“Planet’s healing itself after what we’ve done to it. Bit like an old dog shrugging off fleas. Feel fresher and better. Could be that Earth’ll be like that after this winter.” Mac looked around at his extended family. “By God, but I’m so proud of all of you.”
Once he’d started crying, he found that he couldn’t stop. He was reacting to the accumulated shocks, the fears, the grim things he’d seen and the relief.
By midnight the smaller children had been shooed off to their beds. Mac had recovered his self-control after the catharsis of weeping. He lay on the Navaho rug in front of the dying fire, while Jeanne and Angel sat on either side of the hearth.
It was his first wife who broke the comfortable silence. “So, when are you leaving for Calico?”
Mac looked around the room, pausing before he answered. “I’m not. Least, not until after the snows. April? This is where I belong. Here, with my family.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ramon Hernandez hung on tenaciously to life. His spirit wanted to let go and find release, but his wiry frame clung on, the vital spark still smoldering in the shrunken, starved body.
The moment his lost daughter Heather had appeared out of the morning mists, Jim Hilton had decided to remain in his old home on Tahoe Drive, overlooking what used to be Los Angeles, until Ramon finally let go. Carrie Princip was perfectly happy to go along with his decision.
“Still plenty of time to get down to Calico, if we’re still going there.”
“Oh, yeah. We’re still going there. All three of us.”
It seemed gruesome, marking time and waiting for Ramon to die, but at least Jim was getting reacquainted with his daughter.
Relations between them were edgy at first. A gap of over two years lay between them, as did the deaths of Lori and Andrea.
The girl wouldn’t talk about the cholera or about the time of Earthblood. She’d sit in the room she’d shared with her twin, until fading light forced her out into the room with the fire.
Jim noticed that she’d reverted to the books she’d read as a little girl, the old, old books by Scarry and Seuss.
Several times he’d tapped on the door and walked in, finding Heather stretched out on her bed, hands behind her head, staring blankly at the ceiling.
It was only the morning after Ramon’s eventual quiet passing, when the old man had been buried alongside the other two mounds of earth, that Heather finally came out of her shell.
She joined Jim Hilton as he sat near the boundary fence, gazing out over the dull mirror of the reservoir. The light breeze was ruffling his thinning blond hair, tugging at the short sleeves of his faded maroon sports shirt.
“Can I talk, Daddy?”
“Of course. Sure you want to?”
“Think so.”
Jim saw Carrie appear out of the house and start toward them. He waved a warning hand, unseen by his daughter, and the second navigator turned silently on her heel and vanished back into the shadows of the living room.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, kitten.”
She was dry-eyed, looking past him toward the rectangular blocks of the Hollywood sign. “Not your fault, Daddy.”
“I was here at the end, for Andrea.”
“I know, Carrie told me.”
“You like her?”
The girl considered the question for a moment. “You her lover?”
“No!” he exclaimed, shocked.
For the first time since her return, Heather smiled. “Guess you’re too old for her, Daddy.”
“I’m not too old for… That’s not the damn point, young lady, and…”
She laughed, turning her head to look into his face. “I know you aren’t too old, Daddy. Only seven years older than Carrie is. That’s not very much, is it? But I think she really likes you. And I mean really likes you.”
“Heather!”
“Sorry, Daddy. Only teasing.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve lost some weight. Guess everyone has since Earthblood came.”
“Weighed myself in the bathroom. Down to about one-seventy. Amazing what time away from chocolate fudge does.”
Her hand eased out and touched his, and his fingers tightened around hers.
“Don’t look at me while I tell you, Daddy. Please. Promise?”