Page 119 of Kiwi Sin
Now, Uncle Aaron said, “Not blackmail. Justice. I was there, remember? I’ll take my share of the blame for that shameful act. I’m expecting to. I won’t be part of it anymore, though. You can have Dove taken from here and put in the care of her sisters, or you can have all of us telling that story.”
The Prophet’s face sagged, and his shoulders did, too, like air going out of a balloon. “What do you want?” he asked.
“What I said,” Uncle Aaron answered. “Dove brought to her sisters, and allowed to leave with them, with permission signed over by Loyal and Blessing, making Daisy her guardian. And Blessing brought to see her daughters without Loyal there.”
“No.” That was my dad, and the word was an explosion. He was out of his seat and halfway around the table, and despite myself, I jumped up and shrank back. I heard that belt whistling down, and the sickening sound it made when it met flesh. I felt the burn of it, and the humiliation.
Gabriel stood up fast, blocking Dad’s way, and told him, “Try it. Try to hurt her again. Try to hurt any of them again. I’ll just hurt you. They’ll destroy you.”
“If I do this,” the Prophet asked, ignoring my dad, “will you reconsider?”
“Yes,” Uncle Aaron said.
It wasn’t a good word to hear.
* * *
We stood justinside the gate this time, in a little row once more, and waited. Daisy and Gray, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Constance, Priya and Frankie, Gabriel and me. I could feel the presence of the gate behind me like a menace, and I was guessing the others could, too. My legs felt weak, all of me felt shaky, and I couldn’t control my face. It had been ten minutes. Were they just going to leave us here, then? Was the Prophet going to call our bluff?
Hadit been a bluff? My part wasn’t. What about Uncle Aaron’s?
We waited, and the crowd opposite us waited, too. No children were as silent as Mount Zion children. They didn’t squirm, and they didn’t protest. They stood.
A door opening behind them. The door from the kitchens. Two figures moving toward us, one taller than the other, one thinner than the other.
The short, thin one wasn’t Dove. It was my mum.
I looked at Frankie, and her face was working. I looked at Daisy, and her face was frozen. I looked at Priya, and the tears were rolling down her cheeks.
Twenty meters away. Ten.
I broke and ran.
When my mum’s thin arms came around me, I wept. I cried for all the times she’d comforted me, for all the sweetness she’d carried in her body along with all of us, for all the words she’d never been allowed to say. I cried for the lullabies she’d sung to the little ones in the dark hours of the night, and most of all, I cried for everything she’d lost. Her children, and her freedom. And in a minute, I realized the others were there, too, which meant I had to step back and give them a turn.
Once I did, I had to hold Dove.
She clung to me and asked, “Do I really get to go with you? I’m not sixteen, though. Do I really get to come?”
Her eyes, alone among the twelve of us, were bright blue, her hair a paler brown even than mine, and with a strong curl to it that none of us had. I held her hand and said, “You really do. Today. You get to share a room with Priya, and go to school and learn about everything, and help with the animals, and never be hit again.”
“Not even when I’m married?” she asked.
“Especially not when you’re married.”
“What about Mum, though?” she asked. “If I go, she’ll be alone.”
I looked over her head, because I was still taller, and there my mum was, with a trembling smile on a face that was wet with tears, holding each of my sisters’ faces in turn, kissing their cheeks, murmuring to them. I said, “Mum. You don’t have to stay. You can come, too. We’re all there, and Aunt Constance is there. Dorian is there, too, and more of them will come. You can leave now.”
She shook her head, but she was still smiling. “It’s going to be open here,” she said. “The Prophet has promised, and this is my home. You’ll come visit me, and bring your children.”
“But, Mum,” Daisy said, sounding anguished. “Wewantyou. I have a house for you. You can live with Priya and Dove in your own house and help me take care of them. You can cook if you like, or not cook, and knit with Oriana and Aunt Constance. There’s work for you to do if you want it, but it’s our turn to care for you now.”
“Meree betee,”Mum said, stroking Daisy’s cheek.My daughter,that meant. What she’d always called us. “I have a place to stay. I chose it. But you come see me. Come every month, the way you’ve been doing, but sit with me this time. Tell me your secrets and your fears. Let me be your mum again. That’s the life I want.”
“We’ll be here,” Daisy said. “And asking every time. Mum—this place is going to go down, eventually. It’s going to be destroyed.”
“And if it does,” Mum said, “I’ll decide what to do. For now, my answer will be the same. I’ve chosen my path, and it’s mine to walk. Watching you walk yours—that’s my blessing.”
