Crystal Beach (Crow Hill Book 1)

by Tom Larcombe

  “What basket do you want me to fill?”

  “I'll go get it.”

  Michael returned with the basket and showed Liz where the roses were.

  “If you fill this basket all the way I can make a big pot of the tea,” he said.

  “I'll try,” she said.

  Liz started carefully picking petals. Michael returned to the garden and looked up at Calvin.

  “Calvin, would you go keep an eye on Liz again? Let me know if there's any problems, would you?”

  Calvin spread his wings and flew out towards the rose patch.

  Jeff looked over.

  “Michael?”

  “Yes?”

  “I didn't want to say anything with Liz here but... Why do you have a gun out here?”

  “I'm a little nervous from someone breaking into the trailer yesterday. We're just as far out of town here and while you can see the front of the house from in town since the house is on the crest of the hill, you can't see the garden from there. Since we were going to be out back in the garden, I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.”

  Jeff nodded.

  “Good,” he said. “I'm pretty sure I heard some gunshots after dark last night, but I couldn't tell where they were coming from.”

  The two went back to digging their garden beds. A while later Liz came back.

  “Is this enough?” she asked.

  Michael looked and saw the rose petals overflowing the basket.

  “That's plenty. You were fast too.”

  “I had help.”

  Michael blinked, he was sure Calvin would've warned him if someone came by.

  “Who helped you?”

  “A big butterfly. It kept picking petals and putting them in the basket. Then it made a glittery dust and all the rose petals grew back so I didn't have to go in where the thorns were thicker. It was this big...”

  Liz held her hands apart, showing a size that was about that of a softball.

  “Well, let's get these steeping to make tea then, shall we?” Michael said.

  He took the basket of petals from Liz and then noticed the glittering dust on them.

  What the hell is going on with this stuff? I better rinse it off well, but where did it come from? I know the roses didn't have any of it on them when I brought her out there.

  Michael walked into the kitchen and set a kettle of water on the stove to boil. He wandered towards the side of the house the roses were on and glanced out a window. Half the patch was covered with the glittering dust and, like Liz said, there didn't seem to be any petals missing. There were several butterflies flitting about the rose bushes, none of them were the size Liz had indicated.

  I hate to use it as a catch all reason, but the only explanation I can think of is magic. But what kind? And who or what is using it?

  * * *

  Around lunch time Calvin started making a fuss. He cried out over and over until Michael slung his rifle on his back and went to see what the fuss was.

  Someone was walking up the road leading to the house and mine buildings. It took Michael a moment to recognize Anne. Once he did, he took his rifle and stowed it on the pegs over the back door. Then he went out to greet her.

  “Anne, I thought you were at work,” Michael said.

  “I was, until the power went out again. After an hour they said they were just going to close up and we could leave. So I figured I'd come up to get the kids so you wouldn't have to walk them home again.”

  “We were just about to have lunch, have you eaten yet?”

  “I don't want to be any trouble.”

  “It's no trouble at all, I was thinking I'd see what was ready in the garden and make lunch from that.”

  “If you're sure it isn't a problem,” Anne said.

  “No imposition at all. Come around back, that's where Jeff and Liz are. We'll see what's ready to pick.”

  The two walked around back. Liz came running over and threw her arms around her mother's legs.

  “Mommy, I picked a bunch of roses to make tea from. Michael showed me how,” Liz said.

  Anne gave Michael a glance, he just shrugged.

  “The strawberry patch needs a few days to ripen more berries. This was something else I thought she might like,” he said.

  “A butterfly helped me pick them,” Liz said.

  Anne gave Liz an indulgent stare and shrugged back at Michael.

  “Jeff, let's see what we can pick to make our lunch,” Michael said.

  He walked into the area of his garden that was already planted, then stopped short and took a deep breath. Anything that had been even close to ripe looked ready to pick. Plants that had only begun to bear had their stalks bending under the weight of their yield. Plants that hadn't been ready to start blooming were now covered with blossoms and the entire garden had a faint glitter to it.

  Jeff whistled.

  “You said you didn't add any amendments. What happened here then?”

  “I don't know. I didn't use any magic on it either, but I think someone or something else might have.”

  “Well, whatever happened, I hope it keeps happening to my beds, this is impressive.”

  “This is what the garden normally looks like during fall harvest, except I think this might even be a little more than I normally get out of it then,” Michael said.

  The two of them set to picking. Michael realized they were going to need something to put it all in and sent Jeff for a basket. After filling and emptying it twice, there were still things to be harvested.

  “Let's have lunch. We'll pick the rest of this later on. I'll send some home with you and maybe bring some down to Father Anderson this afternoon.”

  Michael fixed large salads from what he'd brought in from the garden. He knew that wouldn't be enough and that they needed something a little more filling to go with it also. But he thought a small serving of rice would make up for that.

