Morningside Fall(19)

Mister Sun shepherded Wren through the swinging door and into a little side room, where Painter was already waiting for him.

“Thanks, Mister Sun,” Wren said.

“Of course, Master Wren, anything and everything for you, always.” He bowed a little, and then stepped out and closed the door to the room, leaving Wren and Painter together.

“Hi, Painter,” Wren said.

“Hey, Wruh- Wruh- Wruh…” Painter said, struggling to get his mouth around the words. He shook his head once, hard, like he was trying to crack his neck. “Hey, Wren. How’re things?”

Wren shrugged and looked at the floor. No reason to lie about it. “Not so great.”

Painter nodded. “Because of that Council mmmm-meeting?”

“Sort of. And other stuff.”

Painter nodded again, and the two stood in silence for a moment.

“Painter, I have to tell you something.”



“OK.”



“But before I tell you, I have to ask you to promise you won’t tell anybody else.”

“Alrrr- alrrrr…” the word caught in his mouth. Painter stopped himself, took a deep breath, and tried again. “Alright.”

“It’s really important that nobody else finds out, OK? Like, really important.”

“I won’t tuh…” Painter fought another word out. Wren waited patiently. “…tell anyone.”

“OK. Well. OK. The night before you and Luck… you know, before you came to visit. Something happened. At the compound.” Wren felt a rush of adrenaline, the memory of the attack freshly renewed, now with new dreadful significance. Painter remained silent, attentive. “Someone got in. A girl. And she tried to… hurt… me.” He couldn’t bring himself to say what she was really there to do.

Painter’s unnatural eyes widened in perfectly natural surprise. “She ah… attacked you?” he asked.

“She tried, but I heard her coming and I got away. But, she didn’t. She hurt herself.” Wren felt tears welling up again at the thought, and put a finger in the corner of his eye to try to stop it. “I guess she didn’t want to get caught, and she hurt herself, Painter. And I wanted to help her, and Mouse – he would have if there was something he could’ve done, but she was too hurt. She died.”

Painter reached over and put a hand on Wren’s shoulder, and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry. That must have b- must have been terrible.”

Now the hard part. “I think she was someone you know,” Wren said.

“Me?”

Wren nodded. “We didn’t know who she was, not until today. We were trying to find out, but everyone was trying so hard to be careful and not give anything away. We didn’t find out until Miss Rae talked to some of people from the West Wall.” The West Wall was where a lot of the folks who used to live outside had made their camp. “They think her name…” Wren struggled to force the words out. “They think it was Snow.”

Wren saw the confusion on Painter’s face, watched as he slowly made the connection and then started shaking his head in disbelief. His hand slipped slowly off of Wren’s shoulder.

“No, it cuh – no, it couldn’t be her,” he said, not denying it so much as saying there was clearly a misunderstanding. “It couldn’t be. Why would you think that?”

“Miss Rae went out and showed her picture around, asking about her, and a woman said she knew her, but hadn’t seen her in a few days. A woman named Charla.”

Painter’s hand went to his mouth, fingers lightly touching his lips. Still shaking his head. “That doesn’t make any suh- sense.”

“Have you seen her since… the first time?” Wren asked.

Painter shook his head. “Nuh… nuh… no. She wouldn’t…” He shook his head again, and looked off to the corner of the room. Remembering, maybe. After a moment, he looked back at Wren. “But I’m sure it’s not her. I’m sure she’s just off, you know… she used to go off on her own, some, some, sometimes for days. Probably just exploring. She luh-luh-luh… she loves exploring.”

“Well, could you come back to the compound with me? Just to be sure?”

“I c-c-can’t, I’m working.”

“I’m sure Mister Sun would say it was OK. It’s your sister.”

“It’s not my sister!” Painter said, sharply enough that Wren flinched. Painter softened. “It’s not my sister, OK? I’m shh… shhh… sure of it.”

There was a tap at the door, and it opened a crack. Mister Sun leaned his head in. “Master Wren, Mister Able says it is time.”