The McKettrick Legend: Sierra's Homecoming. Linda Miller Lael

was going to want to see Liam, pronto.

      Mean while, Liam got to his feet and scram bled out of the room.

      Sierra cleared away the supper mess, then followed him, as casually as she could, to the room at the front of the house.

      He was already online.

      “Just what I thought!” he crowed. “My mailbox is bulging.”

      The TV was still on, a narrator dole fully describing the effects of a second ice age, due any minute. Run for the hills. Sierra shut it off.

      “Hey,” Liam objected. “I was listening to that.”

      Sierra approached the computer. “You’re only seven,” she said. “You shouldn’t be worrying about the fate of the planet.”

      “Somebody’s got to,” Liam replied, without looking at her. “Your generation is doing a lousy job.” He was staring, as if mesmerized, into the computer screen. Its bluish-gray light flickered on the lenses of his glasses, making his eyes disappear. “Look! The whole Geek Group wrote to me!”

      “I asked you not to—”

      “Okay,” Liam sighed, without looking at her. “The brilliant children in the gifted program are engaging in communication.”

      “That’s better,” Sierra said, sparing a smile.

      “You’ve got a few emails waiting yourself,” Liam announced. He was already replying to the cybermissives, his small fingers ranging deftly over the keyboard. He’d skipped the hunt-and-peck method entirely, as had all the other kids in his class. Using a computer came naturally to Liam, almost as if he’d been born knowing how, and she knew this was a common phenomenon, which gave her some comfort.

      “I’ll read them later,” Sierra answered. She didn’t have that many friends, so most of her messages were probably sales pitches of the penis-enlargement variety. How had she gotten on that kind of list? It wasn’t as if she visited porn sites or ordered battery-operated boy friends online.

      “They get to watch a real rocket launch!” Liam cried, without a trace of envy. “Wow!”

      “Wow indeed,” Sierra said, looking around the room. According to Meg, it had originally been a study. Old books lined the walls on sturdy shelves, and there was a natural rock fire place, too, with a fire already laid.

      Sierra found a match on the mantelpiece, struck it and lit the blaze.

      A chime sounded from the computer.

      “Aunt Meg just IM’d you,” Liam said.

      Where had he gotten this “Aunt Meg” thing? He’d never even met the woman in person, let alone established a relationship with her. “‘IM’d’?” she asked.

      “Instant Messaged,” Liam translated. “Guess you’d better check it out. Just make it quick, because I’ve still got a pile of mail to answer.”

      Smiling again, Sierra took the chair Liam so reluctantly surrendered and read the message from Meg.

      Travis tells me your car died. Use my Blazer. The keys are in the sugar bowl beside the teapot.

      Sierra’s pride kicked in. Thanks, she replied, at a fraction of Liam’s typing speed, but I probably won’t need it. My car is just… She paused. Her car was just what? Old? tired, she finished, inspired.

      The Blazer won’t run when I come back if somebody doesn’t charge up the battery. It’s been sitting too long, Meg responded quickly. She must have been as fast with a keyboard as Liam.

      Is Travis going to report on everything I do? Sierra wrote. She made so many mistakes, she had to retype the message before hitting Send, and that galled her.

      Yes, Meg wrote. Because I plan to nag every last detail out of him.

      Sierra sighed. It won’t be that interesting, she answered, taking her time so she wouldn’t have to revise. She was out of practice, and if she hoped to land anything better than a waitressing job in Indian Rock, she’d better polish her computer skills.

      Meg sent a smiley face, followed by, Good night, Sis. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

      Sierra bit her lower lip. Good night, she tapped out, and rose from the chair with a glance at the clock on the mantel above the now-snapping fire.

      Why had she lit it? She was exhausted, and now she would either have to throw water on the flames or wait until they died down. The first method, of course, would make a terrible mess, so that was out.

      “Hurry up and finish what you’re doing,” she told Liam, who had plopped in the chair again the moment Sierra got out of it. “Half an hour till bedtime.”

      “I had a nap,” Liam reminded her, typing simultaneously.

      “Finish,” Sierra repeated. With that, she left the study, climbed the stairs and went into Liam’s room to get his favorite pajamas from one of the suit cases. She meant to put them in the clothes dryer for a few minutes, warm them up.

      Some thing drew her to the window, though. She looked down, saw that the lights were on in Travis’s trailer and his truck was parked nearby. Evidently, he hadn’t stayed long in town, or wherever he’d gone.

      Why did it please her so much, knowing that?

      1919

      Hannah stood in the doorway of Tobias’s room, watching her boy sleep. He looked so peaceful, lying there, but she knew he had bad dreams some times. Just the night before, in the wee small hours, he’d crawled into bed beside her, snuggled as close as his little-boy pride would allow, and whispered earnestly that she oughtn’t die anytime soon.

      She’d been so choked up, she could barely speak.

      Now she wanted to wake him, hold him tight in her arms, protect him from whatever it was in his mind that made him see little boys that weren’t there.

      He was lonely, that was all. He needed to be around other children. Way out here, he went to a one-room school, when it wasn’t closed on account of snow, with only seven other pupils, all of whom were older than he was.

      Maybe she should take him home to Montana. He had cousins there. They’d live in town, too, where there were shops and a library and even a moving-picture theater. He could ride his bicycle, come spring, and play baseball with other boys.

      Hannah’s throat ached. Gabe had wanted his son raised here, on the Triple M. Wanted him to grow up the way he had, rough-and-tumble, riding horses, rounding up stray cattle, part of the land. Of course, Gabe hadn’t expected to die young—he’d meant to come home, so he and Hannah could fill that big house with children. Tobias would have had plenty of company then.

      A tear slipped down Hannah’s cheek, and she swatted it away. Straightened her spine.

      Gabe was gone, and there weren’t going to be any more children.

      She heard Doss climbing the stairs, and wanted to move out of the doorway. He thought she was too fussy, always hovering over Tobias. Always trying to protect him.

      How could a man understand what it meant to bear and nurture a child?

      Hannah closed her eyes and stayed where she was.

      Doss stopped behind her, uncertain. She could feel that, along with the heat and sturdy substance of his body.

      “Leave the child to sleep, Hannah,” he said quietly.

      She nodded, closed Tobias’s door gently and turned to face Doss there in the darkened hallway. He carried a book under one arm and an unlit lantern in his other hand.

      “It’s because he’s lonesome,” she said.

      Doss clearly knew she was referring to Tobias’s hallucination. “Kids make up playmates,” he told her. “And being lonesome is a part of life. It’s a valley a person has to go through,