“Louis?”
“What?” he replied, distracted.
“You stopped walking again.”
He pulled himself up straight. “I have had a revelation, Lavinia.” Before she could ask about it, he added, “I need some time to think it through. Good night, dear.” Soberly, he went to the side of the altar, opened the door, and started up the stairs.
Lavinia stood up and began to smack the dust out of the garment she’d been knitting, banging it over and over against the back of a church pew. She kept on whacking at it as if she were beating back Fury, beating back her marriage and this awful storm, beating back all the bad things in her life.
At last, she wearily stilled her hand and started upstairs.
When Jason woke, he still found himself alone, surrounded by unfettered wind whipping at the walls. And it was, according to the clock, ten forty-five. And there was no Ward in evidence.
He let out a long sigh, unfortunately accompanied by a long sandy drizzle of snot, which he quickly wiped on his shirtsleeve. Well, he should have expected it. He gave himself credit in foretelling that Ward wouldn’t brave the storm in order to come down to the office. Jason just hoped he’d found himself a nice, secure place to hole up in.
Jason reminded himself to hike up to the mercantile and see if they had any caulking. That was, when the storm let up. If it ever did. He was going to make this place airtight if it killed him. There was still dust coming in around the windows and the front door, and right up through the floor. He didn’t want to see what was happening around the back door, but he knew it’d be bad. It wasn’t nearly as tight as the front one.
Just then, a loud bang issued from the back room, and he shot to his feet, accompanied by the soft clatter of thousands of grains of sand falling from his body and hitting the floor.
Whispering, “Dammit!” he went to the door to the back room and threw it wide. He had expected to be met by the full force of the storm and the outer door hanging off its hinges, but instead he found Ward, struggling to close the back door.
He fought back the urge to laugh, and instead helped Ward. The two men succeeded in closing and latching the door, and Ward leaned his back against it, his head drooping, his hair hanging in his eyes. Jason grinned. “You look like you been rode hard and put up wet, man.”
“Feel worse,” Ward replied after a moment. Then he looked Jason up and down. “You don’t much look like a go-to-town slicker yourself, either, boss.”
Jason smiled, then led him into the main part of the office. “There’s clean water in the bucket. You want coffee, you’re gonna hafta make it yourself.”
Ward went to the bucket and had himself two dippers of water, then splashed another on the back of his neck. “You ever seen a storm like this?”
Jason said, “I never even heard a’one.” He hadn’t, either, not one like this!
“Well, I heard about ’em, but this one’s sure a ripsnorter. Don’t believe I ever heard tell’a one lastin’ so long or goin’ so hard. Oh—what I come to tell you. One’a the Milcher kids is missin’. Found the reverend out lookin’ for him, but you know him—he’s like buttered beef in a crisis. Made him go on home.”
Jason nodded. “When’d he go missing?”
“Sometime between seven and nine-thirty. The reverend thinks he’s out lookin’ for the cat. She’s missin’, too.” During the passing years, the Milcher’s original cat, Chuckles, had been replaced several times. The latest one was . . . well, he couldn’t remember the name at the moment. But it was either a grandkitten or a great-grandkitten of Chuckles.
“Shit.” Jason put his hands flat on the desk, then pushed himself up. “I reckon now’s as good a time as any.” He shook out his bandanna and tied it over his nose and mouth. “You rest up. Come out when you’re ready.”
But Ward was on his feet, his clothes dribbling sand on the floor. “Naw. I’ll go with you. Four eyes are better’n two. Or so they tell me.”
Jason nodded. “Appreciate it. Pull your hat brim low.”
He opened the front door. He had a firm hold on the latch, but the sudden influx of wind shoved Ward off his feet and into the filing cabinets.
“You wanna warn a fella afore you do that?” he groused.
Jason didn’t blame him. “Sorry, Ward.”
Muttering something that Jason was glad he couldn’t hear, Ward slowly got back to his feet, using his feet and hands and back for traction. He made it to the desk, and finally to the door.
Jason shouted, “We’re gonna hafta get outside, then pull like crazy, okay?”
Ward nodded, and they did, each bracing a boot on either side of the doorframe. It took them nearly five minutes just until Jason lost sight of the wall clock, but eventually the door was closed and latched.
“Which kid was it?” he asked Ward over the howling wind.
“Milcher!”
“Which Milcher kid?” There were a bunch of them.
“Peter. The five-year-old!”
Great, just great. A five-year-old kid lost in this storm! A storm a grown man could barely keep his footing in, and that seemed intent on staying around until the end of time. Maybe it was the end of time.
But Peter was a tough little kid. If he had survived the trip out West in his mother’s belly, he could survive anything. At least, that’s what Jason hoped.
He tried to think like a five-year-old following a cat. . . .
“Follow me!” he said to Ward, and set off, staggering against the buffeting wind, toward the stables.
Up at the stable, they found several cattle and a couple of saddle
