Sky's Story

by Yankee

A mostly autobiographical look at Sky Fairfax's life before and after she met Gary Hobson

Sky's Story



Disclaimers: None of the characters belong to me except Schuyler Jane Fairfax, her siblings, parents, Sam Delaney etc. The Early Edition gang belongs to CBS, Sony Tri-Star and whomever.

Spoilers: Up through most of Season Two. Specifically The Pilot, Baby, Phantom At The Opera, Hot Time In The Old Town and a few others. The other spoilers are to my own stories.



Hi. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Schuyler Jane Fairfax. "Sky" for short. My friend Gary Hobson gave me that nickname when I was twelve going on thirteen.

I was born September 17, 1957 in a small town in Kentucky – the Northwest region of coalmines and farmland. Close to the mountains but with enough woods and farmland to keep my daddy and his family happy. Daddy was working for a government lab that dealt in agricultural matters – crop rotation, hybrids and the like. He wasn't real happy about it since he preferred experimenting his own way but he had a wife and three growing children to support. That all changed when I was about to enter my teens.

One of my favorite activities as a child in Kentucky was running down to the corner of our street to watch the trains go by. We lived in a small, reasonably close-knit neighborhood but there was kind of a big gap in ages between us kids. My brothers Jamie and Alan are three and five years older than I am. Our closest neighbors across the street had kids considerably older except their youngest, a girl three years younger than me. Across from them the kids in the family were all older than me but the youngest was only older by a year. Down the street a ways there was a family of four who's youngest was eight days younger than me. The whole gang of us would get together and go down to watch the train. The sight of those trains traveling to who knows where always made me long to travel. I loved our family vacations in New England, Virginia, Texas and Scotland – my family's ancestral home. My Fairfax grandparents are distantly related to General Washington's friend George William Fairfax. Distant cousins or something. My mom's family, the MacGregors, are Texans. Many family vacations were taken at Grandpa Mac's ranch. If not there then at Uncle Rob's or Uncle Will's. We went to Uncle Angus in Scotland a few times too.

As I was saying the gang of us would get together to play. We'd play Hide and Seek, whiffleball, dodge ball, and tag. We went on hikes but only Jamie and Alan really liked to go hiking in the mountains with me. We knew the dangers of snakes and such but we had been taught general first aid and where to watch for snakes.

A lot of things attract me to the mountains - the peacefulness, the cool air, cold streams, the wildlife (ok most of the wildlife). The people too. Coal miners and farmers most of them. Ragged barefoot children whose daddies spent long hours, days and weeks working in the dangerous mines. As a child I was fortunate enough not to witness any of the mining disasters but years later, after getting my medical degree and my license, I would. In those years I was still known as Schuyler. I hadn't acquired my nickname yet. That was about to change. All it took was a hike in the mountains and my first encounter with Gary Matthew Hobson.

You see when Gary was just a wee bairn, as my great-grandmother might say, he got himself lost in those mountains. I lived real close to them when I was growing up and I used to go hiking or horseback riding in that area. Back to Gary though. It seems that he was on a camping trip with his folks, Bernie and Lois, and they'd stopped for lunch. Somehow or other he managed to wander off a far piece before they noticed he was missing. I guess maybe they were playing around in the water where they were washing their hands or admiring the scenery. Gary was only four going on five and usually a pretty good kid. But he had no pets at home and when he saw a wild rabbit he followed it and got himself lost. Only the Good Lord knows how that child didn't wind up in some hollow or covered in poison ivy or something. I reckon his Guardian Angel must have been working overtime 'cause I was in the right place at the right time for certain.

You see I'd stopped for lunch and to do some sketching while on a hiking trip of my own. After my lunch stop I started walking again and I heard this frightened child's voice calling for his parents. From the sound of his voice I could tell he'd been lost for a while. And he was wandering around in an area where I knew there were apt to be snakes sunning themselves.

Well, wouldn't you know it – before I could reach him he stumbled into the path of a big old timber rattlesnake. I swear you could hear that boy for miles when the snake struck out at him. Again all I can say is that that boy's Guardian Angel must have been working real hard that day. I still don't know how that snake missed him. At any rate, I when I saw what was happening I rushed right over and scooped him up and took him to safety. I hated to leave him for even a minute but that was one snake that wasn't going to live any longer. I went over to it, pinned it with my booted foot and cut its head off. Of course, with two older brothers at home to tease me with their occasional bouts of bragging I just had to cut the rattles off for a trophy. I was real careful not to let Gary see it though. And I put them in my pocket before I went back to where he sat crying his eyes out.

It took me ten minutes of cuddling and stroking his hair before he finally calmed down and I had to move away from the dead snake too. The left shoulder of my shirt was good and damp by the time Gary stopped crying with a hiccup or two.

He was so adorable with his dark hair and those muddy green eyes. These days, if somebody asks Gary what color his eyes are, he insists on mud puddle green. So now I washed his face with water from my canteen and the handkerchief I had in my pocket and I asked him his name where he was from. He gave me his name as Gary. Then I got Gary Matthew and then I finally got Gary Matthew Hobson but he couldn't seem to remember what state Hickory was in. When I told him I was Schuyler Jane Fairfax he couldn't quite get his tongue around it so he called me "Sky" and I've been Sky ever since – even to my family. Well, except for Mama and Daddy and Grandpa Mac and Grandma Phoebe.

I wanted to get Gary back to his parents as soon as possible but I had no idea where they were. However, at this point, I was blessing Grandpa Mac and Uncle Rob and the others who'd taught me how to track. After a couple of minutes of looking around I found the trail Gary had left in his wanderings. I went back to the rock I'd left him sitting on and took him by the hand. We hadn't gone too far before I realized that the poor little guy was too tuckered to walk any more. He was starting to lag behind even though he was holding my hand. I have to give the little guy credit though – he didn't fuss or anything – he just started slowing down. After a couple of minutes I stopped and picked him up. He wrapped his arms around my neck and put his head on my right shoulder. After yawning a couple of times he was sound asleep. I just shifted his weight a little to get a better grip on him and started walking again.

About half an hour later I heard someone calling "Gary" from somewhere to the west of where I was walking. A few minutes later I was in hailing distance. A young couple answered me. The woman, her long blonde hair in a ponytail, reached out anxiously to take Gary from my arms. Her blue eyes were teary as she asked me if her son were ok. His dark haired father asked me where I'd found him.

It didn't take me long to explain but I left out the part about the snake. I figured they'd been worried enough. However when the little guy roused he told his parents about getting "losted" and following the rabbit and then about the snake.

His mama like to have fainted when she heard about that "close encounter" and even his dad looked a bit pale. Neither of them could thank me enough. After Gary fell asleep again I walked the Hobsons back to their campsite and issued a few warnings about snakes and stuff. Gary was napping in the tent when my brothers came riding up on their horses leading Major my own horse. Gary woke up about the time they arrived. His dad caught him as he started to run toward them but when he saw the boys he got real shy and hid behind his dad. The three of us issued an invitation for them to visit us the next day and I drew Bernie a map and wrote directions down on a piece of paper besides.

Before we left my new little friend gave me a hug and a big juicy kiss for saving him from the snake. I could hardly keep from crying I was so happy. Of course, my brothers had to tease me about it. I guess they had it figured out already that he was going to be my little buddy. I just ignored them.

At the dinner table that night I told Mama and Daddy all about him right down to the "puppy dog" eyes of brownish green.

