Enchantment (15 page)

She should start planning what to say to the Forest Service. She'd already decided to go there after school on Monday. How could she make a case for preserving the spring? To be perfectly honest, she disliked the ugly concrete coffin, but it was Ohlan's home and therefore she had to save it.

It was a historic site, she decided. It should be preserved because of that. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Documented in the memoir of a famous person—Amanda was famous, right? Holly started planning what to say as if she were preparing to write a homework essay. Actually, making some notes would probably be a good idea.

She'd left her laptop at home but she had a small spiral notebook in her backpack. She got it out and jotted a few notes. Maybe she could start a petition to have the spring declared an official historic site. Have to surf up the requirements online. She suspected a week wasn't enough time to get that in motion, but she could try.

The train's whistle startled her into looking out the window. They were pulling into the station at Osier, the station house painted a cheerful yellow. Holly stuffed her notebook back in her pack and joined her parents, blinking as she stepped off the train into the bright sunlight.

The sky was the deep blue you only saw up in clean, mountain air. A few puffy white clouds drifted near the horizon. A cool breeze took away the sting of the hot sun. The passengers all walked down to a large building that turned out to be a restaurant.

Lunch was surprisingly good. Holly had roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. The big restaurant felt more like a cafeteria, though—echoey, no atmosphere—so when she'd finished her meal, she went outside to walk around the meadow.

A small stream meandered lazily along the lowest part, almost hidden by the tall grass growing on its banks. Holly walked over to the waterway, wondering what its name was, or if it even had one. There was lots of water in these mountains, one reason they were so pretty.

Black-eyed Susans were blooming along the bank. Holly reached for a stem and saw a face looking up at her from below.

With a small gasp, she stepped back. At first she thought she'd seen a child, but when she peered through the leaves again, it looked more like a miniature adult human, sitting among the foliage, hugging its knees. Huge brown eyes stared back at her from a pixie-like face surrounded by curling blond hair, reminding her a little of the flowers. She wasn't sure if it was male or female.

“Hello?” Holly said.

“Hello.” The not-child stood up, its head coming to just below Holly's shoulder. “What are you looking for?”

The voice was child-like in pitch, but not in expression. Holly found it confusing—and fascinating.

“I-I wasn't looking for anything.”

“You must be. People don't see me unless they're looking for something. Usually something they dropped. Did you drop anything?”

“No,” Holly said, beginning to feel a tickle of excitement. “Are you the guardian of this stream?”

“It's a river, actually, though it doesn't look like it up here.” The spirit tilted its head and smiled. “How do you know about guardians?”

“Um, I've met two others.”

“Really? You must have the gift of fair sight.”

Holly didn't know what that meant. She was about to ask when the train's whistle sounded; a long blast, calling the passengers back.

“Here,” the spirit said, plucking a flower and handing it to Holly. “That's what you wanted, yes?”

“Thank you.” Holly raised it to her face, though she knew it wouldn't have much scent. What fragrance there was reminded her of sunshine.

“Um—can you tell me something? If a guardian of a spring came to visit you, and the spring was … destroyed, in the meantime, would they survive?”

The small spirit frowned. “I wouldn't think so. I've never heard of anything like that happening.”

“Have you ever seen another guardian die?”

The spirit looked at her very seriously. “We do not die in the way of living creatures. If the water we watch over ceases to flow, we fade.”

Holly swallowed. That sounded like what was happening to Ohlan. Even if she saved the spring from destruction, she might lose him.

“Holly!”

Holly looked over her shoulder to see Dad standing by the restaurant's back door, waving. She waved back.

“Be right there!”

She turned back to the spirit to ask another question, but it was gone. A glint of sunlight on the surface of the stream caught her eye, and she thought she might have seen a face there for a moment, but the whistle sounded again.

She hurried to join her parents in the line to get back on the train. Riding back through the scenery they'd already looked at, she spent most of the trip musing.

Assuming she succeeded in saving the spring, she still had the problem of Ohlan's strength fading. If that was caused by the flow of water in the spring stopping, she wasn't sure she could do anything about it. She needed to study the geology of springs, find out how they worked. In less than a week.

Library. She could hit the school library at lunch on Monday. She still intended to visit the Forest Service after school, and then maybe if she had time left, visit Ohlan.

She twirled her flower, thinking about the river's guardian spirit. He/she/it had said that she had fair sight, whatever that was. Maybe Ohlan would know.

Loneliness for him welled up inside her, and staring out the window at the mountainsides didn't help. She turned away and found her mom watching her. Dad was hanging out the window on the other side of the train, taking photos.

“You look sad,” Mom said.

Holly shook her head, but couldn't really come up with an explanation of her mood. “Thinking about school,” she said, which was true.

“Last year. Think you'll go to the prom?”

Holly hunched a shoulder in a shrug. “Don't know who I'd go with.”

“What about Ricky? He seems nice.”

Ricky was one of the guys she'd dated, one of the guys who had kissed her. Thinking about that, and then about being kissed by Ohlan, she knew she'd rather just stay home than go to prom with one of those guys.

Maybe Ohlan could be her prom date. Trying to picture him dressed in a tux, in the middle of a high school dance, made her smile in amusement. Just wasn't going to happen. She looked out the window again.

It was midafternoon when the train pulled into the station at Chama. Holly wished they could drive home right away, but knew better than to suggest it. They walked over to the B&B, checked into their rooms, and then Mom wanted to go cruise Chama's handful of shops before dinner. Most were touristy, but there was an antique shop that had enough pretties to keep Mom charmed for half an hour.

Dad had made dinner reservations at the nicest restaurant in town. Holly did her best to be cheerful through the meal, chatting about the train ride, asking Dad about the pictures he'd taken. More and more her thoughts turned to Ohlan, and by the time they strolled back to the B&B she was missing him so much she turned down Dad's challenge to a game of checkers.

