I'm standing here. Calder handed him the hammer. This was the beginning of something between them that neither of them named or acknowledged, but that was real nonetheless. This daily passing of tools and tasks. This working alongside each other with a minimum of words and a maximum of things getting done.
Wesley was not a boy who liked to be complimented or encouraged. He liked to be handed the hammer. He liked there to be something specific to fix, and then he liked to fix it. Calder understood this in a way that he didn't fully understand yet, but that he felt instinctively. When they got back inside, Clara had already started the morning cornmeal, and Maisie was sitting at the table eating the last of last night's bread without apparent concern for the idea that there might not be more.
The twins were awake and had, seemingly, on their own initiative, stripped the dusty mattresses in the third room, and draped them over the porch railing, which was not something Calder had asked them to do, but which needed doing. Jonah was awake but quiet, sitting on the bottom porch step, looking toward the south field. Eddie was already at the fence. The horses had not yet figured out what to make of this, and there was a Palamino mayor named December who kept coming up to sniff Eddie's outstretched hand and then shying away, and Eddie was managing this with a patience that was slightly surprising in a 10-year-old who did almost everything else with aggressive enthusiasm. Benny had not yet appeared.
"Where's Benny? " Calder asked. He got up very early, Ruth said. Or possibly Rose Calder had not yet figured out how to tell them apart. Without looking at the small scar Rose had on her chin, he said he was going to find the creek. Calder set down his coffee cup and went out the back.
He found Benny a/4 mile from the house, sitting on the bank of the narrow creek that ran along the property's east edge, throwing rocks into the water with the systematic concentration of a scientist running an experiment. Benny. Benny looked up without alarm. "I found it," he said. "I can see that. " Calder looked around.
"The creek bank was overgrown. It would need to be walked for any hazards before he could let the younger children near it unsupervised. " He filed this. "Next time you want to go exploring, you come get me first. " I didn't want to wake anyone up. I was already awake, but I didn't know that. Calder sat down on the bank beside him.
The creek was running clear this morning, about 6 in deep over a flat gravel bottom. How'd you find it? Benny shrugged. I listened. You can hear it from the house if it's quiet enough.
Calder looked at him sideways. He hadn't known that. He'd lived on this property for 9 years, and he hadn't known you could hear the creek from the house. "Are there fish? " Benny asked. "Probably. " "Small ones? " Benny threw another rock.
"Watch the rings. Can we catch them with the right gear? Sure. Do you have the right gear? I have a length of line and some hooks somewhere in the barn.