The next morning the Hobsons arrived bright and early. I ended up taking care of Gary all day because he was very shy around my parents and Mama knew he'd be bored around the grown ups. So I showed him my rabbits, introduced him to my collie by the name of Rob Roy (incidentally, Rob Roy was named for Rob Roy MacGregor the famous "outlaw" of Scottish history – a man so well known by his contemporaries that no physical description of him ever appeared on a wanted poster) and to my horse Major. I took him for a ride through the woods and pointed out the blue jays and the cardinals and told him how to tell the difference between male and female.

After lunch I took him upstairs to my room to take a nap. He fell in love with my collection of stuffed animals on sight. I had teddy bears, dogs, cats, a pony or two and various others including this silly stuffed monkey that I won at the town carnival the year before. Gary chose the monkey for his naptime companion. Hugging that silly thing he went right to sleep. Rob Roy elected to sleep on the floor near my bed instead of going back outside – he'd already decided he loved Gary.

When the Hobsons got ready to leave Gary came out of the house carrying my monkey. His mom tried to make him give it back but he wasn't about to let go of "Vinnie". I told Lois he was welcome to the silly thing. I wasn't that crazy about it. It was just something I'd won, and rather easily at that, at a carnival.

Little did I know when they left that day that I'd soon see them again. You see Daddy's always been kinda fiddle footed. He's always had an urge to go places and see things. So when the government decided to close the lab he was working at Daddy started looking around for a place to move to. A farm of his own rather than one controlled by his employer. He could experiment with different crops as he saw fit and no one could tell him "no". What a surprise it was when he came home from a weekend away and told us he'd found a place – in Hickory, Indiana. I was thrilled. Like Daddy, I kinda have itchy feet and besides I'd been sort of depressed since the Hobsons left for home. Gary had quickly stolen my heart and I missed him after they were gone.

By the end of July Daddy was ready to move us to our new home. We were to arrive at the beginning of August so that the boys and I could get settled before school started.

The big day arrived and we moved on. It took us a couple of days because we had to stop and let the horses stretch their legs once in a while. When we did arrive at our new home Lois and Bernie were expecting us but they'd kept it a secret from Gary. The first of many with mixed results.

Daddy put me in charge of the animals and their gear. Once they were settled into their new home, their feed and all the saddles and such put away Mama sent me over to the Hobsons. Gary, not quite five, was sitting on the stairs in the front of the house watching and waiting. When he saw me coming his beautiful eyes got really wide and he more or less literally launched himself off the stairs at me. I laughed when he gave me a big hug but then wriggled out of my grasp and started pulling me toward the door yelling for his Mom.

A very excited little boy soon had permission to come to our farm because - in his words - Rob Roy and Major "needed" him. Mama had figured he'd be too excited to wait. So he spent the day helping me and playing with Rob Roy until we went to supper at his house. Nothing else would do when we got there but for me to sit next to him. When it got to be his bedtime it was me he wanted to help him put his pjs on and read him a story before he went to sleep. I soon became his regular babysitter and spent many nights there while his folks went to dinner or a movie or something.

That fall I started Junior High, Jamie was a sophomore in High School and Alan started his first year of law school. Gary started pre-school and was quickly the darling of the teachers because of his looks and his shy demeanor. At that point in his life Gary still didn't like girls. Just let one of the little girls in his class show any interest in him and he'd go running. The only "girls" permitted to be part of his life were our mothers and me. One day the teacher, Miss Jean Crane, asked Gary's class to tell about their best friends. Some of them told about older siblings or their dads or a grandparent. Gary lost his shyness about speaking in front of the class long enough to tell them about me and how we met.

Disaster struck when he was through. There was this kid named Jack Wallace in Gary's class. He was taller and heavier and had a tendency to be a bully just like his older sister who was in my History class. Jack started picking on Gary as soon as he was through talking. He declared that I wasn't for real and even if I was no girl would ever touch a snake or have anything to do with a "shrimp" like Gary.

Poor little guy! He was so upset at Jack's bullying. No amount of assurances from Miss Crane could calm him down. He was still crying when Lois picked him up at school. When they got home he turned down his Mom's offer of a snack and ran up to his room to throw himself on his bed hugging Vinnie and crying his eyes out. When Lois couldn't calm him down she called my house to see if I was available to talk to him.

I biked over as quickly as I could and went straight up to his room to talk to him. Entering his room I had to step over a few matchbox cars and stuff he had littering the floor. Gary wasn't crying as hard but he was still upset.

I crossed the room and went to sit on his bed. Then I pulled him onto my lap and hugged him and kissed the top of his head. I told him what his mom had told me. What I didn't tell him was that I was angry with Jack whom I suspected had been egged on by his sister Margaret. Margaret was in my History class and never did a day go by but she had some comment about my nickname or how tall and skinny I was. It didn't bother me but I wasn't a five-year-old. It didn't take long for Gary to calm down once he had my reassurance that we were really friends and would always be friends.

When I went home that night I pleaded with Mama and Daddy to let me skip school or at least a couple of classes so I could go to school with Gary and prove my existence to his class. Just because he and his mom and dad knew I was real didn't mean that Jack's torment didn't hurt Gary. Mama and Daddy both harbored a soft spot for Gary themselves and understood how hurt he was by what had been said. They readily agreed because the first two classes I had the next day were my two best classes and I was passing them easily.

Next morning, bright and early, I picked Gary up at his house and walked with him to school carrying my book bag, lunch and another bag – the contents of which I kept secret from Gary all the way to school.

Miss Crane welcomed me to the class. When we first got there Gary could scarcely tear himself away from my side. Jack wasn't in class just yet and my poor little buddy was apprehensive. Jack really had the little guy buffaloed. The rest of the class was just as scared of him.

When Jack finally did come in, ten minutes late, he swaggered to his seat confident of his position in the class and confident that he was right about the "shrimp". A few minutes later Miss Crane told the class who I was. There had been a lot of curious looks as the children had arrived. Their parents suspected why I was there. I heard years later that many of them were hoping I'd take the Wallaces down a peg or two.

Well you could have heard a pin drop as I told those kids about how I met Gary in the mountains near my old home. The girls squealed when I described that big ole rattler and the boys' eyes got very wide. All except Jack's. He made some snide remark about "shrimps', sissies and girls so I told him to ask his sister about the black eye and the fat lip she was sporting. Like my mama I never started a fight but I sure have finished a few. I got even better at it after a few lessons with Washo when I was living in Texas. I'll tell you more about that later.

Gary was as surprised as the other kids when I pulled out a snakeskin and the rattles I had taken off that snake I killed the day I found him lost in the mountains. He was a little afraid and I reckon I don't blame him. Rattlesnakes are pretty scary even from a distance. And when you're only five years old they're even scarier. Before I left that schoolroom I gave the children a little nature lesson on how to tell a poisonous snake from a non-poisonous snake making sure they understood that some snakes are helpful to farmers because they eat insects and rats and mice that can damage or destroy valuable crops.

When I was through Miss Crane thanked me for coming and I left after saying good-bye to the class. I knew Gary was a lot happier and Jack Wallace might think twice before making any more of his stupid observations. I got to school just in time for my Biology class. At lunchtime I called Lois to let her know how it had gone at Gary's school. I assured her that Gary was just fine when I left.

Late summer gave way to fall. On September 17 I turned thirteen and Gary turned five. Our parents planned a joint barbecue and birthday party for their "twins". I got riding clothes and stationery, an Osmond brothers album and money. Gary got a license plate for his new bike from me plus some new books, clothes, matchbox cars (like he didn't already have enough – you couldn't set foot in his room without stepping on or over at least a dozen of them) plus a baseball cap and a ball and glove (that was Jamie and Alan who would soon spend almost as much of their spare time teaching him how to throw as his dad, Bernie would).

