Inappropriate in a polygamous household was a totally different thing from inappropriate in a two-spouse home, but I nodded without comment and raised my arms. Occam slid his arms around my shoulders and under my knees. As he carted me to the bed, I caught a glimpse of my gobags on the table. I needed to restock them, but not now. I was asleep before I hit the pillow.
***
When I woke it was to the feel of footsteps on the parking area out front. Soulwood told me who it was, and I patted the bed beside me to wake Occam. But the sheets were cold except for three cats all snuggled in where his body had lain. Occam had left for his place or had been called into work early. I was betting on the latter. I rose up on my elbows. Where his head had lainwas a brand-new tablet to replace the one that had been killed from thedeath and decay–contaminated photo memory card. I nearly squealed with delight, grabbed it up, and rolled out of bed.
I heard the sound of a key turning in the lock and Mud shouted, “We’re home! Are you home?” Mud’s “we” included Mud, Cherry the springer, and Esther, who was waddling like she was gonna bust open at any moment, but she was humming a church song and smiling as if... as if she was happy. Which was really strange. I hadn’t seen Esther smile in ages.
“What are you grinning about?” I asked, walking barefoot into the main room.
Esther said, “I got me a check for twenty thousand dollars written on the church account. I also got the churchmen to agree to build me a house on the land you’un promised, labor free and clear.” She laughed and said, “Close your’un mouth afore flies fly in.”
“How did you do that?”
“I done thought about what you’un said and I used them words. I got a contract and everything. They’re starting the septic, the plumbing, and the well tomorrow, and the church is gonna store my furniture and woodstove until the house is built. I’m divorced. A free woman. And Jed has to pay me child support of two hunnert dollars a month.”
That was nothing in terms of the money she would need to support a child, but so far as I knew, the church had never demanded child support from a man. This was a first.
Mud, who was pulling off a lightweight jacket, said, “Sam said she was badass. That was his word.Badass. He said so when he picked me up at school and then brung us for shooting lessons.”
“Took us for shooting lessons,” I corrected, checking the time. Nearly five p.m. Late for a school night. “And that is not a good word to use for your sister.”
“Whatever. I’m a crack shot. Esther’s pretty good too.” Mud opened the fridge and got out some homemade jelly we had bought from Old Lady Stevens’ vegetable stand. All my life I had canned my own fruit and vegetables, but since joining PsyLED either there hadn’t been time or I’d been a tree and trees don’t can. Mud pulled a jar of Nicholson homemade peanutbutter from a tote and unwrapped a loaf of Mama’s fresh bread. Clearly Mama had loaded them down.
I returned to the subject of the check in Esther’s hand. She had dropped into a rocking chair and was waving the check around, laughing softly in victory. “Money, money, money, money. And no husband to take it away from me.” She looked at me, the glee sliding away from her eyes. “I got a favor to ask.” When I nodded far too cautiously, she said, “I want to talk about my life and my plans.” She stopped abruptly and breathed slowly, steadily.
I knew those signs. I might have been only twelve when I left Mama’s house, but I knew the signs of a woman in labor. And this was way too soon. “How far apart are they?”
“I’ve only had a few and Mama says they’re most likely Braxton Hicks, seeing as I’m not due yet.”
“Human gestation is forty weeks,” I said slowly. “You’re the first plant-woman to give birth so it might be shorter.” When my sister didn’t reply, I continued, still cautious. “Sister mine, it’ll take at least six weeks to build a house. You might have a baby by then.” And it might be a plant, but I didn’t say that. Churchwomen didn’t get ultrasounds or a doctor’s care unless there were problems. “You’ll need help with a baby. That’s what you want to talk about, isn’t it?”
“I asked Daddy to build my house fast. I want to give birth in my own home. Until then...” She took a breath and her tone changed, taking on a stronger timbre, a bargaining pitch, firm and persuasive, one I was familiar with from growing up in the church. I held in a smile. “Until then I want to buy that plot of land you mentioned and build a house on it. I plan to be back and forth from the Nicholsons’ and here if you’un’ll have me. I can look after Mindy and I’ll do my share of housecleaning and cooking and suchlike. Sam said he’d put my chicken coop here temporary like. I’ll take care of the hens and your’un—your—chicks ’cause I got me a way with ’em. I’ll contribute my own eggs to our living if you’ll have me.” She glanced at me to see if I was in agreement. I didn’t change my expression, waiting her out. “I promise not to be such a whiny-pants,” she said. “I promise to help and not complain. And I’ll find a way to pay rent.”
A smile of delight pulled at my mouth, but I held it. Ourbargain wasn’t done yet. “You’ll not pay me a penny for rent or for the land. It’s a gift. We’re family. But you can do laundry and cook. Your cooking is wonderful.”
“To die for,” Mud said.
“I ain’t never kilt nobody with my cooking. Mighta thought about it some with my hus—my ex-husband. But I never did it.” I chuckled and Esther shot her eyes to my face. “Is that a yes?”
“You can stay here until the baby is born,” I said, “or until your house is finished if that happens sooner and you need privacy.”
Esther frowned and pulled at the leaves trailing through her hairline, smoothing them in her fingers. “I don’t rightly know what privacy is. But I reckon I better get good at it.” She sounded pensive, uncertain. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I put a chicken on at Mama’s. It’s stewed and sitting on the front porch. Mindy, go get it and let’s us eat.”
Working together, a team for the very first time, we set the table. I knew it wouldn’t last, but while it did, I was more than content, and Soulwood warmed its way all through me, my land as happy as I was at so many plant-people in my house.
Dinner, eating and sharing our days, laughing at Cherry’s antics as she licked crumbs from the floor, was wonderful, just the three of us girls, seven counting the dog and the cats. I felt an unexpected and welcome sense of peace. It was family. I had always planned to save my sisters, to offer them a better way. I had done the right thing taking Esther in, getting custody of Mud, I knew that. But I also knew that my time with Occam would be different and I wondered how he’d feel about spending time here with three plant-women. And maybe a plant-baby. And I wondered how my sister would feel about having wereleopards wandering the grounds and hunting at the three days of the full moon.
A mental image leaped from the deeps of my brain. Occam in spotted wereleopard form, curled around a plant-baby, green with leaves. I couldn’t help the smile that softened me, from my heart out to my face.
This was an experiment. I hoped Occam and I would survive it. Did he like babies? Maybe our babies? Did he want one? More than one? Did I? If we managed to have babies would they be leopard plants? All these were questions I couldn’t answer.
***
I slept again until five a.m. and woke with that heart-dropping fear of falling in a dream. I got up to find Esther walking the floors in the dark, rubbing her back, breakfast laid out to cook. It was fast, oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon and dried cranberries. While I ate, I dressed, repacked my gobags, and made a trip to the garden. Apologizing, I left Esther my nasty dirty clothes to clean, the ones that still stank ofdeath and decayand that I had forgotten to wash. Without complaint, she threw herself into cleaning.
Someone must have picked up Occam, because my car was in my drive, so I loaded up my gobags and gear and a new plant and bag of soil. The sky was graying when I drove out of the drive and down the mountain.
I parked my car next to Occam’s in the parking lot, happy to see it there, and gathered my things, including the small purple cabbage I had dug up from the garden and potted to carry around. I wouldn’t be carting the vampire tree again. In hindsight it hadn’t been the smartest thing I could do, and I had begun to wonder if the Green Knight had influenced me to carry it around as a way to keep tabs on me. Was the tree that smart? This was a question and a worry to add to the worries about Esther and her future, both short term and long term, worries about Mud living with me, worries about whether I’d be a good mother figure, worries about money.
