Not a Drop to Drink (15 page)

Lynn’s eyes narrowed. “What’s up?”

“I want you to go over to check on Eli and Neva. My foot won’t hold up to the trip, so I thought I’d stay here and watch over things for you.”

Lynn tried to ignore the little skip in her heartbeat. “Something wrong?”

“I don’t think so, no. But it’s their first real blizzard so it wouldn’t hurt to check.”

Bleak winters could drive even the most seasoned country dwellers to the brink. Mother had told her of a married couple who’d survived the violence immediately following the Shortage, only to have the wife go after her husband with a hatchet during the winter that followed. Being shut indoors could do funny things to people, Mother had said.

“I can do that,” Lynn said carefully, certain there was more.

Stebbs unshouldered his backpack. “Take ’em this. It’s got vegetables enough to get them through for a little while. Bring the pack back, and we’ll stock ’em up again in a bit.”

“And what are they giving you in return?”

“They’ve got nothing to give.”

Lynn took the pack reluctantly. “I don’t like you just giving them things. When does it stop?”

“When they’re able to look after themselves.”

“And when will that be, with you always treating them like they’re babies fresh out of their mothers?”

Stebbs gave Lynn a hard look. “I know you’re just saying what you think your mother would’ve wanted. Seems to me you’re starting to grow a heart on your own, but every now and then you think of her and it kills it dead like the frost to a seedling. You weren’t taught any different, but it used to be that people helped each other.”

“Used to be a lot of things different.”

“But people are still the same,” Stebbs said, an edge on his voice that usually wasn’t there. “And all everyone is trying to do is survive.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re not exactly in bad shape, kiddo. Those poor bastards your mom blew away over the years? They was just trying to get a drink, to get by one more day. Shit, one time the widow of this fella came back to my place, out of her head ’cause she saw one of your mom’s bullets peel off part of her husband’s skull. Died the next day, she did, and I’m not so sure it wasn’t the shock that killed her.”

Lynn fiddled with the strap on the bag he’d handed her. “When was this?”

“Seven years or so back.”

“That wasn’t necessarily Mother that shot him. That might have been me.”

“Jesus.” Stebbs put his head in his hands and left it there. “You woulda been just a kid.”

Lynn glanced over to where Lucy was playing the flute, happily plugging different holes to change the notes. “Killing people was easier when the only face I ever saw was Mother’s. Back then, anyone else was the enemy and shooting at an outline in a scope wasn’t any different than taking down a deer, just in a different shape.”

“And now?”

“Now I’ve seen other faces,” Lynn said, thinking of the traveler on the road, who Lucy had begged her not to shoot. “And I can’t help but wonder what the people I shot looked like.”

Stebbs patted her knee. “We’ll leave it there.”

“There was a man on the road the other day,” Lynn said. “I meant to tell you when we came to your place, but what with you falling and . . .” She trailed off, unable to say “water witch” even in the privacy of her basement. “. . . uh, all the excitement, I forgot to tell you.”

“This man, did he pass by?” Stebbs watched her carefully.

“He did, and Lucy talked me out of killing him.”

“She’s a good influence.”

Lynn shoved his shoulder. “He said—”

“He
said
?” Stebbs eyebrows flew up in surprise. “You
talked
to this guy?”

“I did, and I’ll be done talking with you if I can’t get a word in edgewise,” Lynn said, pointing her finger at him while she spoke. Stebbs threw his hands up in surrender and she went on. “He said that he was turned out of his place, that men had come and taken what was his, right down to his shoes.”

Stebbs digested that information for a minute, eyes on Lucy and her innocent play. “He say whereabouts this happened?”

“To the east, but the men were in trucks. They could’ve come from anywhere.”

“So they’re rifling for supplies but have enough gasoline to travel to find them . . . that doesn’t feel quite right.”

Lynn shrugged. “It doesn’t, but I’m not trying to wrap my brain around it. I’m just going to shoot them, they come this way.”

“In their case, fire away,” Stebbs said, gaze still on Lucy, mouth grim.

Lynn looked at the little girl happily piping on her flute, oblivious to the threats that seemed to surround them. Dread bloomed in Lynn’s stomach, along with a fierce streak of protective rage that usually only surfaced when she thought of the pond. She shoved it down with effort and opened the pack Stebbs had handed her. There were two cans of green beans, a Mason jar of dried sweet corn, and a can of peaches.

