The Garden of Heathen

Sling and a Miss

Gally and Gertie went back and forth about how Aussie might be doing until the drugs did their thing and he was out. All the girls in the garden rested after the hard work they did, planning to hold the funerals in the evening.

Gally was gently shaken awake this time, no fingers pressing on his injured shoulder to wake him up. Groggily he came to and saw a mess of stuff on the table. Bobbins of thread, scissors, scraps of fabric and a jar of buttons. He saw Gertie to his right waking up Aussie as well.

She was wearing different clothes than when he'd last seen her and her hair was down. It looked like she'd fallen asleep mid project as she had a shirt in her hands still.

"Come on guys, time for the funerals," Gertie said softly.

Aussie and Gally followed her out of the house groggily, Aussie rubbing her eyes to try and wake herself up more. Gally was not fully present in reality, the drugs still in his system making him feel a bit floaty. Part of him thought he should say something to Aussie but as usual he didn't know what. He glanced behind him and as far as he could tell they were the tail end of this funeral procession. Gertie was walking ahead of them so he figured it was safe enough.

He reached over and messily entwined his fingers with Aussie's teeny tiny ones. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her glance up at him. She didn't say anything and she didn't pull her hand away, just gave his a little squeeze.

They made it across the clearing and through the woods to the graves. Three fresh markers stood with the two older ones.

"What are you doing?" Gertie whispered, eying their clasped hands.

"I was helping him balance, what with the uneven ground and all," Aussie lied quickly and easily in case anyone else saw or over heard them.

Gally felt a bit sad as she slipped her hand from his after fibbing about it, but he understood why she lied about it. Still, he'd love to know what the truth was.

She remained close to him as several girls spoke about Lanie, how she was always cheerful, helpful, and never complained. Joan and a few others from the guard said a few words about Athena as well, seeming awkward about it. They focused on the past more than the present to keep it fairly positive. Gally was surprised that Aussie kept quiet during it all, surely she had something to say about them. It worried him.

A hush fell over the girls, one that threatened to be an awkward silence as they milled about. No one was speaking up for Hedy. Gally felt Aussie slide her hand down his arm before she stepped away from his side and walked through the girls to stand by Hedy's marker. She placed her hand on it and but her lip, taking a moment to find the words.

"We are all victims of this place and the makers," she began. "But sometimes we're also the victims of consequence. We make decisions... we think we know what to do... or sometimes we don't put as much thought into something as we should."

She gently tapped her palm against the marker. Gally could tell she was talking about herself as much as Hedy.

"Sure, Hedy made a few bad decisions," her eyes landed on Gally as she said this. "There's no sugar coating that. And she had to face the consequences, but she also had to deal with this place on top of it- being stung and all. What I'm trying to say is, she was human and made mistakes, pretty bad ones, but she was our friend too, and she had her good moments at times. It's ok to remember the good parts of her and miss those. None of these girls deserved to die the way they did. Not a single one of them. And none of you deserve to be in this place either."

Aussie had run out of words, she didn't know what else there was to say. She couldn't  promise anyone that they wouldn't face a similar fate, she couldn't promise they'd be able to make the Makers pay for what they'd done, or that there was any real meaning behind the loss of life that had taken place. But then she felt something bubbling up from deep inside, something she'd never said before but always felt.