NINETY-SEVEN: Hide

NINETY-SEVEN: Hide

 “Arous?” Jude asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “I didn’t recognize you . . . are you ok?”

“It’s this outfit, it makes me look fat doesn’t it?”

He laughed.  “You’ve looked better.”

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Arous said.

“Burton is a friend of my father.  He owned all the corner stores in town. I work the stables here like I did back home with my grandfather. I was already here when -” he turned white. “How long have you been here?”

“A week or two. I don’t know. I wandered awhile north before I got here, maybe a week. It’s all running together. I can’t even remember who I am,” she said and looked up at him. “I’ve been sleeping in that nasty barn. What’s happened, Jude?”

“I don’t know.” His sentence faded into an awkward silence. “There is an empty stall in the horse stables. It is much warmer there and much cleaner. Let me help you.”

Jude led her into the horse stable. He showed her to a large bath where she could get cleaned up as he went about getting the birthing stall ready.  She reappeared for a long bath and he looked at her dumbfounded before smiling.  Before her skin was an ashy grey now she shone luminescent.

“That was a good disguise you had going,” he said. “You look like you could use some rest.  I’ll bring you something to eat later. I have to get back to work.”

“What about, Burton?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him. Work something out. You rest.”

“No, don’t tell him I’m here. Ricci can’t find me here.”

“Okay,” he said.

Jude threw some extra hay in the corner of the birthing stall and grabbed a clean blanket off the shelf outside.  As soon as she’d lain down, Jude threw the blanket on top of her and kneeling down he kissed her on the forehead.  He walked out shutting the stall door behind him.  As she snuggled into the warm, sweet hay, she could smell the spicy aroma of wood burning in the potbellied stove at the other end of the stable.  She pulled the blanket tighter till all she could just catch a whiff of the warm horses and hay.  She drifted off to sleep with Jude’s name on her lips.

Out of a stale dream Arous could distinguish two voices: a large, scratchy one and a strong, tenor.  She could not distinguish any words but knew their proximity to the stall. She rolled her head in the dry hay and tried to sink further down, to hide.  The rain had stopped.  As she got closer to the dawn of waking she identified the voices of Jude and Burton.

“Who is she?”

Jude was silent.

“You don’t know?” Burton asked.

“I would rather not say.”

“Then she must be in some kind of trouble,” Burton said. “She looks familiar. Where’ve I seen her before?”

Arous felt someone standing in the door way, a shadow fell across her.  She heard Burton gasp.

“She’s the daughter of that Lunese woman isn’t she?”

Jude didn’t respond.

“I’ll V-dot Ricci, let him know she’s here,” said Burton.”