Nathaniel (16 page)

Ione felt a twinge of annoyance at Anna’s brusqueness. In truth, she was more than a little hurt. In Prairie Bend, when someone was having a baby, the neighbors gathered around, just as they did when there was illness, or trouble of some sort. It had been that way for as long as Ione could remember—except for the Halls. For some reason Ione had never understood, the Halls tended to keep to themselves.

Oh, they’d accept helping hands to get the crops in, Ione thought, or to fix up that old house for Janet and her son. Ione herself had willingly helped out with that and hadn’t begrudged the effort for a minute. But when it came to themselves and their children, the Halls had always been standoffish. Tonight, obviously, was going to be no exception. It occurred to Ione that even with the doctor present, Laura might be able to use the nursing skills Ione had acquired years earlier, before she’d married Leif. But Anna had already made it quite clear that Ione wasn’t wanted.

“I see,” she said stiffly, making no attempt to mask her feelings. “Well, then, I don’t suppose there’s much chance of Michael coming over here tonight, is there? Magic’s foaling, and Eric promised him he could watch.” She paused. “I suppose that’ll be out of the question now.”

Again there was no hesitation in Anna’s reply. “I don’t see why. Let me call him,” she said.

As she crossed the yard a few minutes later, Ione Simpson paused halfway to the barn to gaze at the newly painted little house that was silhouetted in the distance against the setting sun. In this light, it looked no different from the way it had ever looked, and for a moment Ione wondered if Janet Hall hadn’t made a horrible mistake in deciding to move onto the long-abandoned farm. There had been so many stories over the years, so much speculation.…

In the end, though, she decided that what Janet Hall did was her own business.

And yet, she knew that wasn’t quite true. In Praire Bend, everything that happened to anyone affected everyone else. And something, she knew, had happened in that house that Janet Hall was moving into.…

Twenty minutes later, Michael skidded his borrowed bicycle to a halt in front of the Shieldses’, sure that Ryan would be waiting for him. With Shadow at his heels, he started across the yard to the front door, but suddenly stopped as he noticed his grandfather’s big Oldsmobile parked in the driveway behind his Uncle Buck’s car. He gazed at the Olds for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. His grandfather had said he was going to a grange meeting when he’d left the house a half hour earlier.

Now, as Michael thought about it, something seemed odd. Wasn’t the grange just for farmers? And if it was, why would it be at the Shieldses’ house? Uncle Buck wasn’t a farmer. And come to think of it, why hadn’t his grandfather said anything about a meeting earlier? In fact, he’d been watching television when the phone rang, and then he’d just left, saying something about the grange as he went out the door. But if he was coming over to the Shieldses, why hadn’t he suggested that everyone come along? As Michael turned the matter over in his mind, a pair of headlights glowed from around the bend. Instinctively, he grabbed his bike and eased himself behind the hedge that separated the house from the lot next door.

The car pulled up, and a moment later Dr. Potter got out, carrying his black bag, and hurried across the lawn and up the porch steps. The door opened almost immediately, and Michael saw his grandfather take Dr. Potter by the arm and pull him inside.

For a moment, Michael was tempted to walk across the lawn, climb the steps, and knock on the door. But then, as he stood in the gathering gloom of the evening, his mind was changed. It was almost as if there were a voice inside his head, whispering to him, telling him to leave the house. From beside him, a low growl rumbled from Shadow’s throat, and Michael laid a hand on the dog to calm him.

Almost against his will, he wheeled the bicycle out from behind the hedge, mounted it, and started pedaling away, Shadow trotting along behind. Once, Michael glanced back over his shoulder, but from the outside nothing at the Shieldses’ seemed amiss. It was just a house, with some kind of a meeting going on inside.

Except the voice in his head told him there was something else.

Something he didn’t understand yet, but soon would …

As Michael Hall rode away from the house, Laura Shields gazed up at Dr. Potter, her eyes pleading.

“Can’t I go to the hospital? Please, can’t you take me to the hospital?”

Potter took her hand in his own, stroking it gently. “It’s too late, Laura. The baby could come any time, and the hospital is forty miles away.”

“I can make it,” Laura whispered, even though she knew she couldn’t. Another cramp wracked her body, and she felt the tiny form inside her shift its position. “If I’m in the hospital, I know the baby will be all right. I
know
it.”

