Water Lily (5 page)

“You think it's colic?” he asked Cade, just as Darby had minutes ago.

Cade shrugged.

“A lot of bacteria's gotten into the main reservoir near Hapuna. We should be fine, but ARC's got an agriculture and health department team comin' to check out the well. If they see him like this, they could shut us down. Cricket's goin' to come with them if she can get away from the store.”

Cricket Pukai was an Animal Rescue Society volunteer and Kit's girlfriend. Darby admired everything about her, but what did she have to do with the water situation? Was Kit implying she could help them face down the ARC team?

“Eyes're a little glassy,” Kit observed as he turned toward her. “How's his belly feel?”

How would I know?
Darby wondered, but when Cade answered, “Tight, but not puffed up,” she understood Kit's question.

She concentrated on the feel of the foal's body against her arms.

“Not drum-skin tight,” she said, “more like he's had a little too much to eat.”

Kit's gaze shifted between Darby and Cade.

“Hard to know what to hope for,” he said. “Bacteria could hurt 'em all, but colic kills 'em when pressure
from gas causes heart failure.”

“Not always!” Darby exclaimed, but she heard the question in her voice.

“Not even usually,” Kit assured her. “He's not over-fed. I can't figure him getting spoiled grain anywhere.” Looking thoughtful, as though he'd gone down a mental list of what caused the condition, he considered the wide, green pastures. “Any poisonous weeds I haven't come across yet?”

Cade shook his head.

“He been rolling or biting at his flanks?”

“No.”

By now the foal had grown so heavy in Darby's arms, she wasn't surprised to see his long eyelashes were closed.

Noticing her baby was asleep, Blue Ginger stepped closer. She took breaths so deep, they lifted strands of Darby's hair.

“What are we going to do with him?” Darby whispered.

Jonah didn't approve of pampering the horses. He refused to treat them like pets. To him, the Quarter Horses, dogs, and other animals on the place were working partners.

Darby had never seen a vet visit ‘Iolani Ranch, but they probably didn't need one. The combined knowledge of Jonah, Aunty Cathy, Kit, and Kimo must have amounted to a couple of degrees in veterinary medicine.

Still, Blue Moon was so little….

“We'll take him up where we can keep an eye on him.” Kit lifted his head toward Sun House. “Can't spend all day checking on him. Too much work to be done.”

Cade drew in a breath that only Darby noticed. Cade wanted to go look for his mom in town, but how could he leave the ranch with the ARC people on their way, the cremellos' pasture fence still to be finished, and Blue Moon's health shaky?

Darby hoped Aunty Cathy had picked up Dee's trail in town.

“Will he walk?” Kit asked.

“Don't know,” Cade said. “We can try.”

“Wake up, baby,” Darby said as she slowly removed her arms.

Blue Moon's eyelids flapped open, his tail spun in a corkscrew move, and he jumped a few steps toward his mother before he stopped, yawned, and lay down.

Cade knelt beside the foal and tried to push him up, but Blue Moon just flopped flat.

It wasn't until Kit opened the foal's mouth to check the color of his gums that Blue Moon's spirit returned. He did
not
like the cowboy's probing fingers. Pawing the grass with his front hooves, he got halfway up.

Blue Ginger rammed into Darby's shoulder, pushing past the half circle of humans to her foal. Did Kit and Cade sense the anxiety streaming off the mare, like she could? Darby tried to stroke the horse's blue-
gray neck, but Blue Ginger jerked away.

The mare knew the foal had to get back on his feet, but she was trying to let him do it on his own.

“He'll be okay,” Darby told the mare, but Kit picked that moment to insist the foal get back on his hooves.

“Move Mom off a ways,” he told Darby.

Blue Ginger wore no halter or bridle, so Darby grabbed a handful of mane, clucked, and started walking.

The mare's body shifted toward Darby, but her hooves stayed still.

“Mount up,” Kit said. “Ride toward home on Navigator.”

Darby did as Kit asked, but of course Blue Ginger didn't follow. Why had Kit thought she would abandon her sick baby?

Darby looked over her shoulder to see Cade was once again shoving lightly against the foal's hindquarters. Nothing. Then Kit moved in to swat the foal more forcefully on his rump.

Darby winced. It was unlike Kit to be rough with any animal, but she understood as she heard him talking to the foal.

“Move, little boy,” he commanded. “Walk it off now, or you might not get another chance.”

I
n a flurry of hooves, Blue Moon lurched up, then moved slowly and steadily behind his mother. Cade was back on Joker, raising one hand, hazing the mare after Darby.

