Filed to story: Return of the Reaper Story
Dinner was pasta and venison sausage in a marinara followed by fresh baked apple pie. Coffee for the grown-ups and creamy tea for Merry.
The cabin was like something out of a fairy tale to Merry. The great room had high ceilings with open beams. The fireplace of river stone was big enough for her to walk into without stooping. A big Irish wolfhound slept on a rough weave carpet before the hearth. The kitchen came off the great room as did the bedrooms and two bathrooms. She helped Joyce, Gunny’s wife, clear the table.
Joyce was as nice to her as Gunny was. She talked to Merry as they washed and dried the dishes together. She told Merry that she met Gunny in Hawaii a long time ago when they were both in the Marines. When Gunny lost his eyesight and retired, she retired too and they got married and they built this cabin in the Mississippi woods.
“Gunny can’t see?” Merry said.
“Blind as an old bat,” Joyce said.
“But he doesn’t use a cane or bump into things.”
“That’s because we’ve lived here long enough that he knows where everything is. He even fools me sometimes. But you take him down to Tupelo and he’ll walk right in front of a bus.”
Joyce laughed. Merry joined her.
“Was he hurt being a soldier?” Merry said becoming grave all of a sudden.
“Marine, honey. Never call a Marine a soldier.”
“No, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”
“Well old Gunny got a piece of steel in his head from a roadside bomb back in- Are you sure you want to hear this?”
Merry nodded with enthusiasm.
“Back in Desert Storm. A piece of metal no bigger than a pin. And it was in a place where doctors couldn’t get to it. Over the years, and because Gunny wouldn’t take it easy like they told him to, the piece of metal moved to press on some nerves and he lost his sight over time.”
“My daddy never talks about when he was fighting.”
“Some daddies don’t.”
“He met Gunny back then? They became friends?”
“Gunny was a teacher at a very special school your father went to. Gunny says Isaac Kane was the best student he ever had.”
“What did Gunny teach him?”
“You’d better ask your daddy that,” Joyce said putting away the last dried plate into a cabinet.
Merry nodded. She would ask him.
Isaac and Gunny sat out on the front porch listening to the trees creak in the wind. They were sharing some high-grade lightning made by a neighbor.
“What kind of trouble you in, Slick?” Gunny said.
“Why do you think I’m in trouble?”
“This man can’t see. Don’t mean this man is blind. You bring your little one up here out of the clear blue. She’s packed to stay but you’re not. You want to keep lying to your old gunny?”
“Wasn’t lying. I only wanted to know how you smelled trouble.”
“You stink of it, Slick. Now tell me a story.” Gunny settled back in his chair.
Isaac gave him the long and short of it. When he stopped talking Gunny had some questions.
“These Russians. How big is their outfit? What’s their reach?” he said.
“They’re not mafiya. The Vor gangs are smaller. Like the plazasthe Mexican cartels authorize. They’re connected but not that high up.”
“How far up the chain are you going to have to go?”
“That’s up to them, isn’t it? I need to find their command and control and either get a promise from them or take them out,” Isaac said.
“Promises ain’t worth shit from anyone. You leave one of them alive and you’re gonna be hidin’ for a long time,” Gunny said.
“Me and Merry are going to be our own witness protection. I don’t want that life for her but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Your little one okay with staying here a while?”
“I told her there were wild ponies.”
“I mean she okay with you going away and her stayin’ with me and Joyce?”
“I’ll stay till tomorrow night. Give her some time to get used to it. Hearing the two of them giggling in the kitchen, I think she’s ready to adopt Joyce as a granma anyway. Might not even miss me.”
“Bullshit,” Gunny said.
They sipped the hard corn liquor. There was an aftertaste of apples once the fire died down.
“I need some ordnance,” Isaac said after a while.
“We’ll have a look in the morning. You take anything you like.”
“I can pay for it.”
“And if you try to you’ll be pickin’ that cash out of your ass.” Gunny turned to Isaac with his badass stare that still worked even if the old Marine was stone blind.
He was naked and hurting and cold.