Ashes to Asher

Asher led Emil on what the younger man thought was the longest hike he had ever been on. Emil had hoped for somewhere he could reach by car, and must have said so out loud, because Asher cracked up laughing. "Come on, city boy," he called out. "It's just five miles. That's just a good stretch of the legs."

"I am not Maureen O'Hara, and you are not John Wayne," Emil sneered.

"I didn't think you would be old enough to get that reference," Asher admitted.

"I'm allowed to watch and like old movies," the younger man pouted. "And that is my favorite movie for both of them." In his best Irish accent, which by his own admission wasn't that good, Emil said, "A fine soft day in the spring it was."

"The train pulled into Castle Town," Asher continued with a smile.

"Three hours late, as usual," they spoke the next line together as they laughed.

"This is a fight I would come a long way to see," Emil giggled through another line from the movie.

"I hope you can stick around for the finish," Asher responded on cue.

"I think that will depend on how much longer this hike goes on," Emil informed him, trying in vain to not sound like he was whining.

"You really are as delicate as you look," Asher snorted. "Ok, let's take a break around this next bend in the trail."

Emil marched as lively as he could in response to the delicate comment. Once he was far enough around the indicated curve in what Asher referred to as a trail, he turned to growl at Asher and half-heartedly aimed an arm slap at the older man. "You're mean," he pouted. He then looked around and sighed. "It's beautiful here."

"I always thought so," Asher agreed. "It's why I brought Robbie here when we were nine years old." He sat on a large rock beside the small pool in the creek. "He had just moved here with his mom and step-dad. His grandparents had been in the area since early days. I'm sure there had been other earlier people in the greater canyon and ridge area, since our grandfathers told us they had played in the old mine over there when they were our age."

"Your grandfather would have been near the time of the Gold Rush, wouldn't he?"

"Don't be a smartass," Asher growled. "That would have been the 1850's, so his grandfather, not mine."

"Well, I was told as a child if I couldn't be cute, I should be smart," Emil said with a laugh.

"Contrary to your opinion apparently, you managed to be both, so you broke that rule."

"Please, I am far too old to be cute," Emil scoffed.

"We'll agree to disagree," Asher shrugged.

"Why, Mr. Asher, are you flirting with me?" Emil teased.

"I'm sorry. I know it's totally inappropriate at a time like this," Asher apologized.

"Perhaps it is, but I don't recall complaining," Emil shrugged. "I did tell you that while I had feelings for Robert, he never returned them, so I am hardly a grieving widow, nor is this the Victorian era. There are no rules about how long I should dress in black and wear a veil over my face to hide the lack of tears."

"Well, now who's being forward?" Asher retorted. "As it happens, I had feelings for Robert as well. I know that if I am suddenly confronting those feelings again, after all the years I had to process them, then you surely are going through similar emotions right now."

"Yes, I am sort of stuck in the questions of what did I do wrong? What didn't I do right? How come he didn't return my feelings? None of that gives you permission to call me Shirley, though." Asher laughed so hard that he had to sit on the ground to keep from falling there. Emil soon joined him, both in laughter and on the ground. It was one of those cathartic moments that they both needed.

"Well, I guess I should do what I came here to do," Emil finally said after they had both settled down. "It was his final request to rest here for eternity. I can at least give him that, even if I couldn't have the life with him that I had wanted."

"I always hoped that Robert would return someday, and he and I would come back to this canyon. This isn't how I hoped that would happen," Asher thought out loud.

"I am so sorry that I brought you such sad memories," Emil told him softly.

"The memories aren't sad," Asher told him. "It's the fact that they are memories that is sad. I didn't make the move when I had the chance. I didn't tell him how I felt when he was here to hear it. That's on me, not on him, and certainly not on you."

"I could have just kept his ashes in the box, or got one of those super expensive urns," Emil told the older man with a shrug.

