Reap (The Harvest Saga Book 1) Page 7

  “Fine. I’ll go.”

  Laney squealed and climbed the tree a bit higher.

  “Abby?” Kyan called.

  I ducked around the tree and approached him. Crew was standing beside him, barely making eye contact with me again. There was no lukewarm with him. He was either friendly or avoided me completely. “I need you in the trees until you have to leave. We’re behind on our quotas. Crew will go between and help both you and Laney.”

  I nodded and began climbing the tree beside my strangely silent-normally bubbly-blonde friend. My back stretched painfully as I maneuvered into the tree. The limbs were close together and some of the knotted bark scraped me as I moved past making me wince. I went straight to work, settling myself in a comfortable spot and began picking. “Crew, may I have a bushel please?”

  He passed me the small woven basket and our fingers brushed. I felt a jolt of electricity from the contact and broke it immediately. He jumped back, too, releasing the basket so that I jerked harshly back against the trunk. His lip snarled accusingly.

  I rolled my eyes. As if I had done anything on purpose. I didn’t even know what had passed between us. It was strange, like a spark of static electricity without the physical zap—only the shocking feeling left behind.

  I quickly filled the bushel and handed it down to him, making sure to avoid touching his hand again. The hour passed quickly and I was pushing it. I wanted to stay and help, but knew I had to get to the Preston’s house.

  Reluctantly, I handed Crew the final bushel and began my descent. I had positioned my sneaker on the final tree joint and shifted my weight. The worn rubber on the bottom of my shoe couldn’t grip the tree’s bark like it used to. It slipped and so did I. I wasn’t that high up, but felt the wind in my hair as I began to fall, clawing at the small branches beside my hands, though I knew they couldn’t hold my weight if I did grab hold of them. I closed my eyes. This was going to hurt. My back didn’t hit the ground. Instead, two strong arms folded around me, one under my back and one under my knees. I clung to him, out of breath.

  I couldn’t move. Beneath my bandages, I could feel the wetness soaking in. Some of the just barely healed gashes had just been torn open again and were bleeding. I panicked and began kicking and scooting away from him. Crew. He reluctantly let me go.

  “Are you okay?”

  His eyes searched mine, before they moved over my body. I winced as I stood up and began backing away. “I’m fine. Just shaken up. Thank you. Thanks, Crew. I…I have to go…to the Preston’s. Tell Kyan for me?”

  He pushed himself to his feet, eyeing me warily. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt?”

  “No. I just can’t be late. Thanks, though. Seriously. I owe you one.”

  He muttered something under his breath as I ducked into the next row and quickly began walking toward the dreaded part of my day. I couldn’t let him see my back.

  ∞

  THAT EVENING I WAS SORE from the fall, or the landing, though it had been better than landing on the ground. I was sweaty and needed to be clean. The only one place I could think of that would both soothe my skin let me get clean: the lake. A swim sounded amazing. I grabbed some clothes to change into and a bar of soap and took off down the trail that into the woods beyond. The sun had set and crickets were serenading the evening. The tall grasses along the pathway brushed my bare legs. I’d rolled my jeans up earlier in the afternoon. It had been a hot, sunny day.

  Crew’s bright red skin flashed into my mind and I smiled. I could smell the wild onions that thickened along the lake shore, made lush by the plentiful water and sunlight. My favorite spot was along the eastern side of the water, where a large flat rock jutted into the lapping waves. No one else was here tonight. Some nights I had to wait to clean up. Most villagers, male and female alike, had lost their sense of modesty long ago due to necessity, but like my clothes, it was something I’d never been able to shed.

  I undressed quickly, hung my clothes on a nearby tree branch and grabbed my soap bar. Lulu had made it with a rope sticking out of each end so we could secure it to our wrists when bathing and wouldn’t lose so many bars. It took a while to make soap, so each bar was a commodity. She and I both hated that job with a passion. I missed her. Exhaling, I gingerly sat on the end of the rock, dipping my toes in to test the temperature of the water. It was perfect. The sun had warmed it today, but only just enough. The cool nights had tempered it nicely. This was going to feel great. I unwrapped my bandages and peeled them away. Some were stuck to me, bonded with the dried blood from earlier. It hurt, but I ripped the fabric away. Best to do it quickly.

