Chapter Twenty-Nine—Bear & Corey

Motoring
What's your price for flight
You've got him in your sight
And driving thru the night
Motoring
What's your price for flight
In finding mister right
Sister Christian
Night Ranger

Altair Ain
The Royal Bedroom

Daniel sat up for a long time with Calla sleeping beside him.  He didn’t know why she was remembering the lives she was remembering but part of him hoped it was because they were the best ones she’d known with each of them.  That was pie in the sky of course nothing was ever that cheery with her.  Well…not things like this anyway.  He understood that each of them had spent many lifetimes with her in one capacity or another except for Ares.  Ares had Fathered a female child and been married exactly once on each count until Calla eventually gave him Athena.  Both of those were within this lifetime, was that significant?  He didn’t know. At least now he was certain that he had once been her Brother, Nick had once been her Lover and David had once been her Husband.

He didn’t want to look at the man in the middle so he looked at David instead and wanted to chuckle. Doc Holliday.  That was a real knee-slapper.  It was even better than Daniel having once been King Arthur. Calla as Katie Elder, well hot damn, Daniel really wished he could remember that. There was a story to tell the grandkids.

It was somewhere near 3 in the morning when Daniel turned out the bedroom light. In his head he had the strangest image of Grizzly Adams and it just wouldn’t go away. He and Davy loved that show when they were kids; the mountain man and his bear Ben.  Keeping her snug under one arm, Daniel settled down under the covers and closed his eyes.

“Finally,” Morpheus uttered in a whisper as he appeared in the bedroom, reached in his pouch and sprinkled dust over the sleeping couple.  Once again he disappeared as quickly and quietly as he came because there was one more stop to make but it was just down the hall.

**

Sierra Nevada Mountains
1790 AD

Life up here is hard and unyielding.  The nearest neighbor is half a day away. A dry summer can mean wildfires will spring up at any moment in any place.  A harsh winter usually means lots of funerals come spring time. Ground’s too hard for breaking and burying in the winter. Way down in the valley in what passes for a town the dead sit in the caskets in a locked house in the snow staying cold and stink free until they can be given a proper send off. One must always be on guard against Mother Nature and the Indians out here.

Two decades ago several members of the McKinley family made their way across the new country called the United States of America and settled here.  They had been on their way all the across to the Pacific Ocean but, for reasons known to them but now lost to time, they had stopped here where the air was crisp and the mountains regal.

Halfway up one mountain resides the family of Lloyd and Alice McKinley which consists of Emma the oldest child, Bradford in the middle and the couple’s only son, followed rather far behind by Corinne the youngest daughter who calls her brother Bear. He is a good sized young man with a heavy mat of thick sandy hair who always wears a jovial smile. Soon everyone knows him as Bear McKinley.  Corinne was born in the family home in the dead of winter and she was a complete surprise.  Earlier that year the doctor in town told them Alice McKinley was suffering from a stomach tumor and there was nothing which could be done for her other than to make her comfortable in her final days.  You can imagine their surprise when in the dead of night Alice began to cry out and water gushed forth from her womanly parts. All thought it was the end until Corinne’s head appeared between her mother’s legs.   The cord was wrapped rightly around the baby’s neck and her face was blue. No one thought she would survive the night let alone the winter. Small, frail and rather sickly the family was surprised by their new editions strength and her will to live.  Corinne survived the first winter nurtured by her mother and proud father.  As she grew things were hard for her, her mind wasn’t quite right and she never attended school with the other children. Her thinking abilities were not renown but like Helena, Corrine or Corey as she came to be called by those who loved her most, was not stupid and she could be taught. 

The family of five lives in a cozy but respectable cabin they farm the land, they hunt, Alice and the girls make clothing, blankets and assorted sundries to sell in town along with canned goods from their small farm.  Corey excels at this and is able to embroider the most beautiful and intricate patterns on anything. She loves making jams and jellies which are far superior to her mother and sister’s preserves. They are not rich people but they are happy and there is much love and good cheer in the McKinley household.  The older children attend school and their chores on the farm, Alice tends the house and Lloyd tends everything else. All attend mass every Sunday in the small Congregational Church in town and all is right with the world. During her younger years this is the only time that Corey goes into town other than the odd trip to the mercantile.

One day, in her tenth year, Corey’s mother asked her to go the barn and collect the day’s eggs.  This is a chore Corey loves and very eagerly she took her basket out into the bright sunlight of the new day and skips across the property to the barn while she hums a little tune; Jesus Loves Me.  Behind her in the barn sunlight streams through while in front of her it peeps through the boards to bring in dappled light. The chickens squawk as she nears them hoping to be fed.  Corey fills the metal pail with feed and scatters it for them as she laughs and hums her little song.  The chickens happy and pecking at the ground far away from their nests Corey goes to work filling her wire basket with its pretty blue calico liner with eggs.  With much care and consideration she picks up each egg one by one to gently put it in her basket as she sings.

“Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.”

Suddenly the bright light streaming in through the open doors is shut away and all is darkened.  “H-h-hello? Bear?” Corey calls out as she put the egg in her hand into the basket.  No one answers her. The wind must have shut the heavy doors, she thinks.  There is no wind today only a slight breeze. Something begins to shuffle around in the dark and at first she thinks one of the horses may have gotten out of its stall however the sound shuffling toward her does not clip nor clop and it sounds like two feet rather than four. “H-h-h-hello?” She stutters again.

“Hey, Corey.”

The voice in the dark is familiar to her. “J-j-johnny?”  Johnny Barrett is the oldest son of their nearest neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barrett who live nearly three miles away. He is also a friend of Bear’s and he spends much time around the McKinley home.

“What’cha got there?”

“Eggs,” she says though there is fear growing inside her she tries to ignore it, “M-mother sent me to col-collect them.”

“I got sumthin’, you wanna see it?”

“Wh-what iiiisss it?”

“C’mere, I’ll show ya.”

In the dim light she can’t really see him only his outline and the fear inside tells her that whatever he is its no good. It’s probably a rat or a snake or something and he’s waiting to trick her and frighten her.  “I ha-have ttta gggget eegggs bbbackk ttto mmmother.”  The fear is making her stutter worse and she feels as stupid as she sounds.  In the darkened barn she picks up the basket even though she hasn’t collected all of the eggs.  Getting to her feet, out of habit, she takes the time to brush off her dress.  A rough hand closes around her wrist and yanks her hand away from the soft material of the dress to bring it harshly forward until it lay upon something hard and soft at the same time.  It is long and almost in the shape of a carrot and…. “Oh!” Corey cries out as she realizes what her hand is groping and tries to pull it away.  The basket of eggs crashes to the barn floor cracking open delicate shells that spill their contents making the floor slippery.

“Dat’s it, Corey, grab it a little harder.”  Johnny insists as he grabs hold of the back of her small head and drives her to her knees. 

Corey tried to skitter away from toward the back of the barn but the broken eggs cause her feet to fly out from under her and she crashes to the dirt floor.  Her unexpected loss of balance causes Johnny to fall down on top of her and he sits on her small chest. The chickens begin to make a terrible squawking sound and the horses bray in their stalls.

“Open your mouth, Corey.”  Johnny demands and slides the tip of his strong young cock across her lips.  “Do it! And don’t yew tell no one, no one’ll believe yew anyways, Corrine Mae McKinely, stupid backward twit.”

Corey wanted to open her mouth to scream but she was afraid if she did he would stick that thing into it.  She fights him with one hand while the other flails around for anything it can find to hit him with.  Her fingertips close around the wire basket with its broken eggs and she raises it up to slam him in the side of the head.  She weak and the eggs are light but Johnny had expected this to go much easier and so he wasn’t ready for the blow. He tilted to the side and Corey wiggled out from under him while his hand went to his head and when he felt the run of yolk and white he thought it to be blood.

“Yew little bitch,” Johnny spat at her in the dark as he grabbed a hold of her ankle which, given another second or two, would have been firmly out of arms reach as she scrambled to her feet.   “Yew like it hard, I’ll give it to ya hard.”

Now Corey did scream.  Johnny slapped her to shut her up and her nose gushed blood.

Outside the barn Bear McKinley had just grabbed up his pitchfork to begin bailing hay when he heard his sister scream.  It was a sound so urgent and terror-filled that it made it his blood run cold.  His big brawny body steamed toward the closed door as he gripped the pitchfork tightly with one hand and tore the doors open with the other.

Sunlight streamed inside and Corey could see the face of her attacker and the wildly blank look in his eyes.   “B-b-b-bear! BEAR!”

“What the hell?” Bear cried out and grabbed a hold of Johnny Barrett’s shoulder. “What’re ya doin’ to my sister?”  This wasn’t any friendly little game of wrestling, Corey was a bloody mess and so was her pretty dress. When Ma saw that there was gonna be hell to pay!

“She’s just a gimp, Bear, who gives a flyin’ sh—“  That was as far as Johnny got before Bear planted his sizeable fist into Johnny’s mouth knocking out three of his teeth.  He had half a mind to run the little bastard through with the pitchfork but instead he used it to herd Johnny toward the door. “Don’t you never come back here! Do you hear me? Never!”  Johnny stumbled out into the light. He ran all the way home and when he got there he told his mother he’d been attacked by Indians and was lucky to escape with his life.

