Not a Drop to Drink

by Mindy McGinnis

  No reaction.

  “And Uncle Eli.”

  No reaction.

  “Fine. But when I come back down here I want you up and out of bed, or I will get you up and out of bed, understood?”

  The curly blond head on the pillow nodded almost imperceptibly and Lynn stomped up the stairs and out into the late morning air. Dead grass showed in large patches around the yard, and Lynn had to walk a ways from the house to find a clean patch of white snow to freshen her mouth with.

  The sporadic, panicked tracks of a rabbit tore across the yard at one point, nearly obliterated by the blundering leaps of the coyote that had chased it. Lynn was in no hurry to force Lucy out of bed to face Neva, so she took her time tracking the two animals, curious to see if the rabbit had managed to escape. A patch of blood a mile from the house told her it hadn’t. Lynn rested under the trees and watched two blue jays bickering. Their harsh voices bounced off the snow, masking the sound of Stebbs’ approach.

  “Hey there,” he said, leaning against the tree with her. “Not used to seeing you out alone.”

  “Lucy’s back at the house.” Lynn nodded toward the roof in the distance. “I thought I’d give her some time to . . .”

  “Think things over?” Stebbs suggested.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “Looks like maybe you’re doing the same.”

  “Maybe.” Lynn rubbed the stock of her rifle, but the gun didn’t bring the comfort it used to. “Best head back, I suppose.”

  Stebbs fell into step beside her and they walked in companionable silence until they reached her pond. “Quite the melt,” he commented. “Your pond’s high. I see you’ve still got ice on the edges though.”

  “Can’t skate anymore. Lucy’ll be disappointed.”

  “It’ll freeze over again, before the winter’s over.”

  Without commenting on it, Lynn noticed that Stebbs was struggling against the snow with his lame leg. She leaned against the house under the cover of a large pine, and he joined her, his breath coming a little faster than usual.

  “When you expecting Eli and Neva?”

  “Don’t know. He said sometime this afternoon, but I slept in quite a bit and then went out tracking for a while. I imagine they’ll be along soon enough. I told Lucy I’d be in sight of the house. If she wanted to find us, she could have. I told her Neva was coming last night, and she didn’t take it so well.”

  “It’s understandable.”

  “Yeah well, maybe, but I don’t want Neva bent out of shape about it. Or Lucy mad at me, for that matter.”

  “Want me to go down and try?”

  “Better hurry,” Lynn said, nodding toward the west, where Eli’s and Neva’s figures could be made out. Stebbs lumbered to his feet and disappeared inside.

  Neva broke into the side yard ahead of Eli, poked a finger into the side of the half-melted snowman by the wood cord and smiled. Eli nodded and said something to her, but it was lost in a cry from the basement.

  “Shit! Lynn! Get down here!”

  The urgency in Stebbs’ voice sent Lynn reeling down the stairs where he was cradling Lucy in his arms, her entire form limp, her closed eyes red-rimmed with fever. “How long has she been like this?” Lynn stared dumbfounded at the unconscious Lucy. “Lynn!”

  “I don’t . . . I don’t know! I thought she was sleeping. I haven’t been back down here since I woke up.”

  Two sets of feet pounded down the stairs, and Eli fell forward into the basement, Neva close behind him. “What? What is it?”

  Neva’s hands flew to her mouth when she saw Lucy, tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. “Give her to me,” she said.

  Stebbs handed her over carefully and Neva cradled the light head against her own dark one, rocking her slowly back and forth. “What happened, baby? What’s wrong?”

  There was no answer.

  There was a light touch on Lynn’s shoulder. “She’s not . . . not gone, is she?”

  “No,” Stebbs answered Eli. “There’s a pulse, but it’s light.”

  “What happened? When did she get sick?”

  “I don’t know,” Lynn said, her voice shaking. “She crawled into bed with me last night and I thought she was fine, but she didn’t want to get up. . . . Shit, I’m so sorry, Neva. I didn’t know.”

  Neva waved away the apology. “Get me a cloth,” she said as she laid Lucy back on the cot. “We’ve got to break this fever.”

  Stebbs looked in amazement at his own hands, still hot to the touch from holding Lucy. “She’s burning up.”

