Uncle River

Passing the Torch

Illustration by Mike Aspengren

“I’m sorry, all the plumbers are in jail.” The woman’s voice on the other end of the phone sounded angry. Then she cut the connection.

Esther Pernion stared at the dead phone, confused. I’m too tired for this, she thought.

Esther felt weak as she walked the few steps to her threadbare, royal blue-and-grey easy chair. At least her legs worked all right, and her arms as she lowered herself into the seat. She sat a few moments, reassembling her thoughts.

She had had another “spell” this morning. Let’s not kid ourselves, she thought, another stroke. The sudden headache, the weakness, the confusion—Esther knew the symptoms. Well, that sort of thing happens. At seventy-two, she’d had one that slurred her voice and caused her to limp for six months. She didn’t think her speech was slurred this time. They’d wanted to put her in an “old people’s prison,” as she put it, back then. Now, at eighty-two she still lived alone.

“But Mom,” Jennifer’d said just last month, “I worry about you. Something could happen.”

“You mean I could die with no one around to poke a needle in my ass,” Esther retorted.

“Now, Mom….”

“You’re just afraid I’ll fall down and the county blade driver will find me two weeks later in a puddle of piss, and you’ll be publicly embarrassed.”

Jennifer left angry. Esther felt a little guilty later, but her life was her life.

So now what? Esther wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting, musing. Had she dozed off a bit?

Let me see, Esther thought: I had another stroke this morning. It was when I couldn’t find the jar opener and tried to open the olives by hand. So I took a couple Tylenol and noticed the puddle. That’s it, that’s what I was calling for; I wanted a plumber.

The headache was gone. The Tylenol must have worked. Esther still was unsure how much time had passed. She felt thirsty. She decided to brew some tea. Jennifer had given her one of those new temperature-sensitive microwaves, but Esther kept it unplugged and stored dried fruit in it.

“Mom, why are you so anti-technology?” Jennifer had asked.

“I like technology just fine,” Esther had snapped back. She didn’t mean to snap, but she knew she did. “I just don’t need a lot of gadgets cluttering up my life.”

Jennifer’s feelings were hurt, but Esther still wouldn’t use the microwave. She did like her propane stove. She filled the tea kettle, careful not to run much water down the apparently faulty drain, then set it on the left front burner. She was almost back to her easy chair when she realized she had forgotten to turn on the stove. Damn, she thought, strokes are so tiring. The few steps back to the stove were an effort.

Esther poured dry mullein, rose hips, and a little mint into her round, brown-glazed tea pot. She considered having coffee instead to perk her up, but decided, what with the stroke, that that wasn’t such a good idea. She had already drunk two cups of coffee that morning. A doctor would, no doubt, tell her to quit entirely. Well, she’d never expected to live to be eighty-two. As long as she was still alive, she might as well enjoy it. Tea was pleasant too, though.

Esther set her cup and saucer on the faded oak table by her chair, along with the honey and a spoon. She sat down again, waiting for the water to boil, enjoying the view out her kitchen window. Bare trees curved angular against a bright blue sky: alder, walnut, larger cottonwoods. Piñons, junipers, and live oaks stood somber green on grey and buff bluffs. Perhaps she would go outside. The breeze carrying the last wisps of cloud from yesterday’s rain off to the northeast might be chilly, but the November sun was shining so brilliantly that she was sure it would be comfortable in the lee of the house. A bug, immobilized all morning by last night’s cold, now crawled around the outside of the south-window screen.

While the tea steeped, Esther suddenly recalled that she had intended to call a plumber, and decided to try again. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. She felt sufficiently disoriented that it was several seconds before she realized that there was no dial tone. She set the receiver down and checked to be sure the wire wasn’t loose. It was tight. She tried the phone again. It was quite dead.

This is becoming a decidedly odd day, Esther thought. She considered becoming alarmed, but felt that would bring back her headache. So she sat back down in her chair and poured a cup of tea through the strainer instead. Then she opened the little drawer in the front of the side table and got out her small green stone pipe and the small round tin of marijuana. She filled the pipe, then lit it with her new glo-lite. Despite denigrating gadgets to Jennifer, Esther had no objection to something that did the job better. She had yet to use up a glo-lite, though she had lost two.

If anyone had asked, Esther would have said that the marijuana was a vaso-dilator and blood-pressure regulator and was thus medically appropriate following her stroke. She had never consulted a doctor on the matter. She considered it medicine for the soul regardless. She inhaled smoke, touched the pipe to her forehead, raised it aloft, then inhaled again. She set the pipe down, stirred honey into her tea, sipped, and contemplated.

Outside, the breeze occasionally gusted to a proper wind. Might be some weather coming, Esther thought, forgetting about yesterday’s that was leaving. She could feel the spirits riding the wind.

Like her tea and honey, marijuana smoke, juniper smoke in the wood stove, the spirits each had a flavor, mostly familiar. Nature spirits danced, slumbered, or roared, crisp or pungent, not especially human, but nourishing in their vitality. There were others too: kind but prickly ones, the busy spirits that fondled and worried so many lives, the nasty ones whose food was suffering itself.

Something felt different, today, though, Esther thought, sipping her tea while the marijuana caressed her sore brain. In all these years, the thing she still found a mystery was how to tell what is subjective and what objective. Only by comparing inner perspective to outer event had Esther ever been able to locate experience. So, she mused, is all this activity happening because I’m going to die today? Is that it? Did the world shut down on me today because I’m getting ready to leave this old body? Or does it have some purpose of its own to which I am participant… or observer… or totally incidental? Nearby spirits felt stronger. Bigger, more distant spirits felt scattered. Now what could that mean?

Esther set her teacup down and dozed. She had been sleepy after previous strokes too.

A hurried knock at the door woke Esther. The sun shone right on her, which meant it must be about to set. Esther’s brain and mouth both felt blurry. A sip of cold tea tasted much better than cold coffee would have. “Coming,” she called.

Esther remembered to stand slowly. She still felt a little dizzy, but her coordination seemed normal as she walked to the door, straightening her soft, blue, shapeless sweat shirt as she went. She brushed a wisp of white hair off her right ear, then opened the door. Her veiny hand felt a little weak, but it gripped normally. She hoped her voice was clear.

Esther’s neighbor, Prabaht, stood at the door. Esther always meant to ask him about his name. It sounded Indian to her, though his brown hair and fair, if tanned, features looked North European. Prabaht wore faded jeans and an old black T-shirt in the cool, late afternoon breeze. Fortyish, medium height and bone-skinny, Esther always figured his blood circulated double-time to keep him warm. Perpetually active, Prabaht never accomplished much, as he never slowed down enough to organize his actions. Esther saw no sign of Prabaht’s truck. He must have walked the third of a mile.

