Midnight Skills

by William Allen

  “Erin? I didn’t know the old man had ever been married.”

  “She died from breast cancer about fifteen, twenty years ago. He took it hard, as you can imagine,” Luke explained.

  “How do you know so much about him?”

  “You can learn a lot from a blacksmith, if you’re willing to pump those bellows for him,” Luke explained. He knew it was more, though. Gaddis almost never got to see his children or grandchildren after the lights went out. “We talked a lot, when I was helping him make things.”

  “Pass,” Scott replied immediately, trying to lighten the mood, despite the gloomy surroundings. His friend Luke had left an angry and hurting young man, and at least some of the anger seemed to have faded, but the pain was still there. Luke wanted to visit the cemetery immediately when he arrived home, but first, he’d spent a week fighting off an infection he’d picked up during the trip.

  “No offense but working in that furnace isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. More like something you get from a judge handing down a sentence. Ten years in prison, or six months in the blacksmith shop.”

  “After this winter, I’m happy to find anywhere warm,” Luke responded, his eyes scanning, scanning the trees and surrounding terrain like he was checking for snipers. Scott noticed but decided not to comment.

  Scott forced a chuckle. “Yeah, I noticed your new friends were the same way. Still wearing their fleece and heavy weather gear, even when the temps are in the fifties and sixties.”

  Luke looked over, catching his eye.

  “It was an experience I’d never like to repeat,” Luke replied seriously. “You might be used to it, but Missouri winter is different than here. The cold just seeps into your soul and feels like it will never let go.” Then Luke made himself smile in return. “Nope, next war I gotta go fight, I’m picking Florida. Or Arizona. Someplace where the sun shines even in the winter.”

  “Like Amy or your dad will ever let you off the farm after this. You had everybody worried, man. We didn’t know if you were ever going to come home, and the little war news we heard was just terrible.”

  Luke looked back, catching his friend’s eye. “It was bad, Scott. Real bad. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but I was just fooling myself. I was just so angry, all the time. Heck, I was too angry to be scared most of the time, and when I realized that, well, I knew I was in trouble.”

  “And now?”

  “Now, I’m likely out of the Guard on a medical.” Luke replied flatly, then allowed his voice to rise a bit. “I also went to sleep in my own bed last night and didn’t have a single nightmare. Amy has mostly forgiven me for being an idiot, and the wedding is back on. I guess you can say, I’m a blessed man.”

  “Lucky is more like it. Ballsy, too. I can’t believe you walked up to Jeffrey Chambers, spit in his eye, and told him he’d better pray the court martial finds him guilty and gives him the death penalty.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Dwayne. I mean, Sergeant Silcott.”

  “Dwayne talks too much,” Luke grumbled under his breath.

  “So, it’s not true?”

  Luke hedged, refusing to meet Scott’s gaze.

  “I didn’t spit in the man’s eye. My momma,” Luke paused, took in a shuddering breath, then continued, “MY mother would never tolerate such behavior. And I sure didn’t walk nowhere with this leg. I was in a wheelchair.”

  “But you threatened to kill him, if the military tribunal didn’t? You said it right to his face?”

  This time, Luke turned to give Scott a wolfish grin, the kind that made other men cringe, and Scott was no exception.

  “I just said his head would look really nice, mounted on a fencepost. I don’t think he liked it, but General Hotchkins laughed so hard, he had to sit down and catch his breath.”

  With that, Luke gave a shrug. What others took as a threat, Luke meant as a promise. He might be tired of war, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t kill a few snakes that needed it.

  CHAPTER 70

  Luke wasn’t sure where his father obtained the U.S. Army Service Uniform. Not only was the uniform brand-new, it arrived in the proper size and bearing the appropriate insignia and awards. The size had been a concern, since he’d somehow managed to grow another inch and now stood four inches over six feet. None of it fat, of course. Nobody had enough extra food for that to occur.