  He worried that the children were going to complain about, or not eat, lunch because it was mostly vegetables. Liz did give it an odd look, but once she started eating, she tore through the salad before finishing the rice. After the meal, they sat on the porch sipping rose petal tea sweetened with honey.

  “I'll walk the kids home in just a little bit,” Anne said. “Thank you for lunch, it was wonderful.”

  “Well, pretty soon Jeff will be bringing the same kind of things home all the time, so I'm glad you liked it,” Michael replied.

  “I'm going out to Miriam's this afternoon and see if I can do enough chores to earn some of her eggs too, mom,” Jeff added.

  After Anne left with the kids, Michael put together the surplus that he'd gotten from his garden. He also went through and harvested the other things that were ripe. Put together they took up a substantial amount of room.

  Guess I'll need to try out that trailer. Going to make it harder coming back up the hill, but I should still be able to push the bike, and trailer, when my legs give out for pedaling.

  With the trailer attached to the bike, he loaded up the produce. Then he set the kickstand and decided to drink some more water before he left.

  Hot enough out that I don't want to get dehydrated.

  The shade under the porch was noticeably cooler than outside in the sun so he sat down for a few minutes, sipping at the water. He nearly spilled it when he heard a car horn beeping out in front of the house.

  Michael got up and went around front. He was greeted by the sight of a police cruiser parked in his driveway. The door opened when Michael came into view. The man who stepped out stood well over six feet and looked solid as a boulder.

  “I'm looking for a Michael Hart? Gave this address and reported a break-in?”

  “That's me. I thought it would be longer until someone got here. I know things are pretty strange right now.”

  “You got that right. You wouldn't be seeing anyone today except all the deputies got called in to pull a Sunday shift.”

  “Well, let me show you where the break-in
happened. I haven't been down there or touched anything.”

  Michael led the deputy sheriff around back of the house. He caught the deputy staring at the cart of food. Calvin was sitting on the edge of the cart and when he saw the deputy, he let out a startled, “Caw!” and took to the air.

  “My garden's producing more than I need right now. I was just about to take that stuff down to Father Anderson.”

  “Ah, you're not kidding. Looks like it's in full bloom.”

  “Yeah, it came on really well, just recently. Anyhow, you can see the trailer from here. Down at the base of the hill there? The door's swinging open and there's a broken window. I had a kid up here that I was keeping track of for her mom. She actually saw it all happen. She said there were two men, they broke the window, one climbed through and opened the door, they both went back in and came out with bags of stuff.”

  “Well, I'll go down and take a look. I doubt there's much we can do about it now though. Even if I took prints, we can't run a comparison with no power or internet.”

  Michael peered at the name tag on the man's shirt.

  “Thank you Deputy Jacobs. I didn't even know if I should call it in, but I thought I'd better.”

  “Like I said, I'll check it out but... There'd be paperwork if you'd seen it yourself, since you didn't.”

  The deputy shrugged.

  “How old is the girl that did see it?”

  “Somewhere around ten, give or take a year or two. She and her brother were up here since her mom had to work. I'm teaching him how to garden and since there was no-one else home, he brought his sister with him.”

  “Too young to take a report from; that's too bad. There's been a rash of break-ins and this is the first one where someone saw it happen. That's the other reason you got a response this soon.”

  “Well, I'll wait in case you need any more information,” Michael said.

  Deputy Jacobs nodded and started off down the hill. Michael went back to the porch and finished his water. He watched as the deputy examined the door and window, then entered the trailer. Ten minutes later the deputy was back.

  “It's a mess in there all right, it looks like someone cleaned them out. There was wildlife in there too, probably last night. There's no food left at all. Looks like some other smaller things might've been taken as well. There are drawers and cupboards just dumped out onto the floor. The door was cleaner than everything else so they probably wiped their prints. I'll see if I can get someone out here to find out if they left any inside though. So if you see a squad car down there in the next day or so, that's what they're doing.”

  “Thank you deputy.”

  “You're welcome, just doing my job though. Are you here most of the time? I'm just checking in case we need to ask any more questions.”

  Michael thought of his gardening class and realized that he was done teaching that. With no electricity in the building and gasoline getting scarce, he'd probably have no students.

  “Yes, I'm here most of the time,” he said.

  Deputy Jacobs slid into his car and started the engine. After he pulled out onto the road, Michael locked the house up and pedaled down to Father Anderson's church.

  He'd never had anything to do with the church, for much the same reasons he'd stopped trying to start a romantic relationship in the area. Having to reintroduce himself every few years, to pretend that any previous history with the people around him didn't exist, just wasn't something he could bring himself to do. He tried it after the first time the Board wiped the memory of him out of the town and it wasn't an experience he was willing to repeat.

  The front door of the church was propped open so he walked in. With the power out the interior of the church was only minimally illuminated. Flickering candles lit some areas and the sun coming through the stained glass lit others. Corners and spots the light didn't reach were left shadowed.