“Come on in. Have a seat.”

Prabaht burst through the door but didn’t sit. “Have you heard?”

Prabaht’s hovering and pacing had once irritated Esther. Now she just sat down herself. “I’m a little tired today. Make yourself coffee. Heard what?”

“The shit hit the fan this morning.” Prabaht set the kettle on the stove to boil and put a paper towel in the funnel for a filter over the glass coffee pot.

Esther thought of her misbehaving drain—and brain. “Things have been a little off,” she said.

“They didn’t come here, did they?” Prabaht stared, intense.

“You’re the only person who’s come here all day. What’s happened?”

“They started rounding up everyone with a drug record. Then things got crazy.” Prabaht scooped coffee into the ersatz filter and fussed impatiently at the kettle.

“I should think!” Esther replied. “Numbers alone…”

But then she did think. Subjective and objective: Everyone mixes them. It can’t be helped. Prabaht always jumped to conclusions, nearly always wrong. Something had happened, no doubt, but Prabaht’s projections almost certainly misinterpreted events.

Prabaht paced, drank coffee, and ranted about the government and the Jesuits. Esther filled her pipe again and lit it. Prabaht glanced, somewhat wild-eyed, out the window, then smoked with her. Esther knew it made him uncomfortable that she just set the pipe on the table when it was empty, but she refused to acquiesce to his paranoia by hiding it.

“I’ve seen the maps, you know,” Prabaht said, over his second cup of coffee.

“I’m hungry,” said Esther. “Will you join me for dinner?”

“Can’t stay,” said Prabaht, “but you go ahead.”

Esther did. She spooned cooked beans into a pan with a little bacon grease and set it on the stove to heat, got out a jar of salsa—she still put up a full year’s worth—and warmed a flour tortilla. Sometimes she would fix a plate for Prabaht even if he said no. He would usually eat it. This evening, she didn’t bother. If he consumed nothing but coffee until he starved, that was his problem.

“They’ve had streets laid out for a concentration camp right up at Longhorn Gap for years!” Prabaht’s voice faded into a meaningless hum. What Esther enjoyed about him, she thought, was the way his knees and elbows flapped about as he paced and jabbered, like a hyperactive heron.

Esther grated a bit of longhorn cheese, carefully scooped the beans onto the tortilla with the cheese and salsa, folded the tortilla, then ate her supper with a knife and fork, while Prabaht’s voice played on in rhythm with his body.

Breeze stilled. Sun set. A moon, more than half full, illuminated the peaceful yard. Esther could hear Walnut Creek, fifty feet from the house, behind gaps in Prabaht’s monologue.

Prabaht paused, stood stock still for the first time since entering. Esther knew this signal, and focused in on him as he said, “Well, got to go. I’ll stop by tomorrow, they don’t haul me off first. Need anything?”

“I could use a little wood split,” said Esther, “if you have time.”

“Sure.” Prabaht flicked on the yard light and strode out the door.

The house still held the sunny afternoon’s warmth, but Esther built a fire for evening. She knew she would be sleepy again soon. She heard the quick axe strokes in the yard as she washed her dish, spoon, knife, fork, and grater while the fire caught.

Prabaht carried in the full kindling box, followed by four armloads of aromatic juniper and solid oak. Esther held out two dollar bills.

“That’s all right,” Prabaht raised a hand.

“No, you take it,” said Esther.

It was a ritual repeated many times in the two and a half years that Prabaht had been Esther’s closest neighbor. Esther’s social security was a meager income, but consistent, and she owned her house outright. Erratically employed and poorly organized, Prabaht was in constant danger of losing his home for failure to pay the ninety-dollar-a-month rent.

Prabaht stuffed the two dollars in his pants pocket, reheated the last of the coffee, and drained the pot. “Well, got to go,” he said as he plunked his cup down.

“Good to see you,” said Esther, as Prabaht stalked out in his T-shirt through the chilly moonlit evening.

Esther set an oak log on the fire—quite as substantial as she cared to lift—adjusted the damper, rinsed out the coffee pot and Prabaht’s cup, as well as her own tea cup, and then decided she might as well go to bed. Best thing for a stroke is a good night’s sleep, she thought. Then it occurred to her: Oh damn! I didn’t think to ask Prabaht to look at that drain.

Esther looked for the puddle. It seemed smaller, rather than larger, even after she had washed the few dishes. Oh, well, perhaps things would make better sense tomorrow.

In the morning, Esther felt better, but decided perhaps she should only have one cup of coffee. She added a dollop of half-and-half; it was almost gone.

Esther sat in her chair and contemplated the way the sun sparkled on the morning’s frost. She had intended to drive to town today to pick up the mail and a few groceries—before she was reduced to using that hideous powdered creamer in the coffee. The four-and-a-half mile trip once a week kept the faded red Valiant that had looked new fourteen years ago when she’d bought it (though, of course, it wasn’t) adequately lubricated. The only major work she had ever had to do on it was to have the wheel wells modified to accomodate taller wheels, so that she would have the clearance she needed crossing the creek.

But maybe she should wait a day. Perhaps she should give Stella at the post office a call. Better to say she would be in in a day or so than to have someone nosing around suspecting her of being unable to take care of herself.

Esther put on her glasses and read a bit in an historical novel from the State Library Books by Mail—a wonderful program for rural people. Then she made herself a boiled egg and a slice of toast, and did have another third of a cup of coffee. At eight thirty-five, she tried calling the post office. Her phone was still dead.

Many people Esther’s age spent their lives in front of a television. Till the advent of cable, which did not extend far enough out of town to reach Esther, and the satellite dish, reception was inadequate to make television worth the bother at Esther’s house. Visitors were appalled. Jennifer wanted to help Esther buy a satellite dish.

“If I wanted all that racket, I’d have moved to some noisy hell hole like Phoenix long ago.”

Jennifer brought the subject up every six months. Esther always said no. In her urgency to defend her independence, she usually managed to say it in a way she later felt guilty for. Oh well, Esther thought, if a daughter hasn’t gotten used to you after sixty years, what’s to be done?

Despite not wanting a television, there were occasions when Esther would have liked some news. She did have a radio, two in fact. One was part of her tape player. The other had been a bonus with a magazine subscription. Neither currently worked. Due to distance and mountains, reception was abysmal even if they had. Only the Navajo station out of Window Rock came in clearly, and, of course, most of the news on it was in Navajo.

Esther put on her brown wool jacket, and a brown wool hat with orange decorations she had knitted since last winter and only first worn the past couple of weeks, and went outside. The thermometer, shaded by the overhang of the roof, read twenty-seven degrees, but bright sun had already melted the frost off the car. Birds chirped in the clear, still morning. The sun felt warm and invigorating.

