Carmen actually liked picking berries. The weather was pleasant, the scenery beautiful and it was one of her best opportunities to mingle with all of the women and many of the children in the group. She was learning about their backgrounds and getting a good picture of their relationships to the Prophet and to each other. Though some of them looked a little more ragged and dirty than others, she hadn’t found any real signs of neglect. A little more attention to schooling and health care would have been warranted, but she couldn’t see that Metwater and his followers were breaking any laws. Another day or two, and she would have to wrap up her investigation and get back to more pressing matters, so she might as well make the most of the time she had left. “Sure, I’ll come.”
When the women assembled with their buckets and baskets, Carmen was surprised to see Sophie and Phoenix. “Are you sure you’re well enough to be going out?” she asked Phoenix.
“I told her she should stay home and rest,” Sophie said.
“I’m fine.” Phoenix smiled. She looked pale but, then, she always looked pale. “And I like berry picking. I wouldn’t want to stay behind and miss it.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Starfall called. “I don’t want to wait around all morning.”
They set out, a motley collection of half a dozen women and an equal number of children. Some women had chosen to remain behind, including Asteria. But most enjoyed the opportunity to be away from camp, enjoying the nice weather. They found the raspberry bushes Roscoe had told them about, the thorny, fruit-laden canes clustered along the edge of a small canyon. Carmen began filling a plastic ice-cream bucket with the sweet, red fruit, careful to avoid the sharp thorns which continually caught and tugged on her clothes. She had worn jeans for the work and a billowing blouse that hid the gun tucked into her waistband.
Except for the gun, she was reminded of other berry-picking expeditions when she was a girl, with her relatives on the Southern Ute Reservation south of here. Aunt Veronica would try to scare them with stories about bears that would try to steal the fruit, and her mother would promise a reward for the child who picked the most berries. Smiling at the memory, Carmen paused to stretch her back and sample some of the juicy berries. She was sucking juice from her fingers when she noticed Starfall had moved away from the others and was searching the ground some distance away.
While most of the women had welcomed Carmen to the Family, Starfall had kept her distance. Carmen was still trying to figure out where the slight, curly-haired woman fit into the group dynamic. She wasn’t one of Metwater’s favorites—women who hovered around him at every meal and ceremony, like groupies around a rock star. She shared a tent with Asteria next to Metwater’s motor home and had a little boy whose father had accompanied her to the Family, but who had left after less than a month. All this Carmen had learned from other women, not Starfall herself. There was something sly and grasping about the young woman that made Carmen always on edge around her—and curious to know what she was hiding.
She moved away from the berry pickers and toward Starfall. The other woman straightened at her approach. “What are you looking for?” Carmen asked.
Starfall swept her mass of curly, brown hair back from her forehead. “Do you know anything about cactus?” she asked.
“Not much.” Her grandmother had taught her how to cook the green pads of prickly pear—removing the thorns and cutting the flesh into thin strips to sauté as a vegetable—but it wasn’t one of Carmen’s favorite dishes, and she doubted Starfall was interested in the recipe.
“I’m looking for this.” Starfall thrust a piece of paper toward her. Carmen took the paper and studied it. Obviously printed from the internet, it showed a squat, barrel-shaped cactus with wicked-looking spines and a soft pink flower.
“Where did you get this?” Carmen asked, returning the paper.
Starfall folded the copy and tucked it in the pocket of her skirt. “I met a guy in town who said he’d pay me twenty bucks for every one of these I found and brought to him.” She studied the ground again. “He said they grew around here, but they wouldn’t have flowers this time of year.”
“Isn’t it against the law to take plants from public land?” Carmen asked. She knew it was, though enforcement was lax, considering the other crimes the Rangers had to worry about.
“This place is full of cactus,” Starfall said. “Who’s going to miss one?”
“Who was this guy?” Carmen asked, joining Starfall in searching the ground.
“Some old German. A tourist. He said he collects cactus. It sounded like an easy way to earn twenty bucks. But maybe not. I’ve been looking all morning and haven’t seen any of these.”
“Starfall!”
Sophie ran to them. “I think I found one of those cactus you’re looking for,” the girl said.
“Really?” Starfall brightened. “Show me.”
Carmen followed the two of them to a spot near the canyon rim but away from the berry thicket. Sophie squatted down and pointed. “It’s not very big,” she said. “But it looks like your picture.”
Starfall pulled out the paper and held it beside the cactus. “I think you’re right.” She patted Sophie’s shoulder. “Thanks, honey.” She straightened, then put up her hand to shield her eyes as she stared in the distance. A sly smile spread across her face. “Well, what do you know?”
Carmen followed the other woman’s gaze and recognized the tall figure striding toward them, just as Sophie shouted “Jake!” and began running toward her brother.
Jake hugged Sophie, then the two continued arm in arm toward Carmen and Starfall.
“What are you all looking at?” he asked when he joined them.
“Why, you, Soldier Boy,” Starfall said, while Carmen said nothing.
“Hello, Carmen,” he said.
“Hello.” She kept her expression and her voice cool. She still hadn’t made up her mind how she felt about Jake. On one hand, she admired his devotion to his sister and mother, and his courage and determination to do the right thing. But he also struck her as quick-tempered and a little mysterious. She appreciated a strong man, but she didn’t want to have to wonder if he was on the right side of the law.
“I told Mom you’d come back,” Sophie said.
“Where is she?” Jake looked past his sister toward the other women, who had moved down the rim of the wash to pick more berries.
“I talked her into sitting down under a tree and resting.” Sophie pointed to a shady spot where Phoenix sat. Just then, the older woman looked over to them, smiled and waved.
“How is she feeling today?” Jake asked.
“She says she’s better.” Sophie shrugged. “I guess she is. She came back to the trailer about suppertime and went straight to bed and slept all night, so maybe she was just really tired.”
“Uh-huh.”
“What brings you to see us, Soldier Boy?” Starfall lightly touched Jake’s shoulder and smiled.
“I was out hiking and saw you all picking berries and thought it would be a good opportunity to visit with my mom and sister away from the camp.”
“You’re not afraid of the Prophet’s enforcers, are you?” Starfall said. She squeezed his bicep. “You look like a man who knows how to handle himself.”
Jake shrugged away from her. “What were you ladies looking at just now?” he asked.
“We were looking at cactus,” Sophie said, ignoring Starfall’s frown.
“What kind of cactus?” Jake focused on the ground where Sophie pointed.