Dying Embers

"I can't do anything, Sam, unless she turns over the papers. It's out of our jurisdiction in any case but I know the right feds to take them to. Tell her that sleeping dogs wake up once in a while and sometimes their bite is much worse than their bark.

"If anything comes up, give me a call. If I'm home I can be there in five minutes."

It was a hot summer night about a month later that it all broke loose. I'd left the windows open trying to catch a breeze. I was lying there half-awake hoping Mary Kate would come over for a visit. I heard a car coming down the drive and had a bad feeling about it. I called Bill and told him it might be nothing – but then again it might be something … not good.

"I'll be there right away – I know your road well enough I can come in dark and silent. You better grab your gun, just in case."

I didn't want to ask what the "just in case" meant. I pulled on my jeans and boots and slipped out the door just as I heard some shouting. I grabbed my rifle from the truck and a handful of shells from the box in the glove compartment. I thumbed the shells in as I walked along the tree line, trying to get close enough to see.

I was able to get behind a large pine about forty yards from the cabin. After that there was no more cover. I could see them clearly in the cabin's porch light plus he'd left his headlights on. He was shouting something about the briefcase and had a gun in one hand and Mary Kate's arm in the other. I could see Colleen standing in the doorway, petrified.

I didn't take time to think it out – I couldn't take a chance of anything happening to my love. I took a snap shot at one of his headlights, hoping to distract him so I could rush up. It must have shorted the electrical system because both lights went out. It almost worked out perfectly.

Mary Kate hit his ear as hard as she could with her fist, hard enough to stun him while she rushed back in the cabin and locked the door. I sensed more than heard the bar fall into place – I hadn't known the girls even knew it was there; they had never used it before.

I was rushing at the guy - I assumed it was Joey - but he wasn't as stunned as I had thought. He threw a shot at me that knocked me over. I could see him running at me to finish me off. He had a crazed look that I knew well and realized that if I couldn't get my rifle from under my leg I was dead.

He stopped right over me, looking down and raised his pistol. There was a sudden bright glow as Bill turned his spotlight on and yelled, "Police!"

Joey turned and started firing at the sheriff's car, not really visible behind the brightness of the lamp. There was a single shot from Bill, heavier, flatter sounding than the shots from Joey, almost simultaneous with a lucky shot from Joey hitting the spotlight.

In the comparative darkness I could see nothing but red tainted carnage where the back of Joey's head should be. I crawled over to make sure he was dead as Bill yelled, "Sam, what's happening?"

"He's dead, Bill. Come on over."

Bill brought his flashlight and glanced down – he'd seen enough death in the A Shau Valley with a LRRP team to know what death looked like. He took a quick look at my shoulder and pronounced it to be minor.

"It went through the meaty part of your shoulder – you're lucky, it doesn't look like it hit any bones. The bleeding is not too bad."

He walked back to his car to call it in and fetch an ambulance for me. Lucky, hell, I was hurting in a way I didn't know was possible. Mary Kate came out with Colleen trailing behind, timidly. Neither even looked at the gruesome remains of their father and husband respectively.

Mary Kate, practical and knowledgeable as I had come to expect from her, had taken off her robe and was holding it against the entry and exit openings of my shoulder wound to hold the bleeding down until Bill got back with his emergency kit and the ambulance would show up. I knew that would take at least ten more minutes.

Colleen was holding my other arm, leaning into me and crying. "Oh, daddy, I was so scared. Please be all right!"

Daddy? She called me daddy?

Bill came over with the medicine kit and Mary Kate taped a couple pads to my shoulder – a little more tightly than I expected. I was in a numb and bewildered state by then. The ambulance arrived a little quicker than I would have expected and I guess I passed out. I woke on stiff white sheets with that unique smell all hospitals have permeating the air.

Mary Kate was sitting in a chair, asleep, her hair tousled and looking absolutely ravishing. A nurse walked in to see if I was still in the land of the living – they were curious about things like that – and Mary Kate woke up. After the nurse left, she came over and sat on the bed, giving me a quick kiss and a smile.

"Sam, I'm … well, I'm glad that it wasn't you that killed him. It would … Sam, it would have been okay if you did … but I'm glad it wasn't you. He was crazy – I think he would have killed both of us.

"I'm sorry for not telling you everything earlier, but I was scared. I can tell you now how much I love you. You are a kind, gentle man, and you have a way of making me feel special. Can we wait until Christmas to get married? I don't want to distract Colleen from the Olympics. But if you want to we can get married right away. Oh, Sam, I love you so."

Here she put her head on my good shoulder and did the crying thing. I patted her back and let her work through it. She'd been through a lot. What was that she said? We were getting married? Well, that was okay with me. I didn't think I really had any choice – Mary Kate could be a determined woman. And Colleen had called me daddy, right? With that the pain meds took me away into a deep and dreamless sleep.

~~~~~~

Bill wound up getting a commendation from the county board of supervisors and tons of unwanted paperwork. He groused about all the work I'd caused him, but I noticed that was a mighty fine frame he'd put that commendation in. It looked right nice in his office next to the stuffed speckled trout I'd given him as a joke for his fishing prowess last Christmas.

Mary Kate didn't have to get involved with the mess in San Diego that the papers caused. She really didn't, in fact, know anything but that they were in her husband's briefcase. The feds took a sworn deposition and in the resulting trials the evidence came from "an anonymous tip." Most of the stuff they were able to independently create and verify now that they knew where to look.

Colleen did great at the Olympics … not in the medals but not that far out. I was just as proud as her mom was. After we got back she told us, " … now that she had realized her dream she was ready to focus on school." She would always stay involved and she was thinking of working with her mom summers once she started college, teaching young girls what she knew.

We did have our marriage at Christmas. Mary Kate said she wanted a small wedding, which was fine with me. It turned out like half of Prineville was there: all the people we met through the little businesses Mary Kate had started.

My kids, Ken and Susan, came out, bringing their kids with them. Ken was the best man and Colleen was the bridesmaid. Ken and Susan both loved Mary Kate, as I knew they would. I mean, what's not to love?

They didn't say much about Jean; they didn't see her anymore than they saw me. They thought she was "okay" but that she didn't seem really happy. I just shrugged my shoulders – it was like reading about someone in the newspaper: interesting but it meant nothing to me.

Both Ken and Susan said they wanted to send their kids out for the summer when they got old enough … if it was okay with me. They could see this was a great environment for them. They also promised to actually bring the kids and make it their main vacation each year.

I wanted to take Mary Kate on a fancy honeymoon, but she demurred. "Sam, living with you is a honeymoon every day. I don't need to go away to be happy. I have all the happiness a girl could dream about right here with you."

Well, that was fine with me.

Then she added, "Besides you'd miss your grulla too much."

I swatted her behind and she ran away laughing.

~~~~~~

We talked about kids but came to a quick agreement that we were too old. We wanted to focus on each other and this surprise love we found that neither had ever expected.

We would talk over, every once in a while, all that had happened. We eventually came to agree that life was not something we made happen, but something that happened to us. When the time came for a final accounting we shared a belief that the only important things in life were the deep and lasting love we shared, our family and our friends.

Mary Kate had gone to bed, waiting for me. I was finishing my coffee, waiting for the fire to burn down a bit. No, I didn't see any dying embers; I saw the bright flames of a love that would last forever.

Thanks for reading this story. For several reasons it's one of my personal favorites and I hope you enjoyed it. Please vote and remember I love feedback.

Kind regards, Jake.