Page 14 of A Little Red
Scarlet reached down to Azure’s blue pool of energy and sank another root into Ochre’s bright yellow pool. She pulled the energy and then heaved—shoving the energy outward—out to all the little leaves on the web that didn’t know they were connected to the tree. For one glorious shining moment she was everything and everywhere and then the universe hit her in the face.
Azure
Azure fought claustrophobic panic when she opened her eyes to see two Blackpool security men leaning over her. She needed to get up. She had to protect Scarlet and Ochre. She tried to push her branches upward and then realized that she only had arms and legs and she couldn’t remember what to do with those.
“Are you OK?” asked one, sitting her upright. “Did you feel it?” They were kneeling beside her. The trunk of the tree filled her field of vision in front of her except for two weird black sticks and blobs. The pine needles covered everything and she wanted to dig her hands into them and re-root herself.
“Feel it?” mumbled Azure. Her head was throbbing. Her mouth tasted like dirt. She realized that the two black sticks and blobs were her legs and feet.
“The universe,” said the second man, looking around. “The trees. I felt the trees. Did you feel it?”
“I was it,” said Azure and both men nodded as if they really understood what she meant.
“Do you need help?” asked the first one. “I want to help you.” Then he hugged her.
“OK,” said Azure, reality snapping back. She patted him gingerly on the back, the hand cuff and chain around her wrist clanked as she moved. “That’s good. Can you help my brother and sister?”
“I think the nice lady and man are helping them,” said the first man.
“The nice lady and man?” Azure tried to focus on making her legs work.
“The blonde lady in the white dress and the guy with long black hair. They said we should help you,” he said and looked around. “Oh. They’ve gone.” He looked disappointed. Azure caught the faint whiff of fresh growing plants on the breeze even though it was the dead of winter.
“They were so nice,” said the second man, who was still carrying an MP-5 slung around his body. “They said they would take care of your brother and sister.”
“Sounds like our parents,” said Azure, still trying to focus. The pine needles were amazing—such intricate little spears of brown. Staring at them seemed better than trying to look at anything else.
“Oh, that’s so nice that they could be here for you,” said the second man and then he hugged her too. She didn’t know what to do with that comment. Her parents were never here for her. They were most definitely elsewhere. She couldn’t imagine that they’d turn up after all these years just for a protest.
“OK, your gun is poking me,” she said.
“I’m sorry!” He tore off the gun and threw it on the ground. “Can we help you get out of the handcuffs? We have bolt cutters. Bobby, where did the bolt cutters go?”
“I don’t know!” Bobby was distressed and looked around as if bolt cutters might suddenly materialize.
“I have the key,” said Azure, climbing awkwardly to her feet, negotiating the chain the linked her to the tree, and digging in her pocket. She unsnapped her cuffs, but the moment she took a step toward Ochre, the world swayed.
“Careful,” said the one who was not Bobby, grabbing her arm and holding her up. His name was probably Kurt or something equally out of an 80s movie. Azure looked around. The protestors and the Blackpool guys were all hugging and milling about, petting the trees and smiling. It was like everyone was on E.
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen,” said Azure, and then felt stupid. When was she going to learn? The second sight was always accurate, it just wasn’t always as descriptive as she needed it to be.
Ochre groaned and sat up.
“Yay!” exclaimed Bobby, as if sitting up were a winning goal in the game of life.
“Can you go help Ochre?” Azure handed Bobby the handcuff key and pushed Bobby toward her brother. Her eyes hurt. Every nerve ending felt like it had been exposed to fire. Azure wasn’t even sure what Scarlet had done, let alonehowshe had done it.
“Jimmy!” Bobby yelled at someone else. The sound made Azure flinch. “Come help us!”
“OK!” Jimmy yelled back, with an enormous grin on his face.
With Bobby and Jimmy helping Ochre, Azure and Probably Kurt stumbled over to Scarlet.
“Scarlet, baby,” said Azure, falling down on her knees next to her sister. She pushed Scarlet’s braids aside. For the first time Azure saw how different Scarlet looked these days. So much more womanly than she remembered. In her head, she knew her sister wasn’t six anymore, but it was hard to remember sometimes.
“Scarlet, wake up, please.” She patted at her sister’s cheeks, but Scarlet’s skin felt cool to the touch. Azure found panic clawing at her insides again. She pushed it down and rolled Scarlet over onto her back. Scarlet’s eyes fluttered open, but barely and then she passed out again.
“We should take her to the medic,” said Probably Kurt. “We have a medic. We can help!”
