Sister's Choice (9 page)

Lori squirted more gel on Jamie’s abdomen and began to move the transducer. A minute passed, then two. “There,” she said at last.

The doctor was silent as Lori moved the transducer again, then again.

“Just tell them so I can go to the bathroom, okay?” Jamie said.

“We’re going to let you go,” the doctor said, “then, if you don’t mind, we’re going to put you back up here and finish with an internal ultrasound. Just to get more data.”

“Only if you tell these poor people exactly what’s going on,” Jamie said. “Right this minute.”

The doctor walked over to the screen and pointed his finger. “Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. Right there. See that? That’s two heartbeats. Both embryos implanted. If everything continues to go the way we hope, it looks like you’re going to be the parents of twins.”

J
amie was glad to get home. Between the driving, the procedures themselves, the news that she was carrying twins and the nausea that had dogged her all morning, she was ready for a nap. Despite her fatigue, she was thrilled for Kendra and Isaac, who were in shock. Not only were they going to become parents, they were going to have the opportunity to do it big-time. From the beginning, everyone had known this was a possibility, but since the chances were higher that no pregnancy would result than that both embryos would implant, she supposed Kendra and Isaac had simply pushed the possibility aside.

Surprise, surprise.

Of course, it wasn’t a complete delight. A dual pregnancy complicated things. After the second ultrasound, the doctor had warned them that, although things seemed fine at the moment, twins were harder to carry. She would need to take it easier. She might experience stronger symptoms, such as increased morning sickness and fatigue. Toward the end, she might well need to go on a regimen of bed rest, and even then, she would probably deliver early. The trick was to deliver as late as possible to give the babies the best chance.

The pregnancy would also become obvious earlier. It would be difficult to keep secret for long.

As she drove up to the house, she wondered how she was going to tell the girls, then how she would announce it to the other people in her life.

Not that she had many people or even much of a life right now.

She pulled into the clearing, and saw three trucks and more people than she’d seen since arriving in the Valley.

Cancel the part about no people in her life. The Rosslyn and Rosslyn workers had arrived.

Hannah had been tired and subdued on the trip home, but she perked up now. “Who are all those men?”

“I think they’re here to start work on Aunt Kendra’s house.”

“Will Mr. Cash be here? I would like to show him the way we decorated the playhouse.”

Cash had finished the playhouse two weeks ago, and it was both charming and sturdy enough for ten little girls. Jamie and the girls had been off shopping in Winchester and hadn’t been able to thank him in person. She had left him a cell-phone message, but she’d never gotten a response. Then, on one of their visits to see Lucky, Grace had mentioned that Cash was in Kentucky visiting friends but would be home this week.

“I bet he will be here,” Jamie said, as she released Alison from her seat and helped her down. “And he’ll appreciate a thank-you, too.”

The girls took off to see what was happening, and Jamie followed at a more sedate clip.

One group of men was pacing out the area of the new house site. Another group was having a smoke by a pile of rocks and laughing. Closer by, a lone man was making notes on a clipboard.

She chose the guy with the clipboard and introduced herself. He was sixtyish, with ruddy skin and the pale blue eyes that often went with it. He told her his name was Gig, and that he was the project manager and foreman for this crew.

“Cash will be here shortly,” he said. “He’s going to find water today. You ought to get out of the sun for now, but you’ll want to watch.”

“Is he planning a geological survey?” Jamie knew professional hydrologists looked at rock formations, plant growth and other wells to help determine locations for new ones. She imagined the drilling company knew the area and what to look for. She was surprised Cash was the one slated to figure out where they should drill.

“You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Old Cash might look like a simple country boy, but he’s really a witch. A water witch.”

“You’re kidding. Cash is a dowser?”

While the girls chased each other across the clearing, Gig escorted Jamie to the shade. Then, while they waited for Cash to appear, he regaled her with stories of his successes.

“He can just about tell you how many gallons a minute you’ll get, too. He’s not the only one who can do that, you understand, but he’s the best I’ve seen. He found water for a neighbor of mine who thought he’d have to move out when his well ran dry. Everybody else said his land was as dry as a witch’s—” He caught himself. “Dry as a desert.”

“How do you think he does it?”

“A little science, a little inherited talent, a little luck, a little tuning in to heaven.”

