by Dawn, M. K.
Evelyn shook her head. “No. I’ll just check your vitals. Let me wash my hands and grab some supplies.”
Sloan returned to making her list of missing medications.
“Dammit.” Evelyn shook the free-standing sink. “Why isn’t this thing working?”
“What’s wrong?” Sloan asked.
Evelyn twisted the knobs. “There’s no water.”
Sloan locked the medicine cabinet and joined Evelyn, not that she knew anything about plumbing.
“It worked yesterday.” Sloan turned the handles on and off. “We have a good breeze today. Usually, we only have an issue with the windmill on calm days.”
“Do you think it could be a connection issue?” Evelyn bent down to check under the sink. “A loose hose or something? Maybe one outside, since these look fine.”
“I’ll call the house and see if they are having issues.” Sloan made her way back to the desk to grab the walkie-talkie.
“What about me?” Rainey asked. “I really need to get going soon.”
“I’ll use hand sanitizer and gloves,” Evelyn said. “We keep some for just this reason.”
“Plus, I’m already dying.” Rainey grinned. “Not sure I could catch anything worse.”
Evelyn scoffed. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s either laugh or cry.” Rainey averted her eyes. “There’s no in between.”
“Maybe stick with knock-knock jokes.” Evelyn put the stethoscope in her ears and checked Rainey’s breathing.
Sloan grabbed the walkie-talkie and went outside to give them a bit of privacy.
She set the channel to six—the house—and pushed the call button. “Angie? Are you there?”
No answer.
A few seconds later, she tried again.
“Sloan?” Angie answered. “That you?”
“Yes.”
“Everything okay, sugar?”
“The water in the clinic isn’t working,” Sloan said. “Is the house having issues?”
“Water’s not working here, either. Brit, Axel, and Archer went to check it out.”
That wasn’t the news Sloan wanted to hear. “They went to the well?”
“Believe so.”
“Thanks, Angie. I’ll meet them out there.”
Sloan went back inside the clinic and tossed the walkie-talkie on the desk. “Water’s not working at the house either. I’m going to meet the others at the well. I’ll be back.”
“Okay. I’ll cover the clinic. Let us know if you find anything out.”
***
Sloan approached the well with less optimism than she had leaving the clinic as she slogged through the muddy ground. The only good news was a crowd had yet to form in the area, which meant they’d kept the news quiet. But that wouldn’t last long. Word had a way of getting around.
“Hello!” Sloan had expected to find Britney, Axel, and Archer already here, inspecting the situation.
“Over here,” Britney yelled back. “Watch your step. It’s wet.”
Sloan rounded a couple of ancient oak trees as she made her way to the old windmill. She’d always loved its rustic appearance. It reminded her of an old painting her mother had hung in the living room above the fireplace.
But today, the windmill brought more pain than joy as it stood still against the gray sky. “What happened?”
Britney peered upward, hand shading her eyes to block out the light that peeked through the clouds. “We don’t know what’s wrong with it, but it explains why the water isn’t working.”
“That,” Archer pointed to the ground a few yards away, “and the broken pipe.”
Sloan slushed through the puddles to get a better look at the cut ground. “How did this happen?”
“We can’t know for sure,” Britney said. “But it almost looks like a trencher was run across here with the blade down.”
“We have one of those, right?” Axel asked.
Britney’s expression pinched. “Yep.”
Archer groaned. “Shit. Any idea who’s been using it lately?”
“Lots of people use it.” Britney tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “It’s not like we have a sign-out sheet.”
“Can we narrow the list down a bit?” Axel asked.
“Probably, but then what? Bring them before the Council and accuse them of cutting the pipe? Pretty sure that won’t go over very well.”
Sloan plodded over to the well and leaned over. The overcast sky made it difficult to see the water. “You don’t think the water has been compromised, do you?”
They could live without the pipeline but not without the water itself.
Britney sucked in a sharp breath. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Is there a way to test it?”
Three sets of eyes bore into Sloan.
“I’m a doctor not an expert in water contamination. I would suggest that if there is even the slightest concern, we should boil the water before use.”
Archer dropped the bucket into the well and filled it up. “Cutting the water supply to the homestead is one thing; contaminating the water is a whole other issue. It doesn’t smell, doesn’t have anything growing in it as far as I can see. I’d be willing to taste it if it makes you feel better.”
Sloan snatched the bucket from Archer’s hands. “We have no idea if anything backwashed in the well when the line was cut. We should boil it, which we probably should have been doing in the first place.”
“What now?” Axel asked as they made their way back to the busted pipe. “Do you think it can be fixed?”
“With what?” Archer crouched down and ran a hand over the serrated edges. “It either needs a patch or we’d have to piece it together somehow. Either way, we’d need some kind of glue. Pretty sure we don’t have anything that’s non-toxic. And with no filtration system, we’d risk poisoning ourselves.”
“The lack of running water will be an adjustment, but not impossible.” Sloan said. “The town will adjust.”
