The Edge of the Shadows (32 page)

It definitely was.

• • •

THE PROPERTY LIGHTS
were on when Derric and Becca drove up the incline of Ralph Darrow's driveway. The trail lights were also on as they wended their way around the hillock. But the house below the hillock was dark, and Becca would have thought that Ralph was not at home except his truck was in its regular place and the hour suggested he had probably already gone to bed. On the porch, she kissed Derric fondly and went inside the house with a wave goodbye.

If Ralph was asleep, she didn't want to take the chance of waking him up, so Becca didn't turn on any lights. She knew the place well enough to find her way to her room and besides, there was still a glow in the fireplace where embers told her that Ralph was probably at home. She began to cross the room toward the hall that would take her to the back of the house. But she stumbled against Ralph's armchair.

He was sitting in it in absolute silence. She gave a cry of surprise, but then she saw that he was asleep. It was a deep sleep if she hadn't awakened him, but she didn't want to leave him there till morning because she knew what a grump he'd be if he woke up all stiff. So she reached for the light next to his chair to rouse him. She put her hand on his shoulder and said his name and when the light fell on his face, she saw that something was very wrong.

His eyes were open halfway. His face was gray. One side of it pulled down in what looked like a sneer.

She said, “Mr. Darrow? Grand?” He did not respond.

She saw then that he had the receiver of the cordless phone in his hand. He'd had his dinner by the fire because his empty plate was by his chair on the floor, but there was nothing else. No book, no game of chess set up, no magazine, nothing. Just the phone in his hand and she grabbed it from him.

She saw from the screen that he'd dialed nine and one and that's all. And she understood he'd been trying to call for help.

She cried out once, but then she made the emergency call. When that was done, she immediately called Seth.

FIFTY-EIGHT

S
eth came out of the hospital and looked around. He saw Prynne sitting on a bench beneath a sugar maple on one side of the parking lot, and he walked over to her. She stood when he reached her.

His throat hurt, so tight it was with everything he'd been holding in. The last thing he wanted to do was to cry, so he concentrated on Prynne. “Aren't you cold? Why'd you come outside?”

“Better energy out here,” she said to him. “I wanted to send him whatever I could. What's happening?”

“Dad's calling everyone. My sister, my aunt, all my great-uncles. Nieces, nephews, you name 'em. They're coming.”

Prynne gazed up at his face. “But he was breathing, right? Becca said he was breathing. She said his eyes were open. She said . . . Oh Seth, I'm sorry. It's a stroke, right?”

Seth nodded. He went to sit on the bench and he stared at the ground. “I don't want him to die,” he said.

Prynne dropped beside him. She put her arm around him and roughly kissed the side of his head. “He
won't
. What happens next?”

“They said the next twenty-four hours will tell them a lot. If he makes it, he'll . . . God, it'll kill him to go into rehab. Or . . . What if he can't live at home anymore? Prynne, he's lived there for more'n forty years. If they make him leave, it'll kill his spirit. It'll—”

“You're getting ahead of yourself,” Prynne said. “Maybe this whole situation is something you guys need to take one hour at a time. D'you think?”

He met her earnest gaze. “Yeah. I think.”

• • •

SETH PICKED UP
his sister at the Whidbey-SeaTac Shuttle late the next morning. She'd managed to get the first flight out of San Jose. Prynne was with him still, and he introduced them but Sarah hardly noticed that Prynne was a female and probably Seth's girlfriend because her mind was completely on their grandfather. He was holding on, Seth told her.

“Everyone's at the house,” he said.

He meant his parents' place. It was larger than Ralph's and large was needed because Seth and Sarah's aunt Brenda had arrived on the scene, and Aunt Brenda required space to spread out the fullness of her response to her father's condition. This response so far involved a lot of shouting and insisting that “plans” had to be made at once. The great uncles were all there, Ralph's four brothers along with their wives. Along with Seth's mom and dad, the house was teeming with people.

All of them had opinions about what should happen next, but Brenda was insisting that “as the oldest child of the patient in question,” her opinion on the matter held sway. She'd been arguing vociferously for permanent assisted living. They needed to sell Ralph Darrow's property in order to maintain his life in a way that was comfortable, she said.

“You're out of your mind,” was how Seth's dad greeted this. Ralph Darrow's brothers joined him in this opinion. “It's too soon to be making decisions like that.”

That point didn't deter Brenda, who spoke of gaining conservatorship over her father. Nor did Brenda deter Seth's dad, who suggested that they have a look inside Ralph's safe deposit box at the bank in Freeland, to which he—and not Brenda—was a signatory. That enflamed Brenda, so she began to talk of attorneys. Seth's father said no one had
ever
been able to talk to his sister, and he'd stormed outside.

Seth and Prynne had left at that juncture to pick up Sarah. He didn't particularly want to go back.

Sarah said, “Take me to Grand's.”

This was fine by Seth. He wanted to see how Becca was doing. She'd wanted to go to the hospital with the family on the previous night, but Seth had told her to stay at Ralph's and to watch Gus, if she would. He didn't know how long he'd be at the hospital, so he couldn't take the dog.

When they got to Ralph Darrow's place, Gus came charging up from the garden. Becca had been keeping an eye on him from the porch along with Derric Mathieson. They rose from two of the chairs and came to the front steps.

