This is the backstory for Devil I've been brooding over for ages. It's actually another collab with TellatrixForever, and it took so long because life just kept interfering. But it's finally done now, and I did the celebration dance this morning.
This is a tie between The Penny Part 2 and 3, but you won't be lost if you don't feel like reading this, no worries. It's just a mindgame TellatrixForever and I have been playing for the last few months.
Originally this was supposed to be a one-chapter thing, 8,000 words tops, but this is what happened. So I've decided to split it into three parts, and this is the first one, a mix of a family chronicle and snippets from Devil's childhood. Having said that, I just want to add that I am not making excuses for how Devil turned out to be, I'm just exploring.
WARNING: Descriptions of/hints at child abuse, lots of explicit language.
The opinions and views expressed in this story are those of the characters and not to be confused with mine. Remember, this is fiction.
Enjoy!
The Very Cold Night
Part 1
Bloody Harlan 1991
In 1908 a son was born to Powel and Betrys Lennox in Haverfordwest, Wales, and they named him Gareth, after Betrys's late brother. Powel was ordered to fight in the World War and, imperishable as his character was, survived; it was the syphilis he brought back with him that would waste him away years later. In 1938 Gareth Lennox, a smart man, saw the second World War coming before most others, and since his mother had also died and he had nothing holding him in Wales any longer, he fled across the ocean, to the American continent, the land of the free, the land of boundless possibilities.
The possibilities were not as boundless as everyone kept insisting, but they did lead him to Southern Kentucky, where he ended up in Harlan as a miner, figuring it was better than dying in the war, and he was right in that at least. Gareth met a beautiful woman named Mary Herman. Having gotten married not six months after their first meeting, they had four sons, Evan, Stephen, Dylan and Junior. Gareth praised himself for his foresight.
Only months after Junior's birth in 1950, though, Gareth, who long since had gained American citizenship, was ultimately sent to Korea, not again managing to foresee war and flee from it. He didn't possess his father's imperishability; he fell.
Evan Lennox, Gareth's eldest son, was the first at the time to realize that his daddy had fought and died for the country they loved, and he had no intention to flee anywhere. When he turned 18, he volunteered for the Army and eventually got accepted into the Special Forces. He ended up doing three tours in Vietnam. While he was off defending the country, his wife Stephanie gave him a son, Lewis.
Stephen, the second-oldest, was drafted and soon followed in his brother's footsteps. He had a son, Nathan, and a daughter, Sophia, with his wife Ann. After two tours in the 'Nam, he considered an offer by the CIA before he left the military in '74.
Dylan, third-oldest, went to Vietnam too, despite the fact he had always been pretty quiet and shy. In 1970, he was blessed with a daughter from an unmarried mother. By that time, he had been booted on a Section 8 following a very unfortunate incident involving him and a goat. A very noisy goat.
Finally, Junior Lennox, the youngest and the most violent, caught the tail end of the Vietnam war to escape going to prison and came back with a chain holding 3 sets of Viet Cong ears and a SAT CONG tattoo on his arm as a souvenir.
One day in 1971, when he was on leave, Junior met a beautiful, self-assured woman named Elaine Curig and began an affair with her that continued whenever Junior could make time. But it was never about love, just passion, and that became blatantly obvious when Elaine got pregnant in 1976.
Giving in to the pressure from both their respective parents, they married in June and on October 25th, early in the morning, they had a son in the Harlan Medical Center, and they named him Derek.
Elaine gave birth to Derek at 5 am, while the night outside was unseasonably cold, but calm and without a single cloud in the sky. The full moon shone into the hospital room Elaine was in; she could see it from where she lay, a small human in her arms, and the only thing going through her mind, unbeknownst to new-born Derek, was: "I do not want this."
Derek was mostly ignorant of his mother's aversion to his existence; his perceptiveness would only start developing when he was in his teenage years. But sometimes even at the age of three he got the distinct notion that something was not right. He'd get overwhelmed by that feeling all at once and, not knowing how to deal with it, or what "it" even was, he started crying, and he wouldn't stop all night. Elaine would carry him around in his small room, mindful of not disturbing Junior who got quite volatile when deprived of his precious sleep. Derek, sensing his mother's unease, cried even harder.