They'd reached the ridge and turned up the driveway toward Sun House when Darby noticed two things: Kimo's truck still wasn't here, but a light blue vehicle with writing on the door was.

The ARC team, she remembered. Agricultural Resource Conservation? She was pretty sure that was it.

Navigator's gait slowed as two men, deep in conversation with Jonah, looked up at her. Darby's old shyness made her stare down at her saddle horn.

The hooves behind her changed tempo, and Darby knew the mare and foal had picked up her anxiety.

Shake it off,
Darby told herself as Kit and Cade kept the two horses moving after her.
You're not the big attraction. They're here to check out the well.

She lifted her chin and straightened her spine, trying to ride with the natural grace she'd observed in every other Kealoha on horseback.

“What now?” Jonah shouted as if fate was picking on him.

“Colic.” Kit confirmed Jonah's diagnosis with an almost indifferent tone. “Only brought 'em up because we're too busy to fuss over him down there.”

Darby's first impression of the two men was that they were muddy and grateful for the coffee Jonah had just given them. Although the sun dominated the cloudy sky, the men cupped their hands around their mugs as if they needed the warmth. They'd probably been wet for a while.

When she glanced up to take a good look at them, she decided the two men were physical opposites. She was trying to place the slim one with slicked-down black hair. Though they hadn't been introduced, she recognized the name badge on his uniform and his presence made her smile as she realized where she'd seen him before.

Mr. Nomi looked slight-bodied, but she'd seen him in action and he was tougher than he looked. He'd sounded friendly as he'd questioned Manny after the tsunami.

Manny had rushed up to the official-looking Mr. Nomi and demanded he take action against Darby. By the time they'd finished talking though, Mr. Nomi had discovered Manny had disobeyed the evacuation order that might have saved his livestock.

“Super-duper,” Mr. Nomi had said, as soon as he had enough information to arrest Cade's stepfather, and though Manny had struggled to free himself, Mr. Nomi had grinned and clicked a pair of handcuffs around his wrists.

Jonah introduced the other man to Kit as Mr. Klaus, and Darby thought he looked a lot like Santa Claus without a beard. He had wavy white hair, a flushed face, and a potbelly propped up by sturdy legs that ended in tightly laced hiking boots. But he sure didn't have merry Santa Claus eyes. His stern gaze probably didn't miss much.

For some reason, he made Darby nervous, but she remembered Jonah saying the ARC had been all over the island, searching for earthquake damage, so obviously Mr. Klaus's job demanded such watchfulness.

As Kit joined the group, crossing his arms and listening, Darby noticed Cade had slipped away with the horses and she did the same.

She untacked Navigator, picked up a hoof pick, and began cleaning mud from the gelding's hooves. Using the tip of the pick, she pried the mud away from the heel toward the toe just as Jonah had taught her so that she wouldn't push any grit into the sensitive part
of the toe. She was glad to see that Navigator hadn't picked up any stones along the way.

As she worked, she eavesdropped, and wished she knew more about reservoirs, aquifers, ditches, and flumes. She only understood about half of what the men were talking about, although she was pretty sure they'd already tested ‘Iolani's well and found it as pure as Jonah had insisted it would be.

“Mostly, the underground water is fine. The ponds and streams, they're polluted from all
da kine
storm wreckage,” Mr. Nomi said.

As Darby put down the last hoof, she began grooming Navigator.
Da kine
was a pretty useful term, Darby thought, because it meant “that kind of thing.” Mr. Nomi could mean everything from landslides that muddied the water to dead animals that tainted it.

Like Honi the pony drinking from the pond where the dead mongoose lay,
Darby thought, but her alarm was interrupted by Navigator bumping against her, reminding her the currycomb felt as good as a massage and she should keep applying it to his sleek hide.

She smooched at the horse and kept brushing, even when Mr. Klaus spoke up.

“The county could have prevented some trouble.”

“How's that?” Jonah asked.

“They've been turning a blind eye to people using unpurified water from ponds and streams instead of paying for municipal sources. Like the, uh,
neighborhood
above Crimson Vale.”

One of the men cleared his throat. It sounded like Kit, but she didn't look over to see. It wasn't Kimo, and that's what really mattered, because Kimo and his father lived in one of the ramshackle houses that clustered on the lip of Crimson Vale.

Was it a poor neighborhood? It kind of looked that way, and Mr. Klaus was hinting that what these people had been taking for free might harm them.

The same thought must have occurred to Kit, because he asked, “Any illness there?”