“People are already spread pretty thin.” Axel ran his fingers through his hair. “And this is not going to be some simple chore. It’s going to be a back-breaking pain in the ass. Hauling, boiling, storing. Jesus, I don’t know how we’re going to get it done. It’s a full-time job in itself.”
Britney dropped her head in her hands. “We’ll ask for volunteers. And to do that, we’re goin’ to have to hold a town meetin’ explainin’ the situation. People are on edge as it is. I’m not sure how they’re goin’ handle this.”
“They don’t have a choice,” Archer said. “We can’t live without water. And we can’t allow people up here to get it themselves. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
Axel’s walkie-talkie crackled, and Mac’s voice came through. “Axel. We have a problem.”
“What’s up, Mac?”
“Word’s got out about the water. You guys need to get back here ASAP. People are demanding answers and refuse to go back to work until they get them.”
“Shit,” Archer muttered. “What the hell are we going to tell them?”
Britney threw her shoulders back. “We tell them the truth. No lies. No more secrets. That’s the promise we made, and we have no choice but to keep it.”
***
As far as Sloan could tell, everyone had gathered for the town meeting except Rainey, the school-aged children, and Angie. Rainey would never allow the kids to miss school.
Angie usually attended these sorts of things, but at this time of morning, she would be busy preparing lunch. The crowd was already angry; they didn’t want them to be hungry as well.
The Council took the stage, and the crowd fell silent. On the way over, they had decided that Archer would speak. Out of everyone on the Council, Archer and Makayla seemed to be the favorites. Britney had fallen off that list after the Jerry incident.
“Good morning, everyone.” Archer stood before the crowd. “As many of you have figured out, we no longer have running water.”
If the grumbling crowd an
noyed Archer, it didn’t show. Sloan always admired how well he usually compartmentalized his emotions in stressful situations.
“I know this feels like a devastating loss, and it’s hard to fathom how we can possibly move forward, but we can and we will.”
“Can you fix it?” someone yelled.
Archer held up his hand before more could call out their questions. “The windmill has stopped working, and the main pipe from the well is damaged.”
The questions started again and ranged from: “the windmill stopped?” to, “how bad is the pipe?”
The vein in Archer’s left temple pulsed.
Britney moved beside Archer and addressed the crowd. “The windmill is old. I can’t tell you how many times my father and husband had to call on a repairman to get it runnin’ again. So, unless one of you knows somethin’ about windmill repair, there’s not much we can do.”
Sam stood. “I used to be a mechanic. I can take a look at it.”
“Thank you, Sam,” Britney said with a smile that didn’t quite touch her eyes. “We would appreciate that.”
“How bad’s the pipe?” Jesus asked, pushing his black hair out of his face. “I was a plumber and can probably get it up and running in no time. There’s lots of ways to fix a leak.”
Others spoke up, offering up their services to help get the water back on.
Archer held up his hand to silence the group. “Thank you all for your help. We would like to hear all your ideas on what can be done to get this fixed. But for now, we need to focus on getting water from the well to the main homestead.”
Sam looked to Jesus. “If he can fix the leak, I’m sure I can rig something up to get the windmill moving again.”
Archer glanced back at Sloan, his eyebrow cocked. Even though they had decided not to lie to the town, they weren’t going to tell them that it looked that the pipe had been cut. But how the crowd was reacting, they might not have a choice.
“Let’s go now.” Jesus headed down the row toward the aisle.
“Hold on.” Archer rolled his neck. “Dammit. The pipe doesn’t have a leak.”
Jesus clenched his fist. “What do mean? You just said—”
“Actually,” Sloan stood up, “he never said there was a leak.”
Sam moved next to Jesus. “What’s wrong with the pipe? How bad is it?”
“The line has been broken...” Archer hesitated, “like it was run over.”
“Run over?” Sam clenched his jaw. “With what? The damn thing was a good foot in the ground.”
This was getting out of hand. Sloan leaned in and whispered into Britney’s ear. “What should we do?”
“I don’t know.” Britney scrunched her face. “They already don’t trust us. And now, they probably think we’re lyin’ to them.”
“You used to be really good at calming everyone down.” Sloan watched as Archer grew more flustered. “Please, you know he’s going to snap if they keep asking him questions.”
“Fine.” Britney walked to the edge of the platform. “Enough! Everyone return to your seat so we can talk about this like adults.”
That wasn’t really what Sloan had in mind, but it worked. Most people did as she ordered but a few stayed on their feet, including Sam and Jesus.
Britney stuck her hands on her hips. “Thank you. Now, if you would stay quiet long enough for us to explain—”
“If we don’t, are you going to kick us out?” Jesus snapped.
“Wh—what?” Britney stumbled back a couple of feet. “Why would you even ask such a thin’?”
“Take a seat, Jesus,” Archer ordered before anymore could be said.
Axel grasped Britney’s hand and guided her to her chair. “It’s okay. They’re just scared.”
Britney wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
“Listen,” Archer said, his voice calm but demanding, “we’re not trying to hide the truth. To be honest, we have no idea what happened to the pipe or the windmill.”
“Did someone do this on purpose?” a woman asked.
“We don’t think so,” Archer said. “I can’t imagine anyone here wanting to make life more difficult. Chances are, it was just an accident.”
