The Paths of the Past

Well, Dad, you were right. There really is such a thing as fate.

No point in trying to doubt it now. What else could have brought Tem and Amanda's life this full circle? It had to be destiny that carried them here to where their fathers first met and began their remarkable friendship. James West and Artemus Gordon hadn't been partners or Secret Service agents back then. They'd been two good men, fighting in the valiant cause of the country they loved, each one bringing his own unique talents to that fight. Working together, coming to each other's rescue against nearly impossible odds, had forged a bond between them stronger than any steel. Now their children shared another kind of bond every bit as strong, uniting their two families in kinship as well as friendship.

But for an old child nemesis to be here too – where did that piece fit into the puzzle? From the sound of it, Charlie Murphy might have lived here for years, running that butcher shop. Was this where his family had moved to after leaving Millwood Grove? Tem couldn't imagine him having any kind of connection to the criminal racket they were after, but he could imagine all too easily the sort of trouble a big, loudmouthed and vengeful bully could cause them. Tem didn't like having to confront this monster of long ago, but he'd faced up to Charlie then, and he was much more competent and confident to do so now. Still, nothing about this newest assignment from the Secret Service was turning out to be quite what he'd expected when he'd accepted that brown envelope Agent Hamilton had handed him just a few short weeks and a lifetime ago.

Amanda was even less pleased by this latest twist than Tem was, obviously, and she had every right to be. Jimmy couldn't possibly understand, though they tried to explain it to him. He hadn't been there. Tem might not have his brother-in-law's remarkable memory, but he remembered that long ago day like it had been etched into him with an engraving tool. He'd been barely considered old enough to attend school yet, and none of the older kids had warned him about Charlie's behavior the way they'd warned Amanda. Tem couldn't remember when he'd first started adoring Amanda; he couldn't remember a time when he hadn't. But whatever Charlie Murphy had been after when he'd grabbed her, it sure wasn't love.

It had happened so fast. The older, bigger boy seemed to appear out of nowhere at their playground. Tem and Amanda had been playing with a ball, tossing it back and forth, and suddenly Charlie had grabbed her by both arms. She'd tried to get away from him and he squeezed her arms so hard she'd cried out in pain. Tem remembered his own red hot anger, his desire to protect her. He didn't remember most of the fight itself – just the part where Charlie had punched him hard enough to send him flying and blacken his eye. He'd landed hard enough to have the wind knocked out of him so that he couldn't get up right away. But whatever Tem had done, it was enough to make the big coward run off so that he wasn't hurting Amanda anymore.

Tem didn't learn until afterwards that he'd blacked both of the older boy's eyes and given him a swollen lip too. All he could think about was that his cherished playmate had been frightened and hurt and that he'd been frightened and hurt. Amanda hadn't been the only one to have nightmares in the days that followed. Tem tried not to show it, but he'd had his share too. And the adults must have had theirs as well, judging by the way they guarded both children like hawks for a long time after that. To a small child, knowing that the adults can be scared is the scariest thing of all.

The course of all their lives had been changed by those few, fateful minutes on the playground and by the large man Tem was going to have to confront again after so many years. The fact that Charlie Murphy knew how to use knives and cleavers now wasn't going to make this any easier, but Tem was prepared for that. So was Amanda. Charlie himself had made sure of it. But this confrontation with their past was a distraction they didn't need right now – or ever, for that matter.

Yes, Tem firmly believed in fate, believed that it was a real thing.

And that it could be a real pain in the butt, too . . . .

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," his wife answered.

He gave her hand what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. They'd waited until the end of the day for what they were about to do. The sky was still light, but most or all of Charlie Murphy's customers should have come and gone by now, and the butcher shop this close to its closing time should be empty of clientele. With any luck, Charlie should be just cleaning and wrapping things up, not expecting any more visitors this late. Surely the big bully wouldn't think his victims of so long ago would want to come anywhere near him.

Tem insisted on going in first, ready for anything, with Amanda to follow. Jimmy would stay behind them both, with strict orders not to interfere in any fight, and to retreat straight back to Wanderer II if anything turned out amiss. Even though he hoped it wouldn't come down to a physical fight again, Tem felt the heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders, bringing his nearest and dearest along with him to face the monster in his den. Tem opened the door to the butcher shop slowly and gently, so that the bell attached to the door barely gave off a tinkle. Charlie was in there all right, solemnly wiping down the top of the front counter as they made their way in. He hadn't even looked up, but continued what he was doing, oblivious to their presence until Tem stepped forward and spoke.

"Charlie."

