Page 88 of My Heart Will Find You

Like Freddy does.Etta was smiling. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes. Are you planning to stay here in Kansas and get your own place?”

She started to reply, but Zack turned down a gravel road. “Are we near Garrett?”

“Yes.”

Minutes later, he stopped the car and they got out. As the ghost town book said, there was nothing left. It was just flat, wind-whipped grassland.

Zack took out the camera and began snapping while Etta walked around. It was difficult to imagine what had once been there. Unlike Max, she didn’t have a built-in gyroscope in her mind, so she couldn’t orient herself. She looked for where the train rails had been, but Henry had told her that used train tracks were dug up and hauled away to be laid elsewhere. The buildings had all been thrown up quickly, so there were no remnants of stone foundations.

There seemed to be a bit of a dip in the ground, so maybe it was where the main road through town had been. If so, was the Red Dog here? Was the Garrett Emporium, where she’d bought the paint set for Nellie, over there? Was the church at the end?

“You look like you’re trying to find something,” Zack said.

“Just imagining what it was probably like. It’s hard to believe there isn’t anything left.”

“I bet if we used a metal detector we could find things. Coins and lost watches and wagon parts and—Are you all right? Maybe this place is getting to you.”

“I’m fine,” Etta said. “I think that if we head that way we’ll find where the house was.”

Zack had a map in his back pocket. “We’ll have to go around. Will this be the river and the sod house?”

“No. They’re somewhere else, but if I can find the house I could ride to the homestead.”

“I’m not sure my car can go across the land.”

“No,” Etta said. “I mean I’d ride on a horse.” She knew Zack was staring at her, but she didn’t say any more as she went back to the car and got in.

He was excellent with direction, and he found where she thought the house had probably been. There was nothing left, just flat, grass-covered land.

“Not even any of Freddy’s plants are left,” she said softly.

“This is the woman taking care of Henry?”

“No. Not here, not now, but yes, it is her.” She was trying to get her good mood back, but she couldn’t. How could a town be totally wiped out? Stores, houses, even the railroad were completely gone. Erased. As if they’d never existed.

Zack turned to her. “I don’t have a horse with me, but if you point the way, I’ll try to find the old homestead. Sometimes those places have been preserved by a local historical society.”

“Maybe so.” There was no hope in her voice.

Zack took out the map and looked at it. “I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.”

“I brought food.”

“I’d like something cold to drink and hot to eat. How about if we look around the area to find something that’s open?”

Etta shrugged. It didn’t matter to her.

“Let’s see. The nearest town seems to be a place called Kecklin. It’s not much but—”

“What?”

“Food,” he said. “Lunch. We can—”

“No! The town. What’s the name?”

“Kecklin.”

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