Minutes later they took the foreman away. He was begging as they did so, blubbering promises that didn’t make sense. They fell on deaf ears. I couldn’t hear him by the time they had made it past the gates to the fields; my eyes wouldn’t leave the tracks his heels had dug across the ground. When the day was done I had forgotten where they were. Maybe that was what I wanted.

Strangely enough the others didn’t seem to treat me any differently. They didn’t give me berth in the lunch hall. When I struggled with something heavy I was offered help. We all did our work, then we were allowed to retire early for the day. It didn’t feel right. Didn’t they blame me for letting one of us go? A part of me squirmed. The anxiety was a hot coal in the floor of my stomach, burning until the sun had set and we were all headed back to the dorms.

Two men stood by the doorway. When I came up they took me aside. The others looked my way but did nothing. Maybe this was where I would get it.

“Why do you look so pleased?” One of them asked. I recognized his silhouette. He wasn’t particularly tall, he was boxy, thickset, possessing willowy strength. He was there that night standing next to Farnoush.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Who’s next?” The other asked. This guy had a more corn fed look. It reminded me that despite everything the Werner’s made sure we had enough to eat. Nathan did say he would not have mistreatment on his grounds. In a way he had meant it.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. Just beat me up already.

“You’ve sent two people to the house. We want to know who’s next.”

“You… can’t possibly think I’m some sort of- of snitch,” I said.

The shorter one crossed his arms.

“You do get to go to the library,” he said.

“I asked for it! That’s all I did! You could too!” I threw up my arms in exasperation. That made them raise their fists. As if I could hurt even one of them.

“And they just let you in every weekend.”

“They’ve been letting me go for years! Are you saying I made a deal with them that they’re cashing in now?”

“We just want to know who’s next.”

They weren’t listening; they had already concluded that I was a rat reporting misconduct among the ‘steadhands. Why do people do this? We were on the same side of the fence. We should all be helping each other. I tried my damnedest, even to protect that asshole Farnoush. They were too scared to see that—too scared to think. Two bigger men hiding a hare’s temperament in Farnoush’s shadow. Now the foreman wasn’t there to think for them.

“You don’t have to know,” I found myself saying. Each word felt like a razor blade in my throat. “You don’t have to do anything. Don’t ask me questions. Don’t make assumptions. Don’t move without me telling you. That’s all you have to do and you won’t have to guess who’s next. We will all live comfortably and get our three meals a day.”

For a while they stayed still. Then they exchanged glances and without a word they both returned indoors. I was left alone in the growing dark, free to think for myself.

The next night I was summoned to the house again. Those two watched me go. Let them. Hopefully they kept their theories to themselves. I tried not to look directly at the Werner’s lounging in the front porch as I walked up to the main doors.

“Hey Cassy boy,” Abe’s fiery voice called out. “When are you well enough to resume your duties for me?” He had his feet up on his own table, a ceramic slab that withstood his weight and his heat.

“Find another,” Nathan said, striding down the stairs. “Come, boy. Your friend wants to see you.”

“Lyssa?” I asked. She had me summoned?

“She’s your friend is she not?”

“I- yes. Of course. Is she better?”

“See for yourself,” Nathan snapped.

For a few moments the tapping of shoes against floor reigned. I mustered the courage.

“What will happen to him?” I asked.

“The foreman?”

“Yes.”

“Siobhan has gathered his ghoulish intentions. He will be allowed to return to the fields soon, but no longer as your leader.”

He led me straight to the infirmary. The walk felt longer than the first time I had come through here. The pregnant women were all asleep. One of them were missing from the last time. One more Werner in the world.

We went into the backrooms. The doctor sat in his lamp-lit desk, working still. Lyssa laid asleep in a nearby bed. Steady readings scrolled past on the monitors along with everything else. A shot of fear raced through my spine. Nathan would see that she was not a normal human.

“She was awake,” Nathan said. His shoulders tensed. His fists were clenched as he stormed out. The doctor and I was alone.

“He wouldn’t know jack,” the doctor said. “Don’t worry.”

“Thank you for taking care of her, doctor,” I said.

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“Navarro.”

“Doctor Navarro,” I corrected. “Did you fix her?”

“As much as it hurts to admit, not really,” he said. “What I managed to figure out was that her injury is a chronic leftover from when she was shot. I’ve stabilized her. It’ll probably flare again, especially when she uses her gifts. Plural. But you knew that already.”

“Can you read minds too, doc?” I said, half-joking.

“You might not believe it, young man, but there was a time when one could read someone’s mind just by washing their face through all our years.”

I didn’t really understand what that meant. The doctor left the room.

Lyssa looked alright, which was good. Downright calm, like she was sleeping in her own bed wherever she came from. My brow pinched. Where did she come from? Just as I had thought to ask, she stirred. Her eyes opened. I took a seat and leaned closer.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Is he gone?”

Not Lyssa. The other. The voice that spoke from far away and intimately.

“If you mean Nathan Werner, yeah, he’s left,” I said. “You should be careful messing with them like that. They’re dangerous.”

“More than you know.”

I shook my head. Enough was enough. “Who are you?” I asked. “Why did you fall out of the sky? You clearly want my help or else you wouldn’t be doing this. That is my price.”

She tilted her head.