"Oh, Robert would have come back and haunted you forever if you had put him in one of those glorified lamp bases," Asher snorted. "The biggest reason I never had that talk with him was that he was the only guy I knew with even less fashion or design sense than me."

"Yeah, he said I had enough flair to make up for him," Emil admitted. "Especially after the flea market incident."

"Of course, you know after teasing me like that, you have to tell me the Paul Harvey."

"While I appreciate the chance for redirection you just gave me, I do happen to get that reference as well, so I can tell you 'The Rest of the Story'," Emil finished in his best impersonation of the former radio personality. "Stand by for news." There was a delay in the story, however, as when Emil had said the bit about standing by, Asher had done just that. He stood up and put a hand to his ear as if listening closely. All the older man heard was Emil falling over in laughter.

Once he could speak again, Emil proceeded to relate the tale of the time that he and Robert had gone to a local flea market just as an outing, a chance to get out of the house for a while. They had no intentions of buying anything other than snacks and drinks while they were there. As they were walking around the outdoor vendors, Emil had spotted a very sad broken plastic dining chair from the 1960s. It was in such poor condition that he couldn't understand why the vendor still had it in their booth.

"I see you have an eye for true quality," the vendor began.

"What?" Emil questioned.

"I saw you checking out the chair," the woman had continued. "It's my prize piece, you know."

"This? A prize?" Emil choked out as he gestured to the broken-down piece of trash.

"Well, now you're probably looking at it from a bad side," the oblivious woman had continued. "If you look at it from just this right angle from over here, you'll see how much it resembles the Louis the Seventeenth dining chair that was on Antiques Roadshow just last week, and it was valued at over fifteen thousand dollars. I'm only asking five for this one."

Back in the present time, Emil blushed as he looked over at Asher. "I may have kind of sort of possibly lost a bit of my normally calm reasoning abilities at that point, and told her I would let her pay me five dollars to haul it to the garbage where it belonged."

"You didn't," Asher snorted and chuckled.

"I most certainly did," Emil confirmed. "And then I proceeded to tell her exactly what her prize piece was and how much it was not worth. It was when I started critiquing the rest of her items that Robert pulled me away."

"Why do I suddenly have the mental image of a little purple kitten having a hissy fit?" Asher queried before he started laughing heartily.

"Little purple kitten?" Emil gasped. "How… how DARE you. And no, I am NOT impressed that Robert called me the exact same thing at the time. It's rude from both of you," the man turned away from Asher and pouted.

"But you were right, weren't you? She was price gouging for garbage based on a television program's reputation and credibility," Asher wheezed as he was still laughing. "You were completely justified, although Robert never liked drama or causing a scene so I can completely believe him pulling you away. Personally, I would have just stood back to cheer you on."

"It wouldn't have helped, as it turned out," Emil continued as he did relax a bit and turn back to face his companion. "The horrible woman was related to the owner of the market, so she got me permanently banned from the premises."

"You poor thing," Asher tried to sound comforting, he really did. It failed.

"Oh, hush," Emil scolded with another half-hearted arm slap to the older man. "I was devastated at the time because that flea market was a favorite place to go. There was a bakery and pastry booth there that had a particular treat I was quite addicted to, and it's been years now since I had it. Of course, I didn't just go there for the pastry."

"Of course not," Asher agreed. Without really thinking about it, he reached over and rubbed the younger man's back softly. "I can't think of any flea market type of places around this area, but then I am a bit out of touch since I have been running the diner. I haven't had a day off since my dad died and I had to take over the business. I did shut down for a day when my mom died, though. Folks in town count on the place, you know?"

"I can understand that very well," Emil agreed. "As a caregiver, you don't get time off, you don't even always get a whole night's sleep. This trip is the closest thing I've had to a vacation since I was a kid."

"Vacation. I've heard that word a few times; always wondered what it meant."

