Wanted

Chapter 32

Jeremiah was surprised how quickly things settled down after that. They didn't talk about it again. Not about the circumstances of the boy's mother's passing, nor did they talk about the little brothers who still didn't know about it. They didn't talk about the content of Sarah Taylor's letter either, nor the conversation they had about thieving, and certainly not about the tenderness, they both had experienced when Jeremiah finally told John that he was to stay for good and inadvertently told him that he saw himself as his Pa. They didn't avoid it. They didn't have to. They just didn't let it come up.

That was not to say however, that it was not constantly on the boy's mind.

The boy seemed a lot sadder for a while, quieter and more subdued, which was only natural Jeremiah felt, considering he was mourning the death of his mother and probably for the first time realised how far away really, and unreachable his brothers were to him.

He seemed clingier as well, or maybe just hated to be on his own. For Jeremiah noticed that he did not talk much during that time. The boy spent more time with all of them, doing his chores alongside either Numees or Jeremiah, or went hunting and fishing for hours and sometimes even days with Matunaagd or Enkoodabooaoo. By far the most time however he was spending with Enkoodabooaoo, an unlikely choice Jeremiah would have thought since the old man rarely interacted with anyone and lived his life at a pace that was normally in stark contrast to John's natural haste.

Even more though Jeremiah was surprised that Enkoodabooaoo himself not only tolerated the boy but even seemed to welcome him in with a smile. He wasn't exactly known for his sociability, quite the opposite really. Everyone knew that Enkoodabooaoo could only take that much when it came to another person's company. Unlike Jeremiah he truly liked his solitude and silence. The fact that their former guests were no longer just that had not changed this much. Although he hadn't waited until the late fall to come back to them as he had originally planned, every so often he disappeared for days on end, without even saying a word of goodbye or letting them know where he went or how long he would be. He always returned in the same manner without any explanation almost pretending that he had never left at all.

After that day, where John tried to run away, Jeremiah often observed the two sitting together at the bank of the creek in front of their cabin, that the inhumane hot summer had reduced to just a narrow little brook. They sat quietly in each other's company, engaged in a task alongside each other or sometimes doing nothing at all but watch the water flow by during the day or the fire dance in front of them at night.

They talked as well, or better said Enkoodabooaoo talked and to Jeremiah's surprise the boy seemed to listen. The old man told John about death and his understanding of the spiritual world. He told him stories about his faith and his people's past as he understood it, and had John participate in rituals, that involved chanting and the burning of sage, of which Jeremiah knew nothing about. Their friendship had always been based on the fact that neither tried to convince the other of their worldview. Jeremiah had never shown an interest in what or who the old man was praying to and how. It made no difference to him. Instead, they talked about hunting, war and politics. Occasionally they talked about the people they had lost and left behind and their own childhood, but even then, they veered of the subject of religious believes. When it came to spirituality, they both knew they were sitting on completely opposing sides altogether, there was not going to be a common ground so there was no point talking about it or even attempting to understand.

When Jeremiah first noticed, that Enkoodabooaoo was passing on his believes to the boy, he felt uneasy about it and tried to get the boy involved in some more schoolwork instead without explicitly telling either of them his discomfort about it. He wanted the boy to be busy, his mind occupied with useful things and tired out in the evening but found John increasingly unwilling to sit down with him.