Ben took the canister from Cal. He wondered if old Mrs. White had lost her grip well before she began to wander in the forest. If Cal was right about the herbs, this explained much of Caroline’s erratic behavior over the last few weeks. He tried to imagine how many cups of this tea she’d made for herself—how many he’d made for her. Yet she’d still managed to drive around, continue renovations, plan and execute an elaborate dinner party, and all without Ben noticing that something was seriously wrong. Had he really expected so little of her that he didn’t even notice when she was being poisoned?
He shook his head at himself, disgusted. Better. He emptied the tea into the garbage. You have to be so much better.
“Ben?” Caroline called him from upstairs. He could hear Bub screaming again. The raw sound of it made the hair on his arms stand up. He had to get him to a doctor.
“I have to go,” he told Cal. “Thank you for everything. Really. I can’t make it up to you.” He grabbed the priest’s hand. “I’ll be in touch, okay?”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do?”
“No, no, you’ve done so much. I’ll call you when we get to the city,” Ben said. Cal’s weathered face was still etched with worry, and that was how Ben left him when he ran back up the kitchen stairs. He found Caroline coaxing gloves onto Bub’s tiny hands.
“Do you want me to patch you up before you go?” she asked. Ben had cut his forehead and torn his hands on his way up and down the mountain. He hadn’t realized the damage until he’d seen himself in the mirror.
“No time,” he said. One of Bub’s eyes was encrusted with mucus again. Ben felt more terrified every time he looked at him. With Bub on his shoulder, he turned to where Caroline stood in the doorway. “Maybe when I come back.”
“It’s a bad cut, Ben,” Caroline said, frowning at his forehead. “I’m just going to put some Bactine on it. It’ll only take a second.” She ducked into the hall, and Ben could hear the gentle thuds of her jogging to their room.
Ben wiped Bub’s nose for the hundredth time. When he turned around, Charlie was standing behind him. Ben noticed that he was dressed to go outside.
“Why are you wearing your boots?” Ben asked him.
“Aren’t we going?”
“I have to take Bub to the doctor first.”
“We should all go,” Charlie said. “We should all go now.” The boy’s face was inscrutable.
“He gave him back to us, Charlie,” Ben said. “He’s not going to take anyone else.”
“I still feel tight inside,” Charlie said. He touched his heart with his finger.
“I’m not going to be long,” Ben said. “Bub really needs medicine. Look at him.” Ben had to quench the sudden panic that surged within him.
“Bub got sick, so he gave him back for us to take care of him,” Charlie said. He walked over and held Bub’s hand.
“We’re all leaving here,” Ben said. “He’s getting what he wanted. I just have to do this first.”
Caroline returned with the antiseptic. She had a gentle touch, but it still stung.
Charlie hadn’t let go of Bub’s hand. The baby’s body was convulsed by another series of coughs. They had a dry, rough quality that made Ben grit his teeth.
“Charlie, I have to take him now. It’s going to be a tough drive. But, listen, if you get scared, if you feel strange”—he tapped the boy over his heart—“Mom will drive you away.” Ben nodded to Caroline. “That goes for both of you. If anything doesn’t feel right, just forget packing and leave. We’ll meet up on the road, okay?” Ben didn’t feel good about Caroline driving anywhere if she still had that tea in her system, but he didn’t like the look on Charlie’s face, either. And he needed to get Bub help now.
A tightness clenched Ben’s own chest as Caroline wept her goodbyes to Bub. He could not say whether it was stress, or panic, or something else that was not so easily named. He let Charlie kiss Bub on his forehead, and he pretended not to notice the shine left on the baby’s face where Charlie’s tears had fallen.
—
Ben fit the Escape into the treads left by Cal’s car. The packed snow was slick under his tires. He was just turning down the gravel drive when something pounded on the side of the car. The sound was loud enough to shock Bub out of his wailing.
It was Jake. Ben slid his car window down. The young man’s face was as white as the snow.
“Taking off?” Jake asked. He tried to smile but didn’t quite pull it off. Through Ben’s window, he peered into the backseat. His face fell when he saw what was there.
“I’ll be back,” Ben said. “They’re packing, but I have to get Bub looked at.”
“Thought you’d all be leaving together.”
“Jake!” Ben heard the chief bellow from up the road.
“It’ll be dangerous if it gets too late,” Jake said. “The snow and the ice and the dark.”
“Jake! The trail’s growing cold, if it isn’t cold already,” the chief said.
Ben turned to the sound of the man’s voice and saw him a few car lengths away.
“Just telling him to be careful, Chief. He hasn’t had to drive much with the roads icy like this,” Jake called back to him. “You should leave before nightfall,” Jake said to Ben, lowering his voice. “The way becomes dangerous in the dark.”
“Jake!” the chief shouted.
“Don’t forget now, boss,” the young man said, his eyes wide and unblinking in their sockets. “Don’t forget.”
—
The county road was in bad shape. A plow had shuffled walls of snow onto the shoulder, but the wind had undone much of its work.
Bub’s pediatrician in North Hampstead was expecting them, and Ben drove as fast as he could for the south pass. When he got there, he wasn’t surprised to see that the road was closed. Wooden police barriers were set up across both lanes. Cal would have taken the northern gap, so maybe that route was still open. But Ben was in the mood for neither a detour nor a roadblock. And the road ahead didn’t look any worse than the road he’d just driven down. He moved aside the barriers and then replaced them after driving past them.