Jamie knew that people in the Valley took their religion seriously, but this surprised her. “You think God guides his hand?”

“No, ma’am, I don’t think God has that kind of time, what with the mess this world’s in and all. I think there’s all kinds of stuff we’d know if we could just tune in. It’s all right there. It’s just that most of the time we’re not on the right frequency. Cash now, he just seems to tune in to the right one to find water.”

Jamie pictured heavenly radio waves pinging along the surface of the earth. It was a comforting vision, even with no receivers to pick them up. There was always the possibility somebody would invent the right equipment. Or maybe all any person had to do was stay quiet long enough to hear them.

“Ma’am?”

She pulled herself back to the conversation. “Sorry, I just liked what you said.”

“Me, I couldn’t find water if I was standing on the banks of the Shenandoah. But put me out in the woods, and I can just about smell whatever animals are nearby.”

“You make a good hunter, I guess.”

“Did as a boy. Now I go off without my rifle, just to see the animals.”

Cash chose that moment to appear. The familiar pickup stopped just in front of the site, and he got out. One group of men was gone now. The others were still pacing and making notes. Gig said he had finished what he needed to do for the day, but he was going to stay and watch Cash work.

Cash got out of his pickup and started toward the men, but when he saw the girls, he changed direction and crouched down to say hello to them. He was carrying a black canvas bag with what looked like coat-hanger wire peeking out the top.

Jamie joined them after a moment and waited her turn while the girls thanked him for their playhouse. Cash promised to go over later and see what they’d done with it.

“Looks like the fun’s starting,” she said, after the girls ran off.

Cash’s smile lit his eyes, which were more blue than green today. She hadn’t forgotten what an attractive man he was, but she
had
forgotten just how much she liked looking at him.

“Miss Jamie.” He removed his cap. “Long time no see.”

“I’ve been up to your grandmother’s house. I’m surprised we didn’t run into you.”

“Granny Grace told me she gave you a tour. So what did you think?”

She wasn’t sure how to answer that. Cashel Orchard sat on spectacularly beautiful land, with distant views of river and mountains, green stretches of forest and neighboring farms, but everywhere neglect was obvious. She had been surprised and saddened by the sight of what had to be more than a thousand trees waiting for bulldozers to end their existence. Five minutes into Grace’s tour, with its view of packing sheds, hay fields and tumbling barns, she had been fairly certain that Grace’s quest to restore the land to its former glory was going to fail.

“I think it must be hard for all of you to see eye to eye on the orchard,” she said carefully. “I almost got the feeling the trees know their fate’s being decided.”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’m sure.”

He smiled to signal a change of subject. “I figured you were getting bored here all alone. I just told your girls I’ll be putting some finishing touches on their playhouse tomorrow. But I’ve got a surprise for you. Some genuine recreation. Today we’re going to find water.”

“Gig told me…” She smiled. “
Mr.
Cash. You’re really going to dowse?”

“Sure am.”

“This should be interesting. I guess I don’t believe in dowsing any more than I believe in knocking on wood.”

“Then you’ll have to watch and learn.”

Jamie looked for the girls and saw that at the moment they were perfectly content collecting stones from the driveway.

She turned back to him. “How does this work? You figure out where the well should be drilled, and the drillers just take your word for it?”

He replaced his cap, bill turned to the back. “That’s about right. Of course, if I told them to drill eight hundred feet through solid granite, they might give a second thought to the matter. But I won’t tell them that.”

“Are you ever wrong?”

“A time or two I’ve been off. They’ve had to go a little farther down, got a little more water than I expected or a little less. I don’t make promises.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing how you do it.”

“I don’t talk much while I’m working. I have to clear my mind and pay attention.”

“I wouldn’t dream of disturbing you.”

“That’s a good thing, I guess. In case you start disturbing me down the road a piece, I’ll know it’s not intentional.”

She couldn’t help but smile again. She was aware of just how much smiling she had done since he arrived. “So how do you start?”

“Well, first we’ll go over to the area where we want to have a well, so we don’t have to run pipe any farther than necessary. Sometimes we’re lucky. Then I’ll fan out a little, move back and forth until I find what I’m looking for.”

“What if there’s no water to find?”

