Dead of Spring: An Alexa Williams Novel

by Sherry Knowlton

  “Does he still sell real estate?”

  “Yes, but the market has been terrible. You probably know most family farming has turned into little more than subsistence living―at least up here in the northeast. So incomes are low. When a farm folds, few people want to buy it. Unless you can tempt a rich New Yorker looking for a country home. And we’re just a little far west for most of the city crowd.”

  Noticing Jeannie take a tray from the cupboard, Alexa moved to help. She grabbed two cups and a sugar bowl from the counter. Her hostess carried the tray bearing the teapot and a plate of muffins to the table in front of the fire.

  “So, times have been hard.” Alexa lifted a muffin from the tray.

  “That’s right.” Jeannie looked up from pouring tea. “Tommy’s real estate business has been on a downturn for several years. That’s why we took the gas deal. Monongas invaded the county. A battalion of salespeople went door to door, buying up leases for gas rights. Lots of people signed right away. They were paying cash up front with the promise of a steady income from the wells on your land.

  “Some families held out. They’d heard rumors about problems with fracking. Some just didn’t like the idea of drilling equipment on their land. Eventually, even some of the more reluctant landowners caved. Monongas told them they were screwing themselves because the company would pump the gas out of their land anyway through nearby wells.” Jeannie twisted her mouth into a sad smile. “Ended up only a few people had enough money or maybe just enough commonsense to send Monongas packing.”

  “From the equipment out there, I take it you signed a lease?” Alexa took a neutral tone.

  “Oh, yes.” Jeannie picked up her cup of tea and then put it back down, untouched. “Tommy wanted in the minute Monongas came to Tioga County. I hesitated. The idea of turning part of this beautiful acreage over to drilling―that just didn’t sit well with me. The land has been in Tommy’s family for years. But we needed the money. Leon Myers rents some of our land for his dairy cattle. And I plant a big garden every year. But Tommy never had any interest in working this land. So most of our acreage just sits idle.

  “When Monongas finally knocked on our door, we said yes. Now I can’t believe we were so shortsighted. Better to call it what it was―greed, pure and simple. Now our precious angel is paying for her parents’ selfish choices.”

  Alexa flinched at Jeannie’s bitter tone. Her sunny, soft-spoken friend had changed. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t know this fracking would turn out to be dangerous, did you? The money must have looked like a lifeline when you were going through hard times.”

  “But we should have done more research. Listened to guys like Maurice Lewis who talked about the environmental impact and the bad experiences in Dimock and elsewhere.”

  Alexa took a mental step from her role as friend to lawyer. “Did Monongas disclose any potential problems that could arise from drilling on your land? Did they tell you what the process would be? What chemicals they would use and any dangers from those chemicals? What liability do they assume for problems in the lease?” She’d done just enough reading about fracking on Friday to ask these questions.

  “That’s why I needed you here, Lexie. To help us figure out our legal options. A major in religion isn’t much help in dealing with lawsuits or medical bills. And, to tell you the truth, even my faith has frayed with Tessa’s illness. I’ve found myself wishing I had more options than putting myself in God’s hands. Maybe the Hindus have it right. With tons of gods, if Vishnu can’t help, you can always try another deity.”

  “You know I’m the last person to get into a religious discussion, but didn’t you always tell me the Hindus worship one god?”

  “You haven’t changed. I can tell you’re trying to distract me, but we’re not going to get sidetracked into Hindu theology.” Jeannie giggled. “But it’s fun you tried. You have no idea how little chance I have to talk about world religions up here. Sunday’s church service is my only exposure to theology. And the new minister doesn’t seem to have,” she paused as if searching for the right word, “an intellectual interest in religious philosophy. He’s more doctrinaire in his approach. I miss Reverend Mills.”

  Alexa scrunched her face. “Reverend Mills. Wasn’t he that skinny minister who married you and Tom? I talked to him for a long time at the rehearsal dinner. That guy was a hoot.”

  “He fostered my interest in religion. You know I considered Divinity School for a while.”

  “Until you met Tom the summer after junior year.”

