Circle of Three Read Online Free PDF

money.” I sensed a trick, but the light in his eyes drew me anyway. “But you’d make more than Margaret Sachs is paying you.”
    “Who told you about that? Ruth,” I answered myself. “Well, that’s not saying much, believe me. Oh, Jess, I need a real job.”
    “This is a real job.”
    “What is it?”
    “It’s kind of a long story. Do you remember Eldon Pletcher?”
    “No. Eldon? I remember Landy Pletcher.”
    “Eldon’s Landy’s father.”
    “Landy—you mean from school?” A boy two years ahead of Jess and me at Clayborne High. A shy, backward boy, I remembered; his father had farmed tobacco.
    Jess nodded. “Well,” he said, and rubbed a long index finger across his sideburn, deciding how to proceed. “Do you know about the Arkists?”
    “The what?”
    “No, you’d moved away by then. I’m surprised your mother never mentioned them, though. They—they’re—”He scratched his head, smiling down at the floor. Such a man, I thought, with his deep voice and his rough hands, the weathered skin around his eyes. Stephen had lived in his head, but Jess lived in his body. I wasn’t used to a man like him in my house. “Let’s see,” he said. “About twenty years ago—about the time you left—Eldon, Landy’s father, started a religious group called the Arkists. Also known as the Sons of Noah. Small, mostly local. Well, not that small, they had a couple hundred souls in their heyday. You never heard about this?”
    “No. When was their heyday?”
    “I use the term loosely. Ten years ago? I’m not sure what they believe in besides the great flood, but probably the usual, what you’d expect. From a southern offshoot of Protestantism.”
    “They don’t handle snakes?”
    “No.”
    “Take multiple wives? Speak in tongues?”
    “None of that.” He laughed, but he really wanted to reassure me. “They’re good people, not well educated but well meaning. Gentle. They don’t preach that they’re the one true faith.”
    “That could be why their heyday’s over. Like the Shakers. No, wait, they died out because they wouldn’t procreate.”
    “Right. Anyway…”
    “Anyway. What’s the job?”
    “When Eldon had his religious conversion, he promised God he’d replicate the ark before he died.”
    “Replicate the ark?”
    “To save the world from a second devastating flood, figuratively speaking. Not to mention his own immortal soul.”
    “Figuratively speaking?”
    “In fact, if he breaks his promise, he believes he’ll go straight to hell.”
    “He’s telling you this?”
    “Landy told me. He’s my neighbor now—he bought theold Price farm next door about twelve, fifteen years ago. We’re friends. We help each other out.”
    “I see.”
    “Where was I?”
    “Eldon Pletcher’s going to replicate Noah’s Ark. Is he going to sail it?”
    I was joking, but Jess said, “Yeah, on the Leap.”
    “You’re kidding. What do I do, skipper it?”
    “Ha.”
    I frowned. He looked so sheepish. “That was a joke,” I said. “Right?”
    “Right. Right, you don’t have to skipper it.”
    I spread my hands, completely baffled. “Well, what ?”
    “Arks need animals. Figuratively. Eldon thinks God wouldn’t mind if he stocked the ark with representations of His creatures somehow, pictures, models—he’s not too clear on this, to tell you the truth.”
    “Who, God?”
    “Eldon. But he wants them to look good, you know, he wants realism, and the problem is, there aren’t any artists among what’s left of the Arkists.”
    I started to laugh. “And this is where I come in?” Something caught my eye in the window over Jess’s shoulder—the fender of my mother’s Buick in the driveway. “Oh, no.”
    “Well, wait, think about it.”
    “No, I mean—”
    “You could do it. You’re an artist, Carrie, it’s obvious.” He waved his arm around my kitchen. “And I know it sounds crazy, it’s completely absurd, but that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it?” Oh, I could never