2. Broken windows and broken lives.

Donny’s footsteps fade away into the night as the house continues to burn. Jebediah lay there a few minutes more on the ground before standing to dust himself off. His ribs are sore from the fall and the few pellets that struck him from the shotgun blast. Fortunately, nothing feels broken. Glancing about, he takes in the scene.

All around the yard lie the burning debris, flames fluttering in the wind. The country home he had called his own for the past few months is half standing, half devastated. It looks like part of it simply fell away and caught on fire. The home wasn’t rightfully his of course but it still stings, the waste of it all. 

The broken branch from the tree that helped to stifle his fall lay twisted at his feet. A quick glance upwards reveals the window he had jumped from moments ago. The glass is broken and black smoke billows forth into the sky.

“Doggone it Donny.” Jeb says under his breath.

Out on the lawn by a flaming piece of lumber lies his favorite hat close to the flames.

“Oh, no, no, no! Not my best one!”

Jeb holds his cowboy hat up to the moonlit sky, peering through a penny sized hole on the brim still smoldering. He snuffs it out with his thumb and middle finger before putting it back on his head. It snags on something as he tries to push it down.

“What the..?”

He pulls his hat off to inspect the insides again and runs a hand back through his hair. About halfway to the back of his head, he bumps into something hard with his finger. A square piece of iron sticking up out of the top, about an inch in length with a square head at the tip.

Grabbing onto, what he guesses is nail shrapnel with two fingers, he tries to pull it out from the crown of his head. White willowisps float across his vision, swimming lazily in the darkness beyond. Feeling sick to his stomach, Jeb starts to get a little weak in the knees.

“OW, JEEZ.. Sorry Lord.” he says in a loud whisper, flinching as if expecting to be struck by lightning. 

Unable to pull it free, Jeb decides it's time to head west to try and find his cousin Leroy at his home in the backwoods of Stillwater Creek. On foot, he won't be there until morning. But once there, he could make arrangements to get a horse if need be.

The night seems to drag on with all of the country folk tucked snug in their beds. There are no sounds of pursuit or merriment or anything really besides the occasional hooting of a barn owl and yap of a coyote. It's times like these that Jeb can’t stand to be alone. To him, the moon and the open road make for bad company.

Time alone means time to think and on this trip Jeb is pretty sure there will be no good thoughts. He killed Carter. And now Donny tried to kill him. What if Donny finds out that he survived? Well.. Jeb would have to deal with that when it comes. Ain’t no sense in fretting over stuff you can't control. 

What was it the Lord said, “Don’t be anxious over many things but just a few?” He wasn't really sure. It makes sense enough, he supposed. There’s always something else to worry about.

Jebediah never was very good when it comes to following what the Lord said. Looking back, whenever things got going too smooth, he’d always get an itch to rebel in some way or another. 

Even as a little tyke when his momma would drag him into Sunday service, he found it hard to sit still for too long. The memory of the time he got caught looking through a knothole in the lady's outhouse during the preacher's long winded sermon brings a smile to his face.

Those were the good old days. A slap on the wrist and having to give an apology was about the worst things you could get back then. Now..? Now Jeb almost lost his life to a revenge killing from an avenging father. Not to mention a hole in his favorite ‘Boss of the plains’ hat. What hurts the most about what he's gone through tonight is the thought of losing a friend.

It's not Carter that he’s upset about losing, oddly enough, it’s Donny, Carter's father. Donny has always been the role model he looks up to in life. He and Carter had never been best friends. Hell, he was more of an acquaintance now that he comes to think about it. But Donny was the superlative one. A man's man if you will. 

Whenever someone was in need of help, he’d be there. That time old man Thompkin’s wagon was stuck in the mud two days out when it was pouring rain. Donny was the one who left once he heard of it to get him out.

Things like that always stick with him. How a person can be selfless and yet honorable; giving to others the help they need and yet not asking for anything in return. Jeb had never been that way personally. Didn’t know how to. But it doesn’t mean that he don't respect it. 

“Aw, heck Donny. I’m sorry friend. I even admire that you tried to kill me. It makes me respect you that much more.” he says into the wind. “If I could only remember what happened that night when Carter died, maybe I can make things right between us.”

The evening passes on with Jeb stuck in his reveries and not all of them pleasant. The sun begins to crest the eastern horizon beyond the townscape of Tulsa. Half an hour later, Jeb arrives at his destination.

Chickens peck about the yard staying close to safeguard and instruct their young. A grey tomcat meows at his arrival and pads up to the front door, hoping to gain entrance along the side.

Jeb raps on the door.

~knock, knock, knock..~ 

“Who is it?” shouts a voice from the inside.

“It’s me, Jeb. Open up.” Jeb shouts back.

The door creaks hard, making both Jeb and Leroy wince. The tom seems unaffected by this and bolts inside.

“Well, well, well. If it ain’t cousin Jeb.” Leroy grins. “I didn’t figure you to be back this way none time too soon. You in trouble?”

Jeb lowers his head and removes his hat to reveal the nail.

“Ha hah! Well, I’ll be.. You have an accident redecoratin’ your new place?” Leroy jibes.

