A Veil of Fog and Flames by Lori Hart Beninger

Author:Lori Hart Beninger [Lori Hart Beninger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Jack: April 27, 1852

MRS. SCHWARTZMAN SAYS she’ll take a tornado over an earthquake any day, because you can see it coming and run for shelter. Every time we have an earthquake, Mrs. Schwartzman gets to talking about the tornadoes she lived through back in Missouri.

I think she’s crazy, because it was a tornado that killed her boy and left her Missouri farm in shambles. She tells as how her cow got picked up and was found dead several fields away beside big pieces of her barn. Said she watched the animal flying in circles in the clouds, mooing and moaning like it did at milking time.

I think she’s spinning yarns. But even if it’s all true, about the worst that happens in an earthquake is glass gets broken, boards split, and masonry cracks. Some buildings collapse, to be sure, but certainly naught gets thrown four fields away. All I know is that I’ve never seen an earthquake kill anybody.

Whatever the truth may be about tornadoes, I think one has set up home in my brain since the night Faye was cut and I heard Quinn’s voice. Even at work, like today, my thoughts are swirling everywhere. I can’t get my mind to concentrate on what it’s supposed to.

Faye still won’t tell anybody who cut her, even though we’re all pretty sure it was Ben Hobart, especially since he hasn’t shown his face at the Ribbon since that night. Faye just stays in bed all day, bawling and moaning like Mrs. Schwartzman’s cow. She cries most of the time, mainly about how ugly she is now and how nobody will want her anymore with those marks all over her body.

They are truly ugly. Whenever I visit her, I always hope she has herself covered up to her chin so I don’t have to look at them or the dressings that hide most of them. When her mood is really bad she starts tearing at the bandages and yelling like she did that night. Mrs. Schwartzman doesn’t much care if the girl screams during the day, but if it starts up at night she wants it stopped pronto. Isn’t it my luck that I’m the only one who seems to be able to calm Faye down so she’s not scaring customers.

I told Mrs. Schwartzman that she ought to ask the Doc for some of that stuff he used to make her pass out, but I guess he refused. He says that only a doctor should use it, and sent Mrs. Schwartzman home with another bottle of laudanum instead. I don’t see that the laudanum does much more than make Faye drunk and more blubbery than normal.

I want to have sympathy for her. I try to imagine what I would do had someone tied me up and cut me. It must’ve been terrible, not being able to break free while some cur was hurting her, not able to fight back or cry out for help. Even though I know this to be

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