Chapter 22-2

Chapter 22-2

Grandma was hoping Nathaniel would or Doc might know where Linda is and willing to expose her out in the open unless she had too. Betty knocked on the back of the house of Nathaniel as Granny comes to the door with her scatter-gun looks out the winder, “who is it?” she asked.

“It’s me Betty Stuart?” Betty replied.

“Can’t be, she gone, long gone, Now tell me the truth or I’ll fire this thing right in your face,” Granny replied.

“Now listen here Granny if you fire that thing you just might not miss your toe this time.”

“How would know about that I’ am asken ya?”

“Because I was there when you did it the first time.”

Granny looked thru the curtains then opens the door “Betty one on earth are doing down here?” She asked.

Betty looks at the shotgun. “Right now trying not to get my head blown off.”

“Heck, it's not even loaded. I think,” Granny smiles. Granny sets the gun to the side close the door whispers “you know you're not supposed to be here”

“Yea not supposed to do a lot of things they tell me and be telling me that for years. I just got something stuck in my craw if know what I mean?”

Granny sighs looking down the hall where Ned’s asleep. “Ya I do, he going to miss that gal real bad, he’s already like a sick pup. I tried to tell him there are more fish out there, but he only has eyes for that one, go figure.”

“You know you could always send him up there before they leave, we are not leaving for at least week.”

“No. It’s best he get over with it now than later. pour kid. So why are ya and I know not here to shoot the breeze with me.”

Betty nods. “I need to find where Linda Stuart is”

“Linda Stuart!!” Nathaniel walking into the house sees Betty jawing with Granny in the hall. Checks the windows and sides of the house, making sure the coast is clear. “Betty what”… raking his hand through his hair “are you doing here? Have you gone completely out of your mind?”

“Sorry, you feel that way!” Betty said standing up to him in the hallway. “I just felt I needed to do one last thing before I went.” As Betty pace the floor watching his eyes… “I need to see Linda and have her see her boys if it is even possible before we all go to parts unknown.”

Nathaniel eyes hit ceiling and back at the floor then back in his head, “you what?”

“You heard me! She needs to know they are all right, she has that right. It’s not right to keep her wondering scarping bottom as it were.”

“She can’t…. you know why?” He replied.

“Yes because we all look like this,” pointing to herself. “Well if Jaydan made it possible for Doc and the Mayor to see them who they were hiding them.  He can do again just for her can’t he?” She asked.

“Yes, but that was different. Their minds where ready to accept the impossible hers may not be and plus she is even a greater threat knowing it.”

“Yes I understand that, but right now she will not go forward until either she has one of them back or both which could take months or years or never.  While in the meantime her daughters, such as they are. Grow up without their mother. Right now they are thinking they don’t need her, but in time they will. I doubt she will ever forgive them for what they have done, but she still loves them for she is their mother.”

Nathaniel paced the hallway realizing she does have point in this regard, but convincing Jaydan may be harder, even the Downing’s themselves for a brief moment to let her see her sons one more time may cause more trouble than its worth. Nathaniel paces then decide on a course of action. Betty was not happy with the idea, but it was better than nothing at all.

Nathaniel not taken any chances as he grinned when Betty climbed on too her horse, “now then you will just gallop right on back to camp,” Betty smiles wickedly.“ Where else would I go dressed like this, dressed as a wood elf?”

“Exactly!” Nathaniel whispered to the horse to take Betty straight back to camp. No matter how hard she tried to turn him or fall off the horse she could not move until she was back at camp, falling on the ground in front of Jayden's tent as a message from horse mouth drops into his lap.

Normally you would hear screaming inside the tent, but all you got was silence as Jaydan cast the brier and ward spell around them that night; Jaydan reading the message from Nathaniel about Betty and his plan as he went through the roof. It was bad enough that she left camp in the first place on her own to take a trip to New Downing. Then to find out what she had in mind as he looked across the tents.

“Well, it’s only fair.” Betty tries to plead her case for Linda sake.

