Perfect Understanding
Zinnia’s POV
Make love not war was a classic hippie slogan, but apparently they could make war, too, in their own special way when provoked.
My mother and sister were definitely able to provoke people, so much so that I’d often thought it wouldn’t surprise me if they were the cause of the next world war. While I stood there stupefied by my sister’s threat, unable to believe what I’d just heard, others around me proved they hadn’t
been stunned into immobility caused by sheer disbelief.
Iris was in Dash’s ear telling him to have me involuntarily committed because I was standing up for myself? Had she really said that? Had she honestly really threatened to take my baby away? I
couldn’t even wrap my head around her vindictiveness.
The woman on the horse — Tari, I think her name was, if I remembered right from my
motherhood blessing — clicked her tongue twice and yelled, “Let’s go!” as she ran her horse
straight for my mother and sister. I wasn’t sure if she was urging on her horse or mustering the
troops to battle, but everyone started moving with her battle cry.
As my mother and sister tried to scramble out of the horse’s way, Aggie drove up behind them beeping her horn and shouting at them to get the hell out. With a horse coming at them from one direction and Aggie from the other, they were blocked in from behind by my mother’s SUV and from the front by Philo’s tractor and trailer filled with hay. Left with no escape, the two of them had no choice but to clamber onto the hood of my mother’s SUV. Their dresses and heels didn’t help.
At that point, produce started flying at them from a number of people who had obviously just come from the commune’s vast gardens to get their daily veggies. Apparently, there were some occasions when wasting food was OK here because I saw lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, zucchini, potatoes, carrots and heads of broccoli and cauliflower being thrown at them.
While my sister and mother were busy trying to stay on the hood and avoid being hit by airborne vegetables, Philo had backed up his tractor and headed straight for the SUV. My mother and Iris shrieked, thinking he was going to hit them but he stopped just inches from the hood of the car.
“You have two seconds to get in your car and get out of here,” Philo said. I’d met him on a few
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occasions and thought laid–back was his only mode of operation, but it would appear he also had a scary–as–hell mode in his bag of tricks.
“We’ll be back with the police!” my mother yelled unwisely as she and Iris slid awkwardly off the hood, which was littered with veggies and tomato splatters. So were they. The two of them ran to the doors of the SUV and yanked them open.
—
“You come back with the police so I can say hi to my girl! She’s the Deputy Chief,” one woman — Astraea? — yelled from where she’d come to stand beside me, then she looked at me. “Proud of her, even if she went to work for the Establishment. I guess there’s one in every family.”
“I see,” I said a bit shakily, my mind unable to keep up with everything I’d just heard and
witnessed.
Then she turned back to Iris, her smile seemingly bright and cheerful but also a bit like poison. “Tell her I’m making barbecued tofu for dinner if she wants to stop by, enough for her and all the officers. They’re always stopping by to eat, and that’s why every last one of them calls me Mom.”
My mother’s face was suffused with anger as she started backing up the car pretty fast. Philo followed her, staying just off her bumper to discourage her from trying to get around him.
“Dash won’t be happy when he hears about these lunatics you’re staying with,” Iris yelled from the safety of the SUV. “He’ll be worried about the baby’s safety and your mental health.”
That was met with another barrage of vegetables, a tomato somehow making it through the passenger window and hitting Iris in the face. Once Mom was out the gate, it slammed shut and she tried executing a three–point turn (which was actually more like ten points) before she was
able to floor it away from Serenity.
We all stood there for a moment, and my shoulders sagged as I realized I’d brought this on these lovely people who’d been nothing but kind to me.
“I need to leave,” I said out loud. Sunny was beside me, as was Mist, and Aggie had pulled up in
front of me,
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Aggie said, as if that settled everything.
“I brought Crazy and Nasty to your door. I’m disrupting Serenity.”
“Isn’t the first time and won’t be the last,” Aggie said. “This is mild, child, compared to some scenes we’ve had over the years. And if anyone’s serenity was disrupted too badly, trust me —
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these people know how to get their mellow back.”
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.