  I slipped off the rock into the water and adjusted to it for a moment before swimming several yards out into the lake. I made the trip out and back at a leisurely pace several times. Approaching the rock again, someone was standing nearby undressing. Oh my…no! It was Crew! I grasped my mouth with one hand and my breasts with the other and then decided to swim back out and wait for him to wash up and leave.

  My plan backfired. He didn’t just wash and leave. He stripped and then began swimming laps, straight toward me. And he was fast, a damn good swimmer. I couldn’t swim well because of my back and though I was comfortable, I’d never seen anyone with so perfect a stroke in my life. I dodged to the side and began swimming horizontally away from him. His head was down. Surely he would miss me. When he was right across from me, something slimy touched my leg and I let out a screech. He popped up from the water and looked right at me. I covered my important lady bits.

  “Abby?” He shook the water from his hair and used his hand to clear it from his eyes. “What are you doing here? And why are you screaming?”

  “I’m swimming and was going to bathe. What are you doing here?” I accused. The water rippled down his skin in tiny torrents. Holy hotness without a shirt on. The boys from Cotton shouldn’t be so selfish. They should never wear shirts. They should conserve raw materials and go shirtless all the time. Because it was nice. Very nice. And, very, very hot.

  Freaking out internally, I treaded water and tried to cover myself. He grinned as he looked at me, and his smile widened as his eyes drooped lower than my own. I gritted my teeth together, my cheeks hot as fire. “Hey! I asked you what you were doing here! This is my spot.”

  “The lake is your spot? I’m swimming and going to clean up, too. Not like there’s running…” He shook his head.

  “Not like there’s running what?”

  “Nothing. Forget it. Why were you screaming like you were dying?” He splashed some water at me.

  I splashed back at him with my free hand. “I was screaming like some slimy fish brushed my leg, which was exactly what happened. It’s probably your fault. You probably scared it toward me. You were swimming like someone was after you.” He didn’t respond, just grinned. He was so beautiful. If a man could be considered beautiful, he was exactly that. It was time for me to leave. He stared at me intently, silence drowning out the sounds of the night swirling around us. “Well, I’m going to go. Can you stay out here for a few minutes?”

  “Yeah. Sure.” He was treading water with both arms extended and I couldn’t help but look at him again. His dark hair glistened in the moonlight and I could still tell his skin was pink. He smirked when he caught me ogling him, and I rolled my eyes and started to the shore sideways, one arm covering myself and the other paddling. The movement concealed my back. If it wasn’t mangled, I would have faced away from him and used both arms. He chuckled as I struggled toward the shore.

  “Maybe we can skinny-dip together tomorrow, Abigail!” he yelled from behind me.

  “I was not skinny-dipping with you. I was bathing!”

  “Sure. Whatever.” I looked back at him and felt like roaring, but he was grinning back at me. I kicked my feet and hoped the splash shut him up. He started laughing. Before I exited the water, I looked at him. He was openly staring, waiting for me to climb out. “Turn around, Crew!” My voice had risen an octave.

&nb
sp; “Fine.” He grumbled something else and then raised his hands out of the water in surrender and then turned around. I jumped onto the rock and ran to the tree where my clothing hung. Snatching it up, I ran into the woods and quickly dressed. “You’re so bashful, Abby! Not what I expected from tough as nails Kelley.”

  I wasn’t proud of what I did next. Oh, who was I kidding? I was proud. Very proud. I sauntered back to the rock and found his discarded clothing. “Hey, what are you doing with my clothes?”

  “We’ll see who the bashful one is, now!” I walked away giggling, his clothes neatly bundled under my arm.

  “Come on, Abby. Leave my clothes! Come on!” He splashed the water with both hands. His pleas faded into the darkness the closer to home I strode.

