Heckel Casey (26 page)

"I'm sure she misses you too. When did you lose her?"

Bobby's arm stopped in midair. Tears quickly formed in the corner of both his eyes as if they were wild bulls waiting to be released at a bull-riding contest.

"I don't like to talk about that," he said, hoping Heckel didn't push him. He didn't like the tears that came when he thought of his mom.

"That's okay. You don't have to. Someday if you want to talk, you come find me and we'll share stories. Okay?" Heckel asked.

Bobby nodded his head. Heckel slid over next to him and put his arm around his shoulders. His touch made Bobby feel comfortable and relaxed. It made his insides feel safe, unlike Jackson's.

Heckel looked down at Bobby, smiled and said, "We probably should get back to camp. I think we are leaving pretty soon."

"Okay," Bobby said tossing the rest of the stones into the pool. "Thanks for talking to me," he said quietly. Heckel extended his hand and Bobby shook it.

"You're perfectly welcome. It was nice hanging with you as well. Are you riding with Vonnie today?" he asked as they started walking back to camp.

"Yeah, she said I could. It sure beats walking. My feet still have blisters from all the walking I did with Jackson. He's kind of a…" Bobby caught himself before he said anything bad.

Heckel looked down at the young boy and just nodded slightly as though he knew what he was going to say.

Walking back to camp, they chatted about fun things like baseball, school, drawing and reading. It was all cool stuff Bobby hadn't thought about in a long time. He cracked some fun jokes too. Bobby had never heard 'Knock, Knock jokes,' or 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' Heckel reported that they were classics. Bobby felt really good to laugh, and laugh hard, even though some of the jokes made him groan. After Heckel left him at Vonnie's campsite, Bobby sat down on a log. His thoughts were going ninety miles an hour. One thought braked in front of his mind—
I…can…not…hurt my new friend. I don't care if I'm not a hero and Madeline can keep all her crummy gifts.

Chapter 23

The day we left Flagstaff, summer decided to come out by midmorning, and preview what it had to offer for its upcoming season. Temperatures climbed their way to around eighty. Sela said she thought it was about mid-May. Someone else we talked with thought it was closer to the beginning of June. At any rate, it got hot and that meant we'd soon have a shortage of water. Everyone did begin rationing and mostly made sure the horses had enough water.

Fortunately, we made good time that first day out and managed to make it to Williams, Arizona. There we found water at Gonzalez Lake, not too far off Interstate 40. It had a lot of water from the winter snowmelt. We decided to stay an extra day to enjoy the lake.

Before we left, everyone worked hard to fill every conceivable container with water. People were really good about rationing and we made it to Kingman, Arizona, just in time to find an old watering spot called Camp Beale Springs. As soon as we made camp, we were met by a small group of about fifty people who had managed to survive. Initially, we were suspicious and guarded. We just didn't trust anyone and our first reaction was to suspect Madeline. After we talked and decided they were not tainted by any evil, we invited them to join us. They were eager to become a member of our merry band of would-be warriors. I sat down that evening with the new people and gave them the Cliff's Notes version of what had transpired. They were filled with questions, most of which Sela was happy to answer. She always knew when I was getting a little overwhelmed or even just whelmed.

We hadn't seen much of Jack and Vonnie over the past few days. Of course, we heard that Vonnie and Missy were taking really good care of Bobby. I hadn't seen Jackson since that morning when we talked.

We stayed three days in Kingman. Our next stop would be the Colorado River crossing into California. Now for some odd reason, I kept getting nervous every time I thought about entering California.
What's waiting for us in California? What's Madeline got up her sleeve now? More snakes? Another bad storm? Demonic roadrunners?

"Just keep your guard up," I mumbled to myself. I looked down and Jerky was curling her body around my legs. "Yeah, I know. You feel it, too. Don't cha?" The cat looked up at me and meowed. I picked the big bundle of fur up and petted her. "Whew, you're getting heavy. With all those mice you've been eating, I bet your cholesterol numbers are high."

"Well, are you two having a little bonding session?" Sela asked.

"Yup, Jerky's my second-best girl and you're my first," I said, putting my free arm around Sela. Jerky leaned over and licked Sela's cheek.

"You guys ready for dinner?" Sela asked, petting the top of Jerky's head.

"Absolutely," I replied, setting Jerky down. The cat ran off most likely to find her own dinner. "Try a salad for a change," I yelled, prompting Sela to give me a quirky frown.

I stuck my head out of the tent early the next morning and Jerky slithered under my chin to get outside. "Okay, let's not be a pushy broad," I mumbled. Sela rolled over and grunted something unintelligible.

"Hmm, looks like a cloudy start to the day," I muttered.

Sela stretched and with a groggy voice asked I how slept.

"I had a couple of bad dreams," I answered. "But I was able to get back to sleep."

"Yeah, me too. I kept waking up and reliving some of them. Do you think its Madeline messing with us?"

"Maybe. Hadn't thought of that," I said patting her behind. "We better get going. We should make the crossing into California hopefully tomorrow or the next day."

Right after I said California, Sela sat up, grabbed me around the neck and squeezed hard. "Can we go another way?"

"What's wrong?" I asked, lifting her head to kiss her on the cheek.

"I just have a bad feeling. One of my dreams was…um…I should say a nightmare and something bad happened at the bridge."

Okay, now I was freaked out. Sela must have had the same dream I had. "We'll be fine. If there's trouble waiting there for us, we just have to keep our guard up and meet it without fear." She hugged me tighter. I made a mental note to have a small impromptu meeting with Jack and the rest of the leaders so that we were prepared. I also had an idea to implement as a precaution. "I'll go out and get the fire going. It seems a tad nippy out there."

