The Wayward Gifted - Broken Point by Mike Hopper, Donna Childree Page A

living with her. I’ll live under a bridge if I have to. Go back
when you get ready. I’m staying here.”
    A noise came from the ladder, followed
by a light. Sam continued crying. She had trouble catching her breath.
    “Great,” Steuart reached for his
sister, “I told you this would happen.”
    They huddled together in the corner.
“You kids must be freezing.” A woman carrying a lantern stepped into the tree
house.
    Sam and Steuart stared.
    “Who are you?” the woman asked. “What
are you doing out here on a night like this?”
    Sam used her most sarcastic voice, “We
could ask you the same thing.”
    “I’m wearing a coat. I’m also wearing a
hat, a scarf, and gloves. You will also notice that, unlike you, I have warm
fuzzy boots on my feet. The two of you are not even wearing coats. Who are you?
Where did you come from?”
    “We’re not allowed to talk with
strangers,” Steuart said.
    “Excuse me,” the woman responded. “This
is my tree house. It appears that you’re the strangers.” She pointed out the
door and up the hill. “That’s my home. This is my property.”
    Sam shrugged her shoulders.
    “I’m Ceil Nunstern. Now we’re
acquainted. Are you okay?”
    “We’re fine.” Sam said
    “Do you have a bad cold? This is not a
good night to be roaming around, especially if you’re sick.”
    “I’m not sick.”
    “Do you live close by? I’ve never seen
you before.”
    “We’re okay. We just need a place to
sit for a while. Is that a problem?”
    “Yes, that’s a problem.”
    “Why? We’re not bothering anything. We
won’t be here long.”
    “That doesn’t matter. This is a
terrible place to sit during a snowstorm. The temperature is dropping fast and
this place is not heated. You could get sick. We’re expecting at least a foot
of snow tonight. You could get frostbite. If you stay out here long enough, you
could freeze to death.”
    Steuart grabbed his sister and
whispered, “We’re too young to freeze.”
    “It doesn’t matter where we live. We’re
fine,” Sam tried to back away from the woman, but there was nowhere to go.
    “It matters to me.”
    “Why?” Sam and Steuart asked.
    “It matters because you’re in my tree
house. That makes both of you a liability.”
    “What’s the problem?” Steuart asked.
“What’s the liability?”
    “Let’s see. I am an adult and you are
not. This is my house.   I found you
here. That makes me responsible because you’re on my property. I can’t just
leave you here in freezing weather and pretend that I never saw you. It’s late
and it’s not safe.”
    “Not safe?” Steuart asked.
    The woman nodded, “That’s what I said. The
temperature’s dropping and we’re going to have a lot of snow.”
    “Ma’am,” Steuart responded, “we don’t
know you.”
    “No,” Sam repeated and shook her head.
“We don’t know you.”
    “I don’t know you either. Does that
mean I can’t help you?”
    “Yes it does. My brother told you;
we’re not allowed to talk with strangers.”
    “I see. You can’t talk to strangers,
but you can run into a stranger’s yard and climb into a stranger’s tree house
late at night?”
    Steuart looked at Sam and whispered
into her ear, “She’s got us on that one. I’m cold.”
    “Maybe you’re dangerous,” Sam said
squinting and shivering.
    “Why should we tell you anything?”
Steuart asked. “Maybe this isn’t even your tree house.”
    “I see.” Ceil pursed her lips and took
a deep breath. She shook her head and thought for a moment. “Not my tree
house—maybe it’s not. Maybe I just came walking out into the snow for a
stroll on a freezing night during a snowstorm. Maybe I just decided to climb
into a tree house that has no heat or lighting with the hope of finding children
to harass me. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.”
    “It’s possible,” Sam said.
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Maybe you walk around the Preserve
late at night looking for children to murder and