“Too late.” I shot finger guns at her, trying to be as annoying as possible because she clearly deserved a little teasing too. “Your name is Clover, and now that you made me look this good, you are definitely my bud.”
Her lips remained flat while her hips led the way out of the salon, but I could see she was fighting back a smile.
I was definitely keeping the nickname, and more than likely getting her a T-shirt that said it, too.
seven
Clover
Afterafulldayof shopping with Beau, I drove my financed-up-to-my-neck electric car to pick up my sister from the neighbor’s. I let myself in the front door after Lori called me in, and I took one look at Poppy sitting at Lori’s picnic style kitchen table, and was instantly tired. “Ah man, Poppy, who gave you gum?” My eyes followed the pink string entangled in her hair. She didn’t look at me. It wasn’t defiance, though.
I didn’t ever remember a time when she had actually lookedatme.
“Spit it out.” I held my hand in front of her mouth, not remotely grossed out. Chewed gum didn’t register on the gross scale of things I’d had to do since learning to care for my autistic sister. She pushed her gum out with her tongue right into my palm, and I walked it over to the trashcan in the kitchen, before adding in my best cheerful voice, “So, guess what we get to do?”
No answer, but she heard me. I took the check I had written out to Lori, allocating the last of my savings to her for watching Poppy, and set it on the table. Obviously I thought Poppy was worth the expense, it’s just that I didn’t really have the money to spend. Now I was paid up for the next two weeks, and if everything went okay with Beau, I would get paid by him right when I needed it the most. I was focused on the positive as I grabbed her hand, and she followed me out the door.
“I found a building. It’s right down the street from my work and has a full kitchen and no stairs.” I explained as I led the way down Lori’s walkway. “I’ll have enough money after this month, and I’m going to make an offer.” I looked over at her, smiling and wanting so much for her facial expression to match mine, but her face remained indifferent.
We made it to my car, where she got in and buckled herself. I let myself in my car door, still chatting. “After we look at the building, remind me to stop and get peanut butter for your hair.” I paused, peering at her in my rearview mirror, imagining she would smile back at me. There was nothing but her spaced-out stare, but even that was beautiful. I always felt she understood me on some level, even if she didn’t show it. That is what I told myself anyway, when things got too overwhelming.
I started my car, putting my blinker on, and was waiting to merge into the rush hour traffic, when my phone rang. With one eye on the busy road, I picked up my phone and answered without checking the caller ID. “Hello.”
A voice I recognized greeted me. “Cloverbud.”
My eyes grew in alarm because there was only one reason he’d call me after work hours. I shut my blinker off and threw my car back in park, ready to give my full attention to this call. “Beau. What have you done?”
“Er, have you been watchin’ the news?”
“No, I haven’t.” Panic seeped into my voice, and I didn’t fight it. “What’s going on?”
“There was another well explosion just now, but thankfully, everyone is fine. Somehow some video leaked online. Now, there are reporters out in the field. They want to talk to me, but you said not to, so I’m sittin’ in my truck, trying to shoo them away. They sure don’t get the hint, though.”
Two wells in the space of a few days! What kind of insane world have I gotten myself sucked into?My head swelled as I forced a professional tone, “I’m glad everyone is safe.” I let out a sigh of relief nobody was hurt, and that Beau had called me. We were making progress with that, at least. “Text me your coordinates and I’ll be right there. In the meantime, tell me about this well.” I checked my rearview mirror, anxious about Poppy being in the car, but I gunned it anyway, pulling out into the heavy traffic. I was speeding, but I was an excellent driver. This incident was the exact thing Beau did not need right now.
“They won’t let you on the site, but if you text me when you get here, I’ll direct everyone down to meet ya.”
“I’ll figure it out. Just tell me what happened. If you did something wrong, I need time to process it.”
“We didn’t do anythin’ wrong. It was one of our wells, but the work had been outsourced to a new contractor. It wasn’t our work. However, I have to take responsibility for it.”
“Right. But what happened?”
“The landowner didn’t want the line trenched into the ground because he was afraid of contamination to his land, so he opted for an above-ground line. People think it’s the cleaner option, but you need a converter on it, and those are more dangerous. He wouldn’t listen to our warnin’, so we did what he wanted. Somethin’ must’ve sparked it. I have no idea what. I’m not a psychic like all these news people think I should be.”
“There’s nothing else?” I fished in an urgent voice. “You need to tell me everything, Beau, or this won’t work. It’ll come out eventually, and it’s better if we come out with the bad news first.
“That is all I know.”
I swerved hard, pulled onto the dirt road that led up to the pumping unit, but I quickly hit the emergency roadblock. “I see your guys. Everything is blocked off. Oh, wait a second. Did you say you are in your truck?”
There was a stony silence before he said, “I’m not driving a scooter to a well site, so you can get that out of your head.”
“We will talk more about this later,” I said in my best stern voice. “I’m here.” I threw my car into park as I grabbed my phone in one hand, and was about to charge out when I caught sight of Poppy in the backseat. Even though she was a full-grown adult, she usually needed some supervision or at least a distraction. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as another car parked next to me. It was Susie from channel 5 news! This was not good, and I was wasting time. I don’t have a choice.
I texted Beau: “Here. By roadblock. Direct press 2 me.”
I turned around and faced Poppy while clearing my throat, warming up my voice for the camera. “Sweetie, I have to go talk to some people. You stay in here, and sit nicely for me. I’ll lock the doors, and I promise you’ll be fine. I’ll be back so fast you won’t even notice.”