The big butcher looked up then, and Tem almost held his breath in as he too now saw the same large, heart-shaped birthmark on the man's face that had been on the boy's. Yes, this was their bully sure enough. No doubt about it.

"Evening, folks," the butcher started to ask, "What can I . . . ."

Charlie's voice trailed off, and much of the color drained away from the parts of his face not covered by the birthmark as he stared up and saw Tem and Amanda in his shop. Tem hadn't been sure what to expect, since Charlie would almost certainly recognize Amanda again, so soon after the scene in his shop earlier that day. But he was not expecting the reaction he generated in the big man. Charlie looked at Tem exactly as if he was seeing a ghost. A very scary, angry ghost. Tem couldn't understand why. He didn't look anything like his five year-old self now. But Charlie, instead of coming at him, grabbing a weapon (of which several were within reach), trying to intimidate or loom over him, simply collapsed to the floor behind the counter. Tem, still uncertain, waved Amanda back as he walked around to the side and then the back of the counter, wondering if this might be some sort of trick or trap on Charlie's part. But no – the huge foe from the past was hunched down on his knees, covering his great, bald head with both arms.

"Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me!" Charlie cried. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to do anything wrong, I swear! Please! Please!"

Amanda heard the big man's pathetic pleas and slowly came around to where her husband was standing. They stared down at their former foe, equally puzzled by his behavior. He'd been a coward years ago, surely, but this? This had none of the appearances of a bluff or an instant acting job either. Charlie wasn't secretly reaching for a weapon or glancing under his arms toward a hidden associate. He was just plain blubbering in a way that any man his age and size ought to be ashamed of.

"I didn't mean to hurt you! I didn't mean to hurt anyone!" the butcher's pleas continued. "Don't hurt me! Don't make me move again! Please!"

Make him move again? What the hell?

Just what was the man babbling about?

Tem still had a weather eye out for any unexpected move on Charlie's part, as well as for anyone else coming in to the shop. But this scenario, like so much else, wasn't going like anything he'd expected. Amanda and Jimmy seemed just as confused as he was. This monster of yesteryear had been identified correctly, but now Tem could understand Jimmy's earlier skepticism. It was difficult to credit this quivering heap with being the source of their childhood pain and trauma, of their own life alterations.

Then again, Charlie had possessed a reputation for molesting little girls, a reputation they'd been given no reason to doubt . . . .

"Get up," Tem growled gruffly.

Slowly, the butcher stood up, both hands now raised above his head in abject surrender. All of them could see the man trembling and watching them fearfully. If it was an acting job, it was a performance that would have done Uncle Arte proud. Charlie Murphy stared at Tem as if he were seeing a ghost.

"What did he mean, don't make him move again?" Jimmy asked from behind them.

Charlie was so on edge that he nearly jumped out of his shoes at the realization of a third person's presence. That too was odd. Jimmy might be a formidable young man with some unique talents, but his physical appearance wouldn't scare a field mouse. But the question he'd asked was a valid one, and Charlie tried to answer, all the while staring at Tem.

"It's my fault," the butcher gulped. "If I'd told my Pa the truth about what happened . . . about how I'd been trying to take that dare so the other kids would stop picking on me . . . so my Pa didn't try to start a fight . . . ." He screwed up his face into a tight mask of misery and tears trickled down his cheeks. "Please! People like me here! They aren't mean to me here! Not like Illinois!"

At least Charlie was trying to answer, but none of it made any sense. They weren't going to be able to have any kind of conversation with this man while he was so nakedly terrified and miserable. Instead of fearing or intimidating their playground nemesis, Tem felt an unaccountable desire to reassure him and calm him down a bit. This was the same monster they'd dreaded all these years? And what did any of it have to do with dares or with Charlie's Pa?

"Whoa," Tem said, trying to sound less gruff and take up a less aggressive posture. "What are you talking about?"

Charlie Murphy, the butcher's boy, more frightened than frightening, still kept his hands above his head in surrender. Even Amanda, to judge by her expression, was having conflicting thoughts about what to do next. Charlie, with his eyes downcast toward the floor, turned slowly to face her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble. The other kids . . . they dared me to kiss a girl on the playground. They told me to do it or they'd beat me up again. But I didn't mean to hurt anybody." He shook his head. "Ma always told me I didn't know my own strength. She said when people make fun of me for this," he lowered one hand to cover the heart-shaped birthmark, "I should turn the other cheek. But then they did this." That same hand inserted a finger into Charlie's mouth and pulled up one corner of his lip to reveal a gap where his otherwise healthy jaw was missing a tooth. Then he raised both hands above his head again.