  So getting the uniform was a big deal. On the other hand, Sam Messner’s word carried a lot of weight these days. More than just his success in keeping most of his people alive through the brutal winter and killing spring, Sam was famous for his role in subduing that modern-day embodiment of Satan himself, Jeffrey Chambers.

  Luke overheard a couple of farmers talking in town just the week before, that Sam was a likely candidate for governor when the elections were held later in the year. Luke didn’t know if his father would be interested, but he was already deeply involved in local politics, despite himself. Keeping people alive and working closely with Sheriff Henderson to keep the peace meant Sam stayed hopping, leaving Mike Elkins busy on the mechanical side of operations, while a recuperating Luke helped Isaac Stanton take care of critical jobs around the ranch.

  Alex and Tina took over much of the chores related to the horse training. Like Luke, Alex was still slowed a bit by his injuries, and the scarring on his hands and face looked to be permanent, but nobody said anything. Tina, most especially. She’d found her partner, and if she said the scars on his cheeks and forehead made him look more rugged, who was Alex to challenge her?

  Luke threw himself into the physical labor, working long hours fixing fences and hauling felled trees to the new sawmill Mike built over the winter. Luke progressed to using a cane instead of the crutches, but his father forbade him from cutting down trees until he could walk normally again. In the meantime, he used a pair of his grandfather’s mules to chain up and snake the timbers out of the forest, and down to the mill set up only a few miles away.

  Luke didn’t mind the work. He reveled in the physical labor, and the hard work helped him sleep through the night. That, and having Amy close at hand to snuggle, and to drive away the nightmares.

  All of that was on hold for this day, though, and Luke was stuck wearing the hot uniform and fighting with the high, scratchy collar.

  “You ready for this, Luke?”

  Standing at the altar, Luke looked over at his friends arrayed in a line. Scott wore a passable suit, the same one he wore for his own wedding, while Alex wore nice slacks and a blazer. Like Luke, Dwayne Silcott wore his dress uniform with the appropriate medals and insignia. Where Dwayne now sported the stripes of a buck sergeant, Luke now wore the stripes and chevron of a staff sergeant.

  “Shoot, Scott, Helena still leads you around by the nose,” Luke whispered back at his grinning best man.

  “Oh, stinger deployed, Scott,” Alex added mirthfully. He was still coping with the pain of losing his mother on top of his own painful injuries, but something like this was just what the doctor ordered.

  Looking over at the parallel row of young ladies to his left, Luke stage-whispered to Tina Hillebrandt.

  “Don’t worry, Tina. Now that Dwayne and I are here, we’ll have Alex civilized up for you in no time.”

  Luke’s words made the normally brash Tina blush prettily in her dusty blue chiffon dress. All of the bridesmaids wore matching dresses, not because it was a fashion statement, but because that was what they had. Well, six bolts of blue chiffon and a pattern rescued from Joanne’s Fabric.

  “Not likely,” quipped Lori, grinning like an imp. Even in heels, Lori, at nineteen, stood five-foot-nothing, and Luke was amused to see that her sister, thirteen-year-old Summer, along with Sierra Stanton, served as one of the flower girls. Amused, because over the winter, Summer actually outgrew her sister by a solid two inches in height.

  “Hush, I think they’re coming,” Paige whispered. Now fourteen, Paige was entering into her own growth spurt, but the biggest change
Luke found in his little sister, was how much she seemed to have emotionally matured over the months he’d been gone.

  Looking back to the rear of the church, Luke could see some kind of commotion. The Christ Community Church in Center wasn’t the biggest church in town before the pulse, but now it was the largest one left standing after the fires and chaos since. With seating for three hundred on the main floor and another one hundred in the choir loft, the church was heaving at the seams, even with the second floor occupied only by armed soldiers. Security measures were sadly still necessary, and Luke felt safer being watched over by some of his own men.