Esther walked to the car and raised the hood, careful not to exert herself too suddenly: Don’t want to pop another blood vessel, she thought. The sun shone full on the battery. If the phone still didn’t work in an hour, she thought she would drive in and see what was going on. Little backwaters on the creek held a thin skim of ice, crystal patterns radiating artfully. A fat ground squirrel scooted past. Esther walked thirty or forty yards along the bank of the creek. Then she heard a scrabbling sound.

Esther looked among the winter-bare brush. Why, there were the chickens! She hadn’t seen them in days. Descended from fighting stock, they looked like banties. She had originally gotten them to keep the scorpions down. Skunks, coyotes, and who knows what-all had done in every attempt Esther had made to keep a penned laying flock. These, loose and wild, managed to survive and perpetuate themselves. She wondered if she were just sleeping too soundly to notice, or if they were roosting so far off that she wasn’t hearing the roosters.

Esther got half a coffee can of cracked com from the shed and tossed it about. The chickens scrambled for it. There were at least twenty, including six roosters and two chicks she didn’t recall seeing before, only now feathered out; their mother must have hidden them in the woods while they were smaller. One of the roosters crowed, ruffling his rich red neck and iridescent green tail feathers.

Thanksgiving’s coming up, Esther thought. I’ll invite Prabaht and have him catch us a young rooster. Even a young rooster would have to be boiled all day before she roasted it, or it would be too tough to eat, but the flavor was the best. The things one doesn’t expect, Esther thought, like still having my own teeth at eighty-two!

Depending on the direction of the wind, Esther could sometimes hear vehicles on the two-lane highway a mile away down the canyon, sometimes not. A logging truck slowing for the curve just south of the turnoff was the sound she heard most regularly. She hadn’t noticed any this morning. She looked down the canyon now at the sound of something approaching. A tangy whiff of juniper smoke from her stovepipe wafted by as a modest-sized but snappy motorcycle pulled into view.

The rider was almost to the house before Esther recognized her six-teen-year-old great-grandson, Peter. Peter’s mother, Esther’s granddaughter Sylvia, was, last Esther knew, in the midst of yet another catastrophic relationship. Peter lived with his grandmother, Jennifer, in Socorro—a hundred and fifty miles away. Esther felt sorry for Peter, having to be a boy with an unmarried mother, unknown father, and a divorced grandmother and great-grandmother. Still, that was no excuse to cut school.

Peter rounded the final curve. Then, instead of slowing down to ford the creek, he sped up, and roared across in a cloud of spray. Esther shook her head and smiled. Peter parked his bike by Esther’s car and hopped off. “Car broke?” he asked.

“I’m just letting the sun warm the battery.” Esther gave Peter a big hug. “Isn’t it a school day?”

“I tried to call; the phones are out.”

“Oh. I thought it was just mine.”

“Ma Jen figured I better get here while I could.”

Esther recalled Prabaht’s ranting. She had not felt up to paying much attention. A lot of Prabaht’s talk was paranoid fantasy anyhow.

“Bring your things in the house,” Esther said. “Then explain. Have you had breakfast?”

“Nope.” Peter grinned and jumped to unsnap the bungies holding the pack on the back of his bike. Whatever was happening, Esther could see that the teenager considered it a great adventure.

Peter followed Esther into the house. The refrigerator was humming.

“Wow!” Peter said, “you’ve got electricity!”

“Of course,” said Esther.

“It’s out in town.”

“Oh?” This was far from the first time Esther had been blissfully unaware of a power outage. Between photovoltaics and the little hydro system on the creek, she had more electricity than she knew what to do with. She had heard computers on such a home system had difficulty with voltage irregularities, but none of the few appliances Esther ran seemed to mind.

“Damn, it’s a good thing I got here,” Peter said.

Esther felt a flash of irritation. Her daughter wasn’t trying to run her life again, was she? She also noticed Peter’s use of profanity. Well, so long as he didn’t become really foul-mouthed, she could hardly object. She said more than an occasional “damn” herself. Still, it was disconcerting having a great grandson a head taller than oneself. “What do you mean?” Esther asked, keeping her voice neutral. “Bacon and eggs sound good?”

“Sounds great. You really haven’t heard? The shit hit the fan!”

“That’s what Prabaht said, but…” Esther did not want the boy to know why she had no idea what else her neighbor may have told her. “…I haven’t heard the details yet.”

Peter didn’t notice his great grandmother’s evasion. He told her what he knew, which was not altogether clear: Someone had ordered surprise mass arrests yesterday, before dawn. Only, of course, that didn’t work. Lots of cops warned their families and friends. Information leaked to radio and television stations. Some officials balked. Police records did seem to affect who got raided. If drug-related police records had any special part in it, as Prabaht had said, Peter didn’t mention it. Thousands of people were taken by surprise, but what started as a mass police raid degenerated, within hours, into mass chaos.

Peter had set out about one yesterday afternoon. His grandmother reasoned that his petty infractions, all still juvenile, might not be listed beyond the county. Esther had her doubts about this reasoning, but she didn’t say anything. It had taken Peter twenty hours to come one hundred and fifty miles. He had evaded four roadblocks, half a dozen places where he heard gunfire, though he didn’t know what any of them were about, and stolen a gallon of gasoline. Normally, his great-grandmother would object strenuously to this last, but under the circumstances…. He had not eaten since yesterday morning.

So far as Esther could tell, Peter was having the time of his life.

Esther had started to fry Peter three slices of bacon. She doubled that and got out a third egg. He ate four slices of toast while the bacon and eggs cooked.

“Um, do you have coffee?” Peter asked.

“When did you start drinking coffee?” Esther snapped back.

Peter mumbled something unintelligible.

All unbidden, an image flew into Esther’s mind of herself at fourteen, smoking a cigarette in her room by an open window. She’d heard her mother’s step on the stairs. Out the window went the cigarette, where it landed on the awning of the window below. Thank heavens a neighbor noticed the fire before the whole house went up! After that, her mother told her that if she was going to do anything so disgusting as smoke, she might as well do it in the open where at least she wouldn’t burn the house down. She did, too; she didn't quit till she was sixty-one and nearly died of pneumonia for the third time.

Esther set the kettle on the stove, rinsed the glass coffee pot, and scooped coffee into a fresh paper towel in the funnel.

After he was done eating, Peter washed the dishes, which Esther thought extraordinarily considerate. As he dried his hands, he smiled and asked, “Got any smoke?”

Peter had been smoking pot, that Esther knew of, since he was eight. She still wasn’t sure if she approved, but she was sure there was less harm to it than alcohol or cigarettes. “Oh, yes.”

“Let’s boke a smole.”

The little green stone pipe still sat on the table by Esther’s chair. She never had put it away last night. “In the drawer,” she said.

