Free Cry For Tomorrow by Dianna Hunter Page B

indignant clucking of chickens as they scattered to avoid the shadowy image of something larger bolting across the room. Before I could say anything, I was slammed back into the yard by the slender body wrapped around me.
    “Oh, Sissy, I was so scared!” sobbed Kelly, “and it was all my fault!”
    “Shshsh, it’s all right now, I’m here and I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I tried to reassure her but the sobs kept coming. At the sound of Jennie’s soft voice two other children emerged from the shadows and threw themselves into her arms.
    “How did you kids manage to get away?” Jennie asked the children gripping her like she was the only life-vest in a flood.
    “Mama R-rosa, she sent us out here to gather eggs,” gasped the little brown-haired boy.
    “W-we heard all the shouting and then there were some loud bangs, like explosions,” piped the little girl with long black ringlets and big brown eyes. “We were really scared and wanted to go to Mama Rosa but Kelly made us hide out here ‘til she went and looked in the window.”
    Kelly raised her head and sniffled loudly. “Th-there were some strange men an-and they had a real g-gun, you know, like the ones in the old vids.” The terror she still felt was in her eyes when she looked up at me. “H-Halie, I-I saw them shoot one of the k-kids and then the big man in the black suit, I think he was an a-agent—he hollered at Jack for him to tell him where you were or he was going to shoot another one of the kids, o-only h-he called us a b-bad name.”
    She wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve and went on. “I was really scared and I was going to go in the back door and tell ‘em not to hurt anybody else ‘cause it was all my fault that I called Mama and she sent the agents b-but, it was like Mama Rosa knew I was out there. She was crying but she looked right at the window where I was and said real loud an-and clear, “ We aren’t telling you anything”. I g-guess she knew they’d already broken so many laws that they couldn’t leave an-any witnesses,” Kelly stutttered. “That w-was when that man sh-shot her and the other men in suits started shooting too,” Kelly gasped out. “I-I couldn’t stand to watch anymore and I ran as fast as I could back to the shed and Merry and Jon an-and we hid really quiet-like so they wouldn’t find us.”
    “Yeah, really quiet, ‘specially when we heard the back door open and feet stomping around in the garden.” Jon whispered as loud as his little voice allowed him. “We were afraid they were going to find us, but then we heard the police sirens and the bad men ran away!” He buried his face in Jennie’s shirt and sobbed.
    “We were too afraid to come out ‘til I heard you call my name. I was afraid the police would take me away and give me to the C-Company,” sobbed Kelly. When she turned her head I saw the look of total devastation and guilt in my little sister’s eyes and my heart broke for her pain. “An-and it was all my fault ‘cause I took my cell phone when I left and I-I called Mama last night and told her that you brought me here. I j-just didn’t want her to worry. I think she thought you were here, too, cause I heard her tell Eric. H-he must of called the Company to come and take you away, Sissy. I’m sooo sorry,” she cried.
    “Where’s the phone now?” I barely managed to get the words past the lump in my throat. If I had only held my temper and not shocked Eric he would not have known about me and this would never have happened.
    Kelly reached into her jeans pocket and brought out the folded cell phone. It was hard to believe that such a small, common accessory had just been the instrument that brought so much destruction and death.
    I took my sister firmly by her shoulders and gently shook her. “This was not your fault. You had no way of knowing that our own mother would turn her back on us like this and allow Eric to send the agents after me. And you remember, it was me they