Kyle smiled as he wrestled with his own emotions. “I bet that made her happy. We all knew how much she loved you. I wanted a marriage like yours when I married Jennifer. We’re not there yet, but we’re trying.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Son. I never walked home from Texas for your mother.”
“But you would have if you needed to. You know it, and don’t say otherwise.”
Gene smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re right. I suppose I would have walked as far as I needed to for her. Florida to Alaska, if that’s what it took, though I’m glad I didn’t have to. My hips would have made it tough.”
“Are they still bothering you?”
He nodded. “They are, but I think a replacement is out of the question now. The best our doctors can do is sew a few stitches or give recommendations on how to stay healthy. I hear they’ve done a couple minor surgeries, but it’s only the essential stuff -removing bullets, or delivering babies, that kind of thing. At this point I expect I’ll die with the hips I was born with. Guess that’s the way God designed it.”
The Bed and Breakfast was in sight, and they could see smoke billowing from the cabin’s chimney. Gene motioned to the cabin. “You haven’t said what you plan to do with the boy.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Kyle said, shaking his head. “He doesn’t talk, I don’t know where he’s from, and I killed the only family that I know he had. I’ve been trying to think of something, but I’m at a loss.”
Gene put his hand on Kyle’s arm. “If we can’t figure anything out, let him stay with me. I spent a lot of years with kids, and I think it would be better for me than being alone, since I’m pretty sure you’re going to head back to your family at some point.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am,” he said decisively. “I’ve thought about it for the last couple of days. I need to have someone around, and he can’t take care of himself. Plus, I think he’s on the verge of opening up. I can see it in his eyes when I talk to him. There’s a spark there that’s gently flickering back to life. He even smiled at me this morning. If we get something better figured out for him, that’s fine. But if not, I’ll take him.”
“That would be good for him to have someone that cares. I don’t think he was in the best environment where I found him.”
They reached the cabin and pushed the door open. Collin was reading in a chair by the window and looked up when they came in.
“We’ve got lunch, Collin,” Kyle said, holding up a slab of venison he had purchased at the market. “You like deer meat?”
The boy shook his head vigorously. “No,” he said, defiantly putting the book down on his lap.
Gene looked at Kyle and whispered, “He speaks.”
Kyle turned back to Collin. “I’m really sorry, but it’s what we have. What do you like?”
“Pizza.”
Kyle stopped in his tracks. Gene’s eyes opened wide. They had tried to get Collin to talk for the five days since arriving in Moyie, but they had never gotten more than a grunt out of him when he was awake. During the night he would talk in his sleep, but that was it.
“I think I can get some flour at the market tomorrow and try to make a pizza,” Gene said. “Is there anything else you like?”
The boy looked up at the two men, the wheels in his head turning. “Hamburgers,” he said hopefully. “And spaghetti.”
“Oh, those are delicious, aren’t they?” Gene crossed the room and sat in a chair facing Collin, eager to engage the child. “I like broccoli and carrots. Do you?”
Collin shook his head. “No, they’re gross, but I like corn, and Corn Flakes.”
Gene peppered the boy with questions about food, discovering his preferences on anything a person could eat-Chinese, Italian, Mexican, candy, snacks, fruit, and on and on. They talked about food for thirty minutes, with Kyle listening while he stewed the venison in a pot on the woodstove.
Kyle indicated to his father that the food was ready. Gene stood and smiled at the boy. “Lunch is ready,” he said, “but I wonder if I can ask a favor?”
Collin nodded cautiously.
Gene bit his lower lip. “My wife died a few weeks ago, and it’s been really hard for me. I miss her a lot, you know. Anyway, she would always give me these big, long hugs. I wondered if you would do me a favor and give me a hug, to help me not miss her as much.”
Kyle held his breath, watching, waiting to see how Collin would respond.
Collin looked nervously around the room, then up at Gene, and nodded. He stood and moved to Gene with his arms out wide.
Gene knelt in front of the boy and embraced him, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Oh, thank you, Collin. This makes me feel a lot better. It’s really hard when you lose someone you love, isn’t it?”
Kyle’s eyes blurred as the boy’s head bobbed vigorously up and down against Gene’s shoulder. They held their embrace, arms wrapped tightly around each other, both crying, until Kyle finally broke the silence. “The food’s going to get cold, guys,” he croaked out. “Let’s eat.”
CHAPTER 42
Monday, February 20th
Deer Creek, MT
Jennifer escorted her brood through the front door of the house and instructed them to go down stairs and change out of their good clothes, then read or play quietly so she could take a nap on the upstairs couch, hoping to get rid of a headache that had been tormenting her for two days. Their family had just returned home from the funeral service for the men killed on Thursday, while Carol and Grace had gone on together after the service to help tend to the injured men, each recuperating in their own homes and attended to by their families. Six had been wounded, three seriously, but Carol was only really worried about one of them, a woman who had taken a bullet in the stomach.
Four Deer Creek men had been buried. All were given hero’s farewells for their willingness to protect the community, no matter the cost, and Jennifer was emotionally and physically drained. She couldn’t remember a more difficult period in her life than the previous three and a half weeks. She had thought the first weeks after the EMP were tough, and they were, but now they seemed comparatively easy.
Kyle’s arrest, near execution, then banishment, the death of Madison’s mother, caring for the baby under tough conditions, the assault on the community, and the terror of losing her son as the gunfight raged within earshot – after all that, the funeral was almost a break. But even then, to see the grief of families who had lost husbands and fathers just added even more to her own emotional toll, and she felt like she was reaching her limit.
Thursday’s battle had been a complete nightmare. She’d waited inside during the confrontation, trying to focus on the baby, who still didn’t love goat milk but would eventually finish her bottles. Jennifer had tried the milk and didn’t love it either, but the Shipleys had assured her that it was fine, if not delicious, so she forced the milk, the baby’s best hope to stay alive, on Madison. When the shooting had started, it terrified her, knowing that not only was David in immediate danger, but the community as a whole was on the brink as well.
As the shooting had built to a crescendo, with hundreds if not thousands of shots fired, she was sure that there wouldn’t be any survivors, and thinking of David injured, bleeding, and alone, ripped her heart out. Sending your son off to war was one thing. Sending him to war and listening to him die was something altogether different. The fighting seemed to go on forever, and Carol, Grace, and Jennifer, along with the children, had knelt in a circle and prayed until the guns went silent.
As soon as the shooting was over, the women had rushed to the bridge, searching frantically for the injured and, more specifically for Jennifer, David. No one had known where he was when she got there, the regular militia units having been split up. She had headed across the bridge, having just passed Luther’s twisted body and fearing the worst, when Ty had called her over to where he sat with his wife, nervous tremors still wracking his body.