Regan arrived home after her conversation with the man on the roadside in the early hours of the morning. Suddenly she felt the need to visit the site of the bomb blast. She hadn't been back there since it happened, and it was time to lay the past to rest once and for all. She scrawled a quick note to Tess explaining where she had gone and asking Tess not to tell the others, especially Tayler. There was no sense in bringing up all those bad memories. Regan hadn't figured she'd be missed for a few days. Life at Drovers was busy and she was really not much help with the farming aspect of things in the slightest.
When she reached the site of the mine her manager greeted her warmly. She had been sorely missed. She had missed it too, her job. She had loved every minute of it, geology was her passion, and the familiar sights and smells made her homesick. Her manager invited her into the office and she accepted the invitation already sensing what was coming. He was going to ask her to come back.
Once inside the building she looked around the familiar office, noticing few changes except for two pictures on the wall. She stood and stared silently for a moment, realising these were the men who had been killed that day.
"You
must stop blaming yourself, put it in the past." Her manager had
said to her. She nodded, thinking finally that she had a
reason not to blame herself. She looked into the eyes of those men.
One she recognised instantly as Tayler's father. And the other as
the father of the man she met at the roadside.
"Did
you know them?" Regan asked him. "Yes. Fine men. Hard
workers. They are missed." He answered sadly. "And their
families?" Regan asked
"They have been well compensated." He told her. She knew there was no compensation that would make up for losing a family member. And she knew for a fact that Tayler had received no compensation. But she didn't say so. She stood, still looking. Puzzled. What on earth had happened between these two men that day?
"It's
a dangerous job at times." The manager went on. "These men knew
that. But they loved their job. It was in the blood. I'm sure they
don't regret a moment of it." Regan hoped they did indeed
regret whatever happened that day, thinking to herself no job was
worth losing your life and your family. But she was still speechless,
thinking things over in her head.
"This
man, Bill, his son is a miner. It's in the blood." The manager
went on pointing to the father of the man she had met on the road. "Really?" Regan asked, slightly interested. "Yes
Bill would be proud of young Cade."
Cade. That name set off alarm bells in her head, and she could not figure out why. It seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn't place it. She thought back to the man on the roadside, attaching the name to him.
"Regan,
I'm glad you've come." The manager kept talking. "I'll be
retiring next month, and I'm looking for someone to take over my
position." She looked out the windows to the mine site,
re-living that day as she had done a thousand times since it
happened. This time she did so without the slightest trace of guilt.
She was freed from a burden she didn't even realise still weighed
so heavily upon her.
She accepted the job offer that day. Partly because it felt so good to be back. Partly because she somehow had to find out what really did happen that day. Partly because she felt it was time to move on. No one needed her at Drovers anymore. In fact it was down right crowded. Regan's presence caused constant conflict with Grace, and Regan had never really been the farming type. She accepted the job without thinking twice. If she had known the havoc created right at that moment from her absence she might have thought twice, but she didn't have a clue.
Only later that evening, walking the mining site in the sunset, feeling at home in the dusty desolation, did she finally remember why that name, Cade, was familiar to her. She had heard it, many a time, screamed out in a night mare, muttered softly in the midst of a dream, never spoken aloud in a conscious moment, but only in the dark and unconscious tormented sleep. Cade.