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"I am sorry. I am out of my head with fear for them, Jinx. But I have wronged you, and I am sorry." Hawk explained as they stopped to eat and drink.
"No need for explanations, Hawk. I understand. That's your family and it's all because of me that you are under this pressure." Jinx felt the strain too.
"No old Pa. I love you too!" Hawk put his hand on his shoulder.
"I know you do son, now let's press on, I'm worried too."
They moved quickly now with some inner strength neither knew they had. And they were almost there when a storm hit and it rained like never before. Hail even came down like nails from the sky.
They couldn't go on, they had to stop.
Hawk finally found a cave and they took shelter.
"Never seen it rain this hard, this time of year." Jinx frowned. "And the hail. This is highly unusual."
"Perhaps it is God that is telling us to slow down…" Hawk said thinking on it. "We will be there late today…"
"Good, that's good." Jinx smiled.
"Yes, and I am a day early, from what I told them." Hawk smiled. "We have made good time and everything is going to be alright now."
Jinx wasn't as sure of that as Hawk, he had a few instincts too, and something told him that things might not turn out the way they hoped. He only hoped he was wrong.
They waited until the rain slackened, and then taking the mules out of the cave with them they trudged onward.
It would be late evening by the time they made it in.
Hawk was counting the minutes until he had Eve in his arms again.
Now that he was nearly home, he knew things were going to be all right.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As they rounded the ridge just down the hill from his place, Hawk saw ashes! Nothing but ashes!
His eyes rounded on the place, like an arrow finding a place to land.
Jinx touched his shoulder. "My God son!"
"It can't be Jinx. It can't!" Hawk cried out in a strangled voice.
"Son, don't panic. Let's check things out, first."
Hawk nodded, but felt it useless.
The closer they got, the more the smoke bothered their noses.
Hawk moved around the yard slowly, a piece of Jane Ann's rag doll lay where the kitchen used to be. He picked it up slowly, his eyes full of tears.
Refusing the tears he wiped his eyes, "I do not know how to handle this kind of pain. Even when I left my folks, it was not this painful. I could stand it. But this…"
"Son, don't do this. We ain't found no bodies yet. If they is gone, we'll find something…" Jinx assured him.
They walked all around the place. There were no bones, no clothes, and no nothing to say people were here, and yet everything they owned was burnt.
Black char coated their clothes as they picked things up to study them, to find a clue.
Hawk finally made a fire and sat in front of it, his head bent his life in shattered pieces.
