Teagan's Books

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Welcome back to Atonement, TN.  It’s good to see you.

Today I’m welcoming fellow author/blogger Marian Allen back to the blog-verse.  Marian hasn’t been able to post much this year because she fell and broke both wrists.  Back in DC, I had a severe break to my right wrist (that of course is my writing hand) and “frozen shoulder” set in immediately (not after a time of lack of mobility – the doctor said it was a sort of reaction to the break, rather than immobility). My point is that I’m well aware of the challenges of both an extended recovery period and of not being able to make my body do what it needs to do for basic daily tasks.  So, I hope you’ll join me in encouraging Marian.  She still has a distance to go before healing is complete.

This time, the random reader things, which drive this episode are not exactly “things.”  I used a writing prompt from Marian.

Writing prompt:  Something is out of place.

Previously

Episode 21 left Pepper shot in the chest with an arrow.  Click here if you need to review. Last time Deme and Honeybell resolved some questions from that episode.  Click here for Episode 22.  This time, we begin not at Lake Uktena, but at a mysterious river.

Atonement in Zugzwang

Episode 23

A pleasant breeze stirred my rose-gold hair.  I sat on the end of a pier, looking out at the widest river I had ever seen.  I wore the jeans that had been my favorite article of clothing when I was a teenager.  They were rolled up, and my bare feet dangled in the river.

I became aware of the ruggedly handsome man sitting next to me.    His black trousers were rolled up and his feet were also in the water.  He wore a crisp white shirt that had black epaulets on the shoulders.  A black jacket lay on the pier and upon it was a white cap with a black visor.

In a rather dazed way, I thought that he was familiar.  For a second, my vision flickered to black and white, like an old photograph.

“It’s your move, Pepper,” he told me, and I noticed the chessboard between us on the wooden planks that were worn smooth by the passage of millions of feet.

Upon hearing his voice, I recognized him.  Although he was younger than I could ever remember seeing him.  I mostly remembered a smiling man of middle years who had taught me how to play chess, although I had not been a good pupil.

“Uncle Salty?” I asked, confused.

“Salty and Pepper — we’re a great team,” he remarked with a wink, just as he used to say.  “It’s your move,” he repeated, motioning to the board.

My eyes followed his hand to the gameboard populated by bejeweled chess pieces.  It was a work of art.  However, my brow knitted.  I tilted my head, trying to understand an ellusive thread of thought that escaped my mental grasp.

“Something is out of place,” I murmured as I gazed at the chessboard, even more befuddled than before.

“Yeah.  It’s not going well in Atonement,” he replied.

Abruptly he was standing.  Though he had not moved to put them on, he was wearing his shoes and jacket.  He offered his hand to help me stand.  I stared at it in mute incomprehension.

My vision flickered to black and white again.  A soft rhythmic sound was breaking my concentration.  Strangely, I thought it sounded like Maudie.

It is.  Maudie is sobbing, I thought.

Suddenly, I could see Maudie and Fletcher Hodge.  His thickly muscled arm was around her.  It gave me an odd sensation to realize that I was looking down at them, as if I was about six feet above them.

A stab of horrible pain shot through my chest.  I gasped raggedly.  Then my sight flashed through black and white, and Maudie and Fletcher, as well as the pain vanished.

Sitting on the pier, I blinked and swayed, utterly disoriented.

“I can guide you across the river if you want.  If you’re ready,” the impossibly young version of Uncle Salty offered.

I could only look at him in mute confusion.  He held my gaze calmly, patiently.

Uncle Salty turned his eyes in the direction I had been looking, toward the riverbank.  He nodded.

“Yes, those two will miss you,” he commented softly.  “And there is another who will be sad, and for more than practical reasons.”

At his remark, my shocked mind flashed to the memory of Bheema Parvati the first time I met him.  Salty gave me a knowing expression and chuckled.

“Why are you surprised?” he asked.  “But you never could tell when someone was attracted to you, could you?  He’s no ordinary man.  Before he even met you, he probably knew you better than you know yourself.”

“But—” I started, although words failed me because I had no idea what to say, or what I might or might not feel.

Uncle Salty held out his hand again and brought me to my feet.  I staggered when my sight flickered through black and white, and a second wave of pain coursed through me.

“Pepper, you have to decide this time,” he said gently.

“I…” began, still bewildered and uncertain.

However, I let go of his hand.

Salty disappeared in a wave of mist from the river.  I felt myself crashing through a torrent of pain.

♣ ♣ ♣

Consciousness flickered, off to on, black to white.  Searing pain bombarded me each time I came briefly back.

Purring… the kitten?  Sitting on my chest?