  Jeannie flashed a wistful smile. “That’s right. Love and marriage became more important than becoming a minister. That might have been the first step toward losing my moral compass.”

  Alexa didn’t know quite how to respond. Jeannie seemed trapped in a dark place. Although Alexa wasn’t an expert, her old friend seemed to exhibit some symptoms of depression. But who wouldn’t be depressed with a sick child, a loser husband, and a dangerous industrial operation in your front yard? She broke the lengthening silence. “Tell me more about Tessa.”

  “Her illness?”

  At Alexa’s nod, Jeannie took a deep breath and whispered, “It’s almost more than a mother can bear. One day your little girl is a healthy, happy six-year-old. The next day she’s so sick she can barely lift her head off the pillow.” She wiped away a tear and squared her shoulders. “It started about a year after they did the initial drilling.”

  “Down below, where all those pipes are?” Alexa gestured toward the front of the house.

  “Yes. But what you see today is a hundred times better than those first weeks. The place looked like Dante’s Inferno. They brought in a huge drilling rig and built two open pools, one for freshwater and one to hold the saltwater they brought up from the ground. They tore up the muddy field and sprayed sand everywhere. Big trucks drove in and out constantly. You wouldn’t believe the noise. At night, they lit up the area with klieg lights because they drilled twenty-four hours a day.”

  Alexa grimaced, remembering the ugly tower she’d passed earlier, but didn’t interrupt Jeannie’s anguished narrative.

  “You can’t imagine the nightmare until one of these rigs drills right outside your door. I couldn’t get Tessa to sleep through the night. She’d wake up at the racket, terrified that monsters were coming for her. Tom spent as much time as possible away from the house.” Jeannie shook her head. “The few minutes he stayed at home, we fought about the decision to sign the fracking lease. I blamed Tom, but to tell the truth, I’m just as guilty. I could have said no.”

  “What you’re describing sounds like a terrible situation. Did you know they were going to drill so close to the house?”

  “Not really. They leased the entire fifty acres. I guess I expected them to drill somewhere on the outer edge, near the other road. That would have been a mile or so away.” She took a sip of tea. “But, once again, Tom and I were fools. The lease said Monongas would survey and drill at the best site. We protested when their tests indicated an optimal site right in front of the house. But the lease we signed included that land. Pennsylvania law says a drilling site can be no closer than five hundred feet from a residence. That’s not even the length of two football fields.”

  “Did Tessa get sick during that initial drilling?”

  “Yes and no. We were all cranky because of the noise and lack of sleep. One afternoon, I fell asleep on the couch while she was napping. She woke up and slipped out of the house with the dog. I found them down near the containment area that controls water runoff. She knew she wasn’t allowed down there near all those trucks. But Patches ran down, chasing something, and she went to bring him back. The dog died a few weeks later.

  “Turned out the saltwater pond had developed a slow leak that seeped into the containment area. The leak riddled the containment runoff water with manganese, arsenic, and radium; all the toxic crap that comes up with salt water from the deep earth and God knows what other chemicals they use for fracking. W
e hoped Tessa hadn’t been contaminated, but, about a year later, she showed the first symptoms.” Jeannie plucked a muffin from the tray and shredded the paper liner into slivers as she spoke.

  “The day it happened, Tessa swore she didn’t go near the containment pond. But she touched the wet dog and kissed him. She carried him back up the hill so he wouldn’t get in trouble for running away.” Jeannie dropped the mutilated muffin and pressed her index finger to her lip. “I feel so guilty. I should have kept an eye on her. I’ll never forget how she wailed when Patches died. And, of course, that’s when we knew something terrible had happened. And, for twelve long months, we waited in dread for the other shoe to drop. And then it did. The poison just took longer to affect Tessa.”

  Alexa’s heart ached for her friend, but she pressed ahead. “Did they fix the leak?”

  “Yes, when the dog died, we complained. That’s when the company discovered the problem. They had lined the saltwater pond with rubber, and something had ripped the rubber at the very bottom of the pond. The Department of Environmental Programs got involved and cited the company.” Jeannie’s harsh laugh verged on a snarl. “Soon after, they stopped using the ponds and switched to pumping the salt water into tanker trucks at the site.”

