29
HOURS LATER, Olivia tossed a flower—provided by Edith—onto the mound of dirt and sank to her knees once again. She covered her face, hiding the dirt and tears, as she rocked back and forth and sobbed. She wept with a force that nearly choked her.
Emma stood between Elmer and Edith, looking small beneath Edith’s arm around her slim shoulders that shook with grief. She did her best to be strong, but watching her sister cry broke her. She couldn’t hold it back; she bawled too, and Elmer quietly patted her back. The old couple sang Amazing Grace quietly, barely in a whisper as they too swiped tears from their faces.
“Well, that’s that, then,” Elmer said gruffly, once they ended their song. “Get up, Olivia. I’m taking you and your sisters home.” He walked away toward his barn while Olivia and Emma turned to watch him in confusion.
They hurried after him, stepping into the barn just behind him to find Gabby stacking hay bales onto a wagon that was attached to a John Deere tractor. The hay was stacked high into the air in a perfect square. She bent and grabbed a pile of old quilts and moved to the end of the wagon, stepping up and disappearing.
Olivia sniffed and wiped her nose on her balled-up Kleenex. “What are you doing, Gabby?”
Gabby didn’t answer. She was still mad as fire at Mei. Mad that she couldn’t stop her. Mad that they’d found out too late the pain she was in and the loss of her daughter she’d been going through. Mad that their country didn’t realize their own doctors had started an epidemic of drug addiction before it was too late. She hated drugs. In her darkest days many years ago, she too had nearly given up and lost her life to a handful of prescription drugs.
She fought back her own grief with wrath as she angrily swung one bale after another to the top row, nearly finishing it off.
“She’s building you a fort,” Elmer answered for her. “I figure you girls are only about an hour from home, the way the crow flies. May as well take you home myself and make sure you all get there.” He dropped his head and stared at his boots. “I don’t want any more blood on my hands.”
Olivia put an arm around the old man and squeezed. She looked up at him. “It wasn’t your fault, Elmer. It wasn’t even your gun.”
“Well, I’m taking you anyway,” he grumbled. He gently shook off her one-armed hug and made himself busy checking to be sure the trailer was securely attached to the tractor. Then he grabbed the heavy gas containers that were stacked against the wall and grunting with exertion, he handed them up to Gabby one at a time, and she dragged them inside their hay-fort.
He stood back and nodded his head. “Good job, Gabby. Now y’all girls go say your goodbyes to the missus. We leave in five minutes.”
Emma scratched her head. “If you have gas, why not just drive us in your truck?”
“I don’t have gas. The tractor runs on diesel. I have that. Besides, this tractor can push pert’near anything out of the way. We don’t know if the roads are clear between here and there, and even if we did have gas, we don’t know that my old truck would make it anyway. I don’t trust it like I do my tractor,” he muttered, and walked away, patting the tractor on the hood affectionately as he walked by it.
Gabby, Olivia and Emma ran into the house, gathered their things, and stood still while Edith fussed over them, handing them each a brown bag packed with food and two gallons of sweet tea. She sniffled and wiped at her nose with a fancy handkerchief while she gave them teary goodbyes.
Outside the window, they watched as Elmer pulled the tractor out of the barn and into the backyard. They stepped outside, and Elmer jumped down. He stood still and leaned over for a peck on the cheek from his wife, promised her he’d be safely home tomorrow and stoically climbed up into the seat without another word.
One more hug from Edith, and they climbed up into the hay, Gabby last. She stacked three bales in the space they’d clambered through and yelled giddy-up to Elmer, before dropping down between her sisters and putting her arms around them. Gabby looked at her sister’s hands and then her own. They all matched, covered in dirt and dotted with blisters from the rough handles of the shovels.
They all huddled up and leaned in close, drawing strength from each other to beat down the gruesome memory of Mei lying dead in a puddle of blood with her long black hair in a halo around her. And Mei laying in a hole in the ground with her arms crossed over her thin chest, the picture of the pig-tailed little girl tucked beneath them and a silly bandana tied around her head. And Mei’s face as it disappeared under a cascade of dirt, peaceful, and finally free from her suffering.
Each of them thought about what they’d been through on their girl-trip.
Worst vacation ever.
But finally, it was over, and soon they thought, they’d all be safe at last; away from all this madness.
—But they couldn’t be more wrong.
30
OZZIE WHINED and scratched at the bedroom door. Grayson mumbled and fumbled out of the bed, finally giving up on sleep and giving in to him.
Damn it, it’s past midnight.
He’d be glad when Olivia was home to take care of them; he’d had no idea how exhausting it was to spend the day letting the dog out, then letting the dog in, then letting the dog out, then letting the dog in…
Guilt pinched his conscience as he realized he was making a fuss over nothing. The dog had needs. And he loved the hairy beast anyway. He’d kept Grayson sane while he’d been alone with his worry over his family. It wasn’t Ozzie’s fault that Grayson had never got around to putting in a doggy-door. That was going on his honey-do list as soon as the world righted itself. They’d all benefit from that. Besides, he couldn’t sleep worth a damn for the worry picking at his brain.
“Come on then, Oz.” He patted the dog on his way out the bedroom door.
Suddenly, he remembered Jake was there.
He could barely believe it. Finally, he and Ozzie weren’t alone anymore. He tried to push away the selfish thought that he’d rather have his brother there instead. Jake’s arrival had been dampened with the bad news he was carrying about Dusty and Rickey.
Shocking news.
News he wasn’t looking forward to telling Emma.
But at least Jake would be here to share that burden. Grayson was glad to see him. He was family too, even if not by blood. And he was damn handy to have around. Hopefully Jake was just the first to arrive, and soon he’d hold his wife and daughter again. Wherever the girls were sleeping tonight, he prayed they were all safe and comfortable and that come daybreak, they’d be coming down the driveway, right into his arms.
And hopefully their wives wouldn’t freak out over the fact there were half-naked women sleeping across the hall—wait, hopefully they weren’t half-naked. He needed to get his mind right…
Grayson stumbled through the dark house as quietly as he could and opened the front door, stepping out onto the porch. Ozzie ran down the steps to do his business while Grayson stepped up to the side railing and did the same, yawning and stretching while he watered the flowers—thinking that was the only thing he could appreciate about Olivia being gone; he could pee outside without her nagging at him.
She didn’t understand that he was also marking his territory, just like Ozzie. Some animals would shy away from human urine, so she was keeping him from doing his duty as man of the house when she insisted he use the bathroom. He could hear her now… ‘Grayson, I can’t believe you walked right past two toilets just to pee outside! You’re going to kill my flowers!’