Cold Ennaline by RJ Astruc Read Free Book Online

feet, but her legs buckle under her. The girls stumble in a lopsided circle as Lisa and Jessica try to work out what’s going on.
    “Jackie, you got to walk! What’s wrong with her? Has she been drugged?”
    “Snap out of it! Come on, we got to go.”
    And finally, they get a reaction from Jackie. She throws her head back and starts to scream. The sound of her voice is ragged and guttural.
    “I am here for the god !”
    Jessica and Lisa let her go instantly, as if they’ve been burned. Jackie falls onto her knees, and then her hands. Her fingers flex in the dirt.
    “Oh Christ, oh Christ….”
    “Jackie, what’s going on?”
    “I am here for the god !”
    “It’s crazy, hon, it’s crazy, you got to come with us….”
    “I am here for the god !”
    “You can’t mean that. It’s me, Lisa. I’m not going to hurt you….”
    Lisa reaches for her friend, desperately, hopelessly, and with a sick smile on her face, Jackie bites her hand.
    I don’t know what happens to Jessica, Lisa, and Jackie. I can’t watch any more. I turn around and start running, until I can’t hear Lisa screaming anymore.
     
     
    T HE P IEDMONTS ’ property uses rainfall tanks as its only source of water. By midday there’s not a drop left, thanks to a dry summer and a lot of dirty and thirsty faith full. I have to wipe the dust out of my face with an old towel I find in the ranch. I don’t understand how the Piedmonts can stay so clean.
    I wonder how the twins are doing, out there in the world with Theo. I hope Theo is looking after them. It’s going to be hard for the twins to live outside of the faith full.
    Like me, they’ve never known anything else.
    Mrs. Piedmont runs out of tasks to give me by the afternoon. There’s nothing I can really do, anyway—we’ve run out of food and water and there’s nothing at hand that could help clean up after the hundreds of faith full gathered outside. She sends me to my room to pray.
    As I walk to my room, I notice two of the rooms that lead off the main hallway are in complete disarray—bedsheets everywhere, broken furniture, and shattered ornaments. I remember the Evans’s house and their mysteriously overturned room… and I remember Father Nerve’s signs of the god. I can see the marks of dust and dirt on the Piedmonts’ bedsheets, evidence of the strange, rot-smelling wind that seems to follow the god’s movements.
    The strange wind that destroys.
    In my room, I kneel on the floor by my bunk, my face pressed to the sheets, my hands clasped over my heart. I say the prayer for the sky and the prayer for the earth and the prayer for the night, until the words run together and I realize I’m not praying, I’m babbling. I sound as crazy as Jackie.
    I am here for the god.
    I close my eyes. I think of the twins again, their sweet faces and their wicked smiles. Would it be easier for me if they were here? Or would they be afraid too? And a tiny flicker of doubt enters my mind: I should have gone with them .
    I should have left before it began .
    I push the treacherous thought away before it takes root and spreads.
    I’m interrupted in my misery by shouts and cheers coming from outside. I run to the window and throw it wide open….
    There’s a new hole.
    It’s fifty meters from the Piedmonts’ house, within the boundary of their fences. The ridge that surrounds it is twice as wide as the ranch and three times as tall. Its sides are covered with pink flora and lumpish white buds as big as loaves of bread. Vines wind around its peaks, some snapping loosely in the foul-smelling wind. I can’t quite believe my eyes. The ridge has risen without a sound, and without unsettling the earth around it. Is it a miracle or a blessing or something else?
    The faith full are on their feet. Their dirt-streaked arms are raised toward the ridge, and they whisper prayers. They sway like cornstalks as the winds move through them, rocking onto their toes, bumping shoulders and swinging away. I can see