“This close to the river? Not much chance of that, is there? This’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“I guess it wasn’t that easy for Isaac’s grandmother. Isaac told me there probably never was a lot of water in her well. The girls and I are conserving. Fewer baths. That appeals to them.”

“Mrs. Spurlock probably didn’t need a lot. People washed and they drank. They watered their animals but never their lawn. That was about it. No fancy showers or whirlpool bathtubs the way there are now. She probably pumped water for years and brought it inside, washed each night in a basin, filled the kettle and the tub for dishes. What would she have done with more?”

Jamie supposed he was right. The average modern family probably used at least twice as much water as their forbearers. “I know Kendra and Isaac will want to put safeguards in place no matter how much you find. I don’t think they plan to drain the local aquifers.”

“Always sound thinking.”

They had been strolling as they chatted. Now Cash stopped on the edge of the clearing, to one side of the new site. It was near where the old cabin had been, but without that as a given anymore, they had chosen to move the new house farther west for better views.

“This would be a good place to start,” Cash said. “We find water here, we’ll be sitting pretty. We were lucky the land perked so well. It’s a good omen.”

Jamie knew that before they had originally removed even a teaspoon of dirt, Rosslyn and Rosslyn had done a perk test to be sure a large-enough septic field could be installed for the bathrooms. That had been successful—not always a given—as had the recent retest.

As Jamie watched, he opened the bag and removed two wires, which extended from something that looked like the plastic casing of a ballpoint pen. The wires were bent at a ninety-degree angle.

“Angle rods,” Cash said, holding them up.

“Tell me that’s not coat-hanger wire inside a gutted Bic.”

“You got it exactly.”

“I guess nobody’s making money off dowsing supplies.”

“My granny used a forked willow stick. Some folks use the tip of a fishing rod. I have better luck with these.”

“Your granny? Grace?”

He laughed. “My other granny. My dad’s mama. She’s gone now. Probably dowsing in heaven, if she’s not making drop biscuits and sausage gravy.”

She envied his family ties. That kind of intimacy across generations was foreign to her. She and Kendra had grown up without grandparents. The Dunkirks had all died young, and the Delacroixes had lived in fear that their granddaughters would bring Riva back into their lives. Unfortunately Jamie understood that last too well.

She realized he was waiting for more questions. “What happens when you sense water?”

“The rods come together and cross.”

“It’s sounding very Ouija board to me. You don’t think you make them react by the way you move them?”

“Well, if I just guessed where water was, how often would I be right?”

“Have they done studies about how often dowsers
are
on the mark?”

“Depends on what studies you want to believe. But if it’ll make you feel better, Einstein thought there was something to dowsing. He said we just don’t understand enough yet to put our finger on what exactly’s happening.”

She liked that explanation. It covered almost every mystery. “Can you find anything besides water? Oil? Gold?”

“Oh, people dowse for all sorts of things. They even dowse for bodies, when somebody goes missing.”

She winced. “I’m sorry I asked.”

“I dowse for water. Period. Any bodies buried here, someone else’ll have to find them for you.”

“I am
really
sorry I asked.”

Cash took the rods in both hands. “Okay, now I’m going to get quiet.”

Jamie went to check on the girls, who were still happily piling up stones. Then she went over to stand beside Gig. As Cash stood silently for a few minutes, Gig folded his arms and rested them on his ample belly. Just as Jamie was starting to get bored, Cash began to move away from the house.

As he walked, Jamie watched the wires. They flopped a little with every step, but they remained pointed away from him. Then, after he’d moved perhaps ten yards, the wires turned slowly.

At first she thought she was imagining it. But Cash stopped, moved a little farther, stopped and turned a little, then moved forward again. The wires swung and crossed in front of him.

“Something there,” Gig said, as if he wasn’t surprised.

They waited. Cash moved away, then turned and came back. He did it several times from different angles. Each time the wires crossed in nearly the same place.

“There’s water here,” Cash said, looking up. “Pretty far down, though. I’d say about three hundred feet. And not as much as I’d like. Maybe ten gallons a minute tops. Not good enough.”

He moved away, and after a moment Jamie and Gig followed. He was roughly on a line with the old excavation now, but maybe thirty yards away, close to the edge of the clearing. The wires swung, and he repeated the steps he’d taken before, moving into the area from different directions until he finally stopped, rocking back and forth on his heels and the balls of his feet. He looked up at last.