Part 20 (1/2)

She took the keys off the support beam and ran past her mother's p.r.o.ne body to the hallway and out the back door.

Belle awoke to what she thought was probably at least one broken rib and the sight of her daughter's legs flas.h.i.+ng by. She tried to speak but couldn't. She tried to sit but all she could immediately do was to get up on one elbow and try to breathe and ease the dizzy feeling. Everything hurt. Her head and ribs most of all - but everything.

She tried again. This time she was able to straighten her arm. There was a damp washcloth on the floor beside her and she used it on her face against the dizziness. It helped.

”Momma? I counted to a hundred. I didn't know what to do after that. Where is everybody? What's happening to the doggies?”

Darlin' stood hunched in the doorway, eyes wide, clearly scared.

But she was right. The dogs were going nuts outside.

She didn't want her little girl to see her like this and it was painful as h.e.l.l but she managed to sit and then slowly, to stand.

”Come here,” she said. ”Come here, hon.”

Darlin' rushed to her and flung her arms around her waist.

Her ribs screamed.

”Easy,” she said, ”Please, honey. Go easy.”

Brian slammed the double doors.

His father dragged Rat-on Rat-on to the dog cage and tied her off to a link. The dogs were just on the other side, gnas.h.i.+ng, frothing, barking up a storm, lunging at her through the wire fencing. Rat-on kept going to the dog cage and tied her off to a link. The dogs were just on the other side, gnas.h.i.+ng, frothing, barking up a storm, lunging at her through the wire fencing. Rat-on kept going no no no no no no trying to keep her distance and at the same time loosen the knot at her wrists. But his father knew his knots. trying to keep her distance and at the same time loosen the knot at her wrists. But his father knew his knots.

”Hose!” his father said. ”Nozzle it down, son. I want 'em mean.” mean.”

Had he fed the dogs today? Unh-unh. No, he hadn't.

So they would already be mean.

But he cranked the water and twisted the nozzle down to a single heavy stream which he sprayed half on George, Lily and Agnes and half on Rat-on. She kept trying to protect her face. He drenched her.

The cold water made her nipples hard.

Nice.

”Get 'em back,” his father said.

So he concentrated on the dogs. Mama Agnes retreated to the doghouse. Growling, snarling at them. f.u.c.k Mama Agnes. Lily and George fled to the back of the cage.

”You keep those two back there.”

”Please,” Rat-on said. ”Stop this. I swear I won't say anything. None of this ever happened, okay?”

She was pleading. He liked that.

His father didn't seem to give a s.h.i.+t one way or the other. He simply untied the rope from the link, opened the cage door and dragged her short-leashed to the doghouse and pushed her down in front of it. Agnes snarled. Not at Rat-on but at his father. So his father did what he always did. Snarled right back at her and made as though to give the dog the back of his hand. Which she had felt plenty of times ever since she was a pup. She backed off, barking.

His dad threw the cage door shut.

Genevieve watched the dog. Watched the dog watching her. The look in its eyes scared h.e.l.l out of her. The look was practically feral, as though the dog were a wolf in the wild and not some domesticated animal in a cage.

On the other side of the cage the boy still had his hose on the other two. But not on this one.

This one was stalking her. Slowly closing in.

She knew she could not take her eyes off the dog for a moment. If she did it was going to attack. But what she could do was to try to inch crabwise away, get her back against the doghouse - maybe even get inside inside the doghouse where she'd be protected on three sides at least. And from there she could maybe kick the d.a.m.n thing until it went away. the doghouse where she'd be protected on three sides at least. And from there she could maybe kick the d.a.m.n thing until it went away.

So that was what she did.

Oh, bad choice she heard Cleek say. she heard Cleek say. Can you say anopthalmia? Can you say anopthalmia?

But by then it was too late.

THIRTY ONE.

The Woman is with them, out there with the dogs. She hears their animal spirit, something in them yet untamed. It soothes her, this wildness. It reminds her that tooth and claw is the nature of the world and the nature of each beast in it. That nothing in the wild dies without great loss and gain. That no kind of beast was ever meant to live in cages. Or damp dark places such as this one.

She hears keys at the door and a moment later it opens.

The girl rapidly descends. Turns on the light. Then pauses breathless to look at her.

Behind her she can hear the dogs' violent voices more clearly now. On the girl she smells fear. Fear and something else. Anger perhaps. Yes. And protectiveness. The girl is protecting someone. Perhaps the baby inside her.

Protecting the baby from her? She poses no threat. Not as she is.

But then the girl does the most astonis.h.i.+ng thing. The Woman could never have expected it.

She steps over to her, gazes once into her face and then bends down and begins uns.c.r.e.w.i.n.g the restraint on her left ankle.

THIRTY TWO.

The child had been alive for nearly ten years but knew nothing of time. She was female but knew nothing of that either.

The child knew only the doghouse and the occasional venture outside to steal food from the others who were not hairless like her - she had huddled with them against the cold, slept with them curled around her, listened to their breathing which was not like her own - or to void herself or exercise her limbs.