"A dare?" Amanda asked, voice cold and incredulous. "You attacked me because of a dare?"

The big butcher backed up another step away from her.

"It wasn't like that!" he protested, then corrected himself, shaking his head. "I mean, it wasn't supposed to be like that! I was scared! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He stared down at the ground again. "Then I got more scared when that little kid started hitting me! And then I made it worse."

Does he even realize who I am? Tem wondered, hearing himself mentioned in the third person.

"How, Charlie?" Tem asked. "How did you make it worse?"

The butcher regarded him guiltily.

"I was scared! I was so ashamed! That's why I told Ma and Pa that it was a bigger kid who beat me up that time." Charlie's voice dropped to a whisper again. "That's why my Pa went looking for a fight. And . . . and found one."

Tem and Amanda exchanged shocked glances. This wasn't part of their familiar family narrative. Although it made sense. Tem had vague memories of their young attacker, with his two black eyes, being brought toward the Gordon house by a large, irate man they knew to be the boy's father, the town butcher. Both he and Amanda were being comforted by their mothers up on the front porch and Uncle Arte had shooshed all four of them into the house while he and Tem's Dad remained outside with Charlie and his father. Their mothers had brought them into the Gordon kitchen, shut the door, gave the two children cookies and sang to them – rather loudly, come to think of it. A short time later Uncle Arte and Tem's Dad had come into the kitchen and pronounced the matter 'closed.' Neither child ever received an apology from Charlie back then – not that they'd wanted him to get close enough to give them one! They hadn't seen him after that either, except in their nightmares and . . . now.

But Tem could remember how angry his father had been at the time. He could picture very well what would happen to any opponent, however large, who decided to pick a fight with the legendary Jim West in such a mood. Uncle Arte wouldn't have stood a chance of intervening even if he'd wanted to.

"How many pieces did my father leave your father in?" Tem asked quietly.

Charlie blinked and looked at Tem again, as if realizing who he was speaking to for the first time, before continuing.

"He . . . he knocked my Pa flat," Charlie gulped. "Broke his arm, too. Then he started walking toward me. I . . . I was afraid he was going to kill me!" The butcher's pale face began to blush a deep red. "I . . . wet my pants. And I saw the other man coming off the porch and calling him. Jim, he called him." Charlie's shivering was noticeable and he had to pause again.

"Go on," Tem whispered, astonished at this part of the story he'd never heard before. Amanda and Jimmy were both being so quiet they all could have heard a pin drop.

"He didn't beat me up, though," Charlie mumbled when he could find his voice again, shaking his head. "He didn't lay a hand on me. But he looked at me real angry-like."

Yes, Jim West was very good at doing that.

"And he told me . . . ." Charlie gulped. "He told me to pick up my Pa and take him home. And he said to tell him the truth and if . . . if Pa or I ever bothered any of you again . . . well, we'd better move out of town real fast if we did."

So that was what their fathers had meant by the incident being 'closed,' and what Charlie had meant too. Tem, hearing all this, felt relieved to know that his father still hadn't, wouldn't raise his hand to a child no matter how angry he was. But from the sound of it, Uncle Arte must have been relieved too, as well as worried at the time. That had been a bad, bad day for all of them. Still . . . .

"He didn't actually make you move, did he?" Amanda asked. "I don't recall seeing you again after that."

Charlie shook his head.

"I brought my Pa home and told him and Ma the whole truth, like I should have done." The butcher lowered his hands, but just enough to wipe his cheeks of the tears that had been flowing down freely. "They told me what I had done was real bad." He gave Amanda another culpable, sorrowful look. "That I shouldn't ever treat a girl like that – and I never have! No one else, I swear!" He paused again, briefly. "But after the doctor fixed Pa's arm up, he told Ma and Pa some of the things the other kids had been saying about me . . . nasty, untrue things. So they figured we better move again, because after what I did, people would believe all the nasty stuff. So we came here." The tears running down Charlie's face finally stopped, but his imploring, desperate expression didn't. "Please don't make me move again! Please! I'm real sorry for what I did! And . . . and we like it here! Ma and I don't cause any trouble! This is our home! People aren't mean to me here!"

The man was pleading, begging.

"Take it easy, Charlie," Tem heard himself saying. "We didn't come here to get revenge." Didn't we? Tem felt his own cheeks flushing, and not with anger. This was the monster we've hated all these years? This? The emotional vertigo was almost enough to make him dizzy. Tem certainly couldn't blame his father for being so angry all those years ago. Couldn't blame himself or Amanda either. But . . . . "If you're telling us the truth . . . ."

