Nightmare

Evan turned his head without sitting up. A boy with white-blond hair, pale blue eyes, and a deep suntan sat cross-legged next to the pallet. He looked to be Evan’s age, about twelve. His feet were bare, and he wore a brown shirt and shorts. A silver band encircled his left wrist and left ankle. Automatically Evan touched his own wrist. The metal shackle was still there.

'I’m …okay,' Evan said slowly. 'What’s going on? Where am I?'

'This is Mistress Blanc’s farm,' the boy said. 'You got here some hours ago, and they bad me keep an eye on you until you woke up. Nater-him that’s the headservant-Nater said they had to sedate you on the ship or you would have killed yourself.'

Evan pushed himself gingerly upright, expecting dizziness or nausea but feeling neither. The cloth slid from his head and landed with a wet plop on the pallet. 'Where’s my mom?'

'At house, I think.' The boy dropped the cloth into a bucket. 'She’s going to be working kitchen. You’re supposed to be working ponds with me. Come on. I’ll show you.'

He unfolded long, skinny legs and got up. Evan didn’t move. 'I want to see my mom.'

The boy hesitated. 'We’re pond hands. Muckers. We don’t go into house much. Mistress Blanc said you’ll be starting at ponds.'

'I want to see my mom,' Evan repeated stubbornly. What if they were lying and Rebecca was dead or sold to someone else? And she had to be worried about him. The boy gave him a reluctant look.

'I’ll bring you up to house,' he said dubiously. 'But I’m not promising nothin’. Come on.'

Evan got up off the pallet and followed the boy to a chunky wooden ladder that lead down to a large main floor. It turned out they were in the loft of a barn-like structure. The place smelled of dust and straw. Several pallets were scattered across the floor, along with a few personal items and open wooden crates that stored clothes. Evan’s white tunic had been replaced with the same brown shorts and shirt the boy wore, and he wondered who had dressed him.

'I’m Pup,' the boy said, starting down the ladder. Evan followed.

'I’m Evan,' he said. A small shock hit him and he almost lost his grip on the ladder. 'Ow!'

Pup looked up at him. 'Mistress said your name’s Lizard on account of you being so small and quick.'

What? They were going to change his name? 'My name is Evan,' Evan repeated, and got another shock, stronger this time. 'Hey!'

Pup shrugged, continued on down the ladder. 'Mistress says your name is Lizard.'

The main floor was piled with bales of golden straw. A pair of giant double doors that stretched up to the ceiling three stories above them gaped open just wide enough to let a person slip in or out. Sunshine poured through the gap, illuminating dust motes that hovered on the still air. The odd twittering noise was louder down here. Another wooden ladder lead up a loft opposite the one Evan and Pup had descended from.

'That’s the girl’s loft,' Pup told him. 'Boys aren’t allowed up there, and you’ll get a shock if you get too close.'

He slipped through the gap in the doors. Evan followed him. The sunshine hit his eyes like a hammer, and the twittering noise burst into full volume around him. It was nearly deafening. He squinted and put a hand up to shield his face until his eyes adjusted. Evan caught his breath. Stretching into the distance before him was a field dotted with a series of ponds that made green and blue circles under a dazzling azure sky. Odd trees of a kind Evan had never seen before lined some of the ponds. Tall grass surrounded others, and a few had sandy shores. It was amazing. Australia had been battling constant drought when Evan had left, and he had never seen so much freestanding water in his life, except for the ocean.

A wide strip of green grass bisected by a dirt path separated the pond area from the barn, and Evan saw people moving along other pathways between the little pools, though he couldn’t make out what they were doing. The sun was hot overhead.

'What is it?' Evan asked, still awed at the water.

'Frog farm,' Pup said. 'We take care of the frogs. Come on-the house is this way.'

Pup lead Evan around behind the barn and across another wide green field. The grass was soft and green under Evan’s soles. It felt soothing and pleasant. Plants in the Outback were scrubby, tough, and usually prickly, certainly no pleasure to walk on. Sydney was a place of concrete and broken glass. Walking barefoot on something soft was a new sensation.

Ahead of them lay a wide, white house, three stories tall, with a gently sloping red roof. Several outbuildings dotted the grass around it like chicks around a hen, and people moved slowly among them. Bright sunlight glittered off silver bands.

The slaves working around the house wore white, and Pup and Evan’s brown clothing drew baleful stares. Pup clearly felt uncomfortable but lead Evan around to a back door. The smells of yeast and onions floated on the air. Pup knocked shyly and a moment later, Rebecca stuck her head out. She wore a white blouse, white trousers, and a blue apron dusted with flour. Her silver wristband was coated with it.

'Mom,' Evan said, and she gathered him into her arms even though he was as tall as she was. He stayed like that for a moment, pretending everything was safe and all right.

'Are you all right?' she asked. 'They wouldn’t let me see you.'

'I’m fine.' He reluctantly backed up a step, ending the embrace. 'This is Pup. He took care of me. He said my name is ‘Lizard’ now.' He said the last with distaste.

'They call me ‘Bell,’ ' Rebecca said. 'Blanc-' she winced and clutched her wrist '- Mistress Blanc always renames her slaves. I guess everyone does. We’ll just have to live with it until we can figure out what else to do.'

Evan gave a grim nod. A voice from inside the kitchen said, 'Bell! We need that pastry rolled out!'

'I have to go,' Rebecca said. 'Here, hold on.'

She vanished into the kitchen and came back with a pair of large rolls, which she handed to Evan and Pup. The latter snatched it eagerly. Evan realized he was hungry, too.

'I don’t know if they fed you or not,' Rebecca said. 'If you get short of food, come round and see me. I’ll see what I can do.'

'Where are they keeping you?' Evan asked. 'Where do you sleep?'

'In the garret with the others,' she replied.

'Bell!'

'I’ll see you later.' Rebecca stood on tiptoe to kiss the top of Evan’s head and vanished back into the house.

CHAPTER TWO

Every so often, life just sucks

— Yeoman Daniel Vik

'Come on,' Pup said, his mouth full of bread. 'I’m supposed to show you around.'

He took Evan back around the house toward the pond area, and they ate as they walked. The rolls had a spicy meat filling that tasted unfamiliar to Evan, but he was hungry enough not to care.

The heat lay hard on the boys as they walked. The very air itself was heavy with moisture, and Evan’s shirt began to stick to his back. He felt as if he were pushing his way through the muggy air. He had never felt anything like it in arid Australia, and he found it a little hard to breathe as they reached the first pond, which was partly shaded by a large tree. The shore of the pond had been landscaped so that several strips of raised earth extended like curving fingers into the water. The twittering noises continued, punctuated by odd glumps, and Evan realized it was the sound of frogs. When Evan and Pup reached the pond shore, alarmed plopping sounds greeted them, and a host of ripples scampered across the water. A moment later, several dozen bulbous eyes goggled suspiciously at the boys from the pond’s surface.

'These’re American bullfrogs,' Pup said. 'We have sixteen ponds of them. That’s the most. They’re used in