“Now I’m the one who was supposed to be dead, hey?” Michael said.
“I saved him!” Jayne exclaimed.
Eva got on her knees, so she was eye level with Jayne, and took her non-burning hand. “Jayney.”
“I did good, right Eva!”
“You did so good.”
“I didn’t even have ta hurt nobody again,” Jayne said to Cole.
“What happened?” Cole asked.
“The grenades were about to go off,” Michael recalled, “and then Jayne was there, between me and the grenades. She wrapped these, like, wings of fire around me. I heard the grenades explode, but I didn’t feel anything. She led me out, she…”
“I made sure he couldn’t get too hot, that’s all,” Jayne said.
“Reynold?” Cole asked.
“Dead.” Michael took something out from his cargo pants and handed it to Cole.
Cole inspected it thoroughly. An icicle. But it had thin, blue veins covering it like a spider web.
“Nókom will know what to do with it,” Brady said, gently taking it from him. “But if he’s dead, I know that this place,” Brady motioned to the facility, “this place needs to be protected for now. Nothing can happen here, not for a long time.”
“I don’t want to come back here again, ever,” Eva said.
“There is somewhere I need to go,” Cole said.
“The school,” Brady said.
“Yeah,” Cole said. “I mean, since we’re not supposed to be apart from each other…”
“We’re in,” Eva said.
“Me, too,” Brady said.
“Mike?” Cole asked. “You’re part of the group, right? Family?”
“I know,” Michael said. “But there’s family I really want to see right now, if that’s okay.”
Cole, Eva and Brady, with Jayne skipping alongside, made their way through Blackwood Forest, avoiding the large crowd gathered around the facility. Michael started walking back to Tent City, where Dr. Captain would be waiting for him. He would tell the others what had happened in Wounded Sky.
Before long, they were at the steps that led up to the doors of the ruined school. The others stayed behind Cole to give him space. He could see himself there, as a boy, standing at the doors, in front of the burning school. He could see himself wrapping his hands around the chains that Reynold had put there and pulling on them with all of his strength, until they shattered.
Cole knelt down, picked up one link in the chain and held it in his palm. The metal perfectly matched his scar. He closed his hand around it and held it firmly within his grip. Steam rose from his skin. He opened his hand, and let it go. The link rolled off his open palm, and landed against the ground. The scar on his palm had disappeared.
“Nice trick,” he whispered, but decided, in that moment, to keep the other scar.
“You okay, my friend?” Brady asked.
Cole got to his feet. “Yeah, I think I will be.”
“Can I ask you a question then?”
“Sure.”
Brady turned Cole around, so they were both looking at Eva and Jayne. Eva was holding Jayne’s hand.
“You can see her?” Cole asked.
Brady nodded. “Do you know how?”
“Yeah, why can everybody see me alla sudden, Coley?” Jayne asked, positively beaming.
“I don’t know.” But then he did. He could see it, now. Embers began to rise from the flames covering half her body.
“What’s happening?” Jayne felt around the burning half of her body, sounding panicked.
“You’re okay,” Cole walked over to her. “Breathe. In five seconds, out for seven.”
The flames broke off Jayne’s body, until they were all gone, and all that remained was her glow. She was healed. For the first time, Cole saw Jayne the way she used to be, before the school fire.
A tiny, beautiful, seven-year old Cree girl.
“Oh, my God.” Eva cupped her mouth, and in Jayne’s generous glow, tears glistened on Eva’s cheeks.
Jayne touched her face, and then she started to jump around. “I’m me again! I’m me again!”
Cole picked her up, and she wrapped her arms and legs around his body, buried her head into his shoulder.
“I’m me again,” she whispered.
“You were always you,” he said.
Jayne’s glow became more of a shine. He put her down and she began to fade.
“Now what’s happening?” Jayne asked.
“You’re going home,” Cole said.
“Like Choch promised!?”
“Yeah,” Cole said, “like Choch promised.”
Moments later, Jayne was gone, and the night was dark again. The three of them stared at the place where Jayne had stood. Cole could hear Eva breathe. And in the glow of the northern lights, he memorized every inch of her face all over again.
“So,” she said.
“So,” he said.
“You’re back.”
“I’m back.”
She let go of his hands and put her arms around his neck. She leaned forward, and he did too, until his lips touched hers. He closed his eyes until she pulled her lips away.
“You’re not going to forget about me are you?”
“How am I going to forget about you?”
“When you go back home.”
“I am home.” Cole brought her close, into his arms. “Besides, I need my sidekick, don’t I? If I’m going to be a superhero?”
“Shut up,” she said, and they kissed again.
“Ummm guys,” Brady said. “I’m like, right here.”
EPILOGUE
COLE AND EVA WERE SPEEDING DOWN THE HIGHWAY, away from Wounded Sky First Nation. They were in the Mustang. Cole had spent the last few weeks fixing it up, with help from Michael, Eva, and Brady. He’d started work on it right after Pam had gotten the cell towers working again, and all their phones had lit up with weeks’ worth of messages. Most of Cole’s texts had been from his one friend back in Winnipeg, Joe. Cole had left without saying goodbye, and now was, in Joe’s words, “Ghosting him.” Joe’s last text had read: Dude. Are you seriously ghosting me right now? WTF?
