The Shade of the Moon (32 page)

“He’s a great kid,” Syl said. “Spoiled rotten but really very sweet. Matt and I’ve
tried so hard to have children. We feel like Gabe’s a blessing that fell into our
laps.” She paused. “Matt wasn’t optimistic about Lisa’s chances, but we never thought
she’d die. What happened, Jon?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Miss Syl,” Opal said. “But could I have some water to drink?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Syl said. “Come into the kitchen. I’ll find you something to eat.”

“That’s real kind of you, ma’am,” Opal said.

“Call me Syl,” she said. “Now sit down and let me get you something. How about some
potato bread? Things are a little tight around here since I can’t work anymore and
we have Gabe to feed, but there’s still more than enough. Here, some carrots. Jon,
the glasses are over there. We have running water, thank goodness.” She sniffed. “You
stink,” she said. “Your clothes are in your suitcase. Opal, you should fit in mine.
If you don’t mind cold water, you can shower before you go to bed, and I’ll wash your
clothes in the morning.”

“Thank you, Syl,” Jon said, handing Opal one of the glasses and sipping some water
from the other. “Where’s Matt?”

“Working,” Syl said, putting the bread and vegetables on a plate, which she handed
to Opal. “He left yesterday. He’ll be gone for a couple of weeks.”

“I’m sorry I missed him,” Jon said.

“Why don’t you stay?” Syl asked. “Opal can sleep in my room, and you can share Gabe’s.”

Jon swallowed a bite of carrot. “It’s not a good idea,” he said. “A couple of days
ago I told some people my name and where I was from. I didn’t say I was going to Coolidge,
but they might figure it out. It’s too dangerous for all of us if I stay.”

“Start from the beginning,” Syl said. “What happened to Lisa?”

“She killed herself,” Jon said. “She left a note taking full responsibility for stealing
Miranda’s baby from the Stocktons. It probably would have worked except I came home.
And Ruby ran away.”

“The cops picked me up, thinking I was Ruby,” Opal said. “And Mr. Jon here decided
to rescue me.”

“We got married,” Jon said. “Well, I thought we got married.”

“We said our ‘I do’s,’” Opal said. “But we never did no consummating.”

Syl shook her head. “I liked Lisa,” she said. “She was easier for me than Laura. Oh,
Jon, I haven’t said how sorry I am about Laura. You’ve really had a rough time of
it. How are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” Jon said. “So much has happened. I don’t think I really understand
it yet, that she’s gone.”

“She was my teacher,” Opal said. “She was a good woman.”

“I didn’t know you knew,” Jon said. “I never told Ruby.”

“I can figure things out faster than her,” Opal replied. “Miss Syl, I swear these
are the best carrots I ever had.”

“Will you please stop calling me that,” Syl said. “Sister-in-law or not, you’re family.”

“I thank you kindly,” Opal said. “I think I’ll take that shower now. I don’t know
that I ever felt this dirty before.”

“Follow me,” Syl said. “I’ll get you some clean clothes and a towel and soap. Jon,
you wait here. We still have things to talk about.”

Jon looked at the carrots but refrained from eating another. He’d forgotten how beautiful
Syl was, but she’d aged in the last three years, gotten even thinner. Matt earned
decent money, but with Gabe in the house, Syl was probably eating less than she should.

Syl came back a few minutes later. “Keep eating,” she said. “You look starved.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“All right,” she said, and began putting the carrots away. “It’s hard for Gabe. He’s
used to a lot of foods we don’t have. But he won’t go hungry.”

“Will you?” Jon asked.

“Lisa put some money in Gabe’s suitcase,” she replied. “She must have known what she
was going to do. Your friend Sarah wanted to go into town and wave her claver ID around
at the market, but Alex wouldn’t let her. Sarah’s a nice girl, Jon. Very smart. Matt
likes her a lot.”

“I like her, too,” Jon said. “I took Ruby with me—well, I thought she was Ruby—because
she knew Miranda was my sister. The only way I could get her away from the cops was
by marrying her. Only when I did, I had to turn in my claver ID.”

“Strange times,” Syl said. “They make us do strange things. Do you have plans, Jon?”

“I thought we’d go to that town Matt told us about,” Jon said. “The one Alex and Miranda
went to. If they’ll let us in.”

“I think they will,” Syl replied. “Matt says they don’t care about people’s pasts.
Everyone starts out equally. At least that’s the plan. They call it New Harmony. It’s
in Kentucky, about seventy-five miles from here.”

