Chapter Ten #2
“Growing up,” Daniel repeated.
“They do that,” Grace said, patting her stomach.
Daniel felt a twinge of envy. Watching Grace and Nick prepare for Lily had made him aware that he would probably never have any children of his own.
Now his trusty sidekick was changing from a precocious tomboy into a young lady.
He felt as if he was being left behind somehow. He was too young to feel this damn old.
“I guess they do,” he said at last.
“I hear this Mel person is coming up to see us,” Nick prodded.
“Yeah. She’s just here to finish up her interview and be on her way,” Daniel said.
Nick’s eyebrow rose. “Riiiight.” He drew out the word before turning to Grace. “And how’d the conference on the DIY yeast patty recipe go?”
“We’re going to try a small batch experiment and see if it is as effective as the pollen patties. Daniel is going to find a willing subject—”
“Hundreds of thousands of willing subjects,” Daniel corrected.
“And if it works, we’ll need to talk about marketing,” Grace said.
“If it works, that may be all the marketing we need,” said Daniel. “Word travels fast in the beekeeping community.”
“You realize that when someone breaks it down to figure out what makes it work, they will come up with my supercharged yeast,” Grace said.
“They could also figure out it was your supercharged pollen in our patties that made the difference, not the rest of our secret Woodruff recipe,” Daniel said.
“True.” Grace grimaced.
“So why not just sell the yeast?” Nick said.
Grace and Daniel both looked at him, then at each other. It was so obvious and yet they’d both missed it.
Nick frowned. “What?”
“My brilliant husband,” Grace said.
“Now I get why you married him,” Daniel added.
“Mind you, it’s not a perfect fit with the herbs we sell,” Nick continued. “Might seem odd to suddenly branch off into yeast.”
“I might have an idea,” Daniel said. “Some honey producers also make mead. We could make some to sell locally but tell everyone we were making our own yeast for the mead. But making mead is all about getting the taste just right—”
“You can’t bake with this stuff, can you?” Nick said.
“Sure, but considering the effort for Grace to create it, you wouldn’t want to waste it on baked goods if we can coax it into making a drinkable mead.”
“Perfect. We end up with more yeast than we need. We use it to feed the bees,” Grace said. “And we discover that, for some reason, Woodruff Mountain Yeast—”
“Woodruff Mountain Sweet Mead Yeast,” Daniel amended.
“—shows signs of making the bees healthier, more resistant to mites, etcetera, etcetera,” Grace finished.
“What worries me is that someone might analyze my supercharged stuff and raise some questions. Other than increased potency, I haven’t been able to spot anything with my equipment.
But if someone really digs with more sophisticated equipment…
” She had always been concerned that her gifted green thumb might end up on the public radar somehow.
“We need to go ahead and invest in whatever equipment you need to test it all so you’ll stop worrying,” Nick said.
Grace looked thoughtful. Daniel suspected she was making a list. A very expensive list.
“Grace is right. She doesn’t even know what it is that makes the patties work against CCD,” Daniel said.
“People will use our yeast as a starter. Make mead with it. It’s one thing to inoculate a hive that may die if you don’t, but to expose humans to whatever it is? ” He rubbed his hand over his mouth.
“Well, there is a reason for the lengthy testing process at the FDA,” Grace said.
Daniel blew out a breath. “The future is so fragile. One wrong decision now could domino into a catastrophe down the road. We’ve sat here at this table and argued about GMOs.
About tinkering with the building blocks of life and setting your creation out there to infect or protect.
How do we know this isn’t the same thing?
I’ve seen…” He stopped himself, not daring to go further.
“So this is our ‘beware of mountains bearing gifts’ discussion again,” Nick said. “Haven’t we been exposing people to whatever this is for, what, decades now? Our guests? Jamie? Her mom? Anyone who uses Woodruff Herbs? Hell, the damn propane delivery guy!” He paused. “Lily?”
Grace’s fingers moved to her stomach and Nick moved to cover them with his own.
“Short of locking my wife away in a cave, we can’t protect the world from her. And I won’t. If you don’t want to use her super yeast for your—”
“Nick,” Grace interrupted. “Daniel’s not saying—”
“No. Nick’s right.” Daniel lifted his own hand.
“Whatever this is, it’s already in motion, come what may.
It’s just… The things I’ve seen…” He swallowed, thinking of all the variations on the theme that he had seen in his dreams. Thinking of the woman in his arms in the ER.
“Mistakes. I’ve seen a lot of mistakes. I just don’t want to be responsible for one. ”
Nick blew out a breath. “What’s it going to take to convince you?”
