Page 30 of Stone Blind

“It appears I have been missed,” Helen said as Yield came awake.

“I can see it,” he said, sitting up. “We made decent time.”

“Time is something I truly hate to waste,” she told him, cutting the headlights. Helen stepped out of the truck, waving her newfound small family forward. “We need to unload, guys.”

Apple arrived at the truck first, doing a visual survey of the woman. Then he asked, “Unload what?”

“The spoils of your private war,” she told him. Yield lowered the tailgate to boxes of food that Helen had removed from each of the warehouses.

Rocky asked, “Where did you get all of this stuff?”

“We found three of the Milwaukee Fields of Flowers, shut them all down, and commandeered these food stores for the house here, and I only shot one smart mouth chick who tried to be flip with me,” Helen said. “Amazing how a bullet can loosen lips.”

“You shot someone?” Jeffrey asked.

“Yes, in the leg. She is not dead but will be limping for the rest of her life as a reminder of being an evil person,” Helen explained. “She was allowing adults to hurt children in those warehouses and being paid money for it. We put a stop to it.”

Stephen, his arms loaded with a box of canned goods said, “I knew of a few kids who went into those warehouses but never came out, and if they did, we found them on the street barely alive or worse. You guys shut them down?”

“We shut down the ones in Milwaukee,” Yield said, looking at Apple. “It seems somebody didn’t want you going out and leaving your kids to handle the situation. She took care of it.”

Helen was no longer with the truck. She’d left them all to go into the home, get a hot shower, have a cup of chamomile tea, and go to bed. It was enough for one day.

Ricky noticed she’d left the group to go inside. When the kids were gone with Oscar being the last to unload the boxes of dry goods, he turned to Yield with questions. “Well, how did she do?”

“She did it all,” Yield said. “All I did was drive her around.”

“What?” Apple asked. “Explain this to me as if I were an idiot.”

Yield didn’t know where to start to explain the phenomenon that was The Cranberry, so he began with what he knew. “Whatever has happened in her life has turned her into what can be a force for good if it is harnessed in the right way. There is an inherent trait in her to care for others. You have some spoils of what was in those warehouses, but she reached out to kids on the corners to go in when the police left to empty the shelves to feed the neighborhood.”

“Huh?” Apple said.

“Yeah, we found the first one by her looking for the food suppliers to feed the kids in the warehouse,” Yield said. “A bodega that had high end foods and a woman named Rochelletold her everything we needed to know. A walk through the warehouse where the kid escaped from gave her the idea of size and set up, and we went hunting. We found it, and she checked it out by walking to the door with a jar of pickles and a jar of peaches.”

Ricky rubbed his chin, saying “You’re shitting me.”

“I shit you not,” Yield said. “She told the woman at the door that Rochelle was arriving with the rest of the supplies at the back door, which allowed her to see into the front, and she spotted the playground equipment inside to confirm we had the right place. She called Azrael, who rolled in support, quiet and deep. We threw in a couple of tear gas cans and smoke bombs and the roaches scattered.”

Apple inquired, “She shot someone?”

“The woman who came to the door. She asked for the location of the other two facilities, and the woman said no and challenged Cranberry, saying if she told the locations they would kill her. Cranberry politely informed her that the gun in her hand indicated she would kill her as well, and the one didn’t think Cranberry had it in her to shoot. Cranberry proved her wrong.”

“Good grief,” Apple said.

“That’ it! I’m in love,” Ricky said.

“If I wasn’t married, I would want a night or a lifetime in her arms myself,” Yield said. “For a second, I found myself envying the man with the whinny, but honestly, she’s scary.”

“How so?” Apple wanted to know.

"She's got knowledge, but can't put it all together. When she finally figures it out, I hope she uses it for good," he said. “I need a couple of hours of sleep then I’m heading home. She said you had a place here I can crash.”

“Sure, sure,” Apple said, “this way.”

Apple had a thumb drive's worth of information to consider as the man with the scarred face closed the bedroom door of thedownstairs room Ricky had barely finished. The room had a bed and a dresser, nothing more. It would serve its purpose for the evening.

As the door closed, Apple’s phone rang. It was Azrael. The conversation would be short. He didn’t have much to say or add. In his opinion, the assessment was over.

---