When the Wind Blows (39 page)

Edna Amber watched the white Chrysler disappear into the night.

Soon, she was sure, the ranch would be teeming with people, and they would find Diana, and everyone would know their secrets. She couldn’t let that happen.

Even though Diana was lost to her, she was still her mother.

Edna put on a coat and went out into the night.

She heaved the heavy garage door open and got into the ancient Cadillac. As she backed it carefully out of the garage, she wondered if she would get there in time, and if she would be able to do what had to be done.

Matt Crowley should have already done it. He’d said he would, but he hadn’t.

That was the trouble with children. They said they’d do things, but they didn’t.

Well, she’d do it herself.

She was old, and she was tired, but her memory was still good, and her husband had taught her things she’d thought she’d never need to know.

Tonight she was going to need that knowledge.

After tonight … after tonight, there would be nothing.

She drove carefully, putting the old car into its lowest to grind slowly up the hill toward the mine.

The wind battered at the car, but Edna didn’t
mind. The Cadillac had taken worse in its time, and the wind had never bothered her.

That was something she had never understood about Diana. She knew there were people who blamed things on the wind, but Edna had never really believed them. It was just that people didn’t want to be responsible for themselves.

That was Diana’s problem. She had never wanted to be responsible for anything.

Now it was too late.

Everything was over, and all Edna could do was try to hide the mess, just as she’d been hiding messes for Diana since the day she’d been born.

   Christie staggered up the steps of the dark cabin and pounded on the door.

“Esperanza? Help! Please—help me.”

She could hear nothing over the screaming of the wind, but still she knew that the cabin was empty. She tried the door, but it was locked.

She would have to try to get back to the house. She pounded on the cabin door once more, then turned away. But as she was about to start down the steps, she sensed a movement in the darkness. She shrank back into the dark shadows of the porch and watched as Diana came toward her.

As Diana drew close Christie began to hear her talking, mumbling almost to herself.

“Mama? Mama, I’ve been a bad girl. Are you going to punish me? Mama? Where are you, Mama?”

Diana passed the cabin, her eyes staring straight ahead, and disappeared into the mine.

Christie stood on the porch, trying to figure out what had happened.

Aunt Diana was crying. Why was she doing that? She’d never cried before.

And then Christie saw lights approaching, coming up the hill. She waited on the porch of the little cabin
and finally recognized the Ambers’ ancient Cadillac as it shuddered to a stop. Miss Edna got out, then stood by the car, as if she were looking for something.

“Miss Edna?” Christie called softly. The old woman swung around, and her gaze fell on the little girl.

“Where is she?” Edna asked. “Where’s my daughter?”

“In the mine,” Christie whimpered. She left the porch and went to Miss Edna, staring up into her face. “She killed Jeff,” Christie whispered.

Edna looked down at Christie, then gently stroked her cheek.

“In the mine?” she asked. “Did she do it in the mine?”

Christie shook her head. “He’s back there,” she said, pointing toward the aspen grove a half-mile away. “I—I ran away.”

“I see,” the old woman said softly. Her eyes were sad as she touched Christie’s face once more, but she knew what she had to do. No one must ever be able to tell the Ambers’ secrets. “Come along,” she said, taking Christie by the hand. “We must find Diana.”

With Christie stumbling along beside her, she started toward the dark entrance of the mine.

   Esperanza Rodriguez hurried through the night with Juan at her side. Ever since they had left the Crowleys’, she had been talking to him, questioning him, trying to find out what he had been doing at the mine.

Now she knew that the dynamite had been laid, and that tomorrow, unless she did something about it, it would be set off.

The spirits of the children would be locked in the mountain forever.

She must see that it did not happen.

The wind pulled at her long dress, and she clutched her shawl tighter around her head. They were close to
home now. In the distance she could make out the dark shape of the mine.

Would they be coming to the mine tonight? Would tomorrow be too late? She forced herself to move faster.

As they drew near the mine the wind suddenly stopped, and Esperanza stopped, too. In the sudden quiet of the night, she listened.

There was no sound coming from the mine, and yet, in her heart, Esperanza knew that there were people there.

