Blanche had told me that God’s vomit reflex took longer to detect her in a human host than in a mobiak one. Maybe that meant she couldn’t completely take over the minds of her hosts without being immediately expelled. I recalled the flood-obsessed tourists who’d booked seats on my bus and waited in that long line to purchase a flood-themed calendar. They were all infected by Blanche on some level. No sane, autonomous person would behave that way otherwise.
After Lou finished collecting my scrill and left, I went at the heavy bag, practicing my kicks. Ten minutes into the workout, my sister came down the stairs carrying a loaf of bread and a dish of butter on a wood chopping block.
“What’s this?” I said, wiping away the sweat already caught in my eyebrows.
“I feel bad we lost the starter,” she said, sawing into the loaf. Steam escaped from the gash. “I know how much you loved it. I should have kept my own. Anyway, I started a culture after you told me. It isn’t the same but it’s sourdough.”
I watched the butter melt as she spread it over a slice. My mouth watered—nothing like fresh bread. She handed the slice to me, and I hugged her. “Thank you, May.”
“I’m mad at you,” she said. “But I still love you.”
I let go, leaned against the table, and took a bite. The flavor wasn’t the same, but the bread was still delicious. May cut and buttered a slice for herself, and we chewed in silence for a moment, then she swallowed and said, “What do you think of Lou?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I think he’s been divorced three times.”
“I know,” May said, holding her slice of bread like a microphone. “But do you think . . . ? Do you think he’s . . . ?”
“What May? What’s going on?”
“Do you think he’s, you know . . . mean?”
My sister had been with three abusive men in her life, and all three had appeared wonderful at first before they turned. I knew she was afraid of that happening again. I knew she didn’t trust her judgment in men and was probably warring with herself over whether or not finding a life partner was worth the risk, whether or not she was selfish for even considering bringing another man into Em’s life, another potential monster.
“I don’t know,” I said. “How do you tell? I used to think I had some sense of it, but then Robert . . . completely threw me off. I don’t know. I like Lou. He said he’d protect you and Em if anything ever happened to me. I think he means it.”
May scoffed. “You men all think you can protect the people you love from the world, but you don’t realize your most important job is to protect those people from yourself.”
“His ex-wives would know,” I said, not trying to be snarky at all. “I could ask them.”
“No.”
“Why not? You always check references when you hire someone, and this is way more important than that.”
May set her half-finished slice of bread down. “I keep thinking of those assholes Mom dated when we were kids. Maybe that’s why, you know, like she cursed me.”
“No. It’s not your fault the world’s full of assholes.”
“Yeah,” she said, but she didn’t sound like she believed me
“I saw Mom.”
May locked her eyes onto mine. “What? When?”
“A couple days ago. Sorry, I’ve been meaning to tell you. She’s clean.”
“That’s good. Did she say why she didn’t tell us what we were, about all of this?”
“She wanted to protect us.”
May scoffed again.
“I know,” I said. “But she’s trying to help now. She says I can cure Em with my rekulak.”
“That parasite thing you got?”
“Yeah. It has the power to heal. I’ve seen it. That’s why the Friends are after me. They want it. But Mom says if I learn how to use it, I can cure Em. I can protect us. She put me in touch with an expert. Lonnie. He’s been training me. We can have our lives back.”
“What does Lou say about this?”
“I didn’t tell him, and I’m not going to. He has his own agenda. You know he threatened to stop helping me just because I disobeyed him. No. We keep this between us. Family. Besides, he doesn’t know anything about rekulaks. He can’t help us there. Em shouldn’t have to drink lice juice for the rest of her life. She should be in school with her friends, not here, hiding and bored.”
May sighed. “You need to know something. Lou didn’t want to tell you because he wanted you to focus on your training, but your friend Kaliah is being tortured in prison. Lou learned when he was trying to break her out. He didn’t tell me the specifics, but it sounds like it’s some kind of psychological torture.” May put a hand on my back. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you for telling me, but I already knew.”
Chapter 14
THE SNOWBANKS LINING THE curvy two-lane highway to Lonnie’s house had grown taller. Fresh snow floated down in large flakes. Trucks passed with attached snowplows scraping and rumbling against the concrete, feeding the growing snowbanks with chunky brown and white slush.
Earlier, I’d confronted Lou about Kaliah’s torture. I wanted details. Whether I was looking for inspiration to push through my training or I wanted to torture myself thinking of her pain, I didn’t know. But he told me, after pushing out an exasperated sigh, that he hadn’t witnessed it, but he’d smelled it on her. She was enduring Doegerot, a particularly sadistic form of mobiak
