Defective (13 page)

He nodded. He
remembered. Sad places, filled with children with adult postures.
He didn’t want to think about Jelly or Forest or Narrow or any of
them in a place like that.

"But that would
mean something’s happened to Mary, my wife."

"Hap you may have
to face the fact that something has happened or she’d be here. How
old is your oldest? Porkchop?"

At the mention of
his daughter's name, Hap stared out into the night.

"Porkchop," he
said softly. "She was such a good baby. Such a good daughter." He
blinked away the stare. "Lemme see, she’d be nineteen now. I missed
her birthday. She’d never leave the others, never."

"Is there anyone
else who might know where your children are?"

Hap thought for a
while then slapped his forehead with his palm.

"The
Constable!"

"Constable?"

"PC Pierre. He’ll
know. He knows everything around here."

A gust of wind
blew through the kitchen. Marvellous shivered.

"Can you trust
him?"

Hap told her
everything he knew about PC Pierre.

"He’s an honest
man," said Hap.

___

Forest said that
the Solstice would be clear so Porkchop decided that the family
should eat dinner outside that night. Bull and Jones had brought
home a large pheasant in the early morning hours and it had spent
the afternoon roasting over the fire pit in the yard. In the ashes
of the pit Santa had poked in some potatoes. They ate the pheasant
with the roasted potatoes and fresh greens and herbs. Pater ate
quickly then got up to leave.

"Good grub," he
said. He nodded to Santa then disappeared into the night.

Bull lit the
bonfire and they watched the flames as they digested. Mixer
squirmed his way out of Santa’s arms and now played in the dirt at
her feet.

Eventually, the
big dinner and the warmth of the fire took its toll and heads began
to nod. Narrow’s curly-haired head rested on his chest. Forest and
Bull snored. Jelly and Jones sat astride a bench and leaned their
backs against each other. Porkchop was bent over the table, her
head laid across her folded arms. Soon, even Santa and Titania were
asleep.

Mixer watched the
flames for a while. He followed a star’s movement. In the months
since they'd arrived at the farm, Mixer had finally come to the
conclusion that, on his own, he could do little to move his plan
forward; he had the mental power but not the physical capacity and
he would need both to get what he wanted. For that he needed one
particular person; but he had to find him first.

For the last few
weeks he had practiced throwing his mind but it required solitude
and he was rarely alone; either Santa or Titania was always around.
The first time he’d done it successfully he’d connected with a boy.
The boy was crying and through the gauzy film of his eyes, Mixer
could make out a large shape striking down on him. He had hurriedly
pulled away.

The next two times
he’d connected to an old woman. The first time she was singing:

Oh I knead, knead,
knead

It’s my creed,
creed, creed

Bread will bake,
bake, bake

For pity’s sake,
sake, sake.

Her vision seemed
to jerk up and down and Mixer had immediately felt nauseated. A few
days later he tried again and found her focused intently on a man’s
arm. Through her eyes he saw her zero in on a particular area then
yank hard. He’d flailed at the sudden movement and cut the
connection.

As his family
slept around him, he took a deep breath, emptied his mind and cast
again, wider this time. He passed over many people he came across;
none of them were the right one. The stars tracked across the
mid-summer sky and eventually into the void came a voice Mixer had
heard before. It was the only voice he’d ever respected. It was
loud and obnoxious. He cried out in surprise and delight.

Summer

They’d been working in
the fields since dawn and now Jelly, Forest and Narrow came inside
the barn, their faces red and dripping with sweat. It was too hot
to work in the fields any longer. The daily rains had finally
stopped but the humidity had continued; a glue-like air mass that
moved in at noon and didn’t abate till well after dark. The crates
were working to store the rainwater; the children also stored some
of it in large glass and ceramic jugs and stashed them in the
dugouts to keep the water cool.

"All I’m saying is
that we should at least look," Narrow said, going to the nearest
dugout and taking out a jar. He drank from it then passed it
around. Forest took it from him and sat down on a crate; Jelly
hopped up onto the table and waited for Forest to pass the jar to
her.