  SATURDAY EVENING AFTER I COMPLETED the dreaded list from Mrs. Preston, or Mr. Preston or Zander—whoever wrote it, I hurried home to meet Laney. She was staying with me tonight and somehow I needed to let Kyan know. He’d been sleeping in Lulu’s room since she left. But, that was not going to happen tonight. Laney would freak if he climbed into bed with her. He was going to the bonfire, so I would have to try to steal a moment with him later. Discreetly. I knew Paige and her cronies would be there as well.

  Laney burst through my front door seconds after I had entered it myself. She nearly tackled me in a hug, squealing and then jumped up and down. “This is going to be so much fun. I’m so excited.” She squeezed my neck.

  “I can tell,” I eked out.

  “Oh, sorry.” She released my neck. In hardly any time, she squeezed me into a pair of her jeans, which were a little too tight for my taste, but she said made my butt look amazing. I was tucked into one of her button up flannel shirts, red and navy cross their ways across my body. Her shirt was a bit tight, too. But, she insisted and I had nothing clean anyway, so I relented.

  She tugged on an off-the-shoulder brown sweater which made her hair and eyes look amazing and a tight jean skirt that flirted delicately with her knees. She finger-combed her curls into submission and brushed my hair until it shone in all its mahogany glory. Before I knew it, Laney had painted my lips red and lashes black.

  She squealed in excitement taking me all in, making me do a twirl. I felt stupid, but I could tell it meant a lot to her. She painted her face on as well and then pulled me into the night, laughing happily. Freely. I even laughed, too. Something I hadn’t done since Lulu had been sent away.

  Crickets chirped happily in the tall hay beside us as we curved our way through the hayfields and thicker forest, away from the village. The park, as we called it, was just that. A forgotten relic that somehow still survived, hidden in the middle of the forest not too far from the village. It had been a childhood rite of passage to go there, to be scared out of your mind there. Dares had centered completely on the skeletal remains that the forest hid just beyond our reach.

  The moon was high and shone on the lake, like million silver fish scales dancing in the dark. The first trace of the park came along with that lake, complete with half sunken giant plastic swans, their eyes masked in faded black, contrasting with their once stark white bodies, now covered with algae and mold. One swan remained upright. One solitary swan.

  It had been that way since I was a child. Situated right at the shoreline, ensuring that it would probably remain upright until I was long gone. If one looked closely, the trails of snails and slugs carving through the green-gray algae glistened. Laney chattered on about how hot the guys from Cotton, Wheat, and Coal might be. I had to agree. Crew was the only male I had met from the other villages. If he was an example of what they all looked like, then they most certainly were hot. They would be different and somehow, that alone was appealing. New.

  Most of the girls kept to their usual cliques from home. They would wave and smile but rarely attempted to converse. Laney spoke with disappointment that the few guys she had seen had been guarded by the females from their villages like hellacious she-cats. But, their relationships were built on years of trust and familiarity. No doubt some were intended, betrothed, and excited to be joined together as one.

  It was announced yesterday morning by team leaders, by Kyan, that all couples in attendance who were already intended would be joined in marriage at the harvest festival in approximately one week’s time.

  Kyan’s eyes had found mine during this announcement. They were hard. He was steeling himself for what lay just around the bend. For Paige. The words he had uttered to me kept screaming through my mind, “I don’t love her...”

  We passed by the fun house. Inside, fastened to the walls, among the leaves, dead branches and creeping things, were mirrors that could make you look extremely tall and thin, short and round, or as if your body had no bones at all. The reflection would wave back and forth distorting reality. Bottles that once contained sweet apple wine littered the corner of the room, remnants of the fun of youth.

  Many times, Laney had dragged me out here with her to partake in the festivities. Sure, it was a bit on the macabre side as far as entertainment was concerned. But, it was ours. Away from prying village eyes sat our strange, long forgotten place of refuge. And, it was exactly that. The Greaters didn’t even know it existed.

  A game booth, its wooden counter sunken and rotting in the middle, sat next to the fun house. Dry rotted teddy bear pelts were still tacked to its walls, prizes that would have delighted any child passing by. One could still see the faded, peeling remnants of the vibrant colors that once coated it, that had once coaxed passersby to stop by and enjoy a little bit of fun and excitement.

