The Last Martin Read Online Free PDF

head. “You’re a loser. Don’t take that personally or anything, but this place freaks you out and you know it.” Lani wanders away, calls back over her shoulder. “Now that crazy Julia? If half of what kids say is true, she’d love it here.” She snickers. “Wouldn’t she?”
    A distant cowbell clangs, and Lani races toward the house.
    “My Julia.” I rub my face with my hands, think about the new layer of farm bacteria covering mycheeks, and wince. “Yeah, she would.”
    Twenty minutes and two scrub downs later, we sit down to deer hunks and turkey slabs.
    “Yes, sir.” Landis gives Jenny’s shoulders a gentle squeeze. “My honey sets quite a spread, does she not? A little thankfulness is in order.”
    Landis squeezes his eyelids tight. “Oh Lord, I am thankful for this family. I am also thankful for this meat. At this moment, I do not know which one I am more thankful for. Family or meat. I must tell the truth. But my Jenny. Where would I be without my honey? Amen.”
    Dad digs in. Mom pushes extra-rare meat around her plate with her pitchfork-size utensil. It leaves a blood trail.
    Landis stuffs a bite into his mouth, waves his fork toward Lani and me. “Let me tell you about this buck you’re eating.”
    Lani pauses mid-chew and lifts her napkin to her mouth.
    “Last fall a deer — no, badly put — my
friend
strolls right up to the house. You’ll soon understand my kinship with the animal. This was the largest ten-point buck I’ve ever seen. He gazes at me through that window.” Landis points over his shoulder. “I say, ‘Honey, bring the rifle.’ She says, ‘Which one,’ and I say,‘I do not care; bring me a gun.’ When she does, that deer cocks his head and presses his nose against the glass. Like a lost puppy. Hewants to be friends. Big, gentle eyes. Beautiful animal. Lonely animal.”
    Lani, now a pleasant shade of green, stares straight ahead.
    “And I rise. I walk outside and around the house. Wouldn’t you know, that deer lets me approach to a distance of six feet? He trusts me. Completely. Would you believe that we were communing? It’s not a stretch. I named him Martin, after our dearly departed older brother.” Landis glances at Dad, sniffs, and grabs Jenny’s hand. “I shared special moments with that deer. Marty passed so quickly. There were things I needed to say, things deep from the heart I never could say, not until that sacred animal arrived and I poured out my heart. Thirteen years of bottled-up emotion spilled out and I wept. It’s true. That beautiful creature lay down and listened to me weep.” Landis wipes his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I’ve rarely felt so close to anything in my life as that deer. ‘Bless you,’ I whispered. ‘Bless you, Martin.’ Then POW! I blasted him between the eyes!”
    Mom jumps up, Lani spews Martin all over the table, and my stomach heaves. I look down at my leftover hunk of Martin. I can’t do it.
    “Well, that’s the story of the venison. Want to hear about that turkey?”
    “No,” I swallow hard. “Please, no. Maybe later.”
    “Shoot, I understand. You’re in a hurry to get to thegraveyard.” Landis pushes back and stands. “Sweetie, these kids are biting to get moving. What say we leave dessert and dishes and head out?”
    “Sounds wonderful, except with roads so wet —”
    “Yes. We’ll all be taking four-wheelers. Brother? Elaina? Children? Onward.”

CHAPTER 5
    Y EEHAW!”
    Uncle Landis’s holler floats down from the top of a distant hill. I can’t see him, but I know what he’s doing. Riding rings around the hilltop cemetery. Landis loves to “war whoop” in his maniacal pre-service tribal dance.
    “Fool.” Mom shifts in front of me on our ATV. “One day, Martin, Uncle Landis will spin out, and we will arrive just in time to plant
him
among his forefathers. Won’t that be convenient? Yeehaw, indeed!”
    I hear Dad laugh too. He never laughs. Except on this day. His laughs and shouts fill