FRIDAY ; LATE AFTERNOON.

"Jason, I think I'll go on up to the cabin, unless you need me."

"No, go ahead. We're going to be at least another hour here. Maybe two. You're not going to be first, though."

"Yeah, I saw him sneak by, too. He should be done by now."

Jason laughed. "Especially if he thinks I'm coming."

Josh grinned. "It'll be fun to watch him scramble if he isn't."

Jason laughed again, and waved Josh off as he returned to his work.

When Josh entered the cabin, Jeremy was sitting on the bed vigorously toweling his hair. His eyes narrowed when he saw Josh, and he glanced at the door. "Is Jason here?"

"Nope. An hour, at least. Maybe more. You emptied the bath? You usually say you weren't THAT dirty."

Jeremy grinned. " 'cept this time I was. Want me to g-go outside?"

"If you don't mind."

"Ha." Jeremy pulled pants on and went out the door dragging a shirt across his shoulders.

Josh smiled after him, just glad that his little brother had finally learned the value of privacy.

Although he could have done so a little less dramatically than he had. Josh chuckled, remembering Jason's shocked expression.

It had been earlier in the summer. A day/evening like this one, only they had all been there. A bath day. Jeremy had got out of the tub, wrapping a towel around himself. And Jason had picked up a couple of towels and started drying the boy.

Jeremy had looked shocked, then angry. He shouted something unintelligible, grabbed a towel from Jason and ran to the other side of the room. "No!"

Jason sighed. "I'm not in any mood to chase you down. Come here."

"No!" Jeremy shouted, then said, quietly but firmly, "No. I am not a baby. I can d-dry m-myself. I can b-bath myself, and I can unbath myself and I am not a baby and you don't need to do everything for me, J-jason! I AM NOT A BABY!" His eyes had been shooting sparks.

After the first stunned moments, Jason nodded. "You're right. I apologize. I forget you're growing up. I should have as– no, I should have waited for you to ask for help, if you needed it. Alright?"

Jeremy, from the far corner, had nodded. And scowled.

"Good. Now dry yourself and get dressed before you make yourself sick and I do have to treat you like a baby, or at least a sick child."

Later, when they could be private, Jason said to Josh, "Habit. That was just habit. A habit we both let go on too long. I should have realized."

Josh had agreed. "Yeah, when he didn't want to sit with you or crawl into your bed whenever he woke up at night should have been a clue." And the nightmare, but no sense bringing that up then.

"Should have been, yes. I wonder how many other clues I've missed and how many more I will miss. Life's gonna get interesting, Joshua, the next few years."

"I think we've had enough 'interesting' for one life. Or three, depending on how you count things. Can't we be boring for a while, and then go for normal?"

"As soon as it's determined what is normal, for this place and time."

…

Yep, Josh decided. Things were gonna get interesting. More interesting, he corrected his thoughts.

It was interesting, to use Jason's word, that he hadn't connected the nightmare with the – the what? – independence? He'd have to think about that.

After he was dressed, he poured fresh coffee and took two cups out to the porch, where Jeremy was switching back and forth between his guitar and his harmonica. He didn't look anywhere near as awkward as he had been with the instrument. He didn't have to stretch his fingers to play the chords. Jeremy was growing healthily. Look at the arms on the boy, Josh thought amusedly. His legs wer4e maybe getting longer and stronger, too.

He handed Jeremy the coffee. "Any sign?"

Jeremy shook his head. "No alarms either. He probably won't come till the sun's gone."

Josh seated himself. "I just hope they don't have to work after dark. That's always chancy."

"Uh-huh." He returned his attention to his music. "Josh, what am I d-doing wrong?"

"I don't know. Let me see."

It was almost dark when Jason finally reached the cabin. His brothers were still making music on the porch, squabbling amiably. He smiled. Now that was nice to come home to. He was too tired to wave.

But it didn't matter, the boys saw him and stood up. Jeremy slipped into the house instead of running to meet him. Jason shook his head.

Josh took one look at him. "Problems?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. It got a bit hairy, though. But we got it down, and it's secured. Brought a few of us down, too," Jason added wryly, gesturing at his dirtied clothing, as they entered the cabin.

"Ew," Jeremy said.

"I agree," Jason (carefully) pulled off his shirt.

"If I was that d-dirty. You'd make me take a b-bath."

If I'm this dirty, I'm making me take a bath, too. Good thing we already had plans for that."

"You wanna eat first? The water's just starting to get hot."

