Chapter Twenty-Three

 

We followed the trail back through the darkness and soon approached the spot where we had left Billy and Eric. As we neared the fire, we spotted the outline of a pair of horses alongside it. Billy sat near a small fire as Levi piled wood atop it.

“Yin’s think you’s jus gonna leave me there with all them damn women?” he chuckled. “I figured since the snow was letting up yins might find use in some horses.” He looked down at Eric, then up to Kevin before speaking again. “I don’t mean to joke, son, he was a damn fine man, your Pa. Ain’t gonna be the same without him. I sure hope you’s alright.”

Kevin grasped him in a hug and burst into tears. “You’re like the grandpa I ain’t never had, an Pa may be gone, but he’s still laughin’ at them jokes. An he ain’t never been much fer bein’ swarmed by women neither.” He wiped the tears away and cleared his throat, then looked to Ethan and I. “Y’all are my kin, yins is like uncles to me.” He paused and looked at Billy. “Well, guess you been more like a cousin.”

We laughed, relieved that Kevin had returned to himself. Levi brought with him several large joints and we lit one up. “This here is the Cowleeeradow Crippler. Might just be my best yet, but hell I don’t remember.” He took another joint and placed it in Eric’s pocket, tapping him on the chest as he fought back the tears. “This one here is all yers.”

We took a blanket from the horse and covered him up. We stoked the fire as we smoked, fighting off the painful chill that continued to ravage our bones. We watched in amazement as the smoke swirled in a peculiar fashion, once again as if an invisible vacuum had sucked it from the air. I looked at Ethan and he at me, sharing a grin as the others grew chills at the sight.

We tended to Billy, his wound had not been as serious as we first expected. The bullet had gone straight through and the bleeding had subsided. Levi had patched him up when he arrived and he would survive until we could get back and Mary Jane and Angie could take a better look at the wound and stitch him up.

We built the fire up to a good size and slowly warmed in its heat. We heard the wolves again, much closer than before and thought of Howard, sitting lifeless, surrounded in blood aside his fire. An hour or two later we heard the wolves once more, snarling and growling from the direction of Howard’s final fire.

“Well, in his own words,” Kevin said, recalling the pages Howard had written. “Them wolves gotta eat too.”

The next morning we set Eric atop a horse and helped Billy climb onto the second. The bright sun brought with it a soothing glow, which slightly tamed the crisp winter air. We walked throughout the day, making good time, and returned to town just as night again took hold. Kevin walked to Angie, alongside the horse that carried his father and gave her the news. The screech of her cries lingered endlessly amongst the mountains.

The next morning we built a coffin and placed him deep inside the mineshaft, were he would remain until we could bury him up on Frosted Nipple, alongside his brother and J.J. The rocky earth would not allow digging a grave and the snow had hidden the rocks we would need for the task. We did not like the fact, but we would wait until the spring thaw. We considered laying him to rest here in Stronghold, as it was after all, his new home. He had helped build the town and it was here where his family would remain, but we knew that he would want to be alongside his brother.

We gathered for a small ceremony. Levi spoke and read a bit from the Bible, although we struggled to understand him. Afterward, we each said a few words, remembering him in words as best we could. As Rae and I shared our words, we relived the certain death that we had faced, and the shot that had saved the lives of our son, our faithful floppy-faced pooch, and ourselves. He had etched his memory into our lives and he would not be forgotten. Soon, although not soon enough, we would return him to his home and give him a proper burial.

Following the service, Billy made an announcement. His arm fixed in a sling, as was my own after struggling to recover from the brutal cold. “Hey y’all, well I had a little talk with my Mary Jane,” he paused. “Well after she got done hollerin’ at me fer getting mahself all shot up anyhow. An well, we’s thinkin’ that we’s gonna get hitched. Now, I know we’s ain’t got no preacher man no more, but I’s hoping Levi could do the whole, do you, an do you, thing fer us.” He paused again and looked at Kevin. “An Kev, I’d sure be honored if you’d be my best man.”

Kevin and Levi both gladly accepted. They put it together a week later and we followed afterward with an all out shindig and feast. Levi broke out a couple jugs of the moonshine he had made and offered the newlyweds a jar full of his ‘Cowleeeradow Crippler’. We drank and smoked in celebration as snow fell down upon us.