Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (14 page)

“
Gosh so many reasons.”
Jill looked at Jacob and blushed. “If I’d known that Katy wasn’t
stupid Trevor’s, I wouldn’t have stayed with him. I would have left
and lived with Meg or . . .”

Jill gestured to Jacob.

“
If Jake had known Katy
was his baby girl, he would have moved mountains to find us.” Jill
nodded. “Right?”

Jacob nodded.

“
And why aren’t you mad?”
Celia asked.

“
Because that’s just
life,” Jill said. “I needed to go through everything that happened
so I would be ready for life with Jake. If Trevor hadn’t left me
and all of everything horrible, I couldn’t have what I have
now.”

Jill nodded and moved away from the
table.

“
By trying to hold
everything together, you’re . . .” Celia
started.

“
Being very selfish,”
Jacob said. “Blocking other people from learning what they need to
learn.”

“
From growing,” Celia
interrupted. “You’re stopping everyone from growing and by being
uncomfortable you’re emitting waves of cosmic junk into everyone
and everything around you. You’re powerful enough to lock everyone
in that goo.”

“
Like what?”

“
Honey and MJ’s apartment
project?” Celia raised her artificially arched gypsy eyebrows at
Jacob. “Tanesha’s house? You didn’t finish the basement. Did
you?”

“
No but they did move in,”
Jacob said. “They say it’s perfect.”

“
Their perfect and your
perfect are not the same things, are they?” Celia asked. “How much
needs to be done on Tanesha’s yellow house?”

“
About an hour,” Jacob
said. “More or less.”

“
And that poor apartment
building has been stuck in inspection
for . . .”

“
Three months,” Jacob
said.

Celia nodded.

“
You mean I’m causing
this?” Jacob asked.

“
You’re not making all the
chaos happen,” Celia said. “No one can do that, but you’re not
making it better either.”

Jacob looked up to watch Jill move around
the room with a tray full of food.

“
She’s very beautiful,”
Jacob said. “And she’s not moving now either. It’s driving her
crazy. She can’t even get her hair done or see Tanesha’s house
or . . .”

Celia put her hand on his arm and he looked
at her.

“
Let it go,” Celia said.
“Stop holding on so tightly.”

“
I’ll lose everything,” he
said in a low tone.

“
Or gain everything.” She
smiled at him. “What’s wrong with Lipson Construction?”

“
Ah Mom,” Jacob said. “If
we’re going to talk about work, can you change back?”

She nodded and transformed into her usual
form. He smiled.

“
Will you get us out of
this bar?” she asked.

With a nod, they were sitting on a bench
looking at the back side of Mount Evans just off of Guanella
Pass.

“
I loved it here,” Celia
said.

“
I know,” Jacob
said.

“
What’s wrong with my
company?” Celia asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jacob
said. “Everyone I trust seems really skittish about this big new
job. Why did
we
get it? Those guys I fired are hovering around the site like
buzzards and . . .”

“
Let go, Jacob,” Celia
said.

“
What does it matter if I
know what’s going to happen?” Jacob shrugged. “The company is
almost half owned by employees. It’s not like before when I could
change directions on a whim. Every single thing on this job looks
perfect on paper. And trust me—the employees are watching the
bottom line. I can’t go to them and tell them the job doesn’t feel
right. Not with big money on the table.”

“
Show me now,” Celia said.
“What’s wrong with my company?”

The scene in front of them shifted to the
new project out by the airport.

“
They want us to manage
the entire creation of what will be a new town,” Jacob
said.

“
So?”

“
We’re a tiny company,”
Jacob said. “How can we do that?”

“
What did the state say
when they gave you the job?” Celia asked.

“
They wanted to increase
opportunity for people,” Jacob said. “We’re moving toward one
hundred percent employee ownership. The Governor wanted to put that
feather in his cap.”

“
Sounds pretty good,”
Celia said. “How’s it going?”

“
We’re doing it, if that’s
what you mean,” Jacob said.

“
Any problems?”

“
No,” Jacob said. “But
people I like and trust, like Bambi and Rodney, they don’t like it
either. There’s just a weird feeling. Those guys who quit over the
bullying Noelle thing? They’re subcontractors on the job, and there
every day. They seem so smug and superior. It’s weird.”

“
I thought they
always
thought they were
superior?” Celia asked. “You did, after all, sell shares to all
those brown people.”

“
Yes, the browns.” Jacob
shook his head. “And the blacks. Don’t forget them.”

“
I haven’t,” Celia said.
“I love seeing Rodney and Yvonne together and happy.”

Jacob smiled.

“
What do you see that no
one else can?” Celia asked him the annoying question she used to
ask when he was a child. He scowled at her.

“
What do
you
see?” she
repeated.

“
Mom, I really don’t want
to . . .”

“
I get that,” Celia said.
“Do you ever want to get out of this vision?”

“
Yes,
but . . .”

“
What do
you
see that no one else
can?”

“
I
see . . .”

As if they were in the center of a Lazy
Susan, the scene spun under them.

“
Hold on!” Jacob
said.

His mother laughed and their bench spun.
Soon, they had a bird’s eye view of the new project and most of
northeastern Colorado.

“
Looks pretty good to me,”
Celia said.

“
Who’s that?” Jacob
pointed to two people standing in the near distance.

“
Looks like Bumpy Wilson,”
Celia said.

“
That’s Jeraine.” Jacob
pointed to the men.

“
Should I let them do that
fracking on this land in Dearfield?” Bumpy asked.

Bumpy pointed toward the Niobrara oil wells
near the border of Colorado.