“Seventy-five miles,” Jon said. “A couple of hours by car. Do you think Miranda and
Alex will be safe there?”

“As safe as anyplace,” Syl said. “Matt and I will move there when he gets back. Alex
took Miranda and the baby there, dropped Sarah off with her folks, and went back to
New Harmony. When Matt finishes his last run, Alex will come back here and drive us.
We were hoping you and Lisa would show up by then. Does Opal know about it?”

“Not yet,” Jon replied. “I’ll talk to her about it in the morning. Do you know how
to get to New Harmony, Syl? Can you draw me a map?”

Syl burst out laughing. “Matt’s a courier,” she said. “The whole house is filled with
maps. I’ll show you the route tomorrow. You can take the map. Matt won’t be using
them anymore, thank goodness.”

“Night, Miss Syl,” Opal called. “See you in the morning.”

“I’m coming in,” Syl replied. “Jon and I are through here.”

“Thank you,” Jon said. “Thanks for everything, Syl. Thanks for loving Gabe.”

“You’re my brother,” Syl said. “And now Gabe’s my son. It’s easy to love both of you.”

Tuesday, August 11

Gabe was still sleeping when Jon walked into the kitchen early the next morning. He
was surprised to find Syl there. “You’re up early,” he said.

“So are you,” she said. “Opal’s still asleep.”

“She’s exhausted,” Jon replied. “The trip was hard for her. I knew where we were going
and why, but she came along because no one gave her a choice.”

“She has choices now,” Syl replied. “Not a lot, but more than she probably had in
White Birch.”

“How many bikes do you have?” Jon asked. “I counted three in Gabe’s room.”

Syl smiled. “It was the bike room before Gabe moved in. Matt likes having spares around.
He keeps an extra three in there.”

“And Alex is going to drive you to New Harmony?” Jon asked.

“That’s the plan,” Syl said. “Matt figured New Harmony will be thrilled to have a
car. And Alex can’t return it to Sexton.”

“It’s a pretty big car,” Jon said. “It should fit all of you and a lot of your things,
too.”

“We don’t have a lot of things,” Syl said. “Gabe’s trucks don’t take up much room.
Jon, are you asking if you can take two of the bikes for you and Opal?”

He nodded. “I’d like to get there as fast as possible,” he said. “The bikes would
make a big difference.”

“They’d make a big difference for us, also,” Syl said. “If you and Opal take them,
they’ll be waiting for us when we get to New Harmony. It’s a great idea.”

“Do you have the map?” Jon asked. “I’d like to check the route out.”

“Here,” Syl said. “This is the route Matt showed Alex.”

Jon looked at the map. “It looks pretty straightforward,” he said. “Do you know if
there’s a lot of trucking around there? The fewer people who see us the better.”

“Matt said no when Alex asked,” Syl replied. “But there’s always a chance. Sexton’s
been sending more and more food to this part of the state. I don’t know what we’d
do without their greenhouses.”

“New Harmony isn’t importing food, is it?” Jon asked.

Syl shrugged. “Probably,” she replied. “This is an imperfect world, Jon. The people
at New Harmony are trying a different approach, but that doesn’t mean they’re saintly.
Don’t go in with illusions. They’ll just break your heart.”

“I saw Mom’s body riddled with bullets,” Jon said. “Any illusions I had died with
her.”

“I’m sorry,” Syl said. “I keep thinking of you the way you were in Pennsylvania. We’ve
both grown up since then.”

“I’ve done a lot of bad things,” Jon said. “I’m glad they’re not saints in New Harmony.
I’d never fit in if they were.”

“I know,” Syl said, and rolled her eyes. “Saint Alex.”

Jon laughed. “He’s lost a lot of his saintliness over the years,” he said. “He called
clavers ‘fat asses.’ I heard him.”

“That’s a start,” she said. “If we’re all going to be in New Harmony, I’d better learn
to love him.”

“We’ll be a family again,” Jon said.

Syl nodded. “That’s been Matt’s dream for so long now,” she said. “We’ll make it work.”

“Make what work?” Opal asked, coming into the kitchen.

“Life,” Jon said. “Opal, would you like to go to New Harmony with me?”

“What’s New Harmony?” she asked.

“It’s a town about seventy-five miles from here,” Syl replied. “No grubs, no clavers.
Just people working together.”

“If you don’t want to, we’ll figure out a way of getting you back to White Birch,”
Jon said.

