CZM Book Club: The Barrow Will Send What it May, Chapter Six

Margaret reads chapter six of her book, The Barrow Will Send What it May.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cool Zone Media.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's the Cool Zone Media book Club. Hello, and welcome
to Cool Zone Media book Club. That's the jingle that
we've always used. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and this
is the book club where you don't have to do
the reading because I do it for you. I'm your host,
Margaret Kiljoy. I might have already said that, I'm not certain,
but what I haven't told you yet is what we're

(00:28):
reading this week. Although you probably know because it's the
same thing we read last week, only an additional chapter
further in. And also it's probably in the title. It
might even be why you clicked on it. I don't know.
We're reading The Barrow Will Send what it May Chapter six,
which is the second book in the Danielle Kaine series,

(00:49):
which I started reading on book club because book Club
started with me reading the first book in the series,
called The Lamble Slaughter of the Lion a year and
a half ago or whenever it was. And now the
third book, which is called The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice,
is about to come out. The pre orders are available now,
and so I thought that you all should get to
hear the second book for free. So I started reading

(01:12):
it to you. I'm still reading it to you. And
then after that, I'm really excited about what comes after that.
But you don't get to know yet, but I get
to know, and so I get to have a nice
thing and you don't until later. I'm going to do
the thing where I read you the last couple paragraphs
of what we read last week, just so that you
know what happened in case or whatever. Here they are.

(01:36):
Half an hour later, the library door opened and shut,
and several pairs of feet trumped up the stairs. Hey,
Thursday shouted, we're back. More shuffling of feet as someone
presumably Thursday, walked through the whole of the apartment. At last,
he opened the door to the room we were in.

(01:57):
Where's Vacilla's dun dund dum. That's the cliffhanger. But you
don't have to wait anymore, because you already waited. Chapter six.
Son of a Shit, Thursday roared, running down the stairs
to search the library below. Gertrude stood in the living
room staring at Heather. A weak smile sat on the

(02:18):
older woman's lips, and fear and sadness were fighting for
control of her eyes. He killed her, She asked, running
a finger along Heather's cheek. We really had to do
something with the body. I never would have guessed I'd
ever be too busy to deal with a dead body
of a new friend. But there we were, scrambling to

(02:39):
keep everyone else still alive while a corpse grew cold
on the table. How long till it started to rot?
Sort of? I answered, he definitely killed me, though, Asola
walked into the room, and he killed two of my
friends to bring you back. I'm sorry, she said, I

(03:03):
didn't know. I couldn't get a good read on whether
or not she was lying. What's your story? I asked,
for real, what happened to you? I died of cancer.
I remember dying. It was peaceful, a sharp end of pain,
like falling asleep, but simpler, better. I was in the

(03:26):
hospital in Billings and there were flowers everywhere, and he
was next to me, holding my hand. He was crying.
We never had children, him and me. I never wanted them.
Just for a second, I wished I'd had kids, someone
else for him to love. He's never been good at

(03:46):
not having someone to love, and I worried about him.
I wanted to tell him it was fine. I wanted
to tell him I was going to a better place,
that he could still love me or love someone else too,
and that i'd see him again. But I didn't say anything.
It was all too complicated. I didn't know how to

(04:07):
say it. I just let myself die. I nodded. Then
I woke up in our bed here in town. I
died with snow out the window. I woke up to
the sound of summer birds. Six months had gone by.
He he told me what he'd done, A bit of it,

(04:28):
only part of it, I'm guessing. He told me he'd
brought me back to be with him. He told me
he couldn't live without me. And you left him, I asked.
I didn't say anything at all. For a whole day,
I laid in bed thinking about everything. He was respectful.
He noticed I wasn't feeling right, and he slept on

(04:50):
a cot next to our bed. He only left my
side to bring me food and water. He just sat
there reading books while I laid there thinking it over.
There are so many sides to every person. After I
stayed up through the night. When the sun rose up again,
I looked at him, and the first words I said