Bear scooped up his dirty, bloody weeping sister and held her close telling her it was all right now and the bad man went away.  “Did he?” Bear didn’t know how to say it especially to his young and slightly backward sister. “Did he put that thing in you, Corey?”  Weeping and shaking she looked up at him with eyes that did not understand his question.  “I gotta do this, ok? I’m sorry, Corey.”  With a shaking hand he reached down to the raised hem of her torn dress, she batted his hands away and started to squirm. “I ain’t gonna do nothin’ bad.”  Bear assured her. “I gotta look.”  She laid still as he raised the dress to see her petticoats were still where they were supposed to be so were her stocking and her shoes best of all he didn’t see any blood.  “It’s ok now, Corey.”  Bear smoothed out the dress and rocked her for a while soon she fell asleep.  Their mother came out to the barn and Bear told her that Corey must have dropped the eggs and slipped in the mess because when he came in she was out cold.  They took her in the house where Alice bandaged the girl’s skinned knees and cleaned off the egg. Corey slept through the night and didn’t appear to remember anything when she woke the next day. Bear felt that was best so he told her how she’d dropped the eggs and slipped, she seemed satisfied with that and maybe even eager to go along with it.

The incident was never spoken of. Johnny Barrett was hailed as a hero by the townsfolk for having survived an attack by savage Indians. If they only knew what he’d really done they would have run him out of town on a rail.

 The years went by, Emma grew up and she married a man of good standing who took her back to the east coast and to the city of Boston where he became accepted to practice medicine at a local hospital. Bear dated but had yet to find a woman to his liking and so he remained in the McKinley home going into business with his father. The old mercantile shop was run by a kindly old man named Mr. McDougall but he never married and had no one to leave the shop to. He wanted to retire and spend his remaining days puttering around his house and his gardens.  Bear and Lloyd thought this a good opportunity for them as the girls canned goods and sundries had always brought in a fair amount of money for the family. With their own store they could sell even more and so they bought the shop and all its goods from Mr. McDougall in the spring of 1808.

Corinne grew into a beautiful young woman who was painfully shy, mostly from having been shuttered away in the cabin for so many years. She almost never goes anywhere without the company of her brother who is also her very best friend.  Bear encouraged her to come out of her shell, to join the ladies social at the church and attend the local festivities when they were held mostly in the spring and summer.  Even though she was not very bright in a book-sense, she was intelligent and very funny if you took the time to get to know her. Corey didn’t like to talk very much as she suffered from a stutter and she didn’t like strangers—who usually made the impediment worse. However, she attracted the stares of the local boys often with her pale blue eyes and strawberry hair and the impediment had gotten somewhat better, Corey worked very hard to overcome her slight stutter. Bear didn’t see any reason she couldn’t have her choice of eligible young men in town or the next one over. 

Corinne didn’t appear interested in any of the eligible young men and she refused to so much as dance with them at town picnics or church socials that her family practically forced her to go since she turned fifteen two years ago.  Corey seemed to very much prefer the company of Bradford, her big old bear, and seven years her senior. People in small towns in the middle of nowhere have little else to do but wag their tongues and it wasn’t long before they started to whisper and wonder if they didn’t have an unnatural relationship.  If something a bit sinister and even ungodly wasn’t going on in the McKinley household.

The winter of 1810 was particularly harsh dumping over seven feet of snow on the mountain in less than two weeks.  When spring finally came around 120 people were lost. Some of them froze to death in their cabins unable to find enough wood to burn but others died from a strong round of influenza which invaded the area with the cold Lloyd and Alice McKinley among them.  Alice was the first to surrender to its terrible grip and then Lloyd. Corinne and Bear tended them day and night as they lay in their sick bed.  They were helpless to get their parents to the local doctor through the deep cold snow. Most of the horses had already frozen to death in the barn along with the chickens and few pigs they kept.  With no choice given them, Corinne and Bear sewed their parents into death sacks made of the blankets they’d shared so long and then buried in their bodies in the snow until spring. 

While they were well stocked on wood and would not freeze to death with the livestock dropping like flies it wouldn’t be long until they were out of food.  Weeks went by and the snow did not stop the wind only howled with a voice that never tired.  Bear fell ill and his little sister Corey attended him faithfully. She was always there to soothe his brow with a cool cloth or to read to him and while the way the time by sitting with him.  It was there in the rocking chair by his bed that she slept each night to be sure the fire never went out and Bear was never cold. She gave him hyssop tea with elderberries to help break the fever and put mustard compresses on his brawny chest to help break up the thick congestion there. Day after day she swabbed the sweat away from his body, cleaned up his vomit and his lower regions when he couldn’t manage to use the chamber pot.

