The next day, the weather took a turn for the worse, as it always seemed to do in late December. Rain and darkness, sleet and darkness, cold and darkness, and days of darkness.
But inside the Bolt cabin, no one seemed to notice, or care.
Inside there was warmth and light, voices and laughter. And music. That was the most important addition at the time. Josh took a few days to find Jason had been correct – a lot of what he knew came back as soon as he got comfortable with the feel of the instrument in his hands. (Even if it did feel smaller; of course it would. He wasn't eight or nine anymore.)
Of course, he was a long way from knowing any more than the most basic basics – that was what he told Jeremy, who would sit down on the floor across from him and watch him intently as he relearned how to play.
Jeremy didn't care. Josh could make that noisy thing turn discord into music, and he wanted to see how it was done, so he watched silently.
"At least they aren't arguing," Da said to Jason.
"Give it time," Jason responded. "Jeremy hasn't learned the language yet."
Da laughed. "Well, we can enjoy it while it's here. I'm glad they were pleased."
Jason pretended to think that over and smiled. "You just gave them something more to fight about. Thanks. Since I'll be the one dealing with it." Oh no! Had he really said that out loud? "Sorry."
"Never be sorry for the truth, son." He watched the two boys as Jeremy scooted closer, and Josh used his foot to scoot him back where he had been.
Da sighed. "Twill be good for them to get back to school," he said. "Back to an ordered life."
"I suppose." Boring for himself, though, with the boys out of the house all day. And an 'ordered life' was even more of a bore, although Da (and Josh) liked things that way. Jason liked the unexpected to happen unexpectedly. It gave days a shape and a variety. You could look forward to events happening when you didn't know it would be exactly like yesterday or last Thursday or last July.
"You're wishing you could be back on the mountain, no doubt," Da said. "You can, you know. We'll be fine."
"No, I can't. I can't leave the boys to deal with – you."
"Ah, I see. You don't want them to find me."
"Bluntly, yes."
Da was silent, still watching the younger boys. "You may have something there. There may be a solution. I'll think on it."
"You do that."
School started again, and was fine for the first week. After that, Jeremy began fighting – or fighting back, as Josh put it. Joshua, as he had intended, didn't interfere as long as the fight stayed fair. God forbid any boy who interfered.
The strangest thing about it was that the boys never discussed the fighting. They rarely mentioned the who (although what they couldn't see the town talk kept then informed about) or the why, although Josh did sometimes offer advice on the how. Mostly telling Jeremy what he had done wrong.
Jeremy sometimes responded by acting out Josh's suggestions on Josh, which made them all laugh. They were all boys, after all, and enjoyed a good 'wrassle'. A nice healthy fight was a good way to let off steam, too, as well as to show off one's dominance.
Jason laughed when Da said that. It was, of course, true, at least of Jason.
"Joshua will be bailing out the pair of you every weekend," Da commented. "And that's if he isn't in there with you."
The three brothers looked at one another and looked sheepish, laughed, or both.
The father looked on, listened, and tried to be satisfied with the men his sons were becoming. It grieved him that he'd never see the wee one grow to adulthood, and tried not to resent it. He might, if fate was kind, at least see his middle son shave – the time was coming, and soon, because his voice was changing.
He'd never see a grandchild, and he had hoped that there would be many girls to take after their grandmother in various ways, and that he would see them, and see her in them. But that was not to be, unless Jason was up to more mischief than he knew of.
Possible but unlikely the father thought. Jason did spend the school hours out of the house, and his father asked few questions. Jason was there when needed, and took good care of them all, and he had earned the right to whatever privacy the town allowed him.
Winter wintered on, as it always did. Short hours of daylight – barely, thanks to clouds and fogs and an occasional snow.
Snow wasn't pretty in town, at least not for long. The dirty smelly mud even ruined perfectly good snow, Jeremy complained. He'd bet there was white crispy snow on the mountain.
"There's always snow on the mountain," Josh said. "Even in summer." He kicked the rungs on his chair, just as Jeremy was doing.
"Wanna sled in real snow, not the sloppy dirty kind." Jeremy sulked.
"That would be better," Joshua agreed, and the two boys put their hands under their chins and stared out the window at the gloom with identical expressions.
It made their father smile.
Few things were making him smile as the dark days of winter continued. He was feeling weaker nearly every day. He could barely eat. Sometimes he lost time. He spent more time in his bed than sitting by the fire, and he spent too much time there. When he looked into the fire, he probably had the same expression as the one the boys were wearing.
He was probably wearing that expression right now.
Jason came in with a box of groceries. "We having a meeting of the gloom and doom society?" he asked, setting the box on the table and putting things away.
"Looks like you got one or two pounds of what we wanted five pounds of," Da said.
"And lucky to get that. This weather's keeping the supply boats offshore. There's almost no sugar left, so I grabbed up some candy if we run out. "
"We got sugar at our cabin," Jeremy said. What a waste of good candy, to use it as sugar.
"I know. If it gets too bad, I'll go get it. We're good for now."
"Can we go with you?" Josh asked.
Jason paused. "I had thought to go while you were in school. If it becomes necessary."
"We wanna go, too." Jason wasn't sure which brother had offered that explanation. (It was Josh. Not that it mattered.)
"They want to go sledding," Da said. "In crisp white snow, not the sloppy dirty kind."
"There's something to be said for that."
"Why not go, all three of you, once school lets out Friday?"
"Trying to get rid of us, Da?"
"A man likes some privacy, every now and then, after all."
"True enough," Jason agreed. He didn't believe it, but what did he know? He wasn't the one dying, and he never had been, now that he thought of it."We'll see what the weather is like."
"Cloudy, dark, and damp," Josh said.
"You boys are the only people I know who want to cure cabin fever by going to a cabin."
Josh grinned. "That's not the cure; that's the excuse."
"We wanna play in the snow," Jeremy added.
"Like I said, we'll see what the weather is like." Jason poured himself a cup of coffee and refreshed Da's cup.
"Okay," the boys said together, grinning at one another like the conspirators they were.
The three brothers enjoyed their weekend playing in the snow. If the activity was frenetic at times, no one commented on it. They played hard; they laughed hard; they stayed busy. When they were tired, they slept from exhaustion. They didn't mention that some of the exhaustion was from avoiding emotion. Sometimes they fell silent, but would then start talking and joking or finding other things to do. Silence wasn't allowed, but neither was thinking.
They did not mention their father, although they all thought of him from time to time, and changed the subject, even in just their minds.
In town, their father gathered his strength, and his friends, and finalized his arrangements.
When the boys returned Sunday, laughing and in perfect accord, he was content.