Chapter 42
“Oh my god, it’s the cutest!”
Watching Caroline, it was hard to believe that this was the same girl who’d stormed into the house less than an hour ago. She was crouched in the stall where the brown-and-white-spotted calf lay in the straw by its mother, her eyes wide with delight.
“It’s a bit big to be cute.” Anna had to admit, there was something heartwarming about its newness. Its innocence, all legs and large head too wobbly for its neck.
“It’s a baby.” Caroline couldn’t take her eyes from it. “All babies are cute.”
“You weren’t. You were like some weird wrinkled noisy slug.”
Caroline stuck her tongue out at Anna and they both laughed; Melissa too.
“I’m with you, Caroline. I think she’s a sweetheart.”
“What’s her name?”
“She doesn’t have one yet.” Melissa crouched beside Caroline. “You want to choose?”
“Really?” Caroline smiled wide.
“Sure. I’ve run out of names. And I’ll have to come up with another if Jezebel at the end there ever decides she’s ready to push hers out.”
Anna was on the outside of the stall, leaning on its rough wooden door.
In the muggy heat, the smell in the barn was heady, a coarse earthiness, hints of manure and the sickly fermented stench of silage.
Something about it was comforting. A life away from the internet and social media and filters and college parties and everything that could go wrong in the world.
Also, this was a back-to-nature farm, not some huge industrial factory with the animals trapped inside.
The barn was nice. Hay bales stacked up at one end to sit on.
An upper level overhead. A window that let in glorious light, making the straw glow like gold.
“This is like a barn out of a movie.”
“It’s my favorite place.” Melissa stroked the calf’s head. “Always has been. Practiced my softball in here. Hung out with Lila. When my dad went off the rails, I made it a second home. Slept in here sometimes too.”
“Did you help her give birth to the calf?” Caroline asked, still focused on the cows.
“She did it all by herself. Marie’s a sweetheart, and this isn’t her first baby. Doc Burdett came out early to check things were going okay—he’s as good as any vet—then I watched over her. Her last calf died young, but this one seems pretty perfect to me.”
“That’s sad.” Caroline’s face clouded over.
“That’s farming. That’s life. Bad shit happens.
This barn has seen the miracle of birth and the mystery of death.
But it makes you appreciate the land and the earth and how lucky we are to be here.
Every living thing is a miracle. All the energy.
Even in death it has to go somewhere, you know.
Nothing ever truly dies. Guess that’s why people believe in ghosts. Lingering life force.”
“You been smoking weed?” Anna asked, and Melissa snorted a laugh.
“Cynic. It looked less like a miracle when she slid out. Birth is like death, a messy, bloody business, invariably involving shit.” She finished the sentence with a wink, but given where they were, and knowing that Bonnie had been found on this farm—even if neither of them had mentioned that to Callie—the image unsettled Anna.
Melissa got to her feet and joined Anna outside the stall, her bracelets clacking as she wiped her hands on her overalls, and pulled Anna out of earshot as Callie fussed over the calf.
“You been making accusations against Lucas?”
Anna frowned. “Accusation would be harsh. I just wanted to know if they’d questioned him. Why do you ask?”
“Because my uncle is the sheriff, remember, and he bawled me out this morning for gossiping about that creep’s sex life and firing you up about it and making more work for him.” She pushed a strand of hair from her face.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“Just be careful what you say to him about me. He’s worse than my dad for trying to get me to behave. Forgets I’m an adult.”
“Noted.” She was annoyed at the sheriff, though, the patronizing prick. Making more work for him. Maybe he should have done his job properly in the first place. “And sorry again.”
“It’s cool.” Melissa looked back into the stall. “I need to feed the pigs and we should probably let these two rest.”
“I love pigs too,” Caroline said. “There are some really funny pig TikToks.”
“That’s someone who hasn’t met Mason Verger.”
“Who’s he?” Caroline asked, getting to her feet.
“A rich, unpleasant dude who got eaten by wild pigs,” Anna said.
“My pigs are people friendly, I promise.” Melissa walked on, sauntering out into the sunlight, then glanced back at Caroline.
“Mainly, anyway. You can come say hi to them if you like, but then I’ll have to do some proper work.
And, jokes aside, they can play rough, so you have to stay out of the pen. ”
“We should get home anyway,” Anna said, seeing her sister was suddenly a little nervous. “Mom’ll stress if I don’t get Caroline back for dinner.”
“Can I use the bathroom first?” Caroline asked.
“Of course. You okay to take her, Anna? In the house, third door on the left. Dad’s out.”
“Sure.” She squeezed Melissa’s arm. “And thanks for this.”
“Anytime. What are friends for?”
It gave Anna a warmth in her core that the sun couldn’t touch. It was a fragile, precious feeling. She had a friend.