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“Really clear night, as I recall.”
“Yes. Lots of stars.”
“A very… nice evening. Well, before we were chased by a murderous religious cult and nearly killed.”
Evie laughed and Jericho laughed and there they were again, all the things that kept them tethered still firmly between them. But perhaps the tethering had grown looser.
“If Sam’s right and there are all those other universes out there, perhaps in one, you and I have settled down with a pack of smart, unruly children,” Evie said after a moment.
Jericho only smiled. He looked out at the unbroken line of rural Nebraska. “This is the only universe I really know anything about, Evie. And you are marrying Sam. And I have a sweetheart named Lupe. And we have a mighty big fight ahead of us, something more important than this.” He took a deep breath. “You and I weren’t meant to be.”
“Except as friends?” Evie asked hopefully.
Jericho shook his head, gave a little laugh. And then he smiled at her. A real smile. He stuck out his hand. “Sure.”
Evie gave it a solid shake. It felt like a prelude to good-bye, somehow.
Like putting away old things to make room for the new.
While the others returned to the farmwork, Evie sat reading a dull article in the Saturday Evening Post while Mrs. Olson worked on a piece of embroidery. It was just the two of them in the parlor. Evie figured this was her best chance to ask Mrs. Olson more about Sarah Beth. “Mrs. Olson, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you about Project Buffalo.”
“No, that’s fine,” Mrs. Olson said. But Evie could tell by the way the woman straightened her spine and stared at her needlework that she did mind.
“It’s only that I saw Sarah Beth’s chart. It said they didn’t recommend proceeding. Do you know why?”
“I suppose you’d have to ask them,” Mrs. Olson said, a bit defensively, and pulled the needle through her sampler.
“I wish I could,” Evie said as kindly as possible.
Mrs. Olson kept at her embroidery. “At first, Sarah Beth’s visions weren’t all that peculiar,” she said a moment later. “She might know precisely when it was going to rain, or when someone would be coming for a visit. She said she heard spirit voices.”
Like she’d heard Isaiah, Evie thought. Perhaps Sarah Beth had been hearing other Diviners, much like Sam’s mother did.
“But then it all changed,” Mrs. Olson said.
“Changed how?”
“Sarah Beth told us she had an imaginary friend, a man in a stovepipe hat. That’s when she started having the upsetting visions.”
Evie tried to keep her voice calm. “Upsetting how?”
“We had a handyman named Jack. One day, Sarah Beth told Jack that he was going to die. A fall from a horse that would snap his neck. That’s what she said, ‘You’re going to snap your neck.’ Well, I made Sarah Beth apologize! But she insisted she’d seen it ‘in a dream.’ That’s what she called her visions. Three days later, a snake spooked the horse Jack was riding. The horse bolted. Jack fell off. He died of a broken neck. Well, after that, most of the farmhands left. Some because the farm was failing and the money was gone, others because they feared Sarah Beth. Then she started having more of her fits. It frightened us. We’re just ordinary people. We didn’t understand a lick of what she was saying, talking about soldiers being sucked up into the sky and a land of the dead. ‘The dead are coming.’ That’s what she’d say. Until a few weeks ago. Then she said, ‘The dead are here.’”
Sarah Beth Olson had been seeing glimpses of the future for a long time, but no one had been listening to her. Could she see what lay ahead for the Diviners?
“You love her very much, don’t you?” Evie said.
“A mother always loves her children,” Mrs. Olson replied.
Evie had heard her mother say the same thing, but it wasn’t true. Evie’s mother had loved James beyond imagining. He brought her joy. Her love for Evie was an obligation and an open wound, and Evie was the salt. But she believed that Mrs. Olson loved her daughter—and that she was frightened of her, too.
Mrs. Olson dropped her embroidery into her lap and turned to Evie. “Oh, please promise me you’ll look after my Sarah Beth. The doctor said a bad fit could kill her. She’s all we have.”
Evie held Mrs. Olson’s hands and looked into her eyes. “She’s one of us. I promise we’ll look after her, Mrs. Olson.”
“Thank you.” Mrs. Olson smiled like she had a naughty secret to share. “I don’t suppose I could interest you in a little more pie?”
Evie grinned. “You most certainly could.”
