“If I gave something to Bridle…” The look of panic on Liza’s face had colt squeezing her hand.
“Baby, nobody said you did. Parasites aren’t usually passed that way.”
“I didn’t mean it,” Filly said, her eyes watering. “I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth.”
Liza sighed and closed her eyes. She suddenly saw Bridle, sick and weak, in a hospital bed with doctors and nurses gathered around her. The dark circles under her eyes were a contrast to her pale cheeks. Her breaths were labored and her fingers trembled against the coarse hospital blanket. Liza shuddered at the sight.
“Bryar will figure it out,” she whispered. “She’s good at that stuff. We can trust her.”
“I hope so,” Filly said. She reached over and took Liza’s other hand, being careful of the IV. “I really, really hope so.”
With both hands holding onto her, Liza drifted off into sleep. Right before her final nod, she was reminded of how there are different kinds of magic in the world, and the power of friendship and love were the strongest of them all.
* * *
“MARE, WHAT ARE you doing to the poor girl?” Whinny demanded as she entered the hospital room.
Both Mare and Liza looked up, guilt written all over their faces. Mare quickly grabbed the stack of papers resting on Liza’s legs and stuffed them into a laptop bag.
“She asked me to, Mother,” Mare retorted. “I was just doing as the patient ordered.”
“You shouldn’t be working, dear,” Whinny chastised Liza as she bent over and kissed her on the forehead.
“I’m going stir crazy in here and it’s the end of the month,” Liza said. “I needed something to do. I had to look over the order forms and sales figures.”
“Bookkeeping in the hospital,” Whinny sighed. “You are a strange little woman.”
“I’m feeling a lot better today,” Liza said.
“It’s true,” Mare agreed. “She’s been bitching at everyone. The nurses are afraid to come in here. They just kind of stand in the doorway and toss needles at her.”
Liza and Whinny laughed. Laughing felt good, too, Liza thought. She’d been laughing, walking around on her own, and even eating. In fact, she was famished. She’d cajoled Colt into bringing her a hamburger and he’d obliged, not wanting her to go without anything that might make her happy (or feel better). She’d engulfed it without any nausea whatsoever.
She was ready to go home.
As though he’d heard her thoughts, her doctor strolled in, clipboard in hand.
“How are you feeling today?” he asked politely. He always looked impeccable, in his fastidious, pressed slacks, spotless white coat, and gelled hair.
“Much better,” Liza promised. “Can I go home now?”
The hopeful look that must have been on her face had the doctor smiling. “Well, since you’re keeping down food and you’re able to put weight on your legs I don’t see any reason why you can’t.”
“Yay!!” Liza cheered.
Whinny, however, looked concerned. “Are you sure she’s ready?”
The doctor nodded. “I think she’ll be able to heal better at home, in a more comfortable environment. Of course, she’ll need to continue her antibiotics and we’ll send her home with a few other things that will keep her comfortable, including Lopermine.”
“Whatever,” Liza said, with a wave of her hand. “Just dope me up, doc, and send me home!”
Filly laughed. “And she’ll have plenty of help when she gets home, too.”
The doctor nodded. “It’s not unusual for a patient to start feeling better and then relapse,” he cautioned them, “so you need to keep a close eye on her. If her fever spikes or she has trouble keeping food, and especially liquids, down then you’ll need to bring her back.”
“I’ll be the best patient ever,” Liza swore. As if to prove it, she crossed an ‘X’ over her heart. “Promise to goodness.”
“Then let me go ahead and inform the nurses and we’ll see what we can do to get you out of here.”
Once he’d left the room, Liza sat up and swung her feet over the side of her bed. “Filly,” she commanded. “Bring me that suitcase over there. I need to get dressed. Let’s blow this joint!”
* * *
ONCE SHE WAS HOME, Liza walked around the living room and kitchen, as though checking to make sure nothing had changed and everything was where it should be. It felt terrific to be back home, amongst her things, even if she was starting to droop a little after the car ride home. She was still weak, there was no doubt about that. Everything she did took a ton of energy. And they still didn’t know what she had.
“I didn’t touch anything,” Bryar said. She stood in the doorframe as Liza began opening kitchen cabinets. “Nobody did. We just cleaned.”
“Oh, I don’t care about that. I just want to see everything, touch it. I feel like I’ve been gone for a month.”
“Do you need to go to bed or…?”
Liza shook her head. “I’ve been in bed long enough. How about the couch?”
“I’ll go get you a pillow,” Bryar said.
By the time Liza made it to the couch, her legs felt like Jell-O. It was true what the doctor had told her–the wind in her sail was starting to go out. She’d need to take it easy for awhile.
“I’m glad to have you back,” Bryar said. She’d plumped a pillow for Liza and even made her a cup of hot chocolate. Now she sat across from her in the recliner, studying Liza. Liza figured she was looking for signs of imminent death.
“Me too,” Liza agreed.
“It’s kind of creepy up here alone,” Bryar said.
“Which is ironic considering people are afraid of you,” Liza teased her.
“I swear last night I could hear someone stomping around on the front porch and trying to open the door. I figured it was just my imagination but I didn’t get much sleep.”
