The Mirror Page 14

  In no great hurry, Hutch walked to the door and opened it. His eyes narrowed like Lon’s when May Bell emerged with another load of clothes and dumped them over the railing.

  “May Bell!” Hutch Maddon roared into the wind. “Get your ass out of there.”

  Shay giggled at that and horrified Mr. Binder.

  May Bell looked across at them as if she might have heard but dived back through her door.

  “Damn that woman,” Hutch muttered and raced across the street.

  “Mr. Binder, can’t you sound the alarm or something?”

  “No alarm. No one to alarm either. All down in Boulder.”

  “Shouldn’t we warn the people in the saloon?”

  “Closed. Nobody there. All at court.” He seemed mesmerized by the flames beginning to lick through the roof.

  Hutch dragged a struggling May Bell down the stairs while trying to ward off her blows with the metal strongbox under his other arm.

  “You know” – Shay felt somewhat mesmerized herself – “if that wasn’t real fire, this would be hysterical.”

  “She does look hysterical,” Mr. Binder answered.

  “But what do we do?”

  “Buckets.”

  “You can’t fight that with buckets.”

  Shay groaned as Lon Maddon passed her the three hundred millionth bucket of water and her arm muscles screamed an answer as she handed it on to May Bell.

  Brandy’s skirts and coat were soaked and the wind blew fiercely but Shay wasn’t cold. The town was burning and it made the air nice and warm.

  “What were you doing, May Bell,” Lon said across her, “smoking again?”

  “Shut your mouth,” May Bell snapped back, tears streaking the smut on her face. “My lovely place …”

  May Bell’s lovely place and the saloon that had been beneath it were hot rubble. So was the building beside it. The bucket brigade was working on the next one. These buildings all backed onto the creek and someone dipped the buckets into it and then passed them up the line where the person at the end dumped what water made the trip into the fire. Another line faced them, swinging the empty buckets back to the creek.

  Two more brigades worked farther down trying to soak buildings in the fire’s path. The Maddon twins, Mr. Binder and four or five others were the only men to be seen. But all the women and children in town had come running. Thora K. and her temperance group made up one whole brigade downstream. During an occasional lull in the roar of fire and wind, and the crashing of beams and rafters, Shay could hear them singing. Probably because the saloon was no more.

  Shay kept thinking of Caribou’s main street. “This is hopeless. We aren’t doing any good. Isn’t there any way to call for help?”

  “Sure is.” Lon grinned. “We got one telephone line to Boulder.”

  “Where?”

  “In the saloon.” He laughed so hard he spilled water down her front.

  The smoke made it seem like dusk. Weather-dried wooden buildings fell like cards before the fire. Red flame leaped into the sky. People shouted and coughed. At the head of the line Hutch Maddon cursed as he heaved a little water on a lot of fire.

  Suddenly Hutch shouted, trying to push back the line. Then he turned and ran as the building they’d been “watering” collapsed. He grabbed Shay with one arm and May Bell with the other, pulling them toward the creek.

  When the wind cleared dust and smoke they saw the fire had crossed Main Street. Mr. Binder’s store was in flames. Lon had to hold onto him to keep him from crossing still-burning rubble to reach it.

  “Poor Mr. Binder.” Shay turned to find Hutchison Maddon, his arm still encircling her waist, staring down at her in that strange consuming way.

  “No,” she said stupidly and pushed away from him.

  It took another hour for the wind-driven fire to eat Main Street. The gusts died before the devastation reached the homes at the end. But most of the business buildings were gone.

  Shay and Thora K. trudged up the hill, too exhausted to speak. When they reached the cabin they sat at the table and sighed. Shay wiped a tear from Brandy’s cheek and wondered if her eyes would ever stop smarting.

  They were still there when Corbin came home. “What’s for supper?”

  When his eyes adjusted to the dim light he took a second look at them. “What happened? Brandy, did you have trouble with the stove again?”

  “No, dumb-dumb, the town burned down. And you can get the dinner.”

  “Dumb-dumb?” He glanced at his mother as if for clarification. But she just coughed and hooked a thumb in the direction of the front door.

