Present Day
"Oh, there you are, Bobby!" Martin Belden gave a sigh of relief when he saw his brother standing at a counter on the far wall of the greenhouse. "I've been looking for you."
Bobby Belden didn't turn from his work, but continued examining the leaves of the plant in front of him, stopping sporadically to write information down on a clipboard perched upon the countertop.
"You obviously weren't looking too hard. I've been here pretty much all day." Bobby's voice was light and Mart felt encouraged.
"You weren't here this morning when I stopped by on my way to the hospital. Boy, you owe me, big time, too! I couldn't convince your beautiful bride that Di had, in fact, already given me a wonderful breakfast, so I had to choke down some of those mutant-grain muffins you guys make around here. I love Bella, and she can sure make one mean cup of coffee, but those poisonous pastries have got to go!"
The two men laughed heartily.
"Aw, Mart, I always thought you would eat just about anything! The only reason you hate our food is because it's healthy." Bobby turned to face the older man and Mart began to laugh once again as he looked down and took in his brother's attire.
"Uh, Bob…did you let Angelica pick your clothes, today?"
Angelica was Bobby and Isabella's four year old daughter. Much like her father when he was her age, the little girl's face was as cherubic as her name; she had chubby little cheeks with golden curls shining in a halo around her head. However, her behavior was as brilliantly eccentric as her artistic mother. The little preschooler was known to compile the oddest array of colors and accessories in every outfit.
Bobby looked down at his clothes and shrugged. "What?" He said, trying to sound innocent; his grin told Mart that he clearly knew how ridiculous he looked. He simply didn't care.
From the waist up, the young man appeared to have just come from an office. His navy, long- sleeved shirt was neat and pressed, despite being covered over with a green gardening apron and haphazardly rolled up to the elbows. An unwound tie hung loosely on either side of his button down collar. But, from the waist down, he was dressed more appropriately for a Jimmy Buffet concert. He wore a faded pair of beach- themed cargo shorts with tattered hems, and his feet (still in navy dress socks, mind you) were sporting leather Birkenstocks.
"I was called in to sub for one of the science teachers over at Ten Acres this morning. I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get back to my cross-pollination study that I didn't finish changing clothes."
Bobby waved the air dismissively as if his explanation was all the information Mart had ever needed in life, and he moved back to his work area.
That's Bob, Mart thought to himself, not much of a fashion bug or a conversationalist.
Mart crossed to a workstation at the other end of the long room and stooped to assess the insects and plants being housed there inside small, glass enclosures. "Are we still on schedule for the work on optimal foraging versus optimal oviposition in the spinach leafminer fly? I want to have some data ready for my next meeting with the folks from NYU."
"Well, we might actually want to request some more time on that project. The preliminary information I put together had the females' behaviors in favor of optimal oviposition, but now that the larvae are doing their own thing, I'm not so sure."
"Are you rotating the possible host choices to increase random foraging options?" Mart suggested.
Bobby nodded his head, abandoned his current position to pick up a notebook in front of Mart, and then passed the reports to his sibling/research partner. He crossed his arms over his chest as Mart read through the recent findings; Mart could sense that Bobby was becoming increasingly aggravated with him for checking up on his work.
Certainly, the two of them had made some remarkable progress together in the fields of agricultural and horticultural sciences, but it was sometimes very difficult to find a balance between their personal relationship and their professional one. Mart usually took the lead, not only because he was nearly ten years older, owned three lucrative farms, and held a doctorate over Bobby's specialist degree, but because he was often more comfortable being the front man. Bobby preferred to do the hands-on work behind the scenes, especially since he also had duties as Matthew Wheeler's gamekeeper. Still, there were times when Bobby seemed to resent Mart's leadership.
Mart suddenly felt that he needed to clear the air and assure his brother that he saw him as an equal on this project.
"This is excellent." He stated in a neutral tone. He didn't want to overdo it. "I'm sure the grant committee won't mind giving us an extension when they see this. I'll get busy on the proposal and make the necessary changes to the original grant I wrote." Mart felt Bobby's frustration melt into pride, and he knew that another argument had been avoided.
Bobby started to return to what he had been doing on the other side of the greenhouse, but he stopped and turned back around, suddenly appearing nervous.
"How…uh… how was Daniel doing today? Feeling better?"
"Oh, yes. He looked much stronger."
