Parable of the Talents

or moving around where they could be seen. The only loud sound was that of a baby crying from the Douglas house. Even that came to an abrupt stop.

If this had been a drill, it would have been a good drill.

But where were the two runners? Were they hiding? Had they found their way into the school or into one of the houses? Were they crouching behind one of the trees?

Were they armed?

“1 don't think they had guns,' Zahra said when I asked her.

Then I spotted them—or spotted something. I drove to­ward it, toward our own cabin, in fact—Bankole's and mine.

'The truck says they're still alive,' I said. 'They're not moving much, and Zee's right. They're not armed. But they're alive.'

************************************

The runners were Dan Noyer and a young girl. The moment I saw her—tall like Dan, but slender, pretty, dark-haired with a sharp little chin like Mercy's—I knew she must be one of Dan's sisters. As it turned out, she was Nina Noyer.

Both brother and sister had been beaten bloody with both fists, and with something else. Bankole says they look as though they've been lashed with whips.

'I suppose,' he said with great bitterness, 'that people who don't have access to convict collars might have to exert themselves—resort to older methods of torture.'

Brother and sister have rope burns at their wrists, ankles, and necks. Also, Bankole says, they've suffered a great deal of sexual abuse. The girl told him they were forced 'to do it with strangers for money.' Dan has endured even more beat­ing than Nina has, and both have what Bankole calls, 'the usual infections and tissue damage.' Nina says she got preg­nant, but one night during her captivity, she had a miscar­riage. She hadn't known what was happening, but one of the other slaves told her. Well, I suppose it would be surprising if she hadn't gotten pregnant. For her sake, I'm glad she miscarried.

And Dan had somehow found her, rescued her, and brought her home in spite of pursuers chasing him right down into our valley. How had one 15-year-old done so very much?

And in the end, what would it cost him? In the end, did that matter?

friday, march 18, 2033

'This is no way to live,' Bankole said to me when he came in from tending Dan and Nina this morning. He sat at the table and put his head down on his arms.

I had taken his watch, as I promised, to free him to do what he could for Dan and Nina. Allie and May were help­ing him, since they have all but joined the Noyer family by taking care of Kassia and Mercy for so long.

Bankole had spent most of his time with his two patients, and had once again found himself fighting for Dan's life. The boy stopped breathing twice, and Bankole revived him. But at last, the young body, once strong and healthy, just gave up. It had taken an incredible amount of abuse over the past few months.

'His heart just quit,' Bankole said. 'If I had more modern equipment, maybe Goddamnit, Olamina, can you see now why I need to get out of here and get you out of here?'

'He's really dead?' I whispered, not believing it—not wanting to believe it.

'He's dead. It's obscene! A young boy like that'

'What about his sister?'

'She wasn't as badly beaten as he was. I believe she'll be all right'

Would she, after all that had happened? I doubted it Bankole and I sat silent for a while, each of us thinking our own thoughts. What would it have meant to Dan that he had saved his sister, even though he had not been able to save himself? Did he ever imagine such a thing? Would it some­how have been all right? Enough?

'Where's the other sister—Paula?' I asked. 'What hap­pened to her?'

Bankole sighed. 'Dead. Some trouble on the road up north around Trinidad. Three men tried to steal her. They got caught. Her owners and the thieves shot it out, and she was in the middle. Nina says her owners just cursed her for getting in the way and getting killed. They left her body lying among the rocks by the sea. Nina said Paula loved the sea when the