Parable of the Talents - Octavia E Butler Page 0,64

even one that didn’t involve questions, challenges, argument. It’s our way. I did warn you. Anyone can be questioned on any subject they choose to teach or advocate. I told you that we were serious about it. We learn at least as much by discussion as by lecture, demonstration, or experience.”

“Forget about it,” he said. “It’s done. I don’t blame you. Really. I shouldn’t have tried my hand here. I’ll make a place for myself somewhere else.”

Still no anger expressed. Yet he was furious. He wouldn’t show it and he wouldn’t talk about it, but it came off him like heat. Perhaps that’s what a collar teaches—a horrible kind of self-control. Or perhaps not. My brother was always a self-contained person. He knew how to be unreachable.

I sighed and gave him as much money as I could afford, plus a rifle, a sidearm, and ammunition for both. He’s not a very good shot with anything yet, but he knows the basics, and I couldn’t let him go out and wind up in the hands of someone like Cougar again. The Peralta family had been with us for two years, so they had money and possessions as a result of their work with us. Marc did not. We drove him and the Peraltas into Eureka. There, they might find homes and jobs, or at least they might find temporary shelter until they could decide what to do.

“I thought you knew me,” I said to my brother just before he left us. “I wouldn’t do what you’re accusing me of.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay. Don’t keep worrying about it.” He smiled. And he was gone.

I don’t know how to feel about this. So many people have come here and stayed or wanted to stay even if, for some reason, they couldn’t. I had to expel a thief a year ago, and he cried and begged to stay. We had caught him stealing drugs from Bankole’s medical supplies, so he had to go, but he cried.

As they left us, even the Peraltas looked grim and frightened. They were Ramiro, the father; Pilar, 18; Esteban, 17; and Eva, who was only two and whose birth at a rest stop along the highway had cost her mother’s life. They had no other relatives left alive, no friends outside of Acorn who would help them if they got into trouble. And Esteban would be leaving them soon to enlist. They had good reason to look worried.

Marc would be in the same situation once he left us. Worse, he would be all alone. Yet he smiled.

I don’t know whether I’ll ever see him again. I feel almost as though he’s died…died again.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2033

Dan Noyer found his way back to us last night.

He came back. Amazing. I think he’s been gone longer than he was with us. We tried to find him—for his little sisters’ sakes as much as for his. But unless you have the money to hire a small army of private cops like that guy in Texas, finding people in today’s chaos is almost impossible. My finding Marcus was an accident. Anyway, Dan came home on his own, poor boy.

It was a cold night. We had all gone to bed except for the first watch of the night.

The watchers were Gray Mora and Zahra Balter.

Zahra was the one who spotted the intruders. As she described it to me later, she saw two people running, staggering, sometimes seeming to hold one another up. If not for the staggering, Zahra might have fired a warning shot, at least. But before she revealed herself, she wanted to see who or what the runners were escaping from.

As she scanned the hills behind them, she tapped out our emergency signal on her phone.

There were five people chasing the staggering runners—or, with her night-vision glasses, she could see five. She kept looking for more.

One of the five shouted, then fell, and Zahra realized that that one must have blundered into the edge of our thorn fence. In the dark, some of our thorn bushes don’t look that savage. They’re pretty if you don’t touch them. Some will even be covered with flowers soon. But they grab clothing and flesh, and they tear.

The injured one’s four companions slowed, seemed to hesitate, then sped up again as the injured one limped after them.

Zahra put her rifle on automatic and fired a short burst across the path of the two front runners. They stopped short and dived into the thorn bushes and cactuses.