(05:11):
were till death dew. We part. Then I told him
it's not right what he did. I told him the
dead or supposed to stay dead, and what he'd done
wasn't right by God. I'd always known and loved God
more than my husband did, and my husband had always
loved me more than he'd loved God. So I moved out,

(05:32):
simple as that. That was the last thing I'd ever
wanted to think about any of it. Then your friends
show up tonight, tell me he's liable to kill me.
Part of me thinks he'd be right to do it.
Most of me, though, is just damn scared. Vulture put
his arm around Gertrude, and she hugged him. I decided

(05:53):
I believed her, not completely, But you don't need to
believe someone completely to choose to believe them enough that
you can act on their way, much like I believe
in the goods and services that support this very podcast,
my favorite, and we're back. One of the books is

(06:23):
missing Doomsday, said Crouch, next to the stack of books
on the floor, small one, gold spine, black cover. It's
where I learned about witches fire. She looked up toward
the window where she'd been sitting earlier. Fucking gun is gone. Too,
getting fucking sick of people stealing my gun. Vascillis went

(06:43):
to the gift shop. I bet, I said, he's trying
to get into the basement, trying to get the book
without waiting for us. I thought that through for another moment.
He wants the book because he's going to try and
resurrect Heather. I bet he'll kill mister Miller to do it.
He seemed to Doomsday said, but I didn't realize he
was both desperate and stupid. Men will do anything if

(07:07):
they think it's in the best interest of some woman
they love. Gertrude said, whether or not the woman agrees.
Thursday rushed back up the stairs, slamming open the apartment door.
He's not in the library. I checked everywhere. He probably
went after Sebastian, I said, okay, Thursday said Vulture, Brinn Danielle,

(07:30):
we'll go after him. Doom, you stay here guard these two.
The town was just starting to rise as we tore
down the main road on bikes, and people came out
of stores on the main strip to stand on the
boardwalk and stare. Crows and Magpie sat on the power
lines watching us too. We hit the one traffic light

(07:53):
on a red and waited. Though there were no cars
coming in any direction. Thursday pulled up beside me. I
feel like it's high noon or something, he laughed. I
heard shouting up ahead and ran the light. Vasillis and
Sebastian stood in the shadow of the Tyrannosaur, not ten
feet distant from each other, weapons leveled. Vasillis held Doomsday's

(08:17):
pistol in a one handed amateur grip. Sebastian held a
bolt action hunting rifle shouldered sis men Brenn said, shaking
her head. She dropped her bike on the street and
flicked open her baton, walking toward the pear, Hey, I shouted.
If the two exchanged fire, it wouldn't work out well

(08:38):
for either of them. Vasillis didn't know what he was doing,
but he had a semi automatic pistol and likely a
full magazine. Sebastian and probably brought down an animal or
two in his day, but a bolt action rifle ain't
the tool for the job of close combat. They both
turned to look at me. Who in God's name are
you people, Sebastian asked, I'm Danielle. I said, I knew

(09:02):
what he meant, but I didn't feel like answering his
implicit question. I caught this man trying to break into
my place of business. I have every legal right to
shoot him if he doesn't leave the property. You don't
care about law, I said, I don't care about law.
I care about what I can get away with, and
that includes shooting your face tattooed freak of a librarian. Friend.

(09:25):
You don't want that. I don't even know what I
want anymore. All the fuss had attracted some onlookers. We
are at the very end of town, but a few
people had already filtered over. None of them looked particularly
friendly toward us in their shoes. I wouldn't be either.
He's stalling, Brenna whispered into my ear, waiting for a crowd.

(09:48):
We should bring him down now. No, come on, I
said back. I don't want Vicilis to die. I'm sick
of seeing people die. We'll talk our way through this.
Sebastian had a small backpack thrown over one shoulder. Vascillas
kept eyeing it, and Sebastian kept moving his body unconsciously
to keep it as far from his assailant as possible.

