Dear Friends,
I hope youâre enjoying your second visit to Buffalo Valley, North Dakota (or your first if you havenât read Dakota Born yet). Dakota Home is among the most requested of my titles. This story is one of my favourites, too, and here it is⦠at last. The small town of Buffalo Valley really is the place of my heart, the home of my imagination.
My parents were both born and raised in the Dakotas, in towns much like this. As a child, I can remember making the long journey from Washington State in order to visit relatives, driving through the Badlands and stopping at Mount Rushmore to view the four presidents. I have fleeting memories of my motherâs parents, who died before I was six years old. Both of my grandfathers were farmers. I wrote the Dakota trilogy near the end of my parentsâ lives. It was a tribute to them and to my German-speaking Russian grandparents, who arrived as immigrants around the turn of the twentieth century. I wanted to learn more about them and about the land they settled. What I discovered is that the people living and working the land now, a century later, arenât so different from those pioneers. Theyâre hardworking, traditional and proud. A lot like my grandparents and parents. A lot like me.
PS I love to hear from readers! You can reach me through my website, www.debbiemacomber.com. Or write to me at PO Box 1458, Port Orchard, WA 98366, USA.
Four years earlier
Jeb McKenna recognized death, sensed the cold, dark shadow of its approach as he labored for each breath. The will to live was strong, stronger than he could have imagined. Waves of agony assaulted him, draining what little energy he had left. In an effort to conserve his strength, he gritted his teeth and swallowed the groans.
Trapped as he was, he twisted his face toward the sun, seeking its warmth. Stretching toward the light. He refused to stare into the advancing darkness that waited to claim him. But the more he struggled, the weaker he grew. Each attempt to free himself brought unrelenting pain. Barely conscious now, he accepted the futility of his effort and went still as the darkness crept toward him inch by inch.
âJeb! Dear God in heaven. Hold on, hold on. Iâll get helpâ¦.â
Jeb tried to open his eyes but had become too weak. An eternity passed before he felt his head gently lifted and cradled in caring arms.
âHelp is on the way⦠theyâll be here soon. Soon.â
It was Dennis, he realized, Dennis in a panic, his voice shaking and raw. Jeb couldnât see what his friend was doing, but felt the tightening pressure of a tourniquet as Dennis secured it around his thigh.
Jeb wanted to thank him, but it was too late and he knew it, even if his friend didnât. He was grateful to Dennis; he didnât want to die, not alone in the middle of a wheat field, lying in his own blood, feeling the land slowly, surely swallow him.
He didnât want his fatherâor worse, his sisterâto discover his body. At least now they would be spared that agony.
So many regrets, so many mistakes.
âHold on,â Dennis said, âhold on.â
Jeb heard a piercing soundâa sirenâfollowed by raised voices and shouted orders. Then the pain returned, pain so agonizing that he sought death, begged it to take him. Anything to end this inhuman suffering.
The next thing he heard was his sisterâs sobbing. It was the first time he could remember hearing Sarah cry. Sheâd always been the strong one in the family. Jeb and his father had come to rely on her, especially since their motherâs death.
Jeb chanced opening his eyes and found himself in a darkened room. Sunlight peeked through the closed blinds in narrow slats. He noticed a powerful antiseptic smell, and when he moved his arm slightly, felt the tug of a line attached to his hand. An IV. He was obviously in the hospital, probably in Grand Forks.
Rolling his head to one side, he discovered Sarah sitting there, her face streaked with tears.
âIâm sorry, Iâm so sorry,â she whispered when she saw that he was awake.