And the children.

She could sense the presence of the children. She could feel them waiting—waiting for something to happen.

“You must go in,” she whispered to Juan. “You must go in and take away the wires. We must save the children.”

Juan nodded and, leaving his mother behind in the darkness, he started toward the mine.

   The three men stood in the grove of aspens, trying to accept what they had found. Jeff’s body lay on the ground, his face battered and covered with blood. Matt Crowley stared at his son, then gathered the limp body into his arms, cradling it against his chest.

“Why?” he murmured. “Why?”

Neither Dan nor Bill had an answer for him. As they watched Matt silently grieve for his son, each of them wished that this night would end, that they could go home and leave Matt to comfort his wife. But each of them knew that the night was not over. Somewhere, Christie might still be alive, but for how long?

“We’d better go,” Dan said softly. “Diana’s out here, and she’s got Christie with her.” Matt carried Jeff’s body as Bill and Dan led him out of the aspen grove.

Bill listened to the wind as he walked down the
gentle slope toward the car, and suddenly he was sure he knew where Diana had gone. “The mine!” he said. “She’s at the mine!” Dan started the engine and gunned the car back down the hill.

   Edna Amber, with Christie by her side, moved through the darkness. Ahead of her, she could hear Diana whimpering, calling to her. By her side, Christie was crying softly.

“I want to go home,” Christie pleaded. “Please, can’t we go home?”

“We are home, child,” Edna whispered. She stopped and let go of Christie’s hand. “Stand still,” she said. “Just for a moment. Can you do that?”

“Why?” Christie protested.

“It’s only for a moment,” Edna told her, her voice gentle. “Can you do it?”

“I-I guess so,” Christie replied.

Edna stepped back in the darkness and took her cane in both hands.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

The cane lashed through the blackness. There was a dull thud as it struck its target. Then, only the pitiful whimpering of Diana crying out to her.

   Eddie Whitefawn opened his eyes.

His head hurt, and for a moment he couldn’t remember where he was, or what had happened. And then it came back to him.

He was in the root cellar. Miss Edna had tried to kill him.

He lay still, listening, but there was nothing to be heard except the creaking sounds of the toolshed as the wind battered at it.

Eddie shifted on the cellar floor, then decided that except for the pain in his head, he wasn’t hurt. He groped around and found the ladder, then slowly began
climbing it. Feeling his way up, he touched the trapdoor and pushed.

It gave way.

It was night, and Eddie wondered how long he’d been in the root cellar. Then, over the wind, he heard another sound.

A siren.

They were looking for him. His grandmother had missed him, and now the marshal was looking for him. He went to the toolshed door and pushed it open.

A few yards away, the Amber house blazed with light. Eddie slid around the corner of the shed into the shadows. He could still hear the siren, but it seemed to be going away from him. He looked up the hill, and far away he could see lights, the moving lights of a car as it ground up the road toward the mine. They were looking for him there.

Glancing back toward the house once more, Eddie began running across the fields, his eyes fixed on the taillights ahead of him.

   Edna Amber moved carefully through the darkness, using her cane and her daughter’s voice to guide her.

It seemed to float out of the darkness, strangled and low, crying one word over and over again.

“Mama … Mama …Mama …”

“I’m coming,” Edna muttered. “I’m coming …”

Only inches from the edge of the main shaft, Diana had sunk to the floor of the mine, her knees drawn up against her chest, her thumb in her mouth. She was rocking herself gently when the tip of Edna’s cane suddenly touched her. She jerked her thumb from her mouth.

“Mama? I’m a bad little girl, Mama.”

“I know,” Edna said, her voice quiet and calm. “You’re a very bad little girl.”

Diana nodded in the darkness.

“I killed my baby, Mama. I’m a bad girl, and I killed my baby.”

Edna sighed and moved closer to Diana, then prodded her with her cane. Diana didn’t resist; instead she only huddled further into herself and whimpered.

“You have to get up, Diana,” Edna said.

Diana didn’t move.

“Diana, I’m your mother, and you must do as I say. Get up!”

