The next morning began early for everyone. Most times, Molly and I were the first up to get ready for our days. But as I left our bedroom, I found Laura and Simon fully dressed and beginning to carry the bags they had originally brought in when their visit began.
"Heading out early?" I asked.
"It is a fairly long drive back to Billings," Simon replied, "and besides, we'll need to help your wife's Uncle get things ready to load the cattle onto the trailer as quickly as possible."
He then carried the bags down the stairs. I slowly followed after him. Laura and Molly ended up following behind me.
"Are you sure you won't need any help?" Molly asked, "George has to get going pretty soon for work..."
"We'll be fine," Laura told her, "We thank you for offering and for letting us stay here. But we don't want to be any more underfoot then we need to. I'm sure there's a lot of your routine that's had to be altered because we've been here."
"You're sure?" Molly asked again.
"Positive," Laura answered.
We went down the stairs quietly. Simon had started with taking his and Laura's bags out to their vehicle. Herman and Ulysses were still camped out on the floor of the living room. Ulysses was wrapped in a sleeping bag on the floor while Herman was on the couch. As Molly and I moved to get breakfast ready, I saw Laura go into the living room. The sounds of Herman and Ulysses getting up soon followed.
I took the task of scrambling up some eggs while Molly set to preparing the rest of our breakfast. I had just finished cracking all of the shells and was preparing to "scramble" the eggs in the large bowl I had put them in, when Simon made his way into the kitchen.
"We have things, Mr. Rush," I spoke, finding myself using a fairly formal tone, "we'll be sure to have breakfast for you and your family too."
"I'm sure," Simon answered, with a slight nod, and moved out of Molly's way as she moved through the kitchen, "this is just to let you guys know that Laura and I have taken care of the paperwork involving the guys building your garage and making the addition to the cabin. They estimate to have the work fully done before the snow flies, but that shouldn't be a problem." Simon then chuckled, "their paychecks won't run out and leaving you with a hole in an exterior wall through the winter."
"Thank you," Molly answered.
Simon nodded, "Michael would have wanted it that way... and for Laura and I... consider it a thank you for letting us stay here through all of this."
"It was no problem," I answered, "and you have a very nice family. Herman will probably make a good Park Ranger, Wildlife Conservation Officer, Wildlife Biologist, or any other posting that would have him protecting nature or preserving it. He is a very smart boy."
"And Ulysses has been very sweat," Molly added.
"Laura and I do our best," Simon nodded, "Hopefully all their dreams will come true. It's all we can ask for."
And with that, Simon moved into the dinning room and out. Molly and I both heard the front door open and close routinely as the York-Rush family carried goods out to their vehicle. Breakfast went quietly, and I said my goodbyes to the small family before heading out to do my own work for the day.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Officer Barnes was waiting for me when I made my way into the station. He seemed curious about how things were going since I hadn't seen him since the morning before.
"So, how did the funeral go?" Officer Barnes asked we made our way in and prepared to clock in.
"It went about as well as any funeral would, I suppose," I answered, "anything go on yesterday afternoon?"
"Nothing that wasn't normal," Officer Barnes shrugged, "Which I'd suppose would be a good thing all things considered."
That line left a little bit curious about something, but I didn't say anything for the moment.
"So, what about your house guests?" Officer Barnes wondered as we made our way out our patrol car for the morning patrol, "How are they?"
"They're doing well," I answered him, "though they return to their home today."
Officer Barnes nodded, "good to hear... I'm not quite sure what to really say about all this."
I slowly nodded as I climbed into the back seat of our car. Officer Barnes got behind the wheel, and we began our patrol.
"At least things have been quiet," I commented as we got going.
After going a few blocks, a call came in that put an end to "quiet" morning.
"Officer Barnes, here," Officer Barnes answered the call.
"We have an unusual disturbance type call for you," came the dispatch officer reported and gave the address of the incident, a fairly well-to-do part of town. Though with Columbia Falls' size, that wasn't very big. "neighbors have reported a man screaming in his backyard."
"Do they know what he's screaming about?" Officer Barnes asked.
"All the report is that it isn't any words, just a "aaaaah" as it were," the dispatch officer answered.
"Alright, Wayne and I are on our way," Officer Barnes answered.
We drove on into a fairly nice looking suburban neighborhood. As we arrived outside a fairly nice looking house, I heard it. It was a scream coming from the backyard of the house. It was surrounded by a tall wooden fence. It almost sounded like the guy was in pain over something. We slowly made our way to the fence. Officer Barnes lead off with knocking a gate in the fence. A few moments later a lone man came to the gate and opened it. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks and he looked distraught over something.
