Hide and Seek

She tried to smile. For a brave second she succeeded. And I could

have cried for the joy of it. Because the bravado was gone. I saw the

courage suddenly flare up in her again and it was pure and undiluted,

the very best of her, and in that moment she handed it to me.

"Where's Kim?"

"The police. She took the car."

She nodded. "Can you walk?"

"I think so."

"Try." She stood up, and I got on my hands and knees and then reached

for her good shoulder. I hauled myself up. I put some weight on the

leg. From knee to ankle something stretched and screamed at me. But

it held. "Okay," I said.

I reached for the pitchfork and the pain raced up my leg and right up

through the shoulders. I damn near fainted. I was still making

mistakes. She put out her hand to steady me. In a moment the pain was

down to something bearable. She handed me the pitchfork.

One-handed.

"Wonder why they left it?

"I think your friend Rafferty was right," she said. "I think they're

stupid. They don't count on much from us. Not wounded."

"You think that makes them stupid?"

"Yes, I do."

I was almost able to smile.

"That shoulder looks bad."

It wasn't just the shoulder. The upper arm too was mauled and

"I can't feel much. I think he did something to the nerves. But I can

move it, Clan."

"Don't try. Let's just get out of here." I listened. "All three of

them went through there?"

nwi imh.iwiiwivi

pull herself together. She was finished with the past. I looke her

eyes and tried to pour out hope to her through mine, a hope I barely

felt, a strength I could only command by forgetting where we were and

how we came to be there.

So that suddenly I was the cynic. Not her.