Finding Bluefield by Elan Branehama Page B

things were changing and Paul would be coming into a new world. I saw King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when Paul was conceived, but then they shot Kennedy before Paul was even born. And now they just found the bodies of those three civil rights workers. Who’s next? We’re not changing a thing.”
    “Yeah, but this time two of those killed were northern whites,” Barbara said.
    “Meaning?”
    “This won’t go away easily or quickly or quietly.”
    “Maybe. But they were Jewish,” Nicky said, “so who knows.”
    “You were happy when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act just a month ago.”
    “Sure, but he obviously didn’t include me in the bill.” Nicky stopped and broke into a smile. She put her arms around Barbara.
    “What?” Barbara said.
    “Look at you getting all political.”
    “I think that we have to be optimistic about the world we brought Paul into.”
    “You mean lie to ourselves?” Nicky asked.
    “Exactly.”
    “So my wanting to move, you could look at it as a gift,” Nicky said.
    She lit a cigarette on the stove and removed the chicken from the pan.
    “I could. Do you?”
    “Not yet. But I might,” Nicky said. “You really wanted that job in New York. Is it still an option?”
    “They have real winters in Medford. Snow, ice, the whole thing.” She took a sip of wine.
    “Sounds delightful.”
    “I didn’t realize you were that freaked out,” Barbara said.
    Nicky put some cheese and crackers on the table. “You were willing to stay here because of me and because of this place. I want you to pick a place this time and I’ll move there.”
    “Medford is a beautiful town. Right in the heart of the Finger Lakes. You will like it. ”
    “Okay,” Nicky said. “Medford it is.”

    *

    Nicky wanted to vanish without a trace. Or at least without being traced. She didn’t want to find out what Carol-Ann was capable of. People had heard that she was selling the farm. Mr. Jamison said he was glad that Nicky was moving to Oregon to join Paul’s father. Barbara went along with the story. Nicky was sure, she told anyone who pursued it, that she and Paul’s father could patch things up. Lucinda wanted an address, a phone number, and Nicky promised to send one just as soon as she was settled. Nicky then drove all the way to Roanoke to hire movers. Harder to trace, she told Barbara.
    After the truck was packed and gone, after she and Barbara said their good-byes, Nicky put Paul in the Chevy for the drive north where she would set up house and wait for Barbara to finish her fellowship at Bluefield Medical.

    *

    The nurse poked her head behind the curtain and woke Barbara to tell her she had a phone call. Barbara was fast asleep on her cot in the old storage closet that had become the hospital’s first female residents changing quarters. As the hospital’s only female resident, the old closet was all hers, and she was glad for the privacy despite its extra isolation. Besides, Dr. Weldman had made such a big deal about designating a place for Barbara that she had no choice but to accept gracefully.
    Barbara got to her feet, letting her adrenaline kick in as she picked up the phone at the nurses’ station. She was ready to sound in control, exactly like she had been trained to do. “Dr. Phillips,” she said.
    “This is Carol-Ann.”
    Barbara was still. She was not trained for this.
    “Nicky’s sister,” Carol-Ann added.
    “Yes,” Barbara said.
    “I’d like to talk to you.”
    “Can I call you tonight after my shift?”
    “I’m here,” Carol-Ann said.
    “Bluefield?”
    “The hospital.”
    “You’re here?”
    “I’m in the cafeteria.”
    Barbara didn’t want to deal with Carol-Ann without Nicky. “I’m working,” she said. “I have to check on some patients. Can I call you later?”
    “I can come up and wait till you have a break.”
    “Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll come down,” Barbara said. She hung up the phone, checked in on a patient, and