“Don’t mock me Leroy. What happened to your tooth?” 

The smile drops from Leroy’s face as he tongues the broken point. Things don’t quite seem so funny now all of the sudden.

“I was hit in the face with a rock, you?”

“Donny tried to kill me. He blew up my house.”

“Come on in.” 

Leroy steps aside to let Jeb enter. There’s a sour smell of milk gone past its prime in the air and the residue of old bacon grease wafting in from the kitchen.

“You making cheese again Leroy? I don’t understand why you can’t do that outside.”

“If you don’t like it, you can go home..” Leroy puts on a crap-eating grin. “Oh wait.. No you can’t.” he guffaws with exaggeration.

“It’s a good thing your adult teeth haven't come in yet Leroy. I was afraid you would have to carry that stupid look with you all throughout the rest of your life!” Jeb retorts.

“Alright! That ain’t funny, cut it out!” Leroy says. Real anger creeping into the edge of his voice. “I know we're blood and we should get along better’n this, but I swear on my pappy’s grave, you make one more remark about my tooth and I’ll turn you out. You savvy?”

“Yeah, I savvy.” Jeb sneers.

“Now that’s out of the way. What can I help you with cousin?”

Jeb sighs while closing his eyes. “Can you pull this out of my head?” he says pointing up to the nail. “I can’t do it on my own. My knees give out.”

“Now that sounds like something I can do for you. You want some coffee? I was just getting ready to brew.”

Jeb nods.

“Alright, make yourself comfortable in my chair right there. I’ll get the coffee started and help you out with your little problem.”

Jeb does as instructed and sits in the chair. Odd clicks and clanks come from the movement of pots and pans in the kitchen as Leroy readies the kettle. A sliver of white smoke floats through the air as he starts the oven fire.

“I figured Donny would come after you. He’s got a mean streak that one.”

“A mean streak? I ain’t never known him to have no mean streak.” Jeb says.

“Yup. He can be downright mean as a cottonmouth rattler who’s been stepped on. Seen it with my own two eyes.”

“Huh.” Jeb says in a matter of fact way, trying to remember any time Donny has ever become unhinged. He can’t remember any.

Leroy walks over behind Jeb with a leather strap in one hand and pliers in the other.

“Here, put this in your mouth. It might sting a little.” Jeb nods and clamps down on the strap with his teeth. Leroy positions himself to have a sturdy balance behind the chair, so he can pull straight up and out with the pliers.

“Alright cousin. You ready?”

“Umhm” Jeb nods and grunts through the leather strap.

“On 3, 2..” Leroy jerks up lightning quick on the pliers and loses his grip as they clatter down to the floor. Jeb screams, grabbing at the top of his head where the nail still remains. 

“Dag’nabbit Leroy, that hurt! And you didn’t even get it out.” Jeb yells.

“I’m sorry, it slipped!” he says wide eyed.

Once they settle down and collect themselves they give it another try.

“Alright Jeb. Set still this time an’ maybe I won’t drop them pliers.”

Jeb mumbles something unintelligible and places the leather strap back in his mouth.

“Alright on 1..” Leroy jerks up hard on the pliers causing Jebediah to topple over backward in the chair. Blood squirts straight out from the puncture wound in a circular stream, painting Leroy with a red vertical stripe.

“OooWee! I got it!” Leroy says, holding it up triumphant.

Jeb rolls over on his hands and knees, dizzy from the effort. He reaches up, putting a finger over the hole to staunch the flow of blood.

“You have any styptic powder?” Jeb asks.

“Nah, it’s just a puncture. Keep your finger on it, it’ll stop.”

“Let me see that thing.” Jeb says reaching for the nail.

He looks down at it in amazement. At two and a half inches long, he’s surprised it didn’t kill him outright. It must have been one of the nails close to the window when the house exploded. 

Jeb shakes his head recalling the last image in his mind of the house burning, that of a broken window billowing black smoke and flame. He gives the nail back to his cousin who sets it on the table.

“You gonna take that with you? Keep it as a keepsake?” Leroy asks.

“Nah.. I ain’t got nowhere to go.”

“Can I have it?” Leroy says as Jeb looks up. “I need one to fix the hinge on the chicken coop.”

“I don’t care, you can have it. What happened to your coop?”

“Ah, Donny broke it.”

“What?” Jeb exclaims.

“Yeah, he broke that right before he threw a rock and broke my tooth. He got mad at me cause I wouldn’t tell him where you lived. I told you he had a mean streak.”

“You're the one who told him where I lived?” Jeb shrieks.

“Mmhmm. I had to. He wadn’t gonna leave me alone.”

Jeb stares at Leroy long and hard for a moment incredulous then shakes his head. The kettle starts to whistle causing Leroy to get up and wander off into the kitchen. Soon the pungent aroma of fresh coffee fills the room.

“How do you like your coffee?” Leroy calls out from the kitchen.

“Black.”

Leroy gives Jeb his coffee in a tin cup while taking a sip of his own.

“Can I stay here with you for a while?” Jeb asks.

Leroy nods and cuffs him on the back.

“Sure thing cousin. What else is family for?”