Lewis Lennox turned out to be of intuitive intelligence, relying on his instincts to get him through life. That was how he knew he didn't have much to expect from his father in way of affection. It was also how he knew that his uncle Junior was bad news when they first met; Lewis was 10 and aunt Elaine showed him his newest cousin. The baby was tiny, with some fluffy curls of sandy colour and ridiculously big blue eyes. Lewis had never held a baby before because when Nathan and Sophie had been born he'd still been too young, still a baby himself. Now, though, Elaine pushed the small bundle of human into Lewis's arms as if she was glad to get rid of it, and Lewis, relying on his instincts, knew this kid needed someone to look after him, just knew it like it was some universal truth.
The whole Lennox clan was collected in Junior's small house in Harlan to look at the baby that day. Nathan and Sophie stole looks at Derek, and when Nathan poked him in the arm, the baby, instead of complaining, reached out and grabbed Nathan's imposing finger and didn't let go. In that moment Nathan understood that universal truth, too, although he wouldn't be aware of it until 7 years later when his father first had to call the police to Junior's house.
Derek grew up to be an open-minded child, liking company and always running after Lewis. Stephen, having moved to Memphis, came to visit sometimes and brought Nathan and Sophia along with him, and while Sophia couldn't find it in herself to like her annoying little cousin, Derek and Nathan loved each other like brothers. Stephen knew of his younger brother's violent nature and worried for Elaine and Derek sometimes. He was aware they hadn't married out of love. His worries were justified.
Early in the year of 1983 Elaine packed her bags and left, while Junior was snoring on the back porch of their house and Derek was running after Lewis somewhere. She didn't bother to leave a note. Junior woke late in the night to Derek tugging at his sleeve.
"Where's mommy?" Derek asked, rather confused. Lewis had taken him home to spend some time alone with his older, cooler friends who didn't want a child around. The house was dark and empty. Usually mommy would be in the kitchen, smoking a cigarette, or in the living room, watching a grown-up movie and crying her eyes out, and when Derek came home she'd force herself to smile at him and make him a sandwich; but she was nowhere to be found. Derek looked everywhere, even in the bathtub, just in case his mommy was playing hide-and-seek with him, but she was not there.
His parents' bedroom was empty, as well. Derek's feet got tangled in one of his mother's blouses that was lying on the floor, and Derek, wondering how the blouse had ended up on the floor, noticed that his mother's clothes were gone, all of them. The overwhelming sense of something not being right rushed over him, so abruptly it made his chest hurt.
Daddy was sleeping on the porch. Derek woke him, and that was the very first time Junior hit his son. He felt almost sorry about it afterwards, until Derek told him that mommy had gone away. The rest of Junior's night forever disappeared in a drunken stupor.
Junior didn't know how to deal with it. Yeah, sure, he hadn't loved Elaine, but he didn't remember his father and hence had never seen how much his parents had loved each other; when he did think about love (which was rare) he wondered if it even existed or if having a house and a hot wife and a son who'd join the Army and make him proud one day wasn't as good as it was going to get. Obviously Elaine disagreed, but Junior wasn't surprised because they disagreed a lot, and every time Junior had hit her, she had hit him right back.
Junior started as a miner part-time after Vietnam because in Harlan there wasn't much else to do, and he couldn't imagine moving away like Stephen and Dylan had. He missed the war and drank to forget about it. After Elaine left, he was forced to suddenly take care of his son, and since he didn't know how to do that he drank some more, spent most of his Army pension on booze, neglecting Derek, beating him when he was especially drunk, because it was obvious to him that if Elaine had never gotten pregnant with this child everything would have turned out a lot better. After Junior had sobered up he always felt quite sorry, and some days he would let Derek stay home from school and taught him shooting in the backyard. Derek killed a dozen squirrels and a stray dog before he turned 12.
The day after one particularly bad beating, Derek was sitting in front of the house, not wanting to be anywhere near his daddy. It was a hot noon on a week day, and Derek was supposed to be in school, but he didn't want to go to school looking like he did. He suddenly wished he had some of his mother's make-up – she had always managed to hide the bruises on her face with a few swipes of a pad. He had to carry the goddamn bruises around like a neon sign that said "Hey, looky here, my daddy hates me" in big bold flashing letters.
Derek was 10 years old then, and so very lonely.
Lewis, who had enlisted in the US Army as a medic three years ago, had chosen that particular week for some much needed leave to spend time at home (by which Lewis understood spending time with Derek, since Evan didn't quite care whether his only son was around or not), and after dropping his bag unceremoniously at Evan's place, he drove his beloved Toyota 4runner, brand new then, out of the garage and raced straight over to Junior, planning to surprise Derek when he got back from school.