There wasn’t much but three times a day Corey did manage to offer Bear whatever she could find to eat.  The root cellar had been well stocked with potatoes, carrots and onions along with jellies, jams and fruit preserved from the year’s harvest in glass jars.  There was flour but little yeast, Corey did her best to make the bread stretch as long as she could before making fresh loaves because once the yeast was gone bread would be difficult to make.  As such, most of their meals consisted of vegetable soup. She’d battled the driving snow and biting wind to get to the barn and found two chickens near death but still alive.  Their meat sustained them through a few days and when that ran out the only source of meat left to them was some dried jerky she’d made with her mother at the end of fall.  Bear had to have protein he had to have meat, if he was going to get better.  He had to get better he couldn’t die and leave her here all alone.

One afternoon while he slept she bundled up and took the rifle outside with her determined to hunt something down and cook it for dinner.  There was nothing but a blinding blanket of snow and she couldn’t walk very far past the house and barn before Earth and sky melded into one and she lost her balance as she stood completely still.  Closing her eyes against the harsh light she tried to listen for bird song but heard none.  All Gods’ creatures great and small were holed up in their warm nests waiting and hoping to ride out this blasted storm.  A nasty little thought went through her head time and again.  She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t carve up a slice of Mom and Dad and serve it to Bear…could she?

Day by day he got worse and all she could do was to stand by and watch as death slowly took control of his big burly body.

Was it even safe?  She thought of the bodies on ice down in the town and how they always looked rather pink when they thawed out. Some of them even had a proper wake before burial.

The day finally arrived when Corrine could watch his suffering no longer. She went out to where her parents were frozen in their death sacks and under the cover of night with only a single lantern to guide her, she hacked off a chunk of her father’s inner thigh.  Gut wrenching and rising to her throat with every movement she put the slab of frozen meat into a metal pail, covered her father once more and said a prayer hoping that he understood the severity of what they were facing before she took it inside and put it in a pot of boiling snow-water along with a heaping helping of potatoes, carrots and salt. She put in some rosemary and parsley she found hiding in the pantry.  After letting it simmer several hours until it was so tender it didn’t need to be chewed she ladled it into a bowl and took it in to where Bear lie coughing up blood and thick mucus.  “What…what is it, Corey?” He asked between hacks.  “Smells….”

“I ssss-sh-sh-hot aaaaa ddddduck,” Corey said as neared the bed.

“You? Hit something?” Bear as the coughing fit subsided. Corey couldn’t the broad side of a barn with a sawed off shot gun filled with buckshot.

Putting the steaming bowl down on the nightstand she helped her big brother into a half sitting position, placed a towel on his chest and then fed him the hot steaming stew. “Iif wwwe’re ca-care-ful the mmeat sh-should lalast a few ddays.”  Bear, who should have known better and that there were no ducks in the area late into winter, ate every drop of it and after a few servings and a few days he started to get better.  His cough wasn’t as deep and the blood he spit up started to fade, the mucus which had been thick and dark started to clear and to thin.  If he had a few more days of meat surely he’d survive.  Even though she had the most horrible nightmares of her parent’s corpses rising up and chasing her down, Corey did the only thing she could when the meat ran out. She went back to the snow drift where her parents lay frozen and hacked off her father’s other thigh.  Telling him once more that she’d shot a duck she fed him stew and kept him company until the day arrived when Bear was up and walking once more. No longer hacking and coughing though still weak it was clear he was going to survive his bout of influenza and he said he owed it all to her.

As with all winters no matter how bad one day they are forced to give way to spring and winter of 1810 was no different. The snow stopped, the sun came out and all began to melt as the spring of 1811 took hold.  Slowly the survivors of the winter found each other and the town where they were finally bring their dead for proper burials.  When they arrived they found a newcomer in their midst.  At some point during the winter a stranger moved into town and took up residence at the local boarding house.  He was a very tall man with a dark olive complexion and heavy accent.

Bear and Corrine took the bodies of their parents to the mortuary where Corrine took the mortician aside and asked that the bodies not be removed from their bags but rather placed directly into their coffins.  She explained that she didn’t want them disturbed and that, like the other deceased loved ones and family members, their bodies had gone through enough mistreatment already.  Corrine might have been surprised and even soothed if the mortician had told her he’d already heard that request from several families today but the mortician said nothing than his agreement to the request.

 “We should check on the store.” Bear said as they walked, arm in arm, out of the mortuary leaning on each other for physical and moral support.  “It’s probably a mess.”

Probably a big mess but that wasn’t what concerned him it was the way the other shell-shocked citizens of this town were staring at them that caught Bear’s attention. It was suspicion he saw in their eyes.  The brother and sister who were perhaps a bit too close for the liking of the town had just spent a snowbound winter together in a cabin with the bodies of their parents out in the snow now they were walking arm in arm down the respectable street. Without trying to be rude or mean he pushed Corrine away from him and walked by her side without touching her.

The front window was smashed to hell either from wind, snow or rock.  Bear knew desperate people did desperate things and he fully expected to find some items looted from the store.  He was thankful the stock was at a bare minimum because of the winter months.  Wandering out the snow and finding the damage to be of a good size but not insurmountable they took stock of the remaining items as they cleaned up.

