Page 13 of Jeremiah

His dad was right where he thought he’d be. Hanging out with Peabody and her doing most of the talking. It was rare that his dad could be out-talked by someone, so the rest of them thanked Peabody every day for the quiet time. Dad didn’t think that was so funny, but they laughed every time it was brought up. His poor dad had been the butt of jokes for a while now.

“I was just going to find you. Did you know that once it was put out there that I have a bald eagle in my troop, people started buying up tickets right away? The next three shows are sold out, thanks to that queen friend of yours.” Hanna, he figured and told Peabody that he was happy that she could help. “Your daddy here is going to be my barker. Yelling at people to tell them what a show they’re missing. I think he’ll do a good job of it, don’t you?”

“Dad has always been able to talk up a big game. He’ll be perfect.” Dad patted him on the back and walked away. “Is everything all right with you two?”

“Oh yes. He’s a little down in the dumps that he’s not going to be able to stick it out with me for the rest of my days. Being in the circus, I mean.” Jeremiah asked her why not. “He’s been thinking about his grandbabies and all and realized that he’d not be able to see them all that much if he’s with the circus. I’m sort of sad about that. I do love a good man who can talk like he does. Are you still going to join us?”

“Yes. Lexy has been talking about it, too. She loves the fact that she can get to know you as well. And I don’t mind leaving her when I have to go home. I still have a job to do, and since she was going to retire after Alex was born, things are working out for her, too.” He watched his beautiful mate as she played with the other animals that were a part of this world. “I do have some things that I’d like to talk to you about.”

“I’m going to pay you back, Jeremiah. I hope you don’t think that I was going to run out on you.” That wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he was glad that she brought it up. “I don’t know that I would have been able to if not for the extra animals that will be helping out.”

“I don’t want you to pay me back, Peabody. You’re family. We help each other.” She said that he’d not known that she was when he leant it to her. “Be that as it be, you are family, and I was glad to help out. It’s going to be fun watching the circus now. It’s even better that I get to learn firsthand…I mean, what kid in the world hasn’t dreamed of joining the circus. I know that I thought about it when I was younger. You’ve given a great many people now a chance to fulfill their dreams like this. I know that my dad was one of those kids, too.”

The two of them spoke a bit more about the circus, and the money kept coming back around. It had been a heavy amount, he was sure that she’d been cutting corners for some time now, and even that wasn’t going to make it so that she could hit payroll this time. But he’d been thrilled to help out a fellow shifter. When he figured out that she was related to Lexy, it was like they had been friends forever. It was the best thing that he’d invested in for more years than he could count.

“Jeremiah, I want you to know that I was going to stop this as soon as I got to the last stop. You didn’t have to invest all these other people into helping me. I’m not saying that I wanted to quit so much as I was forced to, but I have to tell you, this is great for the others in the troop. So many of the men and women that are there, they don’t have anywhere else to turn. Most of them have been with me from the beginning. It’s not a fun way to make some money for us. It’s our only income. A lot of them don’t have any family left either.” He told her that he’d found that out when he’d been looking into their lives. “I’m sure you found a lot of them are in trouble with one state or the other. Lack of paying taxes and such. If you turn them in, they said they’d understand, but what good will it do for the government to jail a bunch of old shifters that don’t have a pot to piss in? Nothing, I tell you. Not a single thing.”

“There isn’t any reason for them to worry.” She said that they would because they were like that. “Their debt has been wiped clean. No back taxes. Nothing to keep them from buying themselves a home and living out the rest of their days there. Joel, my oldest brother, only had to make a couple of calls, and that was all it took. Then, Larry…it’s funny that. He was the kindergarten teacher for five of the last twelve presidents. So he made another call, and there will be people to help them get loans when they decide to settle down.”

She just stared at him, and he reached over to close her mouth. As soon as she stood up, he did as well and nearly passed out when she hugged him tightly. Peabody was crying and thanking him at the same time. He was happy that he’d been able to make so many people happy. Especially this woman who had come to mean the world to him and his little family.

When Peabody made her way across the fields to tell the others about the good news, he leaned back and thought of what sort of things he’d be getting into over the next hundred years or so. Jeremiah knew, for as long as he lived, he’d have to keep on his toes, or he’d get behind. And behind in this family would mean he’d be picking up the shit left behind.

Laughing, he went to find his mate. Life right now seemed to be on the swing up, and he couldn’t wait to be able to look back on this and smile. Jeremiah had a great deal to smile about, too.

Chapter 7

Several hundred years later, after the birth of Alex Tate

Lexy rocked back and forth in the big swing that had been brought just for this summer. She had fallen in love with it at the store, and Jeremiah had purchased it for her and set it up so that she could rest under the big trees in their yard. The days were getting shorter, it seemed. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was lonely or if the days were actually getting explicitly shorter. Either way, she missed her child and wanted more than anything to make her come home. When the swing moved, rocking violently for several seconds, she frowned at Jeremiah. He told her that he was sorry as he sat on the swing right.

“I just heard from Joel. He and Caitlynn won’t be home for another month or two. Dad is having such a good time going through all the churches and tea shops that he begged them to stay a bit longer.” He looked at her. “How are you holding up? I know you miss Alex and Micky, but they’ll be home in a few days.”

