Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (18 page)

The women shook their heads in anger.

“
I want to shave it all
off,” Tanesha said.

“
What
about . . .?” Jill gestured toward
Jeraine.

“
He’s always been such a
dick about your hair,” Sandy said.

“
You has a nappy head.”
Heather imitated Jeraine in a whining voice.

“
Yo’ ‘fro’s too dry.”
Tanesha imitated his voice.

“
You should get a weave,”
Sandy whined. “I can’t believe yo’ cheap-assed weave.”

“
My favorite,” Jill said.
She switched to a whining voice, “Get glamorous or get left
behind.”

Jill imitated one of Jeraine’s “cool”
gestures and they laughed.

“
You’ve noticed the man
has no teeth?” Tanesha asked. “I figure I’ll slide this one in
while he looks a fool.”

“
He told me he’s getting
them fixed tomorrow,” Jill said.

“
We’d better hurry,” Sandy
said.

“
What about the kids
and . . .?” Tanesha gestured to where Charlie,
Teddy, and Nash were practicing their martial arts or quite
possibly kicking each other for no reason.

“
They’re fine,” Sandy
said. “Shall we?”

“
Let’s do it at my house,”
Jill said.

“
I just need to grab my
clippers,” Sandy said. “I’ll meet you up there.”

“
Let’s check in then go,”
Tanesha said.

“
Good thinking,” Jill
said.

“
Oh look, Sissy’s home,”
Sandy said.

Sandy went up to the deck to hug Sissy. She
barely got a squeeze in before Sissy ran to see her friends. When
Aden came out, she gave him a kiss. She snuggled Rachel and gave
her to Aden. Sandy went into the house. Heather went to where Blane
was talking to Honey and MJ. Heather caught Mack as he ran around
the yard. Tanesha went to talk to Jeraine.

Jill found Jacob in the kitchen on his way
out to the party.

“
How was your shower?”
Jill asked.

“
Lonely.” Jacob hugged
her.

“
Did Julie pick up Katy?”
Jill asked.

“
Katy and Paddie are at
the movies with Colin,” Jacob said. “I’m sure they are stuffing
themselves with popcorn as we speak.”

“
Thanks for taking care of
that,” Jill said.

“
No problem,” Jacob said.
“I’m looking forward to having Rapunzel all to myself
tonight.”

“
I’m looking forward to
being had,” Jill said.

Jacob gave her a rousing kiss and she
laughed.

“
Are you off?” Jacob
asked.

“
Sandy’s going to cut
Tanesha’s hair,” Jill said. “I thought we could take a little
time . . .”

She clamped her mouth shut. She didn’t want
to ask his permission because she didn’t want him to be a guy who
needed to give her permission to hang out with her friends. Her
desire to ask him if it was all right for her to spend some time
with her friends pounded at the back of her throat.

He smiled at her dilemma and she
grinned.

“
Great,” Jacob said.
“Should I bring up some barbeque?”

“
We can come down,” Jill
said.

“
I opened the red wine
Tanesha likes,” Jacob said.

Jill laughed.

“
Have fun.” Jacob kissed
her again and turned to go.

Smiling, Jill watched him. Heather waited at
the door for Tanesha. She jogged into the kitchen.

“
Let’s go before they
catch up with us.” Tanesha laughed.

The women went up the long stairwell to the
loft. Sandy came across the kitchen a moment later.

Jacob laughed when he heard the lock turn.
On the way out the door, he ran into Jeraine.

“
You seen Tanesha?”
Jeraine asked.

“
She went upstairs with
the girlfriends,” Jacob said.

Jeraine shook his head.

“
Anything I can help
with?” Jacob asked.

“
Sandy is going to cut,
‘He has a small dick’ in the back of her hair, so the paparazzi
would know the truth about me.’ Like I have a small dick, and who
does she think she is telling the world that kind of thing anyway
and . . .”

