Children of the Earth by Anna Schumacher

Author:Anna Schumacher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-05-18T16:00:00+00:00

18

“THERE’S A SEARCH PARTY ON for Sheriff Bates and his boy.” Vince Varley stood in the doorless doorway to Doug and Janie’s den. “They’re missing, and the whole town’s out looking for ’em. Are you two coming or not?”

“Coming!” Janie leapt from the couch, where she’d been trying to hold herself still as Doug downed beers and stared vacantly at an obstacle race on ESPN2. Ciaran had dropped her off close to dawn; even though she’d barely slept she felt charged with energy, like she’d been plugged into a wall socket until her internal battery thrummed with life.

It was all because of Ciaran. Ciaran with skin like a beach at sunset, Ciaran whose rainforest-green eyes brimmed with empathy as he drove her to the graveyard where her infant son was buried. Ciaran, who stood aside as she screamed and howled and cried until there was nothing left, until she was empty and clean and new.

Her mind felt clear and sharp, the cloud-cover of her grief wiped away by the cold front that had swept the town in the night. All because of Ciaran: because he had looked at her and listened to her, unfazed by her sadness, willing to let her grieve.

She bounded to her piles of clothes and started pawing through them, looking for something to wear. Ciaran might be out there, and she wanted to look nice. She wanted to make him see her the way she saw him: as someone magical and lovely, someone who suddenly made life seem worth living.

“I need a shower,” she said suddenly, abandoning the clothes. “I’ll be quick, promise.”

“Jeez,” Vince grumbled as she brushed by him. “It’s a search party, not a damn debutante ball.”

Janie stopped midway down the hallway, his words registering for the first time.

“They’re really missing?” She turned to face him.

Vince scowled. “Really. He never came into work, so they searched his house. No sign of him. That old bat Eunice from next door said he always asks her to keep an eye on things when they go out of town, but this time he didn’t say a word.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll hurry up then. You guys go ahead—Doug and I can take his truck.”

“Fine,” Vince grunted. “Just be careful: It’s snowing cats and dogs out there.”

Kernels of worry began to poke at Janie’s good mood as she stepped into the shower and shampooed her hair, shivering in the measly trickle from the mansion’s overworked boiler. What would someone want with the sheriff and Charlie—Charlie, whose big brown eyes and tousled hair always tugged at something in her heart and made her think of the little boy she never got to raise.

But that boy was dead, she reminded herself. Jeremiah was dead, and as much as he would always hold a piece of her heart, she had to accept it and move on. And she could now, she really could, because she was stronger than she realized, stronger than anyone gave her credit for.

Ciaran had taught her that.

She wrapped a

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