“Exactly,” Jack says. “So, all of these old spirits have their own way of dealing with it. The crow girls and Cody, they’re here and now. They don’t fret about what’s happened or worry about what’s going to happen. Others, like the White Deer Woman, they become the wise old spirits people think they are, which is fine and does some good, I guess, but they end up with no life of their own. And then there are the ones like Raven, who just kind of shut down more often than not.”

“What about you?” I ask. “How do you deal?”

Jack laughs. “Hell, I’m just a pup when it comes to them. Cousins like you and me, we’re not even the gleam in our mama’s and daddy’s eyes in comparison to those old spirits.”

I have to smile.

“Bottom line?” Jack goes on. “They’re all nut cases. Some of them are nicer than others, sure, and some are pretty much harmless, but they’re nut cases all the same.”

“Even the Grace?”

“The Grace isn’t a being, Grey. She’s an idea. The state we find ourselves in when we’re at our very best. She’s an ideal. An inspiration.”

“So you don’t think she’s real?”

Jack shakes his head. “But we can make her real. In here.” He lays a closed fist against his chest. “But each of us has to do it in our own way. A group hug’s not going to make it happen, no matter how good it makes us feel.”

“How’d you get so cynical?”

“Hell, I’m not close to cynical. I’m hopeful.”

Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrows.

“Think about it,” he says. “Which is more hopeful? That we have to be led to the Grace by a shaman or priest or some nut case old spirit, or that we can find her in ourselves? I’m not blind to the worst in people, and maybe this sounds funny coming from a hard case like I make myself out to be, but man, I’m always striving to look for the best in them. In anybody.”

I nod.

“Trouble is,” he adds, “I get disappointed an awful lot.”

“So, what do you do?”

He shrugs. “Try to live my life as an example—the way Joe does.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“I sleep nights. How about you?”

“Mostly,” I tell him, “I feel cut off. Even though Odawa’s no longer a threat to those I care about, I still feel like I shouldn’t even be here. I should be out in the woods where no one can get hurt being around me.”

Jack shakes his head and lays an arm across my shoulder.