I tried to lift my arms to move Spike.  Even her slight weight on my chest caused immeasurable pain.  Forcing my eyes open, I could see her gold horn.  It was longer than I had ever glimpsed it in the past and it shimmered with light from within.

Reality became kaleidoscopic, shifting through bits of scenes in random order.  Colors, shapes, and lights flashed and whirred.  Then the swirling colors settled to one — gold.

Everything around me was suffused in a golden glow.  The pain in my chest quickly eased to a bearable level.

A soothing vibration was on my chest.  My eyelids fluttered, and I saw the kitten with a golden horn.  Spike sat there staring at me, her warm breath on my face and her purr filling my ears.  My eyes fixed on the tip of that spiraled horn.  It dripped red.

My blood… I thought.  Uncle Salty — he was so young.  And that river.  My old blue jeans.

The sound of Maudie’s sobs caught in a high-pitched hiccup.  She and Fletcher moved closer.

“The wound,” Maudie began in an amazed whisper. “Is it closing?  Wait!  There’s something in it.  I think it’s a chip of gold from that unicorn chess piece she’s been wearing like a necklace.  Doesn’t it need to be cleaned out before—”

“The wound’s already closed around it,” the deputy muttered.

The pain started to recede.  When I made a vain effort to sit up, a firm hand prevented me.  Although a feather might have been enough to keep me from rising.

I felt rather than saw Bheema nod to Maudie.  He gently removed Spike from my chest.  The ceremonial robes he wore were somewhat disheveled.  He tucked the kitten inside his robes.

“Spike, stay and be still.  You performed your part well and virtuously, but now you need to rest,” he murmured to her, and his voice held much more than the trace of an accent that it usually had.

Remarkably, Spike did just that.  The kitten made a tiny bulge in the pleats of silk just above Bheema’s wide belt.  She started to purr again.

Then I realized that my head rested against his lap.  Despite the pain and the sight of my own blood, I felt inexplicably safe.

Putting my hand to my chest, I felt the moisture of my blood.  There was a small pit from the arrow, and it hurt like blazes when I touched it.

A different heat caused me discomfort.  My fingers felt for the source and found the gold unicorn chess piece around which I had tied a leather cord to make a sort of talisman of it.  I had been wearing it, or at least keeping it in my pocket ever since Maudie and I went to the Rowdy Rooster.

I pulled it out of my shirt and the piece quickly cooled.  However, there was a tiny nick on the side of the mythical unicorn.

“From the arrow!” Fletcher exclaimed.  “It must have deflected the arrow.  Even the healing of a unicorn might not have saved her if that arrow had gone to her heart.”

“Welcome back, Pepper,” he remarked casually.  “Thanks to Spike, you’ll be able to get up in a moment or two.  But rest for just a bit.”

Maudie released her embrace on Fletcher.  However, he kept one muscular arm protectively around her waist.  I looked past them as well as I could manage.

“The boy…” I started, but fell back weakly.

“You figured out that it wasn’t Donny?  Oh, you must have seen his black hair when the hood blew back as he fell,” Fletcher commented.

“Adelle and Mary Sue have taken Chip Bai to safety,” Bheema explained.  “By now, they’d be on their way to…”

Bheema paused and looked to the sky where the auroras made a tall green spiral at the opposite end of Lake Uktena.  Everyone followed his gaze.

“To where the sirens have Donny Metatron,” he finished.

♣ ♣ ♣

Okay… I find that last image troubling.  Plus, we still don’t know what’s going on with those strange auroras.

Be sure to follow the links and visit Marian Allen and check out her great books. I love to hear from you, so friendly comments are encouraged.  Hugs!

♣ ♣ ♣

Bar Sinister by Marian Allen

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Sinister-Spadena-Street-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07ZPJYH5G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Paperback  https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Sinister-Spadena-Street-Mysteries/dp/1942166664/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

♣ ♣ ♣

The Atonement Series

Atonement, Tennessee

Full series of e-books with one click:  relinks.me/B087JV25JT

Kindle:  rxe.me/HGSVA8A

Paperback: relinks.me/1481826948

Also in Spanish, translated by Olga Núñez Miret! The title for the Spanish-speaking market is Expiación y Magia

Atonement in Bloom

Kindle:  rxe.me/5RRBLH

Paperback:  relinks.me/1726882128

The Glowing Pigs, Snort Stories of Atonement, Tennessee

Kindle   rxe.me/LTBDNH

Paperback   relinks.me/1725891972

♣ ♣ ♣

This is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2023 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved. 

No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

All images are either the property of the author or used with permission, or from free sources.