  When he returned from the porch his voice shook. “Why didn’t someone come and get Tim and me?”

  “Us was too busy fightin’ the fire, ’ee jackass. And all they men down in court fiddling like Nero whilst the town did burn and ’ee off to yer uld ’ole in the ground.” Thora K. banged a fist on the table. “Proper gate buffleheads, the lot of ’ee. Uld ’unmen and children singeing their eyebrows off –”

  “But we didn’t know –”

  “Poke up the stove, you.”

  Corbin opened a can of beans, made coffee and sliced bread, turning to look at them as if he couldn’t believe two women would sit there and let him get the dinner.

  Shay ate hungrily even though everything tasted like smoke. Then they ordered Corbin to carry in water so they could wash.

  Someone came to fetch him to help soak the still-smoldering ruins so a new blaze wouldn’t start in the night. Shay and Thora K. sat by the open oven brushing their hair dry.

  “Well, it do seem to me” – Thora K. cleared her throat and looked at the ceiling – “yer uld mirror didn’t tell ’ee about the fire now, did it?”

  “No, it didn’t.” Shay sighed and then began to laugh – from reaction and the pleasure of being clean, fed and safe – from the joy she found in the strange bond she was forming with this funny Cornish woman.

  Thora K. chuckled and poked an elbow into Brandy’s ribs. “Did ’ee see the look on Liddy Tyler’s face when ’er hair caught aflame and Mr. Binder did dunk ’er head in the creek?”

  They were still laughing and swapping experiences when Dr. Seaton stopped by to ask if they had any burns or injuries. “I was just going the round of the houses to be sure,” he said uncomfortably.

  “And where were you when Rome burned, good doctor?” Shay winked at Thora K.

  “Ahhh … I was down in Boulder.” He shifted to the other foot and scratched a grizzled chin. “An important court case. I had to be there. I was an election official, you know, and –”

  “Aye and leavin’ us ’unmen with the likes of they Maddon boys fer protection. Shame on ’ee.” But she poured him a cup of tea.

  “The Maddons are liable to be among the few men who can hold up their heads around here for a long time, I can see.” He told them the twins had returned the day before. “And the first thing they did was buy the Tandy place. As wild as they were I’d have said neither would ever be worth a plugged nickel. But they say they’re going to raise hay and horses. Maybe they’re settling down.”

  “And where’d them be gettin’ the money ter buy a ranch?”

  “I know their mother left them some. Lon went through his like he goes through life, all a-busting. But I’ve heard Hutch kept his and’s been adding to it. He’s a strange boy, savors things,” Doc Seaton said thoughtfully. “I have the feeling he gets more out of each day than the rest of us put together.”

  “What’ll them do with a ranch if Tom ’Orn do come back?”

  “Let’s hope he doesn’t.” He shivered. “For all our sakes. I did hear that Lon gambled his brother’s nest egg into a tidy sum.”

  “Ahhh, the wages of a sinful ’unman increased by Satan’s own cards. That do be twice evil gain.”

  “Oh, you’re too hard on them, Thora K.” The doctor slipped into his coat. “They were never mean like their father, just full of the devil.”

  Shay stepped
out onto the porch with him to speak privately. She asked about contraception and then wished she hadn’t as the shock registered on his face.

  “The only safe thing I can tell you is to abstain … but why … why would a healthy young woman want to avoid having a child? Motherhood is the most precious state you can obtain this side of heaven.”

  “Doctor, I just don’t want to get pregnant right now, okay?”

  “When is not for you to decide, Brandy. It’s the Lord’s decision.” He patted her hand. “Now go in before you catch cold, and trust in the Lord.”

  The sound of hammering rose from the valley. The men of Nederland seemed in a fever to rebuild Main Street and probably their respect in the eyes of their women. Even Corbin shirked the Brandy Wine to help.

  Shay and Thora K. stood on the porch and watched as he came up the hill for supper one evening. A building stood finished and Thora K. pointed it out to him. “Wot be the one ’ee got up already?”

  “The new saloon.” He ducked quickly into the cabin.

  “Saloon, ’ee says! Mr. Binder be selling food out of ’is ’ouse and trying to store it in a barn and the first thing built’s a saloon. And another storm coming anytime.”

