Sneaks (2 page)

“We’d have more money.” Mom laughed.

She was trying to keep me from crying. I blinked hard.

“Maybe not. We have a lot of money, we just can’t spend it like normal people can,” I said. “Like you said, two years is a long time. Maybe we’ll figure something out.” I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

“That’s my girl.” She ran her finger over my cheek. “I’ve got to get to work. Try not to spend all day down here, okay?”

I sniffed and nodded, but I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t leaving my shop today, if I could help it.

When the hatch door was securely shut, I turned my full attention to the clock. I would lose my thoughts in it. I knew how to focus on the gears, the springs, the beautiful inner workings that made sense when it seemed so nothing else did. If I could step into a clock, close the casing and live among the inner workings, I would. If only I could live there with the cows and horses and green, real grass.

I opened the bottom glass door and reached for the gold pendulum. It hung like a loose tooth. I put my finger and thumb around its delicate but thick stem and lifted it up. It came off the hook easily. As I pulled the pendulum out, something clunked on the bottom of the case.

I cursed quietly. I thought was being careful. Had I broken something? I gently laid the pendulum on the work table and leaned forward to peer into the bottom. The maneuver made my other hand sweep some of my tools onto my lap: a few small screwdrivers and some pliers.

“Crap,” I said. “Get a grip.” But I forgot about the tools when I saw what had fallen off the pendulum hook.

I reached in and took hold of a chain. I pulled it out carefully and held it up. It was a necklace. A silver chain held a round silver object. The object was about an inch in diameter, and as I looked at it more closely I realized I was looking at a small globe. Even with the small workings inside clocks, I rarely used my magnifying glass but I reached for it now and studied the globe. It was old – I knew this because it was slightly tarnished and it had the continents located where they'd been before the Season of Quakes.

"What is this?" I said and I twirled the heavy globe in my fingers. 

The Clothing Division of the Govment had outlawed all jewelry a long time ago. Perhaps Mr. Bellini had hidden the necklace in his clock so the Govment wouldn’t take it from him. I would give it back when I gave him his repaired clock, but I really wanted to try it on. My fingernails were so short that it took four tries to open the clasp and get it around my neck.

The globe felt cool and big against the bottom of my throat, and the entire thing felt foreign and almost uncomfortable. My mom had hidden some of her old jewelry and I’d tried it on a time or two, but nothing had felt as bothersome as the necklace.

I touched the globe one more time and then reached behind my neck to release the clasp.

But something stopped me; something invisible that seemed to pull my hands the opposite direction of where I wanted them to go. My fingers couldn’t reach the clasp and my head got fuzzy. I wanted to cry out; maybe Mom hadn’t left yet. But my throat was tight and I became disoriented. It seemed as though one second I was in my shop, the next second I was some place I didn’t recognize, and then I was no place at all.

*****

Somewhere Else

A growl pulled me from the nowhere. It was ferocious, foreign. There were dogs in our neighborhood but this one sounded meaner than the ones I knew. Once I realized I could, I opened my eyes. And then shut them again.

"Aaah," I groaned. It was so bright. The growl rumbled again, so I sat up, shaded my eyes with my hand and opened them again.

Where was I? 

My eyes were watering, but I could tell I was outside, in a place I'd never been before. There wasn’t a building in sight. I was sitting on thick green grass. The sky above me was a color blue that I knew I’d never seen and the few clouds were pure white, not gray from pollution or another oncoming storm. I was sitting in an open area but there was a forest behind me.

“I must have died,” I said aloud, thinking that maybe heaven really did exist and it looked like the picture on the clock.

The Govment didn’t allow us to talk about places like heaven and hell, but Granny made sure I knew that heaven was a place you wanted to go and hell wasn't. This didn't feel like hell.

The growl came again, this time more vicious than before.

On second thought, maybe I had gone to hell?

Either way, I thought I should try to get away from the growl.

Though my legs still felt wobbly, I stood. My tools fell off my lap. The quiet clank of the metal against metal made me think that I hadn’t died because the tools couldn’t have died with me, neither could the sneakers. I was still wearing them. I reached for the tools and put them in my pocket.

One more time, louder than even before, the growl came again.

“Come on, where are you?” I muttered as I turned in a slow circle and looked around. Between turning and the fresh air, another wave of woozy rode through my head. I’d never breathed such air before. It smelled sweet. I'd never smelled sweet air. I was used to smelly air that burned my nose and my throat.  

Suddenly, I heard something else; the wail of a baby made me forget about the sweet air.

“What?” I said. I walked toward where I thought the sound was coming from. My legs worked and my head had mostly cleared, but I thought I must be hearing things.

But the cry, scream really, continued. Something was wrong.

I stepped into a thicker patch of trees, not ready for the quick change of light from bright to shadow. I couldn’t see well, but I kept moving. I thought I was getting closer.

When my eyes had adjusted and I could see in between the shadows, it was obvious that I'd walked right into trouble.

Something—a wolf or wild dog-like creature—looked up at me with a foamy snarl and eyes that belonged more to a monster than pet. Underneath the drops of drool that fell from its mouth, lay a bundled-up and squirming baby, the only part of which I could make out was a tuft of thick black hair. I hadn't been around many babies and I'd never seen a wolf before.

“Yeah, this is hell,” I said quietly.

But that didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense, but the reality was that I was in the woods somewhere about to see a baby get eaten by a huge and hungry wolf. I didn't think this was in the picture on the clock.  

