The Outliers

  supplies in hand. When my mother grew tired Critter led her to the back room where he’d set up a cot for her to rest on.

  “And the very last lesson plan I have for you today folks is…” Miller clicked the remote and a bird and a bee appeared on the screen. “The birds and the bees. Now when a man and woman love each other very much they,” he made a sign with his hands. His index finger poking in and out of a hole he created with his other hand. I laughed when I finally got what he was indicating. I laughed so hard my sides started to hurt. “They do that. And then, the man’s baby seed lassoes the woman’s baby egg-thing and BOOM. That’s how babies are made and if you’re really really lucky and you find the right person?” Miller grinned at Josh. “They’ll even make you a sandwich after.”

  “Boooooo!” Josh and Wilfredo shouted, throwing candy wrappers at Miller who ducked and dodged the assault.

  “Detention for you both!” Miller shouted.

  Critter, who was seated at a table nearby was rolling his eyes but he was smiling. “Did you skip that day in school, son?”

  Miller shrugged. “Actually, I received an attendance award in high school.”

  “That wasn’t an attendance award,” Finn laughed. “That was a warning to your parents that if you skipped any more school you’d be expelled because you’d missed more classes than any other student.”

  “And? What part of that doesn’t scream attendance award?” Miller grabbed a beer and Josh rolled her eyes.

  “You just wait until your boobs are fat and your belly is all round with my baby.” He murmured pulling her in for a kiss.

  “My luck I’d just be puking my guts out and feeling like shit for nine months,” Josh said, pushing him away.

  “I bet you’d look hot doing all that puking.” Miller wagged his eyebrows.

  “You’re gross,” Josh chided, but she didn’t push him away this time when he went in and kissed her on the tip of her nose.

  “Speaking of feeling ill,” I said, holding my stomach as the smell of whatever candy Josh had just unwrapped was about to cause my lunch to come back up. I read that an occasional sickness was common but this was a lot more than occasional. It looked

  “Are you okay?” Finn asked, growing concern written on his face. “This little one giving you a hard time?”

  “I’m fine. Just a little he or she probably has really long legs like his father.”

  “I wish I could knock someone up,” Wilfredo said on a sigh, leaning in so far into one of the coolers that his head disappeared.

  “Uh, you can knock someone up. You’re a dude. Presumably a dude with a dick,” Miller argued

  “Yeah, but unless gay sex suddenly requires the pill then it’s never gonna happen. At least not in the biblical sense. Because although these creatures are phenomenal and fierce and I want to be them.” He pointed to us, rolling his index finger in a small circle and grimacing. “What they got going on below the belt scares the ever-loving shit out of me.”

  Miller stared at Josh and slowly nodded. “You and me both, man.” He shook his head. “You and me both.”

  “Thank you for all of this,” I said, placing a kiss to Finn’s lips.

  “Thank you,” Finn said. My heart fluttered.

  “For what? I didn’t do anything.” I chuckled.

  Finn placed his hand on my belly. “You’re doing everything.”

  “What do you mean you only packed three cases of beer. It’s a hurricane! I don’t think I can ever forgive you!” Miller yelled at Wilfredo who remained calm produced a bottle of vodka from his backpack.

  “Shots?” Wilfredo asked, shaking the bottle.

  Miller snatched it from his hands. “Forgiven.”

  “Don’t forget I owe you an ass kicking for knocking on my daughter,” Critter said, narrowing his eyes at Finn.

  “Oh, I didn’t forget,” Finn said. “I’d expect nothing less.”

  Critter nodded. “Good. We’re on the same page then.”

  Sometimes, I didn’t know whether they were joking or not. But I thought it best to stay out of it, and let them do whatever it is they needed to do to prove how manly they are to one another.

  “I’m going to go check on my mother,” I said. Finn helped me to a standing position.

  “I think I might want to try my chances with the hurricane,” Josh muttered as I went by.

  I slowly opened the door to the back storage area and went inside, shutting it behind me so that Miller’s loud voice wouldn’t wake my mother if she was sleeping. I tiptoed toward the cot only to find it empty.

  I quickly scanned the rest of the room and I didn’t see her. Something felt off, like there was a shift in the air I couldn’t explain. It felt thicker. Heavier.

  “Mother?” I looked into the dark corner where I was keeping some books that needed to be shipped off to have the spines repaired. I saw movement. “There you are,” I exhaled in relief. “You scared me. What are you doing back there? All the newer books are on the shelves in the main room. Anything in particular that you’re looking for?” I knelt to tie my shoelace which I’d just notice had come undone when I heard footsteps.

