“You saw what happened the last time you took him there. He was scared to death.”
Waaboo had gone to bed, sleeping in the cabin where Prophet had slept before Jenny and Daniel’s son had come seeking shelter on Crow Point. Prophet now slept in a tent among the birches on the shoreline of the lake. At the moment, he stood inside Meloux’s cabin, with his back against the wall, listening to Daniel plead his case with Jenny, who sat with Meloux at the little birchwood table Meloux had made himself decades before. The sun had finally set and the twilight sky outside the cabin was sapphire. Meloux had not yet put a flame in one of his kerosene lanterns, and the cabin was lit only with a dismal ghost of light that slipped through the old man’s windows.
“Uncle Henry will be there with him,” Daniel argued.
“You’re a part of this, Henry?” Jenny shot the old man a killing look.
“I am here to offer what I can, only that.”
“I don’t care what you say. I’m not letting Waaboo go back to that cursed place.”
“Jenny, there were two young women murdered by someone who’s still out there. Maybe right now he’s planning to prey on some other young woman. Don’t you want me to stop him if I can?”
“That’s your job, not Waaboo’s.”
“But he might be able to help me.”
“At what cost? Do you want him traumatized?”
“Waaboo has a gift. We can’t protect him forever.”
“I’ll protect him as long as I can.”
“So will I. I won’t let anything happen to our son, I swear to you. And if he can help stop others from being hurt, from being killed, shouldn’t we do all we can to guide him in that way?”
Jenny lowered her head, and her body seemed to lose spirit, as if she were a balloon emptying of air. “I’m just afraid, Daniel.”
“To be afraid is to be human,” Meloux said gently.
Jenny lifted her head. “Are you ever afraid, Henry?”
The old man smiled. “There is not much that stands between me and the Path of Souls now, not much that I fear for myself. But I am sometimes afraid for those who still have a long journey ahead of them.”
“Like Waaboo.”
“And many others. They will need courage, which is something I cannot give them because courage comes from within. The best I can do is help them find it in themselves.”
“Courage? In a boy of seven?”
“He has already shown that he has a brave heart. Did he not return to the place of the maji-manidoog?”
“If you remember, he refused to set foot in that blueberry patch again.”
“He may make a different choice this time. And is that choice not his to make?”
“I won’t force him, Jenny, I promise,” Daniel said. “But can I at least ask him?”
“Don’t you remember how afraid he was that someone might know about him, what he sees?”
“I love him. He’s my son, too. I would die before I’d let anyone hurt him.”
Jenny stared at Daniel, and her eyes were knives. “I may hate you for this.”
Daniel felt a crack go all the way across his heart. “I know,” he said.
CHAPTER 24
There were injuries at the Spirit Crossing protest, and Maria stayed with Rainy to help. Stephen took Annie back to Aurora, a drive of just over an hour. The whole way, Annie struggled to understand what had happened at Spirit Crossing. Had she really seen the man named Lewis or had she imagined him? Hallucinations had sometimes been a part of the episodes of her blinding headaches. If the encounter was real, what was the source of the hatred she’d seen in him? Was it directed at her, or was it just a part of some larger pool of violent emotion stirred up by the protests?
“You’re awfully quiet,” Stephen said. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Annie said, a little too quickly. “Sorry you had to take me home. I know you’d rather be at Spirit Crossing, helping there.”
“Family first,” Stephen said. “I’ll drop you off, then go back to see what I can do. So, what’s going on, Annie? What is it with these episodes, as you call them?”
“Nothing. A reaction to some medication I’m taking,” she said, lying.
“What medication?”
“It wouldn’t mean anything to you.”
“What’s it for?”
“Something I picked up in Guatemala.”
“Is it serious?”
“Let’s talk about something else. What do you think he’s up to?”
