Sunblind

Book 0: Darkborn Legacy

by Michael Griffo

Genres: Young Adult; YA Paranormal

Synopsis

In the latest book in Michael Griffo's spellbinding Darkborn Legacy series, Dominy Robineau must choose whether to fight the werewolf inside--or the darkness all around. . . Dominy had no choice in becoming a werewolf. The day she turned sixteen, a witch's curse erased every trace of normal from her life and ignited a wild hunger that's already cost Dominy her best friend. And though she's still got her boyfriend, Caleb, and other allies who promise to help her find a cure, Dom feels completely alone. Yet she isn't alone. . . Throughout her hometown of Weeping Water, Nebraska, a legacy of evil is slowly coming to light, pitting friend against friend in an unfolding battle. Dom was sure her only hope was to fight what she's become. But with an enemy threatening her family, she'll have to harness the power she fears and gather all the strength she's got. . .

Release date: August 27, 2013

Publisher: K-Teen

Print pages: 400

Sample

Which came first, the wolf or the girl?

That’s the question I’ve started to ask myself these past few months, especially in the moments right before I transform. Right before my blood turns to fire inside my veins and starts to burn my arms. Just as my legs break and my knees point in the wrong direction, just as I see my skin disappear underneath a cloak of red fur. It should be an easy question to answer. The girl came first, and sixteen years later the wolf showed up. But that’s not really the truth. The wolf was conceived long before the girl was born, long before the girl’s father even thought of having a child. So doesn’t that make the girl an afterthought? Doesn’t that put her in second place behind the wolf? A subset instead of the whole package, or even some kind of weird descendant of the wolf spirit? I thought it was an easy question, but the more I think about it, I realize it isn’t. And now, quite frankly, I don’t care. Because right now I’m hungry.

Saliva drips from my mouth like thick water oozing out of a leaky faucet. A low, constant growl drones out of me like metal scraping against stone. There’s a dull ache in my empty stomach that needs to be filled, and it needs to be filled now.

I’m trying to control the hunger, keep it from consuming me so I can still be in control, so I can remain languid, but ready to strike. My razor-sharp teeth are exposed and my blue-gray eyes alert, but my soft, red fur ripples in the warm breeze, and my body sways gently with every step I take. Could be out for a stroll, could be out for a hunt, no one can tell. But one thing is clear: Underneath the silver glow of the full moon my body looks nothing like that of the girl I was and everything like the thing I’ve become. A wolf. A wolf that desperately needs to feed.

The problem is, at this very moment, I’m the one who’s being hunted.

Behind me are sounds, sounds that shouldn’t be heard at this time of night and definitely not in the middle of the woods. These aren’t sounds from nature; they’re human. Well, part human, because the sounds I hear are coming from one very sick and demented and vengeful woman.

Luba.

When I whip my head around, keeping my snout low to the ground, I can see her right in front of me. I can see her wrinkled face, the skin so pale and thin it looks like it could be peeled away, and her jet-black hair, long and straight, as lifeless as her eyes.

I can hear her laughing, her voice rough and childish and foul, echoing all around me. Instead of dying out the farther it gets from its source, her laughter grows louder until it shatters the peaceful quiet of the night. It’s a sound that makes me ill.

There she is. She’s standing before me, her body emaciated, her white hospital gown lifting in the wind to expose bony, scarred knees, her spindly fingers pressed against her chapped lips that form a gruesome smile. I can feel my heart beat faster; I can feel my empty stomach churn, because when I look at Luba, it’s like looking in the mirror. We’re completely different, and yet we’re the same. We both violate the laws of nature. We’re both creatures that do not belong in the world. We’re wrong, we shouldn’t exist, and yet here we are.

Or are we?

I blink my eyes and Luba’s gone. Twisting my head to the left and the right, I scour the darkness, but can’t find her. Is she hiding? Was she ever here in the first place? Have I started to hallucinate?! Maybe. Who knows? She’s not in front of me; she never was. I must have imagined her presence. But she is close by. I know that because I can smell her.

Her anger fills my nostrils like the smell of dead flesh baking in the sun. I follow my instinct and start to move away from the smell, because her anger is stronger than ever before, and now it’s mixed with another emotion that I never expected I’d sense from her—fear.

