Amadeus comes and sits next to me with a serious frown on his face.
“I bet our arrival triggered the need to find something that only became valuable or important because we moved in. The cheek of people coming into our house. They must be desperate.”
If Amadeus is worried we are in more trouble than I thought. I hate being one of those doomed people in horror movies. You know the ones, you realize by the lighting and the music that they shouldn’t go into the forest, the deserted house, or the mine shaft, because there they’ll meet their gruesome end. And still, they go, against any common sense. We should be smarter than that.
“The people responsible for the fire aren’t finished yet. Scott is still alive and we’re still here. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were the same people who broke into our house the other night. Would our house be next to burn? What could they hope to achieve by killing Scott?”
Amadeus is pacing the length of the common room, balling his fists and pulling at his bottom lip with his teeth.
“It’s possible they hoped we would find the neighborhood too unsafe for us and sell up and leave,” Elise said. But then she shakes her head. “Why would they not burn our house down? Wouldn’t that be easier? We would have to move if we had nowhere to stay.”
“Don’t be naive, Elise. If we are the target, burning our house down doesn’t solve the problem. We could move in with Scott. And an arson attack on our house so soon after the court case would point immediately at the Gateway people.”
“Thanks, Amadeus, I see your point. But how can we keep ourselves safe? I can’t see us standing up to invisible people.”
We are running out of options. Knowing people can get in and out of our house without a problem worries me. If only we knew what they were looking for.
“I’d say the best thing is to sell up and move. We aren’t savvy detectives.”
It shouldn’t surprise me that I get little support for my view. We’ve been running and hiding the best part of our life. It’s heartbreaking given how much hope we’d put into moving to the homestead.
“I’m sure I could find out more. I could ask God. He must have an idea of what’s going on.”
“Who said that?”
For a moment I thought an intruder sneaked into our tree house. But that isn’t possible because it’s not a real place people can break into. Then I see Mikey inching toward our small group. He hesitates as he puts one foot in front of the other as if he isn’t sure whether the floor will collapse underneath him.
“It’s me, Mikey.”
“I don’t understand? What has God to do with that? What are you talking about?”
Amadeus quit pacing the room and looks down at Mikey who does a fair bit of quivering under the stern scrutiny.
“You guys never notice anything because nobody pays attention to me. I was good enough to find the pictures of the bad people, but after that, I was a nobody again. It’s a secret between me and God and I’m excellent at keeping secrets. God knows I’m better than just being in charge of finding the tennis balls Prince is hiding. He knows I’m the right person to help with big secrets.”
For seconds, while Mikey stood next to Elise, his bottom lip pushed out a smidgen showing his defiance, the stunned silence continued. It only becomes awkward when we all stare at him. Speechless and grappling for words. Something went wrong. Not the fact that Mikey talked to a stranger—whoever it is—but that he felt left out.
Busy with our adult agenda, we failed him. We failed to include him…and he might not be the only one. How much attention did we give the children in the last months? Words can’t describe how guilt-ridden I am.
“Oh my goodness. Mikey, who did you talk to? What makes you think it was God?”
“Because he saw everything. For example how good I was at keeping secrets. You guys don’t even appreciate that. He had to be God. Who else would understand that the fire means we are in danger? God helps to keep us safe and asked me to tell him what’s going on, where we’re going and all that stuff. When I gave him the gun Elise buried in the veggie garden, he was thrilled.”
“You gave the gun away?” Amadeus’ voice boomed and Mikey’s bottom lip trembles.
“Yes, I did, and God was over the moon about it. He wanted me to find the treasure the bad guys were looking for. He was sure I can find it if there is one to find. But I found nothing. He was not pleased about that. That’s when I told him I couldn’t spy for him anymore because it’s not right to spy against one’s family. And this is my family even if nobody cares much about me.”
My heart goes out to the little man who feels overlooked, almost as if he’s not part of the Tribe. He appears so lost.
“I’m sorry, Mikey, that you feel left out. I haven’t forgotten you. I thought you’d left with the other kids to the sanctuary having fun playing pirates and treasure hunters.”
Lilly bends down to him and cradles him in her arms. With a soothing softness that reminds me of Ama, she rocks him gently to the singsong of her words.
“I’m so sorry. We got so caught in the drama that we neglected you. We should have done better. Much better.”
“Thank you for telling us, Mikey. That was the correct thing to do. You are right, we are one family and everyone is important and loved. Everyone, including you.”
As so often, Elise finds the right words. And she’s right. We are one big family, even if it doesn’t look much organized at the moment with half of us here and the rest in the sanctuary.
Lilly gets up and paces the room.
