“But you saved her. You pulled her out before she could disappear.” Samantha turned Molly to face him; the baby started to scream. “At least she’s still alive.”
“Sure, she’s alive, but look at her. She’s probably not even a year old.”
“She can grow up again, just like the others did.”
“And they didn’t remember anything?”
Samantha shook their head. She looked into Molly’s eyes, wondering if the infant could still remember her adult life or if those memories had already slipped away. “She’ll be just like a normal baby.”
“That’s a relief,” Uncle Hector said. “I’d hate to think of her being trapped in there. That would be worse than her dying.”
“She’ll be all right,” Samantha said, but Molly continued to scream. Perhaps she was just hungry. They didn’t have any milk left in the church, though. Molly would have to wait until morning, when Samantha could go down to the cows for milk.
The front doors of the church opened. Molly’s crying had brought out Rebecca and Prudence. They stared at Samantha and the baby in her arms. “Who’s that?” Prudence asked.
“It’s Miss Brigham. She fell into the fountain,” Samantha said.
“That’s Miss Brigham?” Rebecca said.
“I’m afraid so.” She repeated what Uncle Hector had said. He didn’t look at them, still watching the fire. She wished she could do something to comfort him, but at the moment she had Molly in her arms, still screaming her head off. “I think she might be hungry.”
“Here, let me try,” Rebecca said. She took Molly from Samantha’s arms. The baby’s crying finally stopped. She began to coo softly. A few minutes later, she was quiet. “She’s asleep.”
“I think she likes you,” Samantha said.
“What are we going to do now?” Prudence asked.
Samantha looked over at her uncle and then back at Prudence. “I think you should come with us. All of you.”
“What? We can’t leave. This is our home.”
“Prudence, wake up. When Uncle Hector and I leave, who’s going to take care of the children now that Miss Brigham can’t?”
“Rebecca and I—”
“You’re just kids yourselves. You need a grown-up here.”
“We’re kids? You’re only a year older than me.”
“So?”
Uncle Hector finally turned to face them. “Samantha’s right, kids. I can’t just leave you all here to fend for yourselves. At least not for too long. We’ll take some of you over to the mainland and then we’ll come back for the rest.”
“What will happen to us then?” Rebecca asked.
“I don’t know. It’ll be up to the state to decide. I’m sure they’ll try to find new homes for all of you.”
“I don’t want a new home!” Prudence said, her voice uncharacteristically harsh. “This is my home. It’s all our homes. Except you and Samantha.”
“Prudence—”
“We’re not leaving!” Prudence shouted. She turned and then stomped back into the church. Rebecca looked helplessly at Samantha and Uncle Hector for a moment. Then she too turned and joined Prudence.
Chapter 25: Turning Back the Clock
Molly slept through the rest of the night without any trouble. The only problem was for Rebecca, who kept the baby in her arms for hours, until her arms went numb. She tried to get some circulation back by rocking Molly. She accompanied the rocking with humming, a tune she couldn’t remember the name of.
As she rocked and hummed to the baby, Rebecca couldn’t help staring at the girl’s face. Did little Molly still remember who she was? How horrible it would be to suddenly no longer be able to talk, walk, feed yourself, or even use the bathroom on your own. In an instant these basic freedoms had all been stripped from her.
Making it even worse was that it had happened in such a bizarre way. Miss Brigham knew better than to go to the fountain cave at night. She generally avoided going anywhere at night unless there was an emergency. Since Rebecca had already brought water for Mr. Delgado and Prudence there had been no emergency.
Besides that, Miss Brigham knew to be careful around the Fountain of Youth. With what had happened to Annie, they had become extremely cautious with the water. She wouldn’t have done anything that would have risked her falling in.
It just didn’t add up. Mr. Delgado had to be lying about what had happened. But why? What was he hiding?