“Are you open?”

Bear turned at the sound of the deep voice to see the stranger standing in the door way.  “No we’re not, we’re just taking stock that’s all.”

“I see,” the man intoned as he looked past the stout man with the thick sandy hair and to the only woman in the room.  He was instantly smitten by her.  She had shoulder length strawberry hair and the palest blue eyes Ares had ever seen, they were so pale as to almost be translucent. He walked past the storeowner to make his way to her and hold out his hand.  “I’m very pleased to meet you Miss….”

Corrine looked past the extremely good looking and very tall man to where Bear stood watching them. He was close by and he didn’t seem all that concerned.  “Mc-Kinley,” Corrine said and daintily held out her hand to the stranger. “Corrine McKinley.”

“Charmed, Miss McKinley,” Ares took the delicate hand in his and brushed his lips over the back of it. “I am Ares.”

“Ah-ares?” She chimed. Such a beautiful an exotic name for a very handsome and exotic man. The feel of his ruggedly strong hand on her made her head light and a very strange thing happened when she next opened her mouth. “Your accent is very strange Mr. Ares, where are you from?”

“Greece, it’s a beautiful place, I will take you there one day.”

“You won’t be taking her anywhere and we’re closed. So if you wouldn’t mind….Mr. Ares,” Bear McKinley interjected as he stepped between them and then began to shoo the larger man toward the door. “Corey go back to work.”

“Corey,” Ares said in almost a whisper which drew her eyes up to him. “It’s not Mr. Ares, I’m afraid,” he said looking down at Bear, “it’s just Ares and you are?”

“Her brother, Bear McKinley, and I said we’re closed.”

“But I only need a hammer and some nails,” Ares protested quietly. “I see you have them, why not let me pay for them and then leave?”  He glanced past the aptly named Bear to see that Corey was still gazing at him with curiosity. 

A sale was a sale and if he could make it quick then…. “Fine, pick up what you want and go.” Bear huffed.

“That’s just what I’ll do.” Ares agreed and walked over to where there was a small store of hammers in a bin and next to them were smaller bins of different sized nails.  Picking up a heavy hammer and a fistful of nails he turned away and back toward Corrine.  “And you, Miss McKinley, may I pick you up? Say tonight? For dinner? Around seven o’clock? I understand the eatery is open again for the warm months.”

Corrine’s heart fluttered and her face flushed with color but her tongue was not tied and she didn’t feel like running away from the stranger even in spite of his massive size. Quite the opposite she felt very drawn to him.

“I don’t think so,” Bear interjected again and held out his hand. “One dollar and twenty-three cents.”

Ares dropped two dollar bills into his hand.  “Are you going to let him decide for you, Miss McKinley?”

“Th-that would be lovely…Ares.” Corrine agreed. “Seven o’clock.”

Ares smiled and took his change. “Don’t worry, Bear, I’ll have her home at a respectable hour.” He promised. “Until tonight.” Ares said with a slight nod of his head before he turned around and walked out the door.  She looked damn promising, yes she did. Ares hadn’t been out looking for a good time, no not at all, he was just spending a few decades wandering around this new country called America and checking it out…seeing what trouble he could get up to. There, like a gift from the Gods, stood Corrine McKinley a woman so innocent and pure he just had to have his chance at defiling her.

“What’re ya doin’?” Bear grumbled as he watched the big Greek lumber out the door. “You don’t even know him.”

“Aren’t you the wah-one who all-ways says I-I-I should ggo out?” Corey responded with wide eyes. She didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, wasn’t this the way it was supposed to work? A man who struck your fancy asked you out and you went.

“With a boy from town,” Bear huffed as he bent over to sweep up a pile of broken glass. “Someone we know and whose family we know.  You don’t know anything about him, Corey.  Looks like I’ll be dining at the eatery tonight too.”  Like he had money for that right now.

“Oh Bear!” Corey stomped her foot on the hardwood floor.  “It’s jjjust dinner, there’ll be p-p-people  we wwwon’t be alone. It won’t be improper.” Besides this was her very first date!  And with such a handsome and seemingly sophisticated man no less! The last thing she wanted was her big brother tagging along.

“Don’t you ‘Oh Bear’ me, missy.” He hissed. “That man ain’t even a member of our church,” he grumbled. “Greek…what do you know about Greek people?  He could be some insane axe murdered for all you know on the run from the law no less. I bet he’s at least twenty years older than you. He’s got no business asking you out in the first place and you got even less saying ‘yes’!”