"I swear!" Charlie crossed his hand over his heart while still holding up the other so so they could see he didn't have any fingers crossed as he said it. "Honest!"

Tem and Amanda were both caught in a moment of silent uncertainty over what to do or say to their former foe. This visit to the butcher shop had gone so far off script that everything they'd planned to say had just fallen into the orchestra pit. So maybe it was just as well that Tem's young brother-in-law chose to speak up first.

"I believe him," Jimmy said.

He who knew the big man in front of them least of all was staring at the butcher with a quiet conviction in his face. Jimmy nodded at Charlie Murphy, with just a merest hint of a sympathetic smile on his face. Charlie's trembling stopped, and it was as if some unspoken understanding passed between the younger man and the butcher. Charlie relaxed his nervous posture just a little, and allowed his hands to slowly slip down to his sides as he bowed his head and awaited Tem and Amanda's judgment.

And what sort of judgment are we supposed to make? Tem certainly didn't feel like threatening or trying to intimidate Charlie now. It would be too much like kicking a frightened puppy. An extremely large frightened puppy. But he hadn't entirely misspoken when he'd told Charlie they weren't there to claim revenge. What they wanted and needed was for this big man who recognized them not to go blabbing about their presence in Murfreesboro while they pursued their considerably more recent and dangerous adversary. Tem wasn't sure he believed Charlie Murphy as far as Jimmy did, but he didn't think that level of cooperation would be difficult to get now. It was clear that the butcher wanted their forgiveness and to be left alone by them, nothing more. Tem glanced over at Amanda for confirmation that she was thinking more or less the same thing he was. She tilted her head with the slightest nod.

Your move, her eyes said.

Hoping he wasn't doing something he'd regret, Tem slowly reached into his jacket pocket. He heard Charlie gasp a little and saw him tense up again. Does he think I'm going to shoot him? He held open his jacket flap to make sure Charlie saw that what he was drawing out was not a weapon. Not that Charlie didn't remain at least a little tense when Tem held open the leather holder and showed the butcher his Secret Service I.D.

"We don't want trouble either, Charlie," Tem said. "Just the opposite. I'm here on business for the United States government." No point in revealing that Amanda and Jimmy were also Secret Service agents. "I'm looking to apprehend some dangerous individuals. These two," he gestured at Amanda and Jimmy, "are helping provide some extra cover. But it's essential that the criminals not be forewarned of our presence here. What's happened between us in the past is . . . unfortunate. But it is the past. Over and done with, I hope." He put his I.D. back into his jacket pocket. "All I ask is that you tell no one that you saw us here. Don't talk about us. Not to anyone. You don't make any hassles for us and we won't for you. I promise. And as soon as my business for the government is concluded here, we can go our separate ways and we'll never bother you again. Deal?"

Tem waited for the meaning of his words to sink in. It took almost a minute before the big butcher nodded and exhaled with relief. Tem felt like exhaling a bit himself, especially when he saw that Amanda seemed to agree with his decision. Maybe it was as well that destiny had brought them here to this particular encounter. If that long ago day had been a bad dream for Tem and Amanda and their families, it was, in a very different way, an even worse one for Charlie Murphy and his family. A painful moment of the past that had profoundly shaped everyone it touched. Now they could at last well and truly put that particular ghost of memory behind them and as Charlie's mother would have said – and Tem's too – turn the other cheek.

With nothing more that remained to be said or done, the three Secret Service agents gave a final nod to the Murfreesboro butcher Charlie Murphy and exited the shop to return to the peaceful evening of the city streets. As they did so, Tem glanced at the reflection in the butcher shop's window, just to make sure he wasn't entirely taking his eyes off their old nemesis while their backs were turned to him. Charlie just stood there, arms at his sides, head down, making no hostile moves of any kind. But Tem felt a prickle as he saw his own reflected face staring back at him and realized just what might have spooked the big man who'd wet himself in terror of an angry Jim West. Hadn't everyone always told Tem how much he looked like the man who'd sired him?

Charlie Murphy had been seeing a ghost.

My father's ghost . . . .

The three agents walked back to where they'd parked their horses and mounted up for the ride back to Wanderer II in silence. To Tem's annoyance, Baccarat chose to be prancy and give him a hard time as he settled into the saddle. He was really going to have to teach this intractable stallion some manners! But not right at that moment. Out of the corner of his eye, Tem wondered if he'd seen a slight movement in the beginning evening shadows near an alleyway, but when he looked again, he saw nothing. Just an empty alleyway. Ah, well. Hardly surprising that all their nerves would be on edge after the encounter of the past hour. The day had been more of a learning experience than any of them had expected.

