Country of the Bad Wolfes

REMAINS OF NIGHT

Each twin asks about the other and learns he yet lives. As familiar as they are with mortal wounds, they refuse Jacky Ríos’s plea to drive them to the hospital in town, not wanting to die in such a place or in a car on the way to it. With broken-armed Morgan following, Jacky and Catalina and Remedios carry Blake Cortéz down to the edge of the beach where his brother sits. They ease him down beside James, facing the moonbright sea.

“Dame un beso, mujer . . . y déjanos,” Blake says. Remedios kisses him and then hurries away with tears coursing.

James beckons Morgan, who says “Yessir” and crouches before him.

“It’s on . . . you now,” James says. “See to things. Kiss . . . your momma for me.”

Morgan cannot speak. He grips his father’s hand and nods. Then goes.

After a minute, James says, “Who the hell . . . those guys?”

Blake tries to shrug. “Bastards . . . mad about . . . something.”

James grins and makes a sound like a small hiccup. “Took it awful . . . personal.”

A long minute passes.

“I’d rather . . . firing squad . . . than this,” James says.

Blake chokes on his chuckle. “Puffing . . . cigar.”

“Girls fighting . . . over us.”

“That old . . . Bad Wolfe.”

“Jolly Roger.”

They groan their laughter.

The day breaks. The sky at the end of the gulf graduates from gray to pink, a thin shreds of orange, a welter of reds. The house reduced to a great black rectangle of smoking embers. The tide now rolling to within a few feet of the twins. Morgan James and Jacky Ríos sit together at the top of the beach slope, watching their fathers. Remedios too, holding Vicki Angel to her, the girl on her side, keeping the weight off her wound. Catalina sits apart. The twins have not moved in almost an hour, but they all know. Not yet.

The sun flares up from the gulf as the Remerina comes in sight to the north, its sail white as a seabird.

“So damn … grand,” Blackie breathes. And his head descends to his brother’s shoulder.

“Yessss. . . .” Jake manages as his head lowers.

And their family—their blood—comes down to collect them.