Peter got out the tin of mixed leaf and bud and filled the pipe. “This all you’ve got?”

“There’s more.”

There are a few compensations to being eighty-two, Esther thought One was that you could embarrass busybody authorities. Every year, small armies of cops descended on the area, usually in September, thrashing about in the woods in camouflage uniforms, purporting to search for marijuana crops. Every year, there were horror stories, mostly of completely innocent citizens being terrorized in their own homes. Every year, a few dozen pot plants were discovered and triumphantly displayed to the press—as if this somehow justified helicopters buzzing homes, roadblocks, and God only knew how much expenditure of tax money.

Afterward, the County and State would invariably spend more defending themselves from lawsuits than they realized in fines. Prabaht always claimed that creating employment for lawyers was the primary purpose of the whole affair. “No one grows a commercial crop around here anyhow. It’s too hard to hide. There’s not enough places with that much natural water.”

Whatever the reason, Esther kept her eyes open, since she really did grow herself a small pot crop. On two occasions in the last five years, she caught investigators snooping around. Once, the man was a stranger, alone. She ranted at him about property rights and fences. The other time, it was a local deputy she had known all his life. Esther threatened to shoot his balls off. She was certain her white hair greatly improved the effectiveness of this strategy.

Peter lit the pipe and passed it to Esther. She sat down in her chair, raised the pipe in dedication, and smoked. Peter squatted next to her.

Just a moment after they were done, the chickens started squawking. Peter jumped to the window. “I think there’s someone out there,” he said.

Esther stood slowly and joined Peter at the window. A furtive figure dashed from a clump of live oak to a clump of juniper. Esther realized, as she stood beside her great-grandson, that Jennifer had sent him to her not for her protection but for his. This realization improved both Esther’s feeling for her daughter and her self-confidence.

Esther smoothed the maroon sweat shirt she was wearing today and walked across the room. She cleared her throat and opened the door. “Hey, Prabaht!” she called.

“Everything all right?” Prabaht called back from behind his juniper.

“Of course. Come on down.”

Prabaht wore olive-green pants and an emerald-green long-sleeved shirt, his idea of camouflage, not altogether relevant amid the sparse vegetation of the largely autumn-brown hillside. He had smudged charcoal on his face, wore a handgun at his side in a holster originally made for a larger model, and had a twelve-gauge shotgun slung over his shoulder by a dirty piece of rope. He looked with blatant suspicion at the motorcycle.

“You know Peter,” Esther said.

Prabaht’s smudged face registered confusion.

“My great-grandson,” Esther added. “He’s here… hiding out.”

It was the last comment that finally made sense to Prabaht. “Ah!” Prabaht had spent the whole morning sneaking around the hills. Since he hadn’t spoken to anyone, he had no idea what was going on.

“More or less normal in town,” said Peter, “except not a lot was open, and the electric was out.”

“Hramm,” said Prabaht portentiously.

Tellez, population four hundred, including outlying homes such as Esther’s, was the county seat, and the biggest community in eighty miles. Somewhere else, a town so small might be lucky to have a variety store. Due to distance, Tellez supported, if marginally, a variety of businesses, from an auto parts/chain saw repair shop to something that called itself a boutique (known locally as The House of Bad Taste), lodged in a rat-infested trailer that would have been condemned by the Health Department someplace with enough population to have a Health Department.

“I need to take a little rest,” said Esther. “While you’re figuring out what’s happened to the world, see if you can find where the chickens are roosting.”

Esther lay down and slept for an hour. When she woke, she could hear Prabaht and Peter talking quietly outside, and could smell coffee. A shadow called her attention to the sky. A few little clouds were coming in from the northwest.

Esther patted her hair and sweat shirt into shape, then set a fresh pot of beans to soak. She jumped when the phone rang. She heard Peter laugh, and glanced out the window. The phone had so startled Prabaht that he had fallen on his face. Esther wondered how much coffee he had drunk—and whether he had eaten anything.

The phone didn’t ring a second time, but Esther picked it up. Nothing. She hung it up and stood a few seconds, then started back across the room. The phone tinked once as if it was trying to ring. Esther picked it up again. This time there was a dial tone.

Peter stuck his head in the door.

“I believe the phone’s fixed,” Esther said. “Maybe we should let your grandmother know you arrived safely.”

“Tell her in code,” said Prabaht.

Esther seldom made long distance calls on daytime rates, but she thought that she really should call Jennifer, as much to be sure everything was all right down there as to tell her that Peter had arrived. Esther dialed Jennifer’s number. The phone emitted the quick buzz of a busy circuit. She tried several more times, but didn’t get through. She decided to try a local number. She thought a moment, then dialed the Senior Center. This time she got the longer buzz of a busy line. She tried again, and it rang.

“Tellez Senior Center. Lucy Meadowcroft speaking.”

“Lucy, this is Esther Pernion. The phone’s been out. I just wanted to see if it’s working again.”

“Are you all right?” Lucy asked.

“I’m fine, thank you. Do you know what’s been going on?”

“Not really, but it’s not good.” That was what Esther liked about the Tellez Senior Center Director. Lucy didn’t think that you were an idiot just because you were old. “There’s been some sort of civil upheaval nationwide. The news doesn’t make a lot of sense. You don’t have TV, do you?”

“No.”

“I guess we can be thankful we’re not in Albuquerque. The electricity’s still out. We’re fixing meals here for anyone who needs it.”

“I’ve got my own electric,” Esther said.

Prabaht gestured and stage-whispered, “Don’t. Phone taps.”

Ridiculous, Esther thought. Even if they did tap the line, who would listen? The whole population would have to be employed listening to each other. The distraction caused her to miss something Lucy said. “Excuse me, what was that again?”

“I said come on down if you want to watch the news later. But if you’re all right, we should clear the line. Now the phone’s back on, I want to give everyone a call.”

“Okay,” said Esther, “thanks. Speak to you later.”

Only after she hung up did it occur to her to wonder what the Senior Center was running its television on. Someone must have brought a generator over.

Esther tried Jennifer’s number every hour or so. Usually she got a busy circuit signal. About three, it rang, but there was no answer. By then, clouds were starting to pile up. If it was going to storm, just as well to get the mail today… and see what there was to see. “Want to ride into town with me?” Esther asked.

“Sure,” said Peter.

Prabaht looked about wildly, then said, “I’ll come too.”

“Only if you wash your face and leave the side arms here.”

Prabaht fidgeted and mumbled, but complied.

The hood of Esther’s Valiant was still open. Peter checked the various fluids. The radiator and oil were both fine. Esther checked them regularly herself. “Check the brake fluid, would you,” Esther called. “The cap’s too tight for me.” Peter checked it. It was fine too.

