“Who is your doctor?” Peter asked as he slid into the front seat.
“What doctor?” I sounded angry, and I knew it. I couldn’t help it. I was going to have to talk about what had happened.
They both froze. They glanced at each other. Then back at me.
Felicia said, very slowly, very cautiously, “Lizbeth, it seems to Peter and me that you are pregnant.”
“I’m not,” I said, and then I fainted.
It only took me a minute to come around, and then I scrambled to my feet, weaving as I stood, just for a moment. Felicia was kneeling beside the open car door, Peter looked horrified, and stationmaster Molly was gaping.
“Liar,” Felicia said, standing to put her arm around me. In a vague sort of way, I noticed she didn’t have to reach up to do that now. She was six years younger than me, but she was going to pass me height-wise, probably in the next few months.
That was not what I was supposed to be thinking about.
“I’m really not,” I said.
“But you fainted.”
“I lost the baby fifteen days ago,” I said, in a voice that told them to close the subject. I got back in the driver’s seat.
“Do you think I ought to drive?” Peter offered. “I’d be glad to do that.”
“I feel fine now.” And I did. Almost normal. I looked in the rearview mirror at my sister, who was trying not to cry.
After a moment’s hesitation, Peter climbed in beside me. The car started up just fine. The soft upholstery smelled like dust, probably because the windows had to be left open for air circulation. We drove out of Sweetwater with my two visitors looking around them at the gently rolling countryside, the patches of green (mostly mountain cedar), the dry grass, the beating sun.
“How’s Eli?” Peter said. “Where is he working?” He yawned widely.
“He had to go over to Cactus Flats early this morning. He’s doing some earthmoving to help with their new town sewage system.”
“An air grigori working on earth?” Peter frowned.
“It’s a job that pays,” I said, as mildly as I could. Though Eli’s specialty was air, that didn’t mean he couldn’t move some earth. Just required a little more work. Same way I’d taken on a job guarding a bank in Homer’s Corner while there was a large payroll in its safe, which was not my favorite job. It was what I called a sitting duck situation.
But Eli and I needed extra money to pay for the expense of additions to our cabin. Until the year before, my home had been one large room with a walled-off bathroom in one corner. In time, I’d gotten on city water.
Even later, after I’d met Eli and he’d come to care about me (and I’d done him some favors), he’d added electricity. Several of the houses on the hill had tied into it, too. So my monthly bills, which had been almost nonexistent, were now a factor in my budget. But I hunted for my meat, I’d gotten some vegetables in return for helping with my mother’s garden, and I swapped for other things I needed.
That had been good living for a single woman but not ideal for a couple, we’d found. It had been easy enough to add our bedroom, but it had put a hole in our savings. Now we’d added yet another bedroom to the cabin. We were managing, but we had to consider every expenditure. Eli wasn’t used to that.
I realized neither Peter nor Felicia had spoken in a few minutes. Felicia’s eyes were shut, and she’d leaned against the door. Peter’s eyes were open but droopy.
“You tired?” I asked him.
He nodded. In another minute, his eyes closed. I remembered how exhausted I’d been when I’d traveled to San Diego and back.
Felicia stirred a little when we got to the outskirts of Segundo Mexia. “We there?” she said, her voice full of sleep.
“Yep. You and Peter share a bed?” I asked Felicia quietly. I wanted to get that settled before we got home. “We can put a partition between two beds in the new room, or we can shove the beds together. We didn’t want to take anything for granted.”
Felicia was nodding off again. “We can share,” she muttered. “Either way is fine. When will we meet your mother?”
“Tomorrow,” I said. “When you’ve woken up.”
“ ’Kay,” she said, and her eyes shut.
The rest of the ride was completely silent. It was brief, too, because there wasn’t much to Segundo Mexia even when you drove through the whole town, as I had. I hated to wake my passengers, but we’d have to walk up to the cabin. There was no track for a car. None of us who lived up the hill had one. Not enough money.
I roused my passengers to start them walking. I followed with the bags. We passed Rex Santino on his way to town and exchanged greetings. Jed Franklin was working on some leather at a table outside his cabin, and we nodded at each other. Chrissie popped out of her front (and only) door long enough to wave at me, shake her head at the sight of my guests (who were just about walking in their sleep), and begin to hang out her wash. Her two boys were at school, though it was about to close for the summer.
My mother, the town schoolteacher, had told me Chrissie’s boys were not too bright, very lively, and good-natured. Took after their ma, in other words. Chrissie’s youngest, a girl, began to cry from inside the shack. Chrissie pegged one last shirt on the line and went in.
* * *
Our cabin was the last one on the town side of the hill, near the top. I was glad to see the front door open as we approached. Eli leaped out to hug Peter, then Felicia.
“They need to go right to bed,” I called.
“I can see that.” Eli was smiling. He was very happy to see his brother. He’d talked about his sisters and his mother from time to time, but I think he’d missed Peter most of all. Eli raised his eyebrows over Peter’s head, silently asking if I’d gotten the word on the bed situation. I held up a finger for one. He nodded and made big eyes at me to show his astonishment.
I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. I was so glad to see Eli acting like himself.
Felicia turned to look, her eyes heavy with sleep. “Bathroom?” she said groggily.
“Indoors to the back right,” I said. It made me proud to need to give directions to the inside of the cabin. Before, it had been completely obvious where everything must be. Having a bathroom inside was not a given in Segundo Mexia or anywhere in Texoma.
Eli was showing Peter their bedroom (to the right of the big original room). He stowed the suitcases on the bench at the foot of the bed, which we had built… both bed and bench. Without another word, Peter collapsed onto the mattress. At least he’d pulled his shoes off.
After a couple of minutes, Felicia trudged out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, her face clean. When she saw Peter asleep, she half-smiled before she slid into the bed beside him. Eli and I backed out and shut the door behind us.
That was the last we saw of our company until early evening.
Eli and I ate sandwiches outside at the picnic table under the live oak tree. He’d gotten cash for the job this morning, which was not always the case. Sometimes he was paid in produce or chickens or rabbits. Once a goat. At first, this had astonished and disgusted him, but now he’d adapted. I’d dug a pit and barbecued the goat, and it had been delicious. We’d fed everyone on the hill. Jackson and my mother had come, too.