Glassing the Orgachine Page 4

  Ginger sighed wistfully. “What you say makes sense. Still, I don’t think I’d like to live in a house without a kitchen window.”

  Proverbs quipped, “Then I’ll have to remember to install one when I build us a house.”

  Everyone was astonished, even Proverbs, when he realized what he had just said. An uncomfortable silence fell upon the group until Ginger said, “Thank you, Proverbs. I’d like that.”

  Well, that was doubly shocking and too good to be true. Seemingly unaware of the effect she was having on them, Ginger then took everything back. “No, scratch that. I changed my mind. What I’d really like . . .”

  No one breathed. How could she so callously throw Proverbs a life ring only to snatch it away again?

  “Is at least two windows. One in the kitchen over the sink, and another in our bedroom. Agreed?”

  Proverbs’ knees shivered.

  “Agreed?” Ginger repeated. “Let me warn you, no windows could be a deal-breaker.”

  Proverbs choked, unable to form words, and nodded his head. Then to be sure, he nodded again. The others were shaking their heads in disbelief.

  “Good,” Ginger said. “That’s settled then.”

  But it wasn’t settled, at least not for Sue. “Uh,” she said, “aren’t your parents, like, expecting you to, you know, go back to Wallis?”

  It was a topic no one else had dared to raise. Days had passed since Ginger was supposed to have flown back to Wallis. Yet no one had come looking for her, and Ginger herself had not brought it up.

  Contrary to everyone’s expectation, at the mention of her family, Ginger’s face brightened with joy. “Yes, they are! I can’t believe how much I miss them.”

  “So, you’re going home?”

  “Of course I am. For a little while, at least. I have to go home to bring all my stuff here, don’t I? And I have a little money socked away for college, which is a waste because there probably aren’t any colleges left. I could use it to help replace some of the stuff the devil stole from you and, you know, pay my own way.”

  Praise Father God Almighty. Alleluia, alleluia. She was reborn in the spirit.

  Proverbs said, “But what will your parents say?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m nineteen, and I can do what I want. The real question is what will Poppy say if I succeed in talking my parents into coming back with me. Plus my brother, Rory. Is there room in this keep for in-laws? And another dog?”

  Talk about throwing curve balls. No one had given the idea a moment’s thought. Sue’s parents were unredeemable and she, herself, might have locked the gate on them if they ever showed up. And her brother was in prison for drug felonies. What would Poppy say to the idea of welcoming Rex and Cindy Lawther to share their keep? And her little brother, Rory, and their miniature greyhound dog. No one had any idea what Poppy would say.

  “Besides, Proverbs,” Ginger went on, “I expect you to come out with me to fetch them and help us move. And maybe you too,” meaning Adam and Hosea. “I now believe what you said about the End Times starting. The world out there is a dangerous mess now. If it wasn’t, my Dad would have already come here looking for me. Which means he can’t. Which means they need our help.”

  What a difference getting rid of seven demons made!

  “Well?” Ginger said, looking at all of them. “Are you with me?”

  Where the Dog, the Boy

  WD1 1.0

  IT HAD BEEN a particularly long and dull day, and tomorrow would be even longer. But much more satisfying, for tomorrow was moving day. Tonight was the last night they’d be living in this camp. Tomorrow they’d move into their brand new cottage.

  Poppy pulled his chair next to Mama P and the fire pit. The children arranged the benches for Worship Time. Everyone was tired and hungry and hoped Poppy would keep his homily brief so they could eat and go to bed and dream about their new house. Poppy was tired too. He placed the Bible on his lap and cleared his throat. He counted heads by firelight and came up three short.

  One would be on watch at the gate, one would be pouting in her tent, but the third . . . ?

  Deut, who had done her own count, said, “Where’s Uzzie?”

  Everyone looked around at everyone else. Adam stood up and shouted toward the construction site, now shrouded in darkness. “Ooo-zee! Ooo-zee! Where are yooo?”

  Everyone listened. The eight-year-old, thirteenth-born Prophecy child was missing.

  Deut said, “Who was shadowing him today?” She was looking right at Ithy when she said this.

