Blackfeather
2 No Way
HIGH SCHOOL WAS different. I don’t know why. It was mostly the same kids we’d been in school with since fifth grade, but last year we were the oldest kids in school and this year we were the youngest. And some senior dude I didn’t even know asked me out on a date. Oh no way, José. Troll.
On the other hand, we did hang out a lot with our friends at school. Aubrey Diaz, Forrest Knight, and Shelby Morris ate lunch with us in the cafeteria. We studied. We did chores. We rode when we could, but as winter set in that was pretty limited. We fought with the brats over who got to watch what on TV. And gave up. Kyle and I spent more time on our computers and sometimes late at night we even messaged each other across the hall.
My birthday came with the annual hunting trip. Kyle got a nice white-tail buck. I kinda gave him the shot. If he’d have missed, I’d have had my first big boy. But Kyle’s just as good a shot as I am. Sitting around the campfire, Pa gave me the birthday lecture on what a great man Kennedy was and that I was born on the anniversary of his death. Even Mom Mar rolled her eyes at hearing the story again.
“Let me tell you that when Cole and Ashley came into the house that afternoon and found me straining away upstairs, there wasn’t a thought about any dead presidents,” she said. “They were all business getting me into the tub. You came sliding out before the midwife even got there.”
“I’ve never forgiven Mary Beth for such an easy birth when Kyle took twenty-three hours of moaning and pushing before he deigned to enter the world,” Mom Ash said. “Don’t you forget, boy. Twenty-three hours of pain I endured to give you your start.”
“Yes, Mom Ash,” Kyle said contritely. We all giggled.
“Oh yuck!” Phile chimed in.
“You hush, boy,” Mom Mar said. “You balanced the scale when they had to use a can opener to get your big butt out of me. For a month after the C-section, I couldn’t even pick you up because you were too heavy.”
“Was I a hard delivery, Mom Ash?” Caitlin asked innocently.
“No honey. You didn’t start being a pain until you were about eight.”
Kyle turned fifteen in May of our freshman year and my world fell apart. Moms and Pa told him he could move out of Phile’s room and stay in the bunkhouse.
Back when we had a bunch of summer cowboys, the bunkhouse was just a couple big rooms with bunks, a locker room, shower, and toilet. But needs change over time and our two full-timers had wives and one had a kid. Pa had the bunkhouse remodeled into apartments. They weren’t big, but there were two little efficiencies, a two-bedroom, and a one-bedroom apartment. And Kyle was getting his own.
“Mom Mar, it’s not fair. I’m older than him. Why don’t I have my own apartment? I’d even keep it clean. You know what his apartment’s going to look like in a couple of weeks? You’ll have to tear down the bunkhouse and decontaminate the place. Mo-om!”
“Ramie, you hush. Have some consideration for your brother. How would you feel if you had to room with Phile?”
“Why not send Phile out there?”
“You know he’s too little. Besides,” Mom Mar dropped her voice, “who would trust that little monster on his own?” We both giggled about that, but I still wasn’t happy.
I didn’t begrudge Kyle his own space. I had a room of my own and it wasn’t his fault there were only three kids’ rooms. When it came down to it, though, I missed him. He only came into the house for breakfast and dinner. I ended up studying alone and picking at the brats. I got pretty pissy with Kyle, too. Half the time he didn’t even answer my messages.
The last day of school, he headed for his apartment and I headed for the barn. I threw my backpack in a corner, saddled Pooky, and in ten minutes I was riding down toward the river. We weren’t supposed to go out alone, but I didn’t care. I didn’t have any friends and Kyle probably wouldn’t poke his head out until a Mom called us for dinner. Maybe I’d be in Albany by then. Who’d even care?
I just barely got to the river and started to skirt the watering hole when I ran out of steam. I was feeling so damned sorry for myself.
“You’re lucky, Pooky. Life is just one big long buffet table for you. You get brushed and fed. And I love you.” I hugged his neck and let the tears come. Must be getting to my time of month.
I wandered down by the water and looked up the hill. An old raven was pecking at something dead in the grass. When I looked his way, he eyed me, but never moved from his meal. He had to turn his head to look at me because one eye was all cloudy.
“What do you want, old Blackfeather?” I demanded. “You’re always sneaking around and never saying nothing. Go away.” I plopped myself down and looked at the sky through my tears. Guess I was tired, ’cause I drifted off to sleep.
I came around slow-like. The sun was just starting down behind the mountain. It wouldn’t be dark for a while yet, but the mountains kind of cut the amount of sunshine in the afternoon. I glanced over to where Pooky was still ground-tied with Dado.
Dado?
I looked around and right behind me, Kyle was sitting, whittling a stick with his pocketknife. He grinned at me.
“Must be easier places to nap than out here,” he said.
“What are you doing out here?” I snapped.
“Ramie, I know we ain’t been gettin’ along all that good lately, but I still got your back. I saw you take off like a bat outa hell and I just figured I’d better get saddled and ride.”
“You really got my back, Kyle? Still?”
“Like always. I’m sorry I ain’t been friendly since I got throwed out of the house. I thought maybe you were mad at me, too,” he said.
“Kyle! Nobody’s mad at you! What do you mean throwed out?”
“I’m just like a hired hand now. Bet Pa sends me to the upper pasture with the cows all summer. I don’t know what I did. Did I hurt you, Ramie?”
“Kyle! No! I miss you. I thought you hated us all. I was so jealous of you.” I scrambled up on my knees and threw myself at my brother to hug him. I missed his pocketknife, thankfully. “I’m sorry, Kyle. How could you think you were thrown out?”