He didn't expect to see Derek sitting in front of the house, in the sweltering mid-day heat, and neither did Derek expect his cousin to show up out of nowhere when he was supposed to be fighting the bad guys. Derek was squinting in the sun.
"Lewis?"
"Hey, Moose, why ain't you in school? Ain't you supposed to be in school right now?" Lewis said when he got out of the truck.
"Ain't you s'posed to be fightin' bad guys somewhere?" Derek shot back and grinned, for a moment forgetting what had happened, just being a boy who was glad to see someone he cared about.
Lewis neared, though, and then his expression changed, from a warm smile to a dark grimace, and Derek remembered the bruises. It didn't even make sense to hide his face because there were bruises on his arms, too. Neon signs. Derek sighed and looked at the dried-out grass he was sitting on.
"Did he do this?" Lewis asked, his voice calm; but it was a precarious calm, Derek was old enough to understand that. He shrugged uncomfortably.
"What did you do?"
At that Derek's head shot up.
"I didn't do shit" he snapped. Lewis smirked ruefully, unhappily.
"S'what I thought, Moose. So he did it for no reason, that's even better." Lewis balled his hands into fists. "Where the fuck is he?"
Derek played with a hole in the leg of his jeans. "Dunno. It don't matter, Lewis."
During the time that Lewis completed Ranger School Derek and Lewis saw less of each other, but Lewis made a point to visit regularly, and they never lost their affection towards each other. Now though, for the first time in his life, Lewis had the feeling that he'd made a major mistake. He still remembered rather clearly the moment when the bundle in his arms who'd grow up to be Derek looked at him and it dawned on Lewis that the kid needed someone to look after him. Lewis had left in spite of that, and now he got the reward – to see that little boy that he cared for more than for any other member in his family covered in bruises, looking like the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders.
The kid's only ten fucking years old, Lewis thought. He sighed.
"Hey, Moose, you wanna go for a road trip?"
"Where to?" Derek was already standing up, not even caring where they went. If only they left this place behind.
Lewis shrugged. "It's pretty hot… we could go to the lake, have a swim. What d'you say?"
"Let's go!" Derek grinned, excited. Lewis visiting was always a really cool thing.
In 1980 Stephen's wife Ann was murdered by a couple of housebreakers, right in front of Nathan and Sophia. Stephen, Special Forces Veteran, came home from a trip to the city just when it happened; he shot the men dead before they could harm his family any more. After that, Stephen tried raising his children the best he could, and he was always filled with the great fear of losing another part of his family, any other. The contact to Dylan was close to breaking off after his discharge, his mother Mary died in 1981 from heart failure, and when Elaine left and Junior's drinking went overboard he tried his hardest to help his nephew Derek, tried dealing with Junior's abusive behavior, keeping Derek over in Memphis frequently, tightening Nathan and Derek's bond in the process.
Derek took to watching the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" a lot when he was at his uncle's because at home he wasn't allowed to watch TV, and Nathan, who found it endlessly amusing that Derek would love such an old cartoon series, jokingly christened him "Moose". As soon as Lewis heard the new nickname, he joined in, and Derek showed little reluctance. He liked having a nickname that was uniquely used on him. His mommy had sometimes called him "Honey", but she wasn't there anymore, and his daddy's nickname for him, "Little Shit", didn't really count in his book.
In 1985 Nathan joined the United States Marine Corps and served as a Force Recon Marine before being given an honorable discharge late in 1991 as Sgt. When news traveled of his discharge Derek gave him a call, and they agreed to have dinner together. Nathan knew that, with Lewis overseas, Derek had been lonely the last few years. He hoped Derek had found friends at school that he could spend time with. Lewis had told him that Derek sometimes hung around uncle Evan's place, who was vastly indifferent concerning his environment, including his son, his nephew and everyone else, and although Nathan knew Evan would never hurt Derek physically, this was no permanent solution for what was going on inside Junior's home.
He tried asking Derek how he was doing on the phone and got evasive answers and sarcastic comments for his effort, so he left it be after forty fruitless seconds.
"Oh, and Sophia's comin', too" he said, "you know, to dinner."
"Oh, come on" Derek huffed. "Why?"
