Chapter 21 - Old Joe [https://cdn.midjourney.com/1ff9cfc9-d284-4c11-9a96-4909d27693b4/0_0_384_N.webp]
As they strolled back toward the caves, people retreated from them, withdrawing into the shadows. David walked beside them. “They are setting up one of the guest rooms for you two.” The labyrinth of passages extended out before them. “It’s an enormous honor to be invited to have dinner with Ba. I’ve got to take you to her first, but then we’ll get you settled in. She likes to eat dinner early.” Plain as they could be, two bears and their friend David walked deep into the mountain, headed to dinner. Giving her tail a sassy twitch, Kennedy entered the large central chamber. Ba burst into laughter when she saw them.
Staring the old woman in the eye, Kennedy didn’t look away. Amused, Ba came toward them. She addressed Kennedy, ignoring Terry. “Is there still a girl inside that skin?” Kennedy huffed and did her best to do a bear version of a nod. She was always Kennedy.
“Do you still think the drugs are good?”
When Kennedy nodded affirmatively, Ba burst into a round of shoulder-shaking laughter. She turned and called across the room. “Whist, you lose the bet. The girl is in denial, but she hasn’t had her attachment to reality crack.” Ba shook her head. “Amazing at her age.”
The spry leader spoke to them as if they weren’t giant bears. “I asked old Joe to join us. Whist said you wanted a healer to look at her.” She walked across the room and pushed back the curtain, exposing a private area that branched off from the central space. This one, thankfully, was empty of drug supplies.
They entered the small, comfortable room with a dining table set for dinner. There was a fire in the corner where a rough fireplace and vent had been carved out of the mountain. Terry went and flopped happily on the rug in front of the flames. Kennedy hesitated and then went and sat next to him with her hip pressed against his side.
If he fell asleep, she was going to bite him right on the ass. Ba tilted her head when she saw how Kennedy was sitting and laughed again. “Ridiculous.” She waved her hand to Whist and her daughter Snow when they slipped through the curtain. “Snow, go help our Joe. His eyes have gone to milk and I don’t want him having trouble finding the way.” Snow disappeared like a whisper through the drape.
With a fingertip, Ba lifted a napkin that covered the plates, looking at what was on the table. “Doc Terry, have you seen to Whist’s donkey, Betty, yet?” Terry lifted his head and gave a big yawn before shaking himself. When he began twisting in his skin, Kennedy felt the change move through him. She didn’t dare take her eyes off of Ba, who was staring at her. For right now, she felt like staying in her bear form and resisted the urge to change with Terry. Kennedy remained a bear.
Ba moved closer to them. “Interesting. It has some control.” After pulling a crocheted blanket off the chair closest to the fire, she held it out to Terry. With a roll of his shoulders and an arching of his back, he settled into his human shape. Gingerly, he took the blanket from the woman. She told him. “Grab a jumpsuit on your way back in, so I don’t have to look at you naked. I won’t have that view spoil my dinner.”
“Yes, Ba.” When he bowed to her, she rested her small brown hand on the top of his head. “Still whole, that’s a good boy.” Terry retreated. When he glanced back at Kennedy from the doorway, she tried to look brave, rotating her ears forward and lifting her muzzle as if she was unaffected by the company and the situation. As soon as he turned from her, she swiveled her ears in his direction, determined to track his motion for as long as she could, clinging to the sound of his steps.
Ba dragged a chair over and put it down directly in front of Kennedy, who chose not to look at the leader. Kennedy focused on a spot on the wall where there was a sizable chip missing.
“There are those who aren’t going to like you much.”
Kennedy swiveled one ear.
“You aren’t supposed to be possible.” The leader scratched her fingertips across her wrinkled cheek, looking thoughtful. “I’ve heard of other such strangeness in the North East. Lost have been finding their way to being un-Lost.” She sat straighter. “I suppose it’s not such a shock that we would have one of our own.”
Kennedy looked up at her, unsure what response was expected, and flicked her ears backward.
“There are going to be those who will want to kill you, especially when we are back up in the high country. They are going to say you are dangerous. Are you dangerous?”
Kennedy flexed her nails, letting them scrape across the stone floor.
“Not that kind of danger. There are folks who don’t approve of what we do, like Doc Terry’s Mother. Things went a bad way with Terry’s father and she blames that on us. On me in particular. I don’t blame her. Love and loss can harden your soul and cause it to shrink and atrophy. June lost a husband and then her choices almost killed her son. Terry’s father was devout and devoted to the survival of our people. He never forgot that he was a Shepherd and kept his face turned to the sun. It’s a damn shame that she returned to living among the sheep when he died. Doc shouldn’t have been raised that way. Her family, before Doc came, hadn’t changed for three generations. No matter who his father was, I don’t think she thought he would know his heart shape.”
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Kennedy listened as the fire breathed comforting warmth against her flank. Ba leaned forward and rested her forearms on her knees. “She’s too mad to forgive us. Have you ever been so mad you couldn’t forgive?”