"We don’t know for
sure that he’s dead," he continued. "Remember? Ma wouldn’t let us
look."

"Narrow, Ma and Pa
are both dead. Get used to it," said Forest.

"But I know where
the orchard is! I’ve figured out where it is and how to get
there."

From a shelf
Narrow took down his maps and unrolled them on the table. Jelly
hopped off to make room.

"Here’s where we
are," he said, pointing at a spot. "If we had to take the roads
we’d have to go all round the valley like that, see? That’d take
days. Jones could make it across the valley in no time."

Jelly considered
Narrow’s idea from a different point of view.

"There might be
plants we could use, ones that don’t grow up here. I still haven’t
been able to find any cure-all. The pine nuts alone would be worth
it. And think of the mushrooms that must be down there, Forest,"
she said.

Forest liked
mushrooms, fried silky soft in fat. He smiled then shook his
head.

"Porkchop won’t go
for it."

"I don’t see why
not," said Jelly.

___

A rider arrived in
Battery from New Key, the administrative capital of Deloran County,
with a message for the Landlord.

There’d been
trouble at one of his labour camps; one of his foremen had been
accused of doctoring birth records. It had been one of the
Landlord’s earliest schemes; for the cost of redoing a little
paperwork, he could milk two, three, sometimes four more years off
a child labourer. Most children forgot their birthdays, and a lot
of other things, the longer they stayed in a camp.

The foreman knew
better than to squeal but the Landlord still had to attend before
the magistrate within seven days. New Key was a five-day journey by
wagon, likely more if the recent bad weather had washed out some of
the roads. He decided instead to take the Port Abram ferry; it was
large enough that he could bring Jonathan, his favourite horse,
with him. New Key was a sprawling city and on past trips there he’d
always found it easier to have a horse than rely on the local wagon
service.

___

PC Pierre updated
Mrs. Baker. He wouldn’t be going to his cabin just yet; he would
stop by the orchard first.

Mrs. Baker offered
to organize his supplies while he was gone.

"One less thing to
worry about, hun," she said. "I’ll have everything ready for you
when you get back."

She also offered
him her horse, Chester.

"Chester’ll be
faster than Josephine. And that’ll give Josephine more time to rest
up."

At the top of Hap
Road the Constable brought Chester to a stop then blew his whistle
three times.

"That’s PC
Pierre," said Hap, hearing the sound.

"Stay here,"
Marvellous said.

PC Pierre guided
Chester down the road and saw a woman emerge from the press house.
She was tall and well muscled with a square jaw that jutted out
ahead of her purposeful, almost arrogant walk. She reminded him of
someone.

"You must be the
Constable. Pierre, is it? The Landlord told me you might stop
by."

Marvellous
extended a tawny hand as PC Pierre climbed down from the horse. He
shook it.

"I’m Deloran
County Police Constable Pierre and you are...?"

"Marvellous."

"Marvellous?"

"My mother had
a...unique sense of humour."

He noticed Hap’s
old two-wheeler leaning against one of the storage bins.

"The Landlord
asked me to stop by and see how you were getting along. I’m sure
you’re going to want some hired help."

"Maybe for the
picking but that won’t be for another three months, maybe less,"
she said. "There are a couple of varieties that can be picked
early. I can do those."

"It’s a big job,"
he said.

"Down south I took
care of an orchard almost as big as this and a lot less forgiving."
She shrugged. "More workers, more trouble."

"Is that where
you’re from, the south?"

"That’s
right."

Marvellous didn’t
invite him inside. They stood awkwardly in the yard for a few
moments. They discussed the weather, what the signs were telling
them. He told her about some of the more prolific and beneficial
local flora that she might not yet be aware of. When she expressed
genuine surprise at his knowledge, it was the Constable who
shrugged.

"You learn a lot
as a police officer. Plus, one of the...the people who used to live
here knew all about plants."

"Was there a
family here?" she asked. "There are a lot of beds upstairs."

