Chapter 32 Chapter notes

Alice and her siblings visit the reservation to tell Chief Littlefoot that the family will be leaving the peninsula in a matter of days. They're disconcerted by his distracted demeanor, but learn some unsettling truths about the Quileute, the cold ones that had preyed on them over one hundred years ago, and the treaty.

And again, the well-meaning Cullens give money to the tribe with instructions on how to spend it. In their own fumbling way, they think they are projecting an understanding of what it means to live on an impoverished Indian reservation.

The chapter title belongs to The Animals

Chapter 32 We Gotta Get out of This Place Monday, October 2nd

Alice always gets the family ready to move. They bring her the boxes they've packed; she addresses and mails them to the new house. The guy that works at the Post Office eyes Alice suspiciously when she hauls a truckful of boxes in to be mailed for the third day in a row. She sees him telling his wife, "All that stuff you hear about the Cullens is true. They are weird. The little one with the spikey hair? She brought in twenty-two boxes today. Yesterday, twenty-seven. Day before that? Seventeen." He said this as if it was just the most fantastical thing he'd ever seen. Alice thinks he must not be a fun guy to be seated next to at a party.

She takes all the vehicles to the garage to have a final inspection, contacts the utility companies to schedule the shutoff of the power, gas and water, and cancels the cable television service. She then contacts the same agencies and has all the services turned on at their destination.

She fills out the documents to have their mail forwarded. If they're flying, she purchases their tickets. This time, though, they're all driving their own cars, except Emmett, who is leaving his Jeep. It's an off-road vehicle, anyway. Alice sees that at the last minute she decides to leave her yellow GTO, and rides with Jasper in his Raptor.

All the furniture, appliances and large electronics will remain. Emmett ordered a big screen TV last week and paid extra to make sure it would be in place, affixed to the wall, when they arrive in Alaska. He always boxes up his video games and consoles and takes them personally to every new house they move into.

The family has moved often, and each time, Alice has flawlessly overseen the entire process. This time is no different, although it feels wrong to make a move without their brother. She'd peeked into Edward's future and seen him in Flagstaff, Arizona. She projects out and sees him not in Arizona, but on the road.

He's alone, just as he's been since he woke to this life. He'd been graced with a few short months of something like happiness, but it was marred by his constant angst over Bella's decision to join the family. She wishes he could be happy, but she knows that he's not.

Alice walks around the house and peers forward to see if the family will live here again. The further into the future she looks, the murkier the visions become, some with interweaving threads and distant possibilities, some without a terminus.

This concerns her. She's never before been faced with so many inconsistencies regarding her visions. Several times, she's looked forward and been faced with…nothing. Just, nothing. The visions themselves haven't disappeared; rather, they've been terminated at a specific point in time. She can't make sense of it. Because it's an unknown that can't be puzzled out, she keeps it to herself. No need to freak out the family over something none of them truly understand to begin with.

Without the distraction and daily obligatory attendance of school and with the loose ends tied up regarding the move, there is little left to do. Alice's days drag. She becomes moody and Jasper keeps bugging her about it. She tells him she feels guilty about the way she had perceived the Quileute. After actually stepping foot onto the reservation and seeing the desperate circumstances of the people that live there, just miles from Forks, she knows the sight would have kept her up at night, if only she could have slept.

One day, about a week before their forced departure date, Alice tells Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett that she feels compelled to do something for the Quileute before they leave. When she outlines her plan, they're supportive, if a little incredulous. Rosalie and Emmett confer and insist on paying half.

The four of them run until they reach the border, then walk across. After the incident with Jasper and Emery, they don't want to seem threatening. Nobody approaches them until they get to the main road, where they're confronted by the same group that came to the house to tell them about the meeting that separated them from their home in the Olympic Peninsula.

"We're here to see Chief Littlefoot," Alice says, holding a hand up. Emery hears them, and bursts out of a nearby building. He runs out and gives Jasper a big hug.

"I thought you guys had left without saying goodbye!" He looks up at Jasper with obvious affection.

"Soon," Jasper says. "I guess today will have to be our goodbye."

Chief Littlefoot walks out of the Town Hall. He smiles weakly and beckons them to join him in room seven. The same group follows them in and stands in the back of the room in the same, intimidating stance: legs spread, arms folded over chests. Alice thinks they look like bodyguards on steroids.

The Chief gestures for them to sit on the new plastic chairs. Jasper hands him an envelope. "This is for Emery," he says simply. The Chief lifts the flap of the unsealed envelope to find a check made out to Emery Atrea in the amount of $100,000. He glances up at Jasper questioningly.

"He's a good kid. I want him to have choices." The Chief nods slowly. He seems distracted and flustered.

