Land of Bones and Tears

Chapter One

Scotland, A Favor

“So, you’re going to take a leave of absence? About time you got a decent break. Any idea how long you’ll be gone?” Luke was stretched out in front of the fireplace, a large helping of pie on the floor in front of him. I reached down and grabbed it.  It was his third piece. He could spare it – at least long enough for Linton to bring him more. I sat cross-legged on the floor and dug into the pie.

“Ah, my instincts told me that Mrs. MacG’s pie was not destined to be a leftover,” Linton commented as he came into the room carrying a large tray with coffee and pie on it. He slid half the remaining pie on the plate I’d pilfered from Luke then gave the rest to Luke to finish while he proceeded to fix Irish coffees for the three of us. Mine was more whiskey than coffee but there was no need to tell Linton how to prepare it, he knew all of our quirks and preferences. Luke’s would have just a drop of Bailey’s and no doubt decaf for the rest.

“Don’t you want any, Peter?” Luke shifted over to make room in front of the fire for English to sit next to him. 

“I chose to stop at a human sized portion, thank you,” English answered. “Did I hear you say that Red is going on vacation?  Where is he going?”

“Well, ‘He’ is thinking of going home to visit his granddad, which he would tell you directly if you asked politely,” I drawled. Of course, I was drinking the coffee he’d brought me and eating the pie he’d fetched, so I didn’t really have much grounds for complaining about his manners, but it was fun to get him embarrassed. I waited until his cheeks were tinged pink and he was stiffly formal in making amends.

“I apologize, Red, for ....”

“Can it, English, I was just pulling your chain.  I was gonna tell you – so you could tell Mrs. MacG to cut back on the baking, if for no other reason. We wouldn’t want Irish there losing his girlish figure.”

“Never gonna happen,” Luke assured us happily as he put the last bite in his mouth.  “Anyway, it’s about time you got a chance to go see Grandfather. I’d love to see him again. You want company?”

I stared into the fire. Luke’s words were casual but I knew the offer was sincere. He was careful not to intrude when it came to my grandfather, sensitive to the fact that I had just him when Luke had dozens of family members. But the balance wasn’t like that between us, not really. I think I had more quality time with my grandfather than Luke ever had with his father, and the two of us were closer brothers than Luke was with any of his blood brothers, except perhaps Danny, the youngest. Though to be accurate, all three of us, Luke, Linton and me, pretty much saw Danny as the son none of us had ever had. 

But this was something I needed to do on my own.  Much as Granddad loved Luke and appreciated how he’d taken me under his wing when I was still a wild recruit and Luke a slightly more somber newly minted officer, fresh out of college, there were some things that only a son could do for a father, and where the son didn’t live, the duty fell to the grandson... me.

Granddad was counting on me to help him die.  I wasn’t all that sure I’d be able to do it but I knew pretty damn well that Luke would never be able to do such a thing. Hell, he’d never be able to put a pet down when it was time, not that we’ve ever had to, thank God. Point was, he would not understand my grandfather taking matters into his own hands, more or less, by turning matters over to the Great Spirit. At heart, Luke was still the good little Catholic boy, no matter what denomination his mother told him to follow.

Of course, I should have known that Luke wouldn’t leave it at that. We’ve been traveling the same road for a long time now and he just isn’t one to let something like this go.  He found me later when I was out by the lake with Vasha, giving her one more stroll before turning in for the night

“She’s slowing down a bit, it seems. At least, she seems that way to my eyes since getting back. Funny how that goes. You live with someone or some dog, and you don’t notice the little changes, but spend some time away and....”

“You’re babbling, Irish,” I pointed out, skipping a stone across the smooth surface of the lake. Six hops. Not bad.

Luke pulled a stone out of his pocket and with a sidelong grin and a wink, sent it sailing out onto the smooth surface of the lake – nine fucking skips. I can never beat him.

“It’s all in the stone selection,” he said, smiling modestly.

“Yeah right. You used to say it was all in the wrist, didn’t you?”

“That’s what I tell Peter to get him to fiddle around with how he throws it. He picks better stones than you do,” he confessed, unashamed.

I debated tossing him into the lake. He took a couple of steps away and braced himself – tough to get the drop on a man who knew you almost as well as you knew yourself. I turned back toward the lake. It was cold tonight. Vasha was standing close to us rather than running in and out of the water, chasing fish. Too cold for play. Too old for play, my mind suggested, making me face a truth I really wasn’t ready for. I’d never learned to hide from unpleasant truths. Luke wasn’t good at it either, though he sometimes needed a little protection from truths he wasn’t ready for.