“I can’t go back,” she said. “You know that, Mr. Jon. Ruby’s taken my place and I’ve
taken hers.”

“Matt and I are going to move to New Harmony, Opal,” Syl said. “But not for a couple
of weeks. If you want, you can stay here until then, and we’ll see about getting you
work in Dickerson. They always need girls to do cleaning.”

“So I could be a grub here,” Opal said. “Same as White Birch? Or I could go to this
place and take my chances?”

“We’ll all be taking our chances,” Jon said. “I can’t go back, either, Opal. It’s
not even safe for me to stay here.”

“You’d make a better grub than I ever thought you would,” Opal said. “All that walking
made a real man of you, Mr. Jon. But I guess I’ll see what not being a grub’ll feel
like.”

“You weren’t always a grub,” Jon said. “When you were growing up, you weren’t.”

“Oh, Mr. Jon,” Opal said. “Back on the farm the only ones who didn’t think we was
grubs was the chickens. You don’t need the name to be a grub.”

“Then this is your chance not to be,” Jon said. “We’re friends, Opal. I could use
some friends in my life.”

“Seventy-five more miles,” Opal said. “That’s a whole lot of walking to get to some
strange place.”

“Syl’s letting us borrow two bikes,” Jon told her. “We can leave after Gabe wakes
up and get to New Harmony by tomorrow afternoon.”

“I don’t know,” Opal said. “I ain’t rode a bike since I was real little. What if I
fall?”

“It’s been a long time for me, too,” Jon said. “I’ll be falling, too. We’ll fall together.”

“That’s fair enough,” she said. “When do we start?”

Wednesday, August 12

“You sure this is New Harmony?” Opal asked as they rode their bikes down Main Street.

“I’m pretty sure,” Jon said. “Syl said the town was originally named Westfield, and
that’s the exit we took.”

“We took that exit miles ago,” Opal said. “We passed lots of little towns, with no
one in them. Maybe one of them was New Harmony.”

“Look,” Jon said, gesturing toward a storefront with a sign:
NEW HARMONY MEETING ROOM
.

“Looks empty,” Opal said. “Maybe no one’s around to meet us.”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Jon said. “Everyone’s working. Relax, Opal. We’ll
find out where Miranda and Alex are, and everything will fall into place.”

“Don’t say that word ‘fall,’” Opal said. “It’s no comfort to me that you fell, too.”

Jon grinned. He’d picked up a couple of bruises. But he and Opal had gotten the hang
of it and made great time.

“Let’s say this is New Harmony,” Opal said. “How are we gonna find that sister of
yours? You don’t even know their address. And my recollection is people don’t warm
up to you much when you go asking.”

“You want to do the asking?” Jon asked.

“They ain’t my family,” Opal said. “You do the finding this time.”

“All right,” Jon said. “I’ll ask in there.”

“It says ‘Health Clinic,’” Opal said. “What makes you think they’re sick?”

“I don’t,” Jon replied. “But I bet Miranda took the baby in first thing. You stay
outside with the bikes. I’ll go in and see what I can find.”

“You’ll find trouble,” Opal said, but Jon ignored her. She was scared, and that was
how she acted when fear got the best of her. Not that he blamed her. It was one thing
to find New Harmony. It was another to know what to do there.

He was relieved the door was unlocked. “Hello?” he called. “Anyone here.”

“Just a second,” a girl called out.

It was Sarah. Jon knew that voice as well as he knew any. Sarah’s voice.

He told himself not to be an idiot. Sarah was in Virginia. That was where he wanted
her to be, safe with her powerful uncle. Protected.

But it was Sarah’s voice. And in a matter of seconds it was Sarah Jon was holding.
Sarah, lost to him and now found. Sarah, whose tears and laughter he was now sharing.

“Oh, Jon,” she said. “I was so afraid for you. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Why aren’t you in Virginia?”

“We never got there,” Sarah replied. “We had to wait until Matt got home, and that
took almost a week. Alex drove us to New Harmony, and when I got here, I found a phone
and called Daddy. He said you’d disappeared, and Lisa . . . Oh, Jon, I’m so sorry
about Lisa.”

Jon nodded. “What else did he say?” he asked.

“To stay where I was,” she said. “It was the safest place for me to be. He’ll come
here when he can get a replacement for the clinic. Did you see Gabe? Is he all right?”

“I told him about Lisa,” Jon replied. “But he doesn’t understand yet. He asked me
before we left when Lisa would come. But Syl’s great with him, and when they get here,
Gabe will have all his family with him.”