Late afternoon, Jarrod was perusing through medical articles when Nick burst in, hurling the doors open.

‘Nick!” Jarrod exclaimed. His brows creased at his brother’s rabidness. “What’s wrong?”

Nick jabbed his finger at Jarrod, glaring at him. “ I want a straight answer from you.”

“Okay.”

“Where the hell is Heath? And don’t tell me he’s in Stockton because I just came from there. People are saying that he....” Nick sputtered, choking on his words. “ Dammit, where is he?” he hollered, pounding his fist against the desk.

Crestfallen, Jarrod stood from his chair and walked up to Nick.

“Come with me,” Jarrod said solemnly, gently taking Nick by the arm.

In a sudden jerk, Nick wrung his arm free. Eyes blazing, he glowered at his brother. “Where is he?”

“I’ll show you.”

Nick strung along with Jarrod up to the meadow, Heath’s burial place. His mind was in complete disarray. A rending tug of war was waging between conscious and subconscious, one striving to expose the truth, while the other rested satisfied deadening the calamity.

Nick pulled the reins and stopped. Jarrod halted Jingo and turned to Nick. “What are you doing?”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To see Heath.”

“Just tell me where he is.”

“I can’t. I need to show you. Come.”

Nick broke into a shudder. He removed his gloves and wiped the beads of perspiration pearling down his forehead with his moist hand. He armed himself with courage against this invisible fiend impeding his better judgement and cantered the remaining miles behind Jarrod.

Jarrod silently dismounted Jingo and threaded his way through the fallow grassland of long-stem forget-me-nots. He posted himself in front of the tombstone and stared at it.

Nick jumped down Coco and straggled up to his doleful brother. Both locked eyes before Jarrod’s descended upon the headstone once more. Nick followed Jarrod’s glazed stare to the erected memorial slab. He was thunderstruck at the engraved inscription.

A titter escaped Nick. “ Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

“I wouldn’t jive you about something like that.”

“Come on...where is he?”

“He’s dead, Nick,” Jarrod informed on a dismal tone.

“No!”

“He passed away a week ago.”

“No!” Nick staggered back, pouring scorn on the atrocity that he failed to recollect. “Barely two days ago, we were butting heads over the stallion and just yesterday, he...he rounded up the loose cattle...”

“That was over three weeks ago. Tell me, when you went to mend the fence, it was already fixed, wasn’t it?”

“Why are you doing this to me?” Nick scowled.

“ Nick, you need to remember,” Jarrod stressed, stepping towards his peeved sibling.

“Don’t....touch me!” Nick snarled, flinging his arms in the air. “I’m going to find him.”

Nick hurtled back to his horse. He swung into the saddle and hightailed it back to the ranch.

Jarrod pounded after him.

Both flabbergasted and irate, Nick kept booting Coco in the flanks reaching a point where the spurs lacerated the skin and cut into the flesh, causing the horse to rear up in pain. Nick was thrown clear off a bluff and plummeted to a certain death. Bouncing off a wall of rocks, he was hurled fifty feet below where his spine broke the fall.

His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he laboured to draw in breaths. Sprawled on a bed of sharp stones, he was pinned to the ground, paralysed from the neck down. Nick had no alternative but to yield to the unavoidable fate.

Before succumbing to eternal slumber, Nick cast a last glance around and caught Heath’s ghostly form hovering over him. “Heath,” he gasped out, weeping with delight at his brother’s presence. “They...they told me you were...dead,” he whimpered hoarsely.

Heath hunched down by his agonizing brother. “Oh, Nick...I’m sorry,” he deplored.

“You are...aren’t you?”

Heath nodded dejectedly.

“Take me with you, please! Don’t leave me alone,” Nick entreated.

Nick was now back at the ranch, confined in his bed, swaddled in bandages. Comatose for the past three days, he was slowly emerging from the land of Nod following his near brush with death.

Audra was snoozing in a chair by her brother’s bed, holding his hand. A weak tug jolted her out of sleep. She looked down at Nick’s hand nestled in hers, wishing for a sign that her brother was finally breaking out of his inertia. A tear sprang in her eyes as she heard a faint moan escape him.

“Nick, thank God!” she chortled, rubbing his hand in hers.

“Don’t go, please!” Nick raved in his sleep.

Audra bent forward and reassured, “I’m not going anywhere, Nick. I’m right here beside you.”

In her room, resting, an alarm went off in Victoria’s head that started her out of sleep. Her motherly instinct sensed something amiss with her son. She bounded out of bed, scuffed on her slippers, grabbed her night robe draped over a chair that she endued as she dashed down to Nick’s room.

“Audra?”

“Mother, he moved,” Audra enthused.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! He squeezed my hand and mumbled a few words.”

