Shaun had asked Kate to come home early from her shift when she left in the morning. He knew she was curious after last nights debacle with the family meeting and his very bizarre behavior. That plus her throwing up, from the “overly salty” food she claimed this morning meant he was working on borrowed times. Her body was changing, and Shaun was scared. He never had been very into kids, everyone said you will love them when they are your own and maybe he would have but he couldn’t deny he was scared. The truth was his life had just been solidifying with Kate again after the separation than nearly drove them apart.

Sitting on the couch he had some candles lit, cinnamon apple and pumpkin spice scents came wafting through their place as he sat in front of the coffee table, bottle of synthole and a glass of whiskey. He wasn’t sure if he would let her see the whiskey or not but right now as he began to pour another drink he knew it was one of the few things keeping him calm.

Shaun couldn’t help but think back, it was a much more simple time when they were younger. Their fathers retired and opened up a distillery, some old dream to keep the Celtic spirit alive and well they claimed. Their mom’s often thought it was more so they didn’t have to spend all of their retirement with them. Regardless coming to earth where they planned to fulfill this dream in the outskirts of the West Virginia hills their two families became very tight knit. It never hurt their homes were literally half a mile apart separated by just the farm lands that they used to make the spirits their family had become famous for.

Times had changed, the main offices had moved to Morgantown, partly to get a larger space for the growing business, partly cause college kids always made the best targets for selling various spirits. Despite the bigger office space, and more high tech distillery factory where their fathers and their spirits engineers (which consisted mostly of the uncles, aunts, and various cousins) the vibe of the company still felt the fevered dream of two old soldiers wanting to settle down and drink away the night using flavors they discovered across the galaxy.

Shaun though remembered the first big adventure the Grecken/O’Neill clans had, or misadventure if some people asked. Kate was five and Shaun was seven as the Greckens agreed to go out, against many of their better judgments. While both families were Irish, Lauren O’Neill’s, Kate’s mother, had family that had lived out in the Ozarks for generations. The Grekcens had been city lads, growing up with their mother Molly in Dublin as Conner and Jim flew the stars. This led to some of the Grecken clans being a little unerved when their father agreed to uproot them all in some hair brain plan to make spirits in the middle of nowhere.

Still, the Grekcens and the O’Neills had been spending Christmases and Thanksgiving together for years, so what could uprooting and moving to the heart of Deliverance really be so awful. For Kate and Shaun, that first dual family outing got them branded as the trouble makers… and set the stage for the trouble the two would get into for years.

Twenty Years Ago

Little Shaun, seven and unsure of the forest as he looked around at the trees found himself wishing he had gone with Kate’s brothers, or even his sisters for that matter, the longer he wandered with little Kate. Kate and Shaun had never really gotten along at family outings, Shaun always wanted to be with the girls, and Kate always wanted to be with Shaun. The future would tell you that there was probably fate that bound them, but at seven Kate was just a little girl and Shaun didn’t want to catch the cooties he often heard they had. His mom had long assured him his sisters didn’t have such cooties, but he often suspected other girls might be carriers.

“Come on Kate… you have been chasing that butterfly foreeeeever!” Shaun said with a small angry tone as he stomped his feet in a puddle as he began plodding after her once again. She just couldn’t stay put, which meant having to go further and further into the woods.

Grecken, Doctor