Renewal 7 - When the Student Is Ready by Jf Perkins Page B

kind of thing was business as usual. He took several deeps breaths and started putting our lives back in order.
    “Kirk, you keep the watch. For today only, if anyone approaches, you shoot.” Dad said.
    “Ok, Dad.” Kirk seemed at peace with himself. I imagined him as some kind of vampire who could only be cooled into satisfaction by the taking of blood.
    “And Kirk,” Dad added. “Nice work.”
    “Thanks, Dad.”
    Dad rounded us up into a group below Kirk’s post. “Ok, folks. Kirk and I followed that kid to Eugene’s camp this morning. We watched the kid make his report and as soon as we figured that they were loading up to come here in force, we took off running. At the end, we were racing the sound of that damn truck.”
    Arturo asked, “Where is the camp?”
    “About five hundred meters from our treehouse, on the bluff above the river, opposite side of the road.” Dad replied.
    “So, just under a mile from here, give or take.” Arturo used his fingers for the math.
    “Yeah. We were lucky they are a lot hungrier than we are.”
    “How many in the camp?” Arturo asked.
    “At least forty, maybe fifty.” David answered.
    “Shit! We need to move.”
    “Yeah, it looks that way. Even with Kirk doing his thing, we can’t fight off that many. Even if we won, it would cost something we can’t afford.”
    “Exactly. So, the big question is where.” Arturo looked around the barn, as if he could get an answer.
    “I’m for increasing the distance between us and them. I thought we might try that road down to the northwest, just past that subdivision full of cheap houses. It looks like that road will cross Brewer Creek at some point. We may not have this well, but at least we’ll have the creek.” Dad said.
    “Ok. I can’t argue with that. How are we going to get our stuff there?” Arturo asked, full of practical questions.
    “Same way we got here.”
     
    Chapter 7 – 8
    Terry was wide awake in the dark room.  His eyes traced the two rectangles of moonlight on the opposite wall at least a hundred times. His mind tumbled and swirled, chattering endlessly and denying him the one thing he wanted; sleep and the end of this long day.
    His brain dissected every word of Charlie’s statements, over and over. It replayed his encounter in Tullahoma at least as many times, and it fretted about the future, all of the future, starting with his intimidating meeting with Kirk in the morning.
    Supper had dissolved after Charlie left. Bill had become quiet and thoughtful, and refused to discuss anything beyond the food on the table. Aggie and Sally went from glowing with incandescent charm to a distracted reflection of the weighty events that were flowing around them. Terry had probably looked just like Bill, lost in his own thoughts; thoughts that were still working overtime hours later. He alternated between serious attempts to sleep, which almost guaranteed that he would stay awake, and long periods of time when he just let his mind run wild. It’s not like he was thinking about trivial matters. Terry was feeling the weight on his shoulders. He could not believe how fast he had gone from total ignorance, to hitting the jackpot when he found this community in northwest Coffee County, to a state where the prize was as much his responsibility as anyone else’s.
    It was safe enough in Teeny Town that he reacted calmly when his bedroom door opened partway and a slim white figure slipped in through the gap. He knew it was Sally before she crossed the moonlight and revealed herself in a long cotton gown. She startled when he threw back a corner of his covers, but recovered quickly and slid into bed beside him. Terry flipped the blankets back up to her chin and turned on his side to face her.
    “You awake, Terry?” Sally asked just above a whisper, as if she didn’t know.
    “Can’t sleep.” He replied in that same quiet voice.
    “Me neither. I’m too worried.”
    “Yeah,” he agreed. “What are you worried