Red Spider Lilies [TPN]

Chapter 13

I don't like planes. They're so loud and destructive wherever they go. Except for today.

"Okay, kids, you have to remember to be brave and strong."

They look at me with tears in their eyes, so scared.

"We'll see each other again in a few months." I caress Thoma's cheek and smile. "You guys just stay safe."

"But what about you?"

I look at Anna, who's clutching her single suitcase like her world is in it. Technically it is since they could only bring one bag.

"We'll be fine." Ray pats her head. "Keep your brothers safe. You're going to be the oldest as soon as you get on that plane."

Anna looks like she's about to cry, she's shaking like a calf in the winter. Ray looks at her sternly, telling her not to cry with his stare.

"I'll do my best."

We spend the next hour waiting with the four children's flight to call them. You can look at them and see they don't want to go, you can look around and see it in all the other children with their families waiting for the plane.

Before long, the board calls them and we watch four of our siblings go off to a neighboring country to be safe.

—-

"I wonder what they're doing right now."

Ray dries his hands with a towel and turns off the water. "They're probably landing."

"I hope the host family doesn't separate them."

"We can only hope, Emma. They are orphans."

I frown. The program only took in 50 orphans of a 1100 children nationwide, that's barely any. Our house alone has 34 kids (now), that's more than half of 50.

"Do you think they'll write?"

"Most likely not. You're forgetting that sending letters in the country costs a lot of money."

We stand in the kitchen not saying anything, leaning against the counter. Rays playing with a pen. Had he noticed what I have"

"With this, we're in for a big change. The minister is going to make exiting the country more difficult, he's probably going to tighten up on law enforcement. He might add some more extraneous ones." I look over at Ray. "You've thought of this, haven't you?"

He sighs and tilts his head back. "At least we're got 4 kids out before then. They'll be safe from this from now on."

"I sure hope so."

—-

"Hey, wake up. It's time to eat."

I groan and roll over, where was I? This is a wooden floor so obviously in a building.

"What's there to eat?" I finally open my eyes.

"Old bread, a little dusty though."

I finally push myself up and sit facing Ray, he looks tired. Like we just settled down. How long had he been walking? It should be around 6 am right now so it must have been all night.

"Where are we?"

"The next city over, Cammatown. It's pretty empty here, and you can see the sky... well its still cloudy but not as chilly." He hands a loaf of French bread. "You should eat."

I take it and peer over the counter and out the store window, he was right. It was bright outside and you could see a few birds on the ground looking through the cracks of the the brick road for food.

Now that I think about it, Gammatown is at least 40 miles away. Mom never let us go over 'cause it would take half a day to get here. When did we start walking? 9 pm?

"Thanks for carrying me, it's a lot of extra weight." I say.

Ray gives me a nudge and a short chuckle, I smile at him. "It was no big deal, I couldn't leave you behind."

"Why? Because you love me?"

"No, because you're the muscle, and a brain without a muscle is useless."

I gasp dramatically and giggle, taking a seat my his side. "So you only want me for my body? How shallow."

We laugh loudly, but quickly stifling our laughs just in case. I feel like we're children again.

"Moving on, Ms. Muscle, we have to talk about something important." He says.

I stop laughing but keep my smile. "What is it? Have you decided where we're going?"

"Actually, I have." He felt around his coat pockets until he pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "I found this while looking in the back of the store for more food, it was in a box of melted ice cream pints."

I take the paper from his hands and unfold it.

"Refugee camp at a former border town in the neighboring country." I look at Ray with a confused smile. "Are we going to try and leave the country? You know how dangerous that is?"

"I know. But, Emma, this is the only way we're going to survive. It's either this or we stick it out here until the war ends. This way we-"

"I'm in. You don't have to give me an explanation, but you do need to convince me we have a plan to get there." I hand him the paper back. "We need to get Norman too."

Ray's eyes widen in surprise when I say that last part, but only for a second. "We'll try to. But if we don't come across him, he'll have to find a way out himself."

I have a bad feeling my gut with the way says that. It sounded like he didn't want Norman to be found. But that's crazy, Ray of all people, would want him to come with us.

"Okay."