“Think I'll read a bit before bed,” she said.

Her folks wished her a good night, and she retired to her upstairs bedroom, which was small in a nice cozy way, filled with Victorian frou-frou. She pushed the lace curtains aside from the window overlooking the back yard. There was a pond down there, with a fountain trickling in the moonlight. She raised the old sash window and leaned her elbows on the windowsill, gazing down at the water.

Did fountains have guardians? Probably not.

Natural bodies of water had guardians, but she didn't think man-made ones would. Did that mean Lake Mead didn't have guardians? Or did the Colorado River's guardian—or guardians—watch over it?

She could spend her whole life visiting different bodies of water, learning about their guardians. She'd enjoy it, too. Her smile faded as she remembered Ohlan might not be there to share it with her. She wouldn't want to do it without him.

She closed the window and lay on the bed with her book, but couldn't get into it. Too restless and lonely. At last she gave up, got ready for bed, and turned out the light.

Lying on her back, she stared up at the dark ceiling. That made her more homesick than ever. She rolled over and closed her eyes, imagining Ohlan's arms around her. As she slid into sleep she noticed him murmuring to her, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

~

An argument between birds outside her window woke her. Blinking, she sat up in bed and looked around the pretty, fluffy room, not remembering at first where she was. A framed picture of an old steam engine on the opposite wall reminded her—Chama. Train.

She rolled out of bed and got dressed, stuffing her cinder-covered clothes from yesterday in the bottom of her backpack. Tried not to make too much noise going down the old wooden stairs.

Dad was in the breakfast room, having coffee and reading a paper. He looked up with a smile as Holly came in.

“Hey, there, early bird! How'd you sleep?”

“OK,” she said, heading for the coffee urn on a sideboard where several trivets sat, waiting for breakfast to be set out. “Where's Mom?”

“Showering. She wanted to wash the cinders off.”

Holly joined him at the table and they made morning chitchat. Several other guests drifted in, looked wistfully at the empty trivets, and helped themselves to coffee or tea.

The host and hostess arrived, cheerful and brusque, and filled the sideboard with a big baking dish full of egg and cheese casserole, a tray of bacon, and a basket of fresh biscuits. Holly loaded up on all these plus orange juice to go with her coffee. She was halfway through it by the time Mom joined them.

Much to Holly's dismay, that set the tone for the day. Mom was in a mood to dawdle. After breakfast she wanted to walk through town again and look at the shops, even though most of them were closed.

Dad preferred to go down to the rail station with his camera, and Holly went with him only because that sounded less boring than window-shopping. They wound up in a big warehouse watching repairs on one of the steam engines while Dad chatted with the train guys. He obviously wanted to stay in town to watch the day's train depart at ten, so they wouldn't be leaving for home before ten-thirty at the earliest. Holly resigned herself to another day without seeing Ohlan.

They moved out to the platform to watch the engine come up from the railyard and couple up with its cars. The process seemed to take forever; everything moved at the speed of molasses, and there was lots of standing still in between moves.

Finally the passengers started boarding. Dad strode up and down the tracks, looking for the best spot to take pictures. The engine sat puffing, already putting out cinders. Holly caught one on the sleeve of her blue shirt, where it made a black smear.

Chama was definitely at its busiest when the train was boarding. Traffic on the main street was at least double the usual. Holly was glad she didn't have to drive in it.

The train's long whistle told her it was getting ready to leave. She liked the musical, deep-throated whistle and the way its sound rattled inside her. She'd remember that about this trip. Standing on the platform watching the passengers board, she was struck by how happy they all were. Excited kids, flirting couples. Everyone looking forward to the treat. Her own enjoyment of the ride had been shadowed.

Seven days left. She was determined to spend a part of each of them with Ohlan.

Maybe there would be more than seven. Seven days until the start of the rehabilitation project, but maybe she'd succeed in at least getting it delayed.

The train whistle blasted through her musings. Long-long. Leaving station.

She looked up and saw the train inching forward, smoke billowing from the stack. Kids waved from the windows and she waved back, smiling at their giddiness. She must have been like that the first time her family had come here.

She turned to see her parents with their arms around each other's waists, cuddling as they watched the train's departure. Cinders blew past as the engine started up its long climb up the slope. They watched until it disappeared into the forest, then headed back to the B&B to pack up.

Holly was packed and downstairs before her folks. She stepped out into the back yard to get a closer look at the pond. It was pretty, with water lilies blooming all around the fountain, which was shaped like a mermaid coming up out of the pond, water spilling from her upraised hands. Almost shyly, Holly peered into the water between the lily pads, looking for a spirit if there happened to be one. All she saw were goldfish that zipped away out of sight when she leaned too close.

She stepped back, gazing at the pond and wondering what Ohlan would think of it. On impulse, she took out her camera and took a couple of pictures.

She heard her parents' voices from the parking lot, and hurried to join them. They were loading their bags into the trunk. Holly tossed her pack into the back seat, then gave her father a hug.

“Thanks, Dad. This was great.”

He leaned back to look at her. “Enough fun?”

“Gobs.”

She kissed his cheek, then hugged Mom, then hopped in the back seat. She sighed happily as Dad pulled out onto the main street. Finally headed for home.

~

The first day of school was kind of fun. Holly didn't have the feeling of dread—oh, no, another year of servitude—that usually kicked off the school year. It was good to see friends she'd been out of touch with over the summer, and interesting to be a senior at last. Didn't feel as special as she'd expected.

She sat with Debbie and Jen and some other friends at lunch, and had such a good time catching up that she totally spaced going to the library until the bell rang. Guilt made her jump out of her seat, but it was too late. She hurried to her next class, feeling like she'd betrayed Ohlan.