“Well, shit. Ramie, I got sent to the bunkhouse, didn’t I?”
“This is so screwed up. You wouldn’t believe the hissy-fit I threw over you getting to move to the bunkhouse while I had to stay in the house like a baby. Kyle, we used to study together and sometimes watch TV at night and then you weren’t there any longer,” I said. I hugged my brother, getting madder and madder at Moms and Pa. “Let’s go watch TV like we used to.”
We stood up and he put away his pocketknife after wiping it off on his jeans. We mounted and rode up to the ranch road then turned toward home.
“Ramie, you sure it’s okay to hang out in the house?”
“I tell you what I think,” I said. I was getting more and more pissed. “I think Moms and Pa got some explaining to do.”
“Pa, why did you send Kyle to live in the bunkhouse?” I demanded at dinner.
“You know, Ramie. Now…”
“Don’t tell me what I know. Tell me why,” I said. There was silence at the table. Even the brats dropped their silverware and watched to see the explosion.
“Young lady, you mind your manners,” Mom Mar said. Pa was frowning at me. I didn’t like it when he frowned at me. Maybe I’d really gone too far.
“Fine,” Pa said. “Your question. We gave Kyle an apartment in the bunkhouse because he’s a young man now and shouldn’t have to share a bedroom with his little brother. You have a room of your own and always have had. When we took Caitlin and Phile out of the nursery, Kyle had to share his bedroom with Phile. Now you need to drop this jealousy thing and learn to live with the fact that your brother deserves his own space, too.”
“Kyle thought he was being punished—thrown out of the house,” I said flatly.
“What? Kyle!” Mom Ash was out of her seat and around the table so fast the little ones ducked. She grabbed Kyle into a hug. “Why didn’t you tell us? That was your birthday present!” Kyle’s lip was quivering and he reached over to grab my hand. I squeezed it.
“Really? You didn’t just want to get me out of the house?”
“Why on earth would we want to do that?” Mom Mar asked. “Do you want to move back with Phile?”
“No!” Phile yelled. Mom Mar pointed a finger at him and he hushed. You could tell he was building up a head of steam, though. After all, the conversation wasn’t about him.
“I like having a room of my own,” Kyle said, “but it’s so damned lonely out there alone.”
“Language,” Pa said simply.
“Sorry, Pa. But it is. I don’t have a TV and half the time the Internet don’t even work.” I didn’t know that. I squeezed his hand.
“Well, that didn’t work out the way we intended. Why didn’t either of you just come out and tell us this right away?” Pa asked. “You’ve always been able to talk to us about anything.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but that was before you guys… uh…” I glanced at the brats, “…went crazy.” There was a moment of dawning understanding on the part of our parents. You could almost see them turn on the lights. Pa nodded a little and Mom Ash gave Kyle one more squeeze before she returned to her seat.
“When’d they go crazy?” Caitlin asked. She was digging into her mashed potatoes and peas as if nothing else that had been said this evening meant a thing. She was so oblivious to everything in the real world except Phile that it was a wonder she even heard that.
“About the day you were born,” I sniped.
“Never mind,” Mom Ash said. “It was just a misunderstanding. You’ll figure it out when you get a little older.”
“Oh,” Caitlin said, disgustedly. “Sex stuff.” That eleven-year-old could really get on my nerves.
After Kyle and I cleaned up the dinner dishes, Pa called us into his office. This time Mom Ash and Mom Mar were sitting together so there was room for us to sit beside each other. I sure hoped I wasn’t in trouble. Pa settled into his big leather chair next to the cold fireplace and pulled the ottoman under his feet.
“So, we’re crazy,” Pa sighed.
“Sorry, Pa,” I said. “It’s just so…”
“No. I understand. I just didn’t want you to end up like Geneive,” Pa said. “So, here’s the deal. First, Kyle, you are not exiled. If you don’t like living in the bunkhouse, get your butt back into the house. Or Ramie, you can move into the other efficiency so you can see what it’s like to be on your own like Kyle is. But we expect both of you to be in the house for meals and there still won’t be a TV in your apartments. That’s why we have a family room. And you shoulda told me the WiFi doesn’t work.”
“We expect you to respect each other’s privacy, as well as that of the folks living in the other two apartments.” Mom Mar reminded us. I’m getting my own apartment!
“Second, just forget about time travel, treasure-hunting, and being our own ancestors. They’re just legends. Learn from them if you can. Otherwise, forget it,” Pa said. He looked sad. I felt bad, but give me a break, okay?
“Uh… Pa?” Kyle said. Uh oh. I just knew what was coming next. “What happened in the uh… legends to a person’s body in the present when he went time traveling? Did he just disappear?” I rolled my eyes. I love my brother but how can he take this stuff seriously?
“Oh. No. It uh… As I understand… They say he walked around in a sort of dream-state. He kept functioning or passed out or got sick. It’s only the mind that travels to the past and arrives in a host,” Pa said.
“And the host doesn’t know someone has taken over his body?”
“I think… Experience… He is in a similar state. But you… or he… the legendary ancestor could just sit back to watch or take control. That’s what got my… his host killed. According to the legend,” Pa said.
“What about traveling to the future?” You get Kyle talking about science fiction and he’s likely to go all Dr. Who on you. And Pa was all over it.
“Only the past.” Kyle was likely to keep asking questions and we’d be there all night. I pinched him and he jumped.
“Okay. Thanks, Pa.”
Now can we go move my stuff into my new apartment?
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