"Did he…say anything about what Regan told him? He seemed to understand it, right?"
"Seemed to. He asked me a lot of questions about Dan. What he was like. If I thought he was anything like him." Good! Mart thought. He's talking! This is good! This is what we need.
But Bobby didn't take the bait. He just went back to his work.
Mart was about to try again when the greenhouse door burst open and a whirlwind of pink glitter and golden curls came bouncing in excitedly.
"Uncle Marty! Uncle Marty! Will you come read me a bedtime story?" Angelica cried out, hopping into Mart's waiting arms.
"Oh no," Isabella Belden said, breathlessly catching up to her daughter and leaning heavily on one of the potter's shelves at the entrance of the steel and glass building, "I have already read you two stories, and you aren't going to stall bedtime one moment longer! You came out here because you wanted to give your daddy a 'night night' kiss. Come on. Let's go."
Mart and the little girl exchanged quick hugs and kisses before he settled her down to see her father. "Angelly Belly," Mart teased her with his favorite nickname, "it's getting late. You should be in bed."
She gave Mart a smile over her shoulder and just waved her hand in the air in the same way Bobby had done earlier; Mart had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
"What's so funny?" Isabella asked Mart, while they watched Angelica kiss Bobby goodnight and wiggle noses with him.
"Nothing. It's just that they are two peas in a pod."
"Tell me about it." Isabella laughed. "Alright, Angelica, that's enough. Let's go back to the cabin."
"G'night, 'Bella and Belly." Mart said waving. He loved to tease the women in Bobby's life.
He began to think that he needed to be getting home to Di and their teenaged twins, but he just couldn't make himself leave until he could decipher how Bobby was really handling everything. There hadn't yet been any quality time available to discuss what they had seen when they'd found Daniel in the woods two days before. It was a pretty traumatic event.
Mart was about to try to steer Bobby into another conversation about it when his younger brother spoke up first.
"You said you were looking for me, earlier. Let me guess. After seeing Daniel, you ate lunch, went to the cave, met your family for dinner, somehow wound up at the cemetery, and only just now thought to come here." What is that in his voice, Mart wondered is that bitterness?
"Well, you're not one hundred percent correct; in between going to the cave and having dinner, I also had a quick teleconference with that interesting farmer's coalition – you know, the one wanting additional research on those blight bands we – anyway, yeah…I guess you know me pretty well. Smarty pants!" Mart was trying to get a chuckle out of him, at least.
But Bobby didn't laugh.
"Yes, and I guess you weren't totally off about me either, since I did actually go to the cave after I left Ten Acres." Bobby turned to face Mart once again and leaned back against the counter space. "You must have just missed me."
The two men stood in silence for a minute.
"But, honestly, Mart, you don't know anything about me if you thought for one minute I'd be there at that cemetery tonight." Bobby spun himself back around and pretended to be engrossed in reading another clipboard chart. Mart was stunned by his brother's sudden hostility.
"What are you talking…."
"Why do you do that?" Bobby suddenly interrupted, leaning both hands on the surface before him and closing his eyes in frustration.
"What? Do what?" Mart was dumbfounded and could not understand what was happening.
"Why do you go there?" Bobby's voice was immediately loud and accusing.
"Where? To…to the cemetery? For the same reason we go to the cave, I guess. To be near him; to talk to him."
"No!" Bobby was trembling now, he was so angry. "That's not why I go to the cave. It's different!"
"Well… why then? I mean… how? Why is it different?" Mart sputtered.
"I don't actually expect him to be there! I mean…I know he's not there, Mart!" Bobby's voice rattled the panes of glass all around them.
"So do I, Bobby. And believe me, I'm glad."
"Oh, he's glad." Bobby mumbled sarcastically while throwing his hands up in the air and twirling himself away from Mart. He angrily strode across the room to a sink and began washing his hands and taking off his apron. He started muttering under his breath as he scrubbed the dirt and grime from his fingernails.
"You stand there and talk to a stone with his name on it and imagine that he hears you, and…and …that is supposed to be comforting? I don't need to go to a place I don't associate with him in order to talk to him. I…I…" He continued to scrub fiercely but could say no more.
"I didn't say I needed to see that headstone in order to be close to him." Mart said softly. He wanted desperately to try and calm Bobby down. He stepped gingerly towards the younger man and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Bobby, I just mean that…the grave…it just…it serves as a daily reminder that I don't need it to be close to him."