“Hush,” Potter soothed. “Hush, Laura. We’re all here, and we’re all going to take care of you. You’ll be fine. In a few hours, it’ll all be over, and you’ll be fine.” He released her hand, then rummaged in his bag. A moment later he handed Laura a small white pill and held a glass of water for her. “Take this,” he commanded. “Take this, and try to get some sleep.”

“But the baby,” Laura moaned. “What about the baby? I have to be awake when my baby comes.”

“You will be,” Potter promised. “But right now, you mustn’t worry about the baby, Laura. You mustn’t even think about it. Not yet.”

Not think about it? Laura wondered as she felt the pill begin its swift work. How can I not think about my baby?

And then, as Potter sat gently wiping her sweating brow with a cool washcloth, she began drifting into a fitful sleep. But just before she slipped into unconsciousness, she spoke once again.

“He can’t have this one,” she whispered. “It’s not for him. It’s not for Nathaniel … it’s for
me …”

“Easy, Magic, take it easy.”

It had been going on for nearly two hours, and Michael was beginning to wonder if anything was ever going to happen. He was perched on the partition between Magic’s stall and the one next to it, while Eric stood at the mare’s head, a steady stream of soothing words flowing from his mouth into her ear. His hands roamed over the horse’s head and neck, gripping her halter whenever she tried to pull away, but never jerking at the leather straps. “How long does it take?” Michael asked, but if Eric heard his words, he ignored them. It was Leif Simpson who replied.

“Won’t know for a little while yet. So far, everything looks all right, and if she can do it herself, we might have a foal in another hour. But if things are twisted around, it could take a lot longer.”

“Twisted around? Twisted how?”

“If the colt’s in the wrong position,” Leif explained. “If it comes out head first, we’re home free. But sometimes they don’t, and you have to lend a hand.”

“How?”

Eric’s father grinned at him, his eyes twinkling. “You have to climb right in after the colt. Grab it by the legs, or anything else you can get hold of, and start working it out.”

Michael wasn’t at all sure he believed the man, and the doubt in his eyes was reflected in his words. “But what about wild horses? What happens to them?”

“Wild horses are a different breed of cat, so to speak,” Leif told him, “different from domesticated ones. We breed farm animals for traits we want, but sometimes when we breed things in, we breed other things out. So wild horses don’t have problems foaling, but on the other hand, they’re not as big, and not as strong as old Magic here. Understand?”

As Michael nodded, Magic whinnied loudly, shook herself, and pawed at the floor with her forelegs. “Hang on to her, son,” Leif warned unnecessarily, for Eric had a firm grip on the worried mare.

“It’s like she doesn’t know what’s happening,” Michael observed.

“Oh, she knows, all right,” Leif Simpson replied. “She’s been shoving hay around her stall for a couple of days now, getting things ready.” He glanced up at Michael. “Sure you don’t want to come down here? You can see better.”

Michael shook his head. Though he wanted to watch the birth, he also wanted to be safely out of the way if something went wrong. Though he wasn’t about to admit it, he had not yet taken on the casual attitude toward horses that the kids in Prairie Bend all seemed to have been born with.

As Michael watched, Leif Simpson frowned, looked closely at the horse, then smiled. “Hang on, Eric,” he said quietly. “Here it comes.” And as Michael watched, the head of the foal slowly emerged from the mare’s womb. “Come on,” Leif Simpson urged. “Come on baby, you’re almost there. Easy. Easy … eeeeeasy!”

Suddenly the emerging form stopped moving, and Leif Simpson cursed softly. He reached out and began working his hand around the foal, gently pressing with his fingers feeling his way into the cervical opening.

“What is it, Pa?” Eric asked. Though his hands remained firm on the nervous mare’s halter, his anxious eyes were on his father.

“It’s a foreleg,” Leif replied. “It’s not bad. Just got to ease it around so the hoof is loose, and it can slip right out.”

Without thinking, Michael slid off the partition and moved closer, staring in fascination at the tiny form that hung suspended, only partially born, its coat matted and damp with the wetness of birth. And then, as he watched, Leif Simpson pulled his hand gently away, exposing a tiny hoof. Almost immediately, the birthing process resumed, and a few moments later the foal dropped from the womb, Leif easing it to the floor of the stall.

