Page 82 of Omega’s Fold

I do the cattle. Julian stands at the edge of the trough and he watches and he does what I tell him. I tell him to fill the second trough from the standpipe and he does it.

When we come back in, Matthew is at the kitchen table in his pajamas, hair on end, eating cereal out of the bowl with his fingers. He sees Julian and he goes still with a piece of cereal halfway to his mouth.

“You stayed last night. Are you staying now?”

Julian does not look at me. He keeps his eyes on Matthew. He pulls a chair out from the table and he sits down so he is at Matthew’s level.

“Yes,” he says. “If your brother wants me to.”

Matthew looks at me.

I look at Matthew.

“Yes, I do.”

“Yes you want him to, or yes he is staying?”

“Both.”

He thinks about this. He picks another piece of cereal out of the bowl. He puts it in his mouth.

“Good,” he says.

He goes back to the cereal.

Caleb comes down ten minutes later. He stops in the doorway when he sees Julian at the table.

“Good morning, Caleb.”

“Morning.”

He goes to the cupboard and he gets a mug down. He pours coffee. He sits at the far end of the table. He does not say anything.

He watches Julian over the rim of the mug. Julian does not look at him. Julian drinks his own coffee and he eats a slice of toast that I make him and he answers the next thing Matthew asks him, which is whether architects design barns.

“Sometimes.”

“Could you design our barn?”

“You have a barn. What’s wrong with it? It looks fine.”

“It is not fine. The roof leaks at the back. Wyatt has been saying he is going to fix it for a year.”

“I have been,” I say.

“He has been,” Matthew agrees. “But he hasn’t.”

“I will look at the roof,” Julian says.

“Today?”

“After the cattle. After breakfast. After your brother and I have a conversation we need to have.”

Matthew thinks about this.

“Okay.”

The boys head to school and we’re left alone. And then we have a conversation. Or we start to have a conversation. It ends in bed.