Defective (11 page)

She pictured Hap
in her head but couldn't find his thoughts. Still, she believed he
was out there somewhere close by. If she had to use her defects to
protect her future, and his, that's what she would do. Her days of
running were, she hoped, coming to an end.

___

PC Pierre's week
at the cabin was up and now he was heading back into Battery. He
needed supplies for the summer and had already waited through
several days of non-stop rain at the cabin until he gave up. He
pushed Josephine as fast as she would go in the sheeting rain. Rain
or no rain, he had to get to town.

The rain was
coming down in fat drops as Josephine pulled a soggy Constable and
an empty cart to the stall at the back of Baker’s Yard. PC Pierre
jumped down from the cart and ran to open the shed doors to let in
Josephine. Chester whinnied in his stall when he opened the doors.
Josephine stopped midway through and refused to move. The front
half of her was in the dry inside while rain poured down from the
roof onto the Constable who eventually gave up trying to pull her
inside and was now splayed across her rear end fiddling to get her
harness undone.

"Thanks a heap,
Josie," said PC Pierre as he wheeled the cart into one half of the
stall. Josephine shook her head and stepped into her stall in the
back corner. She looked at Chester, who nodded at her.

He dashed through
the rain and onto the porch of Baker’s Yard. PC Pierre opened one
of the front double doors and stepped inside onto a straw mat. A
brass bell clanged above him. He wiped his boots clean.

Two wall lamps had
been lit inside. A wooden counter ran three-quarters of the length
of the front room and in the middle of it was a hinged
pass-through. A swinging back door with a window cut into it led to
the kitchen in the back. Baskets filled with a few loaves of bread,
some cookies and biscuits lined the shelves behind the counter.
Shelves on the other walls held a variety of books, utensils,
garden and farm implements, baskets, and jars filled with preserves
and pickles. Three small tables, each with four chairs crowded
around them, took up the rest of the room.

"Mrs. Baker?" he
called.

"Back here!" she
hollered.

The Constable
swung through the door.

"Anything left? I
could sure use some supper."

"Have you ever
known me to run outta food? Have a seat. Lemme just dry my
hands."

Mrs. Baker filled
a bowl with stew and turned to set it before the Constable.

"My goodness!
You’re soaking wet! Why didn’t you say anything? Upstairs. Now.
Change first." She held onto the bowl and flicked her fingers at
him. "Go on, I’ll keep it warm."

PC Pierre took the
back staircase to his rooms, changed then returned to the
kitchen.

"So...where’s that
stew?"

Mrs. Baker set it
down in front of him along with a basket of fresh baked rolls.

"I'm just gonna
keep doing the dishes, hun. But you catch me up. How've you been
keeping?"

"Pretty well. This
rain, though. Never seen so much."

"Must make it hard
for old Josephine, eh?"

"Oh she can take
care of herself," the Constable said. "I never worry too much about
her."

"Ha! You worry
about everyone, hun."

"It's my job, Mrs.
Baker," he said. He paused to chew some gravy-soaked bread.
"Speaking of jobs, do you know if the Landlord’s back from the
auction?"

"Not a clue, hun.
Probably be any day now, though. Won't be soon enough. Those two he
hired for the bar this summer are almost as bad as the lumbermen.
I’ve already set three broken arms and had to pop somebody’s
shoulder back in since they came."

"Okay," he said.
"Seems pretty quiet over there now. I’ll go and speak with them.
"

The Constable put
his bowl and plate into the sink.

"You know me, hun,
I'll be in bed by the time you get back. See you in the
morning."

"Goodnight, Mrs.
Baker."

___

The Landlord
blindfolded Marvellous for the last two hours of their journey so
that she wouldn't know where he was taking her. She smiled to
herself thinking of how pointless that was.

As the journey had
worn on, the scenery around Hap had started to look more and more
familiar. Trees, rock outcroppings, and especially an old road sign
that he couldn't read but somehow knew read Hap Road. Marvellous
had told him that their mother had named him after the road his
father took out of town.

