He rides the two blocks to his family home and stomps inside. Outside the bedroom, Aiden hears the labored breathing that is a telltale sign of the pain his father is in. The murky sent of iodine and sweat beats at him, and he has to work not to show his disgust when he enters. The Doctor is removing the old dressings from the blistered, fragile skin.
“Are you ready, Eustace? I will work fast.”
Morphine was administered to help diminish the pain, but the moment air strikes the nerves agony explodes. Eustace moans and bites his lip to stop his scream. Over one eye, he wears an eye patch, and his left arm is in a sling, fractured. The right leg was not so lucky, it was broken and punctured by the floor caving in, and his calve was pierced by debris. The wooden structure flashed, and the floor caved in, igniting the wood below. Five men were killed in the collapse of the Wolfe home. Eustace survived only because Aiden pulled him to safety. He was working the mine, alone, stealing what gold he could.
Looking at his father, he wonders, not for the first time, if he should've let him die. This looks more like death than life. His burnt wrinkled head has splotches of hair left. The skin beneath the gauze is blistered and colored bronze by the iodine-soaked gauze.
“The worst part is almost over,” the doctor assures him. He proceeds to pressure wrap the burns. “This is cutting edge treatment for burns, it helps to smooth the rippled skin beneath and will soften the pain. The dressing needs to be changed daily, but you are healing well, Mr. Daniels.”
Eustace moans and swears, squeezing his eyes shut against the torment. The doctor checks his eye and finds the swelling is going down, but he still has not regained any of his sight. “Your vision may return, but the milky white color isn’t good. Flash burns are hard to determine. We will just have to wait and see.” He turns to Aiden, “Watch closely for signs of fever, but I think we are past that now. It’s been over a week, it would have presented by now. Morphine for the pain as needed. I will see you tomorrow.”
Aiden watches with no sympathy as his father struggles to sit up. When Eustace reaches for his whiskey with his one good arm, he knocks it over, spilling it.
“Now that’s a damn shame, wasting good spirits,” Aiden taunts.
“I'll kill you boy! Have you come to gloat! I will be up and about soon enough! Then you will wish I had died!!” He sputters trying to push himself up into a sitting position.
“Now, there’s no need for that. I came with news.” He leans close and whispers, “I found her.”
Eustace ignores the pain ripping through his body, and he pushes up from his sweat-stained pillow. “Where!”
Ignoring the question, Aiden twists his black mustache. “I brought you a gift, father.” He leans in the hallway and grabs a fourteen-year-old Indian girl by the arm, pulling her into the room. “I named her Maria. She will nurse you while I'm gone.”
Eustace grins at his son, and the smile does not reach his eye. Maria is trembling with fear, but she hurries to help when he struggles to sit back. “That’s more like it, Aiden. Tell me where she is?”
“San Francisco. A surveyor came to town yesterday with the deed to the property. The bitch has sold it to the bank!”
All color fades from Eustace's face. “No!!!” he roars, and Maria shrinks away from him. Spittle flies from his lips, and he trembles with rage.
Aiden quakes with a rage that matches his fathers. “She fucked us all. They will strip the mine, and we will not see a dime from it!”
“We will have to double our efforts to dig. The workers must get all they can before that happens. They will take months to…”
“She buried that mine,” Aiden snaps out. “It will take months just to get back to the primary vein. Our only hope is to get to her before that happens. I can marry her, then her property will be mine. It won’t be hard to find a judge to date the marriage license for us.”
Eustace thinks about it and smiles. “Yes, but when you find her, I want her alive! She will suffer for what she has done. Wire me, and I will come to you!”
“You are in no condition to travel, but I promise to bring her back to you.” Eustace reaches for the young Maria and snaps at his son.
“Go and don’t fail me! It’s time for my bath,” he says leering at the terrified girl. Aiden sneers in disgust and leaves laughing at the sound of Maria’s cries.
“Time to follow this surveyor. He will lead me straight to her!”
The screams of the dead never rest. They wait until the mind sleeps to torment the soul with endless pain. A scream of rage echoes across the land, bouncing off the mountains and she hears agony mixed with the anger.
Ashes drift on the winds and blow across the dry plains, igniting the acres of Wolfe Ranch in a cleansing inferno. In the distance she can make out a rider, barreling through
