The Raven's Gift - Don Rearden [87]
John took the glass from the girl, slammed it on the table, and sat down on one of the folding chairs. He sat for a few minutes with the girl standing beside him. He stood up and looked at the monitor, half expecting to see the old woman, or the boy he had mistaken as Alex struggling against the blizzard picking up outside.
“You’re not going to drink more and get drunk, are you?” she asked in a quiet whisper.
He pulled his parka back on and stood at the door. “Let me see if I can catch up with her,” he said. “We’re not getting drunk. Don’t worry.”
He put his arms around her. He’d never held her that way before, tightly in his arms; he’d never tried to comfort her like that.
“I’ll find her,” he said.
ANNA AND JOHN hid out in their home, listening to the AM radio and waiting for the all-clear sign.
“I wish we had a goddamn phone,” Anna said, while she heated up the teakettle. “I just want to call Mom to tell her we’re okay.”
“She knows you’re fine.”
“It’s just sort of ridiculous that we don’t have a phone, you know. In this day and age. It didn’t bother me until now.”
“Or running water. The bucket is about full, and I’m not exactly thrilled to go dump it with everyone sick like this,” he said.
“Do you think I could just run over to the school and call her?”
“No. Why don’t you just email her?”
“The stupid internet isn’t connecting. Plus, that’s not the same, John. She needs to hear my voice. She needs to know this is just temporary and that we’re okay.”
“Shh—news time.”
John turned up the volume on the radio he had brought home from the school.
The reporter’s voice sounded thousands of miles away through the radio’s single speaker. “For KYUK News, I’m Shane Keller. Here is a look at our top local stories. Army guard troops from the region may have their deployment extended. Lower Kuskokwim School District has cancelled class district-wide in response to a respiratory infection that has hit many area villages. Local health officials call for help from state and federal agencies to respond to the growing number of sick infants. And the controversial free fuel program from Venezuela will continue this year, but an announcement that fuel will be delayed until spring is drawing concern from local leaders who say supplies are already too low. All this and more for your KYUK midday news report.”
“Turn it off,” Anna said. “I can’t listen to it any more. How many more ways can they say more people are sick and nothing is being done? No one is doing anything to help! How can they just sit back and do nothing?”
John shrugged. He turned the radio off and looked out the window. The village was a picture of lifelessness. Nothing moved outside except for a few thin golden grass stalks poking out through the snow. The winds shook the small dead stalks. No children played. No snow machines zipped past. For all he knew, the entire village had disappeared during the night.
32
When he returned without the old woman, they ate their dinner in complete silence. When he was done, John ran a finger around his bowl and licked it. The curry powder had given the canned chicken a strangely exotic flavour. That or his tongue had stopped working the way it was supposed to. He set his bowl down and picked a piece of meat from between his teeth with a fingernail.
“Which way did she go?” the girl asked.
“Toward the river,” he said.
“She’ll be okay,” the girl said. “Maybe she’ll go—where we talked about meeting up if we needed to, or somewhere else, somewhere safe.”
John looked over to the girl. She hadn’t touched her dinner yet.
“Maybe,” he said. “I wish you’d made her stay. I’m worried. She’s unarmed.”
“Good luck making that old woman do anything you say,” Red said.
“I tried,” Rayna said. “I really tried, John.”
“Well, I guess I can’t sit here and worry about her. I can’t. I mean I tried, but the wind. Her tracks were disappearing and I didn’t know if I could find my way back. We’ve got enough to worry about. I can