In the fall we gathered the leaves all the maple and horse chestnut trees dropped. For a few days we'd rake, jump into the piles, throw them up in the air yelling "Happy New Year" (we were just kids you know), make blueprint type outlines of houses and finally gather them in piles for bonfires. We introduced Gary to the joys of listening to the chestnuts popping in the bonfires. One of my favorite things about the fall was the changing colors of the maple leaves, the smell of bonfires and fireplace fires and listening to the chestnuts popping.

When winter snows came there were hikes and sledding and skiing. And snow angels (Gary was always better at those than I was). We found a couple of really good hills for sledding and we'd go coasting for hours with Gary and his friends from school as well as some of our own new friends. When we were through sledding, tobogganing, skiing or whatever and we needed to dry out and warm up we'd head to one house or another for hot chocolate. At our house Daddy would often have a nice fire going in the fireplace and we'd sit around with our cocoa and some cookies. More often than not Gary would fall asleep and one of us would have to bundle him up and take him home or we'd have to call his parents and Bernie would come after him.

Lot of nights, if Bernie and Lois were going to be out really late, I'd bring my sleeping bag and pillow, clear a spot on the floor and spread it out next to Gary's bed. Rob Roy insisted on accompanying me and would sleep at the foot of the bed or between Gary and me. Next morning we'd be up bright and early feasting on Lois's blueberry pancakes.

In the spring I reveled in the sights and sounds and colors of emerald green grass, green leaves on the maple, hickory and willow trees. Bright purple crocuses pushing their brave heads up before it was quite warm enough for the other flowers. Red and pink geraniums. Tulips of all colors. Mama was particularly fond of red and yellow tulips and always planted some around the house. Violets grew in profusion in our yard as well. The rushing sound of the nearby creek swollen with melted snow. The sight and sound of returning songbirds such as the endangered Kirtland's warbler and game birds like turkeys and quail – I can still hear the cries of "bob-white, bob-white" as I wandered through the woods and field. I was happy to find out that cardinals were as common in Indiana as they were in Kentucky. I'd've missed seeing and hearing them.

I remained a tomboy – still am in fact – disdaining the pretty dresses most girls wore for dungarees or cutoffs with loafers or sneakers on my feet. Fancy dresses would play very little part in my life until I started dating when I was fifteen or sixteen and more so when I met my future husband.



Summer came and Jamie, though he was supposed to be more mature, decided that we needed a Tarzan swing over the pond on our farm. So he took some of his paper route money and bought a length of rope about eight feet long and tied it to the limb of the tree overhanging the pond. He wouldn't let any of us try it until he was satisfied that it was safe. Thereafter it was a mad scramble as we all jockeyed to have our turn. The little guys (and girls) were not allowed to do it on their own. One of us bigger kids had to do it with them.

Baseball games sprung up on the fields and playgrounds. That was in the days before tee ball so the little ones that wanted to play had to learn from the older kids. By the time Gary was old enough for Little League he had a head start on some of the other kids. Jamie and Alan have always been baseball fans and they were more than happy to have a "little brother" around to work with. I was already as good as they were – probably even better – so having Gary around to work with was a real treat.

I was an inveterate tree climber. I loved getting up in the trees and surveying the neighborhood. A few times I put baby birds back in their nests. The parents knew I wouldn't harm their nests or their families otherwise they wouldn't have allowed me near the nest and they probably would have abandoned it and their family.

Later that second summer I started having sore throats almost every week so Mama dragged me off to see Uncle Eric Fairfax who had settled in a Hickory a couple of years before we did. Uncle Eric was one of several doctors in town and he was the reason I decided to go into medicine myself. Uncle Eric gave me a good looking over and decided my trouble was tonsillitis and I'd have to have my tonsils out. It turned out to be the first of two brief hospital stays.

While I was in for my tonsillectomy I started studying ASL – American Sign Language. It enabled me to communicate without always having paper and pencil handy. It would stand me in good stead very soon – one of my classmates was deaf. I was the first one to recognize her disability for what it was and we became good friends.



When I came home Jamie and Alan took turns with Mama seeing that I had all the ice cream I could eat. Gary, who would start Kindergarten, was there as well fetching ice cream and cold water. With the boys and Daddy working and Mama looking after me it was Gary who entertained Rob Roy and brought Major, Jubal and Noelle special treats and gave them lots of attention too.

I recovered quickly from that and got through the fall and winter without incident. We had a lot of snow and rain that winter and a couple of ice storms. Sometimes it seemed like we'd never dry out or warm up. We all had minor bruises and most if not all, of the little guys like Gary had scraped knees from minor spills on the icy sidewalks or chills from being caught in the rain or heavy wet snow but none of them was very badly hurt or got very sick.

That next spring disaster struck me again – I'm just glad it was warm weather or I'd have been really miserable. You see that was the spring I broke my right ankle and Gary, my little buddy, was more or less responsible.

Gary never suffered from a lack of curiosity. In the year and a half I'd known him he'd listened to my lessons about snakes, birds and other wildlife. He watched me climb trees to look into bird's nests and get the neighbor's cat down. Little did I know what that would lead to.

One day, about a week or so before school ended Gary, about to start first grade that fall, decided he wanted one of the abandoned bird's nests for his room. Before he got to be a sports nut he collected all kinds of odds and ends – rocks, feathers and leaves among them. Why he suddenly had to have this particular bird's nest I don't know. His mom was in the house, his dad was at work and I was just coming back from running some errands for my mother. Gary took it into his head to be disobedient and climbed that tree anyway. His parents and I, and my brothers too, had told him that the birds had abandoned that tree because it had been damaged by the storms over that winter and the last storm we'd had had left it even weaker. He wasn't to even think about climbing that tree for any reason.



Normally he was a very obedient little boy. This time though his rare occurrence of disobedience would have serious consequences. He got a chair from the porch to help him reach the lowest branch and then somehow managed to scramble up into the tree. He climbed about three quarters of the way up the tree before he realized just how far off the ground he really was. When he looked down from his lofty perch he got really scared and started crying for his mom. But she couldn't hear him because she was down cellar running laundry.

I'm not sure how long he was stuck up there before I came along. I heard him crying but couldn't find him at first. When I did finally figure out where he was I was half tempted to leave him up there just to teach him a lesson but I couldn't bear to hear him crying so pitifully. I put my sacks down and walked over to the tree. I didn't need the chair to reach that lowest branch so I moved it out of the way. Then I just reached up and caught hold of the branch and swung up into a sitting position on it while I got hold of a branch further up to pull myself up into a standing position. Then I proceeded to climb up to the branch where Gary was sitting crying his eyes out. He was so happy to see me that I just couldn't stay mad at him. I gave him a little hug and calmed him down. He was too scared to climb down on his own and, truth be told, I was afraid to let him so I made him wrap his arms around my neck and proceeded to carry him down piggy back.

To this day I'm not sure exactly what happened. I thought I knew exactly which branches were safe to use. But about ten feet from the ground a branch broke under our combined weight and we plummeted to the ground. Gary, somehow, was shaken and scared but unhurt. I wasn't so lucky. My full weight, plus Gary's, came crashing down on my right ankle and I felt it buckle. I wasn't too concerned at first since I'd gotten the wind knocked out of me when I landed. At first I was more concerned about Gary. But when I felt the pain in my ankle I knew I was in trouble. Gary sat there looking at me like he knew he was in trouble. He would be soon enough but right now I needed his help. I told him to run and find his mother. When Lois came out of the house and saw me with my leg twisted under me and blinking back tears I'm not sure whose face was the palest – hers, Gary's or mine. She quickly ran back into the house and called the fire department and my house. When she came back out she brought a blanket to throw over me to ward off the shock she knew might come. Looking at her young son with a frown on her face she told him she would deal with him later.

