Shackles of Light by Christopher A. Nooner

Author:Christopher A. Nooner [Nooner, Christopher A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 7 Crow Productions
Published: 2018-07-17T04:00:00+00:00

Keezie’s head swung in surprise when the bell on the door jangled. She leapt from the stool on which she was sitting when Joseph stepped in.

She flung her arms around the big man and whooped. “You are a sight for sore eyes!” she exclaimed and jabbed a finger toward Ammonih. “This one can barely carry on a conversation.”

She grinned at Joseph, but her smile faded as she recognized the heavy sadness in his eyes. “What happened?” she asked.

He shrugged and guided her back to her seat where he plopped down, followed closely by a plate of fries and a couple of Jack’s amazing dogs.

Joseph looked down at the plate and up at the creature behind the counter. Jack met his eyes and nodded, “I heard. Bad stuff.” He turned around and resumed his vigil of black and white reruns.

Keezie waited with a patience she didn’t normally possess. His pain helped control her impulse to know and demand and pester.

She turned back to her own plate of fries and nibbled her way through the crunchy golden morsels. She would never understand how the plain poor food here was so divine. It had to be magic.

She watched her companions from the corners of her eyes. Ammonih, as he wiped the grease from his lips with the back of his arm, and Joseph, picking listlessly through the mound of fries in search of individual morsels that met some criteria she didn’t understand.

She tried to watch TV, but the sheer strength of her curiosity kept her wandering back to Joseph.

It was at least fifteen minutes before he spoke, his voice soft and raw with emotion. “All of them are dead. I’m the only one left.”

She felt Ammonih’s head swing with hers. “Who?” she asked.

“My people. The Tribeless.”

“I’m sorry.” Her voiced cracked with the dryness of mouth that comes from stress and emotion.

Silence resumed, except for the rude counterpoint of the old laugh track.

“Is Eli meeting you here?” the big man asked.

Keezie picked at her fries, having found in that question the sadness that drove Joseph’s criteria for which fry to eat.

She shook her head, afraid to speak. She glanced at Ammonih.

He pushed the air from his lungs and inhaled slowly before speaking. “Pretty sure he’s dead.”

Keezie’s throat closed with emotion and locked in a painful sob.

She couldn’t look up at Joseph, afraid his reaction would make her cry and she couldn’t afford that right now.

She was surprised again when Joseph didn’t ask how or insist they must be mistaken. He just absorbed it as if he’d expected it or something.

Silence fell over the trio once again. The pressure in her head drowned out the laugh track and made her feel like she was drunk and spinning on the stool.

“I have to go back to the house. There is something I have to get.” She jumped when Joseph’s baritone voice broke the dizzy spell.

“Might be Hatak Haski there,” Ammonih offered. “Couldn’t get to the Way Hut.”

Joseph pursed his lips and drew his brow down as he thought.

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