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His body was buried in the churchyard in Bisbee, a simple headstone paid for the by the Pinks. Dan had watched William make sure it was done right, so quickly the weight of what had to be done was resting upon him. During his funeral, the preacher’s words seemed to float right through him and Dan sat beside Mark who kept leaning into Alice in a way that made Dan wish he had tears left.
Instead he had anger and purpose, more than he had before, no one would harm his family or his land again. He didn’t have to sleep so he patrolled the fences and kept away from the horses for they started at him. Sometimes he’d go inside and watch them eat and talk, everyone but Mark seemed to hide their tears. When Alice cried in the dark of the night, he’d stand beside their bed and say, “I’m here.” She’d shift in her sleep and he considered her comforted.
Mark started to get worse and William kept getting quieter and angrier, Dan knew it was making them stronger and he’d wait and watch on his walks. The land would be guarded though he couldn’t stop the coughs that racked Mark and one day during the twilight hour as Mark was going back to the house he stopped and looked at Dan. Mark seemed to disappear into the fading light as he said, “Pa, we’ll keep them safe.”
In a few months, there was another grave in the churchyard as William and Alice grew quieter and kept the land. Sometimes in Bisbee, people would ask why they never traveled and their answer was always the same, “Our land is all we have.”
And the ghosts that were never far nodded, because the land was theirs and they would soon all be home.