Finding Eden(81)

"Let's go to that museum today," Eden suggested as we were getting dressed. "It's really the only thing we haven't done."

"Okay," I agreed. "Should we think about going back to Cincinnati?"

She looked sad. "Maybe just a couple more days? I'm not ready to leave just yet."

I smiled. "Me neither."

Outside, the air smelled fresh and I inhaled deeply. The rain had washed everything clean and somehow the world seemed brighter.

We strolled downtown to the small building that held the French Lick West Baden Museum and waited as the guide finished with another tour. We were the only two in the next group and I held Eden's hand as we walked through the building, the tour guide expounding on all the artifacts.

As we stood and looked at a poster of an advertisement from a company that sold the spring water as an elixir back in the eighteen hundreds, our tour guide explained, "Pluto water is what made the French Lick resort famous. It was sold as a health remedy for chronic ailments of the stomach, liver, kidneys, you name it. It was declared that these waters had miraculous powers to cure everything from asthma to alcoholism to venereal disease." He chuckled. "Guesthouses were built around the springs so people could drink and soak in the Pluto Water."

Eden tilted her head. "Why was it called Pluto Water?" she asked.

"Oh, it was named for the god of the underworld because the waters came from underground and were dark like the mythical River Styx."

I glanced at Eden who had a small frown on her face and then back at the poster. Rest for the weary, Cure for the ill, I read. "Did the stuff really work?" I asked.

The tour guide chuckled again. "Well they tested the water at some point and found it was full of two things," he looked back at us as he continued through the museum, "salt and traces of lithium."

"Lithium?" I asked as he stopped at another display.

"Yeah, they use it now as a mood stabilizer for mental health issues. ’Course you'd have to drink quite a bit of the water to get those affects, but a little bit of it could sure put you in a good mood, and the salt would clear you out real fast so that some of your ailments probably would feel better. Temporarily at least." He continued on, my heart rate picked up in speed. I looked over at Eden and I could see that she was thinking the same thing I was.

"Sir," I interrupted, "these springs, are there other ones? I mean, in other parts of the country? Is it possible?"

"Oh I s’pose it's possible. I don't personally know of any others, but could be."

I nodded and we continued through, my mind spinning in a million directions. When we finally thanked the guide and stepped back out onto the large front porch of the museum, Eden whispered, "Hector, he was here, wasn't he?"

"I think so," I said, looking around as if I would suddenly see him walking toward us on the sidewalk. I shivered despite the fall sunshine and pulled Eden into my side.

"Did he find a spring that had the same elements?" she asked, frowning.

I shook my head. "That or he added them, if that's even possible. I don't know. All I do know is, Pluto Water," I looked over at her, "it was the same as our holy water."





CHAPTER SIXTEEN




Calder



We walked around a little bit more and then Eden left for the appointment she had for a massage at the spa while I went back up to the room to watch another movie. I went over the spring water thing in my head, but couldn't come to any conclusions. Was it possible it was just a coincidence? What connected Hector to this place other than the fact that Eden was pretty sure Hector had brought her to this state after he abducted her? I guessed it would make sense that the first council member he would try to recruit—Eden's father—would be within driving distance. And it would be more likely that Hector would have heard Eden's father's story—it was practically local.

I lay back on the bed, not bothering to turn the TV on. My mind kept going around and around Hector's connection to Indiana, and now, this place in particular. There was the Pluto Water name—a Greek connection—just like all the other Greek connections in our religion and so many other parts of Acadia. But what did it mean? I had no clue. Was it possible Hector had simply been traveling through this part of the country and had liked the idea of the spring and sought it out in another place—in Arizona? So many things were possible. And we'd probably never truly understand any of it.

I shot Xander a quick text about the water and told him to look it up online and let me know what he thought. He texted back and told me he was working, but that he would when he got home.