  “Did they take responsibility for the dog? And for Tessa’s illness―” Alexa stopped and looked around at the sound of a child’s voice.

  “Mama. I’m thirsty.”

  Jeannie smiled and pointed at the baby monitor on the dry sink. “When Tessa got sick, I pulled this out of storage so I could hear her upstairs. Sometimes she’s too weak to walk down the steps on her own. That’s why I homeschool her now.” Jeannie filled a plastic cup with water from the blue jug. “She might fall back to sleep. Just sit tight. Have some more tea.”

  With Jeannie gone, Alexa had a chance to study the big, open room. The old farmhouse had been renovated at some point. This spotless room extended across the entire width of the house, combining kitchen, dining room, and a little sitting area. Warm, wooden antiques, like the dining table and chairs, glowed against cheap fiberboard end tables, a dilapidated coffee table disguised with milk paint, and a slip-covered sofa well past shabby chic. A child-size chair sat against the wall, its fabric patterned with elephants in pink tutus. Medicine bottles filled a clear plastic container on the counter. Jeannie had done her best to brighten the big space with landscape prints and a quilt thrown over the sofa. But, Alexa could see times were hard for her old friend. It looked like any decorating money for the house had gone into that humongous big-screen TV in the living room.

  Alexa smiled as she listened to the conversation coming through the baby monitor, Jeannie’s soothing words a counterpoint to her daughter’s sleepy murmurs. Alexa rose to check out a figurine on the fireplace mantel just as Jeannie breezed back into the room. “Is this the same Ganesh we got in the Village?”

  “The very same. That guy has seen me through good times and bad. You know he’s associated with obstacles.” Jeannie’s tone became dry. “He removed a lot of obstacles for me back in my schooldays, but now it feels like he’s more interested in throwing them in my way. Tessa should sleep for a while longer. Do you want to take a walk outside?”

  Jeannie led Alexa out the back door and around the house where a row of yellow daffodils nestled against the white boards. The happy promise of the daffodils turned to dust when they turned the corner to see the fracking operation at the foot of the hill.

  “So, what is this?” Alexa waved toward the rows of steel pipes and metal buildings. The area took up several acres, a harsh scar in the middle of rolling fields tinged with a hint of green.

  “The part I told you about earlier, the drilling process. The first one lasted about four months from start to finish. At the end, they pulled out the big drilling equipment, pumped out both the freshwater and saltwater ponds, and filled them in. Then they put in this wellhead to keep the natural gas pumping out of the ground.”

  “Do they pump it into trucks?”

  “No. It flows out through an underground network of pipes. See that station over there?” Jeannie pointed to a collection of pipes at the far corner of the flat area. “That’s where the gas lines begin. They go out beneath those fields.

  “Of course, there are six wells down there. Four of them working. Monongas came back twice to drill more wells. They didn’t do all of them the first time.”

  “Could they come back again?”

  “I guess so―if they decide to drill the last two wells. Compared to the initial drilling, this is bearable.” Jeannie waved at the field of metal below. “The noise and dust is gone. You get used to the truck traffic that comes to empty the tanks.”

  “But it’s not exactly idyllic country life anymore, is it?” Alexa bit her lip. “Are you making any money from all of this? That’s why you leased the land, right?”

  Jeannie frowned. “We got five hundred an acre from the original lease. Most of that went to pay off loans. We’ve gotten monthly checks since then for royalties―several thousand a month at first, but much, much less now. All in all, not nearly enough to make up for what they did to the land. And how do you put a price on your precious daughter’s life? She could die from this cancer.” Jeannie put a hand to her forehead and wept.

  Alexa wrapped an arm around her friend. “Jeannie, I’m so sorry. Let’s go back inside in case Tessa wakes up.” Beyond that, she could find no words of comfort.

  Tom slammed the front door and boomed, “Where’s my little honey bunny?”

  Tessa tottered from the kitchen, squealing, “Daddy,” and wrapped her thin arms around his leg. Sitting in a living room chair, Alexa winced as the beefy man swung his daughter into the air. Although Tessa giggled in excitement, the child’s frail frame looked like it could snap from the motion.