Why is Luba afraid of me? She’s never been afraid before; she’s always been confident and vicious and proud. What’s changed to make her become fearful? I wish I could waste time trying to figure that out, but I can’t, because anger mixed with fear is a dangerous combination that makes people do crazy things. And when that mixture of emotions lies within the heart of someone as evil as Luba, dangerous can quickly become deadly.

My slow gait turns into a run, and I make sure to avoid breaking twigs with my paws or overturning rocks. I need to be quiet; I need to remain undetected. I jump over a small puddle filled with rainwater and have to swerve quickly to the right to avoid disrupting a small pyramid of crushed beer cans. The litter is evidence that humans have been here, which means I can never assume the woods are safe. Crouching, I crawl under a spray of low-hanging branches, their mass of leaves tickling my fur as I pass through, and come out to stand on the edge of a clearing. A wide, flat expanse of lush, green grass decorated with wildflowers in colors that brighten the night—yellow and pink and orange—colors that turn the earth into a galaxy of vibrant stars. It’s a beautiful sight. But one that offers no protection.

How wonderful would it be to lie in this field for a moment, let the coolness pierce through my fur and put out the fire I can feel raging inside of me? But even just a moment is too long to hesitate, to let down my guard. Even just a moment will surely get me killed, especially when Luba’s right behind me.

But why is she hunting me? And why does her hatred for me now contain fear? I look up, and it’s almost as if the full moon is pulsating, trying to communicate with me in some sort of intergalactic Morse code, telling me to use my natural instinct to make sense of a situation that doesn’t seem to contain logic. I force myself to hold still, to not breathe, to do nothing but accept the full moon’s message. It’s a complete waste of time! All I can feel is the painful ache that’s returned to my stomach. And then all I smell is blood.

The stench is so glorious I open my mouth to howl, to announce to whomever or whatever is bleeding that I’m coming to feed, but my howl turns into silence. The wolf wants to cry; the girl is cautious. Even though the wolf wants to make a sound, the girl knows that it will only help Luba discover the location of her prey. It’s the perfect illustration of how the wolf and the girl have learned to coexist.

The other thing I’ve learned is that if I ignore the hunger, there are consequences. The violence and aggression and primal urges I feel as a wolf spill over into my human form after the transformation reverses itself if I don’t indulge in wolfen hunger when the feeling overcomes me like it’s doing right now. So while I can hear and smell and sense Luba is approaching, and I know I should keep running, I can’t. The hunger pains have become more intense, as if a sharp-edged claw is burrowing through my skin from the inside out. I have no choice; I must feed.

And only a few feet away is my meal.

A mound of fur and blood. A family of rabbits all huddled together, clinging to one another as if they’re sleeping and trying to keep warm. Except this family is dead and lifeless and bloody. Such a beautiful sight.

A string of saliva drips from one fang and is lifted into the air by my hot, anxious breath. The unmoving bodies are pulling me closer to them as if they’re magnets and I’m a piece of steel. I am unable to resist, powerless to do anything else but take one step toward the bloody mound and then another and another. When I’m a foot away, I regain some self-control and begin to circle the carcasses, just so I can look at the heavenly display from all sides, my long tongue dripping wet and gliding over my teeth. Halfway around I can wait no longer. The hell with Luba! Right now quenching my hunger is more important than guaranteeing my survival.

I lunge forward, but instead of burying my teeth into flesh and bone and blood, I crash into something hard and fall back. I look up, and separating me from my meal is a yellow wall. No, not a real wall, but a huge block made up of what looks like golden marble. Furious, I ram my body into it again, my front paws colliding into the barrier with all my might, only to careen back again, my left side slamming into the ground.

Dazed, I shake my head, strings of spit whipping into my snout and my eyes. What the hell is going on?! I turn toward the glowing wall, and my lips form a sneer as a growl escapes from my body. The wall starts to glow with a yellow light, growing brighter by the second, and I try to keep my eyes open, try to see what’s creating this display, but the light is blinding. For a few moments darkness replaces the light, as if they’re joined together, and I can’t see a thing. I’m consumed by blackness, utterly alone and utterly afraid.

Until Jess appears.

The yellow wall melts into a thin vertical line that hangs in the air, slicing into the dark night, and then bursts open like a fireworks display, shooting sparks into the sky that twinkle and fall and combine to create something unimaginable—an Amaterasu Omikami, a legendary Japanese sun goddess. Or simply the new person that Jess has become. The supernatural being that she became after I killed her. And now I want to kill her again.