“You can leave you know,” Eva had said. “It’s going to be okay here.”
She’d been right. He could leave. It was his choice now.
“But I don’t want to leave you,” he’d said.
“Oh, I’m coming,” she’d said. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
So, they’d set to work fixing up the car, and as soon as it was ready, they drove it out of the community, over the winter road, and onto the highway. Speeding to Winnipeg, and then, wherever they wanted to go after that.
“Oh shit,” Cole said.
“What?” Eva asked.
Cole looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an RCMP truck chasing after them, lights and sirens. They’d not gone more than fifty kilometres. Cole pulled over and put the car into park. The truck pulled up behind them. The officer stayed in the car for an uncomfortably long period of time, just staring at Cole as Cole stared back. The officer got out of the car and walked over to the driver side door. Cole rolled down the window.
“Can I help you, Officer?” Cole asked.
“Do you know how fast you were going?” the officer asked.
“Fast?”
Eva punched Cole in the arm.
“You going to get smart with me, kid?” the officer asked, and leaned over, pretty much sticking his head into the car.
Cole tried to move his seat back subtly.
“No, sir. Sorry.”
The officer was wearing a motorcycle helmet, even though he had not been driving a motorcycle, and aviator sunglasses. He was dressed like a movie cop, not a real cop.
“Don’t get smart with me again, meow,” the officer said.
“I won’t,” Cole said.
“Meow, who’s your friend?”
“Are you saying ‘meow’?”
“I told you not to g
et smart with me, meow!”
“You’re…” Cole sighed. “I’ve seen Super Troopers.”
“Oh.” The officer cleared his throat awkwardly. “Right. Sorry. You see, I don’t usually do the pop culture references. That’s the job of the author, historically speaking. Well, I guess I have done a few, come to think of it, but…”
“What’s he talking about?” Eva whispered to Cole.
Cole couldn’t help but smile. “This is not a book,” he said to the officer with mock frustration.
“Well, I suppose this time I can let you off with a warning,” the officer said.
“Thanks, Officer.”
“But drive carefully, you hear? You’ve got precious cargo.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I’ll be following behind for a bit,” the officer stood up, “just to keep an eye on you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything different.”
“Oh!” the officer stuck his head back into the car, and this time, looked directly at Eva. He paused for an extremely long time. “You.”
“Yes?” Eva sounded more than a little confused.
“I do apologize for being rude,” the officer said. “It’s just that I haven’t thought of a good nickname for you yet. EK? Even Steven? Captain Kirk because Kirkness? It’s just, Eva doesn’t lend itself well to…it’s already short you know?”
“Okay…”
“Anyway, don’t go too far, Captain Kirk.” The officer winked. “You never know when I might need you.”
The Reckoner will return.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALTHOUGH THE RECKONER TRILOGY has been my newest work, the story has been with me for well over a decade. Cole’s story will continue, but this does feel like the end of a journey. There are many people to thank and acknowledge; too many, I’m afraid, to address in this small space. However, I don’t think it’s cheating to defer to the acknowledgments in the previous two instalments in the trilogy, Strangers and Monsters, in order to hit a few birds with one stone. To those people, I continue to be grateful.
Ghosts was the funnest, and most difficult book to write in the series. I’d say that it was bittersweet, and it was, but I’m glad to be continuing the story in a different literary form. Thanks to Jay Nickerson for giving an early draft of Ghosts a read. It helped shape what this story became. Thanks, as well, to Liz Culotti, for reading that same infant version. The one person I have mentioned previously, and will acknowledge here again, is my editor Desirae Warkentin. Dee, your keen eye for story and structure, passion for this story, and blunt, thoughtful feedback, helped make every instalment of this series what it was. Thanks, partner.
I’d like to thank my agent, Jackie Kaiser, and my publisher, HighWater Press, for helping to make this book, and series, a reality. Catherine Gerbasi, Annalee Greenberg, and the entire team have put their hearts into ensuring that HighWater Press provides opportunities to Indigenous writers to tell their stories. I am forever grateful for the platform and trust they have given me.
The Reckoner Trilogy has always been about one thing: representation. Accurate portrayals of Indigenous People and those living with mental health problems. It is empowering to see yourself reflected in literature. It is vitally important that others are exposed to stories of truth, through lived experiences.
Ekosani.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID A. ROBERTSON is an award-winning writer. His books include When We Were Alone (winner Governor General’s Literary Award), Will I See? (winner Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award), Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story (listed In The Margins), and the YA novels Strangers (winner of The Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction) and Monsters. David educates as well as entertains through his writings about Indigenous Peoples in Canada, reflecting their cultures, histories, communities, as well as illuminating many contemporary issues. David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg.
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cover art by Peter Diamond
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