Rural Arcadia
Chapter 3 The Dirty Work
The next day it was quite hot, and the visitors decided to stay indoors. Luke worked on his cousin's spreadsheet and Grace played with Diana's computer, with the latter's permission. Toward midday she saw Aunt Jean struggling with a heavy bag of seed outside, and went outside to help.
"Thanks, Grace," said Aunt Jean, mopping her forehead. "You're a thoughtful girl. Enjoying your vacation?"
Grace was not experienced at small talk, but managed. "Yeah. Diana's teaching me horseback riding."
"Too bad Luke's sister couldn't come, too. Joanie. I remember her from a visit years ago. Do you know her?"
"She's one of my closest girl friends." Actually her only girl friend, since Glynis scarcely counted, but Grace didn't want to admit that. "But she had that horrible episode with Lyme Disease last year, and didn't want to risk coming into contact with ticks again."
"I understand. Still, it's odd," mused Aunt Jean. "She gets bitten in the midst of a city, yet I work on a farm for years and stay perfectly healthy--"
Whereupon she fainted.
The place was in an uproar for several minutes as everybody does to and fro reacting to the crisis. At one point, Luke and Grace bumped into each other and quickly exchanged whispers.
"Do you think this is the mission? Helping out in the emergency?"
"What help are we? We don't know anything about illness."
"Dunno. Keep our eyes open, as Joan said."
Eventually everybody gathered at the car.
"I'll drive her to the hospital in Raleigh," said Uncle Jonathan. "Brian, you stay here--"
"I want to stick with Mom."
"All right." He apparently didn't find the point worth arguing about. "Diana, I'll leave you in charge, then. You know where all the keys are."
Diana touched Aunt Jean on the forehead, maybe checking her temperature. "Right."
"We'll help run the place," said Luke.
Finally the car pulled out of the farmyard and started the long drive to the city. Diana looked around. "Now, I know we're upset about Jean, but chores have to be done. It's not like putting off dusting for a while; animals gotta eat on schedule."
"What can we do?" asked Grace.
Diana grinned.
"I knew that I'd end up doing this sooner or later," said Grace, staring with disgust at the contents of her shovel.
"Yeah, well, with all three of us working at it, we can get this over with in a hurry," muttered Luke, looking rather sick.
"Ha! I thought you were the one who had developed a philosophy about the relativity of manure," teased Grace.
"For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently," chanted Diana. As they stared at her, she added, "Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. I remembered the line from the movie, back in the early nineties."
"Before our time," said Grace. "But you're the real philosopher. Tell us why cleaning up after horses is better than cleaning up after cars." She remembered the amusing argument in their room, her first day here, and wondered if Diana would rise to the occasion again.
"People don't really 'clean up' after their cars. They just let the wastes dissipate into the atmosphere, where they accumulate as air pollution. And they do nothing in the atmosphere but accumulate. And because it's invisible, and has a neutral name like 'exhaust', people don't think much of it. As for dung; well, it's unpleasant to work with, but at least you can collect it and use it as fertilizer. People have been doing that for centuries without wrecking the ecology."
Luke, had not experienced Diana's odd style of argumentation personally before, stopped and thought about it.
"Interesting. Open and closed cycles. Instability and stability. We think of modern transportation as something that could last forever, but --"
"Shovel, dude! Or this chore will last forever!"
They were about done when Diana's cell phone rang and she fished it out of her overalls. It was an odd contrast seeing her hold a manure shovel in one hand and a dainty cell in the other. "Hello -- yes -- yes -- that's wonderful -- yes, I'll tell them." She clicked it off. "Jean will be all right. Dehydration, probably from working too long in the sun. They got her fluids balanced, and they want to observe her overnight."
"It's too bad that they had to drive such a long way to get a simple diagnosis." Luke said.
"It's the price of living a distance from a population center," observed Diana. "What else can we do?"
"Maybe some day we'll have a machine that can diagnose health problems on the spot."
"Science fiction," scoffed Grace.
"Lots of science fact began as science fiction."
Eventually they got the mess where it needed to go, and exited the stables with relief.
"Now we got a problem," remarked Diana. "Three of us, but only two showers."
"You take one," said Luke. "Grace and I can share the other ones."
"In your dreams, dude."
"Actually, it does sometimes in my dreams. But we can play Rock/Paper/Scissors to see who gets in first."
Grace was tempted to ask whatever happened to "ladies first", but didn't want to put herself in the position of the "lady". Instead they tried the game. Although Luke usually lost to Joan, he triumphed over Grace.
"OK. I'll get on the computer while I'm waiting, and Email Joan. She can't smell me all the way to Arcadia."
As it turned out, there was a long Email from Joan to read first, and it required reading between the lines. The trio had agreed some time ago never to make direct reference to their secret, in case some outsider got access to their Emails.
From: says you fell off a horse yesterday. Wish I were there --"
(very glad you weren't, Girardi. I'll kill Luke)
"--Nothing much happening in here in town. Haven't heard from You-Know-Who lately. Your parents seem to be doing OK, though of course they don't want to talk to me about it. We should just have faith--"
(she was referring to Grace's mother's alcohol problem. God had assured Grace that the worst was over, hence Joan's vague remark about faith)
"--Mom is thinking of entering an art contest at the end of the summer. Dad is still investigating the vandalism at the church and synagogue. I wish we could tell him our theory, but we've got no proof--".
It was more than a theory; a certain Ryan Hunter had boasted of his guilt to Joan. But she had no witnesses, and a reputation for odd whims. The trio thought that Grace and Luke had been brought into the secret precisely so that they could help Joan against Hunter, but apparently God was in no hurry, judging by their assignment here.
Grace finished reading and clicked Reply.
"We had some excitement today. Aunt Jean got sick and they took her to a hospital; they say she'll be all right. Luke and I stayed behind to help with chores--"
She was not going to admit to cleaning the stables.
"--We were some help, but no big --"
Translation: Grace didn't think it fulfilled their mission in coming down to North Carolina. The purpose of the mission was still a mystery.
(TO BE CONTINUED)