What the hell are you doing?!

“Saving your life,” Jess replies to my silent cry.

By interrupting my meal?! By making me go crazy with hunger?!

Ignoring my unspoken comments, Jess flicks her wrist, and a piece of sunshine flies into the air. I watch it twist and turn and hover for a second over the dead rabbit family until it falls on top of them, dousing them in golden light so they look as if they’re bathing in honey. The light is immediately extinguished when I hear a loud crash that makes me jump back. The rabbits were huddled together not because they had been sleeping when they were killed; they were arranged that way so they could conceal a bear trap.

Oh my God, you really did save my life!

Floating several inches above the ground, Jess smiles at me. “I’d say you’ll have to do the same for me one day, but it’s a little late for that.”

Involuntarily I bow my head and scrape the dirt with my front paw. I know Jess doesn’t blame me for her death, but still, I am the reason she’s dead. I tug at the earth one more time, sending clumps of dirt into the air. My stomach hurts, my head hurts, and now my heart hurts. Enough! I don’t have time for this; I don’t have time for reflection; I have to focus on the matter at hand—someone has gone to a lot of trouble to try and lure me to my death, and that someone has got to be Luba.

But why? She has amazing powers of her own; she doesn’t need to resort to something so basic. Unless, of course, she wants to make it look like it was an accident and not the result of some sick, demonic intervention. Get rid of me and keep her secret safe. Yes, that’s got to be it!

“Wrong.”

I’m not sure what’s more annoying—being contradicted or seeing Jess’s smirk.

I’m not wrong. This is a trap!

Sitting cross-legged, but still several inches above the ground, Jess smiles at me. She extends her arm to touch my fur, which I know she loves to play with, but I’m not in the mood to be caressed so I flinch, which only makes Jess roll her eyes at me. Now we’re even; we’re both annoyed with each other.

“Yes, it is a trap,” Jess relents. “But no, Luba wasn’t the one who set it.”

It takes a second for the reality of Jess’s statement to sink in.

If Luba didn’t set the trap, that means she has help; she isn’t working alone.

“Well . . . kind of,” Jess replies cryptically.

Once again I’m reminded that in Jess’s current superior state she is still limited, and she can’t tell me everything that she knows. She’s bound to a different set of rules that even she doesn’t completely understand. But I’ve learned that you don’t have to uncover the answer to something to know the truth. I may not know who’s working with Luba, but I do know that if Jess hadn’t intervened, I’d be dead right now, split into two separate pieces by that bear trap.

Thank you.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Jess says, gazing behind me. “Luba isn’t your only enemy.”

What?!

I turn around, and I don’t see anything, but the noises I heard earlier are back, and they’re getting louder. I have no idea what’s going on, but now I’m the one who’s afraid.

“People are scared, Dom,” Jess explains. “And when people are scared, they act all jerktastic.”

I want Jess to tell me more. I want her to explain what she means, but there’s no time left; the sounds are getting louder with every second. I’m about to find out just who my enemy is.

“The trap is right up here!”

Barnaby!!

The voice is unmistakable; it belongs to my brother. I am frozen in my spot; the only thing I can do is take a deep breath. The smell I thought belonged to Luba is my brother’s, and it’s the ripe mixture of anger and hatred and fear. He’s the one who’s hunting me; he’s the one who set this trap; he’s the one who wants me dead. The air around my throat seems to want to strangle me. Luba doesn’t want to kill me; my brother does.

“Get behind me!”

Lost in my own thoughts, I can’t respond to Jess’s command.

“Seriously, Dominy, do I have to do everything myself?!”

Jess disappears into the night, and I’m left alone. Suddenly the air is cold, but it’s not actually the air; it’s me. It’s like the opposite of when I transform; my blood has turned to ice and has stopped flowing through my veins. In the distance I can see shadows approaching and then a light. My brother is at the front of a group, holding a torch like the leader of some modern-day witch hunt. Except the witch is a wolf and the wolf is me. I want to run; I want to get as far away as I possibly can, find somewhere safe to hide, but I can’t. And anyway, where can I go when so many people are hunting for me?

Maybe this is my destiny: to die at my brother’s hand like my father was supposed to die by mine. But I’m not ready to die! I’m not ready to give up! Thankfully, Jess agrees with me.