Victoria perched herself on the rim of the mattress and felt Nick’s forehead. She then softly caressed his cheek with the back of her hand. “Nick, Sweetheart...can you hear me? It’s Mother.”

“Don’t leave me,” Nick ululated.

“I’m not.” She held his hand and gently ran her fingers through his hair. “ I’m right here.”

“Heath, take me with you, please!” Nick continued his maundering.

“Mother, what is that supposed to mean?” asked a muddled Audra.

Equally baffled, Victoria merely shook her head.

Lounged in a hard chair by Heath’s bed, Jarrod was perusing through documented court cases with absorbed interest.

Laid up in his bed following his miraculous resurrection, Heath began to stir in his sleep and let out a grunt.

Jarrod snapped his book close and shoved his chair forward.

“Nick!” Heath bellowed, squirming and twitching.

“Heath, wake up!” Jarrod prodded, tugging at his brother’s shoulder.

“Nick,...no I can’t,” the bedridden man whined, his head tossing back and forth, his face wrinkled with pain.

“Come on, Heath. You’ve made it thus far. Don’t give up. Come on, open your eyes.” Jarrod continued to coax.

Heath’s respiration grew more laboured as he struggled to regain consciousness. His eyes flickered, rolling back in his head. In the grip of a coughing fit, he retched with each stinging swallowing.

Seeking to mitigate his brother’s discomfort, Jarrod slid his arm underneath his back, cupping his head, and pulled him into a sitting position.

When the crisis passed, Jarrod eased Heath back to his pillows. Heath blinked open his baby blues, which roved around the room before making contact with the solicitous brother.

“Nick...where’s Nick?” Heath panted frantically.

“He’s in his room. Take it easy, Heath,” Jarrod mollified.

“I have to go to him,” Heath gasped as he tried to heave himself up onto his elbows.

Jarrod pushed him back onto the mattress. “Oh no you don’t! You’re in no condition to move, let alone walk.”

“Please, Jarrod...take me to him,” Heath begged, eyes filled with desperation.

“I can’t let you leave this bed, yet. Not after what you’ve been through.”

“He needs me, “ Heath sighed.

“We need you, too...alive.” Jarrod averted his gaze from his brother, endeavouring to contain his emotions. “We thought we’d lost you. And then by some divine intervention, you were brought back to us. God granted you a second chance and I’ll be damned if I’m going to rob you of it.”

“I need to be near him.”

“Why?”

“He wants to die. I can’t let him.” Tears flooded his eyes as he implored Jarrod once more, ”Please...take me to him.”

The troubled big brother pondered at his sibling’s plea, revolving it in his mind. Heath had cheated death on countless occasions in the past, but this time was too close for comfort. Moving him might prove fatal. But what if Heath’s words held true? That Nick was contemplating giving up the ghost? Could feeling his brother’s presence will him away from embarking on this final journey?

Jarrod unwillingly complied. ”God’s sake, Heath...you’d better not cramp out on me.”

“I won’t,” Heath heaved out.

Jarrod took Heath’s sluggish arm and slung it around his neck. “ Hold on,” Jarrod said, his arms wriggling their way underneath his brother’s back and legs. He grabbed a firm hold of him, lifted him up and gingerly settled him in a wheelchair that was left by the bed. He laid a blanket over his shoulders.

Holding the feeble man firmly against the back of the chair with one hand, he trundled him over to Nick’s room with the other.

“Mother, look!” Audra exclaimed at the sight of her two brothers entering the room.

“Sweet Jesus, Heath” Victoria cried, putting a hand over her mouth.”

“He woke up a few minutes ago.”

“He should be in bed.”

Jarrod wheeled Heath closer to Nick’s bed.

“I know, but he roused in a panic begging to see Nick.”

Heath doubled up in pain, racking his lungs out. Victoria hunched down beside him and rubbed her hand against his back. He gasped for air, his chest smarting with each intake. He clasped his fractured ribcage.

“Heath, let me get you back in bed, son,” Victoria beseeched, feeling her son’s agony.

Heath shook his head. Trying to catch his breath, he leaned his elbow against Nick’s bed. “Nick, I’m here. Wake up.”

Nick groaned.

“Come on. I can’t stay here all day,” Heath chastised.

“Heath, don’t go,” Nick wailed in his sleep.

“I’m not. Come on...look at me,” Heath urged, wheezing and coughing.

Nick’s eyes fluttered before they opened. He turned his empty gaze towards his brother. “We’re leaving together.”

“We don’t have to go anywhere. We’re here. We’re home. Come on now, snap out of it! Come back to us, Brother Nick,” he commanded, tapping Nick on the hand.

Nick gradually broke out of his delirium. His eyes darted around the room. “Where am I?”

