One Last Time (Loveless Brothers 5)

“I didn’t always like having three older brothers,” I say, still contemplatively looking into the trees. “But being fourth-born has its benefits.”

“You don’t even know,” Caleb says, grinning. “I think I got in trouble twice. They were way too tired.”

I hold up my coffee mug, and we clink them together, then both take sips. It’s hot, strong, and black, which is exactly what I need since the sun isn’t far over the horizon.

“Trees are nice,” Caleb says, after a moment. “I’m sure that’s why you’re staring at them. Just thinking about how nice trees are.”

“They do provide us with oxygen,” I say. “That’s nice.”

It’s true: trees are nice. But Caleb is also fully correct in his suspicion that I’m not staring into the trees because they’re nice. I’m staring because I think something I want might be in there.

Possibly. Maybe. If I’m lucky. The trick’ll be finding it, though.

“You gonna share with the class, or…?”

“Not yet,” I tell him. From the other side of the house, I can hear tires on gravel, meaning that Levi’s probably just arrived. “First things first.”The project is done before noon. When I suggested it, I imagined it taking all day. Several days. Turns out, when you know what you’re doing, simple structures don’t take that long.

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Levi says, looking at the finished product.

“Again,” I say, “you’ve been helping an elementary school student build medieval —”

“And yet, that feels more responsible than this,” he says.

I snort and glance past the structure, into the forest again.

It’s there, somewhere. I’ve got time.

“Excuse me,” I tell my brothers, pull out my phone, and step away.

“He was staring at trees a bunch before you got here,” Caleb says to Levi, shrugging.

“I’m sure it was because he thinks trees are nice,” Levi says, and Caleb snorts.

I find the name I’m looking for and call. It rings three times, and then he finally picks up.

“Hey,” I say. “I’ve got a strange favor to ask.”

“And you’re calling me?” Silas says, a little fuzzy on the other end of the line. My mom’s house doesn’t have the best reception.

“Let me know if it’s something you can’t do.”

Levi, who was quietly surveying my mom’s back yard, turns and gives me a look.

“How about you tell me what it is first?” Silas says.

“Is there any chance you can get me a metal detector?”

On the other end of the line, there’s a long pause.

“A metal detector?” he says, sounding stumped. “Why?”

“I need to detect metal and thought you might know someone,” I say. Another look from Levi. “Listen, if I’m asking the impossible of you —”

Silas laughs.

“Asking me to break into the Library of Congress and steal a first edition of The Federalist Papers is impossible,” he says. “Metal detectors? Nah.”

I almost ask, but decide to hold off until he’s here.

“You sure?” I say. “I could always call someone else if it’s too hard.”

Silas snorts.

“Don’t you dare,” he says. “Tell me where you are, I’ll get you a metal detector in two hours.”

When I hang up, Levi’s still giving me that look, and I start to feel slightly guilty.

“I’m not sure that was nice of you,” he says. “You know how he is.”

“Do you know a better way to get a metal detector in a couple hours?” I ask.

Levi is trying very, very hard not to smile.

“Probably not,” he admits.

“Stone cold, Seth,” says Caleb, but he’s grinning.

“I’ll apologize when he gets here,” I promise. “Should we go eat lunch while we wait?”One hour and forty-five minutes later, Silas shows up with three metal detectors, a huge roll of bright yellow police tape, and a detailed search plan involving a grid. I’ve already spent the past half-hour reconstructing the search parameters as best as I can, so we get to work.

It’s fun at first. There’s tons of stuff on the forest floor, especially close to the back yard: bottle caps, crushed aluminum cans, the aluminum spirals from notebooks. Silas finds an entire three-ring binder buried under years and years’ worth of leaves, worksheets and homework mostly rotted away.

Still visible is a very large C- on one of the papers, so we decide it was Daniel’s.

There’s more. Nails, bike chains, old barbed wire. Old shotgun shell casings. A small, heavy sphere that might be a Civil War-era bullet. A metal ring that I think is from a stove and Silas thinks is from an old-timey headlight.

News spreads, and by afternoon, we’ve got more help. Silas takes a break, and Rusty steps in, enthusiastically excavating a door hinge from the forest floor. Daniel reminds her a thousand times about tetanus and makes her wear gloves.

Caleb takes a turn. My mom takes a turn. Levi takes a turn and gets grumpy about all the trash we find in nature. June and Violet show up at various points to help out.