“They’ve extended their vacation for another three months as well. Alex told me that she’s learning so much from the leaders in Spain that she’s having some books printed up that will have to be approved before they can bring them home. I guess they do things quite a bit different than we do here.” Lexy huffed. “Though I don’t have any idea why we’d care how they run their packs. Ours runs very well if you ask me. Not a bit of trouble for decades and no theft to speak of.” She huffed again. “Didn’t she just tell us they had a great deal of theft some years ago? It would seem to me that this pack has better rules anyway.”

“Okay. The theft was nearly a hundred years ago, and it wasn’t theft that you’re referring to was famine not someone stealing it. They didn’t have the manpower to rebuild the food lockers after…what is wrong? Tell me so that I can slay your dragons or whatever is upsetting you. You know that I will, too.” She nodded, then looked away. When he pulled her chin around and kissed her nose, she burst into tears. “Oh, love. You know that I hate it when you cry. Tell me what it is that’s bothering you and I’ll take care of it for you. I love you and would give you the world, you know that, don’t you?”

“I do.” She cried all the harder when he was being so nice to her. “My daughter isn’t on her way home. My family is still so far away from me that I…I can’t stand it, Jeremiah. I want them to be here. Peabody told me that she barely has time to take a break any more so that she can tell the people working for her that she’s retiring. I want her here too, with my little girl. I suppose her mate can come too. I really do love that man, too. Don’t you?”

She sobbed some more, and when he held her closely, she let him. It was that, or she was going to create an ocean with her tears and then drown everyone within a mile of them. After a few more minutes of being hard on herself, she told Jeremiah that she was all right, just feeling like everything was against her.

“I know that it’s not. But they are away, and I want them to be here. I even miss Joel and the way that he gives me a hard time. Caitlynne yelling at me about how I am overworking myself.” She looked beyond where they were sitting, and she saw the faeries out working the fields that the pumpkins were growing in. “I guess we’ll be having a nice fat crop this year for the patch of pumpkins. The children so love to get the bigger ones.”

She thought of the accident that nearly removed her head that she’d had several decades ago. It had scared her more than hurt her. Yes, she supposed almost having your head removed was dangerous, but she’d been more concerned about the other people who had been on the train who had all lost their lives than herself. Lexy had been on bed rest for nearly a year before she was able to get up and get around after the train they’d all been riding on had jumped the tracks and had ended up in a lake that had been much deeper than they had known about.

“They do. And your idea the last few years about bringing the carved pumpkins back to the patch and dropping them off after the season was an excellent idea. We’ve been able to not have to plant that field for a while now. Not to mention having all the birds and other wildlife able to get what they want out of it as well. Butter was telling me a few weeks ago that this is the time of year when the little ones put things up for themselves. Having someone manufacture little freezers for them was brilliant, too. Pumpkin for them year-round had been something I know that they enjoyed.” She nodded, not really thinking it was all that big of a deal, and told Jeremiah that. “It was a big deal to them. All the ideas that you’ve been coming up with have saved them and us a great deal of money. Honey, what is it?”

“I’m lonely.” He sat back in his chair and just stared at her. Before he could say anything to her about how silly she was being—she knew that was what he was going to tell her, she spoke. “I know that I have a job, and I want you to know that I love it very much. I have people that I talk to every day. Some of them several times a day. I have all my meals with a lot of people, trying new things and dining in some of the most extraordinary places. Last month, when we ate at the queen’s palace, it was all I could do not to take a hundred pictures and stare at them for days afterwards. And if you were to ask me, having the faeries decorating the trees with their wings was the best thing ever. There wasn’t a single one that looked like the other. And I know that they enjoyed being on display like they were. Oh, I did too. But I’m lonely for…I’m just lonely.”

“We just came back from that trip. Yes, I know that there were hundreds of people there, too, but I understand that…to be honest with you, Lexy, I’m so lonely that I find myself making up things that I want to do so that I can find someone to hang out with. All the others have jobs that they love. And while I do know that you love yours, I love mine as well. It’s not fulfilling. Right? Is that it?” She nodded, knowing that was it exactly. He turned in the seat so that he was facing her. “I went by the school just yesterday and watched the kids playing out on the playground, and I had to convince myself that pulling the fire lever was wrong on a great many levels. Yes, it would have brought them all out of the building, and I would have gone to them, assuring them that things were going to be all right. However, they don’t need me to do that. They have fine teachers doing that very thing now.”

“I’ll be honest with you since you were with me. I’ve been tracking this circus around the country so that I can join them. I want to do something that brings me into contact with—”

“ME TOO.” He grinned at her after lowering his voice. “It’s the Peabody Peanut Buster Circus, now. I think your grandmother likes the name better than she does people anymore.” She nodded. “I’ve been keeping an eye on them for years, but here, of late, I’ve been watching them to see if they need another animal or two. I’d be the best wolf they’ve ever had. Doing even tricks I thought would be stupid when I was younger. Fetching a ball. They have a skit now that has Red Riding Hood in it. I so want to be the big bad wolf.”

“The elephants, too. I’ve been practicing twirling a ball on the tip of my trunk when no one is around. And you should see me dressed up in a tutu—a pink one at that, dancing around the fields. I’ve even gone so far as to try painting my face white like they did in my favorite movie about the big-eared elephant. Remember that part? I’d do that without a bit of embarrassment. They’d not even have to pay me. I’d do it all for free.”

They each talked about how they’d work the circus line for years. Making more money for it until they were sought after all over the world. Because of the circus, they’d been all over the world, several times over, just to entertain people of all ages with the animals and other creatures.