Just as Barnaby comes into plain sight, Jess appears in front of me and spreads her arms. From her fingertips a wall of flames erupts, and the sun goddess is replaced by the beginning of a forest fire. The flames spread out several feet on both sides of me and then curve inward as they start to form a circle. In a matter of seconds I’m going to be surrounded by hot, raging fire. Instinctively, I want to break free before I’m burned to death, and my paws start to dig at the ground, a high-pitched whimper joining the chorus of crackling flames. Only two feet remain open behind me; if I don’t move now I’m going to be engulfed, and there won’t be any escape. Crouching low to the earth, I position my body to leap forward, but before I can fly into the air, Jess’s voice slams into my ears.

Trust me!

The two separate ends of the line of flame connect and a circular wall is created; there’s no longer any way to escape unless I want to be burned alive. But wait.... Why can’t I feel any heat? Because the flames aren’t threatening to me. They’re not even flames at all; they’re an illusion! Once again, Jess is saving my life. And confusing my brother and his fellow witch-hunters stuck on the other side of the wall.

“It’s a fire!”

But that isn’t my brother’s voice; it’s Louis’s! Why in the world is he helping my brother hunt me down? Or hunting this animal that they think is terrorizing the town? He’s the chief of police, not a vigilante! Could this be the only way he could think of to avenge the death of his best friend, my father? Could they have figured out that the killings are all connected to the full moon? It doesn’t matter; what matters is that if they find me, they won’t know it’s me. They’ll think they’ve found the wild animal that needs to be killed, its dead body put on display to show the rest of the town that the horror has finally come to an end. Louis won’t know that what he’s looking at, what he wants to kill, is Mason Robineau’s daughter, the girl he’s agreed to raise as his own child. He’ll only think he’s looking at a murderer that needs to be put to death.

The voices are louder now and pull me from my thoughts, which are completely useless anyway. I don’t recognize who is shouting; it could be a neighbor, a teacher, anyone who’s known me my entire life. But whoever they are, they’re just as startled by the sudden, unexpected fire and just as angry that it has interrupted their outing. Once again, if it weren’t for Jess, I’d probably be dead.

“Go back to town and get Tourtelot!” Louis screams.

I know that name. Nathan Tourtelot is the fire chief.

“Tell him there’s a fire,” Louis commands. “He’s got to put it out before it gets out of control.”

Louis’s voice is different from the others. Yes, it contains a hint of fear, but close behind the fear is the air of authority. After years of sitting back, following my father’s command, and acting as if he didn’t have a decisive bone in his body, Louis has started to go through his own transformation. He’s becoming a leader. Which means, to me anyway, that he’s very much like Luba. Another nemesis I need to be wary of.

But I can’t help feeling that he’s also like my father. Protective and strong and courageous. All he’s trying to do is keep his family and his town safe, which is exactly what my father tried to do his entire life. Wherever my father is, I know that he’s proud of his friend. He may, however, feel a bit differently about his son.

“Look!” Barnaby cries.

Taking a step back, I lower my snout, thinking that this in some way will shield me from my brother’s stare. But I have nothing to worry about; Jess’s flames are impenetrable. And besides, he’s not looking at me; he’s found something else even more interesting.

“The trap is shut!” he tells the crowd. “The thing was here!”

Thing?! The word fills me with rage, and if I weren’t being held prisoner by Jess’s flames, I don’t think I’d be able to restrain myself; I’d reveal myself to my brother and Louis and the entire town, show them I’m not a thing! I’m a werewolf! It isn’t something I chose to be; it isn’t something I ever imagined I’d become; but it’s what I am! But then I realize with heartbreaking clarity that even if Barnaby and the others knew what I was, knew what I have been forced to become, it might not change their minds. They might not be able to separate the wolf from the girl, and they might still want me dead.

“We have to split up,” Louis orders. “Half of you go that way; the rest follow me.”

I have no idea which directions they’re heading into, but I can hear them leave, not retreating, but moving closer to what they hope will be victory. When the flames around me recede, I don’t have to look up; I know that we’re alone. My enemies have gone, and it’s just Jess and me.

“Tonight’s special-effects display was brought to you by the letter O for Omikami,” Jess explains. “Just something I’ve been working on for a while to, you know, test the limits of my skill set.”