Poor Becca looked like someone who hadn't slept in days. She was still wearing what she'd had on the previous night, and her hair was uncombed and standing up at weird angles. She said, “How is he? What's . . . ?” but didn't seem to want to go on. She was wearing her hearing device and she pulled it from her ear in what looked like a gesture of frustration but then she shuddered for some reason and put it back in.

Seth introduced her and Derric to his sister. Then he said, “He's the same. I guess it's okay because he didn't . . . you know.”

Becca said, “I should've been here. I was supposed to be here. I mean, he knew we were going to La Conner and I'd left him dinner and he'd heated it like I told him to and he'd eaten it because I saw the dish on the floor next to his chair. But if I'd been home—”

“You could've been in your room studying,” Seth said. “You could've gone to bed. You could've been sitting on the front porch with Derric. Sure, if you'd been in the living room with him you could've grabbed the phone and made the call but what were the chances of that, Beck? Don't blame yourself.”

“What's going to happen?” Becca directed the question to all of them in general, but Seth was the one to answer.

“Right now they're all fighting. My dad, my aunt, Grand's brothers. What to do next and everyone wants something different.”

“So what's gonna happen?”

“Nothing for now. No way's my dad letting Aunt Brenda sell this place and—”

“
Sell
it?”

“That's what she wants to do.”

“But no one even knows what's going to happen to him right now,” Derric pointed out.

“Which is why,” Sarah said presciently, “there's going to be one hell of a fight in the Darrow clan.”

• • •

SETH RAN INTO
Hayley that afternoon. He and Prynne were just coming out of the hospital, having left Sarah at Ralph Darrow's bedside. Like Seth's, Sarah's position was simple. No one was sending Ralph Darrow anywhere.

At first, Seth thought Hayley was also there because of his grandfather. But it turned out she was there because of Brooke, who was inside and being taken care of. Hayley explained what was going on. Then, with a glance at Prynne, who was listening sympathetically, she said, “Thanks, Seth. For taking her to the clinic.”

He said, “It's cool. She just didn't want anyone to know she was feeling rotten. And you guys have so much going on. How were you s'posed to figure the whole thing out?”

Hayley didn't look unburdened. She said, “I guess,” in a quiet voice that made Prynne say gently, “But what else, Hayley?”

Hayley gave a shaky smile. She brought her fingers to her lips, and behind them she said, “Brooke knew there's no medical insurance. Derric's mom says there's a group on the island to help people with medical bills, but that's a drop in the bucket at this point unless we do something like . . . Medicaid . . . Welfare. Dad should be on disability, but he's been so stubborn. Like getting on disability will be admitting . . . You know.”

Seth wanted to say that he could help her, but he knew he couldn't, for the problem was vaster than Brooke's bleeding ulcer and Hayley's dad's condition. There was also the farm.

Hayley said, as if reading this on his face, “We're going to have to sell. It'll kill my dad. The farm was his great-grandparents' place. But there's no choice. There's just not enough money. I thought if I didn't go to college—”

“You can't do that, Hayley.”

“—it might make a difference, but it really won't. Nothing will.”

Prynne put her hand on Hayley's arm. She said, “I was talking to Seth about getting through one hour at a time for now. Maybe that's what you guys need to do.”

“There aren't enough hours,” Hayley replied.

• • •

ON THEIR WAY
back from the hospital, it had been the plan to take Prynne to the ferry so that she could go home to Port Gamble. But instead she asked if Seth would mind taking her to Smugglers Cove Farm and Flowers instead. She said, “I've been tossing an idea around about that place, Seth. I think there's a simple solution. Not an easy one, but a simple one.”

So he took her there. But she didn't have him drive her all the way up to the house. Instead she asked him to stop by the chicken barn. At first he thought she was going to make a suggestion about the chickens or perhaps the barn. But instead, when Prynne got out of the car, she walked to the east of the barn. There she looked out into the fields. They were, as they had been for the last twenty-four months or so, lying fallow. They were useless at the moment, good for nothing but weeds.

That, it turned out, was Prynne's point exactly. “Nothing grows better than weeds,” she said.

At first Seth thought she was totally nuts. They were supposed to support themselves growing weeds?

Prynne smiled as if she read his expression. “It's legal now. And there's a huge need for THC. Every day they discover another use for it, Seth. It won't be easy because unless the law changes, it's going to take greenhouses and they'll have to get the state government involved to make sure everything's on the up and up. But the exposure here? They must get at least twelve hours of sun six or eight months of the year. So how tough do you think it's going to be, finding people who're gonna be willing to invest in the biggest cash crop this state is poised to produce?”

“Not
weeds
,” Seth said. “You're talking about weed.”

“Now that it's completely legal in the state, someone's going to grow it. Why shouldn't it be the Cartwrights?”

He looked out at the fields. He could picture them with their future greenhouses, greenhouses that he would help build. With the state's approval and marijuana now legal and medical marijuana in high demand . . . Prynne was right. Someone was going to grow it. Why shouldn't it be the Cartwright family?

He turned and grabbed her by her shoulders. He kissed her soundly. “I think I got luckier than I've ever been in my entire life when I went to Port Townsend to hear you play the fiddle,” he said.

“I don't exactly disagree,” she told him. She stepped into his arms and kissed him back.

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