Page 19 of Killer Moonshine

“Have any of you ever seen healing like this with the pond? I mean, we’ve healed a lot of wounds, breaks, that sort of thing, but nothing like this.”

“I’m not going to question it,” said Trak. “The great spirits obviously thought she was worth saving. I will not question that or argue with it.”

“Same, brother.” Doc nodded as he drove toward the hospital. Behind them, standing in the shrubs, were Irene, Ruby, Matthew, and Gabe.

“How did you do it, Pops?” asked Gabe. “That was a lot to heal, and it was definitely more than we’d ever done before.”

“I’m not exactly sure,” he said with a smile. “I just knew that child deserved another chance. Sometimes, you pray for certain things, and you don’t get exactly what you want. Sometimes, you pray for things and get what you need, but not what you wanted.

“Either way, that girl got what she needed, and so did Trak. Now she’ll be able to tell the boys what she knows, and her future will help thousands of people. I had to try.”

“You’re a powerful man, Matthew. I’m glad you’re being used for good,” said Ruby.

“Same to you, Ruby,” he chuckled. “Same to you.”

It took a full forty-eight hours for Lydia to come awake completely, and when she did, she screamed. Loud.

“What’s wrong? Are you in pain?” asked Cruz, running into the room.

“No! No, I am not, and the question is why. How? I mean – look at me. How???” she asked again.

“Honey, I need you to calm down,” he said as he began to take her vitals. Lydia nodded, but they could tell she wasn’t exactly calming down. She was staring at the places where her wounds were once so horrific, touching her face and hair. “We’ll explain everything to you in a minute.”

After checking to be sure she was fine from a medical point of view, Cruz sent messages to the doctors, Trak, and the senior team to come to the hospital. When they walked in, they all smiled.

“I remember you,” she said, pointing to Trak. “You were an ass to me.”

“That’s me.”

“He also saved you,” said Riley. “He carried you away from the still and brought you here. Do you remember anything about that?”

“Pain. I was in horrible pain,” she whispered, looking down at her body. “The burns. Where are the burns? And-and my hair. It’s shorter than the other side, but it’s there.” She touched her scalp and then looked at everyone in the room.

“We have exceptional doctors here,” said Trak. “I’m glad you’re well, little one.”

“Th-thank you,” she said, staring at everyone. “He took it, didn’t he?”

“Took what?” asked Ghost. “He took what?”

“Hugo. He took the land since I wasn’t working the still, didn’t he?”

“The land is yours?” asked Gaspar.

“It was,” she said, exhaling. “I mean, it belonged to my mother, and when she died, my stepfather took it. He let an old woman build a bar out there, but she couldn’t take care of it any longer and just left it. It didn’t belong to him. It belonged to me. Legally, it was mine on paper, but he made a deal with Hugo to use part of the land for the still, and my only way of getting it back was to make enough to remove the still from the land.”

“The still is gone,” said Bull.

“I know. I don’t care about that. What I care about is that if the still isn’t running and I don’t make money to give to Hugo, I lose the land, and it’s valuable.”

“Honey, that land was nothing but swamp and trees. I’m not sure it was valuable,” said Bull.

“I had a land study done. It’s rich in natural gas, but I couldn’t afford to hire someone to drill and figure that out for me and to tell me just how much was actually there. So, I agreed to run the still because I was at least making some money. No one is going to hire an eighteen-year-old girl with no college degree.”

“What was your stepfather getting out of this?” frowned Trak.

“Me out of the house, number one,” she scoffed. “I had a tiny little efficiency not far outside the bayou. It was horrible, but it was what I could afford. He got a thousand dollars a month from Hugo.”

“How much were you paid?” asked Nine.

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