I nod my head in gratitude, too exhausted and shocked and confused to respond.

“We’re very much the same, you and I,” she adds.

Looking at her splendid beauty, I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“We’re both works in progress,” she says, one hand running its fingers through my fur. “We’re both finding our places in this world and in our new selves.”

Impatiently, I nod my head. Not because I don’t agree with Jess or want to hear what she has to say, but because the hunger has returned. Licking my lips, I walk toward the dead rabbits, unable to contain my joy.

“And that, Dominysan, is my cue to leave,” Jess says. “I love you, but I cannot watch you eat. It is beyond gross.”

Before I can say good-bye, Jess disappears, taking her sunshine with her and leaving me alone in the glow of the moon. The truth, however, is that I’m never alone. I’m never just me. For the rest of my life I’m destined to have a companion, a connection. Like darkness and light, like the sun and the moon, the wolf and the girl will never be separated.

So which came first, the wolf or the girl?

It doesn’t really matter, because it looks like they’re both here to stay.

The first day of school. A time to reconnect with friends you haven’t seen all summer long, a time to ponder which new clubs and sports you should join, a time to promise yourself that this is the year you’ll finally get that 4.0 GPA. For me, it’s a time to figure out which one of my fellow classmates wants me dead.

Munching on a trans-fat-free French fry that tastes more like imported cardboard than France’s most delicious import, I scour the lunchroom, looking like an eyewitness trying to pick out a criminal in a lineup through a one-way window in a police station. My stare is focused, yet indifferent. Who could be the guilty party? Could it be Rayna Delgado? She’s always been jealous of my red hair. Once in eighth grade she dyed her own black hair to match mine and turned out looking like Ronald McDonald’s younger, but way uglier, sister. Luckily for her it was a few days before Halloween, so the whole school thought she was getting a jump start on the festivities. I knew better.

It could also be The Dandruff King himself, Danny Klausman, if he somehow found out that I’m the one who dubbed him The Dandruff King. I can’t imagine he would interpret that nickname as a term of endearment. Either of them could have been part of last night’s witch hunt, but it could have been anyone at school for that matter. Since I was hidden by Jess’s wall of flames, I couldn’t see who obtained a membership. Other than Barnaby and Louis, whose voices I recognized, I have no idea who the town vigilantes are. Scratch that! A third member just sauntered into the lunchroom—Jody Buell. He’s my brother’s best friend and Siammate—I call him that because he and my brother are joined at the hip. If Barnaby was playing teenage avenger, guaranteed that Jody was his superhero sidekick.

Incredible how one night can change everything. Yesterday, most of these kids were my friends; today I look at them with a much more cynical eye. I mean, I know that high school can sometimes be a battleground, with everyone jockeying for the top spot, but I never got caught in the crossfire. I’m not the prettiest or the most popular or the smartest, but at Weeping Water High School—Two W to us locals—I’m way closer to the top spot in each category than to the bottom. Translation: I’ve never had to work that hard to be liked by my fellow classmates or, honestly, most of my teachers. It doesn’t hurt that my father was the chief of police and since his death I’ve effectively been ordained an orphan, because having a mother who’s in a coma doesn’t really qualify as having a full-time mom. So I’m used to being respected and pitied; being loathed and wished dead is a totally new experience for me.

The fact that people want the wolf—or whatever they think is turning our town into the setting for some new horror movie—dead, and not me—Dominy—doesn’t soften the blow either, because like I said it’s getting increasingly harder to separate the two. It isn’t like in the beginning when I couldn’t remember anything from when I was a wolf after I transformed back, when the lives of the wolf and the girl were skew lines. Now our lives intersect. I remember most everything; some memories are clearer than others, but mainly the transformations are mentally seamless. So if they want the wolf dead, I can’t help but take it personally and feel as if they want me dead too.

Unable to shake the bothersome thought from my head, I look around the cafeteria again to examine who my potential enemies could be. Who was carrying a torch last night with my brother? They all look like they’re more interested in their franks ’n’ beans or their conversations, but I know better. I know that behind those faces, whether they’re filled with acne or animation or apathy, there exist Lubaphiles. They may not even realize that they’re part of Psycho Squaw’s army; they may never have heard of the crazy witch, but they’re doing her bidding all the same. And how ironic is it that her two right-hand men appear to be my brother and my guardian? I guess that should be her right- and left-hand men? Doesn’t matter. Without her even formulating a strategy, my adversary is closing in on me.