Jeraine gave an indignant shake of his head.
Jacob laughed.

“
Yeah?” Jeraine asked.
“And why is that funny?”

“
She always could get you
going,” Jacob said.

“
You don’t know the
woman,” Jeraine said. “She’s crazy.”

Jacob laughed.

“
Come on,” Jacob said.
“I’ll buy you a beer.”

He put his hand on Jeraine’s shoulder and
guided him out of the kitchen.

“
You don’t think she’ll do
it?” Jeraine asked.

“
No,” Jacob said. “I
don’t.”

“
Why ‘zat?”

“
She’s pretty serious
about becoming a doctor,. Jacob stopped walking and turned to face
Jeraine. “And, I know it’s shocking; it’s hard for me to fathom
sometimes too, but sometimes our women do things that don’t have
anything do to with us.”

Jeraine looked surprised, and then burst out
laughing. Jacob laughed.

“
Hey Jer,” Mike yelled
from the grill. “I’m on diaper duty. Can
you . . .?”

Jeraine went to take over the grill. Jacob
looked out across the party. Everyone seemed to be having a great
time. He noticed Aden and Sam talking near the edge of the
deck.

“
Jacob.” Honey yelled from
the grill. “Can you get the chicken from the
refrigerator?”

He went back inside and grabbed the
container of chicken in a dark marinade. He passed it over the
railing to Jeraine and went to talk to Sam and Aden.

“
Where’s Delphie?” Jacob
asked.

“
She’s praying,” Sam said.
“This whole . . . thing has really thrown her for a
loop.”

“
Why?” Jacob
asked.

“
Oh . . .”
Sam smiled. “You’d have to have known her as a child. I met her
when she was a little younger than Ivy and . . . I
guess she’d just given up on her family. Celia’s the one who made a
family for her. Celia created all the interconnections you see now.
All of these people . . .”

Sam gestured to the party.

“
They’re all here because
of Celia,” Sam said. “Now Celia’s gone and
Delphie . . . She’s confused, I guess that’s the
easiest way to say it.”

Jacob nodded.

“
She’s not very flexible,”
Sam said in a low tone. “But I’ll deny it if you repeat
that.”

Jacob and Aden laughed. Rachel made a
gurgling sound as if she agreed.

“
What’s up with you, son?”
Sam asked.

“
What do you mean?” Jacob
asked.

“
You seem to have
something big on your mind,” Sam said.

“
Should I leave?” Aden
pointed to the party.

“
No,” Jacob said.
“I . . . hmm . . .”

“
You may as well just tell
us,” Sam said.

“
I’m just not sure how to
tell you,” Jacob said.

“
Try using your mouth,”
Sam grinned. “You psychics make everything so
complicated.”

Jacob and Aden laughed. When their laughter
died down, Jacob felt the weight of their eyes on him.

“
I had a vision today,”
Jacob said.

“
I know,” Sam said. “Blane
called us.”

“
I asked you about it when
you got back from Jeraine’s but you were kind
of . . .” Aden started.

“
Kind of?” Jacob
asked.

“
Weird,” Aden
said.

“
Secretive,” Sam said.
“Like when you were slipping out to see girls when you were a
kid.”

“
Slip out? Me?” Jacob did
his best to look confused, but Sam laughed.

“
Just spit it out, son,”
Sam said. “How bad can it be?”

“
There’s a deep
underground fault zone under the site,” Jacob said.

“
What?” Sam
asked.

“
Right down the center,”
Jacob said.

“
And you know this because
of your vision?” Aden asked.

“
The vision?” Jacob
nodded. “Sure, but it’s also on some geological maps the oil guys
gave Jeraine.”

“
It’s not on the maps the
state gave us,” Aden said.

“
Why does it matter?” Sam
asked. “There are lots of minor faults. When was the last time we
had an earthquake here?”

“
When they pushed nuclear
waste into the ground at Rocky Mountain Arsenal?” Jacob
nodded.