Sela slid lower into the sleeping bag. "Give me ten more minutes."

"Absolutely," I said kissing her tenderly. "I'll let you know when the fire's going good."

Later that morning, as we were heading toward the Colorado River, I discovered that almost everyone's dreams were nightmares. People were on edge and, frankly, scared. As a precaution, we sent a few riders up ahead as scouts. They returned shortly after lunch and said the way was clear.

Sela put her rifle on her back. Looking around, I noticed most folks had a weapon of some kind poised and ready.

We stopped for the evening around five o'clock. People were still very cautious and on guard. You could cut the tension with a knife. After Sela and I set up our camp, I went looking for Jack.

"Hey, Heckel, what's up?" Jack asked with a big smile as he finished making a fire.

"You picked a good place to camp. Plenty of firewood around."

"Yeah, I thought it looked good too."

"Have you noticed how everyone is—?"

"Spooked?" he queried, throwing another bundle of wood on the fire.

As I watched him make his campfire, a brilliant thought formed in my mind and I got very excited.

"Jack, I have a great idea to help ease the tension and calm everyone."

"What?"

"You'll have to wait and see. Just be ready around seven after everyone's had a chance to eat dinner. Oh, this is going to be great," I said as I turned to run back to my campsite.

"Okay, I'll be ready," Jack yelled.

All through dinner, I had a big grin on my face. Sela kept asking me what I was thinking and planning, but I said she'd just have to wait for the big surprise. At one point, she jumped on top of me and pinned my arms to the ground, threatening to tickle me until I told her. We rolled around in the dirt, laughing and tickling each other.

Finally, I conceded and gave her one clue. "Do you remember
MASH
?" I asked brushing the dirt off Sela's back.

"Of course, everyone remembers
MASH
. It was practically an institution unto itself. And most likely the best television program in history. The reruns were still going before the collapse. Why?"

"That's all I'm going to say."

After we cleaned up from dinner, we went over to check on the horses grazing nearby. I looked out over the field of campers and saw THE perfect spot. Looking around on the ground, I found some dead wood. I picked up a large bundle and started walking to the spot I picked out.

"Where are you going?" Sela asked.

"Follow me…and pick up some wood." Sela shrugged her shoulders and did as I asked.

On the way to the spot, I swung by Jack's camp and told him to pick up some wood and follow me.

I had an enormous grin on my face as I placed the bundle of wood on the ground. Laughing, I turned around and went to get more wood. After a few steps, I looked back to see both Jack and Sela giving me an odd look. As if a light bulb went on, they smiled and dropped the wood onto the pile. We kept getting wood, making the pile bigger and bigger. Slowly, I noticed other people watching us and one by one, they started to get wood for the pile.

Half an hour later, the pile was huge. Sela came up to me laughing. "I remember that episode of MASH where they had a huge bonfire in the camp and it made everyone feel really good." Sela kissed me on the cheek. "You are brilliant!"

"Every so often I have my moments."

By the time it was almost dark, the whole camp surrounded the huge pile of wood, eagerly waiting for it to be ignited.

Slowly the crowd began to chant, "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

I put up my hand. The crowd went silent. "What do you think? Are we ready?" I yelled out to everyone.

And the thunderous chant began again in earnest. "Fire! Fire! Fire!"

"Okay, here we go," I yelled back, throwing a makeshift burning torch into the towering pile of wood. Little by little, the wood began to burn and within minutes it was blazing.

The crowd cheered, clapped and laughed.

"Isn't this a bit risky? I'm sure this fire can be seen for miles," Jack commented, looking a bit nervous.

"Yeah, but we need it. Just look at the people. It's the first time in a while that we're hearing laughter. It's worth it," I said

Sela grabbed my hand and motioned for me to grab Jack's hand. He in turn grabbed Vonnie's hand and motioned for her to take Missy's hand. Within minutes everyone held hands. Sela started the first wave and everyone laughed as that went around a few times. Someone in another row started a wave in the opposite direction. Row after row pulsated around the enormous bonfire.

"If someone were looking down at these waves, they'd have a pretty good show," I yelled over to Sela.

"Someone is watching down on us and I'm sure having a good laugh," Sela said, winking at me.

I nodded and winked back. All that tension from everyone was getting released. Gradually, people sat down around the fire and visited with each other. The mood of the group had changed significantly. At one point, I looked around to see if I could see Jackson and Bobby. I didn't see either of them the whole evening. As the evening wore on, some folks left the group while others curled up and fell asleep. Both Sela and Jerky fell asleep next to me.

"Hey, sleepyhead, let's go to bed," I said softly into Sela's ear.

"Okay." She didn't move.

I lifted her head off my thigh and Sela managed to get up. I held on to her waist as we started walking for our camp. Jerky stretched and followed. As we were making our way across the moonlit field, I spotted Jackson on the other side of the field near the tree line. He was holding on to Bobby.
Maybe he was taking Bobby out to pee or something,
I thought
.
The moon ducked behind a cloud. When it returned, they were no longer there.

It didn't take long for the morning sun to warm things up. The large encampment was a beehive of activity. Everyone was packing quickly to get an early start. Sela was up before me that morning and she had already visited Tempest and Hope, making sure they had gotten water. When I stuck my head out of the tent, I was greeted by a big wet kiss from Jerky as well as a nip on the ear.

"Ouch," I hollered.

"That's just her way of saying she loves you," Sela said as she stirred a large pot of oatmeal.

"I know, but it does smart a little," I said and crawled the rest of the way out of the tent.

Sela came up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me for the longest time.

"Whew, now that's a primo example of what a morning kiss should be every day. That was a model for every woman to emulate. Wow!" I exclaimed, trying to catch my breath.