Mama and Alan arrived around the same time as the ambulance. The EMTs (there were no paramedics at that time) put a splint on my ankle and loaded me into the ambulance. Mama rode with me while Alan took my packages home and then drove to the hospital promising Lois he would call as soon as they knew what was what.

At the hospital the x-rays revealed what I had suspected – my right ankle was broken. Fortunately it was a clean break and I would be fine. I wasn't so sure about Gary – his mom was pretty mad at him for disobeying her in regard to that tree. He wound up spending the next eight weeks running around doing things such as getting me drinks and snacks rather than playing with his friends.

Later that year Gary's mom took him to the library to get his first library card. Miss Flowers was the Librarian even back then and boy did she terrify all the little kids. You had to be so careful with any book you took out because it was like she was entrusting you with her children or something. Anyone under the age of ten was deemed untrustworthy period. They were watched extremely closely by Miss Flowers' eagle eye. Between the ages of ten and sixteen you weren't watched quite as closely but you were given stern warnings of what would happen if you damaged one of "her" books. After the age of sixteen most residents of Hickory had dealt with her long enough to ignore her or get around her but many a Hickory Township teenager was still terrified of her. My cornball brothers though would just smile at her and pour on the charm and suddenly she was putty in their hands. I heard from Lois that Gary was so scared of Miss Flowers that his hand shook when he tried to sign the application for a library card. If she could have had him sign it at home instead of at the library she would have. But Library policy required that he sign it in Miss Flowers' presence. She had the poor kid so buffaloed that it was years before he'd set foot in that library unless one of his parents or I or my family went with him. Personally I let whatever lecture Miss Flowers felt obligated to make go in one ear and out the other all the while letting her believe I was really listening. I seldom, if ever, had a book out longer than I was supposed to without renewing it and I never lost or damaged one. I also spent a good deal of time steering youngsters to good reading material and spent a lot of money on books for the library. But though I was a rare exception I wasn't completely above suspicion with Miss Flowers. No, no, no. I was too good to be true. I shudder to think what the current generation of Hickory students has to go through with Miss Flowers who is now in complete charge of the library. Probably the same terrifying ordeal that at least two other generations have gone through.

When he got into the second grade Gary had a teacher whose idea of entertaining the families was to have the children do skits. Gary wound up playing a teapot. I was in High School studying History and Chemistry and Physiology in preparation for my planned career. I also joined the Glee club and the orchestra. I had taken up guitar and violin after a couple of years of piano lessons to learn the basics. Mama insisted I take piano first in order to get a good musical foundation. When I got into Harvard Medical School a couple of years later I dropped the music. I was determined to get the best marks I could and I didn't want any distractions.

When I was sixteen I started dating. At thirteen, fourteen and fifteen it was all group things. Mama and Daddy only had that one rule other than no smoking, drinking or sex and I had no trouble at all obeying those rules. I knew they were for my protection and I was underage. In a small town like Hickory you could find yourself with a reputation, good or bad, in no time if you weren't careful. And those things didn't interest me anyway.

My dates had to "pass inspection" with at least five people – Mama, Daddy, Alan, Jamie and Gary. Gary doesn't remember much about the guys I dated which is understandable – he was only eight – but any guy I went with had to get his approval as well. Not only because he's like a brother to me but also because it's hard to fool kids about your personality. They can sense when you're faking an interest in them.

I played basketball and softball on the Varsity teams all four years. Having two older brothers and a bunch of cousins and friends to work out with was a big help. We always had a game of some sort going on. If it wasn't at the farm it was at Uncle Eric's.

I was considered somewhat of a paradox in High School. I was an athlete that didn't hang out with the other jocks and I was a musician on top of that. I was a serious student who didn't just study and not have any fun. Neither did I hang out with the so-called campus beauties though I was considered to be as good-looking as any of them. I treated all my fellow students the same. Well maybe there were a couple of exceptions like Margaret Wallace but for the most part I treated everyone the same. And no upperclassman got away with pushing any underclassman in my presence, or me, around just because of their so-called special status. I wouldn't put up with that nonsense and they soon knew it.

At my Junior Prom I wore a midnight blue gown with a high square neckline and a long skirt. A simple gold cross and gold low-heeled sandals completed my outfit. My date, a boy I dated during my sophomore and junior years, wore a lighter blue tux. Because of my "rebellious" ways I was not picked for Prom Queen or her court but it didn't matter. I found that group to be totally self absorbed and stuck up – they weren't my cup of tea by a long shot.

Senior year came and went almost in a blur. I dated a few guys casually but no one boy seriously. I had too much on my mind. Uncle Eric had let me start working in his office to gain a little practical knowledge before I went off to med school.

Graduation day arrived on the first Sunday of June in 1975. Mama and Daddy, Jamie and Alan, the Hobsons, Uncle Eric and his family – they were all there for the big moment. After the ceremony we had a huge barbecue to celebrate. My gifts included stationery, a pen and pencil set, a new tape recorder with some blank tapes and a beautiful silver heart shaped pendant from Gary and his parents. It was inscribed "To Schuyler with love from Bernie, Lois and Gary". I still wear it to this day. It's a very special gift from three very special friends.

I spent the rest of that summer working with Uncle Eric and getting ready for school. Mama and I went shopping in Indianapolis and at the local malls too for clothes, bedding, textbooks etc. But I still found time to have fun. Knowing how much I would miss Gary when I left in a few weeks I took him by himself, to the carnival that came to town. We gorged ourselves on hot dogs, soda, popcorn and that wonderful pink, blue or green airy confection known as cotton candy. We rode the merry-go-round and the Scrambler. I had to go on the Ferris wheel alone since even at nine Gary's fear of heights had already developed. We went to the shooting gallery where I won one of their biggest prizes – a four-foot tall teddy bear which I still have to this day.

Gary and I both won prizes at the booth where you have to knock over the heavy bottles with baseballs. Even at that age I could tell that Gary would wind up being an excellent ball player. He had a good eye and a strong arm to go with it. I'm not sure the guy running the booth was too happy with us. At the rate we were going we'd have cleaned him out in less than an hour. I have a feeling that the person sitting in the dunking booth was just as glad to see us leave. Between us we dunked him about a dozen times.

Bernie built Gary a tree house that summer. Why I don't know. You'd think that he'd have realized that his son had a profound fear of heights and know enough not to force the kid. But, much as I love Bernie, I have to admit that there are times when he's more of a kid than his son is or was.

Bernie's never going to live down the day he and Gary got stuck up there because I'm never going to let him. Gary got up there ok but when Bernie got hold of the floor of the tree house to pull himself up and in the old rope he used to get up there snapped. If he hadn't had a good grip with his right hand, gotten a grip with his left hand and had a little help from Gary he would have fallen about fifteen feet. Who knows how badly he might have been hurt. Instead he had to suffer the humiliation of being stuck fifteen or more feet above the ground with no low hanging branches. For Gary though it was terror and panic. He didn't think they'd ever get down and it didn't help that his dad assured him that he'd work out some sort of strategy. Even at not quite ten years of age he knew what his dad's strategies were like and the one word that usually described them was disastrous.

