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She closed her eyes again and he detected a slight shake of her head as she draped her arm across her eyes. “I’ve created a problem that there is no way out of.”

“There is always a way.”

“Not this time.”

“What is the problem?”

“They’ve sold my land and my store. I have 30 days to get out.”

“They cannot sell what is yours!” he said angrily.

“It’s not mine.”

“I do not understand. It is yours. I watch you work it. I watch you protect it. You said it was yours.”

“It always has been. Until now.”

“Who took it. I will kill them and it will be yours again.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I can.”

Mel sighed. “I needed money to keep the store going. To pay the taxes on the land so I wouldn’t lose it. I have no one to turn to, so I took a mortgage on the property, thinking it would make a difference and I’d be able to make it successful again. I was wrong.”

He sat quietly thinking about what she said.

Suddenly she realized why he’d gone silent; he didn’t know what a mortgage was. “A mortgage is a loan. Someone gives youmoney, you use the money for whatever you want, but you have to pay it back each month. I was late too many times and now the bank sold my land at auction. The highest bidder is now the owner. I have nothing. I have nowhere to go, nowhere to take my animals. What’s going to happen to them? I’m not even worried about me. I’ll find a way, but I can’t feed them. I have nowhere to give them shelter. Everything that matters to me is falling apart.”

“I will kill them. You will stay here.”

She laughed despite herself. “You can’t do that.”

“I can. It will be easy.”

“You can’t kill every single person. If you kill the person who bought the property, and their family can’t pay, it will go back to the bank and they will just sell it again.”

“Then I’ll kill the bank.”

“You can’t kill every single person who works for the bank. There are thousands of people. And if you kill one, the next one will just continue with the sale.”

“There is other land. You take your animals to other land.”

“Do you not understand? I have no money. If I did have money, I’d pay the loan and I wouldn’t have to leave here. I have no money to buy other land. I have nowhere to go. I have no place to house my animals. I don’t know what to do!” she screamed.

“I will get money. You will pay for your land. You will stay.”

“It’s too late. The property has already been sold.”

“If you had new land to take your beasts to, it would be good, yes?” he asked.

“Yes. But I don’t see that happening. I’ve got nothing to get new land with.”

Va’roush thought about the issue for a few moments. Finally, he just stood up and walked away.

Mel listened to his footsteps, then got up and followed the same path he’d taken through her store, then out onto the front porch. She stood there in the moonlight looking around, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was like he’d vanished into thin air.

“Va’roush?!” she yelled, looking for him anywhere at all. But there was no movement in the darkness. Even the wind that fed the usual breeze across the land was still.

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