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“That’s right,” Jericho confirmed.
Sarah Beth stared at her dumbfounded mother. “I tried to tell you, but you never listen to me.”
“We’ll explain everything later,” Theta said to Mrs. Olson.
Finished with her ministrations, Mrs. Olson stood, cradling the bowl under her arm. “We were about to sit for supper. Pump’s out in the yard if you care to wash up first.”
Sam didn’t want to leave Evie’s side. “Somebody should stay with her.”
“You gotta eat, Sam,” Theta said, but Sam didn’t move.
“We can take turns,” Jericho said, squeezing Sam’s shoulder.
In the little yard next to the house, Jericho pumped the red handle. Ice-cold water trickled over Ling’s dusty hands.
“Reminds me of home.” Jericho surveyed the vast expanse of half-tended farmland. It was planting time. If things weren’t set right, the Olsons would lose their farm pretty quickly, he knew.
Theta and Ling helped Mrs. Olson set the dining room table. Sarah Beth sat in a chair, staring out the window. She didn’t offer to help, and Mrs. Olson didn’t fuss at her for it, Ling noticed. Ling’s own mother would never tolerate that. Everybody had to pitch in at the restaurant. Ling wondered what damage the Diviners serum might’ve caused to the girl. She seemed a bit frail and childlike.
They gathered around the table, and Mrs. Olson, a raw-boned woman with freckled cheeks and eyes the blue of sun-faded cornflowers, had them bow their heads and say grace before serving up a supper of corn fritters along with heaping bowls of sauerkraut and apple butter. The Diviners ate hungrily. Isaiah felt Memphis’s knee pressing against his own under the table, and he knew it meant to be careful, to watch and not talk too much. It got Isaiah’s back up some. He was not a baby. Across the table, Sarah Beth dug into her applesauce. She gave Isaiah a furtive smile, which put him a little more at e
ase, like their friendship was a room, already prepared, and he could step right into it. The other Diviners told the Olsons about Isaiah’s visions of Sarah Beth and about the town of Gideon and what had happened there with the dead and the King of Crows and Evie.
“I tried to warn you not to go. Didn’t I try, Isaiah?” Sarah Beth said.
Isaiah wanted to answer, but he was mindful of Memphis’s knee warning, so he just nodded.
“All this time Sarah Beth’s been telling us these stories, well, we just assumed that’s all they were—stories. Her imagination run wild. She has such a wonderful imagination,” Mrs. Olson said, stroking her daughter’s hair. “But you’re telling us they’re true?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jericho said.
“Sarah Beth and me, we can see the future some. That’s how I knew you were here. She told me to come,” Isaiah said.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Isaiah,” Memphis said.
Isaiah chewed the bite in his mouth and glowered at his brother. Here he’d been gone for weeks, surviving without him, and now Memphis was treating him like a little kid again.
“We wanna stop him. But we have to get our friend well first,” Theta said.
“You can stay here till she’s better. Can’t they, Papa?” Sarah Beth said.
Mrs. Olson cast a worried glance at her husband, who took his time considering. “The papers say you’re wanted for treason. We’re a law-abiding family. Never courted any trouble. Tell me why I shouldn’t turn you in and collect the reward money?”
“Jim…” Mrs. Olson said with a note of soft pleading.
“I want to hear it from them,” the farmer said.
“You can do that, sir,” Jericho said. “But I suspect you believe what we’re telling you, or else you would’ve already placed that call.”
“Your daughter told you about the man in the hat, didn’t she? She’s been telling you her whole life,” Henry said. He thought of his own mother, ignored and institutionalized.
Mrs. Olson glanced furtively at her husband. Mr. Olson gave a terse nod.
“If we don’t put a stop to this, the world as we know it will end,” Henry said.
“How will you do that?” Mrs. Olson asked.
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Henry said.
