what was happening. It was as if her reality had ripped open and Mawei had stepped through the breach. Mawei slowly, unthreateningly, walked toward them. “I have to go now little bird.” She said to the child.
&nbs
p; Helena scrunched up her nose at Mawei. “I’m glad the police didn’t catch you.” She said.
“Thanks.” Mawei said. She leaned in and touched her nose to Helena’s and then turned and left. She went back down the gravel driveway and began running when she reached the road. The woods were only a half-mile away and she wanted to get there as fast as she could and leave the human village behind her. A light snow began to fall as she ran toward the welcoming darkness of the forest.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Broke is the pseudonym of an author who wishes to remain anonymous. He currently lives in Pittsburgh and works a regular job. Please download and read more of his books, it would make him happy. He can be reached by email at:
[email protected] Twitter: @Benny_Broke
You can call or text Benny at: (412) 512-7732
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ALSO BY BENJAMIN BROKE
Please go to Benjamin Broke’s author page at your preferred ebook retailer and check out some of his other work.
ANIMAL THEATER
UFO cults, mass suicides, clones, designer drugs, brain-implants, propaganda, mind control, war, politics and conspiracies big and small -this collection contains all 20 previously published Second Civil War stories.
In the chaotic aftermath of a complete economic collapse, the American people turn to a right-wing political movement, the Christian Nationalist Party, to restore order. When the western states refuse to enact some of the party's harsh new anti-terror measures, the military moves in, setting off a long and bloody civil war. This series of short stories explores the impact of the war on the lives of people from every level of society.
INSURGENTS
How far would you go to help a friend in trouble?
Ben Perkins might go so far as to risk his job, but with a friend like David Telano, in the kind of trouble he's in, he'll wind up risking his life. With the encouragement of his girlfriend Jessie, a 24 hour a day weed smoker, Ben is soon mixed up in a war that's going on just beneath the surface of his quiet Ohio town. On one side is a lesbian newspaper editor, radicalized by the murder of her girlfriend, and on the other is a wealthy businessman running a drug-smuggling operation from a private airfield. In between them is Ben, who starts out trying to help a friend but ends up just trying to stay out of jail and continue breathing.
SPACECRAFT
This is not a book -it’s a scam.
It’s the story of Nick, a seventeen year old weed-smoking, acid-eating, suburban nihilist dropout who accidentally stumbles across an idea that is truly revolutionary. In this text you will find arguments against art, money, sobriety, religion, education, and the rule of law.
This is Benjamin Broke’s first novel and it is deeply flawed and wrong on many levels. You should begin downloading it immediately.
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