Red Rock

Chapter 31: Time, and Time Again, the Beginning

Chapter 31 Time, and Time Again, the Beginning

Daire looked down at the wooden planks, feeling anxious. He sat beside Jacob silently and listened to the sounds of trotting horses and the occasional voices of their riders. Dominick sat across the dark wagon and was in a totally different mood than Daire and Jacob. His body was sprawled across the whole bench and he held an irremovable smile on his face.

"Do you know where I am taking you, Daire O'Connor?" Dominick finally asked with bloodshot, tired eyes.

Daire had no idea. "To be executed," he nervously replied.

Dominick nodded his head. "You will most probably die, yes. But that is your fate, not our direction. Do you know where we will stop?"

Daire shook his head in shame. He didn't have any idea why he was talking to the man who was going to kill him. He thought that perhaps his and Jacob's life might be spared with the reasoning of conversation, but it was all desperate thinking.

"Do not look so anxious, O'Connor. I am bringing you to a place of nostalgic memories," he smiled. "We are coming to a fork in the road and the Writer has not picked the path we are to partake."

Daire rarely understood Dominick's choice of words and this time was no exception. Dominick left a glimmer of hope in his spoken riddles, making Daire cling to the shard of possibility. "How will I know which path you chose?" he asked.

"That is not for me to choose, but for you to find out," Dominick finished, stomping his left foot three times on the creaky wooden floor. The cart came to a bumpy stop, swaying Daire's weak core back and forth. Two men came to the back of the wagon and partially lifted the robe that covered it, helping Dominick off the back lip. "We will be there soon," he smiled, putting the red flap of the robe back in place. It was back to darkness.

Daire turned to Jacob, illuminated red by the sun penetrating the velvet blanket. Jacob was weak. His skin was pale and his hip was still leaking blood like a small crack in a faucet. Daire hadn't heard Jacob's chain rattle for the whole ride. "You hear that?" he asked, desperate to hear Jacob's voice. "We might get out of here! We might not be executed! He might let us go!"

Jacob weakly turned his sagging head toward him. "Why?" he asked in a mumbling whisper.

"He said 'we're coming to a fork in the road!'"

Jacob turned his head away and resumed his depressed state on the false reason for hope and closed his eyes.

"I'm serious, Jacob! I think we'll be fine!" Daire tried desperately to convince and believe his own claims. "You and I will be let go! It'll be like it used to be! You and me surviving!" he said feeling the tears rolling down his cheek. "We'll be OK, Jacob! Won't we?"

Jacob's shallow breaths and lifeless demeanor was eating away Daire's confidence. "Just like it used to be," he affirmed with a smile before dozing off in a trance again.

Daire gave a sniffling smile, happy that Jacob encouraged the hope of life. "We'll be fine," he said to himself. "We'll be fine."

*

The robe was torn off the cart, blinding Daire and Jacob from the intense rays from the sun. With little notice, their locks were being fiddled with by armed guards that stormed the wagon. Daire was suddenly thrown off the cart, dizzying his senses. The immediate impact of the soft warm sand on his feet cushioned his fall and prevented him from losing his balance. The guards left Daire with his hands still bound and let him stand hopelessly looking around in the open. They were not concerned of him running away.