  “It’s not my fault,” Ithy protested. “We were in the storeroom, and he says he has to go take a dump, but he never came back.”

  “Why didn’t you go look for him?”

  “I did. I looked everywhere.”

  Adam, the first-born said, “Where’s the dog?” He shouted again, this time calling Crissy Lou. But the dog was missing too.

  Poppy shut his Bible. “Find the dog and you’ll find the boy.”

  POPPY POSTPONED WORSHIP Time and sent the middle and elder boys to search the keep. He rested while he waited; he was getting too old to work as hard as he did.

  “Don’t worry, Mother,” he said to Mama P. “He’s probably found some hidey-hole where he can play hooky and take a nap when he wants.”

  A little while later, Crissy Lou joined the children at the pit and was followed by Hosea. The dog was soaking wet. She would not stay still and the children couldn’t keep her from leaving the chamber again. Hosea prevented Solly from following her.

  “Did you find him?” Poppy asked.

  Hosea was as anxious as the dog. He didn’t answer Poppy’s question but asked him to join him in the tunnel. Poppy was too tired to move, but Hosea’s grim expression gave him the boost he needed. Once out of sight of the others, Hosea showed his father a toy boat, an ark.

  “It’s the one I made for him. I found it floating in the cistern, not far from shore. Crissy Lou was also in the water, all tapped out, and I had to help lift her out.”

  POPPY AND HOSEA stood together on the shore of the underground lake. A broom handle floated in the water. The water was black and still.

  “Do you think . . .?” Hosea said, leaving the rest unsaid.

  “It’s exactly what I think.”

  Their headlamps were too feeble to reach very far across the water. “I’ll go get the searchlight,” Hosea said and made for the tunnel. But he stopped again. “Lord? You do know that Chas Bunyan is a Navy diver? He has scuba gear at home. He has a drysuit he uses in Prince William Sound.”

  “It’s too late. By the time he’d get here it would be too late.”

  “They say that children who drown in cold water . . . they say they can sometimes bring them back. If the water’s cold enough, and this water is just above freezing.”

  “Hours later?” Poppy said. “I don’t think so.”

  “Even so . . . at least we’d have his . . . at least we’d know for sure.”

  After saying a little prayer, Poppy pulled the Bearcat keys from his pocket and handed them to Hosea. “Bring only Chas, not his old man. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, lord. Only Chas.”

  “And send Proverbs to me before you go.”

  PROVERBS ARRIVED A few minutes later with the portable searchlight, which he used to scan the lake. Hosea had filled him in on the situation.

  “Son,” Poppy said, “I have a decision to make.”

  “Lord?”

  “In two, three days we’ll be in the position to throw the bolt for good, and I have to decide whether Ginger should be on the inside or the outside when I do.”

  “Do you have to, Lord?” Proverbs said quickly. “I mean, can’t we wait a while longer?”

  “Truthfully, I don’t know. I pray on it all the time, but the Holy Spirit hasn’t prompted me with knowledge one way or the other. I expected Obama’s army would’a attacked us by now, but it hasn’t. Maybe the feds that got killed put a hold on it. Maybe the devil took Uzzie f
rom us to teach us a lesson. Beezus promised he would take all you kids. You heard him; you were there. All I know for sure is Hosea is bringing the Bunyan boy to help us find Uzzie’s body, and when he comes, he’ll be sure to ask about Ginger. Maybe her daddy contacted Dell to ask why she didn’t come home yet, or maybe Chas will just ask on his own. You said he liked her when she was there.”

  The young man prickled with jealousy. “He did.”

  “So he’ll ask about her, and she’ll go off with him faster than you can blink. That’s a pretty safe bet. And two days later the State Troopers will arrive to arrest you and me and maybe your brothers. If they can still fly.

  “So it’s one big swamp of unknowns out there, and unless I receive some providential guidance to the contrary, I think our best bet would be to let her go with Chas Bunyan and throw the bolt right after. I know you like her, and I know it’ll be tough on you for a while, but unless I get, like I said, a pretty clear sign to keep her, that’s what I’m intending to do.”

  “She won’t go with him.”

