Vivid by Beverly Jenkins

a
battle. "I'd like to see Dr. Miner's office if I may."
    "He practiced out of the cabin you'll
be living in."
    "He didn't have an office in
town?"
    "No. When he first came to the Grove
in '56, the only building in this clearing was the old trading post that stood
where the general store is now."
    Vivid thought about that a moment. Since
she was from a large city she had just assumed the doctor would be located in
town. "How large is his cabin?"
    "Not very."
    Does the cabin have any type of ward?''
    "No."
    Vivid knew that would never do. Even in a
town as slow paced as this one seemed to be, accidents and epidemics occurred.
There needed to be a place for her to house patients who might need extended
care or quarantine. "Where did Dr. Miner house his patients
overnight?" she asked.
    "Sometimes on the small cot in the
front room, but he rarely had folks stay over."
    "Then what did he do in an emergency,
say if three or four people were injured or ill at the same time?''
    "If they weren't contagious we'd put
them up at our place. If they were, Doc treated them at home."
    Vivid decided that would never do either;
the Graysons shouldn't have to house patients. "Is there a space in town I
might lease to use as an office?"
    "There is the old seamstress shop.
She pulled up stakes last fall."
    "May I see it?"
    "Now?"
    "The sooner I open for business, the
sooner I can see to the health of your people, Mr. Grayson."
    He gestured her to the door and followed
her out.
    Unbelievably, the day had gotten even more
humid. The thick air had a heaviness reminiscent of the fog back home in San
Francisco, except the Michigan air held not a degree of coolness. Vivid thought
she was going to melt.
    Beside her, Nate could see she was
suffering from the heat. "You know, Doc, heat like this can make a person
sick."
    "I'm fine." If she fainted from
the heat, he'd ship her home first thing tomorrow. Nate smiled knowingly.
    The empty cabin that had once been a
seamstress shop stood only a short distance down the street from Nate's office.
Vivid didn't know if she wanted him to be so close by. She imagined daily
arguments and his peering over her shoulder all the time, but if this was the
only space available, it would have to do.
    Nate extracted a ring of keys from his
shirt pocket and stuck one of the keys into the padlock fastened to the wooden
bolt on the front door. When he opened the door he went in first, followed by
Vivid and Magic.
    It was like stepping into a furnace; the
hot air made it hard to breathe. The room was gloomy due to a lack of light,
and the single window frame had been boarded shut. Enough light entered through
the open front door and the cracks between the logs to show the dirt-packed
floor and the dimensions of the room.
    Nate said, "The seamstress displayed
her goods out here and lived in one of the two small rooms in the back."
    "Why did she leave?" Vivid
asked, waving away a pesky insect.
    "Couldn't take the winter."
    Vivid didn't rise to his bait. Instead,
she walked into the deep shadows, barely able to make out the interiors of the
two back rooms. She peered around in the dark, then rejoined Magic and her
father.
    "It's in better shape than I
imagined," Nate said. "There's field mice in here somewhere." He
used his foot to indicate a small nest in the corner. "Won't take much to
clean it up, though."
    Vivid asked, "Has the window ever
held glass?"
    "Yes, but after the seamstress left
we put the pane in the window of the store. Didn't make sense to let the glass
go to waste."
    Vivid doubted the glass would be returned
now, so she would order more. She also needed to have a proper floor installed.
After that, she would take care of the dozens of other necessary improvements
in time.
    Nate waited, arms folded.
    Vivid looked over at him standing in the
dim light and asked, "How much?"
    He quoted a reasonable price, adding
"And I'll arrange for the cleaning."
    Vivid looked around once more. "And
there's no other place