LOST AND FOUND - PART I

FUNERAL

Chapter 6

Joe came down late the next morning and when he went to the dining room he was told that his brother and family were out in the garden, so he ate quickly then hurried outside. The sky was a beautiful, clear blue with bright sunshine and a slightly cool breeze blowing. As he walked through the flowers blooming all along the path, he smiled to himself because he felt so good. His missing brother was found and the family was whole again, although now substantially increased.

He stopped walking when he faintly heard the sound of children's laughter coming to him on the breeze. Following the sound he soon came upon Thea and her two children sitting on a blanket spread out on the springy grass under an oak tree. When the children spotted him they came running and each took a hand to drag him over to sit next to their mother.

Thea looked at him with a brilliant smile, "Good morning! We were wondering when you would be joining us."

"I guess I must not be used to staying up late celebrating."

She laughed, "Did you have a good time?"

"Just about the best."

"Good," Thea said and bit back a giggle when an acorn fell right on top of Joe's head. The children felt no such constraints, laughing outright at their uncle.

"Where's Adam?"

"Oh, he's around here somewhere," she said vaguely, "He seldom takes a day off so when he does we try not to monopolize all of his time."

"You know if I hadn't glanced in that window as I went by none of this would be happening now. What do you call it when something like . . ." He stopped in mid sentence; this time two acorns hit Joe in the head. Thea looked away and picked up some sewing she had been working on. "I think I know what you mean, it's kind of like fate, but something more."

"Right," Joe said warming up to the subject. "I just can't quite remember the word - it sounds something like 'serene', but that isn't it."

Thea looked down at her sewing so he couldn't see how the corners of her mouth were twitching. "Could it be 'serendipity'?"

"That's it!" Joe chortled, then put his hand up to the top of his head. Three acorns had fallen this time. "Ow," he said and looked up into the tree to see his older brother draped over a large branch with both hands full of acorns. As soon as Joe spotted him, he let them all fall.

Joe scrambled to get away, but Thea didn't move. Adam had anticipated which way the younger man would go so they only person they hit was his brother.

The children were rolling on the ground laughing now, and Thea joined them in their laughter.

"Morning Joe!" Adam called down the tree, "that's what we do to people around here who oversleep."

Joe looked up and shaded his eyes with his hands. "That was a dirty trick!"

"Yes it was, and if memory serves you've pulled plenty of those on me." Adam began to come down, swinging and dropping from branch to branch. In a moment he landed on his feet, right in front of Joe. He gave his younger brother a menacing smile.

"Come on Adam, that was a long time ago."

"You better start running." Adam said and started walking toward his brother who was backing up as quickly as he could. When his older brother lunged for him, he turned and started running as fast as his legs could go.

Adam just stood there watching for a moment then turned around and went to the blanket to sit next to Thea.

She laughed, giving him a puzzled look. "What are you doing?"

"I just wanted to see how far he would go before he realized I wasn't chasing him."

"You're being awfully naughty this morning."

"I know," Adam said and stretched. "Look at him go! He'll reach the end of our property soon."

Joe finally looked behind him and stopped running. They could just barely hear his inarticulate cry of rage as he threw up his arms in exasperation, and then he started jogging back.

"You know, it's not nice to be fooling around with your brother's mind like that."

"Believe me, he deserves every single little bit."

"Oh, so that's what this is about?"

"Yep, and I hope he's prepared for me to make his life a living hell for a while."

Thea shook her head, "You just be careful and don't hurt him. Physically, I mean. Don't do anything that I'll have to fix."

"I won't, I just want to torture him for a bit."

She laughed and Adam stood as Joe came up to them.

"What did you do that for?" he said, winded and definitely irritated at his brother.

Adam shrugged his shoulders saying, "I don't know." Then he reached out and shoved Joe in the left shoulder, hard. "Tag, you're it," he said and ran toward his children.

"Look out, Uncle Joe is it!"

The children squeaked with delight and ran off in opposite directions.

Joe looked at Thea. "What is WITH him this morning?"

She shook her head, "'If memory serves,'" she quoted then raised her eyebrows at him.

His mouth fell open, "You mean he's got them back?"

Thea nodded, "Most of them and if I were you I would be very careful for a while. To Adam it's as if all these things from the past have just happened. Including every joke you ever pulled on him."

Joe paled for a moment, but then seemed to recover quickly. "Well, at least he has them back," he said and took off after Alexander who had decided to try and dart past his uncle.

Thea watched for a bit, then jumped up and joined the game. The five of them had a fine time playing, but Joe accused Adam of cheating by swinging himself up into trees to avoid being tagged by Joe. The adults thoroughly enjoyed a rare opportunity to be carefree.

They had all just collapsed on the blanket when Pa and Hoss came out to join them.

The two men stood there looking down at the prone figures. "Looks like they been run ragged." Hoss said smiling, and Ben laughed.

Adam sat up abruptly, "What time is it?"

Ben pulled his pocket watch out, "It is twelve fifteen," and his eldest son got to his feet.

Thea held her hand out to her husband who helped her up. "We better get moving or we'll be late to the funeral," she said. "And I still need to find someone on the staff to watch the children this afternoon."

