Chena shrugged. “I’m sorry.”
“Probably because Nan Elle suggested she shouldn’t,” said Regan to Mom. “Try not to worry about it too much. Nan Elle gets people doing a lot of things her way. But Chena knows what’s right.” He smiled at Mom. “If I need to talk to her some more, I’ll come by tomorrow.”
He wished them good night and walked away into the darkness.
Mom looked down at Chena and said nothing.
Chena’s stomach clenched up. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“You’ve said that.” Mom’s voice was tired. “Go to bed, Chena. It’s past your bedtime.”
The knot on the top of Chena’s head throbbed. “Mom—” she tried as she got to her feet.
“Not tonight,” said Mom, waving her away. “Not any more tonight.”
Teal stared at her. Chena felt tears prickle the corners of her eyes. “No, Mom—”
“Go to bed, Chena.”
Chena went. What else was there to do? She shucked off her sweaty clothes and climbed into her nightshirt. She lay on her pallet in the dark and tried to muster some defiance. All she felt was sick and empty. She had tried to make things better. That was all. She had managed to mess it up from the beginning.
The door opened and the door closed. Small light feet padded across the floorboards and stopped.
“Chena? What’s really going on?”
“I don’t know.” Chena squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears in. Teal was silent for a long time. “Of course not,” she said, and Chena was startled by the bitterness in her voice. “Nobody knows what’s going on. You won’t tell me piss. You won’t even give me a job, will you? No, that’s got to go to your friend Sadia.”
Chena groaned. “Oh, piss, Teal—”
“And you don’t give a twisted damn about anything else, do you?” Teal barreled on. “You don’t even know Mom lost her job today!”
“What?” Chena jerked her head up. The sudden movement sent a new shock of pain through her skull.
“Her boss told her not to come back. She didn’t tell me why.” Teal’s voice grew hard. “Actually, she didn’t tell me at all. I heard her talking to Madra.”
“But they can’t. She needs…” Chena swallowed the words. Of course they could. They were getting to her. They were going to take everything away. The house, everything. Maybe they even sent Shond and the other man to knock her down. They could do anything they wanted and no one would stop them.
Chena lay back down, curling into as tight a ball as she could. “It’ll be okay,” she murmured, more to keep herself from crying than to reassure Teal. “We’ll think of something.”
“When?” demanded Teal.
“I don’t know,” whispered Chena, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I don’t know.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Caught
Chena overslept the next morning. When she woke up, it was already full daylight and the sleeping room was empty. She tried to jump to her feet, but the jolt of pain in her skull made her stagger, and all the events of last night rushed back into focus.
Holding her breath, Chena tiptoed to the door and opened it a crack. She could just see Mom sitting alone at the table, her head bowed so that her forehead rested against her hand.
She let the door swing open. “Mom…”
Mom’s head lifted, and she turned around. “How’s your head, Chena?”
“It’s okay.” Chena walked out into the room. Her stomach flip-flopped with each step.
“No dizziness? No blurry vision?”
“No.” Chena sank onto a pillow next to her, tucking her feet under her nightshirt. “It just hurts a little.”
“Good.” She sighed. “There’s something I need to tell you—”
Chena didn’t wait for her to finish. “You lost your job.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Who told you that?”
“Teal,” answered Chena, twisting her hands. “She heard you talking to Madra.”
Mom just sighed. “Well. It seems we’re right back where we started.” She rubbed her forehead again. “And this time I don’t know what to do.”
“You could run errands with me,” said Chena tentatively. “We could make all kinds of money if we could carry more stuff.”
Mom smiled, just a little. “Would you believe I thought about that? Last night, before… before you were attacked.” She turned herself all the way around and faced Chena. “This is it, Supernova. I’m going to ask you one more time. Tell me the truth and maybe we can work all this out. Hold anything back on me, and you will not leave this village again, under any circumstances.”