  Looking out at the seated guests, Luke’s eyes immediately went to his father, decked out in his dress uniform and grinning at his son. Luke thought he might have seen tears in the man’s eyes, but he wrote it off as a trick of the light. Sam was flanked by the Wise Men of the community, including Sheriff Henderson, Ike Stanton and the Elkins family. Sitting in the next row back, Luke caught sight of Farrell family, and others he knew so well. In the corner of his eye, Luke caught sight of Suellen Pfahl and her children, sitting next to Courtney Clardy and her daughter Allison. Seeing Courtney reminded Luke of Wesley, her dead husband, and that memory threatened to take Luke down a road he wasn’t going to travel this day. It was enough to see the two women smile, and Luke noticed Suellen kept casting veiled glances at Luke’s father.

  The church organist seemed to know something was up a split second before the door at the rear of the sanctuary cracked open. She broke off the doodling and launched straight into the bridal march, even as the double doors in the back pulled open, and a resplendent Amy Landon appeared, escorted by an old friend in place of her lost father.

  Amy looked glorious in her ivory wedding gown, the sleeveless style exposing her lovely shoulders and with her blonde hair up, emphasizing her long, slender neck. The intricately beaded bodice was modest, only hinting at the luscious swell of breast, but the entire length of the dress showcased her exquisite figure to full advantage. In short, Amy was a vision of beauty, and Luke felt his throat tighten at the sight.

  Originally, Sam Messner offered to walk Amy down the aisle, but when General and Mrs. Hotchkins flew in especially for the wedding, Sam graciously stepped aside. He knew the general had taken a shine to both kids when they’d worked for him before, and Luke once suggested to his father that Hotchkins formed an attachment to him, since Luke somehow reminded the general of his dead son.

  There was something to that, maybe, but for Sam, it was something even more basic. To Hotchkins, Luke was one of his men, however that came to pass, and generals sometimes take a shine to certain soldiers like Luke, who was lucky at times beyond all reason. When you had somebody that lucky, you just hoped some of it rubbed off on you. For Hotchkins, Sam believed the high-ranking officer sensed that Luke was a talisman of good fortune, as well as a good person worthy of his interest.

  As the ceremony proceeded, Luke moved as if in a fog. He bowed his head at the right times and recited the proper sentences, but it wasn’t until the pastor informed Luke that he could kiss the bride, did the air seem to clear. Kissing Amy was something he could do, and he proceeded to do so thoroughly. Enough so, he didn’t even notice the laughter when the pair came up for air.

  “You going to stay with me now?”

  “For all my days and beyond,” Luke replied, staring into her lovely, laughing blue eyes.

  And that’s just what he did.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  After many months of wrestling with this manuscript, I was finally forced to admit to myself that I didn’t want to let go of this book. This is the last installment in the Walking in the Rain series, and I’ve become terribly attached to Luke and Amy and all the other characters I’ve created. I have also come to embrace David Metcalf and his band of misfits introduced by my brother Craig (He’s only MC on the book covers) in Firestorm, and they appear here with his permission.

  This story started small, with a book that was barely long enough to qualify as such. Surviving the Fall was the first installment, and here, with Midnight Skills, we have the last. I wanted to complete this arc for my readers, and for myself, but the thought of turning my back on all these colorful characters makes my heart heavy. Who knows? Maybe in a few years, I’ll stop back in and see how Luke is doing as a gentleman farmer, and we will see what the world looks like after the dust settles.

  DEDICATION

  For members of my family who might be reading this book, yes, that is Jack Gilbert appearing in these pages. With Scott Gilbert’s permission, I wanted to include my recently departed and much-respected cousin in this story. Jack Gilbert was a retired Navy Captain in real life, a rock in our family, and so much more. This book is dedicated to his memory, and to all those who served to make this country safe.

  MY THANKS

  Finally, I owe my thanks to many people for their help and encouragement in completing this book, and this series. Leslie Morrison Bryant, Mark Bryant, Clarke Ferber, Yalonda Butler, Tim Feely, Tina Watson, Tommy Watson, Beth Golic, Lizah Martin, Anthony Fratto, Kimberly Kelly-Sydow, and Sabrina Jean all had a hand in getting me this far, and they have my thanks. Thank you, my friends!

  William Allen

  May 2018