“Peaches,” she said awkwardly. “I bet Neva’ll like that.”

“She’s doing better, that girl. Talking about starting a garden in the spring. I gave Eli a bow of mine and he’s a better shot than you’d have guessed. We won’t be carrying their weight for long.”

“Lucy says Neva’s mom is coming to find them.”

“Eli said as much, last time I was over to the stream.”

“He tell you
how
she was going to find them?”

“You mean the satellite maps?” Stebbs shrugged. “I figured people were still using those, yeah.”

“Stalactite maps, you mean,” Lynn said, using the word Lucy had so carefully pronounced whenever they talked about it.

“Uh . . .” Stebbs struggled to keep a straight face. “No, Lynn. Those are called ‘satellites,’ not ‘stalactites.’ Trust me on that one, kiddo. The little one must’ve gotten her head a bit muddled.”

Lynn flushed at her mistake and her irritation seeped into her words. “So you never thought to tell me something was watching us from the sky?”

“Well, now you know. And what are you going to do about it?”

Lynn tossed the rest of her coffee on the fire, where it hissed in the flame. “Nothing.”

“That’s right. There’s nothing you can do except worry about it and get yourself all worked up.”

“Still would’ve liked to have known,” she said sullenly. “If people in the city can see my pond without me being able to see them, I don’t much like it.”

Stebbs rolled his eyes. “Use your head for something other than aiming a rifle, Lynn. I know it’s hard for you to grasp how many people are in Entargo, but it’s thousands. Your pond could help maybe a hundred of them for a week and then it’d be all over. You’re only the one person—two now, I guess—so to you it’s a lifeline. To them it’d be a swallow. Same with my little well, if they could see it. We’re small fish, kiddo, and I’m glad of it.”

“Then why are they even looking?”

“Eli said his brother Bradley was part of a special team that did a little work on the side for private citizens. Only very few people know that the satellites are still running, or what they’re looking at. I’m bettin’ those people were important enough to have money, and a backup plan in case things in the city went bad. ’Cept in Bradley’s case he took what he was paid to find out and used it for himself once they knew Neva had an illegal baby growing inside her.”

“Eli tell you Neva’s mom is a doctor?”

“Yup. I wouldn’t mind meeting her.” Stebbs winced as he raised his still-swollen ankle and rested it on Lucy’s cot. “It’s better,” he said, “but I probably shouldn’t have tried walking over here yet.”

“So I think . . .” Lynn’s voice trailed off as she searched for words. “I think maybe I know part of what’s wrong with Neva. With her hurting, like you talked about.”

Stebbs laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back, watching Lynn closely. “Uh-huh?”

“Lucy said that some of the soldiers came and got Neva out of their cell after they arrested them, and when they brought her back she wouldn’t talk.”

“Uh-huh?”

“So I think they hurt her.”

“I’m sure they did,” Stebbs said, still watching Lynn’s face.

“So . . . what’d they do?”

“Your mom never told you much about men, did she?”

“Not much that was nice.”

Stebbs leaned forward and put his face in his hands. “Oh, Lord, that I should be the one having this conversation. Thanks a lot, Lauren.”

Minutes later, a red-faced Lynn was fighting through snow on her way to the stream. “Thanks a lot, Mother,” she muttered to herself. “That wasn’t embarrassing or anything.”

Her anger fueled her progress, and Lynn reached the little house by the stream before she’d fully recovered from Stebbs’ revelations. Eli was outside, awkwardly attempting to hang a deer by himself. He heard her approach before she hailed him, and turned with the deer still slung over his shoulder, giving her an awkward wave.

He was wearing an old pair of coveralls from Stebbs that would have been much too big for him at their first meeting, weeks ago. Now he filled them out, and the color in his face was as much from healthy exertion as the frigid air. She felt a rush in her veins that had nothing to do with the walk, but she stamped on it, the memory of what Stebbs had just told her too fresh in her mind to even meet Eli’s gaze.

“You’re doing that wrong,” Lynn greeted him.

“Hello to you too.”

She walked past him to the tree, inspecting the rope that he had slung over one of the lower branches. “This isn’t high enough, your deer isn’t going to be off the ground. You can field dress it on the ground and hang it after.”