In the end, there was a compromise, as the wagons headed off for supplies leaving the camp. So were two boys and Aunty M driving one wagon and Caption Tweed driving the second wagon with their boys hidden under the seat compartments. Nathaniel leading the way into town with his people that were planning on staying to live in New Downing.

The Mayor and Nathaniel’s men met them on the road welcoming the group to their new home, with banners of celebration, as he strikes up the band for them. It was a grand celebration for everyone as he told everyone white lies; that new arrivals coming in are from out town from across the state, looking for a place to call their own, some from Canada some as far away as England across the sea. The Mayor looked up towards the camp where Jaydan is.

If they only knew how far as he glanced at his wife. Mayor shook hands with everyone picking up children, hands out candy as they all squeal with delight. Nobody noticed as one wagon stopped long enough for two boys and an aunt and their father slipped out, heading towards an old farmhouse down the road. Pa carried EJ and Aunty M carrying Danny inside the house as they wait for Nathaniel to bring Linda to the house.

Nathaniel slowly makes his way through the crowd searching for Linda seeing her sitting in the corner alone as she watches the people go by with her soldiers by her side. Betty was right; her life is standing still at the moment as she waits for something to happen as he walked over to put his arm around her. Whispered in her ear watched her eyes light up like a Christmas tree as the tears begin to form in her eyes, “is it really true?”

Nathaniel nods as they go inside her cottage; he looks her straight in the eye. “Are you sure your ready and willing to believe anything is possible?” He asked her. Linda nods her head with tears as it breaks her heart, now knowing she can only see them.

Nathaniel summons his staff as he opens a gate with a flash of bright light they enter the old farmhouse by the road. Linda looked around the room seeing her boys sitting together side by side next to Aunty M and Wayne. Linda was overwhelmed as she looks at her sons sitting there as she rushed over fell to her knees next to them. EJ for the first time did not shirk back as he let her touch him. But it was not enough for Linda to see them as she tries to take Danny off the couch to hold him as he screams for his Pa reaching out to Wayne.

Linda didn’t understand why he was screaming like a frightened child, for she was his mother. Wayne quietly takes Danny strokes Danny head while she holds him in her arms as the tears fell from her cheek. Linda could tell something was wrong as she looks at both boys, they didn’t feel the same as they did to her, yet they were her sons as she looked into their eyes. Except for EJ’s, there was something missing as if he was not complete somehow.

It was a hard thing for Linda as she watched Wayne and Aunty M leave with the boys. Linda nearly had to be restrained as she watched Nathaniel open a gate outside the farm to a small camp on the other side. Wayne picking up EJ in his arms and Aunty M carrying Danny as they slowly walked inside the gate as it closed, her boys are gone. Linda falls on the ground sobbing for them, knowing she cannot be with them.

 Linda screams back at Nathaniel. “Why can’t I go with them?”  She asked.

Nathaniel puts an arm around her, “because your heart and your destiny point here not with them at this time. It is needed at home with your daughters and husband so when the time does come, they too may be ready to accept the impossible.”

Linda looked at where the opening of the gate was and wondered where her boys are at. Then nods that Grandma Stuart is right, Danny will be coming home and maybe EJ from time to time, but things have to change first and she can not change them if she sitting down here. “Nathaniel I think its time to go home.”

Nathaniel helps her up off the ground taking her hand laughing. “And what about my soldiers?”

“Those I am keeping for a while. It will be nice to have a real man in the house.” Linda thinking of that now empty bedroom doing nothing except collecting cobwebs, Nathaniel laughed puts his arm around her as they walked back to town watching the wagons leave back to camp.

By the time Linda was ready to leave for home. Nathaniel had his two soldiers ready for battle to guard Linda and her family. Not throwing caution into the wind they were well equipped for anything including an escape plan for them all. Nathaniel would place proactive barriers around the place which would add to her protection, plus a maid that could stand up to Linda and the girls. She was the most ornery old cuss alive for her age. She could make a cow give sour milk just by looking at her the wrong way. Yet she had a gentle side to when the mood suited her.