"Well, she's kinda my sister and I like havin' her around."
"She's annoying."
"No, she ain't."
"Nate, she can't stand me."
"No… ah, well, I mean…"
"And I don't even know what I done to her. I can count the times we met on my two hands."
"Okay, yeah, you're right, I don't know what's up with that. You don't have to talk to her, then. Come on, Moose, I ain't seen you in ages."
"Shut up, dude, I'm comin' anyways, no matter if the bitch is there or not."
Nathan ignored Derek calling Sophia a bitch because, sister or not, she WAS kind of a bitch sometimes, and he had never understood her antipathy towards Derek fully, either. Derek had scraped together money for a bus ticket and made the trip down to Memphis a few days later, carrying a backpack and a big smile. He would not only be spending quality time with his cousin (and that cousin's annoying bitch of a sister), he would also be staying the night, which meant time away from home, which was always a good thing.
Nathan, Derek and Sophia spent the evening out in a diner, since neither Nathan nor Derek felt comfortable in something more fancy, and talked over sandwiches and fries, and Derek and Sophia got along surprisingly well. Nathan knew exactly why that was; Sophia was not blind to the half-healed cut and bruise that ran along Derek's hairline, but nobody addressed the elephant in the room. Junior was not going to be a part of this night, not even in conversation. Derek had made it obvious enough that he was not going to talk about it.
Nathan paid for the food in the end because he knew Derek had spent all of his money on the bus ticket and Sophia, 20 at the time, was still in College and had recently lost her job waiting tables. He didn't mind doing them something good. It was 11 pm when they left the diner and slowly strolled over to where Nathan had parked his car. It was about 200 yards away. Sophia looked around and pulled a face.
"I hate walkin' round in the dark, Nate."
"Why?" Nathan smiled at his sister. "We're fine. The car's right over there. If you're worried, I'm still ca-"
"Hey, you! Stop!"
The voice came out of nowhere and had Sophia and Derek rooted to the spot; Nathan whirled around.
Three young men, all looking nervous and rugged, were standing in front of them, seemingly having appeared out of thin air. The knives that two of them were holding were big and looked sharp enough to do harm; the gun in the third one's hand made more of an impression still.
"Looky here, dude. We got weapons, you got money" the one with the gun said. His hair was greasy and uncombed. His hands were shaking the slightest bit. Addicts maybe, Nathan thought. Addicts were dangerous because they were hard to judge; they were unpredictable. Carefully he made a step to the left to put himself completely between the robbers and Sophia and Derek.
"So you want money?" Nathan said slowly, keeping his hands visible in front of him. "I can give you money, man, no problem. I ain't got much, but I can give you all I got."
"What bout them?" one of the other two said and waved his knife in the general direction of Derek and Sophia. "I want theirs, too."
"They ain't got no money, man. I do."
"Sure." The gunman scratched his unkempt beard.
"So, you want my money?"
"Yeah" the second knife-man drawled, "and maybe a poke at the chick, too."
Sophia's eyes went wide and panicked behind Nathan's back, and he could hear shuffling that could only mean that Derek had stood himself in front of Sophia; the kid was 15 and couldn't even stand her, but still wanted to protect her, Nathan understood. I'll be damned, he thought. I'll be damned before I let them get hurt.
"Nah, that ain't the deal" he said. "You want my money, FINE, but you leave her alone."
"Oh, now what you gonna do, huh?" Gunman did a step in Nathan's direction and it looked like he was going to lift his weapon; for a moment everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, and Nathan's thoughts raced. In the end he had no better idea. Three shots echoed through the street, followed immediately by Sophia's frightened scream and a shocked "Jesus Christ!" from Derek.
The three assailants were lying on the ground holding their chest/shoulder area where all of them were bleeding from gunshot wounds. Nathan lowered his Beretta M9 and released a shaky breath before taking the gun that the guy had dropped when he fell. The .357 magnum was old and rusty, but the chambers were filled with five rounds, and the safety was off. Nathan emptied the chambers and stuffed the gun in his belt before kicking the knives out of reach and turning around.
"Are you alright? Sophie? Derek?"
"What? Yeah, I'm good" Derek said. He looked a bit pale, and the shock was still visible in his face, but otherwise he looked okay.
Sophia was shaking and had an iron grip on Derek's skinny forearm. She actually looked a lot less okay than Derek, Nathan observed.
