Clouding: Day 14

Word Count: 84,004

Summary of Events:

Mama started to talk to Theresa about her treatment of Bennett, but they were interrupted by the arrival of a bounty hunter whom they convinced that Bullseye and Asher were different people and that he should look for Bullseye. Asher and the Apaches continued to ride in silence and Asher made plans to secretly stop in Tucson once he parted ways with the Apache later that day before mentally bemoaning the lack of rainclouds in the sky . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

It wasn't really surprising that there wasn't much of anything for rainclouds around them, though. The rain really only started to come in November, which was somewhere about a month away.

He might have to ask someone what date it was when he went into Tucson just to be sure that November was only a month away. It'd been days from September when he'd last left a town, and that was San Diego a long time ago. By this time September had to be practically over and October right on their doorstep.

Even thinking of the word made him twinge. He'd been able to keep track of time by occasionally seeing or hearing the date, and he couldn't deny that he felt uncomfortable thinking that it was already October.

Having the month of his birth come and go hadn't been the biggest deal to him until this last year. Based on his memories he had, this last October, turned the age Mama had never seen the end of. The age that Mama remained.

This October, thus, he would officially outlive Mama, and he wasn't sure what he thought of that.

In some ways, he felt it was wrong for him to outlive Mama, but yet, in other ways, he hoped that she was glad — if she could be — that he had been able to get so far as to outlive her; that he had not met a fate similar to her own, whether by the same hands or not.

Still, though, could she really be glad? Considering that he had honestly failed her? He'd sworn to her as he'd clutched her cold hand that he would avenge her. That he would bide his time, that he would grow strong enough to deliver punishment and retribution to the man who had taken her from him.

Here he was, twenty years on — how twenty years had flown — more than strong enough to do what needed to be done and yet not having done it.

Guilt clawed at his breastbone. He hadn't been able to bring himself to do what needed to be done, and what needed to be done far more than anything else could ever have needed to be done, well, at least for him personally.

By this time the man who had taken Mama from him was assuredly old and feeble, likely to have his life claimed by time sooner than later, and yet he still could not hasten the end. He felt incapable of overpowering a man who would unquestionably be weaker than him and give himself the peace he needed, for assuredly he would feel at fullest rest once he accomplished that task.

Asher sighed. He didn't know what to do at all, but he figured that it was more than time to make his way to Santa Fe once all this business with Bullseye was done. He'd put off long enough what needed to be done.