  Heavy footsteps.

  Not my mother’s footsteps.

  “Yes. YOU,” answered a deep throaty male voice.

  I froze for a moment then realized if I was going to escape this time I was going to have to act fast. I made a leap toward the door but I wasn’t quick enough. A large hand came around my chest and another covered my nose and mouth to muffle my scream before it even had a chance to leave my lips.

  “Shhhh, I have your whore of a mother, and it’s up to you whether she remains alive or not.” Richard whispered bitterly into my ear. He smelled just as I remembered. Like whiskey and arrogance. “I locked all of the doors of this building from the outside. If you so much as try and draw attention to yourself, even one little squeak of a noise and I’ll set this entire place ablaze with every single of those heathens trapped inside.” He showed me a metal lighter, flicking it open and setting the flame to high so I could see he was serious about carrying through with his threat.

  I felt helpless. Panicked.

  My heart was beating rapidly and all I could think about was protecting Finn and my baby.

  There was nothing I could do but comply. And as he dragged me out into the night I thought he tripped over something but I was wrong. He’d kicked over something. That something was a gas can.

  With a flick of his wrist, he sent the lighter and the tiny flame cascading into the gas can causing it to immediately erupt in a fire ball which was anything but tiny.

  I tried to get to them. To move my limbs but they wouldn’t cooperate. I was breathing erratically, taking in more and more of whatever he had pressed into his palm covering my nose and mouth.

  I felt nauseated. The sound of Richard callous laugh surrounded me as he dragged me further and further away from the library. The storm hadn’t yet brought the rain but the wind spread the flames quickly and just as my vision started to blur I managed to make out the last sight I ever wanted to see.

  The roof of the library caved in…and collapsed.

  Chapter 24

  Finn

  It all happened so fast. It sounded like an explosion then the roof of the storage room was collapsing.

  Sawyer.

  I raced toward the storage room with Critter while Miller attempted to open the front door which turned out to be locked from the outside. Together, Josh and Miller managed to ram through it just enough to get everyone out. The pouring rain had put out the fire so Critter and I, with burning palms, pushed aside the fallen roof to search for Sawyer and her mother.

  It wasn’t until we’d moved the last beam when we realized…they weren’t there.

  One glance at one another was all it took for us to be on the same page.

  Richard.

  Chapter 25

  Sawyer

  All I heard was crickets. The wind slapped wet leaves and mud against
my face. It was raining lightly but the wind was blowing so hard each drop of water stung against my skin. It smelled like sulfur and decay.

  I tried to peel my eyes open but they wouldn’t comply. I was sitting in a few inches of water. My shorts were completely soaked through.

  Finn.

  My family. My friends.

  The library. The roof collapsing.

  It sobered me up and pulled me from the haze I was in. I jolted awake. My eyes sprung open, only to find myself bound at the wrists behind a tree at my back.

  I was terrified that I lost all the people that meant most me the world. The only thing that kept me from shaking uncontrollably with fear—the only thing that kept me sucking in my next breath, was the life growing inside of me.

  I felt sick to my stomach. Everything ached. My body sat heavy upon my bones as if I were carrying around another pile of flesh and muscle on the outside of mine. Like gravity was working overtime to pull me into the center of the earth.

  It was difficult to lift my arms. My eyes wouldn’t open fully and I was forced to peer out into the darkness of this world through tiny slits. It must have been the effects of whatever it was that Richard had sedated me with.

  Everything hurt. My body, my heart, my spirit.

  Then I heard a voice and at first, I was imagining things, but her voice was not only clear, it was calm.

  And it belonged to my mother.

  “When you were growing up I saw so much of myself reflected in your eyes. It scared me. A part of me wished you were complacent. Obedient. A person who stood in line and waited their turn and did what they were told and were happy that way. But every once in a while, I caught a glimpse of fire in your eyes. Of rebellion. Of questions, greater than the answers the church was giving you. A look that told me you were no more meant for that life than I was. But an even bigger part of me was proud, relieved. And I knew you couldn’t stay there. That fire in your along with Richard’s controlling and abusive ways…it was never going to end well.” She pressed her lips together and looked up at the sky. “I was always surprised you hadn’t run away earlier. And disappointed in a way.”

  “I couldn’t leave you.”

  She shook her head. “Which makes worse. You should of.”

  “No. Besides, you said if I did that Richard threatened to kill you.”

