face and a blush raced up his neck to stain his suntanned cheeks. âThanks, but no, thanks. Cattle is the only audience thatâll ever hear me perform.â
âYouâre just chicken.â Tobyâs accusation came with a smile.
Kurt shot the boy a mock look of censure.
âAre you ready for lesson two?â Sarah asked the boy. âSure.â
âOkay, keep your jaw relaxed and say the whole alphabet.â
Toby frowned in concentration again and raced through the letters at breakneck speed.
Shaking a finger at the boy, Beth said, âYour lips moved. I saw âem.â
âItâs all right,â Sarah said. âSome letters are impossible to say without moving your lips. Like B and F and M. So thatâs when a good ventriloquist has to fool the audience just a little.â
âHow?â Beth asked, showing at least a modicum of interest in process.
âYouâre going to learn to substitute other sounds that donât require using your lips.â
As Sarah explained what sounds to use as substitutes and gave Toby some practice sentences to work on, Kurt cleared the table and started to rinse off the dishes.
âIâll do that,â Sarah told him.
âNo, Iâm good. You go ahead with the kids.â
Sarah had found ventriloquism a great way to entertain sick children at the hospital. A way to help them and feel good about herself.
Sheâd been given a talent, a gift from God. If she could pass that on to Kurtâs children, sheâd feel doubly blessed.
Â
After the children went to bed and Kurt holed up in his office, Sarah went to her room. Despite the fact sheâd awakened early that morning, she wasnât sleepy.
Instead, a sense of restlessness plagued her, a feeling of heightened awareness of her own needs as a woman, as though sheâd been given an extra dose of hormones.
Which was peculiar. As a rule her emotions remained steady with no wild mood swings. She was in controlâcontrol that seemed to be slipping.
To divert herself and her thoughts, she decided to do an internet search to find what she could about Western Region Cattle Feeding and their feed lot activities. With a little luck, she could build a strong case for Kurt to present to county and state authorities about the companyâs lax feed-lot practices.
Curling up on the bed with pillows propped behind her, she opened her laptop. With a few keystrokes, she found thousands of references to the company. Shenarrowed her search and began methodically working her way through the websites that appeared the most informative.
She downloaded the most telling reports to a flash driveâcomplaints and suits filed against the company in a half-dozen Western states, photos of environmental damage caused by Western Regionâs practices, copies of internal emails the management had exchanged that had been provided as evidence in subsequent litigation. Finally she located the companyâs annual report to stockholders.
Leaning back, she rubbed her tired eyes. Kurt was right. The chances that Western Region Cattle Feeding would pollute the water table on his land were extremely high. He had to stop them.
She checked her watch. A little past ten. If he was still in his office, sheâd show him all this evidence tonight and he could begin building his case to present to the county.
Taking the flash drive out of her computer, she went in search of Kurt. She found him in his office, tilted back in his desk chair, his stockinged feet propped on a drawer heâd pulled out. A newspaper lay open in his lap, and he was sound asleep, snoring lightly.
She started to back away from the door.
He opened his eyes. âDid you need something?â
âIâm sorry. I didnât mean to wake you.â
His feet hit the floor. âI wasnât asleep. Just resting my eyes.â
Yeah, right, she thought, wondering if he always snored when he was awake.
M. Stratton, Skeleton Key