  His words caused a panic in Lynn’s mind, dredging up memories of corpses without bullet holes strewn across the fields, bodies that the buzzards wouldn’t touch. Cholera burned through people so quickly they died in their tracks, wandering in a haze toward a water source that Mother wouldn’t let them near. One man had veered away from the pond and hailed Mother from the yard. Lynn had clutched on to her tightly, fear of the stranger digging her little fingers deep into Mother’s tanned skin.

  He’d begged for water, pleading that he was not ill like the others and would not contaminate the pond. Mother had refused and sent him off with a warning. Hours later he was back, shit streaking his legs and begging for a bullet instead. This time, Mother had granted his request.

  Lynn dug her fingers into Stebbs’ coat, her voice a harsh whisper. “It’s not the cholera, is it?”

  “No, she always does this,” Neva said, peeling off a layer of warm sleeping clothes from Lucy. “You can’t just get a little fever, can you, baby? You’ve got to go big.” Tears were still sliding down her face, but Neva was moving with purpose. She looked up at her audience. “Move! I need a cold, wet cloth—now. And a thermometer, if you have one.”

  Neva’s conviction broke Lynn’s stillness. She shot up the stairs with Eli on her heels. “There’s some washcloths in the bathroom,” she called over her shoulder. “Use the clean water downstairs in the tank.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Thermometer,” she answered without bothering to explain why she was running up the staircase. Mother had squirreled away all of Lynn’s baby clothes, blankets, bottles, and—she hoped—baby thermometer as well. She burst into the attic, throwing open lids to steamer trunks and tossing clothes in the air in a frantic search. The objecting screech of a baby toy told her she’d found the right trunk, and Lynn dug to the bottom, overwhelmed with relief at the sight of the plastic thermometer.

  “Please work,” she said to it, and the digital screen lit up at her touch.

  Her heart was beating so hard, she almost didn’t hear the footsteps on the roof. Lynn instinctively dropped down, hand clutched protectively around the thermometer. For a moment there was nothing, only the sound of her own blood pumping through her veins. Then she heard it again.

  Someone was on her roof.

  Seventeen

  She crept down the staircase quietly, dodging the patches of late afternoon light in the living room and slinking into the kitchen. Eli was already downstairs; she could hear his muted voice in conversation with Neva, her tone pitched high with concern. Lynn edged down the steps, handed the thermometer silently to Neva and reached past Eli for her handgun.

  “There’s someone outside,” she whispered to him. He tensed but didn’t look away from the cot where Lucy lay, her arm dangling over the side. Neva had to hold her jaw shut to use the thermometer; Lucy was too weak to close her own mouth.

  “Where?”

  “On the roof, for sure. I’m betting more,” Lynn answered quietly, but with her eyes on Stebbs. He noticed and joined their group at the foot of the stairs.

  “What?”

  “Men on the roof,” Eli said, his voice pitched low to not alarm Neva. “What do we do?”

  “Not much we can do. They already have higher ground. You run out there firing and they’ll pick you off.”

  “Only if he’s a good shot,” Lynn countered.

  “Assume he is. Put do
wn the gun.”

  She didn’t move. “They’re not taking my house.”

  “I’m guessing they don’t want it,” Stebbs said evenly. “They didn’t meet any resistance coming in. They have the advantage but aren’t pressing it.”

  “So what do they want?” Eli asked.

  “We go find out.” Stebbs gave Lynn a hard look and peeled her fingers off the gun. “You going to keep your head on straight?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Don’t look like it. You go out first, keep your hands up where they can see them. I’ll follow her, and Eli you come last. Be calm, no reason to upset Neva just yet.”

  Lynn glanced back at the cot before leaving. Water from the cloth on her forehead was streaming down Lucy’s face, matching the tears on Neva’s. “Hold on, kiddo,” she said quietly. “We’ll be right back.”

  She climbed the stairs stiffly, every nerve in her body protesting the absence of her gun. The door creaked open and she walked into the sunlight, both hands open and visible. Three armed men stood in the yard, a woman kneeling in the mud in front of them, a noose around her neck. Lynn walked forward cautiously, highly conscious of the man on the roof and the prickle of hairs on her neck telling her that his crosshairs were focused there.

