UnSouled

Grace, who is very good at entertaining herself, had proclaimed, “There’s lots of stuff here,” on their first day. Today she’s ransacked yet another closet, then reorganized it with frightening precision. Lev, still recovering from the car accident, has a mat spread out on the marble floor in the middle of the great room, doing some physical therapy Elina taught him, while Co

“You should take this time to educate yourself,” Lev told Co

The thought of this “all being over” makes Co

All this thinking time is getting him angry again—an old pattern coming back—and although he no longer misdirects it into bursts of stupidity, he’s troubled by the emergence of this old mental subroutine because he knows there are other things, other feelings that come with it.

“I hate this,” Co

Lev uncurls himself from an awkward-looking stretch and watches in that opossum way of his to see where this is going.

“I hate it here,” says Co

Lev holds that long look at Co

“You were never good at being a kid, were you?” Lev says.

“What?”

“You stunk at it. You were a total screwup. You were the kind of kid who would use a poor unsuspecting tithe as a human shield.”

“Yeah,” says Co

“An added bonus—but that’s not the reason why you first grabbed me that day, is it?”

Co

“My point is that you’re afraid of going back to being that same screwup you were two years ago—but I don’t see it happening.”

“And why is that, O wise clapper tithe?”

Lev throws him a dirty look, but lets it go. “You’re kind of like Humphrey Dunfee. We both are. Torn apart by everything that’s happened to us, then put back together again. Who you are now is nothing like who you used to be.”

Co

•   •   •

Two things happen at di

Elina arrives home just after dark, followed by Pivane, who brings a pot of rabbit stew he’s had simmering all day. Co

“It’s soooo unfair—and I know that half those kids made up their animals on their vision quest anyway.”

It makes Co

“Could somebody pass the stew down this way?” Co

“They’ll get over themselves,” Pivane tells Kele. “And if they don’t, they’ll pay the price for it in the end. Birds fly north as well as south,” which Co

“Hello!” calls Co

While Lev has patience to wait, Co

Grace, who always sits right next to Elina, has filled her bowl to overflowing. The tureen is in front of Elina, but she doesn’t notice because she’s also involved in Kele’s drama.

“I can’t tell you how many injuries I see at the medical lodge because kids think their animal guides will protect them from broken bones.”

Then Co

It’s the way that Lev snaps his eyes to Co

Everyone looks to Co

“I mean, just—pass the stew. Please.”

Elina passes the stew to him, and Co

After that, no one knows where to pick up the conversation, and so Elina decides to drive the nail home rather than let it sit halfway to nowhere.

“Do I remind you of her, Co

Co

“Betcha didn’t have rabbit,” says Grace through a mouthful of stew.

Co

The main window in the great room suddenly shatters, and stone chips fly from a small hole in the back wall—a hole that hadn’t been there a second ago.

“Down!” Co

As Kele moves closer, Co

“Pivane!” cries Elina. “Call the police.”

“We can’t call the police,” he says. That realization hits them all at once. If they call the police, they’ll have to explain why they were shot at. Co

Then Pivane stands up and strides toward the shattered window.

“Pivane!” yells Co

But Pivane just stands there. It’s Grace who points out what only she and Pivane have come to understand.

“That shot was all the way across the room,” Grace says. “Kinda like in old war movies. A shot across our bow. They didn’t mean to kill no one.”

“A warning?” suggests Lev.

“A message,” answers Pivane. Still, the rest are reluctant to move from under the table.

Co