At a fork in the
road the Landlord steered his cart left, heading west. Hap pedalled
for the bush, searching for the trail he instinctively knew was
there. It ran parallel to the road. Riding through the thick tree
cover he could see that he was easily overtaking the tired horses.
The trail continued through an old stormwater culvert that ran
beneath the road bed; it was high enough to stand up in and he
easily pedalled through it. Coming out of the culvert on to the
trail on the other side Hap's heart was pounding hard and he could
almost taste what he was about to see.

And then there
they were: row after row of pearl apple trees just about to bloom.
The light green buds hid the delicate pinkish-white flowers beneath
and bobbed in the damp breeze.

In a rush, it all
came back to him. He dropped the bike and leaned back heavily
against a tree. What had happened to his wife, his children?

From his vantage
point he saw the Landlord pull the cart in close to the press house
door and hurry his sister inside. Hap sank to the ground. Tears
rolled down as his cheeks as the faces of his children came to
him.

___

Once the rain
finally stopped it was too late for the Landlord to return to
Battery. He showed Marvellous the press house and pointed out the
other buildings to her through the windows. He pulled up the boards
that covered the cold storage dugouts in the floor, one filled with
apples, another with potatoes. The Landlord handed her a ham hock
and some onions and told her to make some stew.

"Let's see if you
can cook," he said. Marvellous set to work as the Landlord sat at
the kitchen table and watched her.

Marvellous chopped
and sliced and added spices from a pocket in her jacket. In a
while, the Landlord stood up and joined her at the stove.

"Smells good," he
said then made a noise of discovery. "I knew there was another one
around here somewhere."

He walked over to
the shadowed corner beyond the stove and pulled up a handle in the
floor. It swung back on hinges and from inside, the Landlord
withdrew a ceramic jug.

"Cider," he told
her, knocking the handle shut with his foot and returning to the
table.

"Could I use some
of that for the stew? It'd be better than water. Just a
little?"

The Landlord
poured a small amount in a mug and passed it to her. She poured it
over top of the hot food creating a steam cloud. Her nostrils
twitched; the smell of the cider and onions completely overpowered
the other spices she'd used.

Over dinner,
Marvellous asked the Landlord no questions and he offered no
information. He ate quickly and with obvious pleasure. After
dinner, he tied her to a bed in the loft upstairs then returned
downstairs and emptied the cider jug. He fell asleep where he
sat.

In the morning,
after a breakfast of apples and biscuits, the Landlord went outside
to see to the horses then returned with a crate of food. He set it
down, told her to expect him again in two weeks then climbed into
the wagon and started up the road.

Marvellous stood
at the press house door and watched until she could no longer see
or hear him. She scanned the horizon but could see no movement, no
sign of her brother. He must be out there somewhere, listening and
waiting for his chance to appear.

___

Even though it was
the lumbermen's payday, his most profitable of the week at the
Piggy Gristle, the Landlord took it slow back to Battery. He didn't
want to tire out the horses; they were too valuable. Their easy,
regular pace made his attention wander. He was tired. He'd woken up
to the smell of apples and a sense of ill ease. He'd fallen asleep
at the kitchen table. Hadn't he tied the woman to the bed last
night? He felt sure he'd done that. But she'd been up and cooking
when he awoke. He'd quickly excused himself and gone outside. In
the outhouse he checked his pockets and his wallet and, on his way
back, the wagon to make sure she hadn't stolen anything. All was in
order.

She was a looker,
that was for sure, he thought. Maybe a bit too smart for her own
good. He had a fleeting thought that he'd made the wrong choice,
but dismissed it. She was like any other woman. All women — and
many men — wanted security. He could give her that. Get someone
addicted to security and you could make them do just about
anything.

He’d have Pierre
check on her in a week or so. At the thought of the Constable, the
Landlord thought of the children. He'd never asked Pierre what he'd
done with them, other than to make sure they didn’t end up in one
of his camps. Still, he wouldn't mind knowing what had happened to
the blonde one. She continued to pop up in his dreams from time to
time.