“Not yet,” Mr. Nomi said. “Or I guess I should say I'm not sure. It was the day before yesterday that we were up there, and Klaus is right. Not everyone'd be running in to a doctor to admit the water they've been borrowing is making them sick.”

Day before yesterday, Darby had seen Tyson, Kimo's neighbor, in Ecology class, and he hadn't looked sick. He'd been malicious and mean, but no worse than usual. So there was probably no reason to worry about Kimo.

“Ours is still the biggest private well on the island, yeah?” Jonah asked, and the two men nodded. “We can share with neighbors if you can figure out how to do it.”

“Thanks, Jonah,” Mr. Nomi said, clapping him on the arm. “It's an iffy time to be trenching, but we'll keep your offer in mind.”

“This must be the ‘spirit of aloha' I've heard about,” Mr. Klaus said.

“Klaus is from Utah,” Mr. Nomi explained, but her grandfather brushed off the compliment.

“If I take care of my neighbors, comes a time when I'm in trouble, they might take care of me, yeah?”

Darby knew her grandfather wasn't just looking out for himself, but the men chuckled.

Just then, Cade walked by. He'd haltered Blue Ginger and was leading the mare while her foal followed.

“How's he doing?” Darby asked.

“I'd like to put 'em somewhere, so I can work,” Cade said. “But where?”

Darby looked from the pigpen, past Hoku's corral, the old fox cages, the dog kennel, the round pen filled with cremello horses, and the half-fenced pasture. There were no other enclosures near Sun House, and if the foal was sick, he couldn't be put in with other horses.

“When Aunty Cathy gets home, maybe he can go into the office with her?” Darby suggested doubtfully.

“Gotta keep him moving,” Cade said, but then his face brightened at the sound of a truck engine.

The Jeep, with patchy paint and no top but a roll bar, was a pretty distinctive vehicle. Driven by Cricket Pukai, it came down ‘Iolani Ranch's dirt road and braked just short of the group of men.

Cade's disappointment showed. He'd been hoping it was Aunty Cathy, Darby thought, and that she'd learned something about his mother.

“She should be back soon,” Darby said, but Cade kept his expression blank, as if he had no idea what she was talking about. He walked the mare and foal away from her.

“My sympathy's wasted on him,” Darby whispered to Navigator, “but you like it, huh, boy?” She stroked the silken bay hide of the gelding's neck, and he blew through his lips, agreeing or relaxing, or both.

She left him tied to a metal ring, wearing nothing but a neck rope, and went toward the gathering in the driveway.

She might not know enough to participate in the water discussion, but curiosity about Cricket's role in the situation made it impossible for Darby to stay away.

Kit hid his grin an instant after it flashed at his girlfriend, but Darby could tell Cricket had seen it.

Kit had met Cricket at the feed store she managed. Though Kit had the easygoing ways of a Nevada buckaroo and Cricket was serious and brainy, always citing the latest studies and statistics in her crusade to protect animals, the two had just “clicked.”

Kit made it clear that he admired Cricket's brainpower, but he couldn't help pestering her with jokes and compliments. It was obvious to everyone around them the unlikely pair had fun together.

Darby liked Cricket and respected the work she did as a rescue specialist with the Animal Rescue Society. According to Kit, Cricket had been insanely
busy since the tsunami, and they saw each other most often when he drove to the Animal Rescue barn, where he was getting to know his wild mare, Medusa.

As usual, Cricket's black hair was piled into a messy bun. She pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose, and her eyebrows arched. She intently followed the discussion before she even reached the men.

Darby waved at Cricket, but Cricket was too engrossed in the men's conversation to do anything but nod at Darby.

“Perfect timing,” Mr. Nomi said as Cricket reached the group. “The Conservancy thinks the wild horses should be run up toward Sky Mountain as soon as possible.”

Darby hung back across the half circle, hoping no one would notice her, even though she wished she could ask Mr. Nomi if he had Black Lava's herd confused with the wild bunch on Sky Mountain. The only wild horses he could be considering moving were the ones she'd watched on her high school field just yesterday. And they lived in Crimson Vale.

“What's the rush?” Cricket asked.

My role model,
Darby thought. If those words had come out of
her
mouth, they would have sounded combative, but not from Cricket.

“To keep them away from the water,” Mr. Nomi said.

Cricket seemed to be considering the proposal
when Mr. Klaus put in, “We'll be herding them with helicopters.”

Darby caught a sharp breath. Her arms sprouted gooseflesh from long-ago cold and she heard it all again. Freezing, snowy winds howled to the thump of helicopter blades and the awful accompaniment of a horse screaming.