“Red, talk to me. What’s going on back home that you don’t want me coming along with you?”

I tried playing innocent. It wasn’t something I was as good at as him but then by the very fact that I rarely tried it, I was more likely to get away with it when I did try.

“Nothing special. Just the old man getting older – and I haven’t seen him in a long time. Seeing how much slower Vasha is after just a short absence, and reading how much he seems to miss me in his letter – I felt a bit homesick for the old guy. Next visit, y’all feeling like some time on the reservation, we can all go, but this time, I don’t want to throw him by having all of us descend on him. Me and Vash’ll be enough. He can brew some of his herbal shit for her and pay some attention to me without worrying over why you’re so skinny and why English is so pale.”

Luke laughed. “I think Grandfather is sharp enough to figure out why Peter is pale. Probably ran into a few Brits back in the day, during WW II.” His voice sobered in an instant. Luke could change moods on a dime. “I’m not trying to force my way in on some private time with your grandfather, Steve. I hope you know that. It’s just that....”

“You care. I know. And Granddad thinks of you as family. I appreciate that, Irish. It took me by surprise when I realized that Linton didn’t even know he was still alive.”

“That’s because we always talk about him as a kind of legend, which he is.”

“Well, I’ll get him settled back in at his new quarters at our old reservation, where he wants to return and sound him out about all of us visiting next summer. We’ll go fishing.”

Luke liked that idea and we talked about it for a while before heading back. I wondered where we’d be next summer but didn’t voice that thought. Our conversation then turned to the practicalities of traveling with a dog across borders. Peter and Luke were much better at using our Alliance and military connections to eliminate the red tape. I would have just tried to avoid detection as I flew from the U.S. into Canada and then back into Montana.

Just before we reached the house again, Luke managed to surprise me.  He put his hand on my shoulder to stop me on the porch, and leaned back against the railing, looking deceptively at ease. I knew that look – he was up to something. Too casual.

“Since you’re going to be flying to the U.S. on a commercial flight and picking up one of Doug’s planes in Pittsburgh anyway, would you mind doing me a favor? Well, kind of a secondhand favor really. One for my sister Mary Frances.”

“What kind of favor does Mary Fran need?” I wasn’t being particularly gentlemanly, but I was on guard. Luke knew that I had a soft spot for that particular sister of his, so while he knew I would do anything for one of his family, he wouldn’t normally drag me into anything having to do with her lightly. Not just to find out what I was up to. Turned out he did have a favor he wanted. A damn annoying favor. And suspiciously coincidental.

“Her girl, Colleen, has been nag...I mean, asking to go off to do some mission work at the Montana reservations. Seems there are some Episcopal Relief projects going on out there. But Frannie’s been hesitant to let her go after what happened in Haiti, and she can’t handle the long trip by bus or car because of her busted up leg, which has been all the excuse Frannie’s needed to keep her home.”

“So what’s the favor?”  My personal feeling was that the girl should stay home for a while. She almost died in Haiti – her and her sister – when a building collapsed on them during the earthquake. Wouldn’t hurt for her to put her do-gooding on the back burner for a while. She must only be about twenty-two, twenty-three, plenty of time to almost kill herself. Now was when she should be having fun, taking life easy.

I didn’t say it but Luke was uncanny at reading me because he softly asked, “Remember what we were doing in our early twenties?”

“We were in the marines, special forces, learning to kill people as I recall.”

“So, this niece of mine wants to help people, Red. Kind of a nice way to spend her early twenties, don’t you think? We got injured but we got right back into the thick of things. That’s what she wants to do. I think she should be allowed to. She’s got more to her than some of the rest of her generation, who seem to worry more about their clothes than how to make a difference in the world.”

I sighed. Heavily, just so he knew I was doing it for him and not for his sister, though that probably went without saying. His sister would no doubt be unhappy with me for helping her daughter leave home to head off for more work in a poverty stricken area. At least it would be in the continental U.S. Though if things were still as bad at the reservations as the last time I’d checked, they would be just as poor.

“Tell me where and when to pick her up. At least I can leave Vasha with her on this side of the Border while I dash over to Canada to get Granddad,” I grumbled, wondering how much more out of control this trip was going to get.

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