Leave on the Light
With darkness surrounding them like a heavy blanket, Scott reined up his horse and sat back in the saddle. A flame flickered in the west window of the hacienda, bright yellow and orange. Watching it dance, he thought of another light, this one in the window of the house on Tremont Street, in Boston. After Grandfather's protestations and harrumphs, Scott had wrangled an "It's for you, my boy, of course. Just in case you came home." It eased an ache in his heart then, for sometimes darkness was overwhelming when home was reduced to clean smells and sweet memories. Rather than drowning in years of remembrance, his heart lifted and he thought only of gladness.
He urged his horse to the house.
Slipping inside the darkened hallway, he peeled off his gun belt and curled it onto the side table. He placed his hat on the empty peg on the wall, and made for the light in the west window.
He looked at the lamp. If he had his grandfather figured out (and he did), his father was a different matter entirely. It was all ridiculously immature in those before-Lancer days, Scott knew, but he had felt stung and insignificant, forgotten. Underappreciated. A bit disrespected.
He felt a presence behind him, in stockinged feet, no less. Murdoch shuffled a bit, looking bleary-eyed.
"You're back. We missed you at dinner."
"That I am. The job took far longer than I had anticipated."
His father halfway nodded, covering an approaching yawn with the back of his hand.
Scott lifted an index finger, and pointed to the lantern on the desk. He squinted, then his brow knit. "What's this?"
Murdoch waggled his head a little, the corner of his lips twitching downward. Blue eyes were on full alert now, as if it was an unnecessary question.
"I lit it for you, son, for when you came home."
He tapped the lamp, and the flame jerked to one side. It had become a habit, however short a time he'd been at Lancer, to look for the light. Scott watched the flame swell and break against itself and thought about those before years. How Murdoch's name rose and built inside him that same way. He stared at his father.
The light. It had always been here.
The End