Bobby immediately faced Mart with a pale face and wide eyes.
"What did you say?" He whispered.
"I mean, that it reminds me that he's not there." Mart couldn't understand why Bobby looked so scared all of a sudden. "Bob? What's wrong?" Bobby was staring past his older brother as if seeing a different time or place. As if remembering something.
As quickly as the mood had surfaced, it was gone again. The shorter man seemed to shake himself of his thoughts and began to make his way toward the exit.
"I think we're both ready to go home for the night. You know how to turn everything off and lock up if you need to stay and do anything." Bobby said in a defeated voice.
"Hey, wait a minute." It was Mart's turn to sound a bit miffed. "Now, just stop for a minute. I want to talk about this." Mart knew this conversation was long overdue. It had been nearly twenty years, and Bobby had never really talked about this.
"What's to talk about? You talk to graves, you talk to stones, you talk to the air – you talk, talk, talk. What's the point? He's gone, Mart! Conversation over!"
"Uh, uh! No it's not!" Mart reached out and grabbed Bobby's arm just as he was opening the door to leave. He might not have been as broad shouldered or as physically strong as his younger brother, but Mart's height advantage, coupled with the element of surprise, rendered Bobby's attempts at freeing himself momentarily useless. The older man pulled his brother closer toward him and up against the wall in a rough manner. "Not when you stand there and confess that you believe the person we both loved isn't anywhere at all! He practically growled it in Bobby's ear.
"I have patiently listened to your atheistic, new age, hopeless/helpless crap without ever expecting you to change your thoughts or take my side!" Mart continued. "I know you don't believe in God, and that's something you'll have to live with…and thank God I'm older and will go first, so I won't have to suffer the thought of where you might be…but…but…for you to not believe enough in our friend to think in any way that his spirit might continue to exist somewhere…in some way…No! You couldn't possibly have known him and loved him at all if you can't know for sure where he is!"
Bobby just stood there and took it. He didn't know how to react. Mart had him pinned and wasn't about to waste the moment.
"Even if you can't have faith enough to want Heaven for him, can't you at least love him enough to see him in other things? Isn't his presence still somewhere within the walls of that cabin you live in? Don't you hear him chopping wood on a cold winter's day? Don't tell me you don't see him in Daniel…I mean, you should have heard what that boy said to me today… it was almost word for word like that time…"
"SHUT UP!" Bobby pushed Mart away from him.
It was if both men were now emptied of all thoughts, all words. They stood facing each other and panting. Neither spoke for a long time. When Mart had finally collected himself, he ran a hand down his own face, stuffed it in his back pocket, and began rubbing the back of his neck numbly with his other hand.
"You never found it, did you?" He asked Bobby, turning his face away.
"No." It was more of a hypnotized sigh than a word being spoken. "I used the compass, but…I…I couldn't find it…I gave up years ago."
That's why he can't deal with this! Mart thought. If he'd found it, he'd know; he'd understand. Surely Dan must have known what Bobby needed.
"I'll help you." Mart began.
"No."
"We'll take Daniel with us. He needs it, too."
"It doesn't matter!" Bobby's shout was a hoarse sob in his throat. "Just…just drop it."
"I won't."
"Fine. Do what you want." Bobby sniffed back tears and tried once again to leave.
"Fine, I will." Mart suddenly giggled exhaustedly at the childishness of that last statement.
"Stop it." Bobby said annoyed.
"No, you stop it." Mart whined dramatically. He reached out and playfully shoved Bobby's retreating back.
"Oh – my – are you freaking serious? What is your problem?" Bobby didn't know whether to be angry at Mart's absurd mood change or grateful that the intensity of the previous moment had begun to dissipate.
"We'll make it a date as soon as Daniel gets mobile again." Mart was determined. He patted his brother's chest as he bypassed him in a silly stride and opened the door to leave. "We'll find it. Don't worry." He tipped an imaginary hat at his stupefied sibling and hollered to him as he disappeared into the darkness. "See you tomorrow!"
Whew! Was that intense enough? Don't panic, we'll see much bluer skies soon. Do you know what the "it" is? Stay tuned to see if Bobby and Daniel ever locate it (as well as what other surprises they will discover as they search). – Please review: I need to know what everyone is thinking ;-)