My father sighed, and signaling to me with sad eyes, said, “Okay, tell me about this boy, here. What do I need to know?”
“He’s different,” she said. “But that don’t mean he's not perfectly good as is.” She smiled at me. “Wyatt is like me; he reads real slow and he struggles to write, but computers make that easier, so I want you to make sure that he always has a working laptop.”
“Done,” my father answered.
My mother walked toward me and ruffled my hair. “And don’t let him manipulate or trick you. He’s got mischief in his blood and before you know it, he’s gonna outwit us all.”
I’d laughed, and then I felt so guilty because we were talking about her dying. I could still remember the hollow black hole eating at my chest when I said, “Not you, Mama; I’m never gonna outwit you.”
The light in the kitchen was that golden glow that happens when the sun is low. It poured through the window over the sink and framed her face when she smiled wide and sweet as she said, “I see you working on it though and it’s a doozy.”
There were other memories of my mama. Other happy, silly moments, but that memory made me feel warm and protected. It also underscored with perfect clarity that I wasn’t book smart and I never would be. It was better that Caroline knew that. It was best that I kept remembering that, which was why I didn’t weasel my way out of jotting down a few notes for her. I needed to put myself in my place. Distance was why I volunteered to clean up and pack up. I needed to get Caroline out of my line of vision so that I could start to see clearly again.
Tossing a black garbage bag filled with well-knotted ropes into my truck bed, my father looked at me and said, “This is a mighty good thing you and Caroline are doing together.”
“Caroline is doing it. I’m just the hired help,” I teased.
“Really?” Bill asked. “You getting paid?”
“No. It’s for charity.”
Bill added his two cents again. “Yeah, so I think you can take some of the credit, Wat-wat.” He used Molly’s endearing name for me when he was being condescending. “Also, Caroline literally called it your rodeo at dinner last week.”
“Really?” I was genuinely surprised. I knew how much work I was doing, but I hadn’t mentally taken ownership of the event at all.
“Son,” my father said, “Why does that absolutely lovely girl up there know how valuable you are to this event and you don’t?”
Grumbly, Bill said, “I think that the only thing that throws Wyatt Morgan off his high horse is Caroline Winchester.”
My father laughed.
I was about to careen into my usual lecture about their insipid fascination with this topic when Kat screamed from up in the loft. “Billy!” There was panic in her voice and Bill was instantly moving hard and fast, slamming into the loft ladder and then taking the rungs two at a time as he climbed.
My father and I weren’t far behind, and when I crossed over the lip of the ladder onto the loft floor, I immediately saw the issue. Kat was standing there, her arms out, her face looking down, her overalls wet from crotch to ankle. I flicked my eyes to the faces of Luke and Cody, hoping that by some miracle this was an ill-begotten prank. No such luck.
As Bill approached, Kat looked up and with a shaky voice said, “I think my water broke.”
Caroline, who was already by her side, very calmly said, “It did.” And then she looked up at me and with a wink started one of her lists. “Cody, take out your phone and call Dr. Carter to let him know we’re on our way into the hospital with Kat. Luke, I need you and Maddie to run up to Kat and Bill’s house and get Kat something to wear and tell her mama what is happening.” She turned to Kat. “Did you pack a hospital bag?”
Kat was shaking. I’d never seen her shake before. She was always a rock. “Not yet. It’s only thirty-eight weeks.”
Caroline smiled at her. “A perfect time to have a baby.” Then taking Kat’s hand and looking her in the eyes, she said, “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and then maybe work on climbing down that ladder, okay?”
Kat nodded, and then almost crying, she said, “Thank you.”
Still incredibly calm, she turned to my father. “Duke, are there clean towels in the barn?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, clearly nervous.
“Would you grab them for me? Also, antibacterial gel and gloves. I want to check Kat out and make sure she’s okay.”
She turned back to Cody who was on his phone. He looked up at her with eyes wide. She put up her hand to stop him from speaking, and then she said, “Bill, will you help Kat out of her overalls, so she doesn’t have to sit around like that. Maybe give her your T-shirt. It’ll make a lovely dress.”
My older brother nodded, still looking at Cody, knowing just like I did that something was wrong.
Caroline addressed me. “Wyatt, will you stand in front of them so Kat has some privacy?” I moved instantly, positioning the bulk of my body as she commanded. Then, because it felt right, I crossed my arms over my chest like an aloof bodyguard. With a quirky little teasing smirk, she quipped, “Finally, a use for that big ol’ body of yours.”
Jamison laughed nervously.
It occurred to me that Caroline wasn’t blocking our view of Kat; she was blocking Kat and Bill’s view of her and Cody, but no matter what was happening she never stopped smiling. I watched as she walked over to Cody and quietly assessed what he had to tell her. She was so poised, so calm, so completely unflustered that I started to feel like maybe this was absolutely fine. Maybe it was fucking crazy, but also not a moment to be nervous or terrified because the smartest girl in town had it completely under control.
Just as Caroline turned to come back in our direction, Bill tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Okay, man.”
My father also came back up the ladder with a swath of towels over his shoulder. They were the towels we used when a heifer was calving. They certainly weren’t glamorous, but we kept them clean.
Caroline looked at me and then turned to a shirtless Bill before she sighed and said, “Okay, so Dr. Carter is gonna be a while. He’s in Bozeman, but he’ll be here as soon as possible.”
“Okay, that’s fine, that’s gonna be fine; it was twenty-nine hours last time.” His voice sounded calm but there was no color in his lips. Attempting to smile, he turned to Kat and said, “In four hours, we’ll just be getting started.”
As if she couldn’t help proving him wrong, the tiny, funny, ballsy, totally odd-shaped version of Kat that was standing there with his black T-shirt hanging down to her knees, held up one finger as if to say wait a minute, and then she clenched her fists and cried out, a deep guttural war cry.
“I’m thinking it’s not gonna be twenty-nine hours this time,” Caroline said as she rushed toward Kat. She signaled for my father to spread some towels down on the hay bales and told Bill to sit so she could lean her body against him. Then she cleaned her hands and put on a pair of gloves. The calving gloves were ridiculous. They came up to her shoulders.
Jamison took Cody by the arm and led him to the ladder. As she passed me, she said, “We are right downstairs if you need us.”