Family Sins(82)

By daybreak they were up and running wild, filled with the elation of having slept the whole night outside. He remembered the fried ham and biscuits their mama made for breakfast that morning, giving them one last camp meal to end their adventure. They ate sitting in a circle, listening to Daddy spinning tales about the wild animals he’d fought off while they slept.

His heart hurt. He was struggling to find a new level in the family without his father’s presence, and he knew his mother’s pain was so much worse.

And yet, in all that loss and pain, knowing Talia was sleeping in his bed felt like a gift from God. He kept remembering something his Grandma Youngblood used to say about the Lord giving and the Lord taking away. It was the Universal search for balance, always in motion as it attempted to reach equilibrium.

The back door opened. He turned toward the house and saw all his brothers coming toward him.

“We didn’t know where you’d gone,” Samuel said.

“We didn’t want you out here by yourself,” Michael added.

“They made me come with them,” Aidan said, which made everyone laugh.

Jesse laughed, too, filled with the joy of still being one of the boys.

A group hug ensued, and then the night wrapped them up in silence as they stood together beneath the stars.

*

It had taken a while for Bowie to get Jesse calmed down after everyone had gone home, so he’d pulled out the Daniel Boone book and read another chapter, giving Leigh time to shower.

He was sitting on the bed with Jesse when he heard the water come on in the bathroom across the hall, and when he heard his mother crying he read louder.

It was just shy of midnight when Bowie finally got to take his own shower. A few minutes later he eased into bed beside Talia and settled the covers over both of them, taking care not to wake her. He thought it would be hard to fall asleep, and yet he was asleep within minutes.

He was dreaming that they were dancing, and that Talia was standing on his feet as they moved across the floor. She had locked her hands behind his neck. His hands were at her waist, and she was laughing and laughing, when all of a sudden the laugh morphed into a scream.

He woke with his heart pounding, only to realize it wasn’t a dream and Talia was screaming in her sleep.

He jumped up and turned on the light. “Talia! Sweetheart! Wake up!”

She gasped, then choked, and was trying to catch her breath when Leigh burst into the room.

“Bad dream?” she asked.

“Yes,” Bowie said.

“Bless her heart,” Leigh said. “I’ll make her a cup of hot chocolate to wash it away.”

Talia was crying and struggling to sit up when Bowie lifted her into his arms, then walked over to a big easy chair by the window and sat down with her close against his chest. With all the bruises on her knees and legs, and the broken ribs, he let her lean on him, rather than holding her too tight.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” he kept saying. “It was a dream, just a dream.”

Talia knew it, but the shock and the sensation of falling was still fresh in her mind. In the dream she’d even felt the rush of air against her skin as she was tumbling.

“I wasn’t in a car. It was just me. I fell off the mountain, and I kept falling and falling and falling, and then you woke me. Oh my God, it was so real.”

“It was a dream, and it’s over. Mama is making you some hot chocolate—to wash away the dream, she said.”

Talia groaned. “Oh, no! I woke her, too? Did I wake Jesse? Is he okay?”

“Mama needs someone to baby, honey. Let her do her thing. As for Jesse, he sleeps through just about everything.”

Talia went limp against him, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.

A couple of minutes later Leigh was back, carrying a small towel and a steaming cup of hot chocolate. “I put marshmallows in it,” she said.

“That’s what Mother used to do,” Talia said, and burst into tears.

“Bless your heart,” Leigh said, as she sat the cup aside and pulled a blanket from the bed for Bowie to cover Talia with. Then she leaned over the both of them, gave each one a kiss on the cheek and left the room.

Talia cried until her eyes were swollen and the chocolate had cooled. She drank it lukewarm, sharing some with Bowie until the cup was empty and the hollow feeling in her belly was gone.

“Do you feel like you’re ready to lie back down?” Bowie asked.

“I want to go to the bathroom first,” she said.

“I’ll get you there, then you call out when you want me to come get you.”

“I think maybe I can walk,” she said, but when she stood, her knees were so stiff and painful that the few steps she took were more than Bowie could stand to witness.

He carried her across the darkened hall and into the bathroom, waited until she was steady enough on her feet to get to the toilet, and then slipped out the door. A couple of minutes later he heard the toilet flush and then water running in the sink. He was waiting for her to call him when she opened the door.

“I’m ready,” she said softly.

He carried her back to bed, turned off the lights and stretched out beside her once more. There were a few moments of silence, and then he heard her sigh.

“I love you, Bowie.”

He smiled. “I love you, too,” he said.