“You’re in your room. You’ve come a long way.”

In a frenzy of excitement, Nick grasped Heath’s face with both hands, groping it, making certain that his brother was no figment of his imagination. “Heath, but....you’re dead!”

“Not yet,” he coughed.

“Oh my God!” Nick whooped, tears gushing from his eyes.

Eyelids drooping, Heath drew in a long shuddering breath as the room started spinning. “Mother,” he called, reaching for her hand.

Victoria clasped Heath’s hand and wrapped the other around his shoulders. “ Let’s get you back in bed, son.”

“I’ll be back,” Heath puffed out to Nick. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I won’t.”

Eyes fastened on his brother, Nick watched him being wheeled out of the room.

“What happened?” A dumbfounded Nick asked of his brother and sister.

“A miracle.” Jarrod went on to explain. “After Heath died, you scuttled off like a lunatic and tumbled down the stairs. You’ve been out like a light for the past three days.”

Audra added, “There were frightening moments when we feared for your life.”

“But Heath is...”

“Alive. That’s the miracle. Shortly after he passed away, or so we thought, and you took that fall, he started breathing again. I guess the loud thump was enough to raise the dead. He was hanging on by a thread, but somehow he managed to survive.”

“He’s alive. Dear God, he’s alive,” Nick wept, burying his head in both hands.

Days later, Nick hobbled down the hall to Heath’s room with the aid of a cane, crossing paths with Jarrod on his way to work.

“Hey, Nick! How are you feeling this morning?” Jarrod inquired, putting on his jacket.

“Like a freight train ran over me.”

“Then what are you doing up?”

“Can’t stand being flat on my back. I need some exercise.

“Don’t exhaust yourself.”

“You’re off to work?”

“No, actually I’m on my way to the train station to meet with a doctor from San Francisco. I’ve asked him for a consult on a case I’m working on.”

“Oh yes, the famous Doctor Cranston.”

Astounded, Jarrod wrinkled his forehead. “That’s right. How do you know about him?”

“You must have mentioned him.”

“No...I didn’t.”

“Your client swears up and down of being innocent of killing his wife, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, he’s guilty alright and that’s what your good doctor is going to find out. He just blocked it out of his mind ‘cause it was too gruesome.”

“Hold on a second, I haven’t breathed a word of this confidential case to anyone. So how could you possibly...”

“Just go easy on him. It was an accident, “ Nick interjected.

Jarrod stared at Nick in complete amazement.

“It’s a long story,” Nick added. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” Jarrod crossed the hall, casting a last bewildered look at the lame man he saw limping into Heath’s room.

Heath was napping. Nick padded up to him, making every efforts to avoid the slightest noise. As luck would have it, a tiny crackle in the wooden floor resounded, waking the dozy patient.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.”

“Mind if I sit with you for awhile?”

“Please do.”

“How are you doing?” Nick asked, pulling up a chair next to Heath’s bed.

“Still weak, but Doctor Merar’s prognosis is encouraging.”

“What about your legs?”

“Close call but won’t need to cut them off.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“How about you?”

“I’ve been better.” Nick sighed. “ You were in an awful shape, a goner for sure. Your injuries were so severe, there was no way you could have survived...but you did. You, my dear brother, give a whole new meaning to the Barkley miracle.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“When you...died, I just went berserk. I stormed out of here and boy....did I miss something.”

“The stairs, apparently,” Heath jested.

“Yeah, that too!” Nick laughed. He lowered his head.

“What is it, Nick?”

“I realize that I’ve just awoken from a nightmare but it was so vivid. I was sure I was living it. At the funeral, when I told you that it wasn’t a goodbye, but see you later, you said...”

“Sooner than you think,” Heath continued.

“That’s right. I was convinced this was the end of the road for me too. That you were coming for me.”

“In a way I did.”

“Yeah. I’d completely shut myself out, withdrew from the entire world...wanting to forget. It was too painful. God, it was gutwrenching, I couldn’t bear it.”

“I know. I shared your dream. I lived it with you, the funeral, your behaviour, everything you described...I was there. I wanted so badly to reach out to you but I couldn’t. It was so frustrating. I knew I had to hold on, to keep on trying, that somehow you would hear me telling you not to give up.”

“I heard you and I’m glad you did hold on.”

“Feeling’s mutual.”

“You know, Heath... that thing we have...that connection? It scares the hell out of me!”

“It does me too, sometimes. But without it, where would we be? You might have arrived too late to save all of us.”

“Don’t you scare me like that again! Do you have any idea how much you mean to me?”

“Does that imply you’ll let me have the stallion?

Nick burst out laughing. His guffaw rapidly turned into small spasmodic chokes as his face creased with pain from his broken ribs. ”You got it, Little Brother.”