"Sophie?" he asked again. Only when he made a step towards her did she manage to tear her gaze from the bleeding offenders who were muttering in pained voices.
"Maybe we should call the police" she murmured.
Call the police Nathan did, and when the officers learned that he had just gotten an honorable discharge from six years with the Marines they didn't question the incident too hard. The wounded robbers were well-known addicts who had had a few run-ins with the local police stations already, and after the weapons were secured and Sophia and Derek gave statements that mirrored Nathan's recounts of what had occurred, the situation was solved in less than an hour.
Derek didn't sleep at all that night, and Nathan stayed up with him, while Sophia's reaction to shock showed itself in her sleeping like a stone.
"Sorry bout that, Moose" Nathan said, twirling a pencil around on the kitchen table. "This really wasn't how I'd imagined the night to go, y'know."
"Yeah, well." Derek shrugged and yawned into his t-shirt. "Shit happens."
Nathan wished he'd been there more in the last 5 years, so he could have seen when little Moose had turned into a cynical teenager.
A week later Nathan, Sophia and uncle Steve, and uncle Dylan, as well, made their way over to Harlan for a Lennox Family Reunion party. The whole family (minus Dylan's daughter who had dropped off the face of the earth) came together in Harlan, at Evan's place. They ate take-out because Evan's wife had left him years ago and neither Lewis nor Evan had breathed a word about it to anyone. Derek was the only one who knew because he was around too often not to notice Stephanie's absence.
The mood between Junior and Steve was tense. They hadn't seen each other in years, but Steve had called the police about Junior's abuse of his son a few times already. Over the course of the evening Steve, who had inherited some of his father's foresight, realized the reunion might not go over as peacefully as hoped. Junior was fixing him with sinister glances. Derek had sat himself as far away from his father as possible without leaving the room, and it escaped no-one's notice. Nathan got angrier by the second watching his father and uncle interact as tensely as they did.
At some point late in the night, after the women had gone to bed and two bottles of Maker's Mark had been emptied, Junior burped loudly and leaned over the table, jabbing a finger in his older brother's direction.
"Y'know I'm pissed at ya, Steve, and I didn' hear no apology still. Why's that, huh?"
Steve, who was less drunk, but definitely not sober anymore either, frowned. "What the fuck would I be apologizin' about, Junior? I only did what's right."
"Dad, come on" Nathan murmured to him, keeping one eye on Derek, who was suddenly very interested in his shoes. "Jus' leave it."
"Nah, you shut up, kiddo" Junior interrupted him. "Let your ol' man speak his mind. Why the fuck would you think it right to send 'em fuckin' polies to my house, huh?"
"Jesus Christ, Junior." Steve rolled his eyes and shook off Nathan's warning hand on his arm. "You think the world's blind, huh? Every time your boy comes over to Memphis I can see a new bruise on 'im."
"That ain't none of your business!" Junior's gaze darkened considerably.
"See, lil brother, that's where you're really wrong – it IS my fuckin' business. It's MY family. It's MY nephew you're beatin' on an'-"
"YOUR family, huh!" Junior snarled. "S'is my goddamned son an' I'll treat him as I see fit!"
Derek hunched in on himself and wished himself somewhere far away from this conversation. Nathan made eye contact with Lewis where he sat next to Derek at the other end of the long table, and Lewis nodded in an unspoken agreement and slowly stood up to make his way over to Junior. This thing could escalate any minute – and with 'this thing' Lewis meant Junior.
"Tha's right" Steve scoffed. "You treat him as ya see fit. You treated Elaine that way, too, right? Ya ever thought bout why she left ya?"
Junior's eyes narrowed dangerously. "The fuck are you sayin' Steve?"
"I'm sayin'-"
"Dad, come on, you're-"
"No, leave me, Nate, somone's gotta tell him this. I'm sayin' that you ain't able to treat your family right, even if yer own life depended on it, Junior, cause you're a fuckin' lunatic!"
Lewis would damn himself for a long time after because he wasn't fast enough to grab Junior when the man stood up suddenly and lunged at Steve over the table and threw Nathan over in his chair as well. Nathan was stunned into stillness for a precious second and didn't see the jack-knife until it was protruding from Steve's stomach.
"You son of a bitch!" Junior was shouting into Steve's face, who couldn't quite grasp what the hell had just happened. "You're tellin' me I can't keep a family, you don't know SHIT bout what happened! You don't know SHIT bout ELAINE!"
