The Raven's Gift - Don Rearden [95]
“She’s not going to understand, I’ll tell you that. She likes you. And you’re growing on me.”
“Growing like a fungus. Listen, I can explain it to her if you’d like. She’ll get that I don’t want to be alone no more. That I can’t leave this place. She knows more than she lets on, you know.”
“I know.”
“What am I not going to understand?”
They both turned and looked down at the girl, standing on the deck beneath them with a red towel wrapped around her black hair.
“Nothing, Rayna. Nothing.”
“Red’s not going with us, is he? He won’t tell anyone about them, my cousins, will he?”
“I’ve got to stay behind, girl. In case someone else comes along and needs help like you guys did. In case that hunter dude comes along. You know old Red will take care of him, too. Bang! Bang! Now go back inside—it ain’t safe out here for a beauty like you. Plus, your hair is soaking wet. You’ll catch a cold.”
“I think it’s too late to worry about catching colds, Red,” she said and disappeared inside.
Red waited for the sound of the door latch and then whispered to John. “Now don’t you steal her hope that those kids are alive. You don’t know that she’s right. You do what you need to, but keep her hope alive. That’s all she’s got. Hell, she’s the only one with any hope in this whole damn place. Leave with her tomorrow, then tell her you forgot something, tell her whatever you need to and come back. That’s the deal. Got it?”
The man’s eyes showed no sign of conceding. John started down the ladder without giving him an answer. He had no intention of returning.
Once they were back inside, the two men watched in silence as Rayna combed and then braided her long black hair. The thick single braid reached down to the middle of her back when she finished. Red handed her a fat blue rubber band to hold it together. John stared at the collection of figure eights running down her back and tried to remember if Anna’s braids had been the same. He didn’t remember ever looking closely at them. They were just braids then; he hadn’t paid attention. He looked at her braids and then at the girl’s grass creation. The braids were similar, three strands that tapered to two, and then one, and he wondered how the girl could weave the strands so perfectly without seeing.
“Are we going to eat tonight?” she asked.
“Of course we’re going to eat tonight, kiddo,” Red said, standing up and stretching out his lower back. “We’ve got to have a little going-away party. We should eat something special, don’t you think? Maybe I should order us a pizza.”
The girl covered her mouth with both hands and giggled. The giggle turned to a cough. She coughed twice and cleared her throat. “Maybe you could order some Chinese food, too. I always ordered sweet-and-sour chicken when I came to Bethel,” she said and giggled some more.
Red chuckled. “And Greek! I’ll order us one of them gy-ros and a cal-zoni!”
They laughed together at his awkward pronunciation and John began to chuckle, too.
Red reached over and picked up a cordless phone sitting by the computer. John hadn’t noticed it sitting there, useless. “Here’s the phone,” he said, handing it to the girl. “Order me some Pad Thai from Stinky Fingers, with some mango coconut rice.”
The girl put the phone to her ear, laughing, and rolled back on the bed. John stood up from his chair and walked over to her. “Let me see that thing,” he said. She stopped laughing and she held the phone out. He snatched it up and for a moment Red and the girl thought the fun was over, but then he put it to his own ear.
“Hello? Is this Impossible Hut? I’d like to place an order. Yeah. One order of new jeans, yeah, mine aren’t fitting so well. I’ve lost a couple of pounds on this crazy diet. And a jet to pick us up and take us somewhere tropical, somewhere warm, yes, with a side order of cheesy fries. What do you want, Red?”
The girl held her stomach and rolled around on the bed, laughing and gasping for air.
“From Impossible Hut? I’ll take some king crab with drawn butter, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and