A Family Name Read Free Page A

It never mattered
if the old man was interrupting something important to Will.
    The pain of the migraine licked around Will's
eyes. He wondered if he should pull the truck over; maybe grab the
emergency prescription he kept in the glove box. The way the sun
glinted off the ice sent one thousand stabbing knives burning
through his eyes, his sunglasses useless against the glare. He had
felt fine that morning, but then he never did know when the
migraine pain would come. He remembered the last doctor he had
visited telling him that he needed to control his stress levels.
Will barked a short, harsh laugh that sent a wave of pain riding
through his skull. He winced and did the deep breathing exercises
his mom had taught him.
    His mom had been the first to diagnose him
with migraines, even though she didn't have a medical degree. She
suffered from them herself, and even after Bill had scoffed at the
notion that his son would be anything but a tough little cowboy,
his mom had persisted. The crack pot pediatrician in Mountain View
had insisted that a child as young as seven couldn't get migraines,
so Karen researched specialists in nearby Rapid City. Until she
could get him an appointment, she had used cold compresses and deep
breathing whenever one of the headaches waylaid him for a few
days.
    He drew in a shaky breath, filling his lungs
to capacity, and then blew it out through his nose. The pain wasn't
actually so bad if he sat completely still. He could drive home,
crawl into bed and forget about the world for a few hours. As Will
eased his truck onto the freeway, heading north toward Mountain
View, he wondered what awaited him at home.
    As if on cue, the phone buzzed again. "Can
it, Dad," Will muttered to the empty cab. "I'll be home soon."
    The snow plows had salted the freeway so the
traffic moved quickly as he distanced himself from the city. Soon
he was weaving his way north past small towns and high foothills
dotted with scrubby pines dipping heavily under the ice. How long
would it be before everything melted? Will wondered, tapping a
gloved hand against the steering wheel. The movement proved too
jarring, and he stilled himself again.
    "Just a few more exits," he told himself.
    As he neared the Mountain View exit, his cell
phone went off again. Annoyance shot through him. He snatched the
phone off the seat, and punched the talk button.
    "What?"
    "Dude, calm down." His older brother,
Walker.
    Will slowed as he turned onto the exit ramp.
He shifted the phone to his other ear and sighed. "Sorry. I thought
you were Dad."
    Walker chuckled, but stopped abruptly. "Look,
Will. You need to get home as soon as you can."
    Despite his earlier irritation with his
father, concern squeezed at him. "What's wrong? Did Dad have
another heart attack?"
    "No, nothing's wrong with the family. Just…
just get home, okay?" Walker's voice cracked at the end of his
statement, and the unfamiliar sensation of fear pulsed through
Will's veins.
    "I'll be at Mom and Dad's in ten," he said
before hanging up and tossing the phone back on to the seat.
    Adrenaline took over as he navigated the
streets of his shabby home town. He barely saw the familiar nooks
and crannies that had all but defined his childhood. The truck
might as well have been on autopilot as he turned west of town
toward his family's ranch. The fear he felt was so acute, so
uncommon to him that he nearly forgot the pain of his migraine,
until he took a turn to hard and a wave of nausea hit him.
    Something in Walker's voice told him that
whatever awaited him at his parents' house couldn't be good.
Walker, the tough guy of the family. The brother Will should have
been more like, should have lived up to. Mr. Perfect. Nothing
rattled Walker. So for him to sound like that, something monumental
must have happened. If it wasn't the family, though, what could it
have been? Will racked his brain as he drove the ten minutes from
town. Could it be someone from town? Something with the animals?
The