Syl burst out laughing. “Matt’s a courier,” she said. “The whole house is filled with maps. I’ll show you the route tomorrow. You can take the map. Matt won’t be using them anymore, thank goodness.”
“Night, Miss Syl,” Opal called. “See you in the morning.”
“I’m coming in,” Syl replied. “Jon and I are through here.”
“Thank you,” Jon said. “Thanks for everything, Syl. Thanks for loving Gabe.”
“You’re my brother,” Syl said. “And now Gabe’s my son. It’s easy to love both of you.”
Gabe was still sleeping when Jon walked into the kitchen early the next morning. He was surprised to find Syl there. “You’re up early,” he said.
“So are you,” she said. “Opal’s still asleep.”
“She’s exhausted,” Jon replied. “The trip was hard for her. I knew where we were going and why, but she came along because no one gave her a choice.”
“She has choices now,” Syl replied. “Not a lot, but more than she probably had in White Birch.”
“How many bikes do you have?” Jon asked. “I counted three in Gabe’s room.”
Syl smiled. “It was the bike room before Gabe moved in. Matt likes having spares around. He keeps an extra three in there.”
“And Alex is going to drive you to New Harmony?” Jon asked.
“That’s the plan,” Syl said. “Matt figured New Harmony will be thrilled to have a car. And Alex can’t return it to Sexton.”
“It’s a pretty big car,” Jon said. “It should fit all of you and a lot of your things, too.”
“We don’t have a lot of things,” Syl said. “Gabe’s trucks don’t take up much room. Jon, are you asking if you can take two of the bikes for you and Opal?”
He nodded. “I’d like to get there as fast as possible,” he said. “The bikes would make a big difference.”
“They’d make a big difference for us, also,” Syl said. “If you and Opal take them, they’ll be waiting for us when we get to New Harmony. It’s a great idea.”
“Do you have the map?” Jon asked. “I’d like to check the route out.”
“Here,” Syl said. “This is the route Matt showed Alex.”
Jon looked at the map. “It looks pretty straightforward,” he said. “Do you know if there’s a lot of trucking around there? The fewer people who see us the better.”
“Matt said no when Alex asked,” Syl replied. “But there’s always a chance. Sexton’s been sending more and more food to this part of the state. I don’t know what we’d do without their greenhouses.”
“New Harmony isn’t importing food, is it?” Jon asked.
Syl shrugged. “Probably,” she replied. “This is an imperfect world, Jon. The people at New Harmony are trying a different approach, but that doesn’t mean they’re saintly. Don’t go in with illusions. They’ll just break your heart.”
“I saw Mom’s body riddled with bullets,” Jon said. “Any illusions I had died with her.”
“I’m sorry,” Syl said. “I keep thinking of you the way you were in Pennsylvania. We’ve both grown up since then.”
“I’ve done a lot of bad things,” Jon said. “I’m glad they’re not saints in New Harmony. I’d never fit in if they were.”
“I know,” Syl said, and rolled her eyes. “Saint Alex.”
Jon laughed. “He’s lost a lot of his saintliness over the years,” he said. “He called clavers ‘fat asses.’ I heard him.”
“That’s a start,” she said. “If we’re all going to be in New Harmony, I’d better learn to love him.”
“We’ll be a family again,” Jon said.
Syl nodded. “That’s been Matt’s dream for so long now,” she said. “We’ll make it work.”
“Make what work?” Opal asked, coming into the kitchen.
“Life,” Jon said. “Opal, would you like to go to New Harmony with me?”
“What’s New Harmony?” she asked.
“It’s a town about seventy-five miles from here,” Syl replied. “No grubs, no clavers. Just people working together.”
“If you don’t want to, we’ll figure out a way of getting you back to White Birch,” Jon said.
“I can’t go back,” she said. “You know that, Mr. Jon. Ruby’s taken my place and I’ve taken hers.”
“Matt and I are going to move to New Harmony, Opal,” Syl said. “But not for a couple of weeks. If you want, you can stay here until then, and we’ll see about getting you work in Dickerson. They always need girls to do cleaning.”
“So I could be a grub here,” Opal said. “Same as White Birch? Or I could go to this place and take my chances?”
“We’ll all be taking our chances,” Jon said. “I can’t go back, either, Opal. It’s not even safe for me to stay here.”
“You’d make a better grub than I ever thought you would,” Opal said. “All that walking made a real man of you, Mr. Jon. But I guess I’ll see what not being a grub’ll feel like.”
“You weren’t always a grub,” Jon said. “When you were growing up, you weren’t.”
“Oh, Mr. Jon,” Opal said. “Back on the farm the only ones who didn’t think we was grubs was the chickens. You don’t need the name to be a grub.”
“Then this is your chance not to be,” Jon said. “We’re friends, Opal. I could use some friends in my life.”
“Seventy-five more miles,” Opal said. “That’s a whole lot of walking to get to some strange place.”
“Syl’s letting us borrow two bikes,” Jon told her. “We can leave after Gabe wakes up and get to New Harmony by tomorrow afternoon.”
“I don’t know,” Opal said. “I ain’t rode a bike since I was real little. What if I fall?”
“It’s been a long time for me, too,” Jon said. “I’ll be falling, too. We’ll fall together.”
“That’s fair enough,” she said. “When do we start?”
“You sure this is New Harmony?” Opal asked as they rode their bikes down Main Street.
“I’m pretty sure,” Jon said. “Syl said the town was originally named Westfield, and that’s the exit we took.”
“We took that exit miles ago,” Opal said. “We passed lots of little towns, with no one in them. Maybe one of them was New Harmony.”
“Look,” Jon said, gesturing toward a storefront with a sign: NEW HARMONY MEETING ROOM.
“Looks empty,” Opal said. “Maybe no one’s around to meet us.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Jon said. “Everyone’s working. Relax, Opal. We’ll find out where Miranda and Alex are, and everything will fall into place.”
“Don’t say that word ‘fall,’” Opal said. “It’s no comfort to me that you fell, too.”
Jon grinned. He’d picked up a couple of bruises. But he and Opal had gotten the hang of it and made great time.
“Let’s say this is New Harmony,” Opal said. “How are we gonna find that sister of yours? You don’t even know their address. And my recollection is people don’t warm up to you much when you go asking.”
“You want to do the asking?” Jon asked.
“They ain’t my family,” Opal said. “You do the finding this time.”
“All right,” Jon said. “I’ll ask in there.”
“It says ‘Health Clinic,’” Opal said. “What makes you think they’re sick?”
“I don’t,” Jon replied. “But I bet Miranda took the baby in first thing. You stay outside with the bikes. I’ll go in and see what I can find.”
“You’ll find trouble,” Opal said, but Jon ignored her. She was scared, and that was how she acted when fear got the best of her. Not that he blamed her. It was one thing to find New Harmony. It was another to know what to do there.