February 1992, Harlan
Eleanor didn't blame Boyd for her brother's death not really. It was a shock of course and it was devastating to her family. She blamed Bo for getting Jacob involved with whatever they were doing at the time. Bo deserved the blame. The man had ruined a lot of lives and hadn't paid the price for any of them. Her mother blamed Boyd since he was the one to deliver the news. She cursed his name at least twice a day and it hurt to hear it each time. They planned the funeral as friends and neighbors gave their sympathies constantly. She didn't even know most of the people who knocked on their door. They were trying to help she knew that but it was invasive and she wished they would just go away. The only person that stopped by to actually help was Raylan's Aunt Helen. She didn't pity them and helped them get back on their feet.
Eleanor was so focused on her mother that it was about a week before she heard the Boyd was gone. She found out by overhearing the girls gossiping at work. He had joined the army. She understood why he had done it. She had to grieve that loss in private at a time when she just wanted him there to hold her. She moved on. She even started dating. Then her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, she wasn't even a smoker. She passed away six months later. The medical bills left Eleanor with nothing.
Again Helen stepped in and gave her a place to stay. It was a trailer that she had inherited form her grandmother and hoped to one day sell but it was a ramshackle trailer on a small, infertile out of the way plot of land so she wasn't optimistic about ever getting rid of it. She had been living there for a little of a year when she heard, again through the grapevine, that Boyd had returned. Boyd still avoided her like the plague so she had to go find him out at Johnny's father's bar. Boyd was relieved to find that she harbored no ill will towards him.
The trailer was isolated enough that no one noticed if Boyd Crowder slept there a few nights a week. With privacy their relationship resumed and was better than before. Eleanor had her own place and still worked at Wal-Mart but, had been promoted assistant manger. It was a stretch to say she was happy but, she was content. So obviously something had to ruin it. She missed her period. She went down to the store and looked for one of those home pregnancy tests. Eleanor stole it. She had never stolen anything in her life but, the thought of going up to the counter with it made her queasy. Especially since Stacey was working the counter everyone would soon know and ask her all sorts of uncomfortable questions.
The home pregnancy test confirmed it. She was pregnant. The next few days were sheer panic. She didn't want to tell Boyd but, he had a right to know. She couldn't raise the kid. She couldn't afford it, babies were expensive. She could give it up for adoption but, she wanted to know what it looked like, what the kid's personality was. Okay, so she wanted to keep it but she still couldn't afford it. Maybe Boyd could be involved somehow, presumably he had money. Money obtained through various illegal things. Maybe Boyd could quit and do something respectable, of course that would mean digging coal and she couldn't mention that because he would probably do that for her. No she had gotten involved with Boyd having a very good idea what he did for a living. That was okay really, she had made her peace with that, and she was a pragmatist after all. Did this shit really need to go on to the next generation? This child will forever be marked with the actions of the past.
Eleanor was startled out of her thoughts by a knock. She had told Boyd to come over but, now that he was here she wasn't ready. She opened the door with a strained smile Boyd was on the door step wearing nice clothes.
"Why don't we go out tonight?" he asked as soon as she opened the door. He liked to be romantic and surprise her. It was cute really.
"What's wrong?" he asked when he saw her face.
"I have something to tell you" once they were seated on the couch Eleanor said "I'm pregnant." She had spent enough time with Boyd to be able to read him like a book, a complex and enigmatic book, so she knew that his first response was excitement. Then he moved on to the practicalities of that statement and his expression became troubled.
"I haven't told anyone else."
"What do you want to do?" Boyd asked her knowing that she must have been sitting on this information long enough to make some decisions.
"I want to keep it other than that, I am open to suggestions." Boyd breathed a sigh of relief.
"Do you want to get married?"
"I don't want your father to know about the baby." Eleanor admitted.
"That's probably for the best."
"He scares me Boyd."
"He scares a lot of people."
"In a perfect world I would want to get married to you and have a beautiful wedding with all of our family and friends there to watch and raise this child together."
"But you don't want the kid associating with my family and neither do I. If I'm out of the picture that means that you will be a single mother with a child out of wedlock with limited income and we have all seen how that story plays out. Do you have any family outside of Harlan wasn't your mother form West Virginia or something? Someone you could stay with?"
"Virginia and she talked like she had a big family but never really mentioned any of them specifically."
"Wasn't Raylan's Aunt Helen a good friend of your mother's maybe she'll know more?" Eleanor wanted to cry leaving Harlan was always something she had thought about but not like this.
"I have some money stashed away, almost seven grand."
"Boyd if you have seven grand why don't you go to school or something."
"It's always been too late for me."
"Come with me, forget about looking up long lost family we'll pick a city and move please come with me." Boyd thought about it for a long time it was long enough that if she didn't know Boyd so well she would have been insulted at the length of time he took to ponder the suggestion.
"I don't think that's a good idea. My Daddy has a plan for me and if am not here to fulfill it than he will come looking for me. He has ways of finding people."
"How do you know he'll come after you?" Eleanor asked. Boyd took her hands in his and looked very much like a sinner about to confess.
"I tried to run away when I turned eighteen." Boyd admitted. Eleanor couldn't remember Boyd being gone for any length of time. "I was only gone for five days and I was in St. Louis at the time." Eleanor did remember when it must have happened. Boyd cradled broken ribs every day that summer. He refused to talk about what happened.
"Boyd-" Eleanor wasn't sure what she wanted to say but he cut her off before she managed to say anything.
