Telling Fortunes in Phoenix
Chapter Sixteen

Johni

Johni put the dishes in the dishwasher and prepared another breakfast of bean burritos, fruit and some carefully doctored beverages. She arranged the meal on a rolling cart that she trundled over to the guest house. She would check on the little ones first.

When she got there she realized she’d forgotten the keys so she ran back to the house. They weren’t on the table. Nor in the living room. Were they buried in the couch? She pulled the cushions off and dug her hands into the crevasses. No keys. Well shit. She hustled back across the yard to grab the cart before the chickens decided to investigate. You couldn’t leave things sitting around out here.

A gust of wind swept past and Johni heard a creaking sound. She turned to the bunk house and saw the last door move slightly in the breeze. Had she forgotten to lock it? It opened into the room with the children.

She pushed in. Where she remembered leaving five children, wrapped snugly in blankets and placed on the large bed with one of the women, there was now only the woman. Had she forgotten which room she’d left the kids in?

She went to the next room down and found that it was also unlocked. She checked the next and the next. Five rooms, all unlocked. No children and her keys were mossing.

Shit, shit, shit. She better wake up Eddie.

Eddie had been asleep less than an hour and did not want to wake up. Johni shook his shoulder and wouldn’t stop.

“What is your problem?” He yelled at her without opening his eyes.

“The kids are gone. And the doors are unlocked. I need help.” Johni shook him some more. “Wake up!”

Eddie rolled to a sitting position, eyes still closed. He slumped to the side but Johni shook him again and he grabbed her hand, his bloodshot eyes finally open.

“Get up,” she said. “Come with me.”

By the time they got to the bunkhouse Eddie was nearly awake. She showed him the open doors and explained that the keys were missing. He looked in all of the rooms and saw the sleeping adults.

“Lock these doors again,” he said.

She went to her office for the spare keys and continued with her earlier chore, placing burritos and drinks in the rooms while Eddie sat sullenly on the bunk house stairs.