These thoughts continued to consume her mind even after morning came. Samantha and Prudence went down to the barns at first light to fetch some milk. That was the best they could do for poor Miss Brigham until her teeth started to come in. Breast milk would be the best thing for her, but Miss Brigham had been the only adult female on the island. Rebecca knew better than to ask Samantha if she could try. The last thing she wanted at this point was to drive Samantha away again. With Miss Brigham incapacitated, they needed Samantha more than ever.
At least for the next few days. Then her and her “uncle” would leave the island and begin taking everyone from Eternity to the mainland. What kind of life would await them there? Rebecca had listened to Samantha’s stories about what lay beyond the sea, all the magnificent things there. That had been fine when they were just stories, but the thought of actually going there put a nervous flutter in Rebecca’s stomach.
Some time later, Prudence sat down next to Rebecca on the front pew of the church. She had a pitcher of milk and a ladle, the best they could do at the moment. “Where’s Samantha?” Rebecca asked.
“She went to the beach with Mr. Delgado and the others.”
“Oh, I see.” Rebecca dipped the ladle into the pitcher of milk. She took just enough milk to fill the bottom of the ladle. She carefully dribbled some of this into Molly’s mouth. The baby coughed, but kept the milk down. Rebecca patted Molly’s back. “Good girl. Very good.”
Molly cooed at this. Now that there was light coming through the church windows, Rebecca could see how much the baby resembled the grown Miss Brigham with her cap of red hair and green eyes. Yet there was a sadness in those eyes, the sadness only someone older could feel.
“I think she still remembers,” Rebecca said.
“Oh my,” Prudence said. “That must be awful.”
Rebecca dribbled some more milk into Molly’s mouth. “Do you believe what Mr. Delgado said? Do you really think Miss Brigham fell into the fountain on her own?”
Before Prudence could answer, Molly began to scream. Her face turned bright red and tears dribbled down her face. One of her chubby hands reached out to grasp Rebecca’s pinky. Rebecca’s eyes widened at this. She did remember!
“Miss Brigham, can you understand me? Blink twice for yes.” For a moment Rebecca stared at the baby’s red face. Then Molly blinked twice in quick succession.
“It’s a miracle,” Prudence said.
“I don’t know about that,” Rebecca said. She turned back to the infant. “Did Mr. Delgado tell the truth? Did you fall into the fountain? Blink twice for yes and three times for no.”
Rebecca waited. Molly’s eyes blinked three times. “You didn’t fall in. Did he push you?”
Two blinks. “What do we do now?” Prudence asked. “Should we tell Samantha?”
“No. She won’t believe us.”
“But Miss Brigham—”
“She’s not going to believe a baby. Not over her uncle.”
“What else can we do?”
“We have to find some proof.”
***
Rebecca didn’t like the idea of taking Molly with them to the cave, but she didn’t want to just leave the baby alone in the church. It would be too easy then for Mr. Delgado to finish what he’d started. Molly would be a lot safer with Rebecca and Prudence.
“What are we looking for?” Prudence asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe he left a clue there.” Rebecca shrugged as much as she could with a baby in her arms. “That’s where Samantha would start.”
“I su
ppose so. I still think we should tell someone. If not Samantha then one of the others, like David—”
“We can’t go to him,” Rebecca snapped. “He wouldn’t believe us either. He’s just a big bully.”
“But we can’t stop Mr. Delgado on our own. He’s a grown-up.”
“Let’s just take this one step at a time,” Rebecca said. “We have to find some proof about what Mr. Delgado did. Then maybe we can convince Samantha or David to help us.”
“If we can’t?”
“Then we’ll have to think of something else.” Rebecca had already thought of another plan, but she knew better than to tell Prudence. If they couldn’t get Samantha or David to believe them, then the only hope would be to take some of the fountain water and do what Mr. Delgado had done to Miss Brigham. If they could make him younger, into a child, then he would be easy enough to defeat.
She knew better than to tell Prudence because she knew what Prudence would say. Prudence would say that’s what Reverend Crane had done to them for centuries, which was a wicked thing to do. Rebecca would have to carry out that part of the plan on her own.