"Um, ah, well, please tell Edward that we are spending his money. We spoke to your lawyer in Seattle and he sent us a woman who is overseeing the clinic construction. To save money, we are doing the demo ourselves. The new one should be ready in a month."

Alice nods. "I'll tell him when I see him. We wanted to keep you up to date on what's going on with the family. We're all packed and plan to go in a week. Our new house is just about ready to move into, so we'll make the 30-day time requirement."

The Chief doesn't respond. Alice says, "You can't know how happy it made Edward when you accepted his gift." The room is silent. Only the heartbeats are audible, and only to the vampires.

"We would also like to give you a gift before we leave." Alice hands the Chief an envelope, much like the one Edward had handed him. He regards it for a moment, then slides his finger under the flap. He reads aloud:

Dear Chief Littlefoot,

Please accept this donation to provide enrichment programs for your schools and community.

Students benefit from programs that prepare them for a trade, such as carpentry, welding, mechanical drawing, and auto shop. They learn sportsmanship and team building skills from engaging in sports such as football, softball, tennis, wrestling and track. Music curriculums have been proven to strengthen memory, develop fine motor skills and aid in behavioral and emotional development.

These funds are for basic supplies, refurbishment of classrooms and the hiring & compensation of teaching staff.

Quileute tribal lore, including its history, language, religion and art, must be shared or it will be lost to future generations. Tribal members would benefit from the opportunity to either attend or teach classes at the library or Town Hall.

The funds can be accessed through our attorney, J. Jenks.

He will send a technical assistant to aid you in making the choices that will best serve your students and tribal members.

Yours,

Rosalie and Jasper Hale

Alice and Emmett Cullen

By this time, Alice thinks the Chief would expect the unexpected from this family, but as he reads the note, tears well in his eyes. She is distraught. "Chief! What is it?"

He wipes his face with an enormous cloth pulled from a pocket in his threadbare overalls. "We have wronged your family. We put something into motion that we regret."

The Chief looks over their heads, not making eye contact with any of them. "I have a confession to make. When our tribe was preyed upon by cold ones more than one hundred years ago, we employed an ancient magic against them. They sickened and some had to be destroyed by their own kind, but we couldn't count on this as a deterrent. We could never be sure that the spell had worked, and that some other agency wasn't involved."

Emmett frowns. "So…Ephraim made the treaty with Carlisle as a failsafe?"

The Chief nods slowly and scrubs his face with both hands. The Cullens look to each other in consternation. "Um, yes. A…failsafe. Records show that the incidents of attack were simply awful. The cold ones surrounded the small encampments and took the Quileute as they slept. The scribe wrote that they woke to screaming and destruction. It was thought that the cold ones sickened due to the magic, but could not explain why the Indians suffered. One instance told of a cold one, so incapacitated that it dropped the young Quileute it was feeding on, but the Indian still died a terrible death.

"It is why Ephraim made the treaty to begin with. He recognized your family as cold ones and thought that the horror would be revisited upon the tribe."

"Why didn't he just attack?" Emmett asks. "It's what I would have done."

"Ephraim came upon your family feeding on our land. At that time, only four more had transformed. Although the numbers were even, he believed Carlisle when he said your family only hunted animals. It's a shame that a more in-depth conversation didn't take place. It would have made the situation clearer, for all of us."

"So you never figured out why the Quileute died that were bitten?" Rosalie asks.

The Chief shakes his head slowly. "Since then, we've wondered if the reaction isn't biological. Perhaps an allergy. In any case, from what Laurent told us, we are not a desirable food source for your kind, as we simply do not smell edible." He thinks for a moment. "It is possible that a cold one—not a member of your family—could, in desperation, try to consume a Quileute. The treaty is flawed, as it is only known to two parties: the Quileute Nation and the Cullens, who had taken a vow not to consume humans. Laurent told us that while your kind are not numerous, neither are you rare. So we failed our people by not disseminating the information more widely."

Alice says seriously, "Humans smell sweet. Fragrant. No Quileute smells like that to us. We can't imagine feeding on something that is, quite frankly, repellent to us, but of course it is possible."

He sighs. "You smell bad to us, as well. Only the members of the Council were aware of the conversation with Laurent, but when Emery came back from what he likes to tell the entire reservation was his 'camping trip', he told us that Jasper never made a move toward him. When Emery had asked why, Jasper had said—"

"I could never bite something that smells like rotten garbage," Jasper interjects with an apologetic look. Alice, Emmett and Rosalie all whip their heads over to look at him and he gives an imperceptible shake of his head. Under his breath he says, "I couldn't tell Emery he smelled like a dog that had been wet, then rolled in a blanket and left to mildew. Sorry."

The Chief nods. "Emery said you two talked about it and you told him the same things that Laurent told us. The ones who have Ephraim's bloodline, and could therefore transform, smell the worst, but the entire tribe has an off-putting odor to your kind."

