Vivid

by Beverly Jenkins

She paid scant attention to the covert glances from the other riders or the low-toned buzz her banishing evoked. With the dignity of an ancestry that spanned three continents, she held her head high, stepped into the aisle of the moving train, and followed the conductor from the car.

Vivid raised her eyes to his face. Kate Pierce had not erred in that description, either. He had a smooth, shaven face, which appeared to have been chiseled from dark marble. The nose was prominent, the jaw strong. He wore a weather-beaten hat atop his head, and a pair of oval wire-framed spectacles in front of a set of arresting, smoky-black eyes. The spectacles were necessary, she decided. Without them to deflect the masculine beauty of his face, women would undoubtedly swoon in his wake.

The first shot blew her target's hat off his head and sent it flying into the dust. She handed the wide-eyed farmer back his weapon, smiled politely, and waited for Nate to come to her. She didn't have to wait long.

Hahahaahaahahahshshshsa

Then in a soft voice belying his anger he said, "You're not a doctor, you're a menace."

Signs of future love

Rifle in hand, Nate Grayson, dressed in his trousers and without a shirt, turned a malevolent look on the crowd and shouted, "What the hell's going on here?" Eli stepped down from the porch and said, "They're all here to see Dr. Lancaster, Nate. Can't say as I blame them. Look at her. I'm thinking about stepping in a bear trap myself."

He glanced over at her angry face. "Do you want to shoot me?" "The thought had crossed my mind. Maybe later." He shook his head again. Lord, what a woman.

Every advance the race made was necessary if it was to survive. More women like Maria W. Stewart were needed, not fewer. In 1832 Miss Stewart, a Black woman, became the first American woman of any race to lecture to public audiences. And there was Mary Shadd, who in 1853 grew tired of being vilified in Henry Bibb's Black abolitionist weekly, The Voice of the Fugitive, and so founded The Provincial Freeman in response. By doing so she became one of the first women, and the first Black woman on the North American continent, to edit and publish a newspaper. Vivid herself owed a tremendous debt to another pioneering Black woman, Miss Rebecca Lee. Fifteen years after Elizabeth Blackwell became the first American woman to gain a degree in medicine, Rebecca Lee received hers from the New England Medical College. Had Miss Lee not pursued her dream, Vivid might not have been afforded the opportunity to succeed on her own.

He set the bucket below the spout. She tried not to stare as he undid the buttons of his cuffs and rolled the sleeves up past his elbows, but her eyes were instantly drawn to the beautiful structure of his arms.

When she showed up wearing them that first day at his office, he'd nearly scalded himself with the coffee he was pouring. It was how he felt every time he saw her: scalded.

Nate opened his hand and showed it to Eli. "Tails. Offer your regrets." Eli looked into his cousin's eyes for a moment, then, shaking his head, stated, "Ladies, it appears I won't be able to accompany you to Detroit. My cousin will escort you instead." Magic cheered, unmindful of the adults and their intrigue. Eli asked, "What if it had been tails?" "Then we would have flipped again." Eli seemed to assess Nate a moment before asking, "That bad, is it?" Silence. Eli chuckled knowingly, "That bad. Well, I've lost the war anyway, you may as well take my place."

So what did he want? Logical choice or illogical choice? The logical choice would be to distance himself; she made it quite clear where she stood on becoming involved with a man at this juncture of her life, and the fate of her position here as doctor still remained unresolved. The illogical choice would be to pursue her. He chose the illogical. He chose the light.

"I'll give you time and I'll go slow. However, I mean to have you, Lancaster,

"I mean to have you, Viveca, be it today...tomorrow...or...a year from now. You are mine..."

"Are you proposing to court me?" "No, Gail, we're going bear hunting. Yes, woman, I propose to court you." "You have sawdust where your brain should be." "With you running me through a sawmill for the last thirty years, it's no wonder. And just so you'll know I'm serious, I'll be making the announcement at church on Sunday." "You wouldn't dare." He looked into her eyes and said, "Abigail, you won't believe the things I'm going to dare."