They reached the fountain cave at last. Molly began to whimper as they entered the cave. Between the light outside and that from the fountain, it wasn’t too dark, but Rebecca suspected the baby’s fear had another source. This was the place where her old life had been stripped away from her. “It’s all right, Molly,” Rebecca whispered. “Nothing bad will happen to you. I promise.”
“What do we look for now?” Prudence asked.
“Tracks,” Rebecca said. “Could you take her for a minute?”
Rebecca passed Molly to Prudence. The baby started to cry louder, despite Prudence’s efforts to comfort her. Meanwhile, Rebecca bent down to study the tracks in the dust of the cave. She recognized the footprints of Mr. Delgado, his boots different from the shoes the boys on the island wore. The narrower footprints had to be those of Miss Brigham.
She followed the prints around, until she reached a spot several feet from the Fountain of Youth. There Miss Brigham’s footprints were partially wiped out, as if she’d scraped her feet across the ground. The prints became shallower too, as if she were putting less weight on her shoes. “This is it. This is where it happened,” Rebecca said. “Bring Molly over here.”
Prudence carried the baby over. She stared at the footprints. “What’s that?”
“These are her footprints,” Rebecca explained. “This is where it happened.”
She stood up so she could look Molly in the eye. “He didn’t push you in, did he?” Molly blinked three times for no. “He threw the water on you. Here.” The baby blinked twice for yes.
“Is this going to be enough proof?” Prudence asked.
“No, but it’s a start,” Rebecca said. “Come on, let’s go down to the boat. Maybe he left something there.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you kids do that,” Mr. Delgado said, his voice echoing through the fountain cave. Rebecca didn’t see him at first, not until he stepped away from a wall of the cave. He must have been there all along, hearing every word they said.
“Why did you do that to Miss Brigham? What did she find out?”
“I didn’t want to do anything to her. I tried to cut her in, but she wouldn’t play ball.”
“Play ball?”
“I was going to make her a partner, but she didn’t want to go along with it. Her precious duty to that reverend guy.” Mr. Delgado sneered, giving his face a sinister look.
“What is it you want from us?”
“Just this,” he said. He held up a pitcher, the interior of it glowing like the fountain itself.
“The water? What would you do with it?”
“You kids really are sheltered. You’re sitting on a gold mine and you don’t even realize it.”
“You want to sell the water? To who?”
“The highest bidder.”
“We can’t let you do that,” Prudence said. “We can’t let you have the water.”
“That’s what she said. Right before I did this.”
Rebecca knew what he was going to do a second before he brought the pitcher back. She had just enough time to snatch Molly away and then drop to the ground. She turned over to make sure the water wouldn’t hit the baby.
Instead, the water hit her back. Rebecca didn’t feel anything for a moment, but then the cave began to grow larger around her. Her arms retracted into the sleeves of her dress. Molly, who had looked so tiny before, began to look much bigger, almost like an equal.
Rebecca looked up in time to see what remained in the pitcher hit Prudence. As had happened to Rebecca, Prudence began to shrink. The dress Samantha had fetched for her became even looser, the hem pooling at her feet. Her hair slipped out of its bun to tumble down to almost her waist. Prudence’s stomach shrank as well, but she remained chubby.
“Oh no,” Prudence said, holding up a hand. “I’m little again.”
“You’re going to get even littler before much longer,” Mr. Delgado said.
“You should pick on someone your own size,” David said from the entrance of the cave.
“You want to join them, tough guy? Be my guest.”
Rebecca rolled over. Prudence helped her up to her feet. To her dismay, Rebecca saw she only came up to the middle of Prudence’s chest. As well, holding Molly felt like trying to hold one of the newborn calves. She and Annie were probably the same age again, or perhaps Rebecca was even younger now. “David, no,” she squeaked.
