It was just a couple of miles down the road, but Jules felt the separation from David acutely. Every yard was a stab in her chest. Every inch was a slow drip of poison in her veins. Dimly she was reminded that a dagger and a vile of poison were how Romeo and Juliet met their ends in the play.
This would not be how the curtain fell on this particular romance. Jules and David weren’t two immature kids who made rash decisions.
Well, their marriage within twenty-four hours had been quick, but Jules didn’t doubt for a second that they had the stuff to make it last. There was the spark, that ethereal force that told them both they were meant to be. Jules trusted that force more than anything. It was sent from heaven, so it had to be right.
Besides that divine connection, there was so much to recommend her husband that that boy Romeo didn’t possess. David was thoughtful and kind. He was loyal and sincere. He was funny and smart. There wasn’t a mean, malicious bone in his body.
Paris had struck the large soldier twice, and David hadn’t retaliated. The drone had been an accident. She’d seen the plane correct its trajectory with her own eyes.
But the damage was still done.
Romey drove the truck past their house and down into the fields. The border was still many acres away, they would have to walk the rest of the way. The field of beans looked just as sturdy and bountiful as the day before. To the naked eye, nothing was wrong. Only a test could tell that the roots of her land were now tainted.
"You okay?" asked Romey, coming to stand beside her.
Jules opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her eyes stayed fixed on the horizon. She couldn't see the boundary that ended the commune and began Vance Ranch, but she swore she could feel the dividing line. David had been here just the other day. His actions had caused an even greater rift between their two families.
“That was a stupid question,” said Romey. “Of course, you’re not okay.”
Romey brought Jules into a hug. At first, Jules was shocked. Though the twins had grown up in a loving family, surrounded by an empathic, huggy community, Romey was not prone to physical forms of affection.
“You really care about him?” said Romey. “Don’t you?”
Jules couldn’t find the words as she snuggled deeper into her sister’s embrace. So, she nodded.
“Then we’ll figure out how to fix it. It’s just a problem, an equation with variables. We just need to do the calculations to find the solution.”
Jules wanted to laugh. There was her pragmatic sister. She half believed that Romey would simply solve for X, and the equation would balance itself out.
“The only solution is to sue, to recoup the profit we’ve lost now that we don’t have the certification.”
They hadn’t even heard Paris approach. Jules pulled away from Romey to peer at her other lifelong friend. She didn’t even recognize the man.
There were lines at the corner of his narrowed eyes where they used to be large and bright. His lips were pinched now. Paris had never been one to grin big and flash his teeth. But he’d always worn a small smile on his face. Dark circles beneath his eyes sat prominently on his high cheeks.
No, he did not look like himself. He looked like his father.
“This is all your husband’s fault.”
"David said it was a mistake,” said Jules. She didn’t believe for a second that he would have done this with any malice. For that matter, she didn’t think that Brenda would’ve willfully hurt their prospects.
"It was worse than a mistake,” said Paris. “It didn't even occur to him that his actions could be a problem. Those people poisoned our land and our future.”
Jules looked around again at her crop. Her beans looked just as healthy as ever. She knew that the chemicals hadn’t reached very far, just the small patch at the border. None of the other crops would be affected.
“That’s a very dramatic statement,” said Romey. “I’m sure we can explain to the inspector about the mistake. If not, we can at least appeal the decision.”
Paris shook his head. “Those chemicals will be out of the land in weeks, but it’s another three-year wait for us to try for certification again. All because of one careless action, on one patch of land, on the wrong day of the year.”
“Ha!”
They both looked over at Romey. Her eyes were lit like when she had solved one of her puzzles in record time.
“That’s it,” she said. “The variable.”
Romey looked at both Paris and Jules expectantly, as if their brains worked on the same level as hers. They didn’t.
“Disown our land,” Romey said.
Paris’ narrowed gaze widened. His mouth slackened. Gone was the ire that had been a constant on his father’s features. He looked horrified, like when one of the children on the commune had gotten injured in the field.
“It makes the most sense,” Romey continued. “If our patch of land isn’t a part of the commune, then the rest of the crops will get the certification.”
“I’m not disowning you.” Paris’s voice was adamant.
“Why not?”
“You're my family,” he said as though it was the most natural thing in the world. And it was.
Gone were the lines at his eyes. He still wasn’t smiling, but the pinched look had gone from his mouth. The dark circles under his eyes had brightened as his skin had reddened.
Tears struck Jules’s eyes. She ran the three steps it took to get to him. And then she was in her friends’ arms.
“There you are,” she whispered into his chest. “I’ve missed you so much.”
He stood stiff as a board. He tried wriggling out of her hold, but she would not let him go. Jules held on tighter, not willing to let her second-oldest friend go. Soon, his lean body relaxed. His arms came around her and squeezed her back.
“You're our family too, Paris,” she said. “David is also my family.”
Once again, Paris stiffened in her hold. But Jules refused to let him go.
“That makes him your family,” Jules insisted.
“She’s right.” Romey came up behind Paris and sandwiched the Montgomery inside a Capulano hug. “Their marriage makes him a member of the commune and part of this community.”
“And you know what that means,” said Jules. “You have two offenses in the Problem Jar. You’re going to have to sit with him in an Empathy Circle.”
Paris groaned. But he didn’t complain. It was a start, and that’s all she needed to begin with.