Unbreakable V
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V.
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.9 His name was Pestilence.
Envy.
Rebekah has a dream: to have sons of her own and a peaceful life. She marries Isaac, who takes comfort in their life together after his mother's death and his father's recent passing. They receive all the bounty and blessings that Isaac's father, Abraham, had promised them: as much as they could dream.
They have two sons.
She brushes her fingertips through her young son’s hair, playing fondly at the curled edges. It’s cool inside their tent under the shade of the tree, and she hums to herself as she hands him a piece of fruit to eat. Outside in the field, she can make out the silhouettes of her husband and their son Esau in the field, the images shimmering in the heat of the desert.
Jacob’s young eyes follow hers, sharp as ever when he looks up from his reading. They mimic his mother's and narrow slightly at the sight of his father and his brother, heading in from the field and no doubt trading stories of their hunts and smelling of sheep.
Don't worry, Jacob. Theirs is not a life suited for you. And you will not be like your Uncle Lot, digging in refuse for your knowledge. Your place is at my side, learning your books, not working as some brutish farmhand.
Jacob looks up at his mother and hugs her neck, no real explanation needed. It's alright, Mother. Father loves you, in his way. I love you, too.
She looks down at him and smiles. You are my little angel, she says. Jacob may not be the firstborn, but he should have been. No matter. He is first in her heart, and her heart always finds a way.
Both boys grow up so quickly, limbs hearty and golden from the sun. Esau is deep-chested, cocky and uncouth. Jacob is tall and lithe, boyish and sharp-witted. They tease each other endlessly with mind games and tests of strength. Jacob is still her favorite.
One evening, Esau barrels into Jacob's tent, still covered in dust and grime and blood from the day's hunt.
Seriously? Jacob pounces. You don't have a bed of your own? You have to eat on mine?
Yours is cleaner, Esau retorts.
Not anymore. Jacob returns his attention to the pot of stew simmering over the fire.
It is Esau's turn to pounce. When you get married, are you still going to cook for me?
You're like one of those goats outside that just keeps eating and eating until they die.
Esau remains stone faced. Feed me.
Not for all the gold in father's treasury.
Oh, yes, you would.
Actually, yes I would. Jacob ladles out a heaping serving of the stew and offers the bowl to his brother. That will be your entire inheritance.
Sure. I'll just need to call on my dad, and Esau takes it.
Their father is dying. It isn't shocking news. As Esau is fond of saying, Father really is older than the dirt. He can't see and he can't hear very well, but he still has an appetite for a good hunt. Esau has been his eyes and his legs and his bow for years. Tonight shouldn't be any different.
Esau is sitting in a thicket under a tree, waiting for his quarry to wander close enough. He raises his bow slowly. When he gets back, he'll ask their mother to cook it the way their father has always liked it and they will sit and eat and talk together, just like the old days, and his father will give him his blessing and say his goodbye. Esau aims for the heart and lets the arrow fly.
He goes to his father with the cooked meat still steaming inside the bowls. He spends so much time preparing and cooking that he has no more time to worry about dressing well. His father wouldn't mind him smelling like the fields anyway. He enters the tent and lays out the food, then searches out his father.
Dad, I've brought you the meal you asked of me. You'll love it. Let's eat, and we can talk about whatever it is that you need me to do for you.
His father's brow furrows deeply and his mouth opens in surprise. Who are you? his voice trembles.
Wow, the old man is further gone than he thought. It's me, Dad. Esau. Your oldest son. Don't you recognize me?
His father looks terrified and lurches up from the couch, blindly grabbing at his sleeves and arms.
Easy, Dad. What is it? What's wrong?
The old man's eyes are pale and huge in the light of the fire. Esau... who was it who came in just now, before you? I have eaten with him and drank his wine and blessed him instead of you! Is he not you? Were you not just here? He is blessed and not you! What have I done? What have I done?
Esau blinks and stares, but he does not pull away, settling his father again on the couch, waiting for his breathing to quiet. No, Dad, it wasn't me. It's alright. It will be alright.
Oh, my son, what am I supposed to do?
He puts his hand on his father's shoulder to calm him. It's alright, Father. You can still bless me, too.
But Isaac shakes his head vehemently, tears and hurt in his eyes. No, I cannot. I cannot take away a blessing and I have given him everything that was yours. My son. My... Jacob.