  A structure with little cars, the backs of which had long poles that connected to the ceiling with small swiveled wheels, sat to our left. Several more ghostly booths and stands lined the familiar concrete pathway. Sunken basketballs and dry rotted nets hung from their rusted metal, bent hoops pointed down or to the sides at odd angles.

  A spinning prize wheel creaked eerily when the breeze took hold and teetered it. Freak show oddities with promises to delight and astound, were shouted out in lettering that was once bold and must have been quite a sight to behold when new.

  The pathway diverged. To the left, I could see it. A giant steel and wooden loop stretched into the sky, in the middle of the forest. The steep hill that led to it had been a pathway into adulthood. Many a boy would be turned into a man attempting to climb those hills and defy gravity on a dangerous but important dare. But, Laney hooked her elbow with mine and steered me to the right.

  A Ferris wheel, its cars dangling precariously, rusted and hollow, unoccupied, filled my vision. The metal, once red, was now rust. Vines wound their way up to some of the lower cars, as if anchoring the structure to the ground, or swallowing it up from below. Reclaiming it to the earth. Dust to Dust.

  The dancing firelight illuminated the structure and laughter, whoops, and hollers lift into the night sky, like embers from a fire. A good time was being had by all. Clusters of people, some sticking to their village friends scattered around the fire, bottles of apple wine everywhere. I wondered where and who had been able to get their hands on a shipment this big. Surely, someone would notice such a supply decrease. My palms began to sweat and I felt like running away.

  Laney must have sensed my tension, because she looked my way, pinning me with her eyes, shaking her head. “No way. We’re here to have fun. Not to think. Let’s get a drink and loosen you up, hmm?”

  I nodded. She was right. We found the crates of wine and grabbed one to share. Many greeted us with nods, waves and smiles. We made our way to our usual spot–a stone bench under one of the maple trees nearby and began to laugh with one another about this and that. With each sweet swallow of wine, I felt myself relax a little more.

  Paige pulled Kyan into my line of sight and all but tackled him to the ground as she plastered herself onto him. She smirked at me and then kissed him full on the lips, pushing into his chest, moaning loudly. I looked away. What she and Kyan did privately was their own business. I just wished she understood
what privacy and discretion were all about. Kyan pushed her away after a moment and then followed her line of sight, still pinpointed on me, before pulling her away. He looked angrily back at me before following Paige into the shadows.

  “What was that?” Laney gaped.

  “What?”

  “You know what!” she whisper-yelled.

  “Paige molesting her future-husband? She has every right.”

  Laney rolled her eyes and took another sip of wine. “How about her making sure you were watching or the smoldering look Kyan just gave you before following her off like a whipped little puppy.”

  I laughed. “Whipped little puppy?”

  She snickered. “Yep. Argue all you want, but that boy is in love with you. Not his intended.”

  It wasn’t long before my nightmare showed up, dressed in a dark blue button down, his golden hair illuminated like a halo by the fire. I couldn’t help wondering if his halo was held up by horns. Zander sauntered to a bench nearby and set down a box. Music. He has his father’s music machine. He hit a few buttons, a blue screen illuminating the features of his face. He really would be hot if his personality wasn’t so awful. Maybe that was the apple wine talking, though.

  A sultry beat filled the air and before long, bodies began to part off, male and female, and sway together. A hand landed in front of me, and I looked up to find Zander its owner. “Dance with me?” He smiled sweetly, which sent red flags flapping wildly in my mind.

  Laney looked at me with wide eyes, before smiling and pushing me up toward him. I glared at her and she giggled and shrugged a shoulder. Zander’s friend, Eli showed up and asked Laney to dance with him. Eli had always been quiet. I wasn’t really sure why he was friends with Zander other than the fact that his father also sat upon the village council. Eli’s hair was dark brown and his eyes are deep and dark, too. He had that look that clung to boyhood for dear life, but was now mostly man. Freckles even splashed across his nose. He wore thin silver wire glasses, a green button-down shirt and jeans. Laney placed her hand in his and let him lead her closer to the fire and music. Zander led me over near them as well.