Evi frowned. “Nonsense,” she replied.
That wasn’t good. Her parents had evidently informed her that whatever she was feeling—or had told them—was nonsense. Dismissing what she’d said was not a good way to keep lines of communication open. Evi had shut down and didn’t trust her parents to talk about her concerns. Now she was carefully feeling Silke out to see if Silke felt the same way as her parents did.
Evi was a very sensitive child, more so than most in the village.Silke wasn’t about to dismiss her concerns. If Raik made her uneasy, there had to be a reason.
“Feelings are never nonsense,” she pointed out carefully. “Your parents have been friends with Raik and Imka since they were children. Your father works with Raik. They might not have been able to hear you because of that friendship. It’s possible something is wrong. Even a medical condition that might cause Raik to change his behavior. Tell me why you don’t like him now.”
Evi’s expression brightened. “I didn’t consider that he might be sick. Sometimes people act mean when they aren’t feeling good.”
Another piece of the puzzle. “Mean?” Silke prompted, making certain to keep her gaze fixed on the plants she was surrounding with rich soil.
Evi nodded her head vigorously. “The last two times I went to visit, he was mean to Imka. He made her cry with the way he was talking in a nasty voice. It wasn’t like a fight.” Her frown deepened. “It wasn’t an argument. Imka didn’t say or do anything bad to him, he just yelled at her about dinner and then told her she was lazy. Imka works very hard. I’ve seen her. When she cried, he told her to stop blubbering. He said she was trying to manipulate him. I had to look up ‘manipulate.’ And then he made Julia cry.”
Silke stayed silent, turning the information over and over in her mind, waiting for pieces to start clicking together. Raik wasn’t a man who yelled at his wife and daughter. At least Silke had never seen evidence of it.
“He yelled at Julia?”
Raik had always been a wonderful father. Silke couldn’t remember him raising his voice at Julia, even if he had to reprimand her for something.
Evi nodded solemnly. She looked close to tears. She was a child with a great deal of empathy for others. “He yelled in a loud, mean voice and said lots of bad words. He told Julia she didn’t follow therules and she was to be punished. But we did follow the rules. We never break rules at Julia’s house. I sometimes break them at my house because I don’t always remember the time. Julia always remembers it.”
Evi hung her head. “I was afraid to tell her father that. He looked so cruel. His face was red, and he kept doing this…” She waited until Silke was looking at her and then she bared her teeth and clenched and unclenched her jaw. She put her hands up and made fists and opened her hands over and over. “He kept making fists with his hands like he wanted to hit Imka and Julia. Julia tried to tell him we’d come home on time and helped Imka with dinner, but when she started to say something, he took a step toward her, cursing, and he swung his hand at her face. Imka stepped between them, and he hit her so hard, she fell down.”
Silke’s breath caught in her throat. She sat back and looked at the child. No way was Evi making up the story. “Did you tell your mother and father this?”
Evi shook her head. “I tried to, but when I said he was acting mean, my father jumped up and kept saying ‘nonsense.’ My mother told me grown-ups have arguments sometimes, and because I’m a child, I didn’t understand what was going on.”
Silke recognized the hurt in her voice. She’d been disturbed and afraid by what she’d witnessed. She was seeking reassurance from her parents, but they reacted without hearing her out.
“My father said I wasn’t to repeat such nonsense to anyone. Raik was a good man and gossiping about him wasforbidden.” She looked as if she might burst into tears and once again lowered her voice to a whisper. “Am I gossiping by telling you? I’m not making it up.”
“No, honey, you aren’t gossiping. That would mean you are repeating something to get attention. You aren’t doing that. You’re honestly seeking answers. You need advice, someone to help you decide what to do. There’s a big difference.” She sat back on her heels, regarding the little girl. “I know you don’t lie, Evi. I’ve always relied on your observation skills.”
Evi’s lower lip quivered, breaking Silke’s heart. “What should I do?”
“Be honest with your mother. Tell her you aren’t ready to go to Julia’s. Ask if Julia can come to your house. If she says no, don’t be upset. Tell her you’ll make your special cookies with Julia the next time she comes over, and she can take them home to her parents. In the meantime, I’ll drop by and visit Imka. If she talks to me about what’s going on, that would help, but I won’t break your confidence. No matter what happens, I’ll find a way to talk with Raik. If I’m close to him, I might be able to tell if he’s ill.”
“When I’m sick, Jelte told me I get cranky.”
The incident Evi had repeated sounded more than Raik being cranky. Silke was wondering if he could have a tumor or a blood clot in the brain. She knew something of that nature could change behavior. Certainly, what Evi had described was a complete behavior change. She hoped Raik’s condition was medical. There had been so many unexplained incidents happening in the village, she hoped this wasn’t an escalation.
“I’ve never seen you cranky,” Silke said.
Evi giggled. “That’s because I’m sick and have to stay in the house. Only Jelte and my parents see me cranky.”
Silke laughed with her. “That makes sense.” She gestured toward the next basket. “Do you know what that is?”
Evi wrinkled her nose. “Those are dragon lilies. I love the way they look, but the flower stinks so bad. You aren’t planting the seeds or bulbs, not sure what those little pods are called. These are partially grown. I can tell they’re dragon lilies because of the cool speckled stems.”
“These plants are poisonous. Never forget that. Also, once they take root, they grow huge and wild, reproducing like crazy.”
Evi shook her head. “It’s really beautiful, but the smell is like…”
“Rotting meat. A corpse,” Silke supplied. “Can you guess why?”
Evi frowned. “They have a reason?”
“They need flies to pollinate them. The stench attracts the flies and the flies become trapped inside until the plant has been pollinated. It produces its own heat, maybe to help the plant stay strong or maybe to keep the flies comfortable until the plant releases them.”