The creature squinted as it looked at me and then at the small noisy thing at its feet. I moved a step in the opposite direction, not to run away, but to get the wolf to chase me instead of eat the baby.  I didn't know a thing about the animal, but I knew I could run and the baby couldn't. The wolf smirked and then looked back at the loud, but easily accessible lump on the ground.

“Hey, I don’t think so. You need to come after me. I’m a much bigger meal.” 

The next few seconds, as it thought about what to do, I bit at the inside of my cheeks. I wanted to run, but if it didn’t follow, I wouldn’t be able to help the baby. And if it did follow, I might not make it far, still not able to help. I thought about charging at it, too, but I had no idea which way was the best.

The wolf looked up again, snarled and bared its ugly sharp teeth. I could see that it’d made up its mind; it was going for the baby.

“No!” I screamed as its head lowered and it took some of the bundle into its mouth. The wolf ignored me.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I picked up something at my feet that happened to be a rock, and I started running toward the beast. I was probably screaming or yelling, but the only sound I could hear was the imaginary noises in my head of bone and muscle crunching and blood gushing.

When I was only a yard or so away, I lifted the rock and threw hard. I managed a direct blow to the wolf’s head, missing the baby completely.

The beast looked at me, its eyes crossed then rolled back. Finally, it keeled over and fell either into death or unconsciousness. I didn’t wait to find out, but reached for the now bloody and screaming bundle and took off in the other direction. Wherever that was.

*****

I hurried through the clearing I’d been in earlier, then into another patch of wooded forest. The small path I found wasn’t well worn and my footing wasn’t stable but I kept going, focusing on not dropping the baby. I’d never gone through a forest before. I knew I had to find someone to help with the wounds quickly, or some way to clean them myself. Even if I found water, though, there’d be no guarantee that it was clean. I didn’t have any filters with me and wherever I was, there was no place that that had water you should use without filtering it first. Maybe I could find someone with filters.

It seemed like I’d been running for a long time and hadn’t found one person or one house. I’d heard lots of birds and other strange noises, but I didn’t see any other wolves. Everything was so different than anything I'd ever seen that even upturned trees startled me. Where were the cows and horses and all the people?

The baby, who I hadn’t even looked at since picking it up, started crying loudly. I had no idea what to do. I’d never even held a baby. Ever.

I crouched down to the ground and peeled away some of the bloody wrap.

He was small, couldn’t be very old, but he had chubby cheeks.

 There was a lot of blood, but not as much as I thought there would be. I tore off a small strip from my black Govment-issued t-shirt and spat on it.

“If I get caught, I'm going to get fined for tearing this shirt,” I said.

The baby’s dark eyes sort of focused on my face as I spoke, and his crying calmed which was a huge relief. I didn’t know what to do with a non-crying baby; a crying one was scary.  

My face muscles were twitching with nervousness as I wiped the blood from his little body. I said, “Who would leave a brand new baby out here for the animals?”

He didn’t answer.

“That’s the only place it got you,” I said as I looked at the bite mark on his arm. It wasn’t pretty, but I thought it would be much worse. The teeth broke the skin and went in deep, but didn’t tear it any further. “You got lucky.”

Soon, the baby wasn’t clean so much as he was just less bloody. He was still grimy and the wound needed a thorough cleaning and a healthy dose of antibacterial, but the spit-bath would have to do for now.

“Let’s see if we can stop the bleeding,” I said as I tore another strip from my shirt, my showing midriff would be more trouble than just a fine, but I didn't know what else to do. I wrapped the strip around his little arm and tied, but not too tightly. 

I didn’t have anything else, so I turned the burlap wrap to the other side and re-bundled him.

I stood and looked around. I had no idea what to do or where to go. I even hoped I’d run into a Govment officer I could give the baby to. He’d punish me for my shirt, but at least he could take care of the baby. 

Panic made my mouth taste sour. How did I get here? How do I get home?

“Where are we? Where am I? Who are you?”

Suddenly, I wanted my mom more than I could ever remember. 

“I don’t suppose it matters. We need to get moving.”

Again, we took off through the unfamiliar forest.

*****

I’d never seen so much green or such clear skies and I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I felt lost and alone. Chigo was crowded with people and rows of houses. There were cars everywhere and the sky was never clear, but I was never really alone. As I hiked on I began to wonder if I’d been put at the end of the earth and would never see another person again.

I’d have to figure out how to take care of the baby. I’d have to figure out how to take care of myself. What would I eat? What would I feed the baby? I didn’t know what babies ate besides milk.

I had no idea what else to do but keep walking.  

On the other side of yet another green hill, I saw a house. It was small and old and alone on the hill but it was a house.

“Come on,” I said as held on tight and ran to the front door.

I pounded. “Hello! Hello! Anyone there?”

There was no answer.

“Oh, come on.” I knocked again with no better result. “Someone, help!”

I was tired, hot, thirsty, scared. I didn’t know how to care for his wounds. What if he died? What if his injury became so infected that he died a slow death? Would it have been better to leave him for the wolf? No. No.

"Don't you dare die,” I said to him.

I checked the knob, which was actually more like a wooden latch. “It’s unlocked. I don’t think they’ll mind if we go in, do you?”

I pushed open the door and stepped into the one room house. It was dark inside. There were two small glass-less windows on the back wall but they didn't let in much light. I left the door open and looked around for a lamp. There seemed to be no electricity and the furniture looked like it had all been hand-made. I’d heard about people in Chigo who couldn’t afford the Govment electricity, so they had to find other ways to say warm and see when it was dark.