Chapter the Eleventh

"What is it?" Maryanne asked in horror and disgust. She turned the object over in her hand, cleaning the blood off of it with the hem off her dress. Silus had torn off a strip of his shirt and was holding it wadded against the wound.

"I don't know." He replied, perplexed.

It was a flat metal disk, comparable to Maryanne's fingernails in thickness. Although located just below the skin, the disk was large enough to leave a good-sized sore. On one side, it was flat and smooth, while the other side was covered in raised lines, arranged in odd looking geometric patterns. Maryanne came to a sudden and devout conclusion. Whatever this device was, it certainly wasn't normal. For that matter, it was completely unnatural, and she could find no reason to keep it. She helped Silus tie his makeshift bandage on, and then handed him the disk and the knife. Tearing a strip of fabric from her hem, she turned her left ear towards him and motioned at the knife.

"Are you sure?" Silus asked, concerned.

"I'm sure." Her tone brooked no argument.

O O O

"Kitty kitty." Annie crooned to herself, pulling an old shoelace across the kitchen floor. Muriel was leaning on the counter watching, her chin propped on one fist. Annie giggled as the little cat pounced on the end of the lace and rolled onto his back and kicked at it viciously with his back feet.

The girl hadn't been so engaged in years. Muriel had tried everything she could think of, but no activity or toy had induced such a reaction. Annie seemed actually to be having fun. She'd come out of her reclusive shell, and was playing actively with the kitten, and on a regular basis, too. This the most progress Muriel had ever made with Annie, and she wasn't about to pass up any chance to further that progress. She decided to revisit an earlier line of questions.

"Annie? What are you going to name your kitty?" Annie glanced up at her mother, and then returned to playing. Muriel tried again. "Is his name just Kitty?" No response. "Is his name Silus?"

"Silus!" Annie threw her arms up in the air and shrieked. Completely taken aback, and the cat flew under the table, startled by the noise. "Oh. Sorry, Silus. Come back and play with me."

Annie lured him out from under the table with the string and the two continued with their game. Muriel just wondered where Annie might have heard that name. It was not a usual name for a pet, and certainly not the kind of name that the average eleven-year-old chooses.

O O O

Maryanne pressed the makeshift bandage to the side of her head and winced. As unpleasant as that experience had been, she was still glad that Silus had removed the strange device. It scared her to think that it could have been there for years without her even realizing it. She'd have to tell her mother about it. Something like this was surely worth the woman's precious time. It was odd, really, that her mother hadn't ever noticed it. Even though the disk was under the skin, she had quite easily detected the discoloured spot behind Silus's ear, and he had found hers easily enough as well. She was broken from her thoughts by a quiet question.

"What do you suppose they are Maryanne?"

"I don't really know. But I don't like them. They're not natural, and they make me nervous." She replied with a slight shiver.

''I think we should get rid of them, in case they`re dangerous or something. We can smash them with a rock and then dig a hole and bury them. ''

''Yeah, that`s a good idea." She handed Silus a fist-sized rock, and he proceeded to smash the tiny disks to pieces.

"We should tell our mothers, you know. They might know what those things are, and where they came from." Maryanne remarked.

Silus stopped hammering and looked up with a frown. "I've been thinking, and I bet that our mothers do know what's going on. "

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you told me about that dream you had, the one with the uh, the cat?"

"Yes, go on."

He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts before continuing. "You said that the woman in the dream told you that she was your mother, er, mum. So, what about your mother here?"

"I guess she isn't my mother at all."

"I don't think my mother is really my mother either. The village, all the women, I think it's a trick. I don't remember where I was before I came here, but I'm ten years old. I should remember at least something from before, shouldn't I? It just doesn't make sense. Why can't we see yellow and green? How come I feel like this isn't my home?" He was beginning to sound distraught. Maryanne had always felt reassured by his calm demeanour, and now she was afraid for him.

"You're right, you know," She said gravely, "There is something wrong. Something they're not telling us. It's important, and I think we need to find out exactly what it is. What if I looked in Mother's study? Do you think I might find anything there? I'm not allowed in there, but I'm pretty sure that I could sneak in for a few minutes while she's busy somewhere else."

"You could try that. If you're not supposed to go in there, maybe she's hiding something important from you. Just be careful, cause you never know what might happen if you get caught." Concern was evident in his voice.

"Well, Mother is having a meeting in the village with the doctor tomorrow, so she'll be gone for at least an hour. I can look in the study and be out again long before she gets back. That's the only way I think to get any answers, besides asking one of the women in the village, and I'd rather not do that." Maryanne was beginning to wonder if there wasn't some strange and sinister game afoot.

"I think that if they were willing to tell us anything, they probably would have done it already. We'd be better off trying to figure it out for ourselves. We should keep this a secret. If they know what we're doing, they might try to stop us." He said seriously. He obviously suspected something unpleasant, and Maryanne wasn't about to ignore any of his theories. Silus was smart, and she knew better than to disregard anything he said.

"Right. I'll make sure that no one sees me in the study, and I'll try to find something that can help us." There was a puzzle to be solved, and suddenly Maryanne felt ambitious. She would find the answers, and then she and Silus could go back to their carefree games in the woods.