Bear and Corey spent the rest of the day in an uneasy silence as they cleaned up the shop and put everything back in its proper place.  Thumbing over the bolts of material Corey wished she had a fancy pretty dress to wear for her date tonight.  If Mr. Ares stuck around long enough perhaps she’d make one and they could go over Sommersville where they had a theatre and see a play.  As the sun began to go down Corey began to complain that Bear had to take her home so that she could get ready for her evening out but Bear ignored her pleas and when 7 o’clock rolled around they were still in the store and Corey, who was not wearing her best dress to begin with, was covered in dust and dirt from the day’s work.  Looking into a broken mirror she saw the filth on her face and her calico dress she felt very disheartened to know that her brother would purposefully set out to sabotage her evening.  Surely Mr. Ares would not want to take her out looking as she did, like some ragamuffin who’d just crawled out of the mountains.

The door opened and a cold wind blew in that made the lanterns flicker. “I thought I would find you here. Are you ready, my dear? It’s seven o’clock.” Ares said easily as he walked inside and closed the door.

Oh my! He looked very handsome standing there in his black dinner jacket and cotton pants.  “I-I-I’m af-raid we’ve bbbeen working all day,” Corey stuttered.

“She can’t go out tonight we got more work to do.” Bear said without looking at the intruder.

“Well she has to eat, doesn’t she?” Ares returned and held his arm out to her. “Shall we?”

“I really am a sight, I shouldn’t….”  Before she knew it he was standing right in front of her and she hadn’t seen him walk across the store.  He held one of his large hands in front of her face and for half a second she thought he meant to strike her and she closed her pale blue eyes in anticipation of the strike but he drew the hand down her face to her neck without touching her.

“There. All better.” He said in a soft voice and turned her toward the broken mirror.

Corey was astounded to see the dirt and grime gone from her face and the hair which had been so mussed was now neat as a pin. Even the dirt from her calico was gone.  “How did you….”

“It’s an old Greek trick, I’ll teach it to you some day.”  Ares held his arm out again. “Are you ready?” Americans they were so easy to fool with the most obscure of answers especially those who resided so far west in this rugged country. They were far from sophisticated intellectuals to be sure.

“Yes.” Corey smiled up at him and looped her arm through his. “I am.”

“Shall I return her here or to your home when we’ve finished our supper, Bear?” Ares asked trying to be respectful but not in any mood to do so.

Damnit!  Bear threw down the rag he’d been using to clean one of the glass cases. “I’ll take her home when you’re done.”  He shot his sister a look that shut her up before she could open her mouth. “You’re right, Ares, we gotta eat. I might as well join you.”

This guy was a royal pain in the ass.  “If you like.” Ares said in a cold voice as he led Corey toward the door.  “You should clean up first. We’ll meet you there.”  Opening the door he let her walk through it and then escorted her down the dirt street to the eatery where all eyes immediately turned to see the shy backward girl on the arm of, not her brother, but the very tall stranger.  Before their appetizer could arrive Corey was holding his hand across the table.  “They’ll be talking tomorrow,” Ares warned with a slight grin, “perhaps you should be careful.”

“They always talk about me. Let them.” Corey said with wide eyes and wondered what that large soft hand would feel like on other parts of her body.  Parts of her body that so far had gone completely untouched by any man. “Well, that is, so long as you don’t mind.”

“Not in the slightest.” He leaned a little closer to her over the table. “Why would they talk about you? Such a lovely young woman I’m sure your reputation is impeccable.” Especially with that brother hanging around all the time.

Corey had no idea why Ares fascinated her so or why she found it so easy to speak around him and she didn’t care.  Sitting there, holding hand across the table, Corey told him her short life story without stuttering so much as a single time and warned him that he wasn’t sitting here with the brightest girl in town.

“I think you’re very bright.” Ares whispered. “In fact, I think you shine like the sun Corrine McKinley.  I can’t wait to get to know you better.”

“Be waitin’ a bit longer,” Bear interrupted as he pulled up a chair to their table. “Sorry I’m late I don’t have any magic spell for getting cleaned up.”

Ares let go of her hand and sat back in his chair. “So nice that you were able to join us.”

“Yeah, right.” Bear said with a grin knowing he’d just put a big crimp in whatever plans Ares had for his night with Corey.  “So what’s on the menu tonight?”

Although the evening did not go exactly as Ares had planned he was not dissuaded in the slightest.  Four days later when Lloyd and Alice McKinley were able to be given the proper burial they’d waited all winter for, Ares escorted Corey to the graveside service to say her final good-byes.  Bear thought this was extremely disrespectful and he and Ares had a heated discussion about it in the kitchen of the McKinley cabin during the reception.  Bear railed that Ares hadn’t even known his parents and he had no right to be here.  He accused Ares of using Corey’s grief against her and offering her false solace in an attempt to worm his way into her favors.  Ares argued that in her time of grief Corey was entitled to whatever solace and comfort she required and that his was not false.