Hoss spoke up, "We'll watch 'em for you."

Thea smiled, "Are you sure?"

"Yep," Hoss said as Joe and Ben exchanged a look.

Adam leaned down to whisper in his wife's ear, "Just back away quietly and don't make any sudden moves. They might regain their sanity and change their minds," he cautioned her, so she quickly said, "Thank you," and the two of them hurried off toward the house hand-in-hand.

The three men stood there looking down at the two small children. "Oh boy," Joe said, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Come on Joe, you aren't tellin' me the three of us can't handle two little ones, are you?"

Alexander and Annalise exchanged a look then smiled angelically up at their new family members.

Nearly every employee who was free came to the funeral and Adam and Thea spent most of their time greeting those arriving. A few people were still filing in when they had to rush off to take their places with the choir. Adam stood in between Wes and Charlie while Thea was next to Marie.

The five of them were unobtrusively watching one man in particular; they couldn't believe he had come to the service. He sat in the middle of the first row and nothing about him seemed remarkable enough for all this attention. Until you looked at his eyes - they were cold and full of pride, arrogance, and self-importance.

Thea had been watching the man so intently out of the corner of her eye while the minister spoke that Marie had to poke her in the ribs to wake her up. The choir had started to sing,

"I'm giving it all to You, Lord

For You I will always wait,

I'm giving it all to You, Lord

Until I pass through Heaven's gate."

As the last notes faded away, Adam stepped down and came to the pulpit to read scripture. He startled everyone by his choice of verse and by not saying a word in introduction.

"Awake, my God; decree justice.

O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts,

bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous

secure.

He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.

The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on

his own head.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness and will

sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High."

He turned away then and went back to the choir as they began to sing again.

Lord, there is no

Pain so sharp

You can not ease

Arms so empty

You can not fill

Place so dark

You can not go

Voice so faint

You can not hear

The choir filed out and once they were out of sight, Adam took off his choir robe and went back in to be a pallbearer. Ten men, five on each side, stood by the casket and at a signal from Adam they lifted it onto their shoulders and began to walk out of the church and to the gravesite.

The graveside service was very brief and when it was over Thea came up to Adam and put her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest. He looked down at her as he pulled her close, so neither of them saw Marie stop and stand next to a tall man with iron-gray hair who had been sitting next to the man they had been watching so closely.

"Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock, at the arena," Marie said quietly to him then limped away.

Adam and Thea climbed into their coach and headed home. The rest of the mourners were on their way to the hotel where Adam had reserved the hall and arranged to have the restaurant cater an old fashioned "wake."

When the two came in the front door they heard a man shout from the back of the house and the sound of a child crying. They stared at each other for a second then ran through the house and burst out a back door.

Joe and Hoss were each holding one of Ben's arms and Annalise was wailing with her brother's arms around her.

"What happened?" Adam said coming to a halt in front of his father, while Thea went to the children. His father just grimmaced in pain.

"Now don't get all excited Adam, it was just a little accident," Hoss said as he and Joe started helping Ben walk toward the house again. Adam looked at Thea as they passed him and saw her eyes go wide. He turned to look and saw a child-sized arrow protruding from his father's backside. He put a hand over his eyes; dear God, they had only been gone for two hours!

His father and brothers stopped when Thea rushed past Adam and stepped right in front of them. She spoke with the voice of authority. "Stop, don't you walk anymore," she said shaking a finger in Ben's face, then turned to Hoss. "Hoss, you pick him up and take him up to his room right now!"

Ben looked at her with his eyes snapping and a scowl. "I prefer to walk."

Putting her hands on her hips she said, "I don't care what you prefer, you could do a lot more damage to yourself by walking with that arrow in you." She turned to Hoss again, "Do what you're told Hoss, take him upstairs now!"

"Sorry Pa, she's right," Hoss said, picked his father up and carried him into the house. Thea followed closely behind.

As soon as Ben was out of sight Annalise ran to her father and he scooped her up; Alexander followed slowly. As Adam held his daughter close and patted her on the back his eyes went to Joe.

"Care to tell me how did my children get their hands on a bow and arrows?" he asked in a reasonable tone.

"Well now, that was Hoss's idea. He bought them and was going to ask you about it first, but forgot. And this seemed like a perfect opportunity to teach the kids how to use them so..."

"And...?"

"And what?"

"And how did our father end up with an arrow in his...well...in him?"

Joe's eyes involuntarily went to Annalise, still sobbing in her father's arms.

Adam blinked, "Annalise did this?"

His younger brother nodded reluctantly and the little girl leaned back in her father's arms, her face shiny with tears, "Is Grandpa gonna die?" she hiccupped. Adam put his hand on the back of her head and pressed his forehead to hers, "No honey, Grandpa is not going to die. You're mother will fix him up just like new."

The little girl looked in her father's eyes for a moment then seemed to accept that he was telling the truth. She wearily snuggled up to her father, her head pressed up against his neck.

Adam felt a tugging at his pant leg and looked down at Alexander. "This time it wasn't me Pa," the little boy said. His father smiled. "Yes, this time it wasn't you," as he reached down and put his free hand on his son's head. He smoothed Alexander's hair then bent down to pick him up too.