The Constable was
starting to feel strange, as though he was being examined from an
angle he couldn’t quite see. He forgot her question.

"Well, if you’re
sure about not wanting any help, I’ll be getting on. If you do need
me, Battery is at least a full day’s walk west. Follow the mains.
They take longer but you won’t get lost. Ask for me at Mrs.
Baker’s."

"What happened to
them?" Marvellous tilted her head and looked at the Constable. He
shivered.

PC Pierre found
himself saying, "Their parents died. On the same day, too. The
oldest wasn’t twenty yet, so they were...removed."

Marvellous nodded
her head. Just as she’d suspected.

"Labour camp," she
said. She broke eye contact with the officer.

"No. A relative
took them."

Marvellous looked
back up.

"Must be some
relative. Taking in nine children."

I didn’t say there
were nine, the Constable thought just as Chester, who had till now
stood silent beside him, nudged him in the small of his back. PC
Pierre stumbled forward slightly.

"All right, all
right," he said, turning back to look at the horse.

Marvellous thanked
him for the visit, assured him that she didn’t need any help then
watched him ride away. Back inside, she told Hap what he’d
said.

"But I don’t have
any relatives."

"Is it possible
you just don’t remember them? Or that you even know about
them?"

Hap looked at his
sister. He hadn’t known about her. His father was dead, probably.
He never knew exactly what had happened to him. Maybe there were
others. Maybe Mary had relatives he hadn’t known about.

At the fork in the
road, PC Pierre stopped, dismounted and tied Chester to a nearby
tree. He walked back to the orchard and made himself comfortable
behind a thick clump of staghorn sumac overlooking the front yard
and waited.

___

When Titania got
up to leave the barn and return to Pater’s house for the evening,
Mixer whined in Santa’s lap until she put him down. He crawled
straight for Titania.

"He seems to want
to be with you tonight," said Santa. "Is that all right?"

"Yes, fine," said
Titania.

At the house,
Titania laid her brother down to sleep in her bed then sat on the
front porch and watched the night sky. Mixer put a thought into her
head.

When Pater finally
arrived home that night, stinking of maple whiskey Titania was
waiting for him. He stumbled inside and fell into a chair. She put
a cup of tea and some hard biscuits in front of him and waited
until his mouth was full before she began to speak. Behind the
curtain, Mixer nodded in satisfaction.

___

Jelly brought the
plan to Porkchop who was out in the furrows inspecting the
plants.

"You two have done
such a good job," she said as Jelly approached. "Everything is
growing really well, despite all the rain."

Porkchop rarely
praised them for anything. Jelly took advantage of her sister’s
good mood.

"Since it’s doing
so well, Forest and I thought we’d take a few days off for a
foraging."

Porkchop nodded
again.

"We thought we
might see what’s growing in the valley."

"The valley?"

Porkchop turned
and looked down at her youngest sister. Unlike Jones’ hair, which
he kept short, Jelly’s was long. The dark unbrushed strands had
eventually intertwined into half a dozen thick bunches that hung
down her back like rope. Pa used to say that the twins were as
different as chalk and cheese, but Porkchop had always silently
disagreed. Their hair was the only thing that distinguished them.
Their faces and expressions were identical, even their voices
sounded the same.

"I don’t know,
Jelly. It may not be safe."

"Jones can come
with us. He can scout ahead. If there’s any trouble, he’ll deal
with it."

"You’ll get
lost."

"No we won’t, we
never get lost! I’ll bet there are trails leading down. It’s too
bad we can’t ask Pater."

Pater had
disappeared again. Jelly missed having him around. Lately he’d been
nicer to them, thanking the boys for the game they provided and
Santa for her cooking. He had even grunted approval when he saw
Narrow’s water crates.

"You’d have to
camp overnight if something happened."

"If we leave
before dawn I’m sure we could be back before the sun goes
down."

"Well..."

"It’s starting to
dry out and Forest says the skies will be clear for the next
while."