Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) by Matthew Medina Read Free Book Online Page A

pants,
right? Well now she’s gone and found out she’s a smarty pants
with a big smarty pants last name. But you want to know what’s so
funny about it?”
The other kids looked on expectantly, eager to join in on
the joke.
“What is so gods damn funny is that her family’s dumb
name...is Barefoot. Can you imagine the odds? Catelyn Barefoot!
How fitting!”
At this last remark, he pointed down at her feet, which
were in fact bare, and covered with the dirt from the lot.
The other kids all pointed as well, and started to laugh the
way that kids do when they find an easy target for ridicule.
“Catey Barefoot!”
“Ugh, pee yew, her feet must stink like dead dogs!”
“What a stupid name. Who names anyone Barefoot?”
Catelyn felt her heart shrink in her chest. She tried to
correct them.
“Not Barefoot, Bereford. Lydia heard it wrong!”
Marton and the others ignored her, and he wasn’t content
to simply let it go at that, either.
“Your parents are so poor. They can’t even afford you
shoes, stupid.”
“Yeah, she’s probably got some nasty toe disease or
somethin’!”
“Stay away, toe germs!”
Catelyn felt the tears welling up in her eyes, and that only
made the kids more emboldened, and soon they were picking up
handfuls of dirt and flinging it at her face.
“Here’s some more dirt for ya, filthy!”
“Get some shoes, loser.”
Marton then took off one of his own shoes and held it by
the lace and swung it at her. Catelyn ducked, holding her hands to
her ears to shut out the jeers as they all proceeded to take one shoe
off, and pummel her back with them, shouting insult after insult at
the state of her, and at her parents, calling all three of them
worthless and stupid and poor.
Catelyn wasn’t sure how long it lasted but finally her father
and one of the other kid’s fathers ran over to break up the fight.
Catelyn was so mortified from the assault that she didn't even
know how it had ended. One moment she was being pummeled,
the next, she was alone except for her father.
Catelyn leaned up from where she'd been huddled, looked
down in shame and sat in the dirt, trying to pull the legs of her
pants down as far as she could to hide her bare feet. Her father
stood over her, wiping the dirt from her clothes and trying to
console her with soft words that she was trying to ignore.
When he saw that she wasn’t responding, he asked “Are
you OK, Catey?”
“Don’t call me that,” she spat at him angrily, looking up at
him with burning eyes.
He shied back from her anger, and she could see that he
realized just how upset she was.
“I’m sorry.” He took a calming breath, and tried again.
“Catelyn, are you OK?”
She couldn’t look directly at him, so she hugged her arms
around her knees and sat silently. Being the kind of man he was,
her father knew just the right thing to do, and he simply sat down
next to her, hugged his own arms around his knees and stared off
in the distance. Without saying anything, he was telling her
everything, and she loved him for his understanding.
After a while, when her anger cooled, she looked over at
him. And he looked back with his warm brown eyes, the barest
hint of a smile on his face.
She couldn’t help but beam at him when he got that look.
It was a look he reserved for only two people, and she was lucky
enough to be one of them.
She saw no reason to keep her feelings a secret.
“Dad, how come you and mom never bought me any
shoes?”
Her father rarely seemed flustered by anything she asked
him, but this question was one he never expected apparently. He
looked at her, started to say something, then stopped with his
mouth hanging open. He closed it, then turned away and tried
again.
“Catelyn, we’ve all given up certain things, in order for us
to be able to save up enough to get certain other...things. Do you
know what I’m saying?” When he said the word “things” the
second time, he looked right in her eyes and she knew what things
he was