The bridge over the Cinderhollow creek had been rotting since spring, so the whole pack came out to fix it.
I came because work was the one place Sabine could not call me lazy.
We were setting new glass in the lantern frames, thick panes, the kind that shine light down the whole crossing.
Nash: Keep that pane steady, or it's your fucking fault when it drops.
Neither of my brothers looked at me when he said it.
Then Ansel came up the road with the council's tools, and every head turned with him.
I kept my eyes on the glass and counted. Two hundred and ten days.
Ansel: Liora. Take the north side. You are the steadiest with the frames.
Sabine came down the bank a minute later with two cups in her hands.
Sabine: Baby, you didn't eat. I brought you something warm.
She kissed his cheek, and she looked at me over his shoulder the whole time.
A little one from the smokehouse families ducked under the rope to see the glass shine.
Nobody saw her but me.
Then the rope slipped at the top of the frame, and the biggest pane came down.
It fell straight at her head, and the light went through it like water.
I did not think. Thinking had never saved anyone in my family.
I crossed the boards and hit her with my shoulder, and we went down together in the mud.
The pane hit the rail above us and burst. Glass rained down on my back and my burned hand.
I covered her head with my arms and waited for it to stop.
When I sat up, the child was crying but whole, and my jacket was full of small bright pieces.
The whole bridge went quiet. Then it did not.
Nash: She caught it. Did you see that? She caught the fucking pane.
Dov: The kid's alive. Liora got her.
Someone clapped. Then more of them did, and my face went hot.
Ansel jumped down off the rail and pulled me up by my arm. His hand stayed there.
Ansel: You went under falling glass for a child you don't know.
Ansel: You are the fastest thing in this pack, and now everyone saw it.
His voice was low and his eyes were on my mouth, and that look went all the way down my spine.
I stepped back out of his hand. Sabine was watching. She was always watching.
Liora: Anyone would have done it.
Ansel: No. They wouldn't.
Sabine: She pushed it.
Her voice cut the clapping off like a blade.
Sabine: I saw her. She went up on the boards and shoved the frame loose.
The pack turned. I felt every face on me at once, and my mouth went dry.
Nash: You saw that?
Sabine: I see everything my sister does. Ask her why her hand is bleeding.
Liora: I didn't touch the frame. The rope slipped.
Sabine: Then why were you the only one standing under it, Liora? Who stands that close to falling glass?
Maude came up the bank with the shift list, and I watched her mouth press thin.
Ansel: I was watching the north side. The rope slipped.
Sabine turned to him with a hurt little smile, and I saw how easy it would be for her to make him pay for that.
Sabine: Of course, baby. If you say so.
The pack went back to work, but the whispering did not stop, and the cheering was gone.
Sabine: Enjoy the clapping. It won't last. I always find out what you are.
Two hundred and ten days until the north job. I had just made myself seen by the whole pack.