Mar ch 6| We Can Be Heroes
I am a coward. As I reach the edge of town and plunge through a cedar grove, regret weighs on my feet and slows each step until I no longer move. I drop to my knees, palms on the rocky ground and stomach churning.
Master Nabal’s laugh reverberates in my head like ricocheting bullets. It triggers a replay of words once spoken to me.
“I know you understand much more than you let on, Mar,” Evil boomed.
Thick chains shackled my wrists, ankles, and neck to a high-backed chair. I glared through the thick glass between us. He held the bandana Esperanza wove for me—a deep blue in imitation of my left eye, my name scrawled in black thread to match my right. It reminded me too much of home.
“Is there nothing you want to say to me?”
No. I wanted to see the wardens stabbing him for a change, but words from me would only bolster his pride. I did not want to be fertilizer for his smile.
“You’re not even going to ask why? I hoped you would gain enough intelligence to wonder your purpose, especially in light of your stubbornness. Brute doesn’t question it either, but nor does he defy my orders.”
With a sigh, he pocketed the bandana and steepled his hands before him.
“Do you know of message bugs and hum-horses, Mar? Living creatures and inventions of one man. Though he is gone now, his legacy lives on. Everyone uses message bugs, and there are only a dozen hum-horses in the world, each one worth a fortune. I am trapped in that man’s shadow until I present the world with something of greater value. Something just as remarkable.” He chuckled. “That something is you.”
I bared my teeth a little, and his chortle rattled the glass.
“I admit, one is simply an interesting pet, but think of what you’re capable of. You can hear me through this glass while none of the wardens can. You can track a scent days old. Your vision is as good at night as it is in day. Your endurance is extraordinary. Yet, your instinct drives you to work as a team and follow a master. Imagine an army with your skills and the loyalty of a dog.”
His smile was as wide as my eyes narrow. He had yet to say anything I deemed good. I wanted no part of the fighting they kept thrusting upon me: other dogs, heavily armed and armored wardens, Brute once, and he took a chunk out of my leg. Always in that dank, dismal arena to the tune of Nabal’s laugh. I outran and out climbed my opponents, learning to use new muscles, always searching for escape.
“How scary, that glare. Can you see yourself?”
My ghostly double loomed in the glass, his eyes the reciprocal of mine: the right blue with a dark bruise around it. I didn’t want to see him. I could look through him, so I did. Like an arrow, my glare pierced Master Nabal, but he remained unaffected.
“A representative of the president will arrive tomorrow. You need to be impressive.” He leaned closer to the glass. “We can be heroes, Mar, or you can be worthless.”
I flinched. That last word stung, but it didn’t hurt as much as his next admission.
“Had I known you were Asher’s mutt, I’d have destroyed you immediately. I cannot have that boy’s name attached to this in any way.” A wagging finger punctuated this statement before curling into a fist. His grip held dreams I could not share. “Lucky for us both I didn’t know, because you turned out to be one of only two successes. That helps us narrow down why you survived, Mar. Genetics can be so tricky. I’ll have to find more pups with mismatched eyes.”
His triumphant grin is seared into my mind even now in the woods outside town. I can’t turn away or banish it by closing my eyes. Ashamed, the sun sinks as I run, and darkness engulfs the forest.
The door crashes open, admitting the night’s frigid breeze along with me. In my wake, the alarm barrel screeches a warning that someone—me—has stepped on the porch. I don’t know how Dr. Plunker rigged it to do that, but it needs to learn the difference between friend and foe and stop screaming at me.
“Mar?” Mrs. Plunker dries her hands on her apron as she leaves the kitchen. Her welcome falls into a frown. “What’s wrong? Where is Dr. Plunker?”
I left him behind. More guilt rains down on me, and I am soaked in it. I ran, leaving Esperanza in the same room as Master Nabal. I abandoned those pups he wants. I am a coward who flees when my comrades need me.
I left Asher in the gorge.
“Mar?” Mrs. Plunker’s gentle grip tows me out of the doorway. “Did something happen to Dr. Plunker?”