Liza frowned. “I haven’t heard anything like that before. Maybe a coyote?”
“A coyote tried to open the door? I don’t think so. You have any ghosts here?”
“No,” Liza shook her head. “Sometimes I think Nana Bud might pop in and say ‘hi’ but I’ve never felt any paranormal activity here.”
“Oh well,” Bryar shrugged. “I was probably just spooking myself. It’s fine.”
Stretched out on the couch, her belly full of hot chocolate, the fire roaring, and her sister’s incessant chattering eventually lulled Liza into a deep sleep.
It was the best she’d slept in weeks.
* * *
“LIZA, LIZA WAKE up.” At first, Liza thought the noise was coming from within her dreams. She grunted and turned over in an attempt to block it out.
“Wake up, Liza,” the voice commanded again.
It’s just not going to go away, Liza thought to herself. When she opened her eyes, however, she saw her sister leaning over in her face.
“What? What’s the matter?” Liza demanded, rising to a seated position. Bryar’s face looked odd, somehow. Worried, yet excited. “Everyone okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I saw something and I need to tell someone.”
Liza yawned and waved Bryar on. “Go ahead then. What did you see?”
“Okay,” Bryar began as she sat down in the floor next to Liza. “So I went out and–“
“You went out by yourself?” Liza asked, cutting her off. “It’s late. Where in the world did you go? Nothing around here stays open past 9:00 pm.”
“Don’t interrupt,” Bryar snapped. “I went to the gas station right before you get into town. We were out of drinks and I needed caffeine. Like, majorly. It was an emergency trip, really. I couldn’t possibly get up in the morning without a Coke.”
“Okay, so what happened?”
“When I was driving back home, I passed the school, you know?”
“Yes,” Liza nodded. “I know the school.”
“There was a big truck turning up into the landfill. It didn’t have its headli
ghts on. At first I thought it was someone just turning around or something. But then it blinked its lights and the gate opened,” Bryar said, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “It went on through and never turned on its lights.”
“Well, that is odd,” Liza agreed. “What time was this?”
“A little after midnight.”
“Huh,” Liza said. She began wracking her brain for a plausible explanation. When she didn’t come up with one, she turned to Bryar. “So what do you think it’s going on?”
“Illegal dumping,” Bryar whispered. “What if they really are poisoning the water because of something they’re putting in the landfill?”
“It’s possible,” Liza said. “I guess.”
“It would explain the water we saw on top of the mountain. And it would explain why I am not sick yet. I haven’t been drinking it, but you drink it all the time,” Bryar pointed out.
“Great. I finally start trying to get healthy and it kills me.”
“Do you have a map of the city or county?” Bryar asked suddenly, rising to her feet. “You think we can find one on the internet?”
Liza shook her head. “I’ve used up all my time this month. We can’t get on.”
“Huh?”
The bewildered look on Bryar’s face had Liza laughing. The action sent her into a coughing fit. When she stopped, she spent the next several minutes trying to explain to Bryar what satellite internet was.
“So you only get an allotted amount to use during the month? And if you reach it, that’s it?”
“We’re out in the country here,” Liza shrugged.
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Well, anyway,” Liza said, “we don’t need to get online to find a map. Nana Bud kept one around. Try looking in the china cabinet door in the dining room. There’s a bunch of them in there.”
Bryar left the room and came back moments later, a stack of maps in hand. “Uh, I think Nana had a problem. There are maps in here that date back to the 1960’s.”
When they found the map of Morel County, Bryar spread it out on the coffee table in front of them. “Okay,” Bryar said, “let’s see if we can figure this out. Where did Pepper live and work?”
As Liza remembered the names of those who had fallen ill, Bryar dutifully found the locations of where they lived and worked and marked them on the map. “And don’t forget you,” Bryar said, marking Liza’s farm house and business downtown.
“Well, that’s everybody then. You see any patterns?”
Bryar and Liza pulled in close to the map, surveying the red dots Bryar had made. After several minutes they looked up at one another and sighed. “No smoking gun,” Bryar said.
“No smoking gun,” Liza agreed. “So now what?”
“Okay, let’s look at this another way. Have you been anywhere recently? Done anything unusual?”
“Nothing,” Liza shook her head. “Not a thing. I have my routine. Hell, I hardly leave the house other than to go to work and Colt’s house. And to take Bridle to the hospital for those iron infusions she gets.”
“Wait!” Bryar cried, startling Liza.
“What?”
“Jessie, your neighbor. She works at the hospital, right?”
Liza nodded. “Pepper volunteers there regularly.”
“Okay, there’s two,” Bryar said excitedly. “And since Gwen’s been in the hospital, May was visiting her.”
“But that doesn’t explain Twila’s sickness, or mine,” Liza pointed out.
“Damn,” Bryar muttered. “Well, wait. There is a river that runs around the landfill.”
“Yeah, the Breathitt River,” Liza said. “But we don’t get our drinking water from it. We get it from the Estill River. That one right there.” She pointed to a line of blue on the map, a line that wasn’t anywhere near the landfill.