"You deserve a fresh start and that's what I'm going to give you." Boyd looked so serious and deeply sad that Eleanor wasn't sure if he would ever recover. "I'll stop by and give you that money tomorrow and you can go see Helen."
Eleanor knocked on Helen's door the next evening. Her bags were packed, waiting for her back home. Boyd had come by earlier to say goodbye and to give her the money.
"Eleanor Reed it's been a while since I last saw you." Helen's weathered face smiled.
"Yes ma'am" Eleanor said politely as she was ushered in.
"Do you want something to drink?"
"No thank you, I was hoping to have a word."
"Well what do you want to talk about?" she said as they both sat down at the kitchen table. Helen poured herself a little bourbon.
"Well, I know you were friends with my mom and I was wondering if she ever spoke about her family in Virginia to you."
"She had an Aunt Bertie that came down to visit a couple of times when you were young. I meet her once real sweet lady. What brought this on? Your momma passed on two years ago."
"I'm actually going to be leaving town and I was hoping to connect with family."
"Why?" Helen asked and under the gaze of the formidable woman Eleanor felt compelled to tell someone her secret and she trusted Helen.
"I'm pregnant, and there's nothing for me here."
"Is it Boyd's?" Helen always seemed to know everything.
"How?" Eleanor started to ask.
"He was always real sweet on you and I know you fancied him, who knows why." Helen waved her hands in exasperation as if to say love is blind.
"It's his" Eleanor confirmed.
"Have you told him?"
"Yes."
"And he's okay with you going away" Helen must have gleaned something from her expression.
"He's doing the right thing, letting you go Honey, I know it doesn't feel like it now but, this is the best choice for the both of you." Helen said. She was a wise woman.
"I know."
"Well I wish the best of luck. Look up Bertie Creason from Richmond Virginia. Wait here I have something to give you." Helen said as an afterthought and left the kitchen to go find something.
"That's not necessary." Eleanor protested but, Helen was determined she came back with a small wooden box.
"It's not much only three hundred and forty five dollars."
"I can't accept this." She said as Helen placed the box gently in her hands.
"When Raylan wanted to leave I had very little saved up but Boyd gave me some money and now Raylan's at college and has a job bartending and he's doing fine and now you are the one that needs it."
"Thank you, you have been so good to me these last few years" Eleanor was crying again and embraced her and took the little box with her.
A few days later September 2010, Lexington
When Eleanor navigated the hospital corridors she didn't quite know what to expect. Emily was the one who insisted on the three of them coming. She was right they should visit Boyd in the hospital. Eleanor owed him much more than that; it was a debt was so big it couldn't be repaid. Unfortunately, Eleanor had no idea what she would say to him after all this time. Emily was thrumming with energy like a Chihuahua. Emily had this grand idea that they would exchange numbers and she would go to Harlan to visit her father over the summer or something. She seemed dead set on visiting the legendary birthplace of such interesting people. On one level it was great she wanted to get to know Boyd outside of a high stress hostage situation but there was still the part where he was a criminal that associated with other criminals that were worse than he was. She needed to think about what this looks like to the outside world. It didn't look good. Jake on the other hand looked terrified to be here. Emily had practically dragged him out to the car.
Eleanor poked her head into the room that he was occupying to see Raylan standing on the wall opposite the bed. He was leaning all his weight on the wall with one cowboy boot extended in front of him. The hat was sitting low on his head hiding his face. He looked like he had just stepped out of Deadwood. She was relieved. She knew how to handle Raylan. Boyd was asleep or unconscious, a man who never stopped moving lying perfectly still in on the bed in a disconcerting tableau. She was a tiny bit relieved; she wouldn't have to think of anything to say to him. That was an awful thought.
"How are you holding up?" Raylan asked when he caught sight of Emily.
"Good actually" Emily replied. It was true she was doing well. She had nightmares and flinched at sudden noises and spent most of her time outside. The psychologist she had been seeing said she was recovering remarkably well. Emily had said that for the most part she wasn't all that scared because Boyd had been so confident that they would get out. Boyd just had a way about him. You always knew that when the shit hit the fan he would be okay after all the smoke cleared.
"Have the doctors said anything about his condition?" Emily asked.
"Just that he's going to make it" Raylan said, as if there was any doubt. They four of them stood awkwardly staring at the room's occupant. There were no flowers in the room, no get well cards, and no balloons. It was bare and sterile and smelled a little bit like death. There was no police presence at the door. Boyd would slip out the minute he was awake. No one made any move to stand closer to Boyd or to hold his hand or do any of that stuff families do in a time like this. Emily look worried seeing him like this. Jake looked curious as though the man was an oddity at the circus. Raylan was simply waiting for him to wake up so they could continue their banter right where they left off. Eleanor wondered what her own face looked like.
"When are you going back to Richmond?" Raylan asked after an eternity.
"Tomorrow" She answered.
"What's Emily going to do?"
"Rest for a while before making a decision about college" Eleanor said.
"I'm standing right here." Emily said but she didn't sound like she minded her mother talking for her all that much. "I'm going back to UK but I might do it next semester instead of playing catch up this semester." She said.
"Good you shouldn't give up on your plans just because of some assholes like the Dixie Mafia." Raylan told her.
"Has he woken up at all?" Jake finally spoke.
"Not since he's been here" Raylan said. Emily didn't look worried. Jake didn't seem convinced that Boyd's prognosis was good. They only stayed twenty minutes. Eleanor asked Raylan to call when Boyd woke up. They went to the hotel to back and were on the road the next morning. Leaving the past to be forgotten once more.