Because Jess is right; people act jerktastically when they’re scared. I just have to make sure their fear doesn’t get me killed. And one of the best ways to thwart an enemy’s plan is to make sure he knows his plan is no longer secret. So I need to tell him. Or at least tell his daughter.

“I know your father is trying to kill me,” I announce before Arla even places her tray on the lunch table.

Her reaction is as smooth as her complexion. Obviously, being my friend and now my sort-of stepsister has taught Arla to expect the unexpected and to take outlandish comments in stride.

“I thought his meatloaf the other night was really good,” she replies, sitting down across from me. “The chipotle in the gravy gave it some kick.”

“I’m not talking about his meatloaf, which was really good, by the way,” I say. “I’m talking about the vigilante crusade he was on last night.”

Her forehead crinkles like one of my French fries. “Sister-friend,” she says. “I have no idea what your mouth is yakking on about.”

I stare at Arla and try hard not to laugh. It’s not that I find our conversation hilarious, but considering she’s wearing a 1950s-style Junior Miss platinum blond wig in honor of the fact that we are now in our junior year and at the same time adopting a tone of voice that is more appropriate to one of those 1970s blaxploitation films, she’s quite funny. Yup, the more I get to know Arla, the more I realize she’s filled with contradictions. Just like me.

“Clearly your dad’s learned how to be clandestine,” I suggest.

“Unlike you,” Arla replies, scooping up a spoonful of beans.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You put my father, kill, and clandestine all into the same conversation,” she states. “Not exactly subtle.”

I take a deep breath, because I realize what I’m about to say is less bizarre than it is a tad-bit accusatory. “Well, I’m, um, pretty sure your dad is the lead operative in a clandestine plot to rid Weeping Water of its first-ever serial killer,” I speed-say. “A.k.a. me.”

As I fill Arla in on last night’s events, she slowly pays more attention to me than to her food, a clear sign that her father’s and my brother’s late-night antics are news to her.

“That’s a twisted way for them to bond,” she offers.

“I wish it were more twisted than it appears, but it isn’t,” I explain. “They both share the same goal—to avenge my father’s death.”

Five streaks of blue cotton candy whip through the air. They’re Arla’s fingernails—the same color as her headband—as she waves her hand in the air as if to swipe away the unspoken thought that hovers between us. Grumbling, she responds, “But you didn’t kill your dad.”

“They don’t know that,” I reply, trying hard to keep my voice quiet and not shout my innocence to the world. “They think there’s a serial-killing animal on the loose.”

“We’ve been through this before, Dominy. You are not a serial killer!” Arla protests a bit too loudly for my comfort zone.

“Could we please use our inside voices?” I ask. “Considering we are inside.”

“Sorry,” she says, holding up her hand so the cotton candy blue is replaced with the dark caramel of her skin. “But that comment is ridiculous, redundant, and regressive. You’re a victim too.”

It’s nice to hear that Arla doesn’t think I’m a candidate for America’s Most Wanted, but it also rings false. She knows exactly what I am and what I’ve done, and it’s bad enough that I have to hide from the world; I don’t want to feel that I have to hide from my friends.

“Arla, come on,” I start. “I may not be like that guy, who killed kids while wearing a clown suit, but I have killed, and come to think of it I have my own disguise so, okay, maybe me and clown face aren’t siblings, but we’re kind of distant cousins.”

She whips off her plastic headband so fiercely, I almost think that Arla is going to use it as a deadly weapon, but she’s merely readjusting her accessory. She isn’t, however, readjusting her conviction.

“The guy in the clown suit and every other serial killer you want to bring up committed premeditated murder,” Arla says, sounding very much like the daughter of the new chief of police. “You, on the other hand, acted while under meditation.”

I committed murder while practicing yoga? “I’m not following you.”

“You were under a spell,” she clarifies. “When you killed Jess and that vagrant, you weren’t in control of yourself; Luba and the wolf spirit were. There is absolutely no way that you can be categorized as a serial killer or a killer of any kind.”

Tell that to the torch-bearing group who almost captured me last night. “My ears hear what you’re saying,” I reply, “But . . .”

“Keep your buts out of it,” Arla interrupts. “You know I’m right. You