When she turned to greet him with a kiss of her own, he stayed her with a gentle squeeze of his hands on her waist and whispered thickly against her ear, "No, stay just as you are, I want to hold you like this for a little while..."

He spent a few more moments with his daughter, then as Magic went off to show Jeremiah the new slingshot her father had brought back from Kalamazoo, he stepped onto the porch. "So how are you," he said softly, "besides being in need of a good loving?'' "Nate Grayson!" Vivid replied with a scandalized laugh. She glanced around to make sure he hadn't been overheard by Abigail in the house. "I must find you some humble pills immediately." "Lancaster, I haven't kissed you in over two weeks. You're as hungry for me as I am for you."

"Some power—I had the power to curse and scream and that was all. Maybe it wouldn't hurt so much if the child had died of an illness, something I couldn't cure, but he died from ignorance, Nate, pure ignorance." "It won't happen again." "Yes, it will. Ignorance is the hardest thing to cure." "No, it won't. At least not here in the Grove." "Why not?" "Because we have a fancy new city doctor named Viveca Lancaster." Vivid turned to him and looked into his eyes. "What are you saying?" she asked. "That I want you to have the position on a permanent basis, starting now." "Why now, why today?" "Because you're every bit the doctor you say you are, Lancaster, and I refuse to let Wadsworth Hayes near any of our people again." His eyes were serious behind the spectacles. She noted that he'd said "our" people as if she was a member of the community, too.

"Yes, Magic, I will. Where's your father now?" "Sitting down at the road with a shotgun." "Why on earth for?" "Keep folks from bothering you." "People are supposed to bother me, I'm a doctor." "Pa says if they're not dying they can come back tomorrow. Says you need to rest."

"I fell asleep on you again, didn't I?" "That's okay, princess. You're here to rest, remember. Besides, that just means I can keep you up till sunrise." Vivid felt the heat burn her face and smiled.

But he didn't or couldn't hear her. He was screaming, '"Run, Pa! Run!" He was flailing around on the bed, throwing his arms about so violently, only grace from above kept Vivid from being inadvertently hit in the face by his powerful fists. "Nate!" she screamed again. "Nate!" The dream held on, tossing him like flotsam on a violent sea, even as Vivid's pleas filled the night. She had never been so frightened in all her life. She didn't realize she was crying until she tasted the salty wetness on her lips. She flung herself atop him and, holding him as tight as she could, whispered passionately, "Nate, come back to me, please, Nate, I love you, please come back."

Vivid looked at herself in the glass. She'd opted for one of her fancier dresses, not to impress Mr. Farley but to keep herself in check. In a fancy dress and with her hair up she would probably be less likely to stride across the grass and punch Nate Grayson in the nose.

Vivid felt Eli stiffen at her side. To prevent Eli from leaping to her defense Vivid called out to the other men in the barn. "I didn't come to interrupt your evening, gentlemen, but would you mind if Dr. Hatcher and I play a game or two? Then I'll leave." Over the buzz set off by her request, Adam Crowley's voice boomed out, "Be our guest, Doc." Nate watched her stride to the table in that beautiful dress. He took great exception to the way Hatcher appeared to be observing the swish of her skirts as she walked, but Nate held himself in check for now. He'd let Viveca get in her shots first.

After re-casing her stick, Vivid peered into the furious eyes of Dr. David Hatcher, University of Michigan, and said, "Been nice playing with you." Then she exited with a smile.

It took five men to restrain Nate so he wouldn't go run into the flames to find her. "Viveca, I will go to my grave hearing him scream your name again and again," she whispered with tears in her voice. "It was as if his heart were being ripped right from his chest."

She heard the door open and turned to see Nate step out. He came to stand behind her and kiss her on the cheek. "What are you doing out here?" he asked. "Counting my blessings." "Do you have many?" Vivid turned and looked up into his eyes and said lovingly, "More than there are stars in the sky." "I love you, too," he told her.