Page 44 of Kiwi Sin
“Outside laws,” Loyal said with contempt. “Not God’s laws.”
As he said it, Oriana moved. Or she didn’t exactly move. Shebolted.Straight across the kitchen, grabbing Prudence’s hand as she went. The two of them streaked across the building and out a far door.
Out into what, though? More men?
It was the same as the day I’d left. The same as the car. I didn’t think. I ran.Through the women who were crowding around now, blocking my way. My arm went out to fend them off, but they didn’t try to stop me. It wasn’t in their makeup. They scattered instead. I heard running feet behind me and thought,Come on, Mum and Dad. Come on.I couldn’t stop to look, though. I ran, and burst through the door to see Prudence and Oriana still running, too. Oriana with her sister’s hand in hers, heading straight for the fence. The men were rushing to cut them off, but I was catching up, bellowing in a way I never had in my life.
“Let them go!”I shouted, even as I ran. Faster than I’d ever run before. Faster than I’d known I could.“I’ll kill the man who lays hands on them!”
Somebody lunging, now. Not a cousin. Faithful Bright, who’d bullied the younger kids in school and was coming at me now with a hammer. I pivoted, grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm behind him, and took the hammer from his hand. It was easy. Faithful only knew how to hurt people smaller than him.
After that? I shoved him back into the others, raised the hammer over my head, registered my mum and dad running to join us, and told them, “Go. I’ll come after.”
My dad told my mum, “Go.Run.”Once she did, he raised his voice and said, steady as a rock, “I’ll have no bloodshed here today. This behavior is unworthy of God’s grace, and it’s unworthy of you. You’ll step back now and let us go. You have no right to keep anyone here against their will.”
I knew Gray and Daisy would still be filming, but he didn’t bother telling them that. That wouldn’t matter to them. It was a foreign concept, accountability to the world Outside. Instead, I watched my quiet father gather his energy into himself, then project it with an authority I’d only heard from the Prophet. “This is sin,” he told them. “God is watching. Stand back and let us go. Stand back now.”
He held them with his voice, his eyes. He told me, “Drop the hammer. You won’t hurt this community, and they won’t hurt you. This isn’t the way.”
I dropped it. No choice.
“We’re walking to the fence,” he told the group now. “We’re leaving. Next time you try to hold somebody here who wants to leave, you’ll answer to the police. Gilead is the only one in prison so far. Do the rest of you want to join him?”
“Treason,” one of the men said.
“No,” my dad said. “The truth. If you want to stay and give the Prophet your free labor and your obedience, that’s your right. And anybody who wants to leave has the right to go, too. Man or woman. We’re going now.”
He set off for the fence, then, and I joined him. Not running. Walking. He muttered to me, “Don’t look back. Keep going.”
I did.
Scariest day of my life.
And what I’d give to have half my dad’s mana.
18
SURPRISE PLAN
Oriana
Ten days later, everything changed again.
No, not what you’re thinking. Gabriel didn’t declare his awe at my incredible courage—at running away—or declare his love, either. We all got back in our cars, and that was that. He stood there with the door open before he got in, though, and looked back at me, and I held my breath. But then he got inside, and Uncle Aaron drove away.
And, yes, I had a roommate now. Prudence was sleeping with me, which was so much less lonely, but she was going shopping with Frankie, and buying the kinds of things Frankie wore. Tight jeans and bright shirts, skirts that didn’t reach her knees, bras in different colors, and shoes with heels. She was also studying names, trying out different ones and asking us to call her by them. I kept forgetting and using the last one, or just saying “Prudence” by mistake, upon which she’d sigh and roll her eyes, and Frankie would laugh.
So, yes, that was a change, but not much of one, really, because I was still the same, stuck in between. I just hadthreesisters braver than I was now, instead of two.
No, the change happened while I was on a job search website, looking to expand my babysitting client pool. I had a full driving license now, and there was no reason I couldn’t babysit most evenings, once the outdoor chores were done and dinner was made. That was why I was on the site, and why I saw it.
Temporary Newborn Photography Assistant
Starts ASAP through 15 February, 24 December through 6 January excluded.
Full time
$22/hour
