Chapter One

Rae returns home from college on break to attend a meeting concerning the bounty on kats to encourage more hunting and the Harvest Festival.

The town meeting was underway when I slid in through the back doors.  My friend Izzie dragged her feet behind me.  I planned my visit home from college to coincide with this worried and anxious get together. Kats were the topic of discussion, as always in these frontier towns.

            “Those wild vermin are becoming a real problem,” A rancher declared loudly.  Billy.  He lived the farthest out of town.  His wide brimmed hat was set far back on his head, revealing his concerned steel gray eyes to the audience.

            Wild.  The adjective wasn't really necessary.  All kats are wild.  Once, they were like shadows that no one ever saw in the expansive forest very near our town.  Like an invisible ghost to the superstitious, we knew they existed, but never caught sight of one.  In recent years, attacks on livestock started occurring.  Ranchers were upset, angry and they blamed the kat.

            “I call to put a bounty on their heads,” Billy continued.  “We need to take care of them, before they take care of us.  It's gotten so bad that I won't let my kids out of sight, and if I keep the animals any closer to the homestead, they'll be eating off our table.”

            There were several nods and murmurs of approval as Izzie and I shuffled further into the meeting room.  We took the chairs at the back.    

            “How much of a bounty?” Dad asked Billy.  Of course Dad would be here.  He saw me and nodded in my direction with a small smile.  I had not seen him since my birthday two months ago.  He sat next to the mayor as an assistant to mediate the meeting.  Sometimes I wondered why he was not, or ever had been, mayor of Abbey.  He was the role without the title.  Had been for years.

            Izzie leaned over and whispered, “The Spot would be so more interesting.  We haven't seen each other in months and the first place you drag me is here.  I better get an A on this test.”

            She glared at me and flicked her light brown hair over her thin shoulder.  I had always been envious of her thin, straight hair and model perfect body.  I returned her glare.  In exchange for accompanying me, I was to help her study for a chemistry exam.

            Rather than say anything, I simply hushed her and leaned forward.  They wanted to put a bounty on the kats?  My brow furrowed as I imagined people slinking through the forest with rifles and shooting at anything that moved.  People would come from all over, dispersing into the forest, to get in on it.

            “500 dollars?”  Billy replied, shrugging his shoulders.  “I hadn't put much thought into it.  I just figured it was a good, simple solution.  We need help to get rid of these kats before we all lose our source of income.  I know I speak for all of us here when I say that without our livestock, we're broke.”

            My heart quickened.  I clenched my fists tightly on my knees.  Everything within me wanted to jump up and shout out that it was a mistake. Surely, they must be wrong about the kats killing livestock.  And we certainly couldn't shoot them.  There was something horribly wrong in doing so.  Kats weren't what everyone thought they were.  What I saw when I was twelve years old clearly proved to me that there was something more to them, something no one else understood.  It was something I still wasn't sure that I understood.  Didn't anyone know anything about them?

            Aside from my own feelings on it, a decision to kill them couldn't be made without understanding the importance they may have to the balance of Sumer's ecosystems.  Such a widespread species, found on all continents, in all terrains, must have value to the planet.

            The thought of shooting them made me cringe.  I still had nightmares about what the veterinarian did to those kats in the warehouse.  To this day, I couldn't face him without recalling the rifle to his shoulder, his finger on the trigger.  Blue eyes focused on the target.

            I knew one thing.  Kats had feelings.  That made them much, much more than a wild animal like a Sumerian lion, or a Terran grizzly, long extinct now.

            “That's okay. 500 dollars is a start,” Dad replied, kicking back in his chair.

            “We'll have to set up a perimeter around the town so folks don't get too trigger happy near city limits,” Zane Matson, Abbey's mayor, said.  He leaned forward in his rickety chair and ran a hand through his shaggy, blond hair.  He was a fit man.  Tall and wiry, he was an obvious runner by appearance and spent his free time training for marathons.

