JUNIPER. [dixon]

6 | ENOUGH

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THE NEXT MORNING, CHARLIE FOUND HIS SISTER SITTING ON THE BACK PORCH IN SILENCE. She was curled up on the rocking chair, her knees hugged against her chest as her blue eyes were fixated on the sunrise in the distance. It wasn't really uncommon to find Juniper watching the sunrise in the mornings― she had always been fascinated by the sky even as a child, and had always admired the way the sun could change it into a myriad of colors, just by rising or setting. And without much to do on the farm, it wasn't unusual for Juniper to sit outside and admire the sky for a few moments in silence.

But there was something different about this silence. This one was tense, and uneasy. There was a troubled look on his little sister's face that he knew her too well not to notice; her eyebrows were furrowed just slightly, a small crease formed between them, and she was biting on the inside of her lip lightly. The Anderson siblings had always been close with each other, and they knew each other's nervous ticks. It took Charlie one look at his sister for him to know that something was bothering her.

For that reason, he let out a soft sigh and walked closer to the rocking chair she sat in. "What's going on in that head of yours, Junie?" He asked, leaning back against the porch railing and crossing his arms.

Juniper's gaze left the sunrise and instead fell upon her brother. "I don't like that Shane guy," she answered truthfully, because there was no point in keeping her thoughts from Charlie. If there was anyone on the farm that she knew she could trust wholeheartedly, it was him.

"Shane?" Charlie echoed with a frown. "June, he's helped out a lot. Taught the others how to shoot a gun, helped look for that little girl they're missing, and he saved Rick's boy―"

"But how?" June interrupted him. "I mean, we've all heard his story, Charlie― about how Otis pushed him ahead and said he'd cover him... but it couldn't have happened like that. There's no way."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Shane came back with Otis's gun," she pointed out. "If Otis was covering Shane's ass, he'd have needed his gun. And if Otis had been overrun by... by whatever those things are― then how could Shane have went back and got his gun? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Charlie Anderson wasn't stupid. He could look at the facts laid before him by his sister and come to the same conclusion: that there was something shady about Shane, and that something had happened at the school that he wasn't telling everyone.

But it wasn't really until Juniper had spelled these things out for him did he realize it. Charlie had a bad habit of taking things for face value sometimes, especially when they came from someone with a clean background. Shane Walsh had been a police officer, and he was best friends with Rick, who was undoubtedly a good man. Charlie had spoken with Rick plenty of times to have been able to come to that conclusion. Somewhere along the line, he guessed he had just supposed that it must have meant Shane was a good man, too.