He heard the voices from the kitchen as they continued to argue, but Mickey stayed where he was.Then his attention remained fixed on a certain point at the edge of the swamp.
Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the shadows.
He stepped closer to the windows, his attention on the figure.He saw a small woman, dressed like she was about ready to go hunting.She wore a crossbow on her back, had a rifle in her hands and a knife at her waist.That wasn’t what caught his eye though.
She stood there staring back.With pale white skin and her hair looked pure white pulled into a long ponytail that fell all the way down her back.She stood as tall as she could and the look on her face was one of pure terror.
Mickey stepped back and moved to the front door.He moved slowly so as not to draw the attention of the people in the house.Opening the door, he went out quietly.Then made his way along the wide veranda and he caught her gaze again as he stepped slowly toward her.She watched him and he could almost feel the tension in her.Mickey feared she would turn around and run before he could get to her.
When he finally reached her he stood away from her and told her, “I won’t hurt you, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”
The woman nodded.“I’m not afraid.I’ve been watching you, remember?”
Mickey nodded.“So why did you finally reveal yourself today?”he asked softly.
“Because I think you need my help and I can’t stay away any longer.”She motioned at the house with the long end of her rifle.“Ms.Maudie has always helped the people who live here, I was told she even helped to birth my mother.She didn’t have to do that but she did.Then she stayed silent about her deeds for a long time.”
Mickey nodded.“Yeah, she told us about that.”
“No, you don’t understand.”She shook her head.Then she looked at him and asked, “It wasn’t Ms.Maudie that told you what happened that night, was it?It was someone else.”
Mickey nodded.“It was my cousin Renee who told us.Before her grandfather died, he confessed what his part in everything had been.He told her that her grandmother’s cousin, Sharon, came to live in the swamp because as he put it, their family thought she was a freak because she was like you, an albino.”
She nodded.“But she wasn’t a freak.She was a woman with a medical condition that made her stand out in a crowd and her family turned their backs on her and made her come here to hide her condition.But the baby she carried was a normal baby.She had color like everyone else.So her father took her away and raised her in the city.She got married and lived a good life with her husband.Then she had me and my world became Sharon’s world too.My mother turned her back on me the day I was born.My father did too.In fact, it was him that drove me out here and dumped me on Sharon like I was her fault.Sharon took me in and taught me how to survive in this world.She lived a good long life and when she died, I was all alone again.”
“What’s your name?”Mickey finally asked.
She shook her head.“My name is something Sharon gave me.My parents never did anything for me.They took one look at my skin and turned their backs on me like I had been a mistake.After that, they couldn’t even look at me.But Sharon saw me as a person, she would sing to me when I couldn’t sleep, she would rock me to sleep when I was a baby.She always made sure I had food in my belly and she even taught me to hunt for meat.”Then she straightened her shoulders and said, “She called me Selene, afterthe Greek goddess of the moon.She was said to have pale, milky-white skin that glowed in the night.”
He paused, then said, “That is beautiful.”
“She got books from a nun that used to take care of the old church.Lots of books, like maybe a couple of hundred of them.Encyclopedias too.So that was how she spent her time when she was all alone...reading..Then I have them now.”
“But Sharon raised you to hide from the rest of the world?”Mickey felt troubled by this thought.
Selene shook her head.“Not to hide exactly but I did go to New Orleans and I hated it.People are not nice.”
He slowly shook his head.“I know.Me and my brothers left to see the world away from the swamps.”
“But you came back,” she said.
“We did.For the same reason.People were crappy for the most part.”
“Sharon and I are not any different from the rest of you.We had everything we ever needed and we used everything we had.We were alone in the world but we were never lonely, you know?We had each other for most of my life and she taught me how to survive here in this swamp.She also taught me to watch everyone.What they did and why they did it.Who I could trust and who to stay clear of.She taught me to sit back and see who was good and who wasn’t.That I needed to be careful who I trusted.”
“Did she ever tell you about Grace and Jed?”Mickey wanted to know.
Selene nodded.“Yeah, she told me about her cousin, her whole family and about what they did to her.They called it protection but it was really them turning their backs on her.”
“You know Maudie and them went out to her place the other day, right?”Mickey asked.
Selene nodded.“Yeah, I saw them looking around.I saw Maudie’s face when she looked at the grave.”She cocked her head and asked, “So why didn’t they go into the cabin if they were so curious?”
Mickey shook his head.“Thsy didn’t want to intrude on whoever was still living there.That wasn’t why they were there.Maudie just wanted to check on Sharon.”
Selene turned her head away and swiped at a tear that rolled down her cheek.
Mickey stared at her and wondered at her tears.