"Are you okay, sir?" Officer Barnes asked, "we've gotten a call about you screaming here."
"He's dead," the man cried immediately.
"Who's dead?" I asked.
"Roy is dead," he continued, "I came out and he was dead."
That was a bit of a surprise. Even with R.A.M. gone and more people accepting Molly's and my presence in Columbia Falls, people did tend to notice me or Molly. This guy barely noticed me at all and seemed to go on with the death of "Roy".
"Who is Roy?" Officer Barnes asked.
"He was my best friend," the man cried, "we did everything together."
He then began to wander into his yard, still crying. Officer Barnes and I tentatively followed.
"Officer Barnes to Dispatch," Officer Barnes spoke into the walkie-talkie he carried with him, "we have a possible homicide to report."
As we followed the man, we found that a crime committed wasn't the issue. "Roy" turned out to be a English Mastiff. The large dog looked relatively old, with some silvery looking fur running along the edge of his muzzle, but didn't look like it had been in bad shape. In terms of weight, Roy looked very healthy. My best guess was that Roy had died of old age.
"I came out to feed him and he was dead," the man continued to cry as he dropped to his knees and cradled the dog's head in his arms.
"How old was Roy?" I asked after a moment.
"Twelve... old for an English Mastiff," the man answered, "I got him as a puppy from a friend. We've done everything... and now he's gone."
Officer Barnes glanced at me, which betrayed some frustration. It was an odd call, but still one we'd have to deal with.
"I'm sure this is tough for you, sir," Officer Barnes then said after a moment, "but you're distressing the neighborhood. Is there anything we can do to help you here?"
"I didn't mean to bother anyone," he whimpered, "I just loved him so much. He was my friend."
"I'm sure he was, but you need to calm down, sir," Officer Barnes answered.
"Okay," the man nodded, though he still looked distraught over the loss of his pet.
He seemed to calm down a little bit, and stood up.
"I didn't mean to give you any grief," he said as we began to move off.
"It's alright," I said, "People commonly do feel attached to their pets. Just tone it down."
And with that we returned to our car. Once there, Officer Barnes contacted dispatch again.
"It was a man distressed at the death of his dog," Officer Barnes reported, "Dog died of natural causes and looked rather old. He didn't take it well."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That call was the biggest one that Officer Barnes and I had over the course of that week, and that one was fairly small. The complaint had been about the screaming, which was unintentional and based out of grief. The things we dealt with for the rest of the week were relatively small and minor as well. Traffic stops and so forth. Relatively "routine" things. There were the occasional drunk drivers, but even they turned out relatively well.
That was a fairly lucky break for Officer Barnes and I. With the end of the summer break on the horizon, we both knew that we would be turned back to doing DARE work until Officer Howard could submit a new budget to hire a full time DARE officer. The last thing we needed was to end up with a big case that dragged on, because once the school year started, Officer Barnes and I wouldn't be able finish that case.
The odd thing that really hit me was the "silence" I came to when I came home from work. It was not the sort of silence that you one would probably expect. Molly wasn't mad at me and she seemed to notice the "silence" too. The silence came as a result of our guests no longer being there. Simon and Laura and their family had not been at our cabin long, and they were relatively quiet in the sense that they didn't make a lot of senseless noise... but their presence had been nice.
They made for good conversation and were good company. But since they had gone back to Billings, Molly and I had to settle into the situation we had before the York-Rush family came up. Their visit and talking with Herman and Ulysses and presented us with the image of a happy and healthy family, if strained by the death of Laura's father. It reinforced our want for children of our own. To have our own family. To mirror my folks raising me, Frank Rhoer raising Meredeth and Nessie, and Laura and Simon raising Herman and Ulysses.
"It's not odd, is it, George?" Molly asked me one evening, as we looked into our living room where Herman and Ulysses had camped while they were at Bandhavgarh.
"Odd to want to have a family?" I asked her as I pulled her into a hug.
"Odd that all we see a family and that reinforces the urge," Molly answered, "it has nothing to do with biology. We both know I won't be in season again until the winter... but... I want children. I don't care if they'll be tigers... I want to be a mother. To play with them. To teach them right from wrong. To love them and feel their love..."
I nuzzled her in return, "It's not odd to want a family. Lots of people want to have families. I wouldn't care if they're tigers either. We'd be a family, and that is all that counts."
Mating season couldn't come soon enough.