“Here, here, what’s this,” said Howkel, who was the last to emerge from the woods. “Controversy? Argument? On such a lovely day? What are you umoxen up to?”
“Harrumph,” said the nigh umox. “Nothing at all. Except having my intelligence insulted and my fragrance referred to in a tone of derogation.”
“Tsk,” said Howkel. “Well, folk, you’ve lost your ride for sure. I never ask the umoxen to haul anyone who’s insulted them. If you get so far as our farm, though, do drop in for a meal and a bed. Dame Howkel is a fine cook, if I do say so myself.”
And with that, he and his tribe leapt upon the wagon, dumped our backpacks onto the road, and trundled off, leaving us standing there with our mouths open. I felt I’d done nothing but gape for weeks.
“Now what?” I asked, simmering.
“Now,” said Falija very softly, “now that our curious hayraiders have departed, it’s time Gloriana knew the truth.”
I could feel myself turning red, then white, then gray before my legs went out from under me and I was suddenly sitting on the grass, not knowing how I got there. Glory got her water bottle out of her pack and moistened a clean hanky to make a coolness for my forehead.
Finally, I murmured, “It was twins, Glory. All those twins.”
“What was?” Glory asked. “What about it. I’m not one!”
“I know. I know. I married your Grandpa Doc, and I had twins. Conjoined twins. They died almost as soon as they were born. And we thought, well, it’s probably for the best, it happens sometimes, next time will be normal. Then I had your mother and your aunt Mayleen, and they were joined, too. Grandpa Doc had to cut them apart because they were joined at the back of the head. That was the end of having babies, so far as I was concerned. We figured, it was just me, you know. Some mutation that happened on our way to Tercis. Years went by. Then Mayleen…
“Mayleen was only seventeen when she had Billy Wayne and Joe Bob, and they were joined, but Grandpa Doc separated them all right except for the terrible scars. After them, two or three sets died, then it was Ella May and Janice Ruth. Then Benny Paul and his brother who died. And more dead ones in between before Trish survived. Then Sue Elaine and Lou Ellen. We’d already realized, by then, that every time Grandpa separated twins, one of them was…wrong, somehow.
“Your mother, Maybelle, is sweetness itself, but Mayleen…And Joe Bob is a sensible, kind person, but it’s good Billy Wayne went into the army, because he’s as bad as Benny Paul. It was the same with Ella May and Janine Ruth. Ella May applied to the Siblinghood because she couldn’t stand it that her sister was a really vicious person. It was as though only one out of each pair had any goodness. Trish is like an empty bottle. Nothing there at all but babble and bubbles. And it went on and on, sometimes one lived, sometimes neither, five times both. And you know what happened to poor Lou Ellen after she and Sue Elaine…”
I saw Glory’s face change, saw it convulsed with fury, and suddenly she was screaming, “It wasn’t fair letting Sue Elaine have legs and not letting Lou Ellen have any!” Then there was a vast quiet, as though the whole world was waiting for her answer.
I whispered, “The nerves to the legs were connected to Sue Elaine’s brain, not to Lou Ellen’s. There were only two legs, only one spine attached at the pelvis. Actually, Lou Ellen didn’t have any legs, Glory. You know that. Grandpa Doc had to separate them. He waited until they were three. You used to play with her on the bed for hours, and you knew…”
“She got well. She does too have legs now,” Glory said. “She does. She goes everywhere with me!”
Falija put her paw on Glory’s hand and let the claws out, just a tiny bit. “Glory, Glory, Lou Ellen is dead. You know that. You saw her dancing with all her selves. You know she isn’t really alive. In your heart you know that.”
Glory’s hands went to her throat, as though she were choking, but still she cried out, “Bamber’s seen her! Tell them, Bamber!”
“Well,” he said in a sad voice, “I’ve seen her ghost, Glory. But then, I can see people’s ghosts, and I guess you can, too.”
“She’s buried in the cemetery,” I said. “I know you wouldn’t go to her funeral or even into the graveyard to see the stone, but her grave is there, Glory. Really.”
Glory looked around, trying to find something else to prove Lou Ellen was still alive. “You make her sandwiches,” she said frantically. “You say hello to her.”
“Just to keep you contented, Glory, so you won’t go back into the state you went into when she died. You end up eating the sandwiches yourself. And nobody says hello to Lou Ellen until you look at her and show us where you think she is. Except Falija says you really can see her, and now Bamber says he can, so you’re not…you know, what we thought you were…”
“You all thought I was crazy. Mama and Daddy and you!”
“Well,” I cried, “I beg your forgiveness for that, but there was just no end to the tragedy and the loss and the pain. And when your mama had Til and Jeff, it was the same thing. Jeff is a wonderful boy, but Til…Til’s another one like Benny Paul. When your mother got pregnant the second time, Grandpa Doc knew the babies wouldn’t live, because a friend of his had sneaked across the Walled-Off to lend him some other medical machine