My thoughts are still on Asher, and Master Nabal’s boasts rant along.
“Why doesn’t he want there to be a connection?” I whisper as Mrs. Plunker pushes me onto a kitchen chair. “They’re related.” Family is important to humans. Mother always says so.
“Enough nonsense, Mar. Throw me a clue.” Her hands cradle my face and force me to look at her mahogany eyes. Anxiety hangs in the air, and my nose twitches.
“Dr. Plunker had to help somebody,” I tell her. “He doesn’t know I ran.”
I catch only one whiff of relief before she questions, “Because you don’t want us to adopt you?” Worry’s stench grows, pervaded now with confusion and fear of loss.
I cannot assure her in this regard, so I explain, “I ran because Master Nabal was there.”
Calculation whirs behind her eyes as it so often does. “Nabal Azuré. He’s not been seen around here for many years, not since…” Her sentence stops short as if encountering a deadly precipice. “Did he mention your Asher at all?”
“Not today. He was buying pups.”
Realization shines over her worry, a sharp scent that makes my nose twitch again. “He changed you.”
I nod, eyes lowered in shame I cannot explain.
“Look at me, Mar.”
I obey.
She has her lecturing face on, even more serious than the one that touts the importance of forks. “Understand that I love you as you are. I would not wish to change things if it meant never meeting the Mar that sits before me. But neither do I condone what Nabal Azuré has done. You owe him nothing. You did right by running.”
She takes a bio-packet from her apron pocket and twists it as she stands and walks toward the door. I flinch as it snaps and chemicals rush together. By the time she reaches the lantern hanging by the doorframe, the packet glows a bright green.
“In my history lessons, there are heroes,” I say, “those who stand up for justice. They aren’t cowards.”
“Often safety and cowardice go hand and hand.” She shoves the luminescent packet into the bottom section of the lantern. A scent-chip slides into the top: Dr. Plunker. I smell it from across the room. Message bugs swarm in the middle. As she slides a panel in and out, flashing a message to the insects, their stench tickles my nose. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
No doubt she tells the doctor I am here and safe. That I left him behind like I left Asher.
Father’s words echo. “You worthless mutt!” The buzz repeats the same denouncement and etches it into my brain. I put my hands over my ears, but it doesn’t stop.
“I’m not worthless!” I cry, eyes cinched shut. Tears escape anyway. Mrs. Plunker embraces me, but I do not move. I am so small in her arms.
Her voice rumbles in her chest. “That man deserves a devil’s fate. One day his actions will come back to bite him.”
“I’ve never bitten anybody.”
“Except for that squirrel you brought me. You shouldn’t have mangled him so.”
“He shouldn’t have taunted me.”
She chuckles softly and shakes her head. “Do you know of Felix Azuré?”
“Yes.” He is a picture on the wall at home, larger than anyone I’ve ever met. He glowers at me when I slink down the hall.
“A bona fide genius, that man. But Nabal didn’t inherit such intellect, much to the frustration of both father and son. Nabal’s life goal is to outshine his father’s shadow. His ambition is expensive, and his father’s fortune enough to buy the entire world, yet when the judge read out Felix’s will, everything was passed to Nabal’s grandson, Asher.”
“My Asher?”
She nods. “He was a toddler, but Felix saw his potential, claimed Asher was a more worthy heir than Nabal would ever be. Nabal did not take it well.”
“Did he hurt Asher?” I pull away so I can see her solemn expression.
“Nothing was officially proven, but I am certain Nabal was behind the series of accidents that stalked that child.” She sighs, the breath full of old concern and resignation. “Lucky for Asher, Nabal is not the mastermind he would like to be.”
Still, how dare he? Protectiveness flares in my gut and sets a scowl on my face. My lip curls.
A rebuke slides into Mrs. Plunker’s stare. “I see that fire in you, Mar. But I tell you all this because I want you to stay away from Nabal Azuré. If his grandson is nothing but a liability to him, what are you?”
Continued in chapter 7
Thank you for reading!