            “Would there be a market for kat pelts?”  My gaze shot to the owner of the voice.  Barbara.  Front row.  She and her family lived near Billy.  They owned a flock of sheep.  “If people could not only get a reward, but also sell the pelts, there might be more success in managing kat numbers.”  Her curly hair stuck out from her hardened face.

            “That's barbaric!” I cried out, lurching forward in my seat.  My voice echoed in the meeting room.  Over a dozen pairs of eyes swiveled onto me and I clamped a hand over my mouth.  I was usually invisible.

            “There's not much barbaric about it,” Dad explained calmly.  “It's an old practice, that's all.”

            “It's cruel,” I stuttered.  “It's wrong.  Killing animals for their pelts, or other single parts, ended a long time ago.”

            Izzie put a hand on my forearm.  “Take it easy, girl.  You'll draw blood.”

            I did not realize that my hands had become so clenched into fists that they were white.  I could feel a slight stinging in my palm where my pink painted nails bit through the skin.  My heart fluttered wildly in my chest, like a bird's frantic wings.  I should have known that the meeting would not have good things to say about kats.  I should have stuck to my dorm room and studied for Monday's calculus exam.  But, when Dad told me about the meeting concerning the kats, I had to come home to be present for it.  I had to hear what would be said.  Even if I didn't like it.

            Shooting the kats was poor management.  What if it was discovered years down the road that like the Terran wolf, kats had a place and role in the ecosystem?  An important one.  What if we nearly wiped them out and Sumer fell apart?  Who were we, only generations old on the surface of a billion year old rock �" the equivalent of a blink in time �" to make such alterations to the environment?  We were the ones destroying their native homelands, their forest and territory.  We logged extensively. We introduced Terran livestock to Sumer's distinctly different ecosystem. We shoved the Sumerian wildlife aside.

            “But.” My eyes swept the room.  Everyone watched me expectantly.  Some were annoyed.  Most were indifferent.  I was John Grays awkward, introverted daughter.  The one who liked kats like some girls liked Terran horses.  I heard rumors that most of the town figured I had gone crazy after Mom died, leaving me to darker tendencies.  Not many had been sad to watch me go off to the university, versus staying with Izzie and a lot of other teens from my graduating class, at the junior college.

            “Rae,” Dad said.  “You've been gone a while.  You don't know.  The kats' attacks have increased.  One a night now, sometimes two.  Our town is on the verge of not being safe anymore.  We have to make important decisions to protect each other.  If hunting and killing a few of these kats lessons those attacks, then...” he trailed off, his point made.  Then, it would be good to kill them.

            I disagreed.  Wholly and completely.

            “It's murder,” I said.

            “It's hunting,” Dad corrected.  “A popular past-time for hundreds of years.”

            I shook my head and squinted my eyes at Dad.  “Sport hunting.  That hasn't been done for a long time.  Hunting is to eat, for nourishment.  Is there a market for kat flesh?”

            “You sound like a hippie,” the mayor said.

            “If I had to decide between my family and my livestock, or a damn kat, I'd shoot the kat,” Billy said.  “No hesitation.  I might eat him, but probably I'd hang his carcass on my fence to warn other kats away.”

            I was repulsed, and was sure my expression belied just that revulsion.

            Izzie glanced at me.

            I gritted my teeth.  “Maybe we shouldn't be here.  The only reason they are attacking �" scratch that, the only reason they might attack...I mean there's no proof its kats anyway...is because we are cutting down their forests and encroaching upon their territory.”

            “John,” TJ, the sheriff stated sharply, his eagle piercing eyes glaring at me over his sharp nose.  He was there that night in the warehouse.  Younger then.  I remembered those who were there darkly, with almost hatred.  Including myself sometimes.

            Sheriff TJ continued, “Why don't you send that damn fool girl of yours back to the city with all the other hippies like her.  Don't know why she comes home anyhow.”  He mumbled the last part, flicking the table with his forefinger.  He was one who had not been sorry to see me leave.  He was always looking for some excuse to take me to Dad when I was in high school.  Whenever I turned around he was watching me.  He wanted to catch me drinking underage, speeding in my pickup, or even littering.