  There were several people in a pew in the front of the church. A middle aged man wearing black clothes and a white collar stood there talking with them.

  The priest noticed something and looked up. He spotted Michael right off. After leaning over and resting a hand on the shoulder of one of the people he was speaking to, he approached Michael.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Would you be Father Anderson?”

  “That's me, what can I do for you?”

  “Well Miriam said that she was donating some of her eggs to you, and Jeff Simmons told me that his family had been relying heavily on you for food.”

  “That's correct. Did you need some help with food? We're a little short right now, but I can find something for you.”

  “Oh no, sorry. I didn't mean to give that impression. It's the other way around. I've got a load of fresh produce from my garden out front. I was wondering if you could use it?”

  “You're a blessing in disguise sir. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name.”

  “Oh, I'm Michael Hart. I manage the mine on top of the hill.”

  “You're the one that's been giving gardening classes?”

  “That's me. Huh, you certainly know what's going on in town.”

  “It's a small town Michael. I hear quite a bit of what's going on. In this case it's because I've had a few parishioners ask if I could get you to teach the same class here at the church, for free. Evidently, the people you've already taught are very happy with what they learned, and vocal about it. But not everyone can afford it.”

  “I tried to keep the costs down, I just charged enough to cover the rental on the community center and my transportation costs.”

  “I don't doubt it, but we've many people that come here without even that much. Things have been bad for a while.”

  Father Anderson glanced at the non-illuminated lights.

  “And I fear that they may be getting worse.”

  “Well, we can certainly work something out about my teaching a class here. Would you show me where to take the food first though?”

  Father Anderson chuckled.

  “Sorry, I'd already forgotten that I haven't seen you here before. Let's go get your donation and I'll show you to the kitchen. There's a gymnasium we use for the youth group out back, it's got an attached kitchen. I'm between services right now, but we normally serve meals after them as well, so we can use that food tonight after evening service.”

  “I'd forgotten that it was Sunday already. I'm sorry, I would've waited until tomorrow if I'd remembered.”

  “Oh no, son. You're an answer to my prayers. We weren't going to be serving much tonight since, as I mentioned, we're low on food. Your donation will get put straight to work.”

  The two went out to Michael's bike trailer. When Father Anderson saw four large bags of produce, he was ecstatic. He glanced in the first one he picked up and gave Michael a curious look.

  “Maybe I should get you to teach me how to get such a tomato harvest this early in the year.”

  Michael thought for a moment.

  Heck, I don't even know how I got so many tomatoes to ripen this early in the year. At least I can be truthful and put him on the right track without telling him everything.

  “Well, I'm fond of my tomatoes so I start a bunch of them inside in late January. Then as soon as I'm sure the weather will support it I transplant them outside. Got a good early start on them this year. It helps to plant early varieties as well.”

  The two men talked gardening as they carried the food back to the kitchen. After they'd deposited the bags onto the counters there, Father Anderson turned to Michael.

  “Will I be seeing you at services this evening?”

  “Probably not Father, I haven't attended church regularly, or much at all, in years.”

  “You're welcome if you'd like to come,” Father Anderson said.

  “I might at that, but certainly not tonight. You see, someone broke into a place near my house the other day. I'm a little worried about being away for too long. I'd hate for them to either raid my garden, or worse still, break into
my house.”

  “I understand your caution. I hear there's been a lot of theft going on recently.”

  “The deputy who came by said it looked like they took all the food out of the house as well as a few other things.”

  “Hunger can drive people to do many things. Unless there were quite a few thieves waiting for problems, it sounds as though a few people are stocking their pantries at the expense of others,” Father Anderson said.

  Michael nodded, he'd already had some thoughts along the same line.

  “I'd prefer it not happen to anyone, but I can try to make sure that it doesn't happen to me,” Michael said.

  “I understand. My invitation remains open though.”

  “Thank you Father, I'll remember that.”

  * * *

  Michael was tired when he got home. Pushing the bike and trailer the last half mile uphill was harder than he'd anticipated, but he managed it. He sat on the back porch and watched as Calvin darted this way and that around the area between the mine and the garden.

  “Calvin,” Michael called.

  The crow flew over and landed on the porch rail.

  “What's up buddy, you look like you're going crazy out there.”

  Calvin looked at Michael.

  “What the...?” Michael said.

  He leaned in closer to examine Calvin's beak. The quarter inch or so at the tip of his beak was coated with the same glittering dust he'd seen all over the place today.

  “Calvin, have you been chasing something?”

  Calvin dipped his head.

  “Caw!”

  “Trying to keep something out of the garden?”

  “Caw!”

  “If that's the case. You don't need to chase whatever it is. I think it's responsible for accelerating the growth of everything in the garden. Unless they damage something in it, you don't have to try to keep them out.”

  Calvin slumped onto the rail. He looked like a man relieved of a heavy burden, now trying to relax.

  “Sorry buddy, I didn't know what you were doing or I would've told you sooner.”