Page 452 of Chaos has a Name
Oh, well, Wyler was well aware.
It wasn’t like he was telling him anything new.
Lance couldn’t hurt him by saying that to him. It was something Wyler carried deep in his soul since the day she died, and he read that note.
“You’re right. I never deserved her. I wish she had picked you over me, Lance. Deep down, I have nothing but shame at how I treated her. I’ve been living with this for a very long time.”
The man pointed.
“You just wanted to break her. You had to have hated her.”
That was anything but the case. He loved Cathie more than anyone in the world. Only, at the time, he hated himself, and that undid that love.
“I didn’t know how to be a husband. It took meMANYyears and three tries to figure it out. I like to believe that the Great Spirit will handle me when I pass. You don’t need to worry about that.”
At his words, Lance was appalled.
“Great. Whose life are you ruining now?”
Oh, there was so much anger there. It poured off of his once friend, and it was toxic. Whether Lance knew it or not, it was incredibly dangerous.
It fed rage, and that rage made a person do insane things.
“Hopefully, no one’s. I’m dying Lance. I won’t make it much longer. Deep down, I know that the cancer will win. The only life being decimated is my own, and we both know that I had it coming.”
The man paused.
He hadn’t been expecting that.
Not.
At.
All.
“I came back here to make amends, and that means with you too. My whole life, I’ve been making amends to only some people. I need to do this with you.”
Lance was caught off guard.
Yeah, he never expected this.
“I’m sorry that we fought over a woman. I’m sorry that I won. When I’m gone, I hope you can have peace and forgive me.”
Yeah, he hadn’t been expecting a contrite Wyler.
A drunk one.
An angry one.
An ambivalent one…
Just never this.
When the door opened behind him, Caryn came out to see if Wyler was okay. It was hard to ignore the shouting from the front yard.
When Wyler saw her, he introduced her.
“Caryn, this is Lance Running Wolf. We were friends when we were younger. He’s on the council, and he genuinely loves this reservation. Lance, this is my wife, Caryn.”
