The weeks went by and summer slipped into early fall. Despite living with family, Jospeh was not getting better. He still refused to do his exercises, and he was starting to forget things. Everything but his stories about winter’s children, that is. Life in the Preston household was becoming increasingly strained.
He needed constant watching and it was beginning to fray on Margaret’s nerves.
“James, I don’t know how much more I can take of this,” she told him one night. “Joey was down for his nap today and I was working in my office. When I went to check on Joseph, he was gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean gone?” James asked in alarm.
“I mean he got up and left. Fortunately, he hadn’t gone very far, I could see him from the front porch, but I had a devil of a time convincing him to come back inside. He said he heard one of winter’s children in the woods and was going to find them.”
James ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus. I’ll have a talk with him Maggie, I promise.”
“Him wandering off isn’t even the worst part,” she continued. “He left the front door wide open. What if Joey had woken up early and gone looking for him? Or worse, what if he’d taken Joey with him in the first place.”
James gathered her in her arms and held her tight. “We’ll figure something out,” he told her. “It won’t be much longer before a spot opens up for him. And I can take some time off.”
Fortunately, a spot opened up in the Paradise Stream nursing facility a week later.
“I’ll visit as often as I can,” James assured his father. “And I can make arrangements with the facility so you can come visit for Sunday dinners.”
“Don’t do me no favors,” Joseph said bitterly. He knew the real reason he was being locked away like some criminal. It was to stop him from looking for winter’s children.
The room he was given was large and sunny, and overlooked a well maintained garden. It was filled with Joseph’s own furnishings to make him feel more at home.
“Just think of all the friends you’ll make here,” James said jovially.
“I already got friends.”
“Well, you can never have too many.”
Joseph just snorted.
“Charlie Rose is just down the hall, and Pete Sawyer told me he was on the waiting list too.”
“Charlie don’t have more than one oar in the waters these days,” Joseph pointed out. “And Pete cheats at poker.”
“I give up,” James said in resignation. “I’m going to go and let you get settled in. I’ll be back to visit in a couple of days.”
Three weeks later, Joseph was gone. He contracted the virulent strain of the flu that swept through the nursing home and never recovered.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From the earth we were made, to the earth we return. Amen.” The preacher closed his book and the handful of mourners gathered at the grave site began to disperse.
James stood alone at the head of the casket. He and Margaret had agreed Joey was too young to attend the funeral and she stayed behind to look after him.
As the others passed by the large arrangement of roses, many of them pulled a rose free to lay on the casket before shaking hands with the next of kin. Final goodbyes were said to James Joseph Preston.
“Best to remember the good times, forget the bad,” advised one elderly man, as he passed by James.
“Old Joseph would’ve liked that preacher,” said another.
Several more passed with murmurs of sympathy.
“It ain’t right,” stated an old man with a long white beard. He shook his wooden cane at James. “You shouldn’t ought to have taken Joseph from his mountain. That’s what kil’t him. Sure as winter’s coming.”
James took an involuntary step backward as the man was hustled away by two of his cronies. He waited until everyone else, including the preacher, left the gravesite before stepping forward to leave his own long stemmed rose on the casket. A light snow began to fall as he turned away.
He was scowling as he drove away from the cemetery, wondering how many others felt the way the man with the cane felt. Was he right, had he killed his father? For certain Joseph wasn’t the same man after he was put in the nursing home, but there hadn’t been any other choice at the time. Peering up at the dismal grey sky he sped up. The snow was only going to get worse from here.
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