AFTERNOON
It was late afternoon before Jeremy woke up, and that was only because his stomach was growling and cramping. It had been a long time since yesterday's stew, and Josh and Jason had been so busy fighting no one had made breakfast.
He probably should have grabbed some kind of bread or some jerky before he'd left. He would have if he'd planned to leave, but it all just happened. Really fast, too.
He probably had some jerky hiding around here someplace, and some nuts, too. If they hadn't decided to grow into trees instead, or been ate by squirrels. He'd look for something in a minute, after his head stopped hurting so much. He guessed it was because he went to sleep on a rock.
The air looked like it was made of gold. He hadn't been here in the afternoon very often, and had never seen how the setting sun filtered through the branches. It was pretty, with all the new green starting to come alive again.
Setting sun? That should mean something, but he couldn't think what. He was thirsty, too, as well as hungry. That was easy to take care of, there was a well and spring over there. He'd been rebuilding the rock wall of the well most of last summer.
Come to think of it, he'd put some of his secret food in niches he'd made while he was working. He wouldn't have to go anywhere else. He stood up and started walking, tentatively. It was funny, because the roots in the ground kept popping out at him, right in front of his feet. He giggled every time he stumbled, but he got to the well without falling.
That was good.
His head hurt.
So did his eyes.
And his throat. That water felt good in his mouth. Nice and cold. He drank his fill,sighed, and leaned against the well wall. He'd look for his stores later on.
He watched the gold go out of the sky, and closed his eyes with pleasure. With the air not shining any more, it didn't hurt his eyes and they could rest.
He could rest until Jason and Josh came to get him.
EVENING
"Jason!"
"Yes, Joshua?"
"I think we better go out again. It doesn't look like he's coming back."
"I don't know where else to look. There was no sign of him at his nursery or his Church Trees. Or the caves. No sign he'd been there. Anywhere."
"Maybe he hadn't got there yet."
"You'd think, the way he took out of here, he'd be easy to follow. He wasn't taking any time to hide his tracks."
"I don't know. Maybe he wasn't running to anywhere. Maybe he was just running."
"Away from us."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to." Jason paced back out onto the porch, Josh following him. They both looked at the sun, its light weakening as it neared the horizon. A horizon piling up with gray clouds.
"It's cooling off fast. We'll be lucky if it doesn't rain."
"He doesn't have a coat, or even a shirt. Just his nightshirt and pants."
"At least he did stop to put shoes on."
"Only because they were by the door. If they'd been behind it – well, he might have come back sooner if his feet were hurting. I wonder…" Jason stood in the doorway and looked straight ahead.
"Wonder what?"
"If you or I ran, angry or scared, or angry and scared, how would we do it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Joshua, make up a couple hot water bottles, and a canteen of hot coffee. I'll gather up his coat and a couple of blankets and get the horses couple lanterns, although I hope it won't take that long."
"Where are we going to look?" Josh was already moving.
"Nowhere, Josh. We're just going to run, like our brothers are trying to kill one another behind us. No thinking." Jason slanted a glance at his younger brother. "You don't even have to say it. That's something I'm good at not doing."
"Let's hope it works."
Once on the way, straight ahead without looking, it didn't take long to find tracks, even from horseback.
It took an hour to find the boy. When he'd finally slowed down, he left less evidence of his passage. The brothers had to walk to find the traces he left.
"We're headed to the Church," Josh said.
"Mmm. Always a good place to go when you're troubled. Yes, I think that's where he headed."
"Instinct?"
"Homing instinct. Better light the lanterns, Josh. It's dark under the trees."
"Yeah."
They found the boy within a few minutes, and in even less time, had him bundled up and they all headed home.
Jeremy did not wake up.
"He's warming up," Jason said, once they got him home and changed.
"Too much," Josh said, looking at the boy's red cheeks and white face.
"What do you mean?"
"He's warming up too much too fast. Fever."
"Well, let's stay on top of it."
"Yeah."
THREE MORNINGS LATER
"J-jason? Jason? I'm thirs'y Can I have a d-drink?"
"Jeremy?" Jason hurried to bring the boy a cup of water, held it for him as he drank. His skin was cool, his color was almost normal. "How do you feel?"
"Wh-where's J-josh? W-wanna see him."
"He's asleep."
"No, I'm not. So you decided to wake up, did you?"
Jeremy sighed. "No, I just did."
The older brothers shared a smile. The answer was typical Jeremy.
"Mama said you was finding me." Jeremy yawned.
"Oh, she did? Do you want some more water?"
"Uh huh and uh huh."
"You were dreaming, Jeremy," Josh said, while Jason again helped the boy drink. Or delirious, but he wasn't going to say that.
"No. But it was nice. I t-told her she wasn't there, she don't l-l-live here no m-more."
"And what did she say to that?" Jason asked. It sounded like fever delirium to him, too, although he wasn't going to say so either.
Jeremy sat up on his own, rubbing his forehead. "She said she could visit."
"I see."
"N-no, you d-don't. I don't n-neither. Is there any stew left? I'm hungry."
"I'll heat it up," Josh volunteered.
"What don't you understand?" Jason asked.
"Mama said you b-both hadda l-learn. Y-your diffe'nces c-can make you apart, or m-make you a t-team." Jeremy rubbed his forehead again. "Sh-she said w-we all n-needed to know th-that. And she said you two had to find out head hurts."
"Sometimes?"
"Sometimes you hafta think, an' sometimes you d-don't. Sometimes you just hafta ' she s-said I still hadda l-learn my p-position. What does that mean, Jason?"
"I'm not sure." Jason was stunned. Over the last three days, he had come to realize that it was his own lack of thought that had caused him to lose track of time the night he hadn't come home. Also that he had relied heavily on Josh being able to think through the setback. Josh would be able to figure out what to do.
The next day the opposites had been true. Joshua had planned out where to look for Jeremy, and the most time-saving way to do so. But it was Jason's conscious decision to act thoughtlessly that had ended up finding the boy.
Jeremy had been unconscious. He had no way of knowing that. They hadn't talked about it. They hadn't really talked about anything once they found the boy. Except him and his fever.
Joshua brought Jeremy a bowl of stew, sat beside him and steadied his hand when the bowl got heavy, but let the boy feed himself.
He took the bowl when Jeremy shivered and yawned.
Jason tucked the boy in carefully, and watched his breathing until he was sleeping, and sleeping naturally. He then joined Josh at the table.
"Thank God," Josh said.
"And Mom," Jason added.
The older brothers looked at one another, half-laughed, nodded, and clasped hands.
All (all three of them) was well.