Tongues in the town wagged rabidly from that day forward until Corey could take it no longer and decided to break off her budding relationship with Ares. “I feel like I’ve known you forever and as though I should like to know you forevermore.” Corey said to him.  “I can’t see you again, I hope you understand.”

“Have I done something wrong?” Ares inquired and took hold of her hand. “Something I shouldn’t have and which made you uncomfortable?” He didn’t think that was the problem, Ares had been nothing less than a perfect gentleman with her since he met her last week. After all, she was very young and Ares had all the time in the world, there was no sense in rushing this.

“No,” she held a little tighter to his hands, “in fact you make me feel very safe even safer than Bear does.” She confessed as they stood outside the local saloon after having had a lovely meal in the eatery.  “I hope you don’t think me too forward but… I could be falling in love with you.”

Ares smiled and ran a hand through her hair.  “I believe I could love you as well, Corey.” What he said was true, what was fifty years to an Olympian?  It could be fun to settle down and play house for a little while with this one but not here.  “Let me take you to Greece.  You will love it, I promise you will.  I am rich man, Corey I can take good care of you. You will never want for anything.”

Leave Bear? No, she couldn’t do that but whenever Ares spoke of his homeland it always sounded so exotic and enticing Corey would like very much to see it with him one day.  “I can’t, my home is here.”  Right there on the public street in full view of all around Ares leaned his head down and kissed her.  Corey thought her heart would explode at the feel of his lips on hers.  It was the guttural sounds of several throats being cleared which shattered the tender moment.  Corey looked around at all of the disapproving stares. “They’ll definitely be talking now.” She whispered to him sadly.

“Well, at least they don’t think you’re sleeping with your brother any longer.” Ares intoned and then smiled, Corey giggled and held her hand to her mouth.  “Come to Greece with me, the people are warm and friendly, they would not greet the sight of a simple kiss with such disdain.”  The weight of their stares was intolerable Ares couldn’t believe how rude they were to keep watching them.  He put an arm around her shoulders and led her off down the dirt street.  “Why don’t you come up to my room and we’ll talk more about this away from straining ears and prying eyes.”

Corey would like to go to his room but, “It wouldn’t be proper.” She protested lightly. “For me to be seen coming and going from your room especially at this late hour.”

“What if I could promise you that no one would know? No one would see you enter or leave my chamber.”

“More old Greek magic?” She asked with a shy smile.

“Yes.”

He seemed so sincere and so sure of what he was saying that Corey just had to know how he would pull off such a trick.  “All right.”

Ares almost took a step back so shocked was he at her agreement.  “Close your eyes, my dear.”  She did as he asked and Ares looked around, if anyone was watching he couldn’t see them and who would believe anyone who stood up and say that they saw two grown adults simply vanish from the town street?  Corey felt a sudden breeze and then the sounds of the night were shut away from her ears. “Open them.”  Corey looked around, she’d never been in the hostel before but undoubtedly this was one of their rooms.  There was a bed that looked very comfortable, a dresser and mirror, two chairs and table by the window. She crossed to it and looked out at the darkened street to see her own town.

“How did you do that?” She whispered in amazement. She hadn’t done so much as take a single step and he had not picked her up.  “Who are you?”

“I am Ares.” He said simply.

If Corey had gone to school and read the books then she might have understood what he was trying to tell her but she had not.  Surely such magic could only be the power of, “Are you the Devil? Is God punishing me?”

Ares let go a laugh and a wide smile accompanied it. “No, I am not.” He told her as he ceased his laughter then her other words sank into his head.  “Why would God want to punish someone as innocent and lovely as you?”

Corey didn’t know what to say at first. “If I tell you something, do you swear never to tell anyone else?”

“Of course.” Ares said seriously.  “What is it, my dear?”

Taking a seat in one of the chairs by the window she nervously told him about Bear’s bout with influenza and how she’d come across the meat which saved his life. “I know it’s a sin,” she said in a rush, “but he was so sick, I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”

“I do not think God would punish you for this,” he said as he took her hand in his, “nor do I believe the spirits of your parents would be angered by it.  They loved their son, did they not?”  He watched her nod in agreement. “Then they would want him to live and you saw to it that he did.  You should be commended not condemned.”

Corey was so happy to let the secret out and not have to carry it around any longer she thought she could dance. The fact that Ares had taken the news so well was a double bonus for her. “You don’t think me wicked?”

“I do not, I think you brave and intelligent.” He said honestly. “Let us speak of cheerier things. Let me tell you about Greece. I want you to come with me Corey, you won’t regret it if you say yes. I promise not for one second of one day will you feel sorrow if you come with me. I will show you the world and lay it at your feet.”  Over a few glasses of bourbon, something Corey had never had before it stung her throat and made her lips tingle before it made her head light. He told her again of his homeland of its seas and mountains, of its history and its people.  Corey fell under his spell.  It was in the wee hours of the morning when she finally agreed to go with him when he returned to Greece in a few weeks.