"The most memorable part of that trip was that I wouldn't share a bed with my sister. GROSS. So, I slept on a blanket under the sink counter in the room. When I woke up, I banged my head on the plumbing and knocked myself back out," he shared with a blush.

"Totally worth it, I'm sure," Asher mumbled as he tried not to laugh again. "I've been told that sister cooties are the worst cooties there are."

"They are, I swear," Emil agreed vehemently. "Sisters are horrible creatures, especially older sisters." He fell quiet for a moment and then said, "I don't think I'm meant to have time off. I don't know what to do with myself," he admitted.

"I bet Grandpa can think of some things to do with you, if he doesn't insult you again before he gets the chance," an already familiar young voice spoke up from somewhere near the two men. "I would appreciate not seeing or hearing it though, because well, it's Grandpa and that's just nasty wrong."

"Daniel Christopher Danvers, you show yourself right now," Asher yelled.

"I'd really rather not, Grandpa, since you guys are in between me and my clothes," Danny replied.

"What? Are you skinny dipping? You told me you were going to help your mother open the library?" Asher continued yelling. Emil, in the meantime, looked around and finally found the boy's clothing folded and tucked under a bush nearby, which explained why he and Asher hadn't seen them earlier. He handed the pants, undies, and shirt to Asher, and then walked back down the trail a bit. "You can come back now," Asher called out a few moments later.

"I'm really sorry for not speaking up or making a noise earlier," a still dripping but fully clothed preteen apologized a bit robotically. He was slightly more convincing as he continued. "I didn't do it to eavesdrop or spy or nothing, and I definitely did not do it to see you guys smooching or anything because… gross, old people kisses. Eeww. And I for sure would never have done it to see you guys naked because one, I want to see cute guys not icky old men, and two, Grandpa is never going to score like that on his own if he keeps calling you a purple kitten having a hissy fit."

"DANIEL," Asher growled.

"You hush, the boy is right," Emil told them. "You weren't going to score by making fun of me like that. You weren't going to score at all today because I'm not here for that," he added as he picked up the box of ashes he had set beside the big rock earlier.

"Yeah, so see, I'm not a pervert or something," Danny defended. "I just didn't know you guys would come here to do, you know… that," he added as he gestured to the container in Emil's arms. "Do you really gotta do it here, though? Like right here?"

"This is where Robert asked for," Emil told the boy. "This place was special to him."

"I don't see where you get much say in it, anyway, especially now," Asher fussed.

"But this place is special to me, too," Danny protested. "I don't want to come up here to strip off and… umm… to swim…. I mean not knowing I'm going to be walking all through some dead guy every time."

"It's not up to you," Asher growled.

"Hold on," Emil said softly to the older man. "I hadn't thought of it from Danny's point of view before, because I didn't think about him coming here, but if it were me, I wouldn't like some strange dead guy spread all over my special spot."

"Eeww, did you have to word it like that?" Danny complained as he looked rather green and sickly.

"I guess that would rather throw off the mood," Asher finally admitted.

"Grandpa, you said you and Robert used to spend a lot of time in this canyon," Danny began. "Where exactly did you spend most of that time?"

"You won't like that answer, kiddo," Asher warned him. "We spent most of our time in that same pool you just…. Wait, I take that back. We spent more time in the treehouse than we did in the water."

"What treehouse? There's a treehouse?" Danny asked eagerly. "I haven't found one of those."

"Of course, you haven't," Asher informed him. "That tree came down in a winter storm years ago, treehouse and all." He then turned to Emil and smiled, "But I planted a new tree in its place."

Asher led his two younger companions to a spot just past the entrance of the mine. Emil shuddered as he looked into the mouth of the man-made tunnel and saw the rock pile that had blocked the entrance for many years apparently. Danny seemed to pout a bit over not being able to go inside exploring.

