Nikanatedanniell

Chapter 9 A time to decide

Debby was as impressed with the craft as Nikki had been and immediately ran to a window seat to look out.  Her smile faded when she saw what should have been her house. 

Nikki quickly removed her cold coat and scooped Debby on her lap. For the second time in five eventful days they hugged and cried. Nikki felt a soft hand on her arm and looked up. The Felis woman was sitting in the chair next to them, holding out a warm blanket and a steaming mug.

"Here, please take. To warm you," she said to Debby slowly in a heavily accented voice. Then to Nikki, "I hang you coat."

"Thank you," Nikki said and wrapped Debby snugly. Then she took the mug and said, "here you go. Mmm, smells good. You can tell Captain Senvalle what happened after you finish."

Debby took a tentative sip and smiled, "it tastes good too." She took the cup and slowly drank the rest. After she finished she handed the cup to Nikki and frowned.

"Aunt Nikki," she pleaded, "do I have to tell the captain what happened? I don't want to, can you? Please?"

"Well," Nikki told her, "one of his crew members was in the house. He really needs to know. What if we tell him together?" Debby shook her head vigorously. "How about if you tell Niel and me? Then Niel can tell the captain, okay?"

Debby nodded so Nikki motioned to Niel who was sitting in the control chair to come over. He took the now vacant chair next to them and swiveled it to face them. Nikki did the same with their chair. Facing that way, she saw the others seated in the next rows patiently waiting and attentive.

"After you went for a walk, Aunt Nikki," Debby started, first quietly and then animated. "I went to play in the living room with my dolls. I played that the quilt frame was a castle. Then Mommy and Grandma came in to sew on the quilt. All of a sudden this man popped in. He didn't walk in the door, he just popped, POW! He was just in the room, just like that." She clapped her hands for emphasis.

"He had a gun, Aunt Nikki, a gun. And he changed his face and his hair. Mommy knew him. She talked to him in her old language. She teached me some. She told him to go away. She called him Prestor and said he was bad. He wanted my ball. He said my father wanted it too, but he wasn't going to give it to him. He wanted Mommy to give him the ball and go away with him. Mommy said no and he grabbed Grandma and pointed his gun at her and laughed. Grandma told me to get my ball and run outside to you."

She paused, and looked as if she would cry again. Tears streaked her face as she continued, "I didn't. I ran out from under the quilt and stabbed him as hard as I could with Grandma's pointy scissors." She lifted her arms above her head as if holding something and brought them down hard on her leg. "They went right in his leg and he bled and he laughed Aunt Nikki, he just laughed. He grabbed them and threw them. Then he said he didn't need us to get my ball. He had a box on his belt like Liam's, only this one glowed and made my ball appear right on it.

"Then he tried to use my ball, only it didn't let him. It started to go all crazy. I tried to grab it and Mommy and Grandma tried." She jumped off Nikki's lap and acted along with her words. "He jumped and held my ball up like this and shot Grandma and Mommy like that. And they glowed and they died." She stood still with fists out and shouted, "he killed my mommy.

"Then he laughed again so hard he dropped my ball and I grabbed it and ran to the kitchen. I tried to make my ball stop but I think he broke it cuz it wouldn't stop. It lightninged and lightninged and lightninged. Finally I 'magined a bubble around it and made it stop." She held very still, hung her head and whispered, "but I didn't make it stop soon nuff cuz everything was gone."

Nikki sat stock-still. She pulled Debby close and prayed her voice would not sound as violently angry as she felt. "Debby," she said evenly, "don't think for one second that you caused any of this, you didn't. Don't think that you didn't do enough to stop that evil man. It sounds to me that you did all you could and then some. He killed my mommy too."