Four Summoners Tales Part 10

She bit her lip, as if that could stopper her thoughts.

"Yes," Charlie said. "I can speak, but barely. I feel . . ." He gripped Eleazar's hand for support.

"He's very weak," Eleazar said. "I'm sorry if I startled you, my good woman. I do not wish him to be poked and prodded about during his recovery.Your doctor is examining him now."

Doc Adams rose. "The boy lives. He breathes. He speaks. His heart beats. His blood flows."

Millie dropped to her knees. "Praise be. Dear Lord, thank you . . ."

As she continued, Doc Adams explained which children could be resurrected. Eleazar took Charlie's hand and helped him from the coffin. He told Mayor Browning to fetch his wife and then announced that he would take Charlie inside to rest.Addie waited until they were gone, then scampered back across the roof.

Addie eased open the back door to the community center. Inside, she could hear Eleazar talking to his a.s.sistant. She closed the door silently behind her. While Eleazar was occupied, she'd speak to Charlie.Yes, he was weak, but she'd take up none of his time or his strength. She simply wanted to . . .

She didn't know what she wanted. What she expected. Only that she'd been robbed of the chance to see him before, and she would get it now. No one would take that from her now, and if something went wrong- It won't. He's back.

If something went wrong, at least she wouldn't lie awake, wishing she'd seen him one last time. So she crept into the community hall while Eleazar spoke to Rene.

She hadn't even reached the kitchen door, though, before the conversation stopped.

"I need to rest now," Charlie said, and she realized Eleazar hadn't been talking to his a.s.sistant, Rene, at all.

This would make things more difficult. Eleazar and Charlie were both in the front room, and the a.s.sistant was here somewhere, too.

It didn't matter. She would see Charlie.

She peered into the back room before she slid through.There were three coffins now, the fourth gone. Something caught her attention on the floor. An eagle's feather, under the table where Charlie's coffin had lain.When they'd picked it up, they'd let his treasures scatter.

Anger darted through her.Those things of Charlie's had been so important to his parents after he'd died. Now they were as they'd been in his life-useless clutter. How many times had his mother tried to throw out that eagle feather, saying it was filthy? It was treasured only after he was gone, like Charlie himself. His father had paid him no mind when he was alive-

Addie wiped the thoughts from her mind. Unchristian, Sophia would say.

She paused again, caught on that new thought. Preacher and Sophia. She hadn't even seen them after the resurrection.They'd been there, lost in the crowd. Were they regretting their hasty judgment? Looking for her to apologize?

Stop thinking. Start moving. Or you'll lose your chance.

She stepped into the room, gaze fixed on that feather, to retrieve it for Charlie. She picked it up and as she rose, she caught sight of a figure and stifled a yelp as she wheeled. It was Rene. He sat in front of one of the other coffins, with his back to her. His head was bowed. Asleep.

Addie exhaled in relief. She ought to be more careful. She'd been checking the room for him when she'd gotten distracted by the feather. She tucked it under her jacket now and silently tiptoed to the door joining the two rooms. He never stirred.

The adjoining door was closed tight.Addie turned the handle as carefully as she could and then eased it open. Through the crack she could see Charlie. He sat in a chair, leaning back, his eyes closed, looking like . . .

Well, looking like Charlie. Exactly like the Charlie she knew, his color coming back, the swelling fading. His dark hair hung in a cowlick over one eye, and Addie smiled, expecting him to reach up and push it impatiently aside, as he always did. He seemed too tired for that, though, and just sat there, slouched in the chair.

Eleazar was across the room, rummaging in his pack. He muttered to himself as he did, doubling the noise.

"Charlie?" Addie whispered.

No response.

A little louder. "Charlie?"

His eyelids flickered.Then they opened, and she was looking straight into those eyes she knew so well, gray-blue, like the sky on a windy day. She looked into them and saw . . .

Nothing. Not a flicker of recognition.

Because he can barely see me through this crack in the door.

She glanced at Eleazar. He was still retrieving things from his pack, turned away enough not to see her. She inched the door open until her face fit in the gap. Then she grinned at Charlie and, in her mind, she saw him grin back, as he always had, ever since the first time they met, when her ma brought her to town for supplies. Charlie had been in his father's shop room, and he'd snuck a licorice whip from the jar for her.That's who Addie saw in her mind-that boy, that grin-and it took a moment before she realized she wasn't seeing it in front of her.

Charlie wasn't even smiling. He looked right at her and that expression in his eyes never changed.

He doesn't know me.

Because he's tired. He's confused.

She lifted the eagle feather and waggled it. He frowned.