FAITH
FAITH (after an idea by Nesciri)
"Well, I'm ready for that dessert now," Cody called out to the others as he walked into the bunkhouse. Ike put away the drawings he was working on and then gingerly moved over to sit at the table, still slightly troubled by his bruises. Jimmy came and joined Cody at the table. The others smiled at each other as they saw Cody drag the custard towards him in eager anticipation. He had fully recovered from the burns and apart from a small bandage over the blister, he at least he was back to his old self. A few days after the incident with the water, Cody hadn't had any appetite, which had been more worrying than the burns in his face and on his hands, since they feared that he might have gotten some of the stuff in his mouth. Rachel set the cake on the table before turning back to the stove. Cody was the first to help himself to a piece and he placed it on his plate. He licked some frosting off his fingers before cutting into the cake with his fork and popping an enormous piece into his mouth. The others were starting to serve themselves when Cody suddenly dropped his fork and jumped in his seat.
"What's the matter with you?" Jimmy asked
as Cody's fork clattered to the table.
It soon became obvious when blood gushed from Cody's
mouth and he quickly pushed a napkin over his face. He ran from the table and
bent over the sink. Something was stuck in his tongue. Cody carefully probed
his mouth with his fingers and felt something sharp jutting out from the soft
flesh. He grimaced in pain as he gingerly pulled a small piece of glass from
his tongue. When he got it out, he dropped it in the sink and watched as blood
continued to fall onto the small glass shard.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Jimmy
rose and walked over to him, peering into the sink and curling his lip in disgust.
"I think right here," Lou said as she
pulled apart her piece of cake and held it up to eye level. She carefully pulled
out another small piece of glass from the cake and let it fall onto her plate.
Ike picked his fork up and began slicing the rest of the cake into small chunks.
It was full of little glass pieces.
"What?" Rachel ran over and looked at
the broken pieces lying on the table. "That's impossible. I made this myself."
"Well, someone sure did this. Glass doesn't
get into food by accident." Jimmy pointed out the obvious.
"Was anyone with you when you made it?"
Lou asked trying to be helpful. She knew Rachel was going to blame herself and
wanted to try to make her feel better.
"No," said Rachel slowly. "But I
did leave the batter a minute when Teaspoon and I walked over to the barn to
see the new filly, but I didn't see anyone. Oh, Billy, I'm so sorry."
"It's OK, Rachel. It's not your fault."
Cody's voice was muffled as he spoke through a wadded towel. The pain was beginning
to quiet down and he slumped his way over to the table. "First the water
and now this. Why am I always the first?"
Even though Jimmy could think of a half dozen smart comebacks to Cody's rhetorical question, he only nodded his head and chewed his lower lip. "It seems like whoever is messing with us is getting very serious," Jimmy finally said not taking his eyes off the piece of bloody glass in the sink.