            “Careful, Sheriff,” Dad warned.  “Rae is my daughter.”

            “Well, keep her quiet, then.  Children should be seen and not heard.”

            “I'm not a child, anymore,” I said defensively.  “I have a right to be here and voice my opinion.”

            “Not really, girly.  You haven't lived here in years.  So technically, you're not a member of the town -”

            “Sheriff,” Dad said sharply.  “Really?”

            Mayor Zane cleared his throat while Dad, Sheriff TJ, and I glowered at each other.

            “Sheriff, you're being out of line.  Rae grew up here.  She will always be a part of this community.”

            “She wants to let these kats run wild and free,” Billy said in the sheriff's defense.  “Don't we have a right?  These kats are killing our livelihood.”

            “Yes,” Mayor Zane agreed.  “So let's do this civil.  Rather than hash it out in a never-ending debate, let's take a vote.”

            There were mumbles of agreement and eager faces.  They wanted to do something.  To take action.

            “All in favor of the bounty?”

            “Yes,” an almost unanimous chorus of voices rose in the room, followed by everyone's hand greeting the air.  Even Dad's.

            “Opposed?”  Mayor Zane looked at me.

            “I oppose it,” I said defiantly.  I jerked on Izzie's hand, but she remained still.

            “I am not voting,” she hissed in my ear.  “I just want a freaking A so I can get my apprenticeship.”

            “All right, then,” Mayor Zane concluded.  “I'll run this through the ranks, but I don't see why our request won't be approved.  We should have a legal bounty set within a few weeks.”

            I jumped to my feet, glowering at Dad.  His expression was impassive, the same one he used on me all through my childhood when I disagreed with him.  The look he gave me often since Mom died.  Like he didn't know what to do with me.

            Shaking my head, I dragged Izzie outside with me as I had dragged her in, wishing childishly that I could slam the door behind me.

~*~

            I awoke with a start, my heart fluttering in my chest at an impossible speed.  The world was shaking and trembling all around me.  Had an earthquake awoken me?  I listened carefully, aware that my heart was thudding so fast I feared a heart attack. No, everything was still around me.  It was I who was shaking.

Frantically, I thrashed free of the blankets that had tangled around my legs and waist.  What had startled me awake?  What dream had woken me so violently?  The vistages of whatever I’d seen in my sleep plagued me, it resounded hollow and desolate in my chest.

            I felt sobs close to bursting from those empty depths and my eyes burned.  What had I dreamed that left me feeling so lost and helpless?  I blinked and the tears ran hot down my cold cheeks.   Slowly, I rolled up and braced myself on the edge of my bed where I hung on like the world was spinning out of control.  I still shook with the force of my heartbeat and the roar of blood echoed in my ears.  My hair was lumped in tangles around my face and tickled my cheeks, but I didn't bother to tuck the strands away.

            “Rae,” Dad knocked sharply on my door.  I jumped.  “Get up.  It's festival day.  I told Zane we'd help set up.”

            “Seriously,” I croaked.  “You volunteered me?”

            “Yes, so get up.”  I started to protest, but heard his footsteps retreat down the hall.

            Swiping the back of my hand across my cheeks, I threw the blankets from my lap and stood.  As I fumbled through my mostly empty drawers looking for clothes suitable to work in, I tried to mentally shake the last vestiges of painful sorrow and irrational fear.  Rather than dig into my subconscious, I distracted myself by pondering what Izzie might have in store for me tonight.  If it was like any other Harvest Festival evening in the past, it was bound to be interesting, in the least.  I just hoped that I kept all my clothes on this time.  Was there a full moon tonight?  I worried on that.

            Izzie and I were as opposite as the faces on either side of the Jefferson coin.  One side was rolling landscapes and rising sun, the other side was a flying eagle, wild and free.  I was the landscape.  Izzie was flying.  I was grounded in reality.  She was a free-spirit in her own perfect world. And had dragged me all sorts of crazy places since high school.