Like the previous fall when Gary joined a Pop Warner football team for Junior Pee Wees. They were only kids just learning the game and they were supposed to be learning good sportsmanship. The parents of the players on both teams were more into the rivalry than the kids. The kids just wanted to have fun but some of the dads decided that all's fair in love and football and the next thing the league official knew several mascots including a bulldog and a goat were missing. The league wound up with a bunch of unhappy little kids and certain mothers threatened certain children and/or fathers if those mascots didn't turn up where they belonged soon. I don't know how they did it but somehow Bernie was given custody of the goat that was the mascot of the rival team and kept it hidden for three days. He might have gotten away with it longer but for the fact that it got into the house and trashed several rooms including the kitchen and the living room. There was broken glass, water, flowers and greenery as well as the contents of the trash can spilled all over the kitchen floor. In the living room magazines, books, slipcovers and upholstery were damaged by the hungry goat. When it managed to escape from the empty house, through the back door, which hadn't closed properly, it started in on Lois's clean laundry and her late blooming flowers. The end result was that poor Gary got suspended from the team for something he wasn't responsible for and had to replant his mother's flowerbeds by himself. Even Lois thought he was guilty at first. Bernie got hit in the pocketbook so to speak for he had to replace all the damaged items and pay a big fine to the league for his actions. The other mascot thief fared little better.

No wonder Gary was unsure of his dad's strategy! They wound up being rescued by Jamie and me. We passed by on horseback and seeing their predicament got one of Bernie's ladders and some rope. Jamie held the ladder while I climbed up with some new rope to tie to the tree limb closest to the floor of the tree house and I helped Gary, who was white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf, climb down the ladder to his mother's waiting arms. Bernie should have dropped dead on the spot from the look Lois gave him. Jamie and I were smart enough to hold our laughter in until we were where they wouldn't hear us.

A week before the dorms opened for freshmen to move in and have their orientation Daddy and I loaded my boxes into the station wagon with a little help from Gary. One look at his woebegone face and I knew I'd better have a talk with my "baby brother" so he understood that I wasn't deserting him. I had promised him five years earlier that we would be "forever friends" and I wanted him to know that just because I wouldn't be around all the time now didn't mean I was going to make all kinds of new friends and forget all about him. I gave him a big hug as I promised him I'd call or write him every week to see how he was doing and we'd go places together whenever I got home. And I did. For the next four years I would call Hickory every weekend. On school breaks of a week or longer I would fly home to se my family and friends.

Keeping my promise to Gary we saw a few movies, went to the circus and a couple of museums. If my break was too short to go home I would go sightseeing somewhere in Massachusetts or maybe New Hampshire or Vermont and send Gary a postcard or a souvenir or both. The first school pennant I bought was mailed to Hickory for Gary to put up on his wall if he wanted.

When I got home that first summer I couldn't get over how much Gary had grown in those few short months. He'd lost all traces of baby fat and was growing into a gangling young man with the promise of being a six-footer when he reached his full height. Since I'm six feet myself I figured I might just have a little competition in the height department. It would take another couple of years yet but I would be proved right when he got to be an inch taller than me.

That same summer he made a new friend when Chuck Fishman moved to Hickory. Chuck was this skinny little boy about half a foot shorter than Gary with brown hair, blue eyes and a craving for more money that he usually had on him. But he was like the Tom Sawyer of Hickory, Indiana. If he could get what he wanted he was happy and if he got it without actually working for it so much the better. The Monopoly games we all played were practice for what he'd do in the future. And while I never actually played Pit with him if he played it the way he played Monopoly I'm not at all surprised he ended up being a stockbroker. He had all the makings of one, for better or worse, when I first met him.

The summer passed and I set off for Massachusetts two weeks early so I could stop off in Texas to visit my grandparents and other MacGregor relatives. Grandpa Mac owns a fair sized ranch but he also has a Wild West show. I would catch him and Grandma Phoebe during one of their brief layovers at home to pick up new stock and replace sick or injured stock.

September came and I settled back into the routine of classes, work and studying. Now that I was somewhat familiar with the area I would hop into my car with an atlas and a list of places to visit. It was during my sophomore year that I met Mark Bradley – a good looking, charming young man who turned out to be flawed in a major way. He drank too much, goofed off in class and out of class and had a major ego and control problem.

Initially I discounted the rumors I heard about him. I chalked it up to talk from jealous former girlfriends – he had somewhat of a reputation as a ladies man on campus but since I wasn't serious about him I didn't pay attention. Then came the night he tried to get rough with me. I don't mean that he tried to talk me or force me into bed with him but he tried to push me around. I'm not a drinker but Mark was and still is. And he was jealous besides. The third time we went out together I saw some friends from school – guys and gals – and struck up a conversation with them. Mark was seething. It seems that I was supposed to only pay attention to him and nobody else when we were out together. He made a big mistake when he slapped me. I'd put up with his "bossiness" at first foolishly chalking it up to nerves or excitement or something on his part. But on the third date his "bossiness" got out of hand. I'd never told him we were going steady because I wasn't ready for a steady relationship. I never told him that I wasn't seeing other guys either. He just took it for granted, without ever asking, that I was seeing him and him alone.

I wanted to get my degree and get an internship and a residency in a good hospital before I settled down to that kind of relationship. I guess you could say I saw red when he pulled me away from my friends and tried to make me leave with him. His biggest mistake was in telling me I couldn't talk to my friends while I was with him and accused me of "cheating" on him. Let me tell you, it was like waving the proverbial red flag in front of a bull. When he forced a kiss on me, an act he would repeat when our paths crossed again a few years later, I slapped him as hard as I could. When he tried again I slapped him again. When he got mad and slapped me I punched him in the stomach. My brothers had made sure I knew how to defend myself. When Mark recovered from the blows to his body and his ego I told him we were through. I was now wise to him and understood the stories I'd heard about him and there was no way I'd ever go out with him again – ever! Then I rejoined my friends, a little shaken and very angry, but determined to show him that I mean what I had said. Outside of class I wouldn't see him again for a couple of years as he was suspended for excessive drinking and fighting.

Before going home for Christmas that year I did a lot of my shopping in the stores and mall around Boston. My favorite place, outside of the malls in Framingham and Natick (two towns about fifteen miles north of Boston), was Faneueil Hall Marketplace. Faneuil Hall and Quincy Marketplace were and are home to some pretty pricey restaurants and shops but there were plenty of places to buy cheap souvenirs and postcards. Then there was my favorite restaurant in the city – Durgin Park.

Located on the upper level of the market place Durgin Park is an old establishment that has been around since the time of my grandfathers or great-grandfathers. Initially it was opened to service the vendors in the old Haymarket Square area. Except for the recently added Peter Faneuil Room it's not a fancy place – which is fine by me. Instead, in the main part of the restaurant, you sit at long tables with fellow tourists, business executives and local merchants. The tables are covered with red and white-checkered tablecloths and your meals start with a pitcher of ice water and plates of cornbread with butter. One of their specialties is Boston Baked Beans. Nowadays you can read about the restaurant on the Internet. Back then it was word of mouth and the phone book that led to such discoveries. I haven't been back there for a while but I hear you can buy bean pots and baseball caps advertising the restaurant as well as cornbread mix. Sounds good to me. I'll have to get back there some time in the near future.

I bought Boston tee shirts, sweatshirts and caps for Gary and Chuck. I bought a New England cookbook for Lois, dress shirts for Daddy and Alan (and ties to go with them) and a Celtics jacket for Jamie the basketball fan. Growing up in Kentucky we hadn't had a local professional sports team to root for so he'd adopted the Celtics as his favorite team and convinced me to be a fan as well. I was able to find a good book on baseball history for Bernie. Jamie, Alan and I had chipped in to get mama a nice winter coat with a hat, scarf and gloves. I purchased the hat, scarf and gloves before I left for home. Jamie and Alan recruited Aunt Kate to help with the purchase of the coat.