“
They stopped doing that,”
Sam said. “Wait . . . Weren’t they using pressurized
towers?”

Jacob nodded.

“
Oh crap,” Sam
said.

“
What does that mean?”
Aden asked.

“
Fracking,” Jacob said.
“Bumpy owns some family land out at Dearfield. It’s on the Niobrara
shale field. They are fracking along the fault lines.”

“
That’s not good,” Aden
said.

“
The weird thing is that
the map Jeraine had showed a projection of the project north and
east of where we’re building,” Jacob said. “You know, near that
land I had to have.”

“
Which land?” Sam
asked.

“
The one with the three
gorgeous hand crafted houses?” Jacob asked.

Sam groaned.

“
Maybe they couldn’t buy
the land,” Aden said.

“
He owns the land,” Sam
said.

“
They never asked,” Jacob
said.

“
If we say we need to move
it, it’s going to look like Jacob is trying to bilk the state,” Sam
said. “If we leave the project . . .”

“
People will die,” Jacob
said. “Plus, there’s the matter of the employee owners.”

“
What about them?” Aden
asked.

“
We’d have to include them
in the decision,” Jacob said. “We can’t just walk away from the
project like we would have a year ago. Now we have to put it to a
vote.”

“
They’ve voted for
everything we’ve put forward,” Sam said.

“
Yeah
but . . .” Jacob looked at Aden.

“
There’s a faction of
people who don’t love the fact that any employee can buy shares,”
Aden said.

“
The folks who tried to
vote you out as CEO,” Sam said.

“
Yes, them,” Aden
said.

“
You think they’ll make a
fuss?” Sam asked.

“
I
just . . .” Jacob shrugged. “I can’t shake the
feeling we’re being set up. I asked Rodney and Bambi to take a look
at it but . . .”

“
They think something’s
fishy too.” Aden nodded.

“
So do those kids Rodney
got to help out,” Sam said. “They think we’re being punked. No,
that’s not it. They think we’re being set up like punks.
No . . . It was something about punks and it was not
a very nice thing to happen.”

“
No, it’s not,” Jacob
said.

“
Why do you think the
project moved?” Aden asked.

“
No one asked me to buy
the land,” Jacob shook his head.

“
There wasn’t an
underground fault zone on the maps we approved,” Aden said. “I
spent two days with the geologist going over that land.”

“
Digital maps?” Jacob
asked.

Aden nodded.

“
Jeraine has a paper map,”
Jacob said.

“
It was changed?” Aden
asked.

Jacob nodded.

“
I bet I know how,” Sam
said.

Jacob and Aden turned to look at Sam.

“
You remember the woman
who was your secretary when Blane was out?” Sam asked.

“
Unfortunately, yes,”
Jacob said.

“
She’s a clerk in the
geology division,” Sam said.

“
But changing a map?”
Jacob asked. “They use those fissures now to increase the yields.
That means that they put pressure directly into the faults
and . . .”

“
She seems to have a
persuasive charm,” Sam said.

Jacob groaned.

“
What?” Aden
asked.

“
The Director,” Jacob
said. “The one she was seeing?”

“
What about him?” Sam
asked.

“
His son works for the
state,” Jacob said. “He’s a geologist.”

Sam looked from Aden to Jacob.

“
Don’t worry,” Sam said.
“We’ll work this out.”

“
I can’t shake the feeling
that it’s going to be a complete mess,” Jacob said.

“
I like messes; so do
you,” Sam said. “Plus, think of it this way. If we lose everything,
we’ll have to couch surf for a while.”

“
I’m already doing that,”
Aden said.

“
Me too,” Sam
said.

“
We’ll all have to live
with Delphie?” Jacob smiled at his father.

“
That would be awful,” Sam
laughed at his joke.

When their laughter died down, Sam became
very serious.

“
People will die?” Sam
asked Jacob.