"Well?" Amanda asked.

"Well what?"

"Do you believe him?"

Tem whistled softly for a moment before answering.

"He's nothing like I remembered, that's for sure. But I don't think it was an act. That was quite the story he told us."

"I don't think it was just a story," Jimmy chimed in. "I think he was telling the truth."

Amanda didn't scold or argue, but she did raise her eyebrows a bit.

"And how would you know that, little brother?"

Jimmy gave them a sardonic smile.

"We-ell," he said, "you know how I went to the University of Chicago when I was ten years old? And graduated in two years?"

Tem and Amanda both nodded.

"Did either of you know that the real reason I got admitted to the University at that age was because I was the Dean's bastard love child? Or that I was actually an adult midget who was secretly planted at the University as part of a forbidden scientific experiment?"

"What?" Amanda exclaimed. "That's ridiculous!"

"That's not all," Jimmy told them. "I was also a European industrial spy who was really there to steal top secret information and take photos of the other students in the nude to send to Prussia to use as blackmail material."

"Even more ridiculous," Amanda snorted. "Who in their right mind would believe any of that garbage?"

"Well I know you both wouldn't," Jimmy said, "because you know me. You know the truth. But those sorts of stories got circulated about me back then by other students who didn't like me and who thought somebody would believe them. Somebody probably did. After all, who's going to believe that a ten year old was going to college? Legitimately? The bullies on campus could make up anything they liked. The fact that none of it was true didn't matter to them."

Tem bit back a comment he'd been about to make when he saw the look on his brother-in-law's face and heard a shift in his tone of his voice.

"The times they stole my books away from me or shoved me into mud puddles were real enough," he mumbled, with an expression not entirely unlike one they had just seen on Charlie Murphy's face.

"What? They did what?" Amanda almost wheeled Diamond about like an outraged Warrior Queen Boadicea. Any such bullies would be lucky to be several states away right now, Tem thought. "Why didn't you ever tell me anything about this before?"

Jimmy shrugged.

"Nothing you could have done about it. You were away at a different school at the time. So was Tem. I didn't want to bother our Dads, so I . . . handled it." The slight trace of a smile crossed his downcast features. Tem found himself wondering if Jimmy hadn't picked up more than a little of their fathers' secret agent techniques than they'd realized. "You wouldn't believe some of the aftereffects their colognes and shaving soap and hair cream started to have!"

"With some helpful samples from Uncle Arte's chemistry set, I take it?" Tem asked.

Jimmy gave him a hurt look.

"I'm capable of coming up with my own compounds, thank you very much!"

"I stand corrected," Tem tipped his hat. "Sorry!"

"Anyway, the point is . . . ." Jimmy continued, "bullying is real. You two probably wouldn't know what it's like because, I mean, you're both so good looking and popular and talented at everything and all, you're practically perfect!"

"Hardly," Tem said, but Jimmy waved away the comment and shook his head.

"But it's different when you're someone like me or like Charlie," Jimmy argued. "Someone who doesn't fit in. Someone who's different from everyone else for some reason. We're fair game and all sorts of things can happen to us." His expression turned dark. "It would be just like a bunch of mean kids to make up a nasty story about a boy like Charlie – to frighten the littler kids and make them think he's the world's scariest pervert or murderer or something – and then put him up to a dare that would make everyone believe the worst thing possible! It would hurt and scare all of us for life, scare all of our parents too, and they'd do it because they thought it was funny."

Tem heard his wife whisper a short curse under her breath, and then they remained mostly silent again for the rest of the ride back to the train. Tem still wasn't entirely certain they could trust Charlie Murphy, but there was more of a ring of truth in Jimmy's words than he'd ever wanted to hear. More than Amanda apparently wanted either, to judge by the weary, acknowledging look she gave him when they had a moment alone again in Wanderer II.

"Humans make the best monsters, don't we?" she asked.

"Not all of us," he whispered, kissing her and rubbing her shoulders as he pulled her close. "It's our job to protect everyone from the humans that do. Just like our fathers did."

"I guess it's good that we're getting on with it then," she sighed, returning his embrace.

There was no more talk of monsters for the remainder of that evening, or of the job before them. That would begin again in the morning, when they visited an old battlefield to divine its secrets. For tonight they would be man and woman only, accepting one another on the strange and twisty track that destiny had laid for them.