The main reason he was sticking her with Linda was beside cooking and cleaning and helping her run the household. Was she would stick to Linda like glue, like a bee on a honey pot. So no matter where Linda went Aggie would be with her to protect her, for she was lethal in the skill in magic and next to him good with small knives and small weapons plus she likes to improvise. Its one of her special quality about her not mention she won't sit by idle watching fireflies when there things that needed to be done.

Nathaniel only wished he felt sorry for those poor girls of hers and their father when Aggie steps in as he grinned when he loaded Linda’s car. The Mayor and Doc came over to give her a hug. “Don’t be a stranger,” as they wave goodbye to her with the four passengers heading home. Doc face had a worried look as he watched her go up the road, wondering what kind of reception she was going to get, feeling the letters still in his vest pocket from Betty. Doc kicks the dirt as rocks fly in the front in the dirt. Then walked back to his makeshift hospital finding Kollie and Rena waiting for him. The hospital now empty for now, thank goodness as they all sit around the table.

The Mayor, Doc, and Nathaniel with the Whitmore’s, Kollie unfolds a copy of the map of the town and the farming areas. Circled in red where the fields that are dying and trees have died. The creek bed has now doweled down to almost nothing.  The goods are getting harder to get because they are purchased out of town and shipped when they should be making them right here and theirs are sky rocking as well due to the shortage.

The Mayor rubs his chin as he glanced at his friends with a new pair of eyes when he said. “Mayor, Jaydan told me to come and fix this problem for you and that’s what we’re going to do. The only problem is it is so vast that we cannot heal all of it at this time for it is not the entire problem. In time, it will come back slowly we hope, as the saying goes ‘you cut the head of the snake the rest will fall away.’ Well we know who the snake is, but right now it seems we can’t cut off his head, but we think we can slow him down a bit.  With these,” Kollie replies.

Mayor looked in the back of a wagon seeing large mortar of white bricks. Kollie explains “by placing these at certain spots, they become a cornerstone that will shield your town from the poison of Morgan and provide a protective barrier that Morgan and his foes cannot cross as long as your people main true and are pure in heart. If they change while inside the barrier and tip the scales towards the darker side then the barrier is broken. Leaving you to find this person or persons before it will restore back the barrier.”

The Mayor understands picking up one of the cornerstones; he could feel the energy just from holding it. Nathaniel marked the places on the map where each of the cornerstones needs to be placed on the map. Wishing he could have of gave this kind protection to everyone even the town of Springfield as it died leaving his people without a home. But wishing and knowing are two different things. For something’s has to happen before your ready to accept them.

Like Linda, she wasn’t ready to go home until she saw her boys together one last time before she could move on. Doc and the Mayor had to find out for themselves that their friends were gone and where alright before they could except what about to happen as they look at the cornerstones on the wagon.

There is time and place in time for things as Nathaniel looks at his friends far and wide down the road and around the table. This time it is for my friends as he nods points on the map. “If we each load four wagons take four men each, we could have them in place in two hours I reckon. Then you can do whatever you need to do my friend. That way nobody will know except us during the celebration.”

The Mayor laughed as he slaps Nathaniel on the back. “And to think I was going to have nothing to worry about today,” as he laughs.

The Mayor has a knack of keeping things quiet as he whispers to the watchmen to follow Nathaniel out the door quietly as he heads for the podium with couple magicians by his side. Known as wizards and their wives watching the back of the people making sure nothing went wrong, while the people inside the celebrating have not a clue what’s going on around them. For their eyes could see rainbow colors form in the sky as each cornerstone is placed around the outskirts of town.

Small teardrops fell from their eyes now and again. For the love that is bestowed on them as the Mayor welcomes each one to his town with gratitude and joy in his heart that they themselves could feel. It was not mere words on a page as he spoke to them. He looks at them in the eye as it comes from his heart, he means every word when says to them. “This is your safe heaven, welcome home.” As his wife puts an arm around them with such joy as if they were his and her children and tucking them at night...