  My mother nodded. “He would have. But none of that mattered. You were all that mattered. You are all that matters now.”

  I dropped my hands to my stomach. “No. I’m not all that matters now.”

  My chest tightened at the look of pain on my mother’s face. I resolve stay strong for her. To push the turmoil inside of me down and be there for both my child and my mother.

  “I failed you,” she said, the wind sent her words barreling toward me, hitting me right in the gut.

  “You didn’t! You were put in a situation no one could ever imagine themselves in. I couldn’t begin to imagine having to make the choices you were faced with. I understand now. I understand why you did everything and I’m the one who’s sorry. For ever doubting you. And besides, you’re right. We are a lot alike.”

  “Maybe, did I ever tell you the story of how you got your name?” My mother asked. She was trying to distract me from the rising water. I needed it because the endless tugging on my restraints was getting me nowhere.

  The water was rising quicker and quicker. It is only about It was only a matter of time before it was over our heads.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “Tell me.” My blood was pumping furiously through me. I felt hyperaware of my surroundings. Of my body. I was tense like I’d never felt before.

  In addition to being completely and utterly terrified.

  My mother managed a strained chuckle. “Richard wanted to name you Mara. The biblical meaning being bitter or bitterness. It was like everything he did to you was a punishment for my sins against him and he wanted your name to be no different.”

  “Sounds about right,” I muttered, rubbing whenever was tied my hands together and against the bark of the tree to try to slice the bindings apart

  My mother looked to the sky like she could see the story she was telling me unfolding above her. “When Critter and I first got together we would lay out in his sunflower fields for hours watching the sun set and just listening to the leaves rustle around us. We’d talk and drink wine and get sunburnt on our noses,” she sighed as she remembered happier times then broke out into a coughing fit.

  “Mom, mom are you okay?” I called out, hating feeling so helpless.

  She nodded. When she regained herself, I blew out a breath of relief.

  She continued. “You already know part of the story. But one day there was this little toe-headed boy. No more than six or seven years old. I watched him drive his big wheel into the field and with his little rusted pocket knife he snipped off a flower, waived to Critter, and drove away.” She laughed softly. “When I asked Critter about it he told me that the boy did that almost every week. When I asked what he was doing with the flowers Critter told me that he found the boy in his field one day and he was upset because he was trouble with his mother for swearing.” She shook her head like she still couldn’t believe it herself.

  “Critter snipped a flower and gave it to the boy. He told the him to go and apologize to his mother and give her the flower. Well, it must have worked because every week after that Critter said the boy was there with his own knife snipping away. One for his teacher because he told her that math was for people who didn’t have calculators. Another for the lady at the bakery for knocking over her cake display in the window that had taken her all weekend to put together.”

  “That’s kind of adorable,” I commented, my heart breaking as my mind replayed the roof collapsing in the library over and over again. Maybe we would have a boy who liked Finn. Maybe he’d never get to meet his father.

  While I was breaking inside, mother spoke as if we were on the porch drinking tea.

  “It was adorable. Turns out it happened so often that they came to deal where Critter roped off a patch of sunflowers just for the boy to take as he pleased.”

  The rising water was now soaking my jeans up to my thighs. I knew had to move faster if I any chance and cutting through my restraints.

  My mother looked over to me. She raised her voice above the wind which had picked up. “You were named Sawyer because of Finn. She sighed happily as if we are about to go pick out bridesmaid’s dresses and weren’t about to meet our ends in a murky swamp.

  My stomach felt rock hard. I wanted to flee from this nightmare. I held back the scream that threatened to tear from my throat. “Mother why aren’t you panicking?” I managed to ask, swallowing down my fear in one hard gulp.

  She smiled over at me. “I’m terrified for you and the life you and your child may never get to live. But me? I came to terms with my own death years ago.”

  My mother kept talking. I kept trying to free myself. “Critter and I even joked how if we ever had a girl that she could marry Finn because he already knew what most men would never learn, how to apologize.”

  Now it was my eyes tearing up as I imagined a little version of Finn causing problems all around Outskirts and fixing them with a flower and a sly dimpled smile. “How did you get Richard ever agree to the name?”

  She looks almost proud when she gave me her answer. “Sawyer means woodcutter in Celtic. All I did was stretch the truth a little. And since I couldn’t flat out recommend the name to him because he’d just swat it down, I told some of the ladies in church, but I told them that Sawyer meant carpenter, like the occupation of Jesus himself. Sure enough, before I was about to