Unbury Carol(45)

Love?

The pair sat behind a barn, their backs to the wood.

Do you like her smell?

I do.

Do you like her walk?

Moxie blushed.

I do.

Does she look as soft as the lamb’s wool to you?

She does, Silas.

You love her then.

I love her…



* * *



—

…She’s dead, the first doctor said, setting her wrist back on the table.

Moxie, sweating, raging, looked like the man he would one day become.

You’re wrong, Doctor. I felt her heart beating. As I carried her here I felt…a beat.

The doctor, his face serious beneath a derby hat, removed his glasses and hooked them in his vest pocket. His blue shirtsleeves were rolled up to the elbows.

A beat? Just one?

Isn’t one enough?

The doctor frowned. Maybe you did feel a beat, he said. But it isn’t beating anymore.

Where else can I take her? Moxie asked.

I’m afraid any professional is going to tell you the same thing. When a person is dead…they’re dead no matter who looks at her.

On the table Carol looked like someone had stolen something from her while she was sleeping. But not everything.

You’re wrong, Doctor.

He put Silas’s coat over her and slid his arms under her neck and knees and carried her out the door…



* * *



—

…Silas ran to the door and saw his friend soaked outside. Carol was limp, leaning against him.

What is it, James?

She’s dead, Silas! She just…suddenly fell!

Silas told him the name of a doctor. Told him how to get to his house.

Wait, Silas said as Moxie turned to go. He ran back inside and came out with a coat he laid over her body, supported there in Moxie’s arms…



* * *



—

…My name is Carol, Carol said, extending her hand. I see my friend dragged you to me.

Moxie smiled and reached his hand out and then pulled it back and wiped it on his pants, realizing there was whiskey on it…



* * *



—

…I love you, Carol said.

I love you, Carol.

You do.

I do.

Carol rose from the kitchen table.

If we’re going to do this, you’re going to have to live with my dying.

Moxie swallowed hard. I get it…I will…you understand.

But she could tell he was scared…



* * *



—

…It’s its own condition, the second doctor said, standing over Carol’s stiff body. It’s something like a seizure, but very different. I’ve read of it but I hadn’t expected I’d ever run into it.

She’s alive then?

Oh, no question. Her heart beats. You felt it yourself.

Moxie was dripping water on the examination room floor. Silas’s coat hung on the back of a chair. The doctor rubbed his eyes, and Moxie could tell the man was a good man.

How long will she sleep?

The doctor thought about it.

I honestly don’t know. Like I said, I’ve never seen it in person before. I don’t imagine many of us have. My worry is that she will not receive the proper nourishment for the duration of her spell. How long can a person exist under such circumstances? I’ve no idea. We need to watch her. We need to feed her through needles…tubes…and I cannot guarantee her current position will improve any.

But it did. Carol woke the next day…



* * *



—

…Can you imagine if they would’ve buried you?

But Carol had stopped thinking about burials long ago.

They walked in silence. Then James said, You know this makes you special…like a ghost.

Carol had heard something like that before. Another doctor called her reborn when she was just a girl. Hattie got angry when the doctor said that. Told the doctor that nobody could be reborn unless they died first.

But didn’t I? Carol had asked.

Hattie turned on her, eyes cold as river water. Not on my watch, Carol…



* * *



—

…Do this, she said, turning to him in the kitchen. Catch me a blue owlfly. I know, I know. You’re a big man. But do it. Catch me an owlfly and bring it to my door and I’ll know you’re ready. I’ll know what it means. Catch a blue owlfly, put her in a jar, and leave it at my door if you want to…you don’t even have to knock…just set it on the sill. I’ll see it. And I’ll know you’re ready…



* * *



—

…I suppose it is a lot to handle, Silas said, leaning back against the barn. But not much more than a man has to handle anyway.

Moxie was quiet.

Think of it this way, Silas said, you’ve already gone through it three times.

Moxie nodded but did not speak. The vacancy in his friend’s eyes frightened Silas.

Have you considered, Silas said, that the only reason you’d walk away is that you care about her? Have you? Because that’s what it is, James. You don’t want to have to see her that way again…