Breakdown (Katherine Amt Hanna) by Katherine Amt Hanna

Author:Katherine Amt Hanna
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9781612184111
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2011-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

“Freddie asked me to coach the kids,” Pauline said to Chris one sunny July afternoon while they worked in the vegetable garden, weeding and picking.

“That’s great. You’re going to, aren’t you? You’ll be good at it.”

“Did she ask you?”

“No.”

Pauline straightened her back and stretched. “Why not? You’ve been to all the practices, and the kids like you. You’re good with kids.”

“My temporary situation,” Chris said. “She said it wouldn’t be good for the kids when I go.”

“Oh. Have you been thinking about that?”

“I’m always thinking about that.”

They moved down the garden, one row apart, at a steady pace. Chris enjoyed the Saturday practices at the school. Nearly all the kids participated, as well as some of the adults. Each week more people came to watch the fun, bringing chairs or blankets to sit on—and picnic lunches. Each week more people joined in.

“We had games at Saint Crispin’s, too,” Chris volunteered. Their talks had moved out of the study, to wherever and whenever they happened to have a few private moments.

“What games?”

“Sometimes it was football. Sometimes it was American football, but without all the equipment, a watered-down version. They called it ‘flag football.’ And they had basketball, too.”

“Did you play or coach?”

“I played sometimes. The teams were always different. Anyone could play. They had kids’ games in the morning and adults after lunch.”

“Were there a lot of kids?”

“Yes, quite a lot. They had an orphanage. The outside teams always looked for orphans. They were still collecting them when I left.”

“That’s wonderful, to do that, give them a home.”

Chris thought of Wes. “Yes, well, some of them turned into problems. Some of them were older. They’d been on their own a couple years, and they didn’t like the rules. Some stayed and caused problems; others just left.”

“The older boys, eh?”

“Not just the boys. Some of the girls, too. They’d learned how to get by, figured out what they had that men wanted, and that really caused problems.”

“Oh, that’s sad,” Pauline said, glancing up at him, making a face.

Chris shrugged. “Oldest profession,” he said. “It’s everywhere, really. If you were starving, really starving, it might not seem such a bad option.”

Pauline was quiet, looking a little distressed, the way she often did when he told her about what it was like now in the rest of the world, the world beyond Breton.

“It was an outside team that found me,” Chris said. “On the road, half-dead.”

“And took you to Brother Luke,” she said, nodding. “I remember. Did you stay friends with him after you left the infirmary?”

“I saw him occasionally, yes. We talked now and then. He stitched up my elbow once. I tore it open on a nail in the barn.” He stepped closer to her, through a gap in the pea plants, and showed her the scar.

“Uh, that’s huge!” she said, grimacing.

He twisted his arm around to look at it. “Yeah, it was impressive. Bled all over the place. They were worried I’d get tetanus. They didn’t have any vaccine. But I didn’t.

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