Read Sins of the Father for Free Online

Leonard. Watch you don't bang your head."
    Silently, Leonard nodded. He had already seen it. Leonard had no great fear of bumbling into things in the dark. He knew he wasn't exactly smart, and some people said he was as ugly as sin, but he could see as clear as daylight in all but total darkness. It was one of his "special compensations".
    There were others. He was big. He was strong. He was fast. One time, in the Cursed Earth, he had killed three Gila-Munjas with his bare hands after they had caught him out in the open. He didn't seem to feel pain, or the cold, or hunger as much as most people. If he wanted he could go whole days without drinking water, even in a desert. He could survive being poisoned - the claws of one of the Gila-Munjas had taught him that. His ears were sharp. He could climb almost anything. He could walk real quiet. He could track and hunt and fish. He could sense heatsign, reading the patterns of warmth in anything near him. His special compensations - that was what his mother had called them.
    "It doesn't matter that you don't look like other people." He remembered his mother's words from long ago, his memory of her so bright and vivid in his mind it was almost as though she was there in the sewers with them. She was beautiful. Her eyes were warm and kind. Her voice was soft and gentle. "You're my little boy and I'll always love you. It doesn't matter if they call you 'mutie', or say you're ugly. Always remember, Leonard: what life takes from you with one hand, it gives with the other. Yes, you were born different. But nature has given you special compensations."
    His special compensations. Like so much else his mother had taught him, Leonard treated the words as sacred. His memories of her, and the things she did and said during their all-too-brief time together, had become the lessons on which he had built his life. His mother's wisdoms were his gospel. Thinking of her now, Leonard felt a terrible yearning pain deep within his chest. His eyes started to water. His vision became clouded.
    "You're thinking of your momma, aren't you?" Daniel asked him. "I can feel it in your head. It always makes you sad."
    "Yeah, it does." Wiping his eyes with the edge of his coat sleeve, Leonard snuffled back his tears. "I miss her, Daniel. I miss her so much." His voice faltered. "You remember the promise we swore, don't you? The one when you said you'd help me find her?"
    "I remember. I'll help you. But remember what you swore as well?" The little boy's voice grew hard. "The bad men, Leonard. The ones who hurt me. You said we'd take care of them first. 'Cross my heart', you said."
    "I remember," Leonard nodded. "Cross my heart, Daniel. Just like I promised. Cross my heart, I'll make them die."
     
    It had been Daniel's idea to go in through the sewers. He had explained it all and Leonard had agreed with him, just like always. As he walked through the muck of the sewers with the boy on his shoulders, it occurred to Leonard how quickly he had become used to Daniel making all his decisions. He did not mind it, of course. Daniel was his friend. If there was one big advantage to that, aside from the fact he was no longer lonely, it was that Leonard did not need to come up with his own ideas any more. It had never been his strongest point, anyway. It was not so much that he was stupid; more that it sometimes took him an age to think things through. Now though, he had Daniel to handle all the hard work of thinking, and Leonard was glad of it.
    As he continued to trudge through the tunnels, Leonard's mind drifted to their conversation back at the warehouse before the sewer journey had started.
    "We have to be careful, Leonard," Daniel had told him. "It's a long walk from here to the bad man's place. It's dark outside, but we have to make sure nobody sees you. If they do, they might call the Judges. You understand, don't you?"
    In reply, Leonard had nodded. He knew what he looked like. He had lifted one of his big hands to