            The phone rang downstairs as I was pulling my t-shirt over my head.  It was silenced on the second ring.  “Rae,” Dad called up the stairwell.  “It's Izzie.  Get up!”

            Sighing, I grabbed my sweatshirt that was draped across the back of my desk chair and pulled it on over my fresh shirt.  Still in my sleep pants, I opened my door tentatively.  Maybe I could call her back later.  Whatever she had in store for me, I knew I was not going to enjoy it.  She was the social butterfly since the start of high school, and had made it her mission to drag me to every party she could.  I wasn't sure what she enjoyed more �" torturing me, or making the other teenagers uncomfortable with my own awkward presence.

            I wound my long, dark red hair up into a bun and wrapped a rubber band that was on my wrist around the knot a few times.  I stepped onto the landing and closed the door behind me.  I took the steps slowly, weighing my options of avoiding Izzie for the Festival and saving myself any embarrassment tonight.  My options were limited to none.  Even if I hid in my bedroom for the rest of the day, Izzie would find me and somehow blackmail me with horrifying secrets I'd long forgotten about.  No, I was doomed to whatever plans she had in store for me.  In any case, I still had to help her study.

            But, I doubted her reason for calling had anything to do with studying.

            When we had both, terrified, entered into the much-anticipated high school ranks, we completed a rapid role reversal.  In grade school, I had been the friendly, popular little girl, while Izzie was the awkward one with the glasses and braces.  As it often happens, other kids picked on her for looking so different because her parents couldn't afford to fix her eyes and teeth.  Seven years old, and I took her under my wing.  We'd been inseparable ever since.

            The summer before high school, her parents finally were able to afford to pay for the surgeries Izzie needed to lose the glasses and the braces.  What followed was a complete surprise, for Izzie stepped out of her shell, flipped her light brown hair, and was suddenly popular.  Meanwhile, I became the shy, reclusive one �" the dark, moody girl who was fascinated by kats.  The hippie.  The outcast.

            Anyway, since I'd been her protector in grade school, she apparently saw it as her mission to do me a favor in return by getting me out into the social scene.  She hated that I spent most of my time skulking around campus with my sweatshirt hood up and buds lodged tightly in my ears.  Needless to say, she spent a lot of energy trying to make me over.  It never worked of course.  As much as I envied her appearance, I would never wear the clothes she wore.  I could not even imagine myself in short shorts and flamboyant tanktops, skin tight leggings or knee high boots.  Forget the low-cut, here's some cleavage t-shirts, or the don't bend over skirts.  Give me plain old tank tops and jeans, boots, and a side of sweatshirts when the weather calls for it.  I love my chunky necklaces and odd, nothing else like them, earrings.  Izzie loved the dazzle.  Anything that sparkled she adorned herself with.

            “Rae,” Dad hollered.

            I jumped. “I'm coming,” I shouted as I thudded down the stairs without  missing a beat.  I snatched the phone from Dad with a glare.  He grumped at my disheveled appearance and muttered, “Girls.”  He promptly left the room, prepared for Izzie and I to commence “girl talk.” He'd overheard one conversation too many and had made it habit to make himself scarce whenever Izzie was on the phone.

            “Hey,” I said into the receiver, plopping onto a bar stool.

            “Oh my goodness.”  Izzie's chipper voice rang in my head.  I pulled the phone away slightly.  “It's Festival time!” She sang. “Are you ready?  We're going to party under a full moon tonight so cancel any plans that you might have, because you're going.  And don't try to fool me, I know you don't have plans.”

            I tried to cut in, but Izzie knew me all too well.

            “Don't you dare say you're not going, because I will hog tie you and have Brandon throw you in the back of his truck.  You will be dragged there against your will one way or another so you might as well do it the easy way.  Don't forget, I still remember what happened when we went camping.”

