He presses his lips to Will’s forehead. Touches with his hand to rub the kiss deep inside.
White Crane mounts his horse. He does not look back. He gives a command and the braves follow him, their shoulders slumped, for the last time riding slowly away from the settlements.
Will rides his horse downhill. Years have passed from when he was first taken. Tom opens the door and he and Will stand there looking at one another. Tom takes Will into his arms and they stand in the doorway, hugging one another as Alice stands behind, not quite knowing what to do, crying, touching at their heads, their shoulders.
Will and Tom live to be old men. At parties for children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, Will arrives in buckskin outfits, and at the age of eighty he amuses the kids by walking across the lawn on his hands.
Some recall a laughing, funny man, but some say that he always seemed lonely, as if there were no place on this earth that he really belonged.
The End of the O’Brien Family Saga
The Western Lonesome Society Page 11