"Find what?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she pushed the lever fully downward.
A second wave of water rushed from the galvanized tank.
The fish spilled into the shallow channel, splashing and twisting before finding their balance in the cloudy water.
Calvin laughed again.
"You would've been better off buying fertilizer!"
Eliza ignored him.
She watched the ditch.
At first, the fish scattered.
Some moved along the bank.
Others disappeared beneath the muddy surface.
A few remained near the outlet, adjusting to the unfamiliar water.
Then something strange happened.
Several fish turned sharply toward the far end of the row.
They began swimming against a faint movement Eliza could barely see.
More followed.
Within seconds, a loose silver line formed beneath the surface.
The fish were gathering in the same direction.
Eliza felt her heart begin racing.
"Come on," she whispered.
She stepped away from the valve.
Her boots sank into the muddy soil.
Behind her, Calvin was still laughing.
"Look at them! They're trying to escape!"
But Raymond stopped smiling.
He leaned forward.
"Wait."
Calvin glanced toward him.
"What?"
Raymond pointed down the ditch.
"Why are they all going toward the same place?"
The fish were no longer scattered randomly through the muddy water.
Dozens of them were moving toward a particular section of the channel, approximately sixty yards away.
The surface there looked slightly different.
Small circular ripples spread from beneath the water.
Then another ring appeared.
And another.
Eliza took a step forward.
Her mouth went dry.
She had seen that pattern before.
Not with fish.
But in the old drawings her father had left behind.
She hurried along the bank.
The three farmers climbed down from the tractor and followed.
By the time they reached the middle of the cotton row, most of the fish had gathered around a section of ditch that looked no different from the rest except for the strange movement beneath its muddy surface.
Calvin bent closer.
For several seconds, he stared.
Then the water made a low bubbling sound.
A thin stream of clearer water rose through the mud.
The silver fish turned into the flow.
And the old farmer's smile vanished.
"What in God's name..."
Eliza knelt beside the ditch.
Her hands trembled.
Something beneath the clay was moving water upward.
Not rainwater.
Not the dirty runoff she'd released from the tanks.
A separate current.
Cooler.
Clearer.
And apparently strong enough to attract the fish toward it.
Then the mud shifted.
A small section of the ditch bottom collapsed inward.
The water began rotating in a tight circle.
And a narrow metallic edge appeared beneath the surface.
Calvin stepped backward.
For a moment, his face went pale.
Then he whispered something Eliza hadn't expected.
"That can't still be there."
She looked up.
"What?"
The old farmer stared into the ditch.
He didn't seem to hear her.
Eliza rose slowly.
"Mr. Rusk, what do you mean?"
Calvin swallowed.
His eyes remained fixed on the metal shape.