  “Get off my roof,” she said.

  One of the men spat on the ground and smiled at her, showing off gaps in his teeth. “That the way you greet your neighbors?”

  “Neighbors that drag a woman around by her neck, yes.”

  “Lynn,” Stebbs said quietly in warning as he stepped from the doorway. Eli emerged behind him, his hands held up as well. His eyes were on Lynn, a mute entreaty to keep her mouth shut, until he spotted the woman.

  “Vera!”

  She jerked at the sound of her name, raising her head and allowing Lynn a good look. She didn’t need Eli to tell her this was Neva’s mother. Her black hair was streaked with gray, the lines in her face were delicate and flattering, a perfect image of what Neva would look like in the future. Except that the light flashing in her eyes was fierce, the determination to live imprinted clearly.

  “You got nothing to say to her just yet,” Gap Tooth said to Eli. “I’m the one talking right now.”

  “I got a thing or two to say to that one,” a man wearing a blue coat said, nodding at Lynn from his position by Neva’s side. “She killed two of my friends.”

  “I see you brought me more.”

  “Enough,” Stebbs said sharply. “What do you want from us?”

  “Don’t want nothing with you, old man,” Gap Tooth said. “We went to make a trade with your pretty boy there, but he wasn’t home. Thought maybe he was making time with the girl, and here we are.”

  One of the men standing with Vera, who wore a green hat, spoke up. “Where’s the little one?”

  “She’s busy dying,” Lynn said coldly.

  He looked down at his feet, but not before she caught the flicker of shame in his eyes. “I’m sorry for that.”

  Vera moaned and her eyes moved to Lynn, a pleading question there that she couldn’t answer. Lynn looked away, swallowing hard. “What’s your trade?”

  “Our business ain’t with you,” Gap Tooth said.

  “You’re on my property, and I’m the one asking.”

  “Goddamn girl, you ain’t learned friendly yet, have ya?”

  Blue Coat fingered his crotch. “I’ll teach her, before we leave.”

  Eli crossed the distance between them before the men had the chance to cock their guns and delivered a chop to his neck that brought Blue Coat to the ground, gasping. The guns turned on Eli, and he put his hands back in the air. “You came to trade, make a trade. He talks with his dick again, he loses it.”

  Gap Tooth considered his comrade, still fighting for air and curled into the fetal position. He lowered his gun. “We want your fancy girl. Even trade for her momma.”

  “No,” Lynn said without hesitation. “I won’t trade a friend for a stranger.”

  “Ain’t your call, girlie.”

  Eli stood shivering in the chill, his hands still in the air. “She isn’t mine to trade. I don’t own her.”

  “I’ve got food,” Stebbs said quickly. “Vegetables, fruit, water. Whatever you need.”

  “We got water and I ain’t hungry, not in that way.”

  The back door burst open, all guns changed their positions, and Vera yelped at the sight of her daughter. “Her temp is a hundred and four, I need—” Neva jerked to a halt when she saw the men.

  “Neva,” Eli said carefully, “we need to—”

  “Mother!” Neva cried, lurching toward her despite the guns pointed at her. She fell to her knees beside the older woman, tears falling openly. Her fingers wrapped around the noose and began pulling it over Vera’s head.

  “Hold on there, missy,” Blue Coat said, his hand stopping hers. “We ain’t done negotiating.”

  “Negotiating for what?”

  “Neva, honey,” Vera said calmly. “Listen to me—”

  “It’s simple, fancy lady,” Gap Tooth said. “You come with us, and we leave your mother.”

  Neva held her mother’s bound hands in her own, her face blank as she stared back at him.

  Lynn edged toward them, hands still in the air. “Neva, you don’t have to—”

  Blue Coat swung his gun on her. “Shut it.”

  “I’ll go,” Neva said, glancing at Lynn. The rush of energy from Neva that Lucy’s sickness spurred had turned into a cold determination, and Lynn barely recognized the eyes staring back at her from the other woman’s face.

  “Eli, get my coat,” Neva said.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he answered.

