I lowered my eyes.
“I was all over town today. People are getting sick. You probably need to get out there and check on folks tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess I better do that. Doesn’t look like I’m much needed here anyway,” he said and turned to go back to bed. “Stoke down the fire, Layla, you’re letting it get too hot,” he called as he walked out of the room. The edge in his voice was clear, but his meaning hit me even harder.
“What’s with him?” Ian asked.
I shrugged. “Well, I’m going back to bed now. You’re okay?” I asked and rose.
“Good enough, I guess,” he said. “Goodnight,” he added, gazing up at me. The look on his face told me what he was wishing for. I had seen that look many times in the past.
“Goodnight,” I replied simply and walked down the hall.
Before I went to bed, I paused in the hallway outside the spare room. I didn’t hear Jamie snoring.
“Jamie?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer me, but I knew he was awake.
“It wasn’t what it looked like,” I whispered into the darkness. “I’m not—I don’t want—Jamie?”
Still he did not reply.
Sighing, I went back to my bed and laid down. I was just dozing off to sleep when I felt someone sit down on the bed beside me. I worried which one had come.
I opened my eyes and tried to focus in the dim light. I found my grandmother looking down at me.
“Grandma?” I said too loudly, clambering to sit up.
She lifted her finger to her lips to silence me and motioned for me to stay comfortable.
“What is it?” I whispered.
My darling, she said to me, be brave, but you need be aware too. The great eye within you is open, but you need to see. Make sure you see, Layla, really see.
“See what?” I whispered.
Everything, she said with a smile and then faded. See everything.
Chapter 16
By Christmas Eve the flu had run through the town and killed twelve of the elderly citizens, including Mr. Franklin. The flu provided Jamie with a good excuse to stay away from me. I almost never saw him, and when I did, he pretended nothing had happened—neither the kiss nor his jealousy. It was as if he erased the whole moment in the woods from his memory, and we’d gone back to being friends and only friends. The more he acted, the angrier I became. I did not want to be his friend. I wanted him.
On Christmas Eve day, I dragged home a small pine tree for the girls.
“Oh, look at this!” Susan screamed excitedly.
“Grandma made me toss the Christmas ornaments, but I thought we could make some decorations ourselves,” I told the girls as I set up the tree.
The last few months had been hard on the little girls I’d come to love so dearly. They had both lost too much weight and many times they were sad and sulking. They had seen too much.
We rifled around the house and found a bunch of miscellaneous items to make decorations: empty shot-gun shells, canning rings, and other small items. I’d unearthed some silver paint from the barn. Frenchie put the excited children to work painting and then pulled me into the kitchen.
“I have nothing for them,” she whispered, distressed.
“I was going to head into town really quick. I needed to run an errand. Don’t worry, I’ll find something. Lend me your credit card?”
She laughed. “Thank you.”
I reloaded the guns and went out to the barn and got on the snowmobile. It was bitterly cold. I had on my heavy winter jacket and goggles. The snowmobile purred when I started it. After securing the cabin, I headed down the snow-covered road toward town.
It was eerie to see the town completely deserted and covered in deep snow. If anyone else had been around, it was not apparent. The snow had drifted everywhere. I stopped first at the grocery store. While we had cleared the place of food and daily living supplies, I remembered that the owners had a claw machine full of toys.
I pulled my gun and pushed the door open. “Anyone inside?” I called. “I don’t want to shoot you, unless you’re already dead.”
After a moment had passed with no answer and no movement, I went inside. The large windows of the grocery store illuminated the space. We’d already cleared the store out, but you could never be too careful. That was a lesson I’d learned once too often. The shelves of the store were nearly bare. We’d cleared the store of rotting food to ensure it didn’t become a germ pool. Miscellaneous items littered the shelves, but the essentials were gone. At the back of the store I found the claw machine. Inside were numerous dolls, stuffed animals, and packs of plastic toys. Not wanting to break the glass and get shards on the toys, I pondered what to do. I pushed the machine from the wall then grabbed the axe that hung by the fire extinguisher near the back door. With a heave, I chopped the lock. After two swings the case opened. I grabbed the nicest toys I could find and stuffed them into my backpack.