Reflections
Change happens. It's somethin' I've learned in 24 years o' livin'. I ain't sayin' everythin' changes, but if it's an important enough one yer whole life is different. Even in the midst o' change there are constants, both natural an' personal. Any farmer will tell ya, seasons go through their yearly cycle and livin' critters are born, mature, mate ta bring on the next generation, grow old an' die. That's the general way of things. Unlike the critters, people are aware o' personal constants. Fer me they're Ma's love, our farm outside the little town of Maize near Wichita where I were born and grew ta manhood an' my second pa's stories of Matt Dillon, the Marshal in Dodge. Chester Goode becomin' my pa is where choice, good 'n' bad, come in. It's somethin' only people do. He 'n' Ma choosin' ta marry in Wichita, with Uncle Magnus as best man 'n' Miss Kitty as maid of honor, an' agreein' me an' Donald should have his name turned out ta be right, but at the time yah can only hope yah made a good choice. Pa bein' in my life led to the chance ta make changes I'd never o' dreamed of before.
My world was the farm in Sedgwick County, Maize, the nearest town, an' rare trips ta that big city Wichita until my big brother Donald rode with our first pa, who he remembers a sight more than I do, Roy Hammond, on our two best saddle horses all the way to Dodge City ta buy a small herd of cattle ta make our farm more profitable. That brung about a change what weren't a choice, but it set up an important one. Pa Hammond were murdered by men what wanted our cattle. Marshal Dillon tol' Pa ta' help Donald drive the herd back home an' sent Pa Hammond's body on the Santa Fe into Wichita. A year later, we were Chester and Elsie Goode's sons Donald, 12, an' me, Albert, eight. By the time I turned 18 in '87 Donald begun a family with Jenny an' I come ta Dodge City with Ma 'n' Pa fer Mr. Dillon an' Miss Kitty's weddin'. I stayed an' got hired on as foreman for the Rockin' D Ranch outside Dodge off the Hays Road that were one o' their weddin' gifts an' even got ta help out Mr. Dillon jist like my pa used ta do. Now that I'm 24 I'm lookin' ta git hitched to my girl Sharon.
I reckon ya probably have some interest in the changes what happened since I come to live jist outside Dodge in Ford County off the Hays Road 'bout six miles outside town. That same year, '87, they met up with Nat an' Abby on the way back from their June honeymoon in St. Louis an' wound up adoptin' them when their Nana died in August from what Doc said were a bad heart in September, not long after school started. Adam Dillon were born in March of the next year. In '91 Mr. Dillon retired as US Marshal an' the whole family moved ta the ranch where Maria were born in June. Doc Newly an' his wife Paula, who live just over the hill, made her pa Bear right happy by givin' him two grandsons John, born at the end of '87 an' Liam, who come into this world in September of '90. Oh, even now, after Mr. Dillon become a judge, I sometimes help Lionel, Marshal Walker, keep the peace in 'n' around the town I now call home.
Personal difficulties fer Mr. Dillon an' me helpin' stop the trouble in nearby Gray and Garfield counties played a big part in all what happened in my life an' it eased Lionel an' Mr. Dillon into their new jobs. Lionel got ta run the marshal's office even before Mr. Dillon finished with readin' law under Judge Brooker so he could become the judge hereabouts. Now Garfield County's gone back to bein' part of Finney County, Lionel's married Eileen, whose folks kidnapped a Chicago girl cooled things down between them fer a time, and my Sharon come to town. Mr. Dillon an' Miss Kitty had to deal with a challenge ta the adoption, attempted murder of Nat an' Mr. Dillon an' kidnappin' an' sickness, before they Dillon family got ta enjoy ranch life. Case yer wonderin', everythin's peaceable now that it's 1893.