When I got home I found that little had changed in Hickory itself. The Christmas Parade had been held the beginning of the month and I'd missed it but there were lots of parades, fairs and festivals and the like in Massachusetts I could and did attend when I had time.

Even in the three short months I'd been away this time Gary seemed to have sprouted up like the proverbial weed. I jokingly told his mother to put a brick on his head before he got any taller. It was amazing how much he'd grown. Chuck, on the other hand, still seemed like a little pixie. I knew even then that he'd always be smaller than most of his friends. I figured that's why he schemed and connived so much – it was his way of compensating or maybe over compensating for his shorter stature. Both boys were getting good grades though Gary did struggle a little with Math. It was a little humiliating when his mom's best friend Betty Callahan bragged about her darling daughter Renee. Renee was pretty much a math prodigy and that had its drawbacks. It tended to frighten a lot of the other kids away. I think Renee ended up being somewhat of a loner because of it.

Christmas break was over before I knew it. I'd spent the time with my family, went skating and sledding with the youngsters in town like Gary, Chuck and their friends and spent some more time working with Uncle Eric in his office. When summer came and he thought I'd been working too hard he'd be making me take time to just relax. So I'd sit or stretch out on the porch swing with a good book. If it were warm with a soft breeze and the sounds of birds singing and bees buzzing then, more often than not, I would doze off in my peaceful surroundings. My peaceful respite wouldn't last for long as Gary and Chuck, with or without some of their other friends, would show up with a feather or a piece of grass or even a squirt gun and tickle or squirt me until I was wide awake and chasing them until all three of us were breathless from running and laughing. Mama just shook her head at the sight of her young adult daughter frolicking with two preteen boys and their chums. She says that even at that age I was still kind of coltish. But she says maybe that's a good thing since I became a General Practioner and I have patients of all ages.

That summer flew by and I started back to Massachusetts after saying good-bye to family and friends. With Chuck around now I knew that Gary wasn't quite as lonely as he had been the first year I was gone. This time I stopped off to visit family and friends in Kentucky on the way. It helped to have my trips planned this way because I could stay with them and save money on motel bills and meals.

Back at school I settled into the normal routine of study, class and work. Some of our professors made arrangements for us to visit the hospital in the Longwood Medical District. It was a good learning experience for us.

My last two years in college flew by and soon I found myself looking for a good hospital to do my residency and internship. After some investigation I applied to, and was accepted at St. Matthew's Hospital in Dallas, Texas. It had a good reputation, was far enough from home for me to maintain my independence but reasonably close to my grandparents and several aunts and uncles and their families.

The first Sunday of June in 1979 saw my parents, Jamie, Alan, his fiancée Kim, Grandpa Mac, Grandma Phoebe and a couple of aunts and uncles, among them Uncle Eric, in the audience as I received my degree from Harvard Medical School. The Hobsons weren't able to afford the trip at that time but they had sent a card and a gift certificate with which to purchase something for my new home in Texas. Happy as I was to see my family member and soon to be sister-in-law, I missed seeing the Hobsons. To hear Lois's motherly/big sisterly scolding about eating right or one of Bernie's silly remarks or to see my "baby brother" would have made the day perfect. But it was not to be. I'd move to Texas and not see Gary and his parents for several years.

The move was pretty uneventful. All my personal belongings from my dorm room were loaded into Grandpa Mac's truck or my car. Uncle Rob would help me find an apartment not too far from St. Matthew's. Little did I know what was in store for me when I settled in.

I was working in the Emergency Room one day when a senior Ranger brought a young Texas Ranger. A car had struck the young man and though he insisted he was fine the older man had insisted that he be checked out. Ranger Cordell Walker was not the kind of man you argued with if you knew what was good for you.

I was the lucky one – no I'd have to say now that I was blessed – to take him on as a patient. His name was Jonathan Nicholas Bradley and he would soon – within a year in fact – become my husband. Jonathan's brown eyes, smile, charm and manners were evident even as I examined him. Both of us were instantly smitten and Jon came in for a lot of ribbing from his fellow Rangers for acting so goofy. Walker came in for his share of harassment too. His beloved Uncle Ray, the man who had raised him after his parents were murdered, was always on his case about settling down, marrying and having a family of his own. I was privileged to have counted Uncle Ray among my friends and still consider "Washo" – Cherokee for Lone Eagle according to Uncle Ray – as a friend.

I took Jonathan to meet Grandpa Mac and Grandma Phoebe and the other Texas relatives. He, in turn, took me to meet his family. Imagine my shock when his younger brother turned out to be Mark Bradley – the guy I had dated while attending Harvard. It was no a pleasant reunion that's for sure. He was jealous and still angry with me and he tried to convince his brother of all kinds of lies. Thankfully Jonathan had no intentions of believing his stories or even investigating them. He tried to mollify Mark and reason with him – he even asked him to be his best man – but it was to no avail. Mark didn't even come to the wedding.

We drove to Hickory so that he could meet my family. Jamie had graduated from the Chicago Firefighter's Academy a few years earlier and had settled in the Chicago area. Alan had married Kim who was expecting twins any day. Both like Jonathan on sight though they did tease me about settling down instead of wandering. The Hobsons were away on a camping trip (thankfully not the near disaster the one that they were on when we met) so Jon never got to meet Gary or his parents.

We set the wedding date for July 10 when I would be almost twenty-three. Jon was a couple of years older. He entered into the wedding plans wholeheartedly. Walker was best man and Alexandra "Alex" Cahill, now Alex Cahill-Walker was my maid of honor. My brothers and a couple of cousins were ushers and bridesmaids as well as the flower girl and ring bearer.

I wore a floor length white satin gown with buttons down the back, white shoes without heels and a veil. I carried a bouquet of pink tea roses with greenery and baby's breath. My bridesmaids wore emerald green with gold accessories. During the ceremony my Aunt Beth sang The Carpenter's We've Only Just Begun while Uncle Rob sang The Wedding Song by Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary.

At the reception a DJ played a wide variety of music ranging from big band to contemporary. With such a diverse group in attendance we wanted something for everyone. The only black cloud or shadow on my day was that my surrogate family, the Hobsons, were unable to attend. Just two days before the wedding Gary came down with a severe case of German Measles. Later on I found out just how ill he'd been – he'd almost been hospitalized because of the fever he ran. Jonathan tried to console me (I'd wanted them to meet so badly) saying they'd meet some other time but it never happened. After a short honeymoon in Scotland we were back to work. Less than a year later Jonathan was dead – shot by thieves fleeing a jewelry store robbery.

On a bright sunny day in April of 1982 we had been married just under a year and we looked forward to our one-year anniversary. We planned on driving to Hickory to visit my family and friends. Jonathan had gone off duty and was on his way home when the call went out on a silent alarm coming from a jewelry store. Never one to shirk his civic duty of stay out of the line of fire (I swear Washo set the example for him) he responded and was shot and killed by one of the thieves as they fled the scene.

I happened to be off duty that day. I was home alone when Washo came to the door. When I saw his truck pull up I didn't think anything of it at first. In the short time that Jon and I had been married I'd become good friends with this somewhat old fashioned Ranger who was seventeen years my senior. But when I saw his face I knew something was wrong.