“
There’s oil and natural
gas right here,” Bumpy said. “And men who are going to pay big
money for it.”

“
That’s why we’re building
this city,” Jacob said. “To house the Niobrara oil field
workers.”

“
Look at that,” Celia
pointed to the oil field.

An enormous metal tower pushed pressurized
fluid into the earth.

“
That’s a fracking tower,
Mom,” Jacob said.

“
No,” Celia said. “See
it.”

Jacob reached out with his senses. He could
see the waves of pressure coming off the well like ripples in a
river. He saw the ground rupture to release its buried treasure.
The oil company stood eagerly to collect the bounty. With each
injection of fluid, the ground shifted.

“
The pressure’s building,”
Celia said. “What happens next?”

Jacob shut his eyes for a moment. When he
opened them, the ground was shaking. Bumpy and Jeraine were knocked
on their sides like bowling pins. The Lipson project was a disaster
zone. A jagged crack ran down the center of the newly paved Main
Street. Equipment toppled over or fell into sink holes. Their
portable construction trailers were tossed like dice in an enormous
craps game.

People were screaming in horror and pain.
Some workers ran for their lives. People ran to help those stuck in
upended earth moving equipment. Rodney was screaming in rage over a
man who’d been cut in half. Honey was stuck in a sink hole. The
unknown fault made its presence known in the death and destruction
of the work site.

“
Enough,” Jacob said.
“I’ve seen enough.”

They were back on Guanella Pass looking at
Mount Evans.

“
Did you know?” Celia
asked.

“
I knew something was
wrong,” Jacob said. “I could feel a weird sense of pressure. I
just . . . believed them, went along,
and . . .”

“
What will you do
now?”

“
I have no idea,” Jacob
said. “It will cost us millions to get out of it. A geological
report will take years to complete. There’s no evidence that this
will happen. No one is going to believe me
and . . .”

“
You’ll be the
weirdo.”

“
Again,” Jacob said. “I
hate being the weirdo.”

“
If you finish Honey’s
project?”

“
She’ll move out, and I
really enjoy her living at the Castle,” Jacob said.

“
She never mentioned
moving out,” Celia said.

“
If she moves to the new
apartments, she can live with twenty-four hour nursing assistance,
no stairs, everything is brand new.”

“
You should trust more,”
Celia said.

“
Been there before,” Jacob
shrugged.

“
You have to stop this,”
Celia said.

“
How?” Jacob
asked.

“
Who did you see in this
vision?”

“
Bumpy. Jeraine,” Jacob
said.

“
Maybe you could ask
Jeraine when you go finish his house,” Celia said.

“
I have time?”

“
You have some time,”
Celia said. “And son?”

“
Yes Mom,” Jacob
said.

“
You’ve treated people
fairly and been a good person all of your life,” Celia said.
“People trust you. You need to trust them to think outside their
wallet.”

“
Doesn’t seem like anyone
does that anymore,” Jacob said.

“
You’d be surprised,”
Celia smiled.

“
Anything else?” Jacob
asked.

“
Just that I love you
son,” Celia leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Tell Val that I love
her and believe in her. Oh, and Jackie can see me.”

Jacob slowly opened his eyes, and smiled at
Valerie.

“
Mom says ‘Hi.’” Jacob
smiled. He started to get up and his head exploded with pain. He
lay back down.

“
I’m glad you’re back.”
Valerie kissed his forehead.

He smiled.

“
I’ll get you some juice.”
Valerie moved away from him. “Did Mom say anything
else?”

“
She said she loves you
and she believes in you,” he said.

Valerie smiled and got up. She was almost to
the door when he said.

“
Oh and Jackie can see
her,” Jacob said.

“
I knew it!” Valerie
beamed at him. “Mike said I was imagining things. I knew that
shadow was Mom with Jackie. Every time Jackie gets scared, the
shadow shows up. Mom. I just knew it. Thanks.”

She went out the door and he lay down again.
He took his cell phone out of his pocket.

“
Jill?”

“
Hi!” Jill said. “Is
everything okay? Blane called to say you were having a
vision.”

“
Yeah,” Jacob said. “I
wonder if you could come pick me up.”

“
But . . .
you were really clear,” Jill said. “Home imprisonment for the
breeding stock.”

“
I was wrong,” Jacob said.
“Would you mind taking my Jeep? It has my tools in the
back.”

“
Sure.” Jill’s voice
relayed her glee. “Where are we going?”

“
Tanesha’s,” Jacob
said.

“
Really?” Jill’s voice
rose with excitement. “But that’s a lot of stairs
and . . .”

“
Have you had any
bleeding?” Jacob asked.

“
No,” Jill said. “We’re
fine.”

“
If you do, you’ll go back
to home imprisonment?” Jacob asked.

“
Of course,” Jill said. “I
would never risk the boys or myself.”

“
Then we’re probably all
right.”

“
Yea!” Jill hung up the
phone.

Smiling, Jacob lay down on the carpet. That
was easy. Before he could wonder how to deal with the hard part,
Valerie walked in with a flood of cheerful questions about his
vision and juice.

Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty
Huge risk

Tuesday afternoon—1:05 p.m.

Samantha pulled her car up to the Castle
gate. Charlie gave her the code and she punched it into the keypad.
The gate opened.

“
Those photographers would
get old, fast,” she said, as she parked the car.

“
You get used to it,”
Charlie said. “If they get a photo of Jackie, they can make
hundreds of thousands of dollars. And look at them.”

Samantha turned to look at the
photographers.

“
They’re just trying to
feed their families,” Charlie said.