For those of you who may have started reading "Cool Water" and are wondering about the next update, I give you this excerpt that I worked on last night. I can't set a firm date for the next release, but it may come around 17 September. Keep reading and thanks for your support!
Something hard jabbed Charlotte twice in the back. Her eyes flew open and she twisted onto her back, her body uncurling like a whip. Her gun was already in her hand but she didn’t remember picking it up. It was trained on the startled face of a grubby seven year old boy. He dropped his stick and darted behind a waif in a white and yellow polka dot dress, his skinny arms wrapped around her legs.
The thin woman regarded her with a cocked eyebrow and a wry grin.
“You can relax. It’s just us.”
Charlotte’s mind caught up with her body. She lowered the gun an inch and suddenly recognized the woman’s wind-worn face. Dark, deep set eyes smiled at her from Relief mixed with embarrassment.
“Shit, Rita. I almost shot Caleb,” she said, climbing to her feet.
Sharp pains and dull aches complained from her hip and shoulder and half a dozen other places. She winced as she straightened her right arm. Curled up under her head all night, it had seized up like a rusty hinge.
“What are you doing out here?”
Rita waved her stick-thin arm at the smouldering char under the desert.
“We got raided last night, same as you. Came to check on you before we leave.”
Rita swatted at the boy clinging to her.
“Child, get away from my legs! Miss Charlotte is sorry.”
Caleb shook his head and watched Charlotte warily. It hurt her how much he looked like her brother Charlie.
“Make her say it,” he mumbled then he looked right at her and said accusingly, “Say you’re sorry.”
Rita shrugged apologetically.
Charlotte squatted down in front of him and slowly laid the pistol on the ground beside her.
“Caleb, sweetie,” she said, showing the boy her empty hands. “I’m sorry I scared you. I didn’t mean to. Do you forgive me?”
Caleb ignored the question. He pointed at the ruins of her burrow.
“Did the bad guys come here, too?” he asked.
Charlotte nodded. “They did. They burned my house and took away my stuff.”
Caleb sighed loudly.
“Me, too.”
He edged closer, asked, “Did you shoot any of them?”
“I did.”
“With that gun?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How many?”
“Two. The other two got away.”
Caleb’s tiny brow furrowed in deep thought then he nodded. He wrapped his thin little arms around her neck and squeezed.
“It’s okay, Miss Charlotte,” he said into her neck. “Half’s good.”