  “Get her coat or she goes cold,” Gap Tooth said.

  “Lynn,” Neva said, her eyes boring into Lynn’s, “take care of my sick baby.” Every word punched through the protest Lynn had already formed. Lynn’s rage had kept her from seeing what Neva knew too well; Vera was a doctor, and Lucy needed her badly. More than she needed her mother. If the men knew Vera’s skill they would never trade her, no matter how badly they wanted Neva.

  “Eli,” Lynn spoke slowly, disbelieving her own words. “Get Neva’s coat.”

  When he didn’t move, Lynn broke Neva’s gaze and glanced at him. He searched her face for a moment and Lynn knew he was weighing the fates of Lucy and Neva in the moment before he went to get Neva’s coat, head down. Neva bent to take the noose off her mother, but Blue Coat jerked her to the ground and began tying her hands in front of her before she could. Lynn winced, fury at her inability to stop them boiled over.

  “You should know that I’ll kill you all, and soon,” she said.

  “Them’s big words, little girl, when I’m up here,” the man on the roof said.

  “My voice carried though, didn’t it?”

  “Now that looks good on you, Fancy,” Blue Coat said to Neva as he tightened the noose around her throat. “Don’t go running off on me now.” He kicked Vera in the ribs and she fell to her side in the mud. “Been nice knowing you, looking forward to getting to know your daughter just as well.”

  Vera remained facedown in the mud, refusing to look at him. Neva kept her eyes on the ground, ignoring Eli as he put her coat around her shoulders. The man on the roof clambered down the antenna, keeping his rifle on Stebbs and Lynn as he backed away. The three others followed, Blue Coat dragging Neva to her feet; Green Hat steadied her when she tripped.

  “Tell Lucy I love her,” Neva said to Lynn as she walked past. Lynn’s throat closed up, not allowing her to speak. She only nodded in response, and the figures grew smaller as they moved away, the man from the roof continuing to cover them with his rifle.

  “Ma’am, I know it’s been a hell of a morning,” Stebbs said, kneeling in the mud next to Vera, “but we’ve got something to ask of you.”

  “Lucy’s sick,” Eli said. “Bad.”

  Stebbs cut the rope holding Vera’s hands together, and she rubbed her w
rists. “Where is she?” she asked.

  “Downstairs.” Stebbs helped her to her feet. “It happened overnight.” He explained as they moved into the basement and gathered around Lucy’s cot. No one noticed when Lynn quietly picked up her rifle and left.

  The four figures were easy to spot from the roof. Gap Tooth led, with Blue Coat dragging Neva behind him, and Green Hat walking beside her. The man from the roof had turned his back on the house, assuming he was clear of her range. He wasn’t, but Lynn knew she couldn’t make four clean shots before one of them got to Neva to retaliate. All she could do was watch.

  Neva stumbled awkwardly over the rough fields, lost her balance, and fell on all fours. Her coat slid off her shoulders as she struggled to her knees. The noose pulled tight, and Blue Coat turned around just in time to see Neva put the derringer to her temple. Lynn saw her body slump sideways before the sound of the gunshot reached her, a flat snap that could have been mistaken for the breaking of a twig.

  Blue Coat turned in time for blood to spray his jeans, and he kicked Neva’s lifeless body. Wrath rose in Lynn’s throat so thickly she nearly choked on it as the other men pulled him off Neva. He turned back to the house, drawing his finger across his throat in an unmistakable gesture. Lynn’s finger curled around the trigger, the need to add a dead body next to Neva’s so deep that it almost won over her common sense. Mother could have taken them down at that range, but Lynn wasn’t confident and a wasted bullet would bring all four of them fanning back around the house, and trouble to Lucy’s bedside at a time when every second counted.

  But they went south instead of carrying out the threat. Now that Lynn had the high ground and they’d lost the element of surprise, the odds were against them. Green Hat waited until the other men had put some distance between themselves and the body before he knelt down and covered Neva’s face with her coat.

  Lynn was numb as she fumbled with the door, the image of Neva’s lifeless body lying alone in the frozen field stamped on her brain.

  “Stebbs,” Lynn called down the steps. “I need you out here.”