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Telling his family where he was headed, he went with Amelia to the home. They had the power to make themselves come and go as they pleased, but he was thrilled when she suggested that they take his truck to the opening of the house. Like him, he thought that she was overwhelmed too.
He didn’t know what he had expected when she said they’d be working from a house that a grand witch owned. It was like a large hotel setting with the most beautiful gardens he’d ever seen. Not picking any of the flowers, he did stop at some of them to smell their strong scents before moving on. Even the trees, full of blooms and fruit, were beautifully maintained and healthy.
As with the witches in the household, plenty were working in the gardens as well. Some of them weren’t as young as others, but they all worked well together. He asked her if there was any kind of prison, not having any idea where that thought had come from.
“No. I remember there might have been one centuries ago, but it has long since been abandoned. Even with taking their craft from them when they’d be put behind bars, most of them would be able to escape. Or harm those that were caring for them. After a time of losing more than we were imprisoning, mom did away with it and dealt with their crimes in a quicker way.” He asked her if that meant death. “It does. I think because of that, there was less crime. If you have it in your head when you start some shit that if you’re caught, you’re most assuredly going to die, it keeps most people on the good side of the rules. Not that we don’t get an occasional bad witch, but we deal with them the same way.”
He was shown around the house by one of the witches. Amelia had to take care of some personal business before she could sit down and talk to him. Frazier was fine with that. Walking about her ancestral home was as much fun as he’d had in a while. Then he came across one of his pieces of art. Amelia joined him near the work just as he was looking for the year on the painting.
“Mom loved to collect art made with natural things. I hadn’t any idea this was yours until just now. She was right in saying that you were brilliant. The way you’ve used what you found in the world to create such a piece makes me think she was also right that you’re as one with nature as I am. I pull from the elements as I’m sure you will be able to do now too.” He said he used sticks he found in the woods to paint with. And the colors from other things like flowers, moss, and leaves when he needed a certain color. “You’ll have to set you up a studio here too. I’m sure you can find yourself plenty of colors here that you might not have on the mountain where you lived.”
Frazier was glad that he was shown a bedroom when supper was over for the two of them. He was positive that his head hadn’t hit the pillow before he was out. Exhaustion had never taken him under so quickly before in his life.
Chapter 2
“There are other things that have come about that I think need to be looked into. Most of them have to do with the crowding on the mountain pathways and people getting off the actual paths to wander off. I’ve seen it happen several times since I’ve been here this week. Or worse yet, fall and hurt themselves. You know as well as I do that it will cause more erosion than you have right now of the mountainsides.” Frazier said that he did understand that but wasn’t sure that the funding was there to make sure there were more rangers on the paths. “Then you’ll have to get more volunteers to come in and work the paths. There isn’t any way that this is going to resolve itself. Someone is going to get seriously hurt. Then where will you be?”
Not even bothering answering the question, he asked him how he was working on getting volunteers to work when they were short-staffed already. Kendrick James had been in his office all morning going over the records he’d gathered. Since his brothers were out and about in the field, it had left him in the office. And the only one that could go over the paperwork with him.
“Well, you’ll just have to work on that, won’t you.” He glared at him when Frazier laughed. “What do you think is so funny, Ranger Cross? The fact that you don’t think this is a big deal or that I’m assigning you to look for volunteers? We’ll need you to recruit about two hundred so that we’ll be able to narrow it down to the fifty or so that we need. I’ve also made up a list of requirements for them to work in the park.”
“Have you ever looked at an application for volunteers?” Kendrick asked him why he’d bother with that. “Because it might show you why we don’t get hundreds of volunteers coming in daily for a job. One that I might point out to you doesn’t offer any kinds of perks like paid vacation time nor retirement money. Coming here to volunteer will get you college credits if you wish to have them, but there isn’t any kind of compensation for those who come in on their own time to work. The people will need to be able to hike and carry tools when necessary, which means that they’ll be asked to perform strenuous and often time difficult manual labor. Lifting heavy objects is just one of the many duties they might have to perform. Then there is knowing how to use hand tools—rakes, shovels, picks and loopers. Then they have to figure out from about ten pages of jobs they might think they could work at. Also, you might not realize this, but there is no housing for the volunteers that come here to donate their time. How do you think that’s going to work out for them?”
“I don’t care how you get it done. I just want you to get the people in here.” Frazier stood up when Amelia came into the room. Smiling at her, she looked at Kendrick and glared. “Who are you that would be interrupting an important meeting between Ranger Cross and I?”
“This is my future wife, Mr. James, and I would wish that you’d not speak to her in that tone.” Kendrick looked at him, then back at Amelia. “He wants me to work to get several hundred volunteers in here to help out with the path erosion issue we have going on. I was just telling him I didn’t think that was going to work out so well for him.”
“What he’s not telling you is that I’m demanding he gets it done. Or I’ll have to find someone that will.” Amelia asked Kendrick if that usually worked for him, threatening government employees. “I’m not threatening him. Tell her that I’m not threatening you, Cross.”