Having shared nothing other than conversation, bourbon and a few passionate kisses Ares took her home the same way he’d brought her into the hostel.  Bear was not sleeping in fact he was wide awake on the porch with a shot gun in his hand when the two suddenly appeared before him.  “What in the name of God?” Bear whispered as one second the path was empty and the next his bewildered eyes beheld the two of them standing there. “Where have you been, Corrine Mae McKinley?” He asked sternly and stood up already convincing himself that he must have dosed off for a moment and didn’t see them walking up the path.  Still, it was a hell of a long journey to make on foot it must have taken Ares and Corey hours to walk here.  “What have you been doing with my sister, Ares?” Bear cocked the gun and raised it.

“No, need for violent, big brother.” Ares said lightly. “I have not sullied your sister.”

“Bear put the gun down.” Corey insisted.

“Get in the house, Corey!”

“Bear!”

“Get in the goddamn house woman!” Bear shouted keeping the big man in his sights. “Don’t you backtalk me!”

“Bear, stop it.” Corey walked onto the porch and pushed the barrel of the gun away from its intended target.

One whiff of her breath and Bear was even more incensed. “Booze? You’ve been drinking?” As far as Bear knew the only alcohol Corey ever had was the communion wafers which were sometimes soaked in wine at Sunday Mass.  “You plied my sister with alcohol?” He shot at Ares. “Tryin’ to turn her into a loose woman, are ya? I’ll loosen your head off’n your shoulders!”

 “Stop, listen to me, Bear. We’re going to Greece,” she whispered with much amazement and delight. To think she, simple little Corrine Mae McKinley, was going to see some place as far away and wondrous as Greece!  “He’s asked me to go with him and I said yes.”

“I don’t see no ring on that finger,” Bear growled. “Until I do you ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Ares hadn’t said anything about marriage but neither had she for that matter.

“No sister of mine is gonna go trampin’ around the world as some Greasey man’s whore. Now get in the damn house!”

“Bradford,” Ares began in an easy voice, “I understand your concern for her, were she my sister, I would feel the same as you.  I have no ill intent and she knows that.”

“What does she know? She’s just a simple minded woman who’s had her head turned by some rich gigolo.”

Seeing the pained look on her fact at her brother’s harsh words, Ares took two steps toward where the brother and sister were standing on the porch. “I don’t care if you think of me as a gigolo but is that what you really think of her? That she is simple minded?”

Bear took his eyes off Ares to glance at his sister who was staring at him with tears in her eyes.  No, he didn’t think she was simple minded but all he could see when he looked at Ares was Johnny Barrett in the barn with a crying ten year-old girl.   Corey wasn’t going to go through that again not if he could help it and one pull of the trigger would go a long way toward insuring that.  He couldn’t take that look in her eyes and it made him angry. “I said get in the house!” With his free hand he reached out and shoved her hard toward the door.

Bear had never raised a hand to her and the shove came quite unexpectedly.  The porch was icy and she stumbled then fell smashing her head against the large rock by the door which they used to prop it open the warm months.  The old gray rock was covered in crimson.

“Corey!” Ares called out and rushed toward her.

Bear pulled the first trigger.  The shot gun went off blasting Ares in the chest but the big man kept coming. He pulled the second trigger and while there was no way he could have missed either shot Ares still charged forward.  Bear turned the gun in his hand and raised the butt to strike him with it but Ares pushed him out of the way and Bear went sprawling to the porch floor.  “Corey! Corey!” Ares cried out and turned her over.  It was too late.  The pretty young girl was gone.  “You brute!  You fool!” Ares spat as he rose first to his knees and then dragged his big body to his feet. “All she wanted was a life away from this cow town!  To live somewhere people didn’t snicker about her behind her back! What right did you have to keep it from her?”

On his back and staring out at the world with wild disbelieving eyes, Bear tried to pull back and away from the enraged giant slowly coming toward him Bear trembled and asked a familiar question. “What the hell are you, mister?”

“I…am…ARES!” He thundered so loudly it sent the sleeping birds fleeing from the safety of their nests. The God of War grabbed Bear by the throat to haul him to his feet and shove him rudely into the outer wall of the cabin.  There he held Bradford Bear McKinley until he choked the life from his big squirming body single-handedly.  When Bear gave up his fight for life Ares turned back to the body of the young woman and knelt by her side.  He could have loved her if they’d had more time and less attention from outsiders.  “Be at peace, pretty Corey.”  He laid a kiss on her cooling cheek. “I shall see you again one day.”

The next day the sudden disappearance of the tall dark stranger went largely unnoticed in the wake of the news that there had been a savage Indian attack on the McKinley farm which left both brother and sister dead. 

End of Chapter Twenty-Nine of
Golden Years
by Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
Go to
Chapter Thirty