*
Bowie and Aidan were less than a hundred yards from the house when they heard another rifle shot off to their left.
“That was a rifle,” Aidan said. “Has to be Jesse.”
Bowie nodded. “I think we need to start shouting his name to let him know we’re in the area.”
“Good idea,” Aidan said. “I’ll head for the creek, then walk north, and you head for the spring above it and walk south. I think he’s somewhere in between.”
“Agreed,” Bowie said, and took off at a lope, calling Jesse’s name every few yards.
At first he could hear Aidan doing the same, and then his brother’s voice got fainter and fainter, until Bowie could no longer hear him.
The pine trees on this part of their land were thick and straight, like toothpicks in a shot glass. Bowie moved as quickly as he could through them, knowing Jesse wouldn’t be hunting in here and was more likely closer to the water.
He thought of Talia as he searched, wondering if she was already at the house with his mother and imagining what their first conversation would be like after so many years.
He paused to get his bearings and called again, “Jesse! Jesse! Where are you?” then waited without an answer. “Dang it, Jesse, where are you?” he said, and kept moving until he finally reached the spring.
Within seconds of his arrival he saw footprints and breathed a sigh of relief. Jesse had been here.
“Jesse!” he shouted again.
And then he heard something faint in the distance, and ran another couple of hundred yards before he stopped and shouted again. “Jesse! Where are you?”
He heard a faint voice and the words, “I’m here!”
“Stay there! I’m coming toward you!” he shouted, and began following the flow of water downhill.
He was still going downhill when he heard another voice. It was Aidan.
“I found him!” Aidan yelled. “We’re here!”
Bowie lengthened his stride and soon came up on Aidan and Jesse cleaning squirrels.
“Look at all my squirrels,” Jesse said proudly.
Aidan looked up. “He nailed five...all clean head shots. I can’t do that.”
“I’m a good shot,” Jesse said. “Just like Daniel Boone.”
“I see that,” Bowie said, and then gave Jesse a big hug of relief. “You know, Mama is worried about you.”
Jesse frowned. “I know how to take care of myself,” he muttered.
“Did you tell her you were leaving to hunt?” Aidan asked.
Jesse frowned but didn’t answer.
Bowie took out his phone to check for a signal, then made a call to Leigh. Her voice was shaky when she answered, “Hello?”
“Mama, it’s me. Aidan and I found him. He’s fine. We’re cleaning squirrels, and then we’ll be home.”
“Thank goodness,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay. Hey, Mama, is Talia there yet?”
“No.”
Bowie frowned. “Okay. I’ll give her a call.”
He disconnected and then made a quick call to Talia. The phone rang and rang until it went to voice mail. He left a brief message for her to call and hung up.
It took another fifteen minutes to clean the last two squirrels. They washed the blood off their hands in the creek and headed home.
Jesse’s stride was long and sure. His head was up, and there was an expression of satisfaction on his face that Bowie hadn’t seen in a long time. He wondered what it felt like to be Jesse now, a grown man and yet a boy again.
*
Leigh was standing on the back porch watching for her sons to come out of the woods, and when they finally appeared she said a quick prayer of thanksgiving, then went back into the house and cried.
By the time they all came in the back door, she was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee between her hands.
Jesse looked at her, and then ducked his head and plopped the field-dressed squirrels into the sink, got out a big dishpan and ran it full of water to clean them again.
“Thank you, Bowie. Thank you, Aidan,” Leigh said, and got up and hugged them both.
“You’re welcome, Mama,” they echoed.
“Do you need us to stay?” Bowie asked, wondering what was keeping Talia.
“No, and I’m sorry I called you away from what you were doing.”
Jesse’s shoulders slumped. He might have lost some of his acumen, but he still knew enough to know he was in trouble. And when Leigh turned around and took the gun he’d left in the corner and headed out of the room, he was instantly wild-eyed and worried.
“What’s Mama doin’ with my rifle?”
His brothers shrugged.
“You need to be asking her that,” Bowie said. “I told you she was upset that you left without telling her. That’s called running away, Jesse, and Youngbloods don’t run away from home.”
Jesse’s eyes welled.
“I didn’t run away. I wouldn’t ever leave Mama.”
“Well, she didn’t know that, buddy,” Aidan said.
Jesse took a shaky breath.
“I gotta go say I’m sorry, don’t I?”