Esther considered her reflexes slow, but she actually zipped right along once they hit pavement, and dodged a confused rabbit with no difficulty. In town, several generators clattered, one of them at the Tellez Mercantile, which was open. Esther parked there. She believed it was bad for the car to start it an extra time just to drive the fifty yards from the store to the post office, though nearly everyone else did just that.

Esther, Peter, and Prabaht headed for the post office, across the street from the courthouse, which was next door to the Tellez Mercantile. As they passed the courthouse, Undersheriff Colin Scofield emerged from the Sheriff’s Office in back and called out, “Hello.”

Prabaht froze, a look of panic on his face.

“Hi, Colin,” Esther answered. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“It’s a mess,” Colin replied, striding toward Esther and her companions with notable agility for a man who weighed nearly four hundred pounds. “Everything all right with you?”

“Just fine, except I’ve been trying to call my daughter in Socorro and can’t get through.”

“If it’s an emergency, I could try.”

“No, just want to be sure she’s okay.”

“I think the circuits are pretty tied up,” said Colin. “Probably clear out later. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure thing. Thanks.”

Colin headed toward the Tellez Mercantile.

“You can start breathing again,” said Peter quietly to Prabaht.

“Did you notice how evasive he was?” Prabaht replied, as they continued on to the post office.

Stella Martinez, the postmistress, was terribly upset. There had been no mail delivery at all yesterday. Today, the mail had come in, almost on time, but it was extremely skimpy, and thfe weekly advertizing circulars that should have arrived yesterday still weren’t here.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Esther asked.

“It’s the Governors’ Executive Commission,” the postmistress answered. “They decided that the Federal Government wasn’t doing enough about crime, so they got up a warrant for four million people. Of course, it didn’t work very well.”

“Idiots,” said Esther.

“That’s not it at all,” Joe Galloway chimed in as he shut his post office box and pocketed the key. Joe, in his mid-thirties, with heroic chest and shoulders and receding chin and hair, was a part-time logger, part-time outfitter’s assistant, and part-time barfly.

“You heard better news?” Stella asked.

“Yeah,” said Joe, “just a few minutes ago. They’re saying now that it was a sort of palace coup at the F.B.I. They been accused of racism again. Got the top dogs at each other’s throats. Someone figured to embarrass someone else by issuing this mass arrest order under the Known Criminals Law.”

“Any idea who?” asked Prabaht.

“Nah,” said Joe. “Maybe they’ll say on the five-thirty news.”

“Well, that’s clear as mud,” said Suzie Romero, who came in just in time to hear Joe’s explanation of events. She was older than Esther and half Apache, her long hair still more black than grey.

“Should have grilled Colin,” said Esther. “He certainly acted like the cat that ate the ballot box.”

Suzie, Joe, and Stella all laughed. Manuel Tellez had been sheriff two terms, so he couldn’t run again. The primary was only six months off.

“Colin was on duty when the order came in,” said Stella. “With the sheriff out of county delivering a juvenile to Las Cruces, and an arrest list of a hundred and ninety-two, he figured that a four-man department wasn’t enough personnel. So he’d wait till Manuel got back to do anything.”

“Pass the buck. Smart man,” said Joe.

“A hundred and ninety-two people’s 10 percent of the county,” said Esther. “That’s a lot of votes.”

“Sheriff didn’t get back till noon today,” said Stella. “Now Colin’s glad he didn’t do anything. State and Feds picked up about thirty people here in county. I hear most of them are already planning to sue.”

“That was fast,” said Esther.

“Magistrate gave them the idea.” “Oh?” asked Esther.

“Colin called Grant Harkins ’cause the jail was full… at five in the morning.”

Joe guffawed. Everyone looked his way. He explained. “Grant closed down the Dry Gulch the night before. Bet he had a head like a watermelon.”

“He asked Colin where the arrests occurred,” Stella went on. “When Colin said at people's homes, Grant told him to let anyone out that wasn’t arrested by the State Police, ’cause the other officers didn’t have jurisdiction. Turned out a BLM Officer signed all the papers. Way I heard it, Colin hollered, “Weren’t none of these arrests legal,’ opened the doors, and told everyone to go home. Of course, anyone that lived out of town was stuck for a ride, and it was still just past five A.M.”

“Ol’ Colin ain’t so dumb,” said Joe. “He’ll get my vote.”

“What if there was a real crime, like a hold-up?” asked Peter.

“Colin’s a crack shot, and he knows this country,” said Joe.

“If the percentage was the same nationwide,” said Prabaht, “does that mean someone tried to arrest twenty-five million people yesterday? That’s crazy!”

“Things looked pretty crazy to me,” said Peter.

“Oh?” said Joe.

“Came up from Socorro,” Peter explained. Everyone ignored Prabaht’s facial contortions.

“It’s worse than crazy,” said Suzie. “It’s stupid.”

Nobody said anything about who the hundred and ninety-two people on the list for arrest might have been.

“All these damn generators are giving me a headache,” said Esther. “I’m ready to go back where it’s quiet.” She said good-bye and headed for the store, tossing the week’s mail into the car on the way. There was a letter from her sister, Grace, in Abilene, which she knew would be mostly about doctors and barely legible, and half a dozen solicitations to buy things she didn’t need and couldn’t afford. At the store, Esther bought a can of coffee, a head of lettuce, a pound of bacon, a pound of margarine, a gallon of milk, and three onions. She let Peter add three candy bars and a bag of chips… and carry the sack to the car.

“If you’re too tired, I can drive,” said Peter.

“I’m just tired of banging generators,” said Esther. “Anyhow, you drive too fast.”

“You’re no slouch yourself.”

Esther smiled. “I mean on the dirt. Way you crossed the creek this morning, you’d punch the shocks right through the floor.”

Esther invited Prabaht to join them for dinner. He accepted, but suggested they stop at his house for a chunk of meat.

Prabaht had taken an elk that fall, sort of legally. He had a license, for bow season, but his method was a little unusual. He lassoed his elk from a tree, then jumped down on its back and slit its throat. Between being stiff from waiting nearly forty hours for an elk to walk under him and the fact that the elk fought back, Prabaht was half-crippled for a month afterward.

He had a somewhat unorthodox freezer too, an old camper shell he had buried and lined with foam insulation. He had to crawl in with a flashlight to get anything. The compressor ran directly off a water-wheel on the creek. Prabaht intended to generate electricity off the same water-wheel, but never got around to building the system. He had been in a war for a year with the State Engineer, known locally as the Water God of the West, over the water-wheel. Prabaht claimed that he didn’t realize he needed permission, since it was nonconsumptive use. “Mean-ass, murdering son-of-a-bitch is just trying to deny my permit ’cause I applied after the fact! Bastard’ll claim I need a permit to breathe air next!”