___

The Landlord
spotted Josephine grazing with Chester in the field behind Baker’s
Yard when he returned. His barkeep stabled his horses and started
to unload the wagon. He spoke with the man for a while, learning
what had gone on in his absence.

"Fine, fine. When
you’re done here tell Pierre to come and see me," the Landlord told
the barkeep.

In due time the
Constable arrived and the Landlord told him about the new orchard
worker.

"I would
appreciate it if you could check in on her in a few days,
Pierre."

"Of course.
Although if you don’t mind my saying so, it seems like a lot of
work for one person."

"That’s what I
told her. But she seemed to think she can do it."

The Landlord
shrugged. Some of his best labourers were women. They were easily
cowed, typically didn’t drink, and almost never stopped working.
Perhaps if this Marvellous woman does need people, I ought to hire
a few strong young girls, he mused. One in particular came to
mind.

"I meant to ask
you, Pierre, what happened to all the children from the
orchard?"

"A relative took
them," PC Pierre said slowly.

"Relative? Didn’t
think those two had any."

"Hap’s father is
still alive."

"Really? Live
around here?"

"More north."

PC Pierre made a
vague gesture with his hand. He didn’t owe the Landlord an
explanation. It was perfectly legal for a relative to take orphaned
children.

The Landlord
didn't want to appear too eager for information. As a County
employee, Pierre was one of the few people he couldn't control. As
the Landlord for the area he used the Constable's services more
than most but he couldn't order him to divulge police business.

"Glad to hear that
they've landed on their feet."

"Yes sir."

PC Pierre thought
that if the new woman at the orchard did end up needing help, the
Landlord might consider taking the family back. Much would depend
on the woman. He had time to check on her before returning to his
summer cabin.

"Oh, and I talked
to the lads you hired for the Gristle," he said to the Landlord,
his hand on the doorknob. "They shouldn’t give you any more
trouble."

PC Pierre hated
fighting but if someone took a swing at him he would defend
himself. The barkeep had told the Landlord that one of the bouncers
had gone after the Constable the minute he’d walked through the
door. Pierre ducked the punch, came up underneath him and tossed
the man into a corner. When the second one saw that, the barkeep
said with a smile, he near enough shit his drawers. The Constable
sat right down in front of him and had a little chat.

"I couldn’t hear
what he said, but your guy looked pretty scared," the barkeep had
told the Landlord. "Haven’t had a problem with ‘em since."

"So I heard," the
Landlord now said with a smile. "Thank you Pierre."

___

The rain stopped
and the sun emerged in the late afternoon. Marvellous had already
explored the press house and now she went outside to look for Hap.
She checked the barn and the smaller shed beside it; she called his
name as she walked the rows of trees, up and down. Finally, she
came to the furthest edge of the orchard. To her left she could
just make out a trail coming out of the woods. She spotted the
bicycle. But where was her brother?

She began to lope
across the perimeter between the cliff's edge and the orchard. The
land sloped upwards slightly as she got closer and closer to the
edge. At a pine tree, its branches hanging out over the valley
below and its roots clinging to the side of the cliff, she saw
first a boot then a shin then a thigh.

She crouched down
beside him on the ground. Hap's eyes were red and his face was
streaked with dirt. His soaking wet clothes clung to his body.

"Hap, what
happened? Are you all right?"

When he didn't
respond, Marvellous slapped him once, hard, across his face. Hap
didn’t seem to notice.

"This is it," he
said. "Home."

"Home?"

"It all came back
to me, Marvellous. This is where I live. I have a wife and children
Marvellous and I don't know where they are!"

Hap began to sob
and leaned heavily against Marvellous. She shifted her weight to
keep from toppling over. A distant crack of thunder made her look
up. Clouds were beginning to thicken up again; more rain was on the
way.

"Come on," she
said, standing up and hauling her brother to his feet. "Let's get
you home."

___