Wild Like Us by Jennifer Liss

Wild Like Us by Jennifer Liss

Author:Jennifer Liss [Liss, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Willow River Press
Published: 2023-06-12T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER 16

Early night was giving away to deep night. Fog had penetrated this high area of the canyon, carrying a familiar, moist, salty sea scent. Naomi shuddered, feeling her way through the darkness slowly, mindful that the ground was a minefield of stumps and ditches. She didn’t want to fall again, but she figured this was her best bet for the night. Away from the road and deeper into the neglected orchard. She just wanted to find a soft patch to lay down and rest on until the sun rose and she could carefully assess her injuries and come up with a plan.

Then, in the darkness, Naomi heard singing. At first, she thought it was in her mind. In her exhausted and confused state, the melody was too tender and sorrowful to be real. Before her grandfather died, he had prayed on Friday nights. The memory of her grandfather lighting candles and praying, waving his hands gently in front of his face as if to beckon the light, surfaced. When Naomi visited him, she prayed too, even though she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t know what the words meant. They were in another language. But she hummed along with her grandfather. She stood next to him and allowed the flames to warm her face.

Naomi crunched through the dead leaves, stumbling over exposed roots, following the singing, humming along to a familiar prayer that surely she was just hearing in her mind. How could someone actually be here singing, high up in the canyon, in this abandoned orchard? Then she saw it: lights flickering in an open cottage window. The wind teased the candles but the flames burned strong. A woman prayed, like her grandfather had.

The orchard wasn’t completely neglected after all. Naomi recalled what the boys had said. The woman was likely one of the few people who had stayed in the canyon.

From inside the cottage, dogs began to growl, sensing Naomi outside. The woman’s prayers were interrupted. “Something out there?”

The woman spoke to the dogs, and Naomi tasted the bitterness of panic for a second time. If the woman opened the door to let the dogs investigate, not only would she be found, she would be hurt. Ranchers trained their dogs to protect their property—at any cost. Those dogs were probably the reason why the boys and Axe hadn’t trampled all around the ranch themselves.

Running would be too noisy—and it seemed nearly impossible. Naomi’s hip thumped with pain, which coursed up and down her left leg. Staying still was her only option. She squatted to the ground and dropped her head. Invisibility was unachievable, but stillness she could accomplish. She had done it before, near the road when she hid from Glitch and Axe.

She inhaled deeply and slowly, letting the air seep out from between her lips. Her fingertips rested lightly on the ground, ready to launch if she needed to break into a sprint, as painful as it might be.

The snarls ceased. Now the dogs were barking, but it wasn’t an alarmed bark.



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