Diana got unsteadily to her feet. Her hair had come loose, and she instinctively brushed it away from her face, though there was no one to see her. “Are you going to punish me, Mama?”

“Yes,” Edna said sadly, “I’m going to punish you. You were a bad girl, and Mama has to punish you.”

“All right, Mama,” Diana said. She stood still as Edna raised her cane and groped in the darkness until its tip came to rest against Diana’s breast.

A moment later, with Diana offering no resistance, Edna shoved hard on the cane.

Diana staggered slightly, then fell backward into the mine shaft.

Edna stood still, her cane still hovering in the air, and listened as Diana, falling through the darkness, cried out to her once more.

“Maaaaa-maaaaaa …”

And then, as Edna waited in the darkness, the lights in the mine came on. Edna blinked in the sudden brightness, then turned and began walking back toward the mine entrance.

   Juan threw the power switch and stared into the mine. He saw Christie Lyons lying in the dirt twenty yards away, and beyond her, Miss Edna walking toward him.

He stood still, watching her, as she approached him. She pointed to the roll of wire.

“Help me,” she said.

Juan looked curiously at the old woman. Was she here for the same reason his mother had brought him here? She must be—she was trying to do something with the wire. He went to her and picked up the roll.

“Bring it here,” Edna told him. She began walking deeper into the mine, and as he followed her Juan carefully wound the wire back onto the roll. Soon they were at the elevator, and as Edna directed him, he set the roll of wire into the cage. But when he started to get in, Edna stopped him.

“Go away,” she said. “Go away now and leave me alone.”

Juan hesitated. His mother had told him to save the children. Then he remembered Christie Lyons. That must have been what she meant.

He went back toward the entrance and stooped to pick up Christie’s body. Holding her gently in his arms, he carried her out of the mine.

When Juan was gone, Edna Amber made her way slowly back to the equipment box, opened it, and found a pair of wire cutters, which she slipped into the bodice of her dress. Then she picked up the blasting machine.

Her bones aching, and her muscles weary, she dragged herself back toward the elevator.

   Dan saw the faint glow of light ahead and pressed the accelerator. The Chrysler leaped forward, spitting gravel from its rear wheels.

In front of the mine, Esperanza Rodriguez stood with her son, who was holding Christie Lyons in his arms. Esperanza looked at him uncomprehendingly.

Dan glanced around and saw the old Cadillac parked near the cabin. His face grim, he started into the mine.

Bill Henry took Christie from Juan’s arms and started toward the cabin, with Juan trailing after him. “What happened to her?” he asked.

“I saved her,” Juan said proudly. “She was in the mine, and I saved her, just like Mama told me to.” He unlocked the cabin door and opened it for Bill, then looked uncertainly at Christie. “Didn’t I save her?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Bill said quietly. “We’ll see.” Gently he lowered Christie onto Esperanza’s bed.

   Dan Gurley paused just inside the entrance to the mine.

“Miss Edna?” he called. “Diana?”

He listened for an answer, but all he could hear was a low, whining sound. He stood very still for a moment, his imagination hearing the mine’s long-silent machinery groaning into life. Then he realized that it was no ghostly echo he’d heard but the clanking of the elevator.

He reached over and threw the main switch. The lights blinked out, and the whining of the elevator faded into silence. He picked up a miner’s helmet, switched on its light, and started into the darkness.

When he came to the edge of the shaft, he looked down. Thirty yards below him he could see the elevator cage, and inside it, Edna Amber.

“Miss Edna? It’s Dan Gurley.”

“Go away, Daniel.”

“Miss Edna? What are you doing?”

There was a silence, and when Edna spoke again, her voice floated up quietly, as if she were very tired.

“It doesn’t concern you, Daniel. None of it concerns you. Just leave me alone.”

“Where’s Diana?”

There was another long silence, and Dan was afraid the old woman wasn’t going to answer him. Then she looked up at him, and in the eerie glow of his miner’s lamp he could see her smiling.

“She’s gone away, Daniel,” she said, her voice echoing. “I’ve sent her away.”

The old woman got slowly to her feet, and for the first time Dan could see what she was doing.