Daniel looked down at his plate. There wasn’t anything, short of seeing the end of all the horrors. And that wasn’t going to happen.
Nick went on. “Maybe some test Grace can run with that equipment she wants? She insists whatever this is—old magic or supernatural power or whatever you want to call it—it’s a part of nature and will eventually show up on some test somewhere.”
“I prefer preternatural,” Grace protested. “Currently unexplainable, but natural. I don’t believe it’s supernatural or magic. But until we know more, you can call it whatever you want.”
“My scientist here is determined to find a scientific explanation for it by whatever expensive means she can get her hands on.” Nick smirked and tightened his grip over Grace’s hand on her stomach.
“But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last five months, it’s that whatever this is, it’s not going to sit still to get its picture taken.
Call it magic, call it super science, call it Dave.
It’s nothing we can comprehend at the moment.
And my very unscientific gut is telling me that we should just go for—”
Nick’s face went completely blank.
“Nick?” Grace leaned over to peer into Nick’s face anxiously.
“Hey, Nick.” Daniel frowned. Without thinking, he reached out to tap Nick’s hand.
Grace started to shout a warning but was cut off. Between one breath and the next, everything went black.
Nick walked into the kitchen. Grace stood there holding Lily in her arms, crooning something he couldn’t quite hear. The toddler’s hair was growing fast and remained as red and curly as her mom’s.
Nick smiled as Grace looked up at him.
“Where’s Daniel?” he asked. “He needs to see some of these emails about the yeast.”
Grace waited expectantly, shifting Lily on her hip. “What about it?”
“It’s working exactly like you guys said it would. He’s gotta see this.”
“He won’t be back until late. The Senate committee meeting was this morning and he has to drive home. Forward them to him,” Grace said.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot he had to drive up because of the smoke,” Nick said. “I’ll deliver them in person when he gets home. After all the dire predictions they’ve been making about more crop failures, he needs some good news.”
I don’t want to see this.
“What are they saying?”
“It’s looking more and more like they can bring them back from the edge. It’ll take a while. But you guys found a cure for CCD.” He reached out and stroked Lily’s hair. “Maybe that melon you love so much won’t be such a rare, gourmet treat in the future, punkin.”
Grace smiled. “It’s more of a vaccine than a cure.” Her smile faded. “But—”
I don’t want to see.
The edges of his vision had gone dark, only Grace and Lily were real.
“But what?”
“Daniel already feels guilty about delaying because he was worried about the long-term impacts. He’s so brittle these days. Having you deliver this kind of news won’t help. Let me do it.”
Shut it off now.
Lily looked up and reached out her hand toward her father’s face.
Now, only Lily’s face remained in his vision.
Nick leaned forward and she patted his cheek. “Unca,” she said.
“Unca? No, dad-dy.” Nick said.
No. Lily was talking to him—to her Uncle Daniel.
Somehow, Lily saw him behind Nick’s eyes.
That knowing silver-green gaze held his for what seemed forever.
Shut it OFF!
Daniel knocked his chair over, sprawling unceremoniously onto the floor. He tried not to swear in front of Lily. Then he remembered that Lily wasn’t even born yet.
“Nick? You okay?” he said to the blur in front of him. Here comes the damn headache.
He heard Nick’s confused grunt, then the sound of a chair scraping the floor.
“Whoa, Grace, are you all right?” Nick asked. “Is Lily all right?”
“I’m fine. What happened? Lily started doing gymnastics and you zoned out and Daniel… What is going on?” Grace’s voice sounded strained. “Daniel?”
Daniel waved a hand in their direction. “I’m okay, just the usual.”
“That was a vision?” Nick said in disbelief. “I went along for the ride?”
“You did?” Grace’s voice was shaky now.
“Yeah. That’s never happened before, has it?”
Daniel shook his head, but not too much, given his headache.
“I saw Lily,” Nick said almost reverently. “I think. I was trying to get her to say Daddy. Or…”
Daniel closed his eyes against the light, then heard the chair move again.
“Sorry. I… Sorry,” Nick gave a sudden dry heave, and Daniel heard him rush out of the room.
“Nick?” Grace called after him.
There was a lot to process, and in a very short amount of time. Before this, nobody had ever come along for the ride, as Nick had put it. Was this another escalation of his gift? And if he was right about the sounds Nick was making, it seemed he got all the fun side effects as well.
“It can feel a bit like a carnival ride. He’ll be fine,” Daniel said, swallowing back his own nausea, but he heard her chair thump into the rail on the wall as she ran after her husband.