Chapter Twelve
It was floodplain day, and Jax wasn’t feeling all that keen about it.
So much bureaucracy, and for what? Granted, he wanted everything to be safe; it was just that he had been sure that they were safe the first time, and he had sort of had the feeling that the guy from the county had a little bit of a grudge against him, for no reason other than his own feelings.
But before that happened, he decided to go and visit Ernestine at her dig.
It was becoming increasingly dug out, more and more piles of rock forming. And she was altogether giddy with her new discoveries.
“This is just even richer than I imagined.”
“I’m glad.”
“Yes. My equations about elevation and soil content were so accurate. I mean, with respect to the hypersonic imagery. But, I figured this out on my own.”
“What kind of equation do you do?”
“It’s complicated, because it isn’t entirely math. It’s math, but it’s also based around my knowledge of where we have found things like this before, in what kind of soil and also extrapolating what I think the migration patterns would have been at different points in the year.”
“Got it. So you’re really good at figuring out elevation.”
“Yep. On-site.”
“Not really.”
“I mean, no. I would always double-check with instruments. But I memorized the elevation map of your property before I came.”
“Did you really?”
“I did really.”
“Okay, so would you be able to do me a favor?”
“I would love to do you a favor. I feel like I owe you many favors.”
He chuckled. “I do know about that. The surveyor is coming today, and honestly, whatever he tells me, I’m not going to know the answer.
I’m sort of at the mercy of what he says.
And I’m at the mercy of whatever he decides, and if he asks us to move the cabins again.
But I didn’t think he was right the first time, and I don’t really think he’s dealing fairly with this.
And I just wonder if someone is there who actually understands all this if it would go better. ”
“Oh. Absolutely. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Which was how he ended up with a cheerful companion who was far more interested in the process of surveying than he was.
She was darned near chipper.
They pulled up to the front of the glass cabins around the same time as the surveyor.
Ernestine hopped out. “Hi,” she said, walking over to him briskly and extending her hand. “I’m Dr. Ernestine Martin.”
“Trent Woodrow,” he said, sticking out his hand and looking at her like she was an alien creature. Fair enough, she kind of was. But in a spectacular sort of way.
“Mr. Noble asked me to consult on the surveying.”
“Did he?” He shot Jax a look.
“Unofficially,” Jax said.
“All right then,” he said. Then he walked over to the edge of the first cabin. “This is still five feet into the floodplain. You’re going to have to move it.”
“It’s not,” Ernestine said.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “I have the maps from the county.”
“Maybe you do, but if so then you’re not oriented to where you’re actually standing. Because this is not on the floodplain. In fact, it’s about fifty feet that way.”
“I… I’m sure it’s not.”
“It is. The current elevation we’re standing at is at less than one percent risk of flooding.”
“But that can’t be right.”
“It is right. In fact, if Mr. Noble was asked to move those cabins based on these calculations, I’m afraid the county could be liable for the cost of him having to move them.”
Trent’s face turned red. “Well, that wouldn’t be—”
“It would be extremely easy for us to prove that. I’m happy to get some equipment of my own and actually measure the elevation, which is something that you should’ve done, rather than going off old maps.
It seems to me like you were a little bit complacent, and in fact hoping perhaps to cause trouble for him. ”
“I don’t ever hope to cause trouble for anybody. But I’m going to have to verify if what you’re saying is true.”
“Oh, I guarantee you it is,” Jax said. “Because I’ve yet to see Dr. Martin be wrong about anything. She’s a human supercomputer.”
Ernestine seemed a little bit dented by that comment, and he was going to have to revisit that later.
“I will be back with surveillance equipment.”
“Great. In the meantime, I’m proceeding as if this is correct. And in fact, I may have it independently surveyed. Because if what she said is true, then you do owe me thirty thousand dollars.”
Oh, he had not made a friend today. And he wasn’t upset about it.
He turned around and faced Ernestine as Trent got in his truck and left. Then he picked Ernestine up and spun her in a circle.
“That was great work,” he said.
“But nothing for a human supercomputer,” she said, sounding flat as he set her down.
“I’m sorry, why did that upset you? I can see that it did.”
“Oh, it’s just…people think I’m robotic.
That’s not the first time someone has called me that.
Ernestine GPT. But it takes away from how deeply I actually feel.
And it makes it seem like I don’t actually have to work to figure things out and fail like everybody else.
Like I don’t have feelings. And I do. I just have a hard time showing them. Because there’s so…”
“I definitely didn’t mean that you don’t have feelings. I just meant that you have a lot of information stored in that amazing brain of yours. And it is an amazing brain.”
“Thank you. I’m pretty proud of it.”
“You should be. But you know, I like a lot of the things that aren’t your brain.”
“Like my boobs?”
“Big fan. But also, that you’re collecting those horrible little gas station creatures.”
“They’re not really gas station creatures, it’s just that they’re a knockoff version—”
“It’s okay, I don’t need an explanation.”
“They’re a knockoff of a trendy designer toy. People clip them to their purses. But I like knockoffs because they’re strange and original. The mistakes are what make them interesting.”
“Okay, so you had to finish that. And now I know. That’s the thing. I like all these things about you. I would never diminish any of your qualities, because I think they’re all equally amazing. But wow, what a particular skill that you have the entire elevation map of my ranch memorized.”
She smiled. “I love it when I get to use my powers for good.”
“I don’t mind when you use them for evil.”
She hesitated for a moment. “There’s a diagnosis, probably. For me. And why I am the way that I am.”
“Yeah?” He wasn’t shocked by that. He also hadn’t given it much thought. He was less interested in categorizing her as a species than he was in learning about who she was as a person.
“I haven’t gotten a diagnosis, to be clear, but I’m…peer reviewed.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m probably autistic.”
“Okay.”
“You don’t…you don’t care?”
“I know you. What you call the way your brain works doesn’t matter to me one way or the other. I have labels too,” he said. “But with or without them, I’m me. Even though mine are from trauma, at this point they’re part of what makes me me.”
“I wish you didn’t have trauma.”
“Thanks. I wish you didn’t feel like there was something wrong with you just because your brain works differently.”
She frowned. “You know a lot of times I don’t feel that way.
I’m happy in my bubble. I don’t need to be around my family all the time, and that taught me something.
I don’t have to stay around people who don’t like me.
Sometimes for work, I do. But I can minimize the time I spend with them.
I can make a life that feels happy. That’s full of the things I like, that plays to my strengths.
” She looked up at him then, just for a moment, before her eyes slid away.
“But sometimes I’m lonely. That’s the one thing I can’t quite fix. I haven’t been lonely here.”
His chest went tight, because he’d never related to anything more.
Even with Dakota and Rowdy, sometimes he was lonely too.
“Thank you,” she said. “For always making me feel like I’m okay.”
He cleared his throat. “You’re more than that.”
“I hope I’m able to do the same for you. Even just a little bit.”
“You do it for me a lot.”
He would miss her when she left. But you couldn’t make someone stay with you. And the urge to try, the urge to shrink somebody so that they could fit into your world—that was the kind of thing that made his father into the man that he was.
And Jax would never be that man. So when it came time, he would let her go.
Because that was what he had to do.