Free Emergence by Various Page A

the spring breeze in.
    “I heard it has black eyes,” a woman’s voice said.
    “Black? That doesn’t mean—” This voice was Vlad’s father.
    “No, completely black eyes. No whites. It never cries,” the first woman said. “What newborn doesn’t cry?”
    A new voice entered the conversation. A man. “My daughter offered to watch the thing in exchange for eggs. That was before anyone knew what it was. She was afraid to pick it up and stayed across the room most of the time. It reached out for its bottle, but it was too far away. Then—I swear! My daughter wouldn’t lie—it opened its hand and the bottle slid off the table onto the ground.”
    All the adults, both men and women, gasped and cursed.
    Vlad’s mother said, “Mind powers. Many of them have them. They’re the most dangerous.”
    “They are all dangerous. They should all be killed,” the first woman said.
    The conversation was strange to Vlad. He’d never heard adults speak of anything with such fear before. Whatever they spoke of, it scared him, too. A baby that had black eyes and could move things with its mind? Certainly it was of the devil. Mother made sure all her children understood who the devil was and how he worked.
    “We all moved here from the big cities for a reason; to protect ourselves and our families from these abominations,” Vlad’s mother said. ““Living in the country is difficult enough as it is. The last thing we need is a monster in our midst, putting the children in danger.”
    Vlad shivered. Monsters? It must be a joke. The adults were trying to play a trick on the kids. They had to be. They were waiting to see which child would cave to fear and admit to snooping first. It wouldn’t be Vlad. Instead, he swallowed his fear and got on his tiptoes to peek through the window. His heart sank.
    The women sat around the old, scuffed dining table. The potatoes they’d been peeling were abandoned in front of them, knives set aside. Around the room the men leaned against walls or had their arms folded across their chests. Their faces were contorted in anger, lips set in firm grimaces.
    It was then Vlad knew it was no joke.
    “We have to do something about it.” This came from the man who preached God’s word to the Community. His ragged white beard was stained yellow from chewing tobacco. Vlad knew he smelled like rotten vegetables, too.
    “What?” Vlad’s father stepped forward. “Do what? You can’t mean…”
    “I do,” the preacher spat. “You’ve always been a sympathizer, Boris. It’s a surprise to each of us you followed your wife here, leaving your glamorous job and modern house in St. Petersburg.”
    Vlad sensed the attitude shift in anger towards his father. He waited for Mother to defend him, but she didn’t come to his aid. Instead, she picked up the half-peeled potato in front of her and slowly began peeling it again. The other women followed.
    Betrayal sunk into him. He could tell his father felt the same, too, as he watched him beg Mother with his eyes.
    Finally, he looked away from her at the group. “I believe in the Community, otherwise I would not be here.”
    The preacher grinned. “Good. Then you’ll go with us tonight. They won’t go down easily.”
     
    Now…
     
    The motel room was dingy. Based on the thick layer of scum in the bathroom and the spoiled scent of the bed, Vlad doubted it had been cleaned in months, if ever. Once last year, he and Lucy spent money on a nice motel, one with an ice machine and clean sheets. When Cheslav found out, he broke Vlad’s nose. Lucy tried to straighten it, but it still had a big bump right on the bridge.
    Vlad laid out the sheets he stole from their last mark while Lucy changed out of her tiny dress in the bathroom. When she came out, her face was raw from scrubbing away makeup.
    “How’d we do?” Lucy asked. When she was calm, her Russian was much better. She sat down opposite Vlad on the bed. Her thin frame swam in the oversized sweatpants