"I'm really sorry, Adam," Joe said, looking at his older brother cautiously.

"Pa is the one who will be expecting apologies, not me." They started toward the house. "Do you think you can watch these two in my office for a bit while I go up to help?"

"You don't have any weapons in there, do you?"

"Yes, but even you wouldn't be able to get at them."

"I think I can manage for a while. You'd better go up, I'm sure Thea will be needing your help."

"I'm not worried about Thea," Adam said when they reached the back door, "Pa is the one I'm thinking of."

After leaving the children with Joe in the office Adam quickly climbed the stairs, but had to flatten himself up against the wall when people came running with the things Thea no doubt had asked for. As soon as the hall was clear he continued on to his father's room, opened the door and went in.

Hoss turned toward him and his older brother nodded his head at the door. The big man left quickly, relieved.

Ben was lying facedown on the bed and Thea was busily arranging things so she didn't notice her husband come in or Hoss leave at first. He went to the head of the bed and looked down at his father. "Are you alright so far?'

He turned his head to give Adam a desperate look, "Can't you stop her?"

Knowing what his father was upset about he chuckled and shook his head. "Nope. She's right, it's best to get that arrow out of you as quickly as possible."

Thea went to her doctor's bag and pulled out a large, sharp knife.

"But she's going to be putting her hands on..." he started to say then realized Thea was slitting his pant leg up the back.

"Hey!" he started to protest and get up. Adam put a hand on his father's shoulder to push him back down. "Pa, she's a doctor; she's seen it all before."

Thea patted the prone man on the leg as she started to cut the cloth away around the arrow, "Don't worry Ben, if I see anything I haven't seen before I'll shoot it."

Her father-in-law just groaned in embarrassment and buried his head in the pillow.

At a nod from his wife, Adam came over and picked up the chloroform mask. He opened the bottle, expertly applied a small amount of the liquid to the center then went back to the head of the bed.

His father turned toward him and Adam put a hand to the back of his head and gently placed the mask over his mouth and nose.

"Just take a deep breath Pa, don't fight it.'

In a few seconds the prone man went limp and Thea went into action while Adam checked his father's pulse.

She picked up her scalpel and with quick, short strokes cut an "X" shape with the arrow in the center. After pulling it out, she reached for a jar of clear liquid, a mixture of hot water and carbolic acid. She dribbled the mixture into the wound and swabbed it out until she was satisfied it was clean. Then she reached for an already threaded, curved needle. After sewing a few stitches in each layer, she was done, so she began to clean and bandage the wound.

Ben was still out when she turned to Adam and smiled. "All done," she said and laughed. "Now I see something else you and your father have in common. Except yours doesn't have an 'X' on it."

He slanted a sideways look at her, "If you are finished ogling my father's backside you can wait out in the hall while I get him settled."

She left the room laughing and he shook his head.

A few minutes later Adam opened the door and Thea came back in to look at her patient. She checked his pulse and pulled his eyelids back. "Everything is normal, he should be coming out of it soon, so I'll just clean this mess up then sit next to the bed and wait," she said and began to gather her things up.

Adam said, "I'll be right back, I want to check on the twins and arrange for a tray to be brought up here later."

Thea just nodded as he left.

When she finished straightening up the room, she curled up in the wingchair by the head of the bed. She sat there quietly, taking the opportunity to study her father-in-law's sleeping face.

He soon opened his eyes and she smiled down at him with affection, "How do you feel?"

After blinking a few times and clearing his throat he said, "Fine," as though he was surprised.

"I just want you to stay in bed for the rest of today and tomorrow you can do what you want. Just be careful you don't pop any of those stitches."

He refused to meet her eyes, so she leaned down and whispered, "It's ok Pa, I kept my eyes closed."

Ben looked up at her quickly; she grinned and waggled her eyebrows at him.

That won a small smile from him, which turned into a much wider smile as he started to laugh. "I guess that was rather foolish of me to be bothered by you...seeing part of me unclothed. I'm sure once you've seen one, you've seen them all."

Thea shook her head, "No, not really, darlin'" she said and gave him a wink. He turned red and laughed.

Adam walked in as his father said, "Don't make me laugh anymore, that's starting to hurt."

She immediately became serious, "Do you need anything for pain?"

"No, I'll be fine," he assured her so she leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "Well, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I think I will go and get my children ready for dinner." She ran her hand down Adam's arm and then gave him a sharp thwak on his backside as she left the room.

"Hey!" her husband protested as she hurried away giggling.

When he turned to his father he was relieved to see him smiling. "That woman is getting to be entirely too cheeky...and I can't believe I just said that."

His father shook his head still smiling then his expression became serious. "Adam, I've been thinking about you two and I've realized something - Thea is just right for you. All the women you had in your life before would have bored you to tears within the first year of marriage."

"I know," Adam said and sat down in the chair by the bed. "Of course, I only know that since I recovered most of my memories last night."

"You did!"

"Yes I did and I have some questions for you," he leaned forward, "so tell me Pa, what's this about Hoss and Leprechauns?"