Lewis raced around the table, and Nathan shook off the pain in his neck and together they pulled Junior off Steve; and then Nathan did something Lewis would have never seen coming: He lost complete control.
Nathan drew back his fist and smashed it into his uncle's face with a force that made his nose break on impact. Junior didn't even have the time to moan in pain when Nathan landed the next punch, and the next one, and the one after that. Lewis Lennox was a strong man and knew his strength well, too, but for the life of him he couldn't stop Nathan from systematically beating Junior's face to mush. Evan and Dylan, who'd been napping in the corner of the room, woke up from Derek pushing over a chair and screaming at them to stop, and Lewis looked at his father, his arms wrapped around Nathan's torso.
"Dad, come on, I need some help here!" Lewis shouted, and Evan, quite surprised at what had developed while he'd been asleep, gave his son a hand. Together they managed to drag Nathan off of Junior, who fell to a silent heap on the floor.
"Nate, you need to calm the FUCK down, okay?" Lewis shouted directly into Nathan's ear. "I know he's a dick, and you gave it to him, alright? But now you need to cool down!"
"The HELL I'mma calm down! He stabbed my daddy!"
"What d'you mean, stabbed…" Lewis let go and looked at Steve, who was still lying where Junior had left him. And there was indeed a knife in his stomach. "Oh, Jesus, I hadn't even SEEN that."
Nathan aggressively shook off Evan's hands. "Yeah. Now can you see why I'm so fuckin' PISSED!" He gave Junior a kick.
"Fuck yeah" Lewis said and rubbed his eyes. "Shit. Okay. No need to kick the bastard, alright, he's down. Uhm, maybe we should get Steve to a hospital."
"Yeah. And… what?"
Evan had tapped Nathan on the shoulder. "Maybe y'all should have a look at the kid" he said and jerked a thumb in Derek's direction. "He looks a bit… freaked."
Nathan's stomach dropped and all the rage was forgotten in a split second. Derek, he thought. Moose. Damn it! The original reason for this fight was cowering in the far corner of the room, staring at the commotion with a closed-off expression on his face, eyes wide in shock; this was the shock Sophia had had in her eyes after the shooting a few days prior. Seemed like Nathan had found something that could rattle Derek to his bones. He reckoned that seeing your uncle get stabbed and your daddy beat to a pulp was pretty shitty to watch for a 15-year-old.
He walked over to Derek and crouched down in front of him.
"Hey there, Moose. You alright?"
"I think uncle Steve needs a medic, Nate" was the answer he got, and he couldn't rightly disagree with that. Lewis fetched a dishtowel and looked at Evan and Dylan.
"You two clean this up?" he said and gestured at the glasses and plates that had fallen off the table, and at Junior who lay bloody between the shards. Evan shrugged.
Nathan, Lewis and the shocked Derek took uncle Steve to the hospital where they claimed that Steve had been mugged. What had occurred was still a family matter, and although Lewis and Nathan agreed that Derek would have been better off with his father in jail, they also agreed that taking Derek's home would not do him much good. Both of them counted on Derek joining the Army in a few years anyways, and then he'd finally be out of Junior's reach.
Derek fell asleep next to his uncle's hospital bed while a full moon shone outside, and Nathan and Lewis left him there in search of a bar where they could let go of the troubles of the night. They found one, as well, owned by a man called Jonathan Crowder who was making his son Johnny wipe the floor in preparation for closing. It was 2 o'clock in the morning already, cold, and most people had left for home, except for a few lone sad figures that Johnny was supposed to kick out, but Nathan and Lewis had money, and Jonathan poured them their drinks.
Pent-up anger and aggression, and unified hate for Junior Lennox, made Lewis and Nathan Lennox start a fight with Jonathan Crowder and his few remaining patrons that would get them banned from Crowder's bar for life, but the family name Lennox was to be remembered by Johnny, who had watched the entire ordeal from behind the bar where he'd gone and ducked for cover once people started throwing bottles.
Four days later, Nathan and Derek said good-bye for the last time when Nathan left Harlan County. That was the last time either of them would see or hear of each other for over 20 years. While Nathan's father and sister went back to Memphis, Nathan moved to Nashville, where he learned of an opportunity. The US Marshal Service was hiring, and even though he had no College degree, they gave Nathan special consideration for his Military service.