Page 112 of Bad Seed

Then they kept hugging her and thanking her over and over, and all Shirley could think was how blessed her life had become.

And all the way home, Brendan and Harley kept talking about the remarkable gift they’d just been given.

“You’re sure you’ll be okay with this? Sometimes weather makes it slow going, trying to get home.”

Harley laughed. “Brendan! I’m from Chicago! Snow is a way of life.”

“Yes, but your roads get plowed and sanded and salted. We make our own ruts in the snow and go from there,” he said.

“But it’s never quiet in the city. Ever. And standing on that porch tonight with your mom… I didn’t know until then that silence had its own sound. And I can only imagine the view in the daytime. Honestly, it sounds like heaven.”

He sighed. “Okay then, we’re good to go. Mom said to come when we’re ready. She’s not going anywhere.”

“Let’s go after breakfast, okay?”

He nodded.

“We’ll have to dig a well, won’t we? What if we pick out a place that doesn’t have water?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Stop worrying. We’ll just get Uncle John to come witch it. He always finds water.”

Harley’s eyes widened. “Do what?”

“We call it witching for water, but he uses a dowsing rod to find water,” he explained.

“Oh. Right. Okay… I am officially out of my depth here, so I’m not going to worry about one more thing. You all have hundreds of years of knowledge about things I’ve never thought of, let alone done. My street smarts aren’t going to go very far up here.”

He grinned. “Maybe not, but they sure wrapped me up in a box and tied me with a bow.”

Harley just smiled. “And when we get home, I know exactly how to unwrap you, too.”

“Just like Christmas,” Brendan said, and down the mountain they went.

Chapter 18

As promised, they were back at Shirley’s house just before 10:00 a.m.

She had her four-seat ATV already parked in the backyard waiting for them to arrive, and a basket packed with bottles of water she’d tied down with a bungee cord to one of the back seats. When they arrived, she welcomed them inside, beaming from the excitement.

Sean came out of the kitchen carrying a cup of coffee on his way up the hall to his office. “Hey, guys! Mom told us the news this morning. I can’t tell you how happy Amalie and I are for you. Don’t let Mom drive. She goes too fast.”

Harley laughed. “Oh, so that’s where Brendan gets his love of speed. Ever ride with him on that Harley?”

“Well damn, I forgot about that,” Sean said. “Maybe I should—”

Shirley swatted at him. “You go chase computer viruses, mister. We’re fine.”

They could still hear Sean laughing as they went out the back door.

“It’s a chilly day, but we have sunshine. And just soyou know, Uncle John said he’d come by later today and dowse for water around the place you pick so you’ll know where to set the house,” Shirley said, and then climbed into the back seat beside the basket.

Brendan winked at Harley as they got into the ATV. One of her concerns was already being dealt with.

“Buckle up, Sunshine. We aren’t going to go fast. We’re taking the scenic route. Mom, is it okay if we look on the east side of the property, like behind the tree line on the blacktop, somewhere where’s there’s already cleared land? We like the idea of having the house out of sight of traffic, like yours is.”

“Of course, it’s okay. And like everyone else up here, you can drive all the way up and over the peak, and all you’ll see are mailboxes and roads leading up into the trees. No houses are visible from their roads, and those roads were first cleared when most of the trees standing now were only saplings. The old growth are the giants that were here before white men ever set foot on this land. It’s good you don’t want to cut any of them down, because the root systems are myriad beneath the surface and hundreds of years old. You couldn’t dig deep enough in this forest to even set a fence post.”

They took off through the yard, past the old chicken house and barn, and then took a hard right just before they reached the pond and began to drive east, following the edge of the clearing.

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