“Accident or not, whoever did this is hiding it from us,” Jesus said. “You don’t just cut a water line without realizing it.”
“Do we know what cut the line?” a man in the back asked.
Sweat dampened Sloan’s palms as the meeting strayed further from a solution to the discovery of the responsible party.
“We can’t know for sure.” Archer left it at that.
The questions started again.
“What did the break look like?”
“How deep is the hole?”
“Can we see it?”
Archer ignored them all and spun around to face the Council. “I don’t know how to handle this.”
The questions grew louder, more demanding.
Axel rested his elbows on his knees and gripped the back of his head before pushing off his chair.
Sloan tilted closer to Britney. “What is he doing?”
“I have no freakin’ clue.”
“Knock it off!” Axel yelled. “How do you expect us to answer anything when you’re yelling at us?”
People settled back into their seats, but their anger didn’t fade.
“Thank you. Like Archer said, we don’t know what happened. As for what cut the line, it’s hard to tell. Most of the farming equipment pulled by the tractors, if not raised, could have done it. So it could have been the trencher or the hay spear.”
The crowd exploded again. Accusations flew. A couple of people started shoving one another. If they didn’t get this under control, fights would need to be broken up.
Axel spun around, his jaw set and teeth baring. “I’m going to fucking shoot someone if they don’t knock this shit off.”
Sloan had never seen Axel so angry. Even under the most stressful of conditions, he usually kept a level head.
Archer patted him on the back. “I’ll take it from here.”
Sloan stood, afraid for Archer’s safety. People were out of control, and she didn’t want to see him caught in the middle if someone decided to escalate the situation.
“Archer,” Sloan called out to him over the commotion.
He waved her off. “I can handle it.”
Sloan hesitated before taking her seat.
“Sit down!” Archer’s voice bellowed.
It took a few minutes, but people started to settle again.
“Thank you.” Archer paced from one side of the stage to the other, his arms planted on his hips. “I’m going to be blunt right now. The way you guys are acting, it’s bullshit. Accusing people without any sort of proof is unacceptable. We’re a community, a family. We start down this road and this place will fall apart. None of us know what happened. But I know each and every one of you, and I can’t imagine this being anything more than an accident.”
“If it was an accident, why doesn’t the person speak up?” Sam asked. “Why hide it from the group?”
“They’re probably scared.” Jesus’ eyes bore into Britney. “Who can blame them after what happened to Jerry and Barbara? Ain’t nobody want to go back out there.”
“No one is getting kicked out.” Archer said.
“No one else,” Sam muttered.
Britney went to stand, but Sloan grabbed her knee. “Don’t.”
“I’m not going to sit here and listen to this,” Britney hissed.
“They’re angry,” Sloan whispered, “and scared. Give them time, and they’ll come around.”
“What happened with Jerry and Barbara is a completely different situation,” Archer said. “They knew the consequences of not complying with the Council, were given a multitude of opportunities to get the exam, and still, they refused. The water pipe is different.”
“Unless it wasn’t an accident,” Eli said.
All eyes fell on him.
Sloan glared at
the kid who seemed to have a knack for speaking his mind at the worst possible moment.
“Do you know something?” Archer asked. “Or are you trying to start trouble?”
If Archer’s sharp tone fazed Eli, it didn’t show. “No. I’m just saying that if the water line was cut on purpose, then there would be consequences. Severe ones, right? I mean, I’m new here so I don’t know. But I’m assuming, since that nice couple got the boot, that everyone knows what the punishments are. It’s not like the Council is making this up as they go.” Eli chuckled. “Right? That would be just...wrong.”
All eyes drifted back to the Council. No one spoke; there was no need. Everything they needed to know shone in the eyes of the people the Council had spent years trying to protect. The trust, the respect they’d worked so hard to earn was all but gone, replaced by anger, pain, and fear.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Britney threw herself on the bed and stared up at the dark ceiling. She had no idea what time it was, only that it was late. Or early, depending on how she looked at it.
She tried to will herself to sleep. Exhaustion tugged her eyes closed, but that’s as close to sleep as she got.
As she lay there, all the horrors that had happened the past month came rushing forward. Jerry’s departure, the broken pipe, tension between various members of the town. Her head throbbed as she recalled each conversation, each glare, each fight. Things were falling apart, and it was all her fault.
“You awake?” Axel rolled over on his side to face her.
Britney didn’t answer in hopes he would go back to sleep without them having to have a deep, meaningful conversation. She loved Axel, but the guilt she felt was hers to bear.
“I know you’re awake, Brit. You huff when you’re upset.”
Britney rolled over to face him. “I do not.”
Axel chuckled. “Yes, you do. And have been for the past twenty minutes. Want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“Nothing...” Britney closed her eyes, hoping he would drop it and fall back asleep. When he didn’t, she sighed. “Everything. It’s been a sucky few of weeks.”
Axel scooted closer but didn’t reach out to her. He always knew when she needed space. “On the upside, nothing bad has happened since the broken pipe a couple of weeks ago.”