“Field dress?”

“Just put it down,” Lynn said, and Eli gratefully dropped the animal. They knelt beside the body together. Lynn pulled out the arrow carefully, to avoid breaking the tip. “Nice shot,” she said.

“Thanks.” Eli took her first kind word as encouragement. “Stebbs has been working with me. It’s my first deer.”

“She’s a decent size. With just the two of you eating off her, you’re set for the winter.” Lynn rolled the doe onto her back. “Got a good knife?”

“Stebbs gave me one, yeah.”

“Well, get it.”

When Eli returned, knife in hand, she motioned to the backpack she’d brought with her. “That’s from Stebbs too, he sent you along some vegetables.”

“Thank him for me.”

“I will.”

They regarded each other uneasily over the dead doe’s belly. Lynn held out her hand for the knife. “Here, I’ll show you.”

“Tell me how, let me try.”

Lynn shook her head. “Making the first cut is a tricky business. You’ve got to get through the pelt and the muscle but if you cut down into the intestines you’ve got a mess on your hands and hell of a smell. Trust me on that. Let me do the first bit, then I’ll hand it over.”

With a knife in her hand, Lynn relaxed. The methodical work of field dressing restored her spirits, and once she surrendered the knife to Eli the task of instructing him took all her concentration. His inexpert knife-handling skills would’ve cost him a finger if she hadn’t been there, and the look on his face when she instructed him to reach into the rib cavity and pull out the heart was enough to make her glad she was.

She removed her own gloves. “Here, I’ll show you,” she said, and stuck half her arm into the warm depths of the deer, emerging with the dripping organ.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, the color in his cheeks she’d noticed earlier suddenly gone.

“Beats eating grasshoppers,” she shot back, and Eli burst out laughing, catching her by surprise and causing an unguarded smile to spread across her own face. “What?”

“Just you, standing there with blood up to your armpit and a heart in your hand, happy as can be.” Eli stifled another laugh. “And my mom had a musician all picked out for me.”

“Fat lot of good that would do you out here,” Lynn said, turning her attention back to the carcass and trying to ignore the pleasant flush that had crept up her cheeks. “Boost me up into the tree and toss me the rope.”

The two of them had the deer hung in a few minutes. “It’s cold enough now, you can just let it hang for a bit to cure,” she said. “One of us will show you how to butcher.”

Eli wiped the sweat that had beaded on his brow despite the cold weather. “Thank you,” he said, catching her gaze. “For everything.”

Lynn kicked snow over the purple mound of organs and grunted. “You’re welcome. How about in exchange you tell me about these water maps?”

“Stebbs tell you about that, or Lucy?”

“Both,” Lynn said. “But Lucy let it slip first.”

Eli sighed and looked up at the carcass. “Neva’s got this idea in her head that if she treats her like an adult, Lucy will act like one. But I knew she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

“She needs to learn,” Lynn said. “I’m guessing you didn’t know she can douse?”

“What’s that mean?”

“Witch water,” Lynn tried again, but Eli’s face remained blank. “She can find water good as any of those satellite things. Better even, since the water she finds is underground.”

Eli swallowed once, hard. Lynn was glad to see that city or not, he was smart enough to know what kind of danger that put the little girl in. “It’s genetic,” Lynn explained. “Someone in your family is able to do it, though Stebbs says it can skip generations. I’m guessing whoever it was never even knew, living in Entargo like you do.”

“Did,” Eli corrected. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know about the water maps, but we’re going inside to talk. I can pretend to be tough for two more minutes, but I’m freezing, and I think we’ve got enough conversation to last the afternoon.”

Lynn glanced up at the sun. “I can stay a little,” she said hesitantly. “But I’m not sure how welcome I am inside.”

“Neva’s not in there,” Eli said. “She’s out at the grave.”

“By herself?”

“I couldn’t get her to come away,” he said. “Once the snow stopped, she went right to it and started clearing away the drifts. I’ve been watching the deer upstream, and I knew they came to the same spot every morning, so I needed to be there at the right time. But Neva wouldn’t budge, so I had to leave her behind.”

“She been there all day?”

“Mostly. I got the deer about right after sunrise, dragged it back here, and went to check on her. I took her something to eat, but she refused to move.”