Pines crowded close to the road, and branches swagged within inches of the roof. Even in daytime, headlights were needed.
Years earlier, the University of Colorado had owned this land. Jim’s remote house had been occupied by a series of researchers who studied conifer ecology and tested theories of forest management.
The hard-packed earth gave way to shale in places, and nine-tenths of a mile from the paved highway, at the end of the lane, Henry arrived at his brother’s property.
The one-story clapboard house had a deep porch with a swing and rocking chairs. Although modest, it looked well-maintained and cozy.
Willows and aspens shaded the residence.
Henry knew that the clearing encompassed six acres of sloping fields, because “Six Acres” was the title of one of his brother’s poems. Jim’s writing had appeared in many prestigious journals, and four slender volumes of his verse had been published.
No one made money from poetry anymore. Jim and his wife, Nora, worked their six acres as a truck farm during the growing season, selling vegetables from a booth at the county farmer’s market.
Attached to the barn were a large coop and fenced chicken yard. A formidable flock shared the yard in good weather, kept to the well-insulated coop in winter, producing eggs that Jim and Nora also sold.
She was a quilter of such talent that her designs were regarded as art. Her quilts sold in galleries, and Henry supposed she produced the larger part of their income, though they were by no means rich.
Henry knew all of that from reading his brother’s poems. Hard work and farm life provided the subjects of the verses. Jim was the latest in a long tradition of American literary rustics.
Following the dirt track between the house and the barn, Henry saw his brother splitting cordwood with an axe. A wheelbarrow full of split wood stood nearby. He parked and got out of the Land Rover.
Jim sunk the axe blade in the stump that he used as a chopping block, and left it wedged there. Stripping off his worn leather work gloves, he said, “My God – Henry?”
His look of incredulity was less than the delight for which Henry had hoped. But then he broke into a smile as he approached.
Reaching out to shake hands, Henry was surprised and pleased when Jim hugged him instead.
Although Henry worked out with weights and on a treadmill, Jim was better muscled, solid. His face was more weathered than Henry’s, too, and still tanned from summer.
Nora came out of the house, onto the porch, to see what was happening. “Good Lord, Jim,” she said, “you’ve cloned yourself.”
She looked good, with corn-silk hair and eyes a darker blue than the sky, her smile lovely, her voice musical.
Five years younger than Jim, she had married him only twelve years ago, according to the author’s bio on the poetry books. Henry had never met her or seen a photograph of her.
She called him Claude, but he quickly corrected her. He never used his first name, but instead answered to his middle.
When she kissed his cheek, her breath smelled cinnamony. She said she’d been nibbling a sweetroll when she heard the Land Rover.
Inside, on the kitchen table, beside the sweetroll plate were what Henry assumed to be five utility knives, useful for farm tasks.
As Nora poured coffee, she said nothing about the knives. Neither did Jim as he moved them – and two slotted sharpening stones – from the table to a nearby counter.
Nora insisted that Henry stay with them, though she warned him that a sofa bed was all they had by way of accommodations, in the claustrophobic room that Jim called an office.
“Haven’t had a houseguest in nine years,” Jim said, and it seemed to Henry that a knowing look passed between husband and wife.
The three of them fell into easy conversation around the kitchen table, over homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee.
Nora proved charming, and her laugh was infectious. Her hands were strong and rough from work, yet feminine and beautifully shaped.
She had nothing in common with the sharky women who cruised in Henry’s circle in the city. He was happy for his brother.
Even as he marveled at how warmly they welcomed him, at how they made him feel at home and among family, as he had never felt with Jim before, Henry was not entirely at ease.
His vague disquiet arose in part from his perception that Jim and Nora were in a private conversation, one conducted without words, with furtive looks, nuanced gestures, and subtle body language.
Jim expressed surprise that someone had drawn Henry’s attention to his poetry. “Why would they think we were related?”
They didn’t share the name Rouvroy. Following their parents’ divorce, Jim had legally taken his mother’s maiden name, Carlyle.
“Well,” Henry said drily, “maybe it was your photo on the book.”
Jim laughed at his thickheadedness, and although he seemed to be embarrassed by his brother’s praise, they talked about his poems. Henry’s favorite, “The Barn,” described the humble interior of that structure with such rich images and feeling that it sounded no less beautiful than a cathedral.
“The greatest beauty always is in everyday things,” Jim said. “Would you like to see the barn?”
“Yes, I would.” Henry admired his brother’s poetry more than he had yet been able to say. Jim’s verses had an ineffable quality so haunting it was not easy to discuss. “I’d like to see the barn.”
Clearly in love with this piece of the world that he and Nora had made their own, Jim grinned, nodded, and rose from the table.
Nora said, “I’ll put linens on the sofa bed and start thinking about what’s for dinner.”
Following Jim from the kitchen, Henry glanced at the knives on the counter. On second consideration, they looked less like ordinary task knives than like thrust-and-cut weapons. The four- and five-inch blades had nonreflective finishes. Two seemed to feature assisted-opening mechanisms for quick blade release.
Then again, Henry knew nothing about farming. These knives might be standard stock at any farm-supply store.
Outside, the afternoon air remained mild. From the split cords of pine came the scent of raw wood.
Overhead, two magnificent birds with four-foot wingspans glided in intersecting gyres. The ventral feathers of the first were white with black wing tips. The second was boldly barred in white and brown.
“Northern harriers,” Jim said. “The white one with the black tips is the male. Harriers are raptors. When they’re hunting, they fly low over the fields and kill with a sudden pounce.”
He worked the axe loose from the tree-stump chopping block.
“Better put this away in the barn,” he said, “before I forget and leave it overnight.”
“Harriers,” Henry said. “They’re so beautiful, you don’t think of them as killing anything.”
“They eat mostly mice,” Jim said. “But also smaller birds.”
Henry grimaced. “Cannibalism?”
“They don’t eat other harriers. Their feeding on smaller birds is no more cannibalism than us feeding on other mammals – pigs, cows.”
“Living in the city, I guess we idealize nature,” Henry said.
“Well, when you accept the way of things, there’s a stark kind of beauty in the dance of predators and prey.”
Heading to the barn,