  But the weather held through February and the building went on magically.

  “Mrs. Tyler do say they two ranches on Sulfide Flats ’ave sold to Mr. McLeod fer the reservoir.” Thora K. had just returned from a temperance meeting. “Wot do yer uld mirror say ter that, you?”

  “I don’t know,” Shay snapped. She was getting so impatient with the wedding mirror she could barely control her emotions. It had made the switch twice – it could do it again. Why wouldn’t it?

  “If this Rachael ’ee say is yer mother – if ’er name edden Strock then wot be it?”

  “Garrett.” Shay regretted having confided in the Cornish woman, especially when Thora K. was in one of her cranky moods.

  “That be ’er married name, according to yer fine stories. Wot be she named afore her was married then?”

  “Thora K., will you leave it be?”

  “No.” She folded her arms and pursed her lips. “’Ee tell me, you, or I’ll scat ’ee across the chacks.”

  Shay’d been about to make up a name, any name, but in her present mood and with her friend threatening her like that she spat out, “Maddon. It’s Maddon. Now are you happy?”

  Angry and ashamed of herself, Shay grabbed Brandy’s coat and stalked out the door rather than face Thora K.’s expression. Damn, Shay, you know it was your own fault for telling her so much. She’s no dummy. That question was bound to come.

  But I had to talk to someone. I’m going crazy with worry.

  The ground trembled beneath her feet and she heard the familiar muffled rumbling. It was getting late in the day and the charges had been set and exploded in the mines so it would be safe for the miners to go in the next day. Corbin would be coming home soon.

  But she walked on until she came to Samuel’s cabin and was surprised to see the boards off the windows and smoke coming from the chimney.

  She was even more surprised when May Bell stepped out to dump a pan of water.

  “Hi. I thought you’d moved to Boulder.”

  “Samuel said I could live here till I found a better place,” she answered defiantly. “And I got it in writing.” May Bell had added weight and chipped a corner off a front tooth. Her fancy gown needed pressing.

  “Listen, I don’t care. I’m glad you’re back. In fact, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.”

  “Now I know you’re crazy. Someone might see you.”

  “Not if we go inside.”

  “Well … all right.” She held the door for Shay. “Corbin won’t like this. How come you never told anybody about how the fire started?”

  Rags stuffed around a stovepipe where it went through the saloon’s outside wall had been blamed for the fire.

  “I wondered why Hutch Maddon or Mr. Binder didn’t.”

  “Hutch is a friend of mine.” A ladylike blush crept up May Bell’s exposed neck. “I don’t think Binder figured it out.”

  “Maybe it’ll teach the town a lesson and they’ll build a water system.”

  “They can’t. Emptied the town coffers to pay the judge in Boulder for that court case.” May Bell grinned and turned to the cookstove. “Want some coffee?”

  “Please.” Shay sat on a chair with an elaborate needlepoint cushion and wondered if Cara Williams was turning over in her grave.

  When May Bell handed her a cup and sat down with her own, Shay launched into her problem and finished up with, “You see I don’t want to get pregnant and Dr. Seaton would only say to trust in the Lord.”

  May Bell’s mouth hung open, her cup suspended halfway between it and her lap.

  “Nuts, May Bell. You gals must do something with all your … I mean … uh … you know … exposure. You haven’t had any babies, have you?”

  “I had two once. Year apart.” She lowered her cup, her coffee still untasted.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Did they … die?”

  “Far as I know they’re still in Iowa. I was just a kid and my father made me marry this old man. I didn’t like the life or my husband and I ran away.” She was rather plain without makeup. “I don’t know why I’m telling you. I guess it’s your big dumb eyes. You look so innocent and then you come in here and talk like this.”

  “Can you please help me?” Careful, Shay, you can shock even a whore. “Remember I didn’t tell on you about the fire.”

  May Bell gulped a slug of coffee. “When I started I used a penny. I don’t seem to need anything now. Some of the girls used different douches but I think a copper penny is the best. You have to get ahold of one of the old ones. They’re bigger.”

