Fatalis

Chapter Seventy-Nine

The first thing they needed was to come back and feed the animals, which they did. Raw meat and milk. Then Grand and Hannah went back to Santa Barbara and took a short nap. Together, sleeping side by side. When they woke, word of Sheriff Gearhart's death was filtering through the town. According to charter, Chief Deputy Valentine was named Acting Sheriff. He assumed his duties in a somber ceremony outside the closed door of Gearhart's office. Hannah and the Wall were among those present.

As Hannah saw to the morning's business at the newspaper, Grand bought two large cages and padded gloves. Then he returned to the hills. He grabbed the silver-coated male and a female, caged them separately, and returned home. He left the two animals in the garage. Fluffy barked for a minute, then smelled the saber-tooth's spoor and went to the bedroom, the room farthest from the garage. Other dogs in the neighborhood also barked, but not for very long.

Grand called Dr. Honey Solomon at the Santa Barbara Zoo and told her what he'd found. Four baby saber-tooths. He told her where to find them and what she'd need to rescue them. He made her promise that they would remain at the zoo until he returned to Santa Barbara the next day. He didn't tell her where he was going. When Hannah arrived late in the afternoon, they drove to the airport.

Nothing is ever clean or final.

Not a leave-taking, not a decision, not even a death. There are compromises, sacrifices, and complications. There are unrealized hopes and unfulfilled promise. There is risk.

And there are always disappointments even in victory or happiness, if only because it cannot last.

Jim Grand had learned that when Rebecca died. When he did what he believed was right and lost the close friendship of Joseph Tumamait Perhaps that was why the Chumash believed that animals were higher than humans. Because their needs were less complex, their mission on earth clearer and more attainable. For humans, perfection could last a moment but nothing more.

This too was a compromise. But Grand felt it was a good one. The right one. Not just for the saber-tooths but for his own peace.

As Grand and Hannah flew his Piper Super Eagle seaplane north to Ross Lake in the Washington Cascades, the scientist felt renewed. He had the two saber-tooths in the back. He was going to release them into the wild, where fate and nature would care for them.

Divide and survive, just as the adult cats had done.

A special habitat would certainly be created for the animals in the zoo, as much to accommodate them as the tourists who were sure to see them. Grand was not happy about the prospect. On the other hand, he would be there to look after them. In the meantime, as the silver male and his little companion grew to adulthood they would feed on local fauna. It would be difficult for people to find them, let alone capture them. Perhaps in time the cats would create a new environmental niche in the mountains, one that couldn't be taken from them by civilization or climate. A place where an ideal balance could be established.

The seaplane landed on the lake after dusk. Grand taxied to shore, then unloaded the cages. He set the female free first. She wandered off several feet, stopped, and looked back.

He released the silver cub.

The saber-tooth male ran after the other. Without looking back, they bounded into the high grasses.

Standing on the isolated shore, Hannah took Grand's hand. There were tall western red cedars and Douglas firs moving in the warm breeze just a hundred or so yards from where they were standing. The sheer-walled mountains, higher and sharper-peaked than in Southern California, soared with stately power into the darkening sky.

"Maybe I should look into some of those Eastern faiths," Hannah said.

"What do you mean?"

"The ones you were telling me about, where all things are connected."

"Something feels whole here, doesn't it?"

Hannah nodded. "You did the right thing, Jim."

Grand felt tears pressing hard behind his eyes as he looked out at the saber-tooths' new home. He held Hannah's hand gently, caressing the backs of her fingers as he thought of the past. Of the distant past, when these creatures were frozen, and of the recent past when a part of him had died.

The cats were alive and free again.

So was Grand.

Blinking out a tear to the stars and to Rebecca, Grand turned and walked Hannah back to the plane.