Batteryville

Inside Out

I said, "Holy crap, are you okay?"

Kara smirked and looked more annoyed than injured. "Yes, I'm fine."

"That's a lot of blood."

"No, it's not."

Gita came into the kitchen with a handful of towels and pressed one to the side of Kara's head saying, "Yes it is."

"It's not that bad," Kara said, "it just looks bad."

"What happened?"

"We got jumped."

"Where?"

"Just outside the gate, we were on patrol."

Gita had most of the blood wiped off and she said, "You need stitches."

"It's fine," Kara said. "It not as bad as it seems."

"It's a lot of blood."

Kara said, "It's not, it's really just a scrape, a bandage will do."

Gita was unhappy about it but she had the wound cleaned and poured a little antiseptic over it. Kara winced but didn't move her head at all and Gita patted the skin around the cut dry and put some gauze over it. Kara had short hair, not short and thick like Maddie's but short like a crew cut and it was easy for Gita to put the white tape all around the gauze.

I said, "Who jumped you?"

"Nobody," Kara said. "A couple of guys, it was nothing."

Gita said, "You have to be careful," and Kara said, "Oh is that it, careful, I didn't know that, okay, that'll help for next time... ow!"

Gita smacked her head, gently, but close enough to the wound to hurt and then said, "I'm just trying to help."

"And I appreciate it, thank you."

Gita had one hand on Kara's shoulder and Kara put her hand on top of it and squeezed. It was good to see them getting along so well because it hadn't always been that way.

Then Gita said, "All right, I'm going to bed, don't you two stay up too late."

We promised we wouldn't and then Kara got up and went to the pantry by the back door and came back with a bottle of beer. She pulled out the cork and took a drink and said, "Where were you?"

I told her about the meeting at the library, how I was playing a game with the kids to keep them busy. I wanted to ask her what I should do about Erin but I wasn't sure what to say.

Kara said, "Did you hear much from the meeting?"

"No, just arguing. There was some shouting."

She took a long drink of the beer and said, "I don't know why they bother, we all know what's coming, what we have to do."

"We don't all," I said.

Kara shook her head. "They're still trying to keep it from the kids. I don't know why they bother doing that, either."

"What's happening?"

"Is there any bread left?" She got up and went to the counter and got out the bread.

"What are they keeping from the kids?"

"Maybe they're right," Kara said, "maybe the best thing is for kids to have as much childhood as possible, it's going to get real enough soon."

"It's real now."

"Sure."

"What are you talking about?"