Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)(87)

“That’s sweet.”

“It is. They are. They look out for her. Sometimes I’ll have them in the playpen together, and I’ll go out for a minute. I’ll come back and there’ll be a toy in there I didn’t put in. And just last night, when I was nursing Duncan, I started thinking about Tony. How much he’d have loved the babies, how much I missed him. And Duncan put his hand on my cheek. He stroked my cheek. When I looked down, he was looking at me…”

Tears filled her eyes, and Arlys saw the baby stroke his mother’s cheek. “He was looking at me just like he is now.”

Bending her head, she kissed him. “I’m all right, baby. Everything’s all right. I’m blessed, Arlys, with these three beautiful babies. They’re blessed. And when I think of people like Rove and the Mercers, I’m afraid. There’s hate in them. You don’t have to be magickal to see it, to know it. There’s hate in them for anyone who’s different.”

“It’s fear, too. They hate what they fear and don’t understand. But there are more of us, Katie, than there are of them. We’ll keep looking out for each other, just like Jonah looked out for Bryar. We’re building something here. I don’t know what the hell it is yet, but it’s ours. And we’re keeping it.

“I’m going to go post this, check in with Rachel. And I think we’re going to have a bonus Bulletin later. An editorial. On assholes.”

Now Katie laughed. “You would, too.”

“Damn right.”

Arlys headed into the school, stepping into light as odd as the fifty-year-old faerie. Magickal light cast a faintly golden glow. She posted the Bulletin on the corkboard, scanned other notices. Offers to barter one skill for another or for a mechanical part. Others looking for interest in a book club, a crocheting circle, a softball game.

People, she thought, reaching for people.

That’s what they were building, she thought, despite the handful of morons who couldn’t see past their own bigotry.

She walked on, made the slight turn to the offices. Through the glass window she saw Rachel and Jonah huddled together at the desk.

Didn’t Rachel see the way he looked at her? Arlys wondered. Couldn’t she feel it? The man was so obviously in love even Arlys, who considered herself inexpert and mostly disinterested in such matters, could spot it at a mile.

She rapped her knuckles on the jamb of the open door.

“Arlys.” Rachel dropped her pencil, rolled her shoulders. “New Bulletin?”

“Just posted. We’re going to have a bonus edition this afternoon. On bigotry versus acceptance. On decency versus assholery. My editor cleared me to use harsh language. I heard about Bryar and the Mercers. She’s lucky you were around, Jonah.”

He shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’d’ve gotten my ass kicked if Aaron hadn’t come along. They were drunk and belligerent enough to start swinging.”

“My money’s on you,” Rachel said. “Writing it out, harsh language included, might stir up more resentment. But bringing that boil to the surface, lancing it might be better than letting it fester.”

“It might take more than words.” Jonah got up, rolled his chair around the desk for Arlys. “Have a seat,” he said, then leaned on the desk. “I think we need to have a meeting, a serious one. You, Rachel, Katie, Chuck, Fred, Bill. I’d add Lloyd Stenson, Carla Barker.”

“Lloyd was a lawyer, Carla a sheriff’s deputy,” Rachel put in. “Lloyd’s, for lack of a better term, one of the animal whisperers, so that brings in three, with Jonah, from the magickal side of things—and all with good heads.”

“We need to talk about official laws, rules, consequences,” Jonah began. “We need to write up some sort of community constitution, I guess. Once we do, we need to take it to a full community meeting. People are settling in, and that’s a good thing. By and large, we’re working together, but that business with Bryar isn’t the first trouble, and it won’t be the last.”

“Every one of us is armed, one way or the other,” Rachel put in. “What happens if, human nature being what it is, somebody takes a shot at someone instead of a swing? What would have happened if the Mercers had hurt Bryar? We need to figure it out before it happens.”

“I agree.” Hadn’t she just mulled over moving toward a more formal structure? Arlys thought. “Some won’t like it—the rules or the consequences—so we’d need to make it simple and clear. And if we have laws, that means we need someone who will enforce them.”

“I’m hoping Carla will take it on,” Jonah said. “She has experience, she’s steady. And maybe we could ask Bill Anderson to work with her.”

“Bill?”

“Steady again, and people like him, respect him. I’m not sure he’ll want to take that on, but we will need more than just Carla. Any way, it would be a start. Right now, heading up committees, I’d guess you’d call them, is volunteer, and it can cycle.”

“We need to make that more formal.” Rachel tapped her pencil on the desk. “Since we haven’t had any patients this morning, Jonah and I have been trying to work on an agenda. Up to now we’ve had to focus on food, shelter, security, medicine, supplies. Now we need structure.”