“Let her go,” he told his son, and Eric released his hold on the mare’s halter. Magic, freed, immediately strained her head and neck back, and began licking at the tiny colt. It shivered under its mother’s tongue, then struggled uncertainly to its feet, teetered for a few seconds, and dropped back to the floor. It rested; then, once more, it rose to its feet. Instinctively, as Magic still licked at it, it found a teat and began suckling.

“Wow,” Michael breathed.

“Neat, isn’t it?” Eric asked as proudly as if he himself were the father of the colt. “This one was easier than the last one. Last time, she breeched, and it took most of the night.”

“Can I touch it?” Michael asked.

“Not yet,” Leif cautioned him. “We want it to get a good fix on Magic. If we start handling it too soon, it could imprint on one of us, and wind up thinking we’re its mother. You want to spend the next few months with a colt following you around, trying to get milk?”

Michael cocked his head, gazing in wonder at the tiny form. Unborn only a few minutes ago, the foal was already beginning to take care of itself. “If it were that colt,” he eventually said, “I might not mind at all.”

“Well, maybe you wouldn’t,” Leif Simpson replied. “But Magic would be mighty upset.” He glanced around the stall, then pointed to the mops and brooms that leaned against one of its walls. “The sooner you two get this mess cleaned up, the sooner you can get back to admiring that little family.”

The two boys began working on the stall, cleaning up and disposing of the placenta, removing the soiled straw and replacing it with fresh. But as they worked Michael’s eyes kept drifting to the colt.

He wished the colt were his.

Laura Shields woke up, her body wracked with pain. The contractions were coming rapidly now, only a few seconds apart. Dimly, she was aware of people around her: Dr. Potter, standing near the foot of the bed; Buck, next to her, holding her hand. In the far corner, near the door, her father stood, watching her intently. Laura lay still for a moment, waiting for a respite from the pain before she finally spoke, and when it came, her voice sounded distant to her, as if she were far away from herself.

“Go away,” she whispered hoarsely. “Go away and leave me alone.”

“Hush,” Buck told her, his gruff voice distorted with an attempt to be tender. “It’s going to be all right. We’re all here, and we’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t
want
you,” Laura moaned. “Get Mother. I want Mother to help me. Please? If I can’t go to the hospital, can’t I at least have Mother?”

“Don’t, Laura,” Buck replied. “Don’t talk that way. You know it has to be this way. You know it.”

Why? Laura wondered as the pain closed in on her once more. Why does it have to be this way? Why do I have to be alone with the men? Why can’t I have my mother with me?

There were no answers to her questions, and all she could do was look up into her husband’s eyes. “It’s going to be all right, isn’t it?” she whispered. “Please, tell me it’s going to be perfect, and it’s going to be mine, and it isn’t going to die. Promise me? Please, Buck, promise me?”

There was silence for a moment as another contraction surged through Laura. Involuntarily, she crushed Buck’s hand in her own, but managed to suppress the scream that rose in her throat. “Please,” she begged when she could talk once more. “Please promise me.”

“I can’t,” Buck whispered. “You know I can’t.”

And then the contractions seized her once again, and Laura knew the time had come. Clenching her hands, bracing herself against Buck’s strong arms, she bore down, and felt the child within her move, edging slightly downward.

“Good,” she heard Dr. Potter say, as if from a great distance. “That’s good Laura. I can see the head. Again.” Once more, feeling the rhythm of the contractions, she bore down. “Again. Again. Once more …”

She bore down hard, and again she felt the baby move. This time, though, the movement was accompanied by a searing pain that sliced through her body, forcing a scream from her throat.

And in her mind, that searing pain cut through her consciousness, peeled away the layers of scar tissue she’d built up over the years, and the memories came flooding back to her. Her brain, muddled with drugs and pain, began garbling memory and reality. As Laura’s body delivered her baby into the world, her mind delivered her into the past.

Her father was there, standing at the foot of the bed, staring at her.

“You killed him.”

Laura heard the words, but wasn’t sure what they meant. And yet, she knew, they were her words, her voice that had spoken them.