“If I give you answers, it won’t be just you hearing them, would it?”

“But it would be my life on the line helping you with whatever it is you’re here to do. I’m not going to help you if you don’t at least let me know what you’re doing here. I won’t let them ask questions about us. We’re just friends who help each other out. That would be the truth.”

She thought about it for a good minute. Her eyes kept darting back and forth. I could swear her lips were quivering too. Like she was murmuring.

“I was sent here to help resolve a burgeoning issue,” she finally said.

“I want the other one to speak,” I said.

Another tilt. Her eyes were like knives, cutting my expression apart, seething silently under a calm demeanor. Then her head fell as if nodding off and raised again.

“Why do you want me to explain? We know the same things,” she said.

“You seem more honest than the other one.”

She made an uncertain face.

“Credit,” she said.

“What?”

“I’m from up north. A school that teaches people like me how to use our abilities to save people. Some of our funding comes from taxpayers. Some come from jobs. The students do these jobs for grades. Werner Enterprises has nearly a trillion dollars in net worth declared. Unofficially, who knows? We have evidence their dealings are… not the best.”

“Not the best?” I said. What a great way to put it.

“We believe this house is the nerve center of the empire. My project is to figure out the extent of their influence on the global arena. There are dangers to unfettered economic power. But their industries are too crucial to justify an official investigation. That’s the uhm- that’s my briefing anyway.”

“Wait, so you’re not here because we’re-” My voice dropped off.

“What?” She asked.

“Well? There’s thousands of people on this ranch! We’re practically slaves!”

She looked at me quizzically. “We’re all slaves,” she said. “The only differences are the degree to which we’re aware of it and which part of us we give away.”

“Well I’m sure you had a lot more freedom wherever you’re from.”

“Is that so…”

“What is it you want from me?”

“I don’t know yet,” she said.

“You don’t have a plan?”

“This house is power dense. Knowledge is weakness. I know what to do. But I don’t have a plan. It’s safer this way.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’ll talk to you later. Sleep well.”

Her eyes closed and she was asleep, just like that. That was a polite way of telling me to leave. So I did. The chair rattled as I stood in frustration. The doctor was waiting on the outside of the infirmary. He had a lit cigarette between his fingers.

“You didn’t listen in?” I asked.

“The less I know, the better,” he replied. He offered me the cigarette.

“No thanks.”

“Good boy,” he said. He withdrew but did not pull from it. The smell seemed enough for him.

“Don’t suppose you have any more notes of wisdom for me?”

“Don’t wait too long,” he said.

I sighed and went back to the dorms, mulling over what I had just heard. It kept me tossing in my bed. This Lyssa person was a student. She talked about coming to this place like it was a field trip. I tried to remember what field trips were. I think I had been on a couple before. I was at the age where every adult looked like a giant and everywhere we went seemed like an adventure. Now I was here tending to the dirt.

I stared at the ceiling. There was no hole so I imagined the sky through it and wondered. Was it like this elsewhere too? Thousands of miles away were there people paid in pennies or perhaps nothing at all to work the land and man the machines? Were things like a bed and roof and three meals a day paradise to them? Maybe life was simpler that way. Thinking for yourself, fighting for yourself—those things required you to hurt others. Even if you didn’t mean it, it happened anyway.

My head went in circles. I couldn’t imagine a world where people could be free and happy all at once. But sleep saved me. I fell away to dreams.

Sunlight. Beams swept unabated through the windows—a bridge of twinkling dust motes made solid by blinding gold. I stepped down from the bed and got ready to work. I jumped when I saw two meatheads blocking my way.

“What the hell?!” I exclaimed.

“What’s the plan today?” Asked the corn fed one.

“Man, who are you people? Leave me alone.”

“I’m Ken, sir,” said Corn Fed.

“I’m Ivan,” said the squatter one.

“Okay? Can I go out?”

“Sure thing, sorry.”

They let me past. What the hell was this? I walked outside the dorms. The ‘steadhands lingered by the doors. They only began to move at speed when I did so.

“What first, boss?” Ivan said.

“I don’t know?” I said. “We uh haven’t checked the Deere’s oil levels in a bit. Go do that.”

“On it.” He was off.

“Everyone else,” I continued. “You already know what to do.”

They all scattered off to their roles. Taking care of land wasn’t difficult to learn. It was the volume of work that was the challenge. I spent the day directing people to fix fences, recovering one of the bellowing calves that had slipped over to the other side, fixing a mobile water sprinkling line, and so on… Things went smoother than usual. So well in fact that it was midday before I realized what had just happened.

There had not been a vote, raffle, nor a word of mutual agreement. Somehow they had made me foreman. Dread burned at my chest; I had already leaned into the role. Now there was the way everyone would see me differently. The air popped as if on cue as I was still recovering from the shock. Farnoush fell onto the dirt. His clothes looked clean. He had been shaven and fed. But his eyes were empty.

Siobhan Mordigan Werner stood behind him, hands tucked in the small of her back. She looked around. One brow arched ever so slightly. Her wandering eyes finally rested on me.

“Good,” she said, barely louder than the breeze.

Slam. She was gone. Farnoush stayed prostrated on the ground, murmuring.

Ken approached.

“Get him to his bed,” I said.

Farnoush had to be carried. His legs looked fine. He must have forgotten how they worked.