“Do you like acorn squash?” Esther asked, to change the subject.

“Sure,” said Peter.

“Good. You clean a couple. They’re in the back bedroom. I’m ready for another little nap. If I’m asleep in an hour, rub them down with oil, and set them in the oven on three seventy-five.”

Esther dumped the junk mail in the firestarter box, set the letter from her sister on the side table by her chair, and took a toke from her pipe. “Help yourself,” she said to Peter. Then she lay down and pulled the blue wool blanket over herself. She wasn’t really sleepy. She just needed to withdraw and think.

Esther let the generator banging seep out of her brain.

“Shit,” Esther heard Peter say from outside, she frowned at his choice of word, “she must have ten years of firewood!” Esther wondered if Prabaht’s not-quite-audible reply bore any resemblance to reality.

Most people locally considered it gross tyranny that the Forest Service required a permit for local firewood usage. Esther bought permits from the Forest Service for the full ten cord personal use maximum and then got someone to cut the wood for her on a one third-two thirds share. That ten cords’ worth of permit always produced a few extra cords. Everyone Esther had dealt with took as much pride in delivering her fair third as they did in getting something unauthorized out of the Forest Service.

Prabaht probably was embellishing this simple conflict with extravagant conspiracy fantasies, Esther thought, and yet… She realized that the world her great grandson was growing up into was what she needed to contemplate.

Esther thought back. When she’d divorced Jerome, in the early sixties, it was already not the shock such events had been only a decade earlier. Still, it was traumatic. Stolid Jennifer’s marriage had been traumatic, the divorce a relief.

Sylvia… It pained Esther to think of her granddaughter’s chaotic life. She couldn’t blame Jennifer. Jennifer could be overbearing, but she was the stable one. It was Esther who undertook risque adventures: hitchhiking at seventy, smoking pot—let alone growing it. People Prabaht’s age thought nothing of smoking pot, approve or disapprove, but Esther still knew hardly anyone of her own generation who smoked.

Now there was Peter. With no stable male role model, with an upbringing far more chaotic than his mother’s, he seemed bright and well-adjusted. What was she to make of it all? Perhaps it was easier to grow up sane in a blatantly insane world than to watch apparent stability disintegrate. Esther recalled the insanities of her own youth called Hitler and Stalin, the shocks of World War II, the bomb, the Kennedy assassination, the increasing social turbulence ever since.

In Esther’s youth, the world had an apparent order, with its clearly defined good and its evil, its stability of family, community, and religion, and its aberrations of war and Depression. That was no longer so. Prabaht’s paranoia, Colin’s opportunism—personality flaws, sure, but they were also part of the society her great-grandson was growing to adulthood in. What was she to make of it? What, on the summit of her life’s long climb, could she give him to help him make sense of the unknown world he would live in?

Esther could hear the low hum of Peter talking with Prabaht: A good man, she thought, but a walking encyclopaedia of misinformation. Could someone Peter’s age understand that? Peter’s a sharp kid, she thought, but what does he have to measure his perspective against?

Still alert, Esther drifted in the spirit realm of her own mind.

Subjective and objective, how was one to tell? The creek and juniper trees on the bluff, now that was objective. A feeling came to Esther that she knew she had felt before. It belonged to the spirit realm, which made it all the more difficult to differentiate subjective and objective: an intensification of the nearby and a dissipation of the larger but farther away. Is it my nearing death? she thought. That seemed redundant. You could not live alone, so isolated, at forty-two, let alone eighty-two, without confronting your own death. A long-familiar companion, death taught an awe that enhanced the canyon’s beauty to her aging senses.

Esther thought of the events of the last two days. Whatever lunacy had occurred nationally, the effects were local wherever you were: Lucy Meadowcroft having access to a generator, Grant Harkins being hung-over. True everywhere, but more obvious in Tellez because you knew everybody.

Esther felt the spirits all around her. They were like colors and flavors, but she had no names for them.

Esther had tried church once, around the time of the divorce, and had been cruelly snubbed for the very reasons she needed spiritual solace. She had learned some Apache and Zuni names for spirits, but, well, she wasn’t Apache or Zuni. After all these years, it still bothered her not to have a handle on the substance of her own soul. Thinking of Peter, she realized, as she had before but with great immediacy and poignancy, that this was not just a personal condition.

Values, Esther thought. No one can really tell him what to do, how to act, what to call the brightness the pot helps me see when I close my eyes but have no name for. And not just because he’s young and spunky. No one knows. I certainly don’t know what he’ll need to know next week, let alone by the time he’s my age! That’s always so, but it has so speeded up in my lifetime. I remember the first talking movies, and now you can have a videophone if you’re rich. Fast as things change, I might even live long enough to have one. I read once that the first ballpoint pens cost thirty-five dollars, and now look at how cheap they are. Would I want a videophone? What values is Peter learning? It’s not what values I would teach him if I had any idea what to teach, Esther thought. It’s what values does he learn from his own experience? What can I give him that he can make any sense of at all?

Esther opened her eyes. There was a dim lavender glow as the last of the sunset reflected off thickening clouds beyond sun-faded curtains. She was not aware of having slept, but the squash were in the oven and it was on. The elk meat was also on the stove, stewing with onions and garlic Esther could smell.

Esther stepped outside. The air felt balmy and smelled wet. She went back in and checked the food. The squash had not been in long. The stewing meat needed water, which she added. She wondered if Prabaht or Peter would think to check it before the meat scorched. Esther sat down to read her novel. She certainly hoped that whatever insanity was going on in the world would not affect the State Library Books by Mail program. She had read barely a page when Prabaht and Peter came back in.

“We followed the chickens, but we didn’t find any eggs,” said Peter. “I’ll try again in the morning.”

“Okay. Shall we try calling your grandmother again?”

“Sure.”

Esther dialed Jennifer’s number. The line rang, but there was still no answer. She hung up after the tenth ring.

“How ’bout some tunes,” said Prabaht.

Concerned for her daughter, Esther looked up and blinked. “What? Oh, sure.” Sometimes Prabaht could be amazingly insensitive. Esther turned to Peter. “Would you like to pick a tape?”

“Okay.” Peter looked about, spotted the basket of tapes on the shelf below the player, and rummaged through them. “How about this one?” he said, holding the tape out to Esther.

It was her Glenn Miller tape, a little scratchy, as the records had been pretty worn by the time she’d recorded them onto the tape, but still one of her favorites. “Sure.” She smiled.

Peter put the tape in the player and turned it on. “In the Mood” recalled a world in which Esther had been younger than her great-grandson was now. Her foot tapped a bit of long-remembered rhythm.

A few minutes later, the phone rang. Esther answered. “Hello.”