“Okay, so that’s out.”
“Maybe it’s something in the buildings. We don’t know about these other people,” Liza said. “There could be other buildings involved. Like the court house. We have a few different people with exposure there.”
“I still think it’s coming from the landfill,” Bryar insisted stubbornly. “When I saw that truck, it just all clicked into place. I can’t even explain it.”
“You think something in the landfill is poisoning the city’s water supply?” As soon as the words were out, Liza suddenly saw water, as red as blood sinking into the ground. She shivered from the image, shaken by its implications.
“We’ve got to know for sure. You have any way of testing it?”
“No,” Liza said, grabbing her phone, “but I know someone who might be able to help.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I’ve spent a lot of time in that hospital,” Bridle shuddered. “Why am I not sick?”
“I don’t know,” Liza replied. “I’ve done a bunch of research on it since I called you. Apparently, parasites can spread through contaminated water and food. Maybe I just ate something bad.”
Bridle nodded. “Yeah. You and the rest of the county had the same meal?”
“We all eat at the Tasty Bite a lot,” Liza reminded her.
“Could it be in the tap water, too?” Bryar asked. “I mean, can you get it just from drinking it?”
“I don’t know,” Bridle replied. “I don’t know much about it. But I can help you get the testing done. George Alfred teaches at the university in the next county over. We, uh, used to date in high school. That was before we learned we had just a little too much in common.”
“You were related?” Liza asked.
“No, we both liked men. He said if I bring him a sample he could have the results to us within twenty-four hours.”
“Let’s do that then,” Liza said, “because we sure haven’t heard a peep from the hospital or health department.”
“The festival starts tomorrow,” Bryar reminded her. “I’m doing the talent show the day after. What a time for something like this to go down.”
“Are you comfortable with getting the sample?” Liza asked her sister. “I’m still not feeling really strong.”
“Sure.” Bryar stood and straightened her shirt. “I’ll go downstream from the landfill.”
“We should test both rivers, just in case. I’ll go with you,” Bridle promised. “We’ll do it together.”
Before they left, Bryar turned back to Liza. Liza was bundled up on the couch, a stack of blankets on her. Bridle was determined to prevent a chill. “Don’t open the door for anyone,” she warned her. “I heard those footsteps again last night. They’re making me nervous.”
As she applied a layer of lipstick and smoothed back her hair in the mirror that hung over the piano, Liza laughed. “Only you would pretty yourself up before hiking down to the river.”
“One should always look their best,” Bryar said primly. Liza was happy that Bryar was beginning to perk up again. Planning the talent show and taking care of her sister put a spark back in her.
“What footsteps?” Bridle asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you on the way,” Bryar told her. “We’ll be back, Lize.”
Once the door was closed behind them, Liza picked up the remote and began flipping through the channels. “Great, not only is my new healthy lifestyle trying to kill me, but now I’m stuck here while they get to go on an adventure.”
The television had nothing to say in return.
Chapter Nineteen
“So he said he should have it back tomorrow,” Bryar said.
Although the doctor had told her to “take it easy,” Liza had returned to work, if for no other reason than to touch everything and make sure it was still there. Bryar sat on the stool by the cash register, twisting it around to face Liza as she moved across the floor.
“Hold on, call coming through,” Bryar said. Within seconds she was engaged in an animated conversation with the person providing the sound system for the talent show.
Liza smiled. Bryar was
in her element ordering people around and organizing musical activities. Liza was impressed by the way she was almost attached to her cell phone, ready to make demands and answer questions at the drop of a hat. She was like a little dictator, only in six-inch heels and cleavage.
“Okay, got that worked out,” Bryar sighed. She looked extremely pleased with herself.
“So how many have signed up so far?”
“So far we have fifteen,” Bryar replied. “And that’s a lot. I am looking at a two-hour show here.”
“That should entertain people,” Liza smiled.
“I’m excited about it, you know? It’s really fun.”
Liza had sat through auditions with Bryar that morning. Bryar had already put them through a grueling process while Liza was in the hospital. She’d narrowed it down to forty and had chosen the final contestants that morning. Liza couldn’t believe that nearly one-hundred people had initially signed up for the contest–from cloggers to singers and gymnasts. Kudzu Valley was far more talented than she’d figured.
Of course, once they found out that a real music producer was organizing the event and acting as emcee, they’d come out of the woodwork.
“You still up for being a judge?”
Liza nodded. “I think I can handle it. I just have to sit there in the chair and write stuff on paper, right? I don’t have to praise or criticize them to their faces do I?”
“It’s a festival talent show, not American Idol,” Bryar assured her.
The high school music teacher was going to be a judge. The third one was Lolita Funderburk. Lolita was one of their local celebrities. She had gone all the way to Nashville to be a country music singer–a fact the forty-two year old shared at any given moment. That she’d only lasted there for six months didn’t bother the residents of Kudzu Valley. She had played a gig at Tootsie’s, the same place Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline had frequented back in the day. The fact that it had been a Tuesday night and the place was dead at the time was of no relevance.
Broommates: Two Witches are Better Than One! (Kentucky Witches Book 2) Page 16