Blacklake-Book4-1 Three Cousins

Chapter 49
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We had turned back when we hit the sharp cliffs that delineate the Range and the West Slope. I wouldn’ta gone that far if I’d selected the route. But ya don’t argue with an ogre hen. I woulda wormed about more over the various elk tracks within a half-day hike of the Hamlet. We had essed the coordinates of the compass plenty, I guess.

Mama selected to return via a fairly direct route—if elk trails can be called direct. After three nights out already, I guess she was kinda done, knowin’ we had another night before we met up with Papa and Ezra, and we’d gone through all our food but maybe a few trail bars. Ick.

Mid day, Mama selected a nice highland valley that buzzed with the song of insects and the flyin’ things that dine on em. The sun was gorgeously satisfyin’, out from underneath the pine canopy. She dropped her pack in the thick elk grass and stretched.

“How ya doing?” I asked.

“Been livin’ the soft life too long,” she muttered—sounded a bit angry about it. “We had to do this, but it was such a waste of time.”

I’ve lived into my twenties by not arguin’ with my mama. Though really, not sure what I coulda argued about.

She twisted at the hips hard, gettin’ her elbows pointed south from each side, as I unloaded and walked to the near trickle of snow melt to fill up my canteen. I walked back and offered it to her.

“Ya didn’t have to do this,” I said. “Certainly didn’t expect ya to. But it meant a lot to Ezra.” Wonder if it irked her that her own papa and mama opted to ‘keep things organized’ in the Hamlet.

Mama took my canteen. “As leaders of the Range, wasn’t much to talk about one way or the other. Besides, I’d do anything for Ezra. If any of ya I sprit from my loins was half the kind creature Ezra is, I would one day die a happy ogre.”

I laughed. Snorted maybe.

“Like I’m jokin’?” she hissed.

“I often wish for a more lovin’ mama too,” I told her.

“As ya should. Ya comin’ after I had to put up with three others, amazin’ ya ever got fed.”

“Why I’m still a bit thin and scrawny,” I said. She handed back my canteen and I finished it off, and strode back to the stream to refill it.

~ Ezra ~

We waited for Aunt Dorig and Ike three hours. We coulda driven home and taken showers, had a good meal. We had regular cell service, so Uncle’s eyes didn’t flit away from his phone. Musta had thousands of texts and emails to go through. If any of them had been important, the info woulda come over our satellite radios.

So I couldn’t help but snarl at the two of em, for what took em so long. Which was wrong. They didn’t have to be out here. Four nights we all slept on blanket-covered pine needles. For Bliar and me, one night under a cold drizzle that lasted most of the night. Four days they removed themselves from their busy lives. I should be more grateful.

“My corns have corns,” Aunt mumbled to shut me up maybe, before collectin’ me into a troll-firm hug. Ouch. After a bunch of heartbeats, she sorta pushed me away to clasp inside Uncle’s arms. She kept her forehead settled in the nook of his shoulder a good minute. Some exhaustion, some relief, and for missin’ her bull.

“See anything at all that looked out of the ordinary?” Ike asked me softly as he loaded his kit into the back of Bliar’s SUV.

I shook my head. “Mosquitoes and more mosquitoes, ticks, and twice as many gnats,” I answered. “Ya?”

He shook his head, strode over to his mama and thread her gear off of her. Headin’ back to the SUV he asked if we had any food left. I gave him a head shake. Pretty certain my stomach started eatin’ itself two days ago.

I wish he hadn’t asked. I was already shakin’ for lack of energy.

This whole thing was idjiotic. But I had to do it. Maybe wish they hadn’t come with me. I’ll love the three of em for eternity, for sharin’ in this nonsense with me. The Range is too vast. We could hike about out here another hundred nights and find nothing. And we have prolly two hundred others out here searchin’. No stinkin’ tellin’ where Thomas is. That fool.

I miss him. They killed him ’causea me.

~