“Hello, Mom.”

“Jennifer, are you all right? I’ve been trying to call all day.”

“I’m fine. Is Peter there?”

“Yes. Do you want to speak to him?”

“In a minute. I mostly wanted to be sure he made it okay.”

“He’s fine.”

“If I’d had any idea…”

Esther noticed Prabaht gesticulating, his eyes wild again.

“It’s not so bad up here. What’s happened? Are you home?”

“Yes,” said Jennifer, “finally. There was a fire.”

“There?”

“No, a couple blocks away, but they evacuated the neighborhood. There was some looting. I believe someone was shot. They just let me come home.”

“Is everything all right?”

“It seems to be. The electricity’s still out, but things are calmed down now, and the fire’s out… or not spreading at least.”

“Good Lord!”

“Mom, would it be too much trouble if Peter stayed with you a few days—maybe even till after Thanksgiving?”

“Good heavens, Jen, you don’t have to ask!”

“I don’t want to impose.”

That’s Jennifer, Esther thought. She’d carry the world on her shoulders if it turned to silly putty. “It’s no imposition at all. He’s a pleasure to have.” And I’m not too old to want my great-grandson where he’s safe, Esther thought, but did not say in front of the boy. “Are you all right down there?” ‘Yes. And I’m not sure I could get to you,” Jennifer responded to her mother’s unvoiced suggestion. “There are roadblocks. They’ve called out the National Guard.…”

“They’re not still trying to arrest half the country, are they?” Esther asked.

“Oh, no,” said Jennifer, “except looters. They’re plenty busy now just trying to restore order.”

Whoever “they” are and whatever that means, Esther thought. “Well, it’s certainly a relief to hear your voice,” she said. “Have you heard anything from Sylvia?”

“Her boyfriend was picked up, but they released him on his own recognizance today.” “What did they charge him with?”

“That’s not real clear.”

“No, I suppose not. I'm just glad you’re safe. Here’s Peter.”

Peter told Jennifer less of his adventurous ride than he had told Esther. Esther could tell Jennifer was admonishing Peter not to impose. She doubted this was useful advice. Jennifer achieved little but to make Peter uncomfortable.

No harm done, apparently. Peter’s discomfort melted the instant he handed the phone back to Esther. “You take care,” Esther said, “and don’t worry about Peter and me. We’re just fine.”

Prabaht’s eyes flared wild, and he gnawed at his lower lip, but he had sense enough not to pester. Esther felt sorry for Prabaht’s perpetual anxiety. She knew he had at least moments of self-awareness. He had once said: “The one nice thing about paranoia is that you get so many pleasant surprises when the disasters you expect don’t happen.” “Pennsylvania Six Five Thousand,” said the tape.

Dinner was excellent. The warm leading edge of the front still made a fire unnecessary, but thick clouds reduced the moon’s light. Esther offered Prabaht the loan of a flashlight to walk home, but he said he didn’t need it.

“Just don’t fall in the creek and get your guns wet,” said Peter.

Esther sighed inwardly. What was the boy learning from his life?

When Esther woke in the morning, the house was still fairly warm, but she could see snow coming down fast and thick in the growing light. She lit the wood stove, then filled the kettle to heat. Peter appeared just as Esther finished pouring water into the paper towel/coffee filter, attracted by the aroma, she figured.

“Wow!” Peter said, “it never snows like this in Socorro! Think we’ll be snowed in?”

“I certainly wouldn’t drive in it,” Esther said. She poured them each a mug, added milk to hers and asked, “Do you want milk?”

“No, thanks,” said Peter.

“I hope you’ll drink some,” said Esther. “I can’t use up a gallon myself.”

“How about cornbread to go with the beans?” Peter picked up the mug of black coffee and carried it to the window. “Maybe I can find where the chickens are nesting in the snow.”

“If they’re laying any.”

Esther carried her coffee to her chair. Peter continued to stand at the window. “Can I call you G. E.?” Peter asked abruptly.

“G. E.?”

“For Granny Esther.”

“No. That’s awful. If you’re too big to call me Granny, just call me Esther like everyone else.”

“I’d feel funny.”

“It’s a funny world.” Esther peered over her coffee at her tall great-grandson. His face mostly looked eager.

“I’m going to see if I can find any eggs,” said Peter.

“You got gloves?”

“Nah. It’s not that cold.”

Esther didn’t reply. She was pretty sure there were some gloves that would fit him… somewhere, if the mice hadn’t gotten to them. What she did say was, “I’m going to put on some oatmeal. Want any?”

“Okay.” He slipped on his light-weight brown leather jacket and a green-and-yellow ball cap. “I’ll be back in a few.” And out he plunged into the snow.

That looks like fun, Esther thought. Maybe I’ll go out in it myself later.

She set on a pot of oatmeal and tossed in a big handful of two-year-old dried apricots. (Spring frosts had done in the blossoms this year and last.) Then she sat in her chair to contemplate. Two days in a row of Prabaht really was a little much, even without having a stroke and the world going nuts. But Peter… she was enjoying having him here, for all it was a distraction. Distraction from what? she wondered. From whatever it is I do sitting in this chair when I’m alone, she decided. Still, having a young person need her felt good. She hoped he wouldn’t be too bored between now and Thanksgiving.

The oatmeal got done; Esther turned it off. The snow fell so thick that she couldn’t see the car. A person could get lost in a hurry in a storm like this, but how lost could a person get in a canyon a hundred yards wide?

A few minutes later, Peter stomped up to the door. “I couldn’t see a thing,” he blurted. “Bet I can find them in the snow when it quits, though.”

“Good idea.” Esther handed Peter the broom. “Brush off on the porch so you don’t soak yourself and the house.”

An hour later, the snow turned to rain. It poured all day long. “Think the creek’ll flood?” Peter asked.

“Probably not,” Esther answered, “but it will come up.”

It did just that. They heard it through the rain. Peter dashed out during a lull toward late afternoon to look. He came back only moderately soggy. “Bet it’s up a foot,” he said. “Hey, what do you do about the phone bill if you can’t get out in winter for a month?”

Esther was impressed. Peter had been visiting her for longer or shorter stays all his life. He knew she kept food and propane well-stocked for just such a contingency. He really was growing up even to think of such a question.

“I usually keep a couple months credit,” Esther said. “But don’t let that give you ideas about calling all your friends.”

They both blushed, then laughed.

“It’s a local phone company,” Esther added. “If I do get behind, they’re nice about it.”

“That’s different.”

“They’re related to half the county. Would you want two hundred great-grandmothers mad at you?”

Peter gave his great-grandmother a look of horror. They both laughed again.

Esther did make cornbread to go with the beans that evening. Peter offered to do the dishes. Esther accepted.

