“‘Cause she pinched me first, that’s why!” The nine-year-old was hot on her heels, wanting to make sure the story was straight before motherly judgment was rendered.
“Did you pinch your brother?” Lulah gave her daughter a stern look.
“He was being mean to me!” she began to whine in the pitiful way she did when things weren’t going the way she wanted.
“That’s not what I asked you.” Her voice turned stern, as she cocked her head, giving Brittain that same piercing look her mother used to give her. This had already been a taxing evening and she had little patience. Her head was throbbing. She meant to find the underlying cause and extinguish this fire immediately. “I asked … did you pinch your brother?”
The younger version of herself dropped her head. “Maybe,” she muttered softly.
Lulah sighed. “And why, may I ask?”
“‘Cause he shot me!” Her voice rose in volume, as she finally saw her opportunity to tell her side of the story. It was now her chance to plead her case and have her grievance heard.
“He did what?” Lulah asked in a perplexed voice, as she looked to Blake who now fidgeted uncomfortably. “What do you mean he shot you?”
“We were playing the hunting man game,” Brittain began to explain. “And Blake got mad ‘cause I wasn’t as good as he was, so he shot me in the back!” Her breath caught, as she fought back a sob and she began to tear up again. “He killed me!” she wailed, and the tears burst forth.
“Awwww!” She pulled her daughter back into her and gave her a comforting squeeze. At the same time, she now cast an accusing glance at her son. Blake was instantly looking as if he wanted to be somewhere else.
“What game is she talking about?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
Now it was his turn to drop his head. Yet he knew there was no avoiding the question. He was busted. “Man Tracker 4,” he said, looking up, trying to gauge the anger he knew would be flashing in her eyes.
She felt her face grow flush and she fought to stay calm. The night’s circumstances would only exacerbate the situation if she let it. “Blake Shelton Carter! What have you been told about playing that game?”
“But all the other guys at school play it,” he tried to protest. “It’s the frostiest game there is!”
He looked at her with the big, wide eyes of her father. The rugged handsomeness he’d inherited from the McGregor side grew more obvious with each passing day. Square, firm jaw. Dark, thick hair. That thick, prominent nose. Every time she saw Denver in the eyes of his grandson, it ripped at her like the saw briers that used to grow along the old fencerows back in the hills of Kentucky. Oh, how much she missed him now. All the men she loved seemed to leave her life at the most inopportune times.
She didn’t even give him the courtesy of a reply. The stare down she gave him was all it took to beat him back in line. He was unable to meet her eyes, and he could only look away in defeat.
“I know, Mom,” he said, a repentant tone back in his voice. “You told me not to.”
“Why did I tell you not to?”
“‘Cause it’s too bloody.”
“Exactly. And yet you sneak behind my back and play it anyway.” She shook her head in disappointment. “And what’s worse, you let your little sister play too? You know she can’t even watch those old Scooby-Doo cartoons on the Archives Channel without having nightmares.”
Brittain now saw the chance to get a jab in, raising her head from her mom’s shoulder and casting an accusing look at her older brother. “He shot me and it hurt!” She wiped her wet eyes for full effect.
Blake seemed to wilt physically, as Lulah almost came unglued at this new development. “Did you wire her in?”
“She wanted me to.”
“She’s seven! She had no idea!” RealFeel VR technology was the latest in gaming. Controlled by a gaming helmet and enhanced by sensor pads placed at certain points on one’s body, it not only took 3D and holographic gaming graphics to unprecedented levels, but also allowed a person to feel what was happening. For instance, if you’re hit with a club, you feel the blow against your head. If you’re stabbed, you feel the sharp pain of the blade. And of course, if you’re shot in the back …
“How could you do that to your sister, Blake? Knowing it would hurt her.”
“But Mom, she just sucked soooo bad. She was getting us killed. I had to …”
Lulah knew she really needed to do some sound parenting at this moment, but as her eyes darted back to the MV and its images of the crash site, she just didn’t have it in her. Her head was throbbing now. She just wanted to know something … anything about Tiger. She felt sick, her stomach queasy. She just wanted to go lie down in her bedroom in total darkness.
But even in her grieving, she was still a mother first. She had two children and a situation she needed to deal with. After all, now more than ever it seemed, her two babies were all that she had left.
“Guys, I really don’t need this right now.” She looked from one to the other, the disappointment and frustration obvious in her eyes. “This has not been the best of nights. And Blake, I was really expecting a little more from my little man of the house.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.” For a moment, she thought he might be on the verge of tears. She knew what she’d just said would sting more than any