Esau rises, blind with rage, and backs away, tripping over the hot food in the bowls, making a mess and not caring.
Jacob!
He races through the tents, searching for his brother's guilty face, tearing up the flaps and scaring the children. Where is he? So help me, God, I'm gonna kill him. This is not one of your games, little brother! You've gone too far! This ends now and it's gonna end bloody for you or all of us!
Inside a tent on the far side of camp, their mother cloaks Jacob in his darkest clothing and readies him and his companions for the trip to her brother's. Go quickly my son and do not stop. He cannot find you. You will be like a ghost under the cover of darkness.
Her son returns a beleaguered half-smile. You should have more faith in him, Mom. He's a hunter. He will find me if he really wants to.
He will not. She shakes her head and adjusts the clasp on the hood of his coat. If his anger rises against you, let the curse of it be upon me. Now go.
Jacob is gone for twenty years.
Esau flourishes despite the blessing lost by his father and protects it all with a well-trained army of four hundred men.
One day, two strange men come to tell him that Jacob is returning to see him. He laughs at his brother's bravado. Fool. He thinks that he can come here without expecting me to flay his skin from his body? Tell him I'll meet him halfway.
When he goes to meet Jacob, he rides at the front of his army. They are met by goats. Nice one, Jacob. Very funny. The goats become a huge flock of sheep and then herds of cattle, almost as far as he can see. He catches sight of Jacob, walking with a staff, like he's some kind of sheep herder. His brother is limping badly and seems to be in so much pain that his face is fixed in a permanent grimace. Before Esau reaches him, Jacob stumbles to the ground, then rises slowly. Esau walks faster. Jacob keeps falling over and every time he does, it takes him longer to recover. When he is within distance of an arrow, Jacob falls again and it strikes Esau like a cold blade: his brother had been kneeling, quite ungracefully, but kneeling.
Brother, Jacob says and starts to get up, but Esau wrenches his hands into the folds of Jacob's clothes and hauls him up until they are face to face.
Then he hugs him.
Tears stinging his eyes, Esau pulls away first. What is this herd of dirty animals you greet me with? And where have you been all my life? And what happened to your legs?
There are tears glazing Jacob's eyes as well, and he blinks and nods as he answers. I wrestled with God and won. I also had eleven sons. I'm not sure which of those best explains the limp. The men I sent to say that I was coming are two angel friends of mine, Oh and these? He waved a hand at the throng of animals. Well, these are just a little gift...
Esau shakes his head. Always one for tall tales, weren't you?
And then they go home.
As there is Envy, so there must be Kindness.
He is surrounded by animal parts. John adds the latest box that Bobby has made onto the shelf and wipes the dust from his hands. One more temptation is under lock and key, safe from the hands of unconscionable neophytes like Bela, who'd trade her own grandmother for a steak dinner. Of all people, she should know that you can't bargain for life with a dealer of death and expect to win.
At least, that's what he told Bobby a few days ago when he was cleaning him out again. There's no amount of money that makes deals like that okay in his book. Bobby can run him off for ruining his livelihood all he wants. There's always the salvage yard, and there's always more where this stuff came from. Still, it's worth it. Bobby will thank him someday.
He re-salts everything, checks the traps and sets up the rifles. It's going to be an eighteen hour drive back to Kate's and another ten hours to Manning. If he drives overnight, he can cut over in Chicago and maybe check on the boys' work in Rockford and Fort Douglas before he sees Adam.
He owes that boy one more visit before all of this goes down. He knows that he's not going to live through it, but he has to keep his sons safe, and the only way he can keep them out of harm's way is to make sure they are nowhere around when it finally catches up to him.
He calls Caleb. Hey. Did it pan out? The information I sent you?
Yeah, outside Tucson?
Were they alive?
No. No, they weren't.
Damn it. What about the baby?
Kid's already in CPS somewhere. He'll get lost in the system and we'll hunt him down when he's old enough to have paper.
We're doing nothing of the kind.
Relax, John. I meant we'll find him.
John looks in the rearview mirror at the tail lights passing him in the dark. If we make it that long.
Yeah. The color of optimism, as always.
I'm headed out to check on the boys. Look into that other lead with the big one?
Yeah.
Keep the flags flying, fleabag.
Later, freak.
Within a couple of hours, Caleb calls back. John? Uh, yeah, about Chicago...
John floors it.
Chapter VI