It was a long, loud night. The rains continued through the night. The thunder and lightning made several reappearances, as well. Jason was up and down all night, and he suspected his brothers weren't sleeping either, although neither of them got up or spoke.

Jason couldn't remember weather like this at this time of year. He felt it did not bode well. What should or could he do about it? Of all times for Joshua to not wake up (or want it known.) Jason could see that plans needed to be made, but he wasn't sure what kind of plans. Supplies? Shelter? Dams? Retaining walls? Keeping any work close to shelter and supplies? (Having escape routes?) What about shipping?

What if he was just worrying for nothing? That was certainly possible. Maybe they'd have a good spell of mild weather after this. That wouldn't be any stranger than this recent spate was.

Well, Josh would start by writing a list. He'd have had it written in his head before putting it down. Hmm, wasn't that what Jason had himself been doing all this time? Yes, so why not just write down his thoughts and questions? That should keep him busy until he either could sleep or someone else got up for him to talk to.

Josh would say talk at, and that was probably true enough. Once he got the conversation to where he was beginning to see a way through the problem(s), Jason too often let his ideas run over anything anyone else might say. He got carried away, that much was true.

Jason lit a lamp and got paper and pencil from the desk. He finally stopped walking back and forth and sat down at the table.

Joshua rolled over onto his back. Thank God. Maybe he could get some sleep now. Even better, maybe Jason would go to sleep sitting at the table. Then maybe they could all get some rest, and use tomorrow for thinking.

Below him, Jeremy sighed.

/

Jason was still awake, but sitting at the table with his face in his hands, when Josh got up and started coffee.

"Have you slept at all?" Josh asked.

"Dozed off a couple times. You?"

"Once the rain settled down. And you."

"Sorry. I was thinking."

"Yeah?" Josh looked at the papers spread around his older brother. "Good questions. Good answers."

"Too many questions; not enough answers."

"That's the future for ya." Josh walked over to the beds and shook Jeremy. "Time to get up, kid."

Jeremy curled himself into a tighter ball.

Josh shook harder.

"No," Jeremy mumbled. "Go 'way. Go t'sleep."

"Go to school."

"No, go t'sleep."

Josh looked at Jason. "Did he just say 'no' to going to school? Has that ever happened?"

"No. He usually wants to get that part of his day over feeling alright, Jeremy?"

" to go t'sleep. Lemme 'lone."

Jason looked at Josh and shrugged. "Let him sleep. It's not like he's a habitual truant."

"Unless you count the times he doesn't go back after lunch."

"Now , Josh, I don't know about those times. Except when he comes straight – more or less – to the camp. Don't be tattle-taling. You should have outgrown that years ago."

"Some things you never outgrow." Josh strolled back over to the stove, checked the coffee and poured for them both, then sat down and started discussing Jason's night time musings with him.

Jeremy slept until he got hungry.

/

It was a slow day for the brothers, as the rain fell steadily and the wind gusted erratically. They had visitors off and on all day, mostly their men making sure they weren't working.

The weather was a lively topic of conversation with everyone. No one knew what to expect. The general consensus was that they'd never seen weather like this.

"Uh-huh," Jeremy said, surprising everyone.

"Uh-huh what?" Jason asked. "You've seen this weather before and I haven't? Where was I?"

Jeremy shrugged.

"When was this?" Josh asked.

"And why wouldn't you know?" Jason asked him.

"I never paid much attention to the weather until we started working and had to factor it in."

"You know," Jeremy told Josh.

"I must have forgotten."

"Wh-when w-we first c-came t-to t-town."

"Really? I guess we did have a few storms that year, maybe."

"Da was always sending me out on jobs then, out of the immediate area," Jason said. "I supposed that's why I didn't notice. Besides the weather pattern being different here than we were used to up on the mountain, I probably didn't pay much attention to it, either."

"Y-you told m-me ab-bout l-lightning was th-thunderb-b-bolts. L-like in the st-tories you said."

"Oh, I do remember that. The lightning really scared you."

"Oh," said Josh, slowly.

Jeremy shivered. "I j-jus' w-wanted to g-go home."

"I know you did. I wish I'd been brave enough to take you," Jason admitted. "I was still young enough to let Da intimidate me."

"Whenever he thought you would, he sent you off on another job. He told us that he could send you away for a couple of years if you got too big for your britches."

"I c-cried."

"Every time I went away. I remember."

"D-d-da said it was up to m-me if you c-came home. I was sc-cared."

"He tried to scare me the same way. When I had time on those jobs, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I could get you two and we could go into hiding. I never did come up with a plan I thought would work, although something might have if I had tried."

"I might not have gone," Josh said. "I liked going to school and being here in town. To be able to do that with no crybaby little brother every day – I might have liked that."

"I never thought of that."

"Of course, Da might have decided it was my fault that you ran off, which would not have been good. He was overdoing the not 'sparing the rod' bit in those days."

"Not that he ever the rod, that is.

"

"Yeah, but Mom could rein him in. Make him wait until he wasn't mad, or try to think of something more effective. Or sometimes just send us outside or put us to just distract him."

"That's true."

"I'm glad you thought about it, though. I never knew that."

"I thought of it a lot, especially after the times Jeremy tried to get back home on his own."

"Mmm."

"M-me n Josh had a p-plan. Josh knowed where w-we c-could hide until you c-came b-back. Or w-we c-could go find you."

"That sounds like Josh. He's always had a plan as long as I've known him. At least since he was old enough to think." To Josh, he said,"Do you think it could have worked?"

Josh shrugged. "I did then. But, yeah, it could have worked. We were children. Da was a grown man. We could slither farther back in caves and crevices that he could never enter. We just had to be careful to not leave tracks or traces behind."

Jason laughed.

"It was after you t-told us ab-bout the th-thunderb-bolts from the Olympics We w-were g-gonna b-be b-brotherbolts instead of thunderbolts."

"What? Weren't we already the Bolt brothers?"

"Yeah, but th-that was w-with you. We hadda b-be somethin' else until you came."

Jeremy's faith that he would have come along was humbling. That the boy had looked at the hiding as a great adventure was something else. "I wonder how many times in our lives you're going to surprise me like this, Joshua."

"I hope I haven't peaked yet."