(10:09):
The book was in there. It was a hunch, nothing
to gamble, alife on. I approached, raising my hands over
my head. Stay back, Sebastian said, his voice was cracked
with worry and exhaustion. For all the world, he could
have just been someone's dad if things had played out
the slightest bit differently, he'd have just lived his life

(10:31):
reading thrillers and watching TV and hunting, and none of
this would have happened. Just want to talk this through,
I said, We're at an impasse. Let's find a way
past it. I don't see the impasse. I've got the
upper hand. You attack us, we'll kill you. We attack you,
you kill one of us, and likely at least some

(10:52):
of us end up in jail. You included you'll end
up in jail in either scenario, he said. Do you
think people with face tattoos are the kind of people
who are afraid of ending up in prison? I asked,
I stepped closer. I approached from his right side, which
was convenient because it's the harder direction for a right
handed shooter to swing a rifle. I wasn't near enough

(11:14):
to reach his gun even if I lunged, but I
was getting close. You think you can scare women who
spent their lives hitchhiking alone. You think a man who
raises the dead would be afraid of a bunch of
fucking punk kids, No, Brent said, standing shoulder to shoulder
with me. You're right. You're not afraid of us. You're

(11:35):
a different kind of coward. You're afraid of being alone.
You didn't resurrect your wife for her. You did it
for you. Take one step closer and I'll shoot at
least two of you. See, I said, what was I
telling you? Impasse? I looked over my shoulder. Thursday and
Vulture were there with the bikes. Thursday had his hand

(11:58):
in his hoodie pocket, Culture at his phone. A serious
crowd was gathering, maybe ten people already, with another dozen
on their way. They stayed clear of the line of
fire between the two armed men, but were getting awfully
close to the rest of us. A few of them
were open carrying pistols at their waists. Interpersonal crime is

(12:20):
so much more annoying to commit in open carry states.
At the back of the crowd, leaning against the glass
front of a lawyer's office, a man with black sunglasses
and a black suit sipped coffee, his blonde hair in
a tight bun. Next to him a freckled woman with
her hair in a sixties bob dressed identically to the
man ate a doughnut. They weren't part of the crowd.

(12:44):
They were just watching fucking magic Feds. Hipster magic Feds.
You need any help, mister Miller, A young voice shouted, why, Yes,
I need these products and services. He shouted back, because
he too, all sides of a conflict really could do
a lot with products and services, just like you can.

(13:18):
And we're back. These punks broke into my shop, he answered.
I scared them off because they're chicken shit, but they
got me out numbered out here. Fuck this, I took
another step forward. Sebastian started to swing the gun around
to face me. Long barrel, terrible for close range. I

(13:39):
pushed in closer, knocking the barrel aside. Used my bad
arm to do it, which I shouldn't have, the stitched
up wound in my shoulder, complained. Got my knife out
of my pocket and open in one motion, brought it up.
He flinched hard, closing his eyes, dropping the rifle to
points slack at the ground while he covered his throat.

(14:00):
I cut the strap of his backpack down at the
bottom where the strap is thinnest and the farthest away
from meat, and snatched it. I stomped the barrel of
his rifle and disarmed him. Too many armed strangers around
to kill him then and there, bucking run. Brynn shouted,
We ran. Vacillis came with us. Thursday at the front,

(14:23):
put his knot in substantial mass to bear, and plowed
through our audience before they had time to react. We
got off the main street first thing, and Vacillis took
us through an alley. Brynn overturned a dumpster in our
path to slow down our pursuers ahead of us. Thursday shouted.
Four men at the mouth of the alley barred our path.

