Page 31 of Suncatcher

Pearl’s stomach dropped.

“Grief can do ugly things to people. The others lost their entire family in that canyon. I was young and angry too, and I went along with it, even though it was wrong. I knew it then, and I know it now. Probably why I never told you. There’s more to the story too, but I don’t wanna talk about that. I made two terrible mistakes that night, and I’ve always worried one will come back to haunt me. To collect its price.” Sheriff Oak gripped Pearl’s hand hard. “I’ll be damned before I let that price be you.”

“I won’t be,” Pearl promised. “And if anyone tries, I’ll shoot them. Like you taught me.”

Fondness curved Sheriff Oak’s mouth. “Good.” She cleared her throat and released Pearl.

The tolling bell tensed every muscle in Pearl’s body. She glanced toward the end of the street, hoping it was a kid being stupid instead of a true warning.

That was when they both saw it. The faint change in the light.

Like a wall of red smoke, the dust storm spilled over the horizon.

“Help here,” Sheriff Oak ordered, already running down the road, calling to the people rushing from their doors and toward the fields to pull the coverings over them so the storm wouldn’t whisk away their entire harvest.

Pearl ran back to Molly’s door, who was at the back porch, calling for Buster. He whined and bolted inside, his senses on high alert as the sky darkened. Pearl grabbed Buster’s bed and Molly’s rocking chair, tucking them in her kitchen, and shuttered her windows.

“I’m good. Go make sure Rosie’s chickens are safe,” Molly said.

As Pearl took the back steps, gritty wind hit her, the edge of the storm not quite on them but coaxing up the dry earth around her.

Would Driz be alright in the storm? Would it affect her at all? Would it wake her, wherever she was?

Pearl pushed thoughts of the goyle from her mind and dashed behind the row of houses, calling in case anyone hadn’t yet noticed or heard the bell.

Rosie had a hen under each arm while chasing a last flustered bird around the fenced yard. Pearl braced her hand on the corner post and vaulted inside.

“Wilhelmina just won’t come!” Rosie told her, pretty eyes fluttering against the intensifying wind, her panic palpable and not helping anything.

“Take those inside. I’ll get her,” Pearl promised.

As Rosie staggered up the steps, a gust billowed her skirt, pushing her petite frame sideways. It also stole Pearl’s hat, lifting it off her head. She’d liked that one.

Cursing, Pearl let it go and steadied Rosie instead, forcing the back door open and closed behind the woman before Pearl turned back to the bird.

Wilhelmina glared from the corner of the yard, her feathers flattening. Pearl reached out and earned a slice on her finger from a sharp beak. The hen flapped and got airborne enough to almost hop the fence.

The last thing Pearl needed was to kill Rosie’s ornery chicken. If the hen got out, she would join Pearl’s hat and be swept away by the churning storm that was almost at the end of town now.

Pearl edged along the downwind side of the fence, hoping to catch her if she tried to fly again.

The blasted bird did, but the gust buffeted her right into Pearl’s grip.

“Got you,” Pearl growled in triumph, pressing her gently to her chest. She scrambled up the steps, using one hand to finish closing Rosie’s shutters before slipping inside just as the wall hit.

Sand and debris skittered and scraped along the outside of the building, the force of the wind shaking the whole structure. It was like night inside, with the shutters closed and the sun obscured by the storm.

A delicate hand curled around Pearl’s forearm as an ungrateful beak attacked her collar. She unceremoniously deposited Wilhelmina on the floor and hooked an arm around Rosie to usher her away from the rattling door, where puffs of sand seeped through the cracks, hitting her boots.

“Thank you,” Rosie said, her voice almost lost in the noise. “For saving her.”

“She’s a right old bitch.”

“Not when you get to know her.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Rosie laughed, light and pretty. “You came. I’ve been trying to get you to accept an invitation for years. Who knew some dust was all it took.”