  Poppy sighed. “I know that’s what you want, son, but —”

  “She won’t, lord. She wants to marry me.”

  “She told you this?”

  “Not in so many words but, yes, she told me.”

  This was a head-scratcher, not what Poppy had expected.

  “There’s more,” Proverbs went on. “She wants to bring her family here to wait out the End Times with us in the keep. She wants me and Adam and Hosea to go to Wallis with her to get them. She says they’ll bring in supplies and pull their own weight. Adam was going to tell you, but I guess he was waiting for the right time.”

  Poppy was silent for a few moments, and then he broke out in laughter. And not the hearty kind of laughter but a cruel, mocking variety.

  “She’s playing you, son. She’s telling you what you want to hear. You’re a lovesick puppy and a first-rate fool, and that’s a fact. She’s got your cock on a leash.”

  “That’s not so, lord. Ask anyone. Adam was there, and Hosea, and Sue. Ask them. She’s changed, lord. We knocked them demons right out of her, and she’s a new person. You were there. You saw it happen. She loves me now, lord. She wants to be my wife.”

  “So you’re telling me that if she and Chas run into each other, she won’t beg him to take her away.”

  “That’s right; she won’t.”

  “For your sake I pray that’s true. Go, tell her Chas is coming to look for Uzzie. See what happens.”

  WD2 1.0

  CHAS BUNYAN HAD been submerged for half an hour. From the shore they could follow the glow of his powerful submersible floodlight as he traced out a search grid. But then he dove too deep even for that, and they followed his progress by the movement of his bubbles.

  To Poppy’s annoyance, Dell Bunyan had accompanied Chas to the keep and brought along his daughter, thirteen-year-old Scarlett. Dell alternately wept and prayed as they waited in the chamber for his son to resurface. Poppy prayed too — for the strength not to do the man harm.

  Scarlett examined the toy ark abandoned on the shore. “This is amazing,” she said to Hosea. There were portholes painted along the sides of the hull with pairs of animal faces peeking out. “Did you make it?”

  “Yes,” the big man confessed. “And now I pray I never did.” He was overcome with grief and regret and went to stand apart from the others in the darkness.

  In a little while, Scarlett joined him. “Courage, Hosea. It’s not your fault, and God knows what He’s doing.”

  “He does,” Hosea said, “but it’s hard waiting around like this just the same.”

  “Then let’s pray.” She bowed her head and said in a voice that seemed to fill the chamber, “Dear God, Thy will be done, for sure, but just this once, if it doesn’t mess up some larger plan, please return this little boy to his family so they can have peace. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Hosea said, and the others repeated, “Amen.”

  It helped a little.

  THERE WAS A splash and loud snorkel purge, and Chas snorkeled his way back to shore. They all shined their lights down on him and saw that he was towing a body.

  “He found him!” Hosea shouted, his deep voice booming in the rocky space. He knelt at the ledge and lifted his brother from Chas’ grip. The child was cold as clay and heavy and absolutely still. Hosea gently laid him on the stone shore.

  “He’s not breathing,” he said. “I don’t think he’s breathing.”

  “Start chest compressions,” Chas said from the water. But none of them knew CPR. Weighed down by all his gear, the Navy SEAL was having a hard time scaling the shear ledge on his own. So Hosea reached down and helped lift him — tanks, weight belt, and all — and sat him on the shore. Chas quickly shed his gear and knelt next to Uzzie to begin resuscitating him.

  After a dozen minutes working on Uzzie’s pale, limp body, the boy showed no sign of life. Chas continued chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breaths while the others prayed out loud, and Dell Bunyan wept. Chas worked on Uzzie until he was too exhausted to continue. But he powered through his exhaustion and worked on him some more. Poppy knelt next to them and placed his hand on Uzzie’s neck. The little body seemed to pulse with every compression, and Poppy exclaimed, “I feel a heartbeat!” But it was Chas’ own efforts and not the boy’s heart.

  Finally, Chas sat back on his heels and said, “I’m sorry.”

  “No!” Poppy said. “Keep going. It was working. Satan doesn’t win this one.”