Jason was removing his boots. "Sounds good to me, if you don't mind the dirt."

"Dirt can be cleaned," Josh said, throwing a blanket over a chair while Jeremy served supper to their big brother.

"Where'd the fish come from?" Jason asked, after he had eaten a bit.

"Crooked Creek," Jeremy answered.

"You went fishing before you came home? Exactly how early did you leave school?"

"Oh." Jeremy reddened. He had just told on himself. "Um."

"Lunch?"

Jeremy shook his head. "L-last recess?"

"Did you let your teacher know you were leaving? Or did you just not go back?"

"I t-told her in the m-morning that I h-had stuff to d-do here."

"Well, that was good forethought. How's that water?"

"Ready when you are," Josh replied.

"It was only three thoughts," Jeremy said. "Tell? Lunch? Late?"

"What?" Jason looked confused.

Josh started laughing. "Forethought, f-o-r-e, as in before. Not four."

"Oh. I th-thought that sounded f-funny."

LATER

"I sure miss Mom's thick towels," Jason said, while drying his hair. "I wonder if they're still usable. "There, that feels better. Get me some more coffee, please, will you, Jeremy?"

"Uh-huh." Jeremy refilled his brothers' cups and his own. "We could go see."

"We'll get there sometime this winter, I hope. I'd like to get the photographs and things."

"You keep saying that, and we never go," Josh pointed out. He didn't particularly care either way, but going back to the old place had been one of the first things Jeremy had asked about it, when they'd started making plans without Da.

"Every time we plan it, something comes up."

"Let's g-go tom-morrow."

Jason yawned. "Maybe. But don't count on it. I plan on sleeping until noon. Later, if I can. I hope it won't break your heart, boys, but we probably won't make it into town this weekend. Unless you want to go without me."

Jeremy looked at Jason through his eyelashes. "Not m-me. Josh can go, if he wants."

"He does not," Josh replied. "A weekend home sounds good to me."

"What ab-bout that g-girl?"

"We ran out of things to talk about."

Talk? Jeremy sent a skeptical glance Josh's way. He thought, but didn't say, that talking had to be even harder when your mouth was pressed up against someone else's. Josh didn't like it when he said things like (or about) that. He sure wasn't going to upset everything, when he didn't even have to think of a way for Jason to not go to town. What luck!

"Th-there really was w-warm-'n'-soft towels? I used to th-think about them, but th-thought I was wrong."

"There really were," Jason assured him. "She even warmed them extra in front of the fire."

"Wh-when I t-talked 'b-bout them, Da would y-yell at m-me an' said f-forget th-that nonsense. Th-there wasn't none."

"Da didn't want to be reminded. He tried to lock everything Mom up in that old home. Without her, it didn't exist. None of it."

"Except us," Josh contributed. "Sometimes I think he'd have liked to lock us up there, too."

"I think he'd probably have liked to have stopped time before that day," Jason surmised. "Shutting himself off from it was the only way he could cope. You boys got the worst of that, especially when I wasn't around. I've always felt bad about that."

"You had to do what he said, too," Josh said. "We knew that."

Jeremy nodded vigorously.

"I just wish I had done more. Especially when people told me about how he treated you two."

"It w-was always b-better when you w-were here."

"He was messing you up, too," Josh said. "He told 'em you were taking all those jobs so you could get away and not have responsibilities, and that he'd have to go and get you."

"He did come and get me from any job I found for myself, and a few that he set up, when he couldn't handle you himself. Of course the only person who believed all that was my fault was Aaron Stempel, and he still believes it. He didn't know Da until he moved us to town. Not entirely his fault."

"He never tried to find out any different."

"He knew what he saw, and what he heard. Proof enough."

"For him. It makes him crazy to have to deal with you now."

"Us, brothers. Having to deal with us." A smile played at Jason's mouth. "Poor man. He tried so hard to get Da to sell out – to him, of course, and cheaply – and start over again somewhere else."

"So now he tries to bankrupt us. With the same goal in mind?" Josh speculated.

"Undoubtedly. Ours is the largest individually owned tract of land, and it's heavily timbered. Of course, it isn't individually owned anymore, but while you boys are still young, in his eyes, and the eyes of the law, I make the decisions. That's why he gets so steamed when we all three show up at the bargaining table."

"And wh-when you m-make us all s-sign. 'Specially m-me."

"Especially you," Jason agreed, and laughed. "Let's go to bed, boys, and sleep the night away. We may not be going into town, but we can play in our own way right here at home."