  “Be careful, Tom. Just put her down,” Jeannie admonished as she ran in from the kitchen.

  “We were just having a little fun.” Tom returned Tessa to the floor. “Weren’t we, honey bunny?”

  “Do it again, Daddy.” Tessa pleaded but soon crawled onto the couch, clutching a blanket to her chest. The child’s hair, coal black like her mother’s, only accentuated the pallor of her skin.

  “Why, if it isn’t Alexa Williams. I didn’t see you sitting there; you were so quiet. I hear you’re a hotshot New York attorney now.”

  Alexa stood to greet her host, who had turned away to hang up his coat. “Not anymore.”

  “Huh?” Tom snickered. “Not anymore what?”

  “I left New York City a couple of years ago. I still practice law, but with my family firm in Carlisle.”

  Jeannie interjected. “I told you that already, Tom.”

  “I thought you were bringing in your old friend who’s a big-gun lawyer in one of those fancy New York outfits.” Tom’s tone veered between scoffing and whiny. “We need some real help in getting money from those bastards who made our little girl sick.”

  Seeing Jeannie’s look of exasperation, Alexa looked at Tom. “I’m here to see if I can offer any advice. My expertise is neither personal injury nor environmental law. But I told Jeannie I would help you find counsel qualified to take on your case―more accurately, Tessa’s case.”

  “Tom, get ready for dinner. I’ll feed Tessa now. We can discuss this more while we eat.”

  As Tom headed up the stairs, Jeannie whispered, “I apologize. Tom talks without thinking half the time. I’m sure he appreciates your help.” Her voice rose to its normal level. “Tessa, honey. Time for dinner.”

  “I’m too tired, Mommy.”

  “You have to eat to keep your strength up.” Jeannie lifted her daughter off the couch, cradling Tessa in her arms. “Alexa, do you want to come with us?”

  Alexa left early Sunday morning, glad to escape the pain and tension in the Demeter household. The morning had dawned clear, so Alexa had an unimpeded view of all the fracking wells and wellheads scattered along her route out of Tioga County. Even on Sunday, she enco
untered a flow of tractor-trailers, mostly tankers, on the narrow back roads. She breathed a sigh of relief when she hit the four-lane highway.

  With the radio tuned to a New Age channel, Alexa soaked in the serene music and reviewed her visit with Jeannie. They had finally discussed the heartbreaking details of Tessa’s cancer after dinner. The doctors said this type of brain cancer was very rare, especially in children. The specialists’ working theory was that the fracking at the Demeters’ had released toxic compounds into the saltwater pool. Tessa was likely contaminated when she and the dog had come into contact with runoff from the leak. The compounds had ravaged the susceptible body of the developing child. Alexa had gasped when Jeannie revealed the doctors’ prognosis. The cancer was very aggressive and could be fatal.

  Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had already begun chemotherapy on Tessa with more scheduled in two weeks. Jeannie was distraught that Tessa would likely lose her hair on the next round. The bigger problem was Tom’s insurance. Although federal law no longer permitted lifetime limits, he had chosen the family plan with the cheapest monthly premiums. They didn’t have enough money for the co-pays, let alone the travel and other costs involved in frequent trips to Philly. At least they received free lodging at the Ronald McDonald House. Alexa had suggested applying for Medicaid due to the child’s disability but didn’t know enough about the rules to be certain Tessa would qualify.

  When Alexa’s mind drifted to Tom, even the harmonious strains of harp and flute wafting from the Rover’s speakers couldn’t keep her calm. What a loser. Jeannie had rekindled a romance with her high school sweetheart during the summer before senior year of college. Even the cold hard light of New York City had been unable to shake her infatuation with Tom. So she’d thrown away her plans for Divinity School and returned home to marry after graduation. Alexa had seen through the guy from the moment they met―a salesman whose biggest product was Tom Demeter. It appeared Jeannie had finally recognized some of Tom’s bullshit. But she knew her friend. Jeannie would never contemplate divorce.