He broke the news to me as gently as he could. At the age of twenty-three after only nine months of marriage I was a widow. After being shot Jon had died en route to the hospital. Washo stayed with me until Alex arrived – he'd called her on the way. While Alex stayed with me and tried to comfort me Washo called my parents and grandparents and broke the news to them. Another Ranger had notified my in-laws. I don't know how I would have gotten through those dark days of planning and attending the funeral without Washo and my other friends. He was so worried about me that he made me go out to his ranch where he and his Uncle Ray would keep an eye on me until my parents and other family members arrived. It was Uncle Ray who coaxed me to eat when in the depths of my sorrow I would have ignored food altogether. It was Washo and Alex who picked my parents up at the airport and brought them out to the ranch. It was in Mama's arms that I collapsed and cried the healing tears and it was Daddy who guided me through the arranging of Jonathan's funeral. It was Washo though who arranged for a Ranger Honor Guard to bury my husband with full honors including a firing squad.

When it was all over, Mama, Daddy, my brothers, grandparents and other family members went back to their respective homes and I was on my own again. Not really alone though since I had my in-law (except for Mark) and the Rangers. My grandparents weren't always home but I was welcome to take refuge at their ranch if I needed to. Washo and Alex, bless them, took time out of their busy schedules to check up on me. They were at my side when Jon's parents died a year apart within three years of his murder.

I heard later from his current partner – Jimmy Trivette – that Washo had chased the men who shot my husband for ten miles before he lost them. It's ironic that he would be the one to nail them years later – in Illinois and he probably saved my life at the same time.

The weeks and years went on. I came out of my deep mourning and got involved in a lot of community service projects. I bounced back and forth between Texas and the Cherokee Reservation in Oklahoma. In June of 1983 I flew home to Hickory to see my surrogate little brother graduate from High School. The somewhat chubby child that had grown into a gangling adolescent was now a tall, good-looking young man about to venture away from home on his own for the first time. He would be attending college in Chicago to be near Genie Bertlatski – his girlfriend. As I watched him receive his diploma I think I just about burst with as much pride as his parents. Especially when the Rotary Club granted him their scholarship. If I'd only known what was in store for him I would have tried to find a way to protect him. He was always an affectionate and sensitive child and I didn't want to see him hurt – ever. He was so sensitive that he was afraid to tell me when he let Chuck talk him into letting him drive my new car (new used car technically) only to have Chuck lose control, scare themselves half to death along with some pedestrians and practically total it. He was afraid I'd want to strangle them or something. Truth be told I probably did entertain those thoughts at first but all Gary has to do is look at me with misery in his dark eyes and I melt instantaneously in to a puddle of goo. I never could resist those looks. A couple of days after Gary's graduation I hugged him good-bye and headed back to Texas. There I would stay for a few more years.

While working at the reservation I made the acquaintance of three men I'm proud to call "friend" – Sam Coyote and George Fox of the Reservation Police and White Eagle the Shaman. White Eagle taught me a lot of things about holistic and herbal medicine. I started a clinic there and saw to it that one of their own people would be able to carry on the work. I wanted no cultural clashes to prevent the people - the elders especially - from getting the medication or treatment they might need.

In 1983 my brother Jamie moved to Dallas. He set up housekeeping in an apartment not far from my small house and since he was a paramedic with the fire department we saw quite a bit of each other while we were working as well as when we weren't. He and Washo hit if off at once. Personally I think they hit it off too good. I suspect Washo talked Jamie into moving to Dallas so I had family close by. They both deny worrying about me that much.

Washo is a good friend and a man of many talents and some idiosyncrasies. Sent to Mexico to retrieve some fugitives he tells the Border Guard who stops him on the way back that he's "taking out the garbage". When he and Jimmy first met he deliberately mispronounced Trivette so that it came out "trivet". (Jimmy like Gary is an easy target for someone who likes to tease and I have to admit that I've rubbed it in about being the better chess player sometimes when I've played Jimmy. Gary gets teased about his looks.) Given a cell phone to use to summon help in case of an emergency he throws it out with the comment "dang thing don't work" when the battery goes dead. I'd love to know how much money he cost the Rangers with that little stunt. He frustrated the heck out of Jimmy with that attitude. He's a high level black belt in the martial arts - which he teaches to friends and school kids alike. He's an ex-Marine. (Pardon me brother Marines I forget myself – there's no such thing as an ex-Marine. Once a Marine always a Marine so they tell me.) He's half Cherokee and half white. He knew what I was going through when Jonathan was murdered because his parents were murdered – in front of his eyes- when he was no more than ten or twelve years old.

Washo's very quiet spoken but he's dangerous when he's riled. Somehow we took to each other right off. I love the stories I hear about him. I hear he and Alex didn't exactly hit it off on their first meeting. She was prosecuting a case (I don't remember what it was about) and he was so nonchalant on the witness stand about how he brought those guys in on his own – and there were four or five of them sitting there in the courtroom – she didn't believe he'd brought them, in on his own. She believed he was making it up. However, the guys she was prosecuting admitted somewhat shamefacedly I'd say, that he and he alone brought them in.

Even more entertaining to me are the stories C.D. Parker tells. C.D. is a retired (sort of) Ranger who owns a small bar and grill in Fort Worth. It's a hang out for the Rangers when they're off duty. C.D. is an older guy, probably in his fifties, who's supposed to be retired but he usually manages to get involved in whatever the Rangers are working on in one way or another. The thing is through that C.D. – and Jimmy both – have a tendency to exaggerate their importance and involvement in the cases they work or worked on. Washo has a difficult time to restrain himself when they start talking. Not me – I laugh my head off. When Washo starts teasing them

Or setting them up for the fall nobody can keep from laughing. That's the one of the reasons I love those guys so much. They're a lot of fun.

After Gary's graduation from High School I lost touch with him. He was never a great letter writer and he got worse as he got older. His Mom Lois would write or keep my parents up to date so I had a little bit of news now and then. But it would be fifteen years before I would see him again and it would be under rather strange and extremely dangerous circumstances that brought us back together.

Always restless and wanting to travel I finally left Texas a few years after Jon's death. I was in need of a change of scenery. A letter from a friend in Kentucky told of a need for a doctor who could stand up to stubborn hillbillies, miners and mine owners. So off I went leaving my brother and most of my friends behind. The one friend I didn't leave behind was Samuel Adams Delaney my new nurse. I met Sam at St. Matthew's. A darn good Registered Nurse who could handle the most difficult patients without losing his temper or his patience Sam is also a Golden Gloves Boxing champion. We became good friends in just a short space of time. He liked working with inner city and other underprivileged kids whether it be breaking up the gang fights, treating the sick and injured or teaching kids at a youth center how to box. Sam was invaluable to me in my work at the reservation. The children adored him but I must admit it could be confusing if I yelled Sam. He and Sam Coyote never knew which one I was calling unless I used their full names. Best of all Sam had the urge to travel too and the challenges that lay ahead of us in Kentucky were exactly what he liked. I celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday before we left. Washo and Alex gave me a silver and turquoise ring which I still wear. I suspect he got it from someone on the reservation. Uncle Ray gave me a beautiful concha belt. The children on the reservation gave me homemade gifts and toys to distribute to the miners' children. I was ready to bawl my eyes out and was having second thoughts about leaving but Uncle Ray told me to follow my heart and my heart was yearning to reach out to the children in the hills of Kentucky. They're not all as poor as singer Loretta Lynn's family was when she was growing up but Appalachia is filled with needy families in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia and I would bounce around the region for several years before spending two solid years in one place in Kentucky not far from where I grew up.

