Not a Drop to Drink

Eli shot Lynn a grateful glance as Neva walked past him into their home and shut the door behind her.

“How’d you manage that?”

“I really don’t know,” Lynn admitted. “I tried to say what I thought was the right things to her, but it just seemed to make her more angry.”

Eli laughed a little and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, welcome to life with Neva.”

“Well, when I finally said something on purpose to make her angry, that’s when she did what I wanted her to. So, now you know.”

“Guess I’ll have to try that.” Eli wasn’t wearing a coat. His shoulders were hunched reflexively against the chill breeze, his hands jammed into the pockets of his jeans.

“I better go,” Lynn said. “Let you get inside.”

“No really, it’s okay,” Eli said, although his teeth chattered around the words.

“You have Stebbs’ pack? I’m supposed to take it back to him.”

“Yeah sure, hold on.” Eli disappeared inside the house. He came back wearing a coat and hat, carrying Stebbs’ empty backpack. “I’ll walk with you a bit.”

“Neva won’t care?”

“She doesn’t mind being alone. I almost think she prefers it. It’s being away from the water that scares her. She’s used to having water come out of a faucet.”

“Lucy said you have to pay for it?”

“It’s expensive, yeah. We are—we were well enough off that we could afford the clean water, a nicer apartment building. People that have less money, their water isn’t as purified—that means clean.”

“Oh, does it?”

“Sorry,” Eli said immediately. “I should know by now that you and Stebbs aren’t exactly stupid. Any girl who can quote Yeats probably knows what ‘purified’ means.”

They walked without talking a few moments more, while Lynn critically assessed Eli’s progress through the bracken. She was torn between wanting to keep him away from the snug sleeping quarters with Neva and wanting to keep herself from being shot in the dark.

“Could you make more of a racket?”

“Sorry,” he said again. “I’m just trying to make a path for you.”

“I’ve been walking in the dark a long time, city boy,” Lynn said. “You best head back home before full dark. Wouldn’t do anybody any good if you get lost out here.” She hated the words even as they slipped past her teeth, sending him back to Neva was much harder than she thought it would be.

“Right, okay.” Eli blew the air out of his cheeks and turned back the way they’d come. “I’ll do my city best to find the only structure out here.”

“Good luck with that,” she called out after him.

His crashing stopped for a moment, but she couldn’t pick out his form in the dying light. “Is that teasing?”

“I thought it was called flirting?”

“You’re a quick learner.” She could hear the smile on his face even if she couldn’t see it.

“Get out of here,” she called into the darkness. “Stop encouraging me to yell so much out in the middle of nowhere.”

A laugh was the only answer, leaving Lynn to wonder what she’d done that was so funny and reflecting on the fact that he was so noisy she could pick him off at a hundred yards on a moonless night.

She turned toward home and realized that she hadn’t missed it. For the first time in her life, she’d been away from the pond and not been rushing to get back. Worries had fallen away while she talked with Eli, and water hadn’t filled every waking moment.

And she didn’t regret it.

Fourteen

Stebbs was on the roof when she made it back to the house. A pale sliver of moon was rising and she could make out his dark form clambering down the antennae as she emerged from the yard.

“Hey, kiddo,” he called to her. “How’d it go?”

“Well enough. Brought your pack back.”

“They okay over there?”

“Neva’s got problems neither one of us can help her with.”

“That’s true enough.” They walked around the side of the house together. “And Eli? How’s he looking?”

“Fine,” Lynn said nonchalantly. “He got a deer today.”

“Did he? Good boy.”

“Why don’t you come on in?” Lynn said when she saw that Stebbs was headed toward the field as they approached her door. “No point you walking home cold when you can warm up downstairs before going.”

Stebbs rubbed his hands together. “Don’t want to put you out.”

“Doesn’t hurt me for you to soak up some heat.”

Their voices dropped as they entered the basement; Lucy lay curled up in her cot near the fire, her small legs making a neat V shape under her blanket. Lynn checked on her, tucking the folds under the small curves of her body. “She go to sleep okay?”

“Not a contrary word. I told her it was bedtime, and to bed she went. That’s a good little girl.”

“I know it.” Lynn opened the door to the stove so they could see each other in the flickering firelight, and set a pot of water to boil. “I’m having some coffee. You might as well have some too.”

“I don’t know what’s caused this sudden rash of kindness, but I’ll drink your coffee and thanks.”

Lynn fired a harsh look over her shoulder. “I’d kick you if you didn’t have two bad feet right now.”

“The old Lynn would’ve kicked me anyway.”

“The old Lynn’s still in here somewhere, so don’t tempt her.”

Stebbs laughed and propped his foot up on the edge of Lucy’s cot, leaning back to relax. “This isn’t a half- bad place you know? Your mom did a fine job getting you two set up.”

Lynn sat in the chair opposite Stebbs and began dismantling her rifle. “Long as you’re here, I’m going to clean this filthy thing,” she said. “I don’t feel right having a gun in pieces when someone could come down those stairs any minute.”

Stebbs propped his chair back, rested his head against the wall. “Clean away. I’m not going anywhere when there’s coffee brewing.”

“Neva wouldn’t come away from the baby’s grave today.”

“That right?”

“She said she wasn’t capable of caring for Lucy anymore either, and that she’s better off with me.”

“At the moment, it’s true.”

“I think she meant forever.”

“How’d you feel about that?”

Lynn threaded a wad of cotton through the ramrod before answering. “Not so good, really. I mean, I don’t want to give her up just yet. But she’s not mine to keep either.”

“True.”

“I think a girl should be with her mother.”

“I do too,” Stebbs said. “That particular mother isn’t in any shape to care for her daughter as of yet, though.”

“I know it,” Lynn said, and shoved the ramrod down the barrel. “Is that why you took it on yourself to care for them? ’Cause you don’t have family?”

Stebbs blinked at the straightforward question.

“Sorry,” Lynn said quickly. “Never mind.”

“It’s all right. Wasn’t expecting it, is all. Where’s all this coming from, sudden-like?”