Passing Through by Colin Channer

Author:Colin Channer [Channel, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-54093-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

XII.

AS ST. WILLIAM contemplated all these things, Estrella watched him from the shadow of a ruined barrack on a grassy ramp of earth, the length of her against the ground, her knife sideways across her mouth, stalking.

When they didn't shoot her, she had sped along the ramp and veered across the grass away from where she'd seen the Yankee soldiers and took refuge in a crumbled building where she hid and watched the fort to see if she was being pursued. After thirty nervous minutes, she began to execute her slow escape, moving down the hill on trails, staying off the main.

She was hiding in the bushes when she saw the car, and at first she wasn't going to give pursuit. But when she realized that the one who had the gun was now alone, an idea came to mind.

It might not have come to mind if the car had been driven by any of the other two, but his timid driving made her think of him as soft. He sat close against the wheel and craned his neck across the dash so he could see the nose; and seeing this and thinking of the way that almost everything he'd said was overruled, she chose him as the object of a lesson in revenge.

At one point she was sure that he'd seen her when she tried to dash across the main before he came around a bend. But he was focused on his inner life and didn't notice when she spun around and dived into the bush.

Lying on her side, she said while watching him go by: “You would die in war in Europe. You're so careless and so soft.” As soon as she said this, an image came to mind, an image that was instantly translated to a thought. It was an image of a knife against a throat, which was translated as, “I have to get him in the car.” After that there were no other thoughts. Just actions. Running. Hiding. Jumping. Rolling. Scaling. Shunting. Creeping. Crawling. Darting … until now

As she watched him walking back and forth across the lonely open deck, two truckloads of soldiers rumbled down the hill. If I going to do it then I have to do it now, she thought.

That man ain't going stand up there all morning. Any minute now he going to go about his business. And if he goes before you do what you're suppose to do, then your plan get spoil.

If he could just frighten, she thought, as she disciplined her nerves. If he could just frighten when he come and see me in the car, and don't try to wrestle … then it would be awright. Because as I lying here I ain't want to cut nobody anymore. Them things easy to think 'bout, but they hard to do unless you have them kinda mind. And I ain't have them kinda mind.

I have it sometimes, but I ain't have it right now. That's why it ain't good to talk out your intentions, even to yourself.

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