Kennedy thought of her birth parents and her adoptive mother. The image of her father in his casket flashed through her mind, and then her mother, tipsy in the driver’s seat, insisting she was the one who should drive their family home from the party. Kennedy blinked slowly.
“There are those that would like to see us and our ways wiped out. Some don’t care for the methods we have used to survive in this corrupt world. They think we are betraying our kind by selling our harvest to sheep. But it’s just weed.” Her eyes were mesmerizingly dark. They could absorb moons and stars. “I need you not to be trouble. Can you keep your mouth shut?”
Kennedy tightened her lips and dipped her head in a slow nod.
Ba’s dark eyes burned like coals. “If you don’t. I’ll let them hunt you and kill you. And Doc, even though he is our friend, won’t be able to stop your death. If you are wise, you will stay here with your own kind. If you try to go home to the world that you were raised in, bad days might come for you and yours. You think I am threatening you, but I’m not. I’m just telling you the truth. You can change in your sleep. Has anybody told you that? You could end up killing people you love as an accident or an act of self-preservation.”
“Why are you scaring her?” The old man’s voice was like paper. His skin was as light as hers was dark. When he reached for Ba’s hand, she took it. They were a couple, and that surprised Kennedy. He was the oldest person she’d ever seen, much older than the spry leader. The man’s face crinkled like crepe paper when he smiled. “So this is her?”
Ba nodded. “Her second change, in as many days.”
He whistled low. “She is late for it.”
The old woman agreed. Whist stood back a few paces, close to the curved wall, letting the elders speak to each other.
Joe approached Kennedy. The skin on his fingers was translucent as he reached out to touch her wide head. Drawing back, she warned him with a low growl to keep his distance. He made a soothing sound and gently touched her temple, then between her ears. His fingertips floated on her, light as a landing butterfly. As his milky eyes closed, she felt warmth and a sparkling sensation move through her. He said, “She is whole. Has she turned alone yet?”
Ba asked her. “I don’t know, have you?”
Kennedy shook her head.
Joe considered as he lifted his touch from her. “I’d like you to try.”
That seemed like a mad idea. Kennedy didn’t know how to start the process, but as soon as she thought about changing, she felt an electric sensation along the lines of her body. She had the impulse to push, but it was so strange that she hesitated. The sparkles faded and the harder she tried to grasp at the sensation, the more her heart shape retreated from her. With a steadying breath, Kennedy stopped trying to make the change to happen. She relaxed and shook her heavy head, trying to clear the tension from her body.
When she felt the light tickle at her ankle, she allowed the sensation to spread. This time, she pushed outward and her skin began to part. The feeling was primal, and she relaxed into what her body wanted to do. Because she didn’t fight the change, her body rolled back into her human shape in front of the fire. Fresh-skinned and slick, she lay naked on the floor. Taking her time, she wet her lips before she rolled over onto her back to look up into the curious face of the old man. Her body steamed as she absorbed the wetness around her. Firelight danced across her skin.
Ba asked, “Is she whole?”
The old man grinned. “Yes.”
“You see it?”
The old man wiggled his fingers at her. “Yes, in my way.”
“No training. No precautions. No family. No prayers. She just shows up, way late into full maturity, in heat, and her second time makes a full shift all on her own?” Ba let out a sigh. “Well, we can’t let them kill her then.”
Joe chuckled. “No, we can’t. They said at the last council that things like this were happening.”
The old woman crossed her thin arms, considering the complicated situation. “Doc’s mouth is whole.”
Old Joe looked startled. “That’s impossible.”
“Apparently, not.”
He took a deep breath and blew it out before he smiled down at Kennedy. “I imagine you are hungry.”
Kennedy’s stomach answered him with an angry growl. Eyes unfocused, he tilted his head. “You don’t get visions, do you?”
Even though Kennedy’s mouth was dry, she managed to answer, “I don’t think so. I thought I saw an elephant one time when I took acid.” She sat up and wrapped her arms around herself.
Joe’s lips quirked. “These are strange times, Ba.”
Whist lightly touched the old man’s shoulder as she passed him to bring Kennedy a long shirt to wear. When Kennedy pulled it over her head, the fabric hung to her thighs. The horsewoman told her. “Your clothes are in the wash.”
Kennedy offered, “There are more options in my bag.”
“That’s all gone.”
Kennedy grunted.
Snow poked her head into the room wearing Kennedy’s favorite blue shirt. The girl flashed a big smile at her.
“Papa, do you need me to help you to the table?” Whist asked old Joe.
He waved her off. “I can still see shapes. I’m fine. And Ba is here.” Easing into the chair next to Ba, he slowly stretched his legs out in front of him under the table, knees crackling. Reaching over, he twined his fingers with the old woman’s, lifted her hand to his lips, and kissed the back of Ba’s wrist. The smile she returned to him was a young girl’s. The mask of the leader flickered and failed long enough to allow them a gaze that was close to an I love you. Kennedy turned her face away from the intimate moment. Who were these people?