"I see that look, Red Chief," Asher scolded. "You ain't missing nothing by not going in there, except a risk of getting yourself killed. Robert and I had been inside there the day before that happened. It's just a miracle that the cave in happened during the night when we were safe in our beds at our homes. We would have died in there, either crushed under that pile of rock, or worse, trapped behind it, starving to death slowly in the pitch-black dark." The man almost fell over as Danny suddenly grabbed him in a tight hug.

"I'm really glad you didn't die, Grandpa."

"So am I, Red Chief, so am I."

"You know I looked that up," Danny said as he stepped away. "You always call me Red Chief, so I asked Mom about it and then I looked it up. I read the story about the kid getting kidnapped. He sounded like a pretty cool kind of kid."

"I'm sure he was," Asher said, rolling his eyes where Danny could not see, but Emil could. He then bent down and whispered something in the boy's ear. Danny nodded and stepped away.

"I'll go back to town now and see if Mom needs help at the library. Bye, guys. Love you, Grandpa." He then turned and ran back down the trail.

"I thought this might get a bit emotional for you, and you might want privacy for that," Asher told Emil. "This is the spot. This little tree right here is planted in the exact spot as the old one that had the treehouse. I'll be back by the stream when you're ready to go back to town."

"You can stay if you want," Emil told him.

"I said my goodbyes to Robert a long time ago," Asher said with a sigh. "I know where he'll be if I change my mind. You do what you need to do."

"I've never done this before," Emil confessed. "Is there a specific way to do this?"

"I've never scattered ashes before either, but from what I've been told, stay upwind, and don't get too close to that cliff."

"What cliff? AHHHH! Holy crap, there's clouds down there!" Emil shrieked. He was so panicked, he dropped the box of ashes and ran to hide behind Asher, holding on to the older man's arm as if his life counted on it. The container hit the ground and broke open, the wind blowing the ashes away.

"Well, that's one way to do it, I guess," Asher bellowed in laughter.

"OH MY GOD!" Emil gasped. "He's going to haunt me now." This only made Asher laugh longer and louder. "Don't laugh at me, you big meanie," Emil demanded, which didn't help Asher settle down at all. The older man just wrapped his arm around the younger one's shoulder and guided him back to the trail that would take them back to town.

Ten minutes down the trail, they came across Danny standing as still as a statue in the middle of the path. "Stop guys," the boy called out carefully. "There's a rattler in the grass right there," he added as he pointed to the ground near his feet.

"Umm… why are we stopping for a baby's lost toy?" Emil asked in confusion.

"It's not a toy, it's a snake," Asher said, keeping his voice low and soft, only to suddenly find Emil trying to climb him like a kitten on a tree trunk. "It's alright, both of you," he continued to speak soothingly. "Danny, have you tried to back away really slowly? Don't try it if he looks like he's going to strike at you." To Emil, he whispered, "Don't worry, I will take care of you, kitten, but you need to let me get to my pistol."

"Your what?" Emil screeched and jumped away. He realized that this put him back on the ground, though, and started jumping and spinning all around, calling out, "Are there more? Where are they? Don't let them get me."

"It's ok, now, Grandpa," Danny called out. "It took off. I think it got scared of being trampled to death."

"Was that an insult?" Emil snapped. "Ashie, that mean little boy is making fun of me," the grown man pointed at the preteen and maturely poked his tongue out at the boy, who was cracking up and holding his sides as he laughed along with his grandpa.

"Ashie?" the older man asked with a raised eyebrow that would have done any Star Trek Vulcan proud. "It's alright now, Emmy. Should I carry you back to town just in case, though?"

"EEWWW! If you guys are going to go back to flirting, I'm out of here," Danny whined and started running down the trail once more.

"You're worse than he is," Emil scolded with his arms folded over his chest. "I'm going back to my room at the hotel for a nice hot bath because I just know I have bugs on me now, and then I will take a nice long nap and try to forget this horrible day." With that said, he stalked down the trail, head twitching all around watching for more scary creatures to pop out at him. Asher laughed all the way back to the diner.