Where the Forest Meets the Stars(42)

“You don’t work when it rains?”
“It’s not good to pull birds off their nests in rainy weather.”
“Makes sense.”
“Gabe?” Ursa said. She sat up and stared blearily at him.
“Go back to sleep,” Jo said. “It’s raining. No fieldwork.”
“Good.” She curled on her side with her arm around Gabe and fell back asleep.
“Well, guess I can’t get up now,” he said.
“You can’t,” Jo said. “Rainy mornings are the best.”
They slept for two more hours. Ursa woke first, laying one hand on Jo and the other on Gabe. “This is like a nest. I feel like a baby bird.”
“Bet you’re as hungry as one, too,” Jo said.
“I am, but I never want to leave the nest.”
Gabe sat up. “Half your nest is going to the bathroom.”
“Gabe!”
“Sorry, birdie. I’ll brew some coffee. Stay in bed if you want,” he told Jo.
“Nope,” Jo said. “I’m aiming in the same direction.”
Ursa’s nest moved to the kitchen, where her beak was stuffed with fried eggs, half an English muffin, and orange slices. After breakfast cleanup, Gabe worked on the clogged kitchen sink with tools he had in his truck. He ended up taking apart all the pipes. He was putting them back together when Little Bear started barking outside. From the porch, Jo watched Lacey stop her silver SUV next to Gabe’s pickup. She marched down the front sidewalk, ignoring the steady rain and Little Bear’s attempts at scaring her off. “I need to see Gabe,” she announced, striding into the house.
“Come on in,” Jo said to her back. Lacey stopped in the kitchen doorway. She looked at Gabe on the floor fastening pipes and Ursa seated at the table drawing an indigo bunting with her new colored pencils. “Isn’t this the picture of domestic bliss,” she said.
Ursa looked like a cave troll had entered the room, and Gabe scrambled to his feet.
“I guess her broken sink was more important than me leaving,” Lacey said.
“I guess it was,” he said.
Lacey focused on Ursa. “I hear you got hurt yesterday.”
Ursa nodded slightly.
“What happened?”
Ursa glanced nervously at Jo. “There was a storm. A branch fell . . .”
“What did your parents say about that? I bet they were worried.”
“Is there a reason you’re here?” Gabe asked.
“Several reasons,” Lacey said. “Thanks to your raid on our kitchen last night, we need groceries.”
“There’s plenty of food in the big freezer,” he said.
“Well, there isn’t toilet paper in the freezer, and we need that, too. And Mom’s out of that cream she puts on her eczema. She’s upset you haven’t gotten it yet.”
“I’ll go as soon as I’m done here,” he said.
“Too late. I’m on my way.”
“I thought you were leaving?”
“I thought so, too, but there’s a lot that has to be done at the cabin while you’re screwing around over here at Kinney’s.” Nodding at the sink, she said, “George will be grateful to you for fixing it. Maybe you should hire on as his handyman.”
Lacey sniffed a soft laugh before she left the room, and Gabe’s eyes took on a strange glassiness. He turned away, staring out the window, his hands clenched on the sink edge. Little Bear barked at Lacey’s departure, and Gabe turned around, all traces of anger, or whatever it was, gone from his eyes.
“What was with that dig about being George Kinney’s handyman?” Jo asked.
“Just Lacey being Lacey.” He got on the floor to finish the plumbing.
For the next two hours, Jo entered data from her nest logs into her laptop, and Gabe showed Ursa how to play war and solitaire with an old deck of cards. At twelve thirty, the rain was still pouring down and Jo decided to give up on fieldwork. She needed to make good use of the day off work with a much-needed trip to the Laundromat and grocery store.
She asked Gabe if he would stay with Ursa. She didn’t want to risk taking her near the Vienna sheriff’s station in case she ran into Deputy Dean. If Ursa was going to be taken into custody by the police, the handover had to go down on Jo’s terms. She was well aware, though, that everything that had come to pass so far had transpired wholly on Ursa the Alien’s terms.
Jo wedged two dirty kitchen towels into her laundry bag, already overstuffed with the addition of Ursa’s clothing. Gabe and Ursa were seated at the kitchen table, waiting for tomato soup to boil. He was teaching her how to play poker, and they were using oyster crackers as betting chips.
“First guns, now gambling,” Jo said. “You’re a bad influence.”
“Not for long,” he said. “We can’t stop eating our money.”
“I’m sorry there’s not more to eat around here,” she said. “I’ll bring back lots of groceries.”
“Don’t forget macaroni and cheese!” Ursa said. She laid the five cards in her hand on the table. “I have three aces. I beat you.”
“Quit cheating with your quarks!” he said.
When she arrived in town, Jo ordered a chef’s salad at a café near the Laundromat. She looked out the window at the slow bustle of small town life, relaxing into accustomed solitude. In quiet moments of the past year, she had often dwelled on those who were gone, her mother and father, or her presurgery self. Today she contemplated the living, Ursa and Gabe. She let her relief for Ursa’s recovery from the head injury sink in. She wondered what would have happened if they’d taken Ursa to the hospital, if she and Gabe had been questioned by the police. Whatever might have happened, one thing was certain: Ursa would no longer be with Jo. Jo didn’t even want to imagine the moment when Ursa was forced to leave her and Gabe. Fortunately, her food arrived before she dwelled on it for long.