            Oh, yes.  She had a knack for remembering the most embarrassing instances that I had forced from memory.  That particular camping trip had involved me, too much whiskey, no outhouse, and peeing on the side of a public road while cars honked past.  Would I ever live that one down?  With Izzie as my friend, I highly doubted it.

            I sighed and mumbled, “Whatever.”  As for Brandon, who was Izzie's older brother, he often helped her in her endeavors.  I still hadn't figured out if he did it out of love for his sister because she asked, or if she blackmailed him too, or if he enjoyed torturing his little sister's friends.  Whichever it was, if I got passed the rumor Izzie would let fly, I wouldn't get passed him once she had given her command.

            Recently, Brandon was on my list of people I didn't want to talk to because he'd been all too excited to get his hunting license and a gun.  Or so I'd heard.

            “Dad volunteered me to help set up for the festival.”

            “That's okay.  The party isn't until tonight, anyway.  Long after the festival.” A child screamed in the background.  “Mary Anne drop that!” There was a clatter.  The sound of pots falling to the floor.  “Sorry, she's been getting into everything.”

            “Should I let you get back to baby-sitting?”

            “Oh, no,” she replied.  Even if I wasn't there, I knew she was twirling her long, flawless hair around her pointer finger.  She always did that when she was talking on the phone.  “It's fine.”

            “Okay,” I replied, propping my elbows on the counter.  “When do you want me to help you study?”  I reached for the coffeepot on the bar.  “Damn, Dad drank it all.”

            “What?”

            “Nothing.  Dad just drank all the coffee and didn't make more.”

            “Shame,” Izzie said, a smile in her tone.  “Well, Mary Ann's mom will be home in ten minutes.  Do you want to meet at the Spot for coffee? You can help me study there.”

            “Hang on,” I said, setting the phone down.

            In the next room, Dad was reading his newspaper, his feet propped on the ottoman.  His reading glasses were low on his nose.  I was caught off guard for a brief moment at how much older he looked.  It seemed like he'd aged ten years since I went away to school.

            “Hey, Dad.  I'm going to help Izzie study for a while at the Spot.  Do you want to get me from there when you and Mayor Zane are ready?”

            He put his paper down, and looked at me over his glasses incredulously.  “You're going to help Izzie study?”

            In the past, “study” had been Izzie's code word for something much more troublesome, and much less studious.  No wonder Sheriff TJ had watched me like a hawk.  “Yeah.  I told her if she came with me to the meeting yesterday I would help her study for her Chemistry exam.  Believe it or not, I'm actually helping her study this time.”

            He chuckled.  “Yeah.  That's fine.  You'll be at the Spot?”

            I nodded.  “Thanks, Dad.”

            Back at the phone, I said, “He'll meet me there, Izzie.  See you in fifteen?”

            “Okay,” She said loudly.  “Bye!”

            “Later.” I hung up the phone.

            “Okay, Dad,” I called out.  “I'll be at the Spot.”

            “Right,” I heard him mumble to himself as I dashed back up the stairs.  “They go to college and on visits home can't hardly stay to visit...”  The rest of what he was saying was lost on me as I moved out of earshot.  Serves him right for volunteering me when he didn't know what my weekend plans were.  Though I did feel the slightest bit of guilt when I thought that he probably volunteered me so I would actually spend time with him.

            I pushed that thought aside as I exchanged my pajama bottoms for my favorite pair of baggy cargo jeans.  In the mirror, I applied a hint of eye liner and lipstick before topping the look off with my high school baseball cap.  Izzie just loved it when I hid behind the bill of my hat.  I yanked it down low, giving me just enough vision to see what was at my feet immediately in front of me.

            I was stumbling down the stairs only minute's later, eager to get my morning cup of coffee.  “Bye, Dad,” I said hastily, not even looking at him as pushed my feet into my boots, threw open the door, dodged the hanging basket, and grabbed my bicycle.  Remarkably, it was still in the same place on the porch that it had been for years.