The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(72)

“What spring?” Wayne asked. Hank had been his mentor at Plumland Elementary before retiring and handing Wayne the job. The older man seemed to enjoy maintaining that knowledge-bestowing dynamic.

“That healing spring over in Bleak Creek. You never heard about it?”

Wayne shook his head.

“Oh, yeah, at one point people were comin’ from all over to bathe in that spring, get healed.” Hank took a long sip of his beer, like an ellipsis at the end of his sentence. “Even had a whole resort set up next to it.”

“Healed from what?” Wayne asked.

“Everything, I guess.” Another long sip. “I remember people goin’ for smaller stuff—gout, kidney stones, rashes, that sort of thing—but Patty’s cousin still swears it wiped out his leukemia.”

Wayne laughed. Hank didn’t.

“I’m dead serious,” Hank said. “He was gettin’ his will together and everything. But then his wife convinced him to go to the spring.”

“I don’t know,” Wayne said. “I’m not sure I believe in that sorta thing.”

“Wayne, there’s a lot out there that don’t fit into our boxes, you know?” Hank said. “Just because I can’t explain it don’t mean it ain’t true.”

“Okay, I guess. But if this spring can work so many miracles, then how come it’s closed?” Wayne asked.

“Well,” Hank said, finishing off his beer and placing it with a dramatic thunk onto the coffee table. “The owners of that resort, the Bleak family, one of their kids drowned in it. About fifteen years ago. A four-year-old boy. He and his twin brother were playin’ around and…Well, one of ’em went too deep. The Bleaks shut it down after that.”

Wayne nodded and took a gulp of his beer. “But the spring’s still there…”



* * *



—

“COME ON, BABY,” Wayne said, gently shaking Ruby awake in the back seat. He’d intentionally left Plumland at bedtime, knowing she’d sleep the four or so hours it would take to drive to Bleak Creek. Either way, arriving at night was a necessity, since they were technically about to trespass.

“Where are we, Daddy?” Ruby asked, her eyes not yet fully open.

“Remember I told you we were gonna have a fun adventure? Goin’ swimmin’ at night?”

Ruby closed her eyes. “I don’t want to do that anymore, Daddy. I’m tired.”

“I know you are, Ruby Jane,” he said, brushing blond strands of hair away from her face. “That’s why we have to do it. But don’t you worry—I’ll carry you over there.” He scooped her into his arms and shut the car door with his hip.

He’d had to drive around for at least half an hour before he even figured out how to gain access to the spring; the main entrance was gated and locked up with heavy chains, more than the simple wire-cutters he’d brought could handle. Eventually, he’d off-roaded his beige Ford Fairmont, slowly cutting across a tobacco field with his headlights off and parking near a chain-link fence that, if he could cut through it, seemed to offer a clear path to the spring.

He bent with Ruby in his arms and grabbed the wire-cutters from the trunk of the car along with a flashlight, which he flicked on as he walked toward the fence. It was a warm May night, and for that he was grateful.

“All right, Ruby-girl, gonna put you down for a seco—”

“No, Daddy, no!”

“Shhh!” Wayne said. “We can’t be loud, baby. Please don’t be loud.”

“I don’t want you to put me down.”

“But…” Dammit, Wayne thought, nervous enough breaking the law on his own, let alone with his kid. “Okay, here, let’s do piggy.” He readjusted his daughter in his arms and hoisted her onto his back, a move he’d taken pride in perfecting over the past few years. “There we go.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

He positioned the flashlight near his feet, pointing it upward at the fence, and began to cut the first link, which was challenging with a forty-pound human on his back. By the time he’d cut two links, he was sweating bullets. What the hell am I doing here? Wayne thought, suddenly regretting every stupid hoop he’d forced his unwell daughter to jump through. He’d come this far, though.

After a minute, he’d cut a large enough gap in the fence for him and Ruby to awkwardly slide through. From there, it was a short walk through the woods, and then: There it was.

The moonlight shone down on the spring invitingly, and Wayne’s doubts began to melt away. This was right. He could feel it.

“Doesn’t it look fun, baby?” he asked Ruby.

“I don’t know.”

He walked across the dirt and stopped about ten steps from the water. “I’m gonna put you down now, darlin’, and please don’t argue with me.” Wayne gently set down Ruby, who decided not to protest. He undressed himself down to the blue swim trunks he wore under his slacks. Before leaving, he’d convinced Ruby to put on her green one-piece underneath her dress. “Okay, honey, now you get down into your bathin’ suit and we’ll go swim. How does that sound?”

“I don’t wanna take off my dress,” Ruby said.

“But you’ll get it all wet.”