(14:44):
We grabbed a second dumpster and pushed it ahead of
us on its castor wheels. I pushed with my one arm,
the other hurt like hell. I might have ripped the stitches.
A shot rang out the ping against the steel side
of the dumpster, almost as loud as the report itself.
Couldn't have been a long gun, or it would have

(15:04):
gone through and probably into someone I cared about. All
five of us were packed tight behind our moving shield,
and I found that strange clarity I've only ever known
in riots. The world had always, it seemed, been against
me and my friends. These, though, were moments of me
and my friends against the world. I know that's bullshit

(15:27):
on a bunch of different levels. Hell, the people shooting
at us right now weren't even our enemies. I wouldn't
shoot back even if I could, but our collective power
felt like its own magic. Just then, in the early morning,
in some small town in Montana, we'd picked up speed
and shouted our wordless power. We hit the street as

(15:48):
I'd guessed. The men trying to stop us moved out
of the way of the couple hundred pounds of steel
barreling toward them. They were still armed, though, and we
were in the open in the street, the library twenty
feet way. Another shot rang out, but it wasn't from
our assailants. Thursday had his gun out. He'd fired at
the ground by their feet. They bolted, taking cover behind cars.

(16:12):
They'd be returning fire any second. We sprinted for the library,
Thursday covering us, firing shots to keep our attackers behind cover.
Doomsday met us with the door open, and I dove through.
Bangs everywhere, loud ones and tinny ones and ones that
just went poof more than bang, and just way too
much gunfire everywhere. Thursday was pinned down behind the dumpster.

(16:36):
Bacillias drew his pistol aloft, but Doomsday snatched it out
of his hand and stepped aside, firing calmly. I don't
think she was aiming to keep those guys pinned down.
I think she was aiming for the guys themselves. They ducked.
Thursday ran zigzag. A shot shattered the glass of a
window not a meter in front of him, but he

(16:59):
got in through the door, and Doomsday slammed it shut.
The firing stopped. I fucking hate gunfights. Dun, dun, dune.
I guess that's not really a cliff Well, it's a cliffhanger.
You don't know what's gonna happen in chapter seven or
chapter eight, which is the number of chapters. There's eight chapters,
and you're six of them through. But they've made it through.

(17:22):
They've got the backpack that might have the book, and
they're back in the library and they're safe for now,
and everyone's dead and dying and everything's complicated, and I
guess without Robert here. I should probably just talk about
the book a little bit.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
One of the main things I think about rereading this
several years after it came out, and you know, many
years after I wrote it, I know a lot more
about guns than I did before. I don't think I
got anything of this particularly wrong, like long guns are
not particularly good for close combat, and dumpster steel is
probably not going to stop rifle rounds and all this thing,

(18:00):
But I keep calling everything a pistol, like I don't
even say what kind of gun it is. I'll be
lucky if I don't call it a clip instead of
a magazine at some point. And these things probably don't
really matter to the average reader at all, but it's
just funny to think about. I don't know, I like
this story. I'm glad to read it to you. I
feel like I should have more clever things to say

(18:22):
about it, because it's a book club and I'm supposed
to talk about the books, but I wrote this one,
so it's complicated. This chapter is kind of where the
theme of the book that I was really going for
sort of starts to come into its own, which is
around the first book is really about, like the concept
of power right, And this idea of like summoning a

(18:44):
demon to stop people from taking power over other people,
and how that actually becomes exerting a sort of power
in and of itself and things like this, And this
one is probably fairly transparent, but it is much more
intentionally around feminism and around the kind of things that
people do for love, and in particular like heterosexual couple

(19:09):
blah blah blah blah blah, patriarchy, etc. You know, this
idea like, oh, you didn't bring her back for her,
you brought her back for you, you know. And I
don't think it's like an entirely cynical take. It's a
slightly cynical take, obviously, you know. But I think that
that was the primary theme I was just trying to
get across with this book. And it's not really up

(19:33):
to me to say whether or not I succeeded. But
there's going to be more about all of that next week,
when you can hear the next chapter. Okay, bye everyone.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
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