“This isn’t what I planned,” Greer said.
“Whatever is?” Epps said, and he reached across the table to pat Greer’s arm. “You’ve got yourself in a pickle; the Libratiers are bad enough. I have word from a man in town. Trackers fly come dawn, so they’re sweeping the town in a few hours. We can’t risk keeping you in our crawlspace, so you must leave tonight, I’m afraid.”
“I guessed as much.”
“They’ll send troops in all directions. The robe has put more men on the north road but by placing the items in all directions, it will disperse them more evenly.”
Greer shook his head. “No, the Merrics will know for sure then that this wasn’t a one-man job.”
Elsa cleared her throat. “Dear, I don’t think anyone believes one person did this. They’ll blame the Galvantry, same as always.”
“We have so far to go.” Greer’s voice was heavy with exhaustion like he’d already traveled to the moon and back again.
Epps got up from the table. “That’s all I know. Not much, but plenty to get going on. I’d ask where you were going but better I don’t know. There are people involved in the location, involved in everything, and I don’t want them on my head at night.”
Epps went into the next room and returned with a pile of army fatigues. “It was the best we could do on short notice. My old military uniform,” he said, handing me a pile of brown. “I was a thin man many years ago; just tighten the belt. Elsa, get Shawn’s coat. They have switched to black in the cities, but some country families still wear the brown.”
“Thank you,” I said, overwhelmed at the kindness and generosity of the couple.
Elsa returned with her boots and the coat. Epps and Elsa put the clothes on the table.
“I hope,” Epps said, eyeing me up and down, “I hope you are worth all this trouble, young lady.”
Greer took one look at me and flicked my sunglasses down from my head and back over my eyes. It startled me for a second. I’d forgotten they were even on my head.
Elsa didn’t notice. “Oh, leave the girl alone. He wouldn’t have saved her if she wasn’t.”
“Mistakes have been made before,” Epps replied, which started the two of them bickering.
From the table, Greer and I watched the exchange.
“If it is too much to take the clothes,” I whispered to him, “I can do without.”
Greer ran his hands through his hair again. “No, you can’t. They need your clothes to spread in different directions. Besides, Epps was right; your clothes are too bright. I shouldn’t have involved them but not a lot of choices. Good people like them are scarce. The uniform is a good idea.”
“But we made them fight.” Except for conversations about Bollard, my parents hardly ever bickered, so I wasn’t used to people getting into arguments, and definitely not in front of company.
“Who? Them? No, they’re an old married couple. They’ve fought like this for as long as I’ve known them. Don’t worry about it. You should change so we can get going.” He pointed to the bathroom door.
In the bathroom, I caught my reflection in a mirror over the sink. I looked awful. Mud coated my cheek. The entire dinner, the side of my face had been smudged with dirt. Probably it had there been there since I fell asleep in the cellar.
I let the water wash over my hands. I took off the sunglasses and put them on the sink along with my underwear bracelets. After washing up in the little sink, I changed into the military styled olive colored button-up shirt and military pants. Last, I slid into the woolen coat. I realized I was about to go for a potentially long summer hike in a wool coat, with a stranger, in the woods. Me, running away with that Greer guy. He could be a serial killer. I should be home with my family, watching a movie with Sasha in my room.
But I wouldn’t have been happy even if I had stayed at home. I would have been continually seeking a cure for Grandma in a world that had never heard of her disease. Or I could be in a ball gown greeting heads of state, worse than miserable. Bollard had plans for me and the unknown powers he said I radiated. There was no place for me, so here with this unknown man was as good as any.
“Everything all right, dear?” Elsa followed the question with a knock on the door.
“Yes.” I opened the door for her.
“You clean up nice, dear.” Elsa had a black backpack with her. “You should place your undergarments in the bag, dear.”
I took it and realized the bag had already been packed. “What’s in it?”
“I don’t know. Your Greer brought it with him for you.”
My Greer? “Um, we just met, so he’s not really my—” Her head turned in confusion, and I felt awkward enough with my underwear still in my hands, standing there in her family’s clothes. “Anyway, dinner was good.”
“Your curls are lovely, but you don’t want your hair to get caught in trees and such.” Elsa held hair bands. “You need to keep your hair back. Let me.”
Elsa split my messy hair down the middle, her fingers working through the knots of my curls. Occasionally, she would find bits of twigs in it. “My, you’ve been through a good deal already.”
I watched her work on my hair in the mirror, and I caught my gray eyes. They were light silver. I thought of the marble cutter and what she had said. Never look a Merric in the eyes. This world knew my gray eyes as a sign of distrust and power. What would happen if she looked in my eyes? What if she saw them and hated me after everything the Epps had done? I grabbed
