The
Chris(tmas) Spirit
Part
2
After
I defined Naomi's idea of camping to Christine, I found she was taking it
surprisingly well.
"Well,
that's okay," she said. "Babies should stay with their mommies."
I winced slightly in subconscious guilt, my mind wandering to a related
statement Kathy'd made about another little one in close proximity. Was Chris
ever going to want HER real mommy?
"No,
no, I'm just taking him back to Acorn and that's as far as I go. He can deal
with the kid after that." said Naomi.
"But
what about his parents?" asked Chris.
"I
don't know who they are and I'm not rushing into any human villages to find
out, so forget it. Humans just loooove fairies," said Naomi wryly, glaring
at me.
"I
like you," said Chris.
Naomi
softened a bit. "Yeah, well you and the boss here are completely
different. You're part fairy, anyway, and you're..." She looked at me with
a frown. "What is it with you, anyway?"
"Ask this Acorn guy where he got the
baby," I said, getting back to the subject. "If he doesn't know, take
the kid to the nearest town and see if you can put him in an orphanage or home
or something, if nobody knows him..."
"Are
you cra-zy?!" demanded Naomi. "Fairies are sideshows
and crystal figurines for humans! I am not, I repeat, am not
risking my life for some...baby!" she sputtered angrily.
"If
you go like you are now," said Christine, "who's gonna know you're a
fairy?"
"Wizards
know and witches know and magic users know," she replied,
numbering them on her fingers as she spoke. "They'll suck the magic right
outta me and..."
"Can
we discuss the details on this later?" I suggested loudly, glancing at
Chris to explain why. "Not everybody wants or needs to hear about that
sorta thing."
Naomi
raised her eyebrows knowingly at Chris, then sighed. "Do you want me dead,
is that what you want?" I paused thoughtfully and she gasped.
"You have to think about it?!"
"Oh,
come on, just go, for cryin' out loud...!" I said, exasperatedly.
"And
they always wanna be touchin' on ya an' everything" she added.
"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's human hands."
I
sighed again. "O-kay," I said, "maybe I should send Eric
out with you."
She
snorted. "As if you'd let him anywhere near Christine and an innocent
baby." I frowned at her, realizing she was right, then shrugged and threw
a pain powerball at her, realizing it didn't matter. She sucked in her breath
quickly, then frowned in confusion.
"That
wasn't that bad," she said, looking at me for an explanantion.
"Screw
this baby thing up and it will be," I returned. "Now, like I
was saying, if none of that works, well..." I paused, thinking very
seriously about Joshua's fate. "Okay, if none of that stuff works...well,
bring him back, but only if nothing else works out."
"Can
I go?" asked Chris.
"No,"
said Naomi flatly. "Gimme the kid."
"Welllll..."
I began, wondering if the idea had merit or not.
"You
better not say 'yes'," Naomi threatened me under her breath.
"It
is kinda dangerous, honey," I said, gently. "Maybe you oughta sit
this one out."
"There,
see, ya can't go. Now gimme the kid," said Naomi, trying to grab the baby.
"Pleeeease?"
Chris begged, holding the baby just out of her reach.
"No!"
snapped Naomi, twisting around with Christine in an effort to take the baby
from her. "Will you cut...!"
"I
won't get lost or do anything Naomi says not to and I'll take care of
Joshua..."
"NO!"
said Naomi. "Now gimme the kid! As if it weren't already hard enough to
keep me and the kid in one piece! Sheesh!" She took the baby from Chris
and almost immediately, he began to bawl. Naomi took one look at him, rolled
her eyes and sighed. "Get your traveling sh...I mean, stuff
together." she said.
Normally,
hacking around in the woods wasn't so bad, espe-cially around the lighter sides
of the place where most of the nocturnal creatures didn't come too often. Even
the deeper parts weren't bad for a little action to keep the ol' guard up. But
when one had to take along a kid and take her and a baby in the Deep Forest and
fight off stuff at the same time... heck, neither of these brats could even fly!
Naomi
was definitely pissed.
She
could still feel a tiny remnant of the pain Daina'd given her and that in
itself was enough to keep her in a bad mood. She swung her machete around at
the thicker weeds and shrubbery in front of her sourly.
Bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch, she thought to herself. The least she could've done
was said, "You did good, Naomi" or "congradulations on a
magnificent effort, Naomi" or even "Nice try, kiddo", she
thought, but nooo, she had to get bitchy. Nothing but insults and
sarcasm. Fallon would've said something nice, she thought. She whacked a
sapling tree down with one vicious swish at that thought. Fallon wasn't there
and she probably wasn't ever coming back. Man!, she thought. Who needs
this crap, anyway?
She
peered back in the slowly failing light to check on Christine's progress, not
really out of concern, but more or less just to be argumentative. The kid was
picking her way behind Naomi with the baby strapped to her back. She was a few
feet behind her and breathing hard, but holding her own. It occured to Naomi
that a 54-pound child would probably have a little bit of trouble carrying a
load almost half her own weight, but she didn't really care.
"Look,
if you can't keep up, then say so," snapped Naomi.
"I'm
alright," said Chris, stopping and looking up at her.
"Then
speed it up!" demanded Naomi, starting off again in a huff.
Christine sighed and said nothing as she followed her. "We're already on
the edge of the Deep Forest, so you can't be hangin' around back there,
see?" added Naomi, without turning back. "And when we do get there,
you don't touch crap, you don't do crap, you don't look at
crap funny, you don't eat crap..."
"Gross!"
giggled Christine.
Naomi
growled angrily. This was not the arguement she was looking for. She
whacked at another bush with renewed vigor. That ol' feeling was welling up in
her, the one that didn't exactly encourage her to fight but usually helped
start it,and it was starting to get to her.
An
hour went by taking much of the sunlight and Naomi's good humor with it. Heck,
I don't need this!, she decided. And I'm not gonna take it,
either.
She
drove her machete into a nearby tree, stuck her torch into the ground and
turned to Chris again. "We'll camp here," she announced, hands
on her hips as she waited for a challenge of some sort.
"Okay,"
shrugged Chris, going around her and sitting against a tree. Naomi's eyes
narrowed to little slits of frustration. The child was impossible to
argue with. Beating her up was out of the question, although rather tantalizing
for a moment. Still, the thought of winning a fist fight against a 6-year-old
and a baby didn't hold much in the way of satisfaction. Forget this, she
thought. Let 'em both find their own way out. I could leave now and by
the time anybody realized I'd ditched the kids, I'd be long gone. That'll teach
Daina to snap on me.
"Stay
here," she commanded. "I'm going to get firewood." With that,
she turned, grabbed up her torch and began walking away. After a moment, she
turned and said, "Use that machete if something comes at you."
Christine looked after her with a nod, then drove her own torch into the ground
and began to unstrap Joshua from her back.
Guilt
in the form of her sister Fallon's voice began to nag at Naomi before she had
gotten more than a hundred feet away from where she'd left the children.
Those
poor children, came a voice in her head. Surely you're not going to
leave them there all alone, are you?
Bug
off, Fallon, she answered herself. You and your voice don't exist for me
anymore.
Which
is why I make such a good conscience for you, laughed the voice. Go
back, Naomi. It's you who's feeling guilty, not your sister. You know she's
gone and there's nothing you can do about it.
Naomi
stopped dead in her tracks, suddenly not feeling at all herself.
"Sheez,
I forgot my pack," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.