“Hey, there’s a puddle,” Peter said.

Esther looked. “I forgot about that.” She recalled now, her attempt to call a plumber. I must have been in worse shape than I realized to do that without asking Prabaht or someone to try to fix it first. Wonder who I called… She recalled looking in the phone book under plumbers… Good Lord, I think I dialed the one in Arizona with the big ad!

“It wasn’t here yesterday,” Peter said.

“It was the day before. I thought there was something wrong with the drain.”

“Or the drainage.” Peter looked out the window where the rain continued to pour down from the once again impenetrable night sky. “Did it rain a couple of days ago?”

“Some.”

“I could look under the house.”

“I’d appreciate it,” said Esther, “but this will do till daylight.” She tossed him an old towel.

By morning, the rain had slowed to an intermittent drizzle. The creek, double its usual width and two feet deep, flowed muddy and turbulent. Peter ran out, delighted to watch it rumble past. Esther put on an old yellow rain coat with a nice, snug hood and joined him.

“This is great!” Peter shouted over the rushing water. “How long do you think it’ll last?”

“At least all day,” Esther shouted back, “even if it doesn’t rain anymore.”

A little later, over a cup of tea and the pipe, Peter looked at his greatgrandmother, seriously, and said, “Gra… Esther, do you think… that is… Could I… Could I stay here?”

Esther was not really surprised by the question, but she thought before answering. He was having an adventure now. That would wear off. She would feel useful, and she had to admit it would be a help. But her privacy… She had a brief flash of suspicion. Had Jennifer put him up to this? She felt ashamed of that thought at once. I’m getting as paranoid as Prabaht, she thought. The world’s getting loonier all the time. He’d certainly be safer here. Finally she answered, “Wouldn’t you be bored to death?”

“I don’t think so. Prabaht was talking about running a trap line…” “Heaven help us!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Prabaht tried that last winter. He has got to be the world’s least competent trapper. His total take consisted of one jack rabbit—by accident, because he forgot to bait that trap.”

“He told me about that. He wasn’t properly equipped. He only had his traps out the last couple weeks of the season.”

“What makes you think he’ll do any better this year?”

“I’ll be with him.”

How could she answer that? It wasn’t important. What mattered was his future, and, for her, whether she could live with a sixteen-year-old boy. He would have friends. He would have girlfriends. He would have his own taste in music.

“We could try it, maybe, if your grandmother agrees.” She felt a twinge at leaving his mother out of the picture, but Sylvia was out of the picture. “I’d want you to go to school.”

“What for?”

She was a little shocked he was so forthright. “I’m not sure, but it is still important to finish high school… I think.”

“Well, okay.” He sounded a little less enthusiastic.

“You still want to stay?”

“Yes.” Almost defiant.

“Let’s see.”

“I could help you out.”

“I know that.” She didn’t intend the edge to her voice she knew was there.

Peter didn’t notice. “Grandma says…”

“…Says I’m too old to take care of myself and shouldn’t stay up here alone anymore.”

Peter heard the edge now. “I didn’t mean…”

“I almost croaked the other day.”

Peter’s mouth fell halfway open.

“But 1 didn’t. Maybe I’ll drop dead right now. Maybe I’ll live to be a hundred and fifty…”

Neither of them knew what to say.

What if I become incapacitated in a year? Esther thought. Should a boy his age be saddled with that? It was the thing she really feared most, far more than she feared the possibility of dying messily alone. “Let’s see how we both feel in a week,” Esther finally said.

“Okay,” Peter answered.

It rained off and on in the night, but by morning there were patches of blue. The creek was still up. About ten, Prabaht showed up with a newspaper, only slightly damp. He spread it on the kitchen table so they all could see it.

“Top Officials Deny Responsibility,” read the biggest headline. So what else is new? Esther thought.

“Here’s the real news.” Prabaht turned to page five.

Esther’s eyes landed on the largest headline on the page: “Ohio Attorney General Doubts Warrants.” The article began: “Citing several cases making their way through the courts, Ohio Attorney General Arthur McGuire doubts ‘John Doe Warrants’ will suffice for female detainees.”

“See.” Prabaht pointed to a smaller article. Esther read the headline: “Bishop Deplores Suffering.” The article was about how the Diocese of Las Cruces was helping people displaced by the continuing civil disorder.

“I don’t get it,” said Peter.

“What bishop?” Prabaht pointed to the end of the brief article.

Peter read aloud: “ ‘On behalf of the bishop, Special Aide Father Luis Morales.’ So? It’s crazy in Cruces too.”

“You left out the important part,” Prabaht replied ominously. He read: “ ‘Special Aide Father Luis Morales, S.J.’ ”

“So what?” said Peter.

“Don’t you see?” said Prabaht. “The whole thing was a set-up by the Jesuits!”

Esther tuned out.

If Peter stayed, she’d need to move the squash and put a stove in that back bedroom. She had plenty of firewood anyhow.

Prabaht said something about logging trucks rolling again.

“In this slop?” said Peter.

“On pavement.” Then Prabaht veered off to expound on the effect on local employment of a proposed $1.50 a gallon fuel tax.

Much as it pleased her that Peter understood such an issue, Esther’s concerns carried her away from the conversation. “I could do with some quiet. Why don’t you take it out in the sunshine,” she said.

Peter and Prabaht went outside. Esther sat in her comfortable chair and contemplated.

Subjective and objective. Esther felt that she understood, at least a bit more, what she perceived in the spirit realm. Out there in the big world, the events of the last few days made everything just a little more disjointed, made everyone just a little more dissociated from a social order that had seemed so certain when Esther was Peter’s age.

I’ve been fighting Jennifer over my independence, Esther thought. The objective and subjective meet in funny ways. I’m still not sure about living with anyone, but it is getting harder to manage. And Peter needs something too. That makes it all different.

Worth my privacy? Worth my independence? Better him than a stranger. I could tell him about the cigarette and the awning. A story like that would only annoy Jennifer, only frighten Sylvia. Peter would get a kick out of it, and because he would, he would learn a little of the so-solid world I was that girl in.

I have no idea how he should live, but he could use to hear of a world that was solid once, to know such a thing is possible. Jennifer can’t give him that, just because she’s too solid herself. Subjective and objective.

There’s been a special light in my life. I’ve called it Freedom. I’ve called it this canyon. Jerome never saw it. Jennifer seemed determined not to see it. Sylvia… I’m not sure she’s ever been there enough to know what she sees, like Prabaht.

Am I indulging in wishful thinking, hoping Peter is someone to pass the torch to, wanting the end of my life to have meaning?

I don’t have to answer to that question, Esther thought, and smiled. I see his hand reached out, to receive and to give—even if neither of us knows quite what.

Content

Uncle River
Passing the Torch