Jasper says, "Emery was surprised. He thought that we'd all been massing on the border, hiding amongst the shrubbery, just waiting for a stray Quileute to pass by."

"His status as the Seer's grandson lent him a knowledge of," here, he waves his arm around as if to encompass the entirety, "your kind, the treaty and, sadly, the prejudices as well. He was entreated to keep the information secret. It is why he was not surprised, Jasper. He knew you were a cold one."

The Chief hangs his head. "I feel as if I must confess. Billy Black is best friends with Charlie, and didn't want Bella to disappear with your family when we banished you. It is why we forbade Edward to take Bella away from here. As I said, we have wronged you in so many ways."

The vampires get their game faces on. Knowing they will leave the area in days, and will not be back for many decades, if ever, they all shake the Chief's hand and slowly walk out of room seven. Once on the street, Alice tries Edward's phone again, hoping she won't get that stupid recording, but she does. This number is out of service or has been changed.

Alice walks home with her family with a heaviness where her dead heart sits silent in her chest. This whole thing could have been avoided. They don't know where Edward is and every day, Bella strays closer to a future that doesn't include him.

The others murmur amongst themselves. When they reach the house, they find Esme and Carlisle there, finalizing the business preparations for their departure. Alice calls a meeting and soon they're sitting around the table. Edward's chair sits empty, a silent reproach.

Alice tells the story. "So the whole treaty was a bust from the beginning, as the only party that knew about it wasn't a danger to the tribe." She thinks for a moment. "The Indians are suffering from reverse prejudice, I think. They were sure that they'd been singled out by the 'cold ones' for slaughter, not realizing that it was geographical. They just happened to be in the area that intersected the vampires' path up and down the coast."

Carlisle drums his fingers on the table. "I wonder what we could have done to mitigate all of this?"

Jasper squirms in his seat and Alice feels immediate compassion for him. She changes the subject. "I promised Edward I wouldn't look for him, but I did a couple of times, right after he left. I saw him heading south, and then to Phoenix. I only looked one other time, and he was on the road, although I couldn't see where he was headed. Then I quit. I tried to keep my promise and be a good sister."

Emmett growls softly. "But now? What about right now?"

Alice shakes her head. "I can't see him anywhere. I've tried ever since we got far enough away from the reservation, but I can't see anything. Not a street sign, not a shop, not a highway. I've projected into the future, by the week, by the month, but that's where everything gets really hazy." She declines to say that there's just no future in many of her visions, and looks to Carlisle in panic. "You don't think he's—" It's too gruesome for her to continue.

Carlisle frowns. "I'll make some calls," he says with a sigh, and the family disperses.

Alice wonders if it's time to tell them about the inconsistencies in her visions regarding issues in addition to Edward. Deciding she can't burden them right this minute, she keeps silent, vowing to speak to Carlisle about the situation if it doesn't resolve itself.

Everyone disperses, but Alice stays at the table, wishing she could puzzle it out. It had all started with the Quileute, but in that situation, all of her sight had been obliterated. It had come back, once she was free of their presence. Maybe her proximity to the Indians started some chain reaction? She wishes she could know. More than anything, she wishes she could see her brother, but his future has disappeared.

Alice walks to the door and looks out at the masses of trees beyond the river. She thinks of Edward, odd-man out, alone for all his years, who had fallen in love with a human. She, by a strange quirk of fate, had loved him back.

People of color are often the beneficiaries of unfounded prejudice, but they themselves are not immune to its hypnotic effects. The Quileute were unable to venture beyond their preconceptions about the alternate supernatural life form that existed on this peninsula.

They were unable to discern belief from truth.

They had believed the cold ones a mortal threat; their belief made it true to them. But subjective truth isn't reality, the only truth that matters. Sometimes truth is complicated, with varying layers that must be gently prized apart, to be sifted through a screen that is free from bias and hope.

This truth is simple: The Cullens are top-tier predators but do not perceive the Quileute as a food source. It's strangely ironic that another vampire and a child had alerted them to this simple fact. But too late to repair the damage they'd done.

Alice sees a hazy future concerning Bella and Jacob. As Bella's hopes for Edward's return slowly fade, many possibilities arise, the threads weaving in and out in a hopeless tangle. Bella with Jacob. Bella alone, and then, nothing at all.

Alice is puzzled by a new thread that has recently appeared, a strong, sturdy thread that leads off into its own, hazy future. Unlike the ephemeral bits of string that bind the other visions together, this thread is gold.

Emmett stands beside Alice, hands in pockets, hunched in sorrow. "I've never felt so empty," he mutters. He turns to Alice. "You still can't see him?"

Alice shakes her head slowly. "Nothing. It's a big, black, nothing."