White Space Season 2

endless blue sky before crashing down hard into the ocean, leaving only its memory and a white, foamy splash. Water erupted in a geyser around its giant, disappearing body.
    Billy kept staring, leaning out toward the ocean, barely able to hold his joy. “Oh, wow, Father! I wish Jonny had come with us!”
    “It’s OK,” Father said, putting a hand on Billy’s shoulder, then squeezing gently into his flesh with an affectionate thumb. “Your brother will see it another time.”
    “You could take him up here, and I could stay and watch the farm,” Billy offered.
    “That’s OK, son, thank you. Jonny will see the whale soon enough. Maybe when Uncle Martin visits.”
    “Why won’t you let me watch Ma and Sis?”
    “You’re not old enough, son. You know that.”
    “But Jonny’s only 13. That’s just four years older than me. What can he do that I can’t?”
    “He’s a good shot, for one.”
    “But I thought we didn’t need to worry about the Indians,” Billy said as they continued to stare at the sea, waiting for the whale to surface again.
    “Come on,” Father said, ignoring Billy’s argument and pulling him away from the show. “We’d best get home before supper.”
    Billy followed Father as they headed back toward the plains, wanting to argue but thinking better. Even knowing he must always respect his elders — especially Father — Billy couldn’t manage more than two dozen steps before pushing his luck. “I thought you said the Indians here were the nice kind.”
    His father looked down, “I never said they were nice . I said they tolerate our presence. There’s a big difference between nice and tolerant, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry.”
    “But you told Ma the island was safe. I heard you, Father.”
    “I didn’t want to worry your mother. We’ve bought a lot of land here, Billy. We’re the first white settlers, and our crops are doing well. Things are great. Have no doubt, Son, this is the right decision for our family. This island is ours. But between us men, we must always be cautious. Which is why your brother is home while we’re out hunting duck.”
    Billy looked down at the leather sack, swinging lightly in his hands, slightly heavy with the pair of birds that would soon be their supper. He fell silent as they crested a ridge, leaving the bluffs at their back and stepping foot on the plains which led back to their farmhouse.
    Billy walked with his eyes down, staring at the rolling waves of long grass, swaying faster back and forth like they always did when the sky grew gray and angry, as it started to do just a few minutes after they had filled their sack with the second duck. The island’s weather was always changing, mostly to rain.
    They walked in silence, picking up the pace, neither wanting to get caught in the brewing storm.
    Something stopped Father.
    He quit walking, suddenly enough to send a chill through Billy’s body. Father stood statue still a few feet in front of Billy, eyes to the sky and a rigid arm out lengthwise beside him, as if telling the boy not to pass. Father swallowed, loud enough for Billy to hear, even above the breeze.
    Billy’s eyes moved from the grass to Father, then followed his gaze to the clouds, expecting to see them thick and gray, swirling like they did before dropping buckets of water down to the ground. Instead, Billy saw something that took him a second to understand — a spiral of thick, dark smoke, standing out even with the churning clouds above.
    It was coming from the direction of their home.
    Father grabbed his rifle from its sling and broke into a run, charging toward the farm. Billy dropped the ducks and followed, as fast as he could, following Father until they saw the smoke’s source: their farmhouse, and the land around it, on fire!
    Billy heard Father’s scream but couldn’t find his own, fearing the worst as they continued their charge, then finding the nightmare true when he saw the bodies of his brother and mother, sprawled in thedirt with their heads cut off.
    No! Mama, Jonny! Billy stared, trying to reconcile his vision with reality, not wanting to accept the truth before him. No, this can’t be.
    Father sputtered, then screamed, and finally yelled, “Oh, God!”
    Father turned back, eyes wide, holding a terror that Billy had never seen inside them before. “Run!” he ordered. “Head to the caves!”
    “No!” Billy cried out, furiously shaking his head.
    “Go, Billy! Now , before they