“You kids get out of here.” Then David charged at Mr. Delgado. He threw a punch that missed Mr. Delgado by a couple of inches. In turn, Mr. Delgado punched David in the stomach.
Rebecca wanted to try and help David, but Prudence seized her arm. She dragged Rebecca away, despite Rebecca’s efforts to stay. “Come on, we got to go,” Prudence said.
“David!” Rebecca shouted, but he couldn’t answer her. He and Mr. Delgado were on the ground, wrestling with each other. Tears came to Rebecca’s eyes as she and Prudence started to run.
Chapter 26: Clues
Samantha had looked all over town for Uncle Hector. He had disappeared from where the boat was docked. She thought perhaps he’d just gone into the forest to relieve himself. After an hour or so, she decided to go see if he had run into trouble. When she still didn’t find anything, she went back into the village.
Strangely, Prudence, Rebecca, and Molly were all gone. “They left a while ago,” Annie said. She and the other smaller children were roaming around town, playing and digging in the rubble for treasures.
“Where did they go?”
“I dunno. You wanna play with us?”
“That’s all right. Maybe later.” She tousled Annie’s hair and smiled. Before she left, she asked, “Did Mr. Delgado stop back here?”
“No.”
“Thanks. You kids be careful.”
“We will.”
Samantha left them to try down by the barns. She couldn’t understand why Prudence and Rebecca would leave the younger children alone. They were too responsible for that. And much too responsible to take a baby with them.
She searched the barns, the fields, and even the woodshed without finding anyone. There seemed nowhere else to try except the fountain cave. As she closed in on the entrance of the cave, she heard grunting and groaning. It didn’t have the feral growl of Pryde’s dogs; it sounded much more human. By the time she reached the entrance, she heard what sounded like a sack of flour hitting the floor, followed by a groan.
She ran into the cave and found Uncle Hector squatting over David. The boy’s body was limp and his face was bloody. “Uncle Hector?”
He got to his feet. When he turned to her, she saw blood dripping from his nose. He would probably have a black eye too before long. “Oh, Lucy, thank God.”
“What happened here?”
“Little prick jumped me. I came back just to see if Molly had left anything behind. He must have followed me.” He mumbled somet
hing in another language. Spanish, she remembered. Then he spit on David’s unconscious body.
“Why would he do that?”
“So I couldn’t take you kids from here. He wants to be king of the island.”
Samantha considered this for a moment. She remembered David’s reluctance to help them fix the boat. He didn’t want them to leave the island. If he did incapacitate Uncle Hector, that would go a long way to making sure the Lady Jane never left the beach.
She threw herself against Uncle Hector, prompting him to grunt. “Sorry.”
“It’s all right, kid.” She didn’t realize she was crying until he touched her cheek and said, “Hey, hey, hey, none of that. I’m fine.”
“I almost lost you. Then I wouldn’t have anyone.”
“It’s all right. I’m still here. Take a lot more than one little bastard to break us apart.”
“Right,” she said. She punctuated it with a sniffle. She forced herself to smile. “You’re still here.”
He took a step and then winced. “Think I can get a sip of that magic water?”
“Sure.” She saw a pitcher on the floor, one salvaged from the wreckage. David must have brought it so he could use the water on Uncle Hector. There was still a bottomful of water left. She handed the pitcher to him.
After he drank the water he didn’t look any younger, but the bruise on his face disappeared. Once he wiped the blood from his nose, that looked undamaged as well. “Good as new,” he said. He handed the pitcher back to her. “Maybe you should get some more. Just in case.”
“Sure.”
She bent down over the Fountain of Youth. As she always did, she saw herself as a little girl, a toddler, and a baby. At the moment all three younger faces were crying. How odd, she thought. Then she dipped the pitcher into the fountain.
“What are we going to do with your friend there?” Uncle Hector asked.
“We’ll lock him in the woodshed until we’re ready to leave. Then I suppose we’ll take him with us.”
Children of Eternity Omnibus Page 30