“He’s threatening me with something. While he wasn’t clear on what he was going to do about getting someone else to do what he wants, it did sound to me like he was making a threat.” Kendrick started sputtering around about how he’d taken it the wrong way. “Mr. James, can you tell me who it is that sent you here today? I know for a fact that you don’t work for the government. Nor do you work for this park. I know that you think you have some kind of authority over what happens here because you’re under the illusion that your taxes pay for this park. They don’t. This is completely covered by donations that have been around since before you or I were born.”
“You’ve got that wrong. The money that I pay in taxes comes here, and that’s what pays your wages, young man.” Frazier simply reached into his drawer and pulled out the book that told how the park had come to be and how it was maintained through donations from large donors. He handed it to him. “Yes, I have this same booklet in my hotel room. It’s all wrong. I asked my accountant, and he told me my taxes are used to pay for the roads. This place has roads, doesn’t it? Well, that’s what I’m paying for. No one can get to the park if I don’t pay my taxes. So this is what is going to happen, Ranger Cross. You’re going to listen to me and anyone else that comes in this office with ideas on how to keep this place in good working order.”
“And we are.” Opening the door to his office, Frazier smiled at Mr. James. “I’ve listened to you, sir, and while I appreciate your input, it’s not up to me or you on what is done to do the things you’ve suggested. I would, however, suggest that you get with the congressman in your state to have him look into things for you. And see how you can make a difference if that’s what your plan was when coming here.”
“It takes all kinds of red tape to be able to see him. And it’s difficult. So I thought that I’d go right to the source in this and see someone in charge.” Frazier told him that he wasn’t in charge of the park. “But you’re here, running things, aren’t you? That’s the person that I need to speak to. Who’s in charge of this place? I want to speak to them.”
“The park is federally owned and managed by the National Park Service. The running of this park is put into their annual budget each year. As for who is in charge of that, you’ll have to figure that out on your own.” Frazier pointed to the door. “I’m sorry, Mr. James, but I have a lot of things to do today, and I think we’re finished here. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in the park.” After he was gone, still talking about getting more people working here, Frazier closed the door and sat at his desk.
“Do you get many people like him in here?” Frazier told Amelia that they did, but it was his first one. “I bet there are a great many people that think that they have the best idea on how this park needs to be run. This is a great big place. And running it must be a nightmare.”
“Not really. We keep on top of things as best we can. Work through the list of things that need to be done. Hopefully, we don’t have any terrible weather or a fire.” He grinned at her. “I’m assuming that you got all your work finished for the day.”
“No. I got a start on it, but I had a lot of calls coming in about my mom being gone. People trying to figure out what had happened to her. One of the witches asked me if she could take over my mother’s job ‘to run it correctly.’ I just hung up on her and went on with my work. Mom must have known that she was going to be dying because she left me this list of shit that I have to get done right away.” She handed him the list. “Some of the things on there have to do with you. She said that you need to be put on my accounts. I had to look that one up and figure it out. I thought she meant like bank accounts, but it’s on my witchery account too. I have no idea why you’d need to be on that, but you are now. As well as my banking information.”
“What is a witchery account?” She told him. “I had no idea that you might put magic aside to give to others in need. Is this for younger witches or just anyone who might need a boost to their lives?”
“Both. It’s money that is used to help a family that has lost their parents. A student might need some extra cash to buy some expensive books. They might not be witches, but they’re related to or good friends to one.” He told her that his family did that as well. “Your grandda told me. He said the Cross family has been helping out around the area since before he’d been born. I think that’s nice of you guys.”
“It wouldn’t always be money; you understand that, don’t you?” Amelia told him that Grandda had explained that most of the time, it wasn’t cash. “No. It might be some wood that they need to warm up their home. A side of meat to help fill some bellies. Grannie would be out in the garden with a couple of young kids, filling up their baskets along with telling them some story about how she just had too much to handle this year. That works better, she told me once, on children than adults.” They both laughed.
“My mom did that too, but of course, it was all magical. She’d hear about some husband that was in the hospital, and the family needed a ride to get to see him and back home. Other times they’d win some kind of grocery lottery that would feed them for a few weeks. Stuff like that. She would even send a couple of witches to a house to ‘fix’ up their washer or dryer if it wasn’t working.” Frazier thought all of those were good causes and told her that. “Yes, she was very big on keeping those around her happy. She told me that if you could make one person happy in a day, you were doing a great job. I’m lucky if I can make one happy a year. And usually, that’s by me going in the opposite direction that they’re in.”
“Are you going to keep up with those things she did?” Amelia said that she was going to try, but she didn’t like people all that much. “You’ve not met my sister-in-law Sunny yet. She has some anger issues with people. Calls the adults clumps and the children clump-its. She keeps my brother Dexter on his toes most of the time.”
“Do you think that I will as well? You, not your brother Dexter.” Frazier asked her if she wanted to keep him on his toes. “That’s the stupidest answer to a question I’ve ever heard. Why do men always sound like when you ask them a question, it’s part of a conspiracy or something. That it’s going to trap them into some kind of commitment.”
“Are you going to be this combative all the time? If so, I might need to wear body armor or something.” She told him she was sorry. “It’s all right. Just tell me what has you up in arms over a question.”