  “A copper penny … how … you mean like a diaphragm?”

  “Huh?”

  Shay explained the insertion principle of a diaphragm and May Bell nodded. It was a little hard to believe, but some of the pennies were larger now than they’d be in the future. In fact Shay had one in her purse minted in the 1850’s. It was slightly bigger than a quarter. “Can I ask you one more thing?”

  “I just wish you’d go.”

  “May Bell, do prostitutes feel anything? I mean … is it all right if they enjoy sex? You know, have an orgasm?”

  “What’s an organism?”

  “You see, Corbin thinks only women like you are supposed to climax.”

  “You sure talk funny.”

  “Look, what’s the big secret? We’re two women alone, no one to hear us. I’ve never had the chance to talk to a … to someone like you. And …”

  Shay watched the coffee cup slide off Brandy’s lap to the floor. She had a horrid weak feeling as she slithered off the chair to join it …

  … the picture that flashed across the darkness of her mind swayed and warped as if distorted in an amusement-park mirror … a cat arched, its tail swollen with alarm … Shay Garrett’s head flopped about on a pillow streaked with pale Maddon hair, her face almost convex-looking, the nose and gaping mouth enlarged as it would be in a camera’s eye when brought up too close or at the wrong angle. The head rose from the pillow, the muscles of the neck and jaw rigid with a silent scream and a bloodied hand reared up in front of it …

  Short chopping slaps across Brandy’s cheeks.

  “Brandy Strock, don’t you get sick here. How would I explain it?”

  “Stop hitting me.” Shay saw the woman through tears stung loose by the slapping.

  “You sure it ain’t too late? For the penny I mean?”

  “It’s not that.” Brandy must have looked in the mirror or something. But just what was going on with my body? It had looked as if someone was trying to murder it.

  Shay was still shaky when May Bell helped her back up the road.

  “This is as far as I’d better go. Someone might see us.”

  “Thanks for everything.”

  “Uh … about what you were asking.
Unless its’s somebody … in particular … we just pretend.” May Bell poked a pointed toe into the snow and stared at it. “Otherwise it’d take too long.”

  “But why aren’t other women supposed to have fun?”

  “I think it has something to do with religion. I expect a lot of them do and keep it secret. As for the rest” – May Bell looked up with a shy grin – “if you ask me, that’s why there’s so many megrims and hysterics around.”

  Corbin still wasn’t home when Shay reached the cabin. The table was set for four so Tim must have been invited to supper.

  Thora K. stood at the stove, her back eloquently stiff. The warm cabin smelled of fried hogspudding, cornbread and coffee.

  Two wooden rocking chairs stood in the corner where the wedding mirror had been. “Where’s the mirror?”

  “No room fer it now. Mr. Binder did come with yer chairs whilst ’ee be out.”

  “Did you put it in the loft?”

  “Corbin and Tim did carry it off.” Thora K. turned, a long-handled fork in her hand, wispy hair escaping the knot on top of her head. “It be gone, you. Don’t ’ee bother to look for it.”

  “Gone? What do you mean?”

  Thora K. brought the cornbread to the table and cut it while she explained that Sophie had written to Corbin. She was worried because Brandy hadn’t answered her letters and warned him to get rid of the mirror if his wife’s behavior appeared strange. For some reason the mirror seemed to upset Brandy and perhaps she’d improve if it were gone. “And I say ’ee be acting strange. Maddon indeed.”

  “It’s mine. You don’t have the right …” Shay felt betrayed and panicky.

  At times she was oddly at peace here. Little news of the outside world reached her, and what did seemed remote. But how long could she survive in this tiny, restricted life? How soon would her old nemesis, boredom, make it unbearable? She remembered the vision of her own screaming body threatened by a bloodstained hand. The body of Shay Garrett could be dead.

  Shay lowered Brandy’s body to a bench and looked around the cabin with new eyes. What if I really have to stay here?

  The snows of spring were enormous. The sky just kept dumping it.

  Shay made cushions for the rocking chairs, read aloud to Thora K., craved fresh fruit and vegetables, and retreated to a numb, unthinking state. No one would tell her where the mirror was and she had no idea where to look.