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leaves all other animals in the dust.”
    He looked at the boys and waited
for them to laugh. They didn’t.
    The fire was built up and the
sounds in the night lessened. Lawson drank more coffee and Willem fell asleep.
Cobe was grateful for that, because he didn’t want his brother to hear what had
to be asked next.
    “Why’d you let them kill our Ma? If
you were such good friends, why’d you just sit there and watch as Lode done
what he did to Pa?”
    “Yer pa was a drunk.” Lawson looked
quickly at the boy; the hint of an apology lingered for a moment before he
continued. “That’s to say there was nothing anyone could do for him that hadn’t
already been tried. Once you mix drink with a loud mouth, you’re on yer own.”
    “But you could’ve spoken up for Ma;
you could’ve stopped it.”
    The lawman added one of Willem’s
sticks to the flames. “I couldn’t have stopped it. I only enforce the law…I
don’t make the rules.”
    “You’re good at breaking them.”
    Lawson regarded him with a scathing
look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “The biggest rule of them all—no
books, no reading. You taught Pa how to read, and that’s what got him and Ma
killed in the end. Where’s the justice in that? Shouldn’t you have to pay for
breaking the rules too?”
    “I’ve paid more than you could ever
imagine, boy,” Lawson said in a rumbling whisper. If any of Cobe’s accusations
were going to end up with him receiving a hard slap or worse, that time had
passed. The boy started to breathe again and the lawman continued. “Yer ma was
a natural healer…I seen that with my own eyes as she saved my life. I needed
her to know the things I’d learned from my…my travels. I needed her to become
the best she could be. But some of the other folks in Burn became suspicious o’
what she’d accomplished by healin’ me. They saw more to fear in the good she’d
done. People are like that. Ignorance makes ‘em afraid.”
    “So you taught my Pa to read and
write. You wanted him to teach Ma in private so all the other people in town
would leave her alone.”
    Lawson nodded. “Pretty much.”
    “Still doesn’t change the fact
they’re both dead and you ain’t.”
    Lawson pulled his revolver out and
aimed it towards the boy. Cobe held his breath and waited. The lawman’s thumb
cocked the trigger and he took aim. Cobe shut his eyes. The explosion it made
was terrible. Something fell somewhere beside and behind Cobe. The boy opened
his eyes and looked down at his wet crotch. He’d pissed himself. Willem was
sitting up, his lips moving but making no sound. Cobe followed his terrified
eyes and looked over his shoulder. A creature with two arms and two legs was
lying in the dirt less than six feet from Cobe’s back. Half its head was
missing.
    Lawson stepped past Cobe and kicked
it over. “Howler. Must have got separated from its pack and smelled the smoke.”
    Cobe and his brother remained
speechless. Both boys stood side by side staring down at the horrible remains.
The thing’s naked body was more human than Cobe had imagined a howler to be.
The head, however, was a different story—what was left of it. The lawman’s
bullet had torn most of the brains out on the left side. It only had one eye
left. But even that wasn’t right, Cobe thought. Instead of an eyeball and
closed lid, there was only a scarred patch of black.
    Lawson returned from the fire,
carrying a stick still burning on one end. He lowered it to the howler’s face
after lighting another cigarette. “Their eyes are burned out at birth to help
‘em develop their other senses. Helps ‘em become better hunters.”
    Willem began to vomit.
    Lawson rested a big hand on Cobe’s
shoulder. “Take yer brother back to the fire and get him settled. I’ll drag
this thing a ways off.”
    “Our Ma…our Pa…they’re still dead
‘cause of you.”
    “Yeah. Still. What’s yer point?”
    Cobe had nothing more to say. He
watched the lawman