  “He’s been down too long,” Chas said. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing more I can do.”

  “You can pray, can’t you? Everyone, pray with me. Pray with all your heart. Heavenly Father, hear us in our time of need. Do not take the life of our little son. It’s not his time, and You know it. This is Beezus’ doing, not Yours, but You’re letting him do it. Don’t let Satan do this to us, not now, Lord. We beseech You, Father God, give us back our boy!” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “In Elder Brother Jesus name. Amen.”

  There was no answering amen from the others, and when Poppy looked up, they were all looking at him. “Why aren’t you praying, damn you all. Pray!”

  Hosea bowed his head and prayed. Chas prayed as he gathered his gear. Pastor Bunyan prayed as he cried. Scarlett knelt down next to the drowned boy and prayed.

  “Do you believe in the power of prayer or don’t you?” Poppy said, his voice supercharged with anger. “Are all things possible in the Father, or is it one big lie? Pray! I order you. Pray with everything you got.”

  Dell Bunyan placed a hand on Poppy’s shoulder. “Enough, Brother Prophecy. We can’t tell God His business. We can’t order Him to do our will. He has spoken — the boy is gone.”

  “He’s not!”

  And then, as though hearing his father, the drowned boy gasped.

  The small circle of rescuers stared in disbelief, but only for a moment. Chas rolled Uzzie on his side as the others shouted his name. They filled the chamber with praise and thanksgiving as Uzzie coughed and vomited.

  “Unzip your parka,” Chas told Hosea.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because you’re the biggest furnace here.” Chas quickly stripped the boy of his sodden clothes, placed him against Hosea’s chest, and zipped the parka over him like a pouch. “Take him somewhere warm and climb into bed with him. Don’t set him next to a stove or soak him in hot water. Body heat is best.”

  “Got it.” Hosea clambered from the chamber with his cold burden.

  POPPY ESCORTED THE Bunyans down the tunnels. He intended to invite them to warm up at camp after the miraculous rescue, but Proverbs was waiting for them at the Level 2 ramp. He took charge of the handcart with Chas’ diving gear and continued down the ramp, steering them away from the cottage chamber. And from running into Ginger.

  “I want to thank you for helping my brother,” he told Chas. “I won’t never forget it.”

  “Glad I could help,” Chas replied. “Listen, yo
u should have the boy checked out at a hospital in Anchorage for any neurological complications. I can arrange a medevac flight if you like.”

  “No need,” Poppy said. “Father God wouldn’t have returned the boy to us except in perfect condition.”

  Dell said, “That’s not necessarily so, Prophecy. God wants us to take care of our bodies.”

  “All the same,” Poppy said and changed the topic. “Those feds come back for Ned’s airplane yet?”

  “Not that I’ve heard,” Dell said.

  “Anything at all going on in the world?”

  “Can’t say that there is. Cobweal says Congress should investigate the election for voter fraud. Gold is doing well. The war looks pretty dismal. Governor Tetlin is suing the Interior Department over game restrictions on federal land. Oh, and Ed Sulzer wants to know where his goldpans are. He says his dealer in Spenard says you never dropped them off. And he says you got mail stacking up, including a certified letter from Orion Beehymer.”

  “That all?”

  “Yeah, that’s about it. That and the cold and the dark.”

  As they shuffled down the Level 1 tunnel, Chas said, “What about Ginger Lawther? She still here, or she go home already?”

  Poppy replied before Proverbs could. “Oh, she’s still here. Going back in another week or so.”

  “How does she like living inside a mountain?”

  “She likes it fine enough, I guess. What do you say, son? Ginger like it here?”

  “Yeah,” Proverbs said. “She and the girls are getting pretty close.”

  “Good to hear,” Chas said. “Tell her I said hi, and if she’d like to visit anytime . . . or if any of you’d like to visit, don’t hesitate.”

  “And bring Frankie and Myrrh,” added Scarlett, who was trailing behind them.

  At the gate, Solly and Ithy, who were pulling guard duty, whooped and hollered in blessed jubilation at the news that their little brother was all right. Proverbs loaded the diving gear on a plastic toboggan for the trip down the tailings.