The one thing I got very tired of while I was in Kentucky was seeing half starved or poorly clothed children and treating knife wounds. Some of the cantankerous, irritable ant tempered mountain men I met thought that the only way to settle a dispute was with a knife. There were many times I was grateful for the martial arts lessons I'd had with Washo and that I had Sam whose boxing skills settled many a dispute in a hurry working by my side.

When Gary graduated from college it was my turn to miss out on a milestone. I came down with a case of pneumonia brought on, so Sam says, by spending too many hours in damp mines and poorly heated shacks that passed for houses in some areas. I was too sick to travel and Sam wouldn't have let me go anyway. I had to settle for sending a card and some money. I was sorry to miss it. I was so proud of him. The only thing that confused me was why he would take a job at a brokerage firm. I knew he was receiving a degree in business management but I just couldn't picture Gary wearing a suit and tie and happily trading in stocks and securities as his career.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard he'd gotten married a few years later. Apparently dreading his mother's "take charge attitude" he and Marcia Roberts were hastily married in front of a handful of witnesses, including Chuck, at a little chapel in Chicago. No muss no fuss and that's exactly what his marriage turned out to be. About three years later Marcia out and out dumped him with no warning. Just locked him out of the house and tossed him a suitcase of clothes and other belongings from a second floor window. No warning signs whatsoever. My heart ached for him because I knew he had to be hurting. He'd always wanted a wife and kids but apparently his wife, the hotshot up and coming lawyer, didn't. I wanted to be there for him but I'd left the country to work in Scotland for a few years. But our paths would soon cross again.

As much as Sam and I enjoyed our work in Appalachia we both wanted to see one of their own take over just as we had in Oklahoma at the reservation. When I got the letter from Uncle Angus describing the poverty of the people in his area I had the urge to pack up and move to my ancestral homeland. Sam didn't have to come with me. He could have found work anywhere seeing as he is an excellent nurse but he chose to stick with me. He didn't "want to break in a new doctor' to his way of doing things. Personally I think he spent too much time talking to Washo and Jamie and they talked him into staying with me because they thought I needed him to keep me out of trouble. Like I'm the one with the temper! Not hard – that's Jamie's problem for all he's a blond and not a redhead like our brother Alan or cousin Andrew.

Leaving the states and my immediate family behind we packed our clothes and some other personal belongings and headed for Scotland where for the next three years we would minister to the people of the Highlands.

Cold, windy and wet best describes the weather when Sam and I arrived in Scotland. Big, fat heavy snowflakes were falling from the sky soaking our hair, feet and pant legs and the boxes we were trying to load in to Uncle Angus' truck. Cardboard does not hold up well when it gets wet. Fortunately it was clothes and not books or something else that fell out of the box that disintegrated.

It didn't take Sam and me long to find places to live or a place to set up our clinic. I felt like I had stepped into the setting of a James Herriot book or a Scottish history book. The area we were in was wild and rugged with narrow, winding roads just like Herriot described. But we were in the Highlands not Yorkshire. A good Highlander would have probably laugh or sneer at a Yorkshireman's idea of a mountain. Sam and I, alone or together, loved to tramp the moors in a Scotch mist when the heather was in bloom. Thoroughly soaked and chilled but exuberant, with our batteries recharged, and our spirits lifted, we'd head back to one of our flats (that's an apartment to the uninitiated) and make ourselves some tea or hot chocolate.

Visiting the isolated farms could be enjoyable if we were there for pleasure. Emergencies on the other hand could be disastrous and a nightmare if they occurred far from running water and electricity or a decent road to transport the victims over. It was during those trips that I missed my paramedic brother Jamie but was glad that Sam was equal to just about any emergency. I often tease him these days that he reminds of Shiloh Irons from the Cheney Duvall books by Lynn and Gilbert Morris. Those books take place in the years immediately following the Civil War. Cheney Duvall is a lady doctor in her twenties from a well to do family in New York whose roots, on her mother's side are in the south – New Orleans to be exact. Shiloh, her nurse, is a young man searching, throughout most of the books, for his family history. He's also a former professional boxer who fought under the nickname of The Iron Man. Sam may be several inches shorter and several years older but they have several things in common – their hair color, their hobby and their profession. And a love of children and youth. Shiloh got his experience on the battlefields of the Civil War while Sam went to a good nursing school.

We spent three years in Scotland where we visited Rob Roy MacGregor's grave site (his tombstone reads "A MacGregor in spite of them" – long story), the battlefield at Culloden and many other sites when we had time. Then a letter came from Jamie who was working in Chicago. There was need of a change in staff at a clinic in one of the poorer areas of the city. The doctor who ran the Halsted Street Clinic was not popular with the people and he thought that it was a perfect opportunity for Sam and me. We could get work at County General to earn our living expenses.

My partner and I, for Sam was more than my nurse and friend at this point in time, talked it over between us and with Uncle Angus. The opportunity was too good to pass up provided we could find a good replacement for our work here. Enter my cousin Duncan. He'd spent the last three years working in a hospital in Edinburgh and he was anxious to be away from the city. Nothing could have pleased me more than to have him take over our work there in the Highlands. I knew Duncan to be kind, generous and completely dedicated to his profession and, stubborn streak against stubborn streak, I'd match him against the most difficult patients I had.

Once again Sam and I packed our things, arranged to have them shipped ahead of us and said goodbye to part of my family at the airport. I sold my truck to Duncan while Sam sold his to Duncan's brother Douglas.

Jamie and Alan met us at O'Hare airport. Both had settled in the Chicago area. In fact Jamie was sharing a house with Alan and his family. Jamie could move into one of the bedrooms that were currently used as a guest room while I would get the old-fashioned in-law apartment. Apparently the original owners had either been Dutch or Amish. The furnishings were study and plain yet comfortable enough for me. The kitchen was common to both parts of the house but I would have my own sitting room as well as a bedroom separate from the main house. I fell in love with it on sight. Sam would be our guest until he found a place of his own which didn't take long.

Much as I enjoy traveling it's always nice to come home again. I don't know whether I nearly squeezed my brothers breathless or they squeezed me breathless but we were soon laughing at ourselves. They were happy to see Sam as well. I could hardly wait to see Kim and the kids. They would have changed so much since I last saw them. The twins, Ethan and Tim, were twenty-one now. With their red hair and green eyes they were the spitting image of their great-grandfather – my beloved Grandpa Mac. Tim was studying medicine with an eye toward pediatrics while Ethan was looking toward a career in Veterinary Medicine.

First thing on the Monday morning after we returned to the states Sam and I presented ourselves to the director of Human Resources at County General who in turn introduced us to the Chief of Emergency Medicine and his head nurse. We were hired on the spot. Next on the agenda was to see the people at the clinic. My brothers, Sam and I would be equal partners in the ownership of the clinic. Alan handled all the legal paperwork (it's handy to have a lawyer in the family). Within a month of the settlement Sam and I had moved in and completely cleaned out and reorganized the clinic. Then we paid visits to the area clergy of all faiths, plus schools, clubs and youth centers to let the people know that the clinic was open again and we were now in charge. It didn't take long for word to get out about the new ownership. We soon had the curious and the truly needy coming to check us out.

It was kind of a rough neighborhood and Sam being Sam wouldn't let me stay late if he could stay with me. Then came the night I forgot something and my little brother came back into my life.

It had been a busy day and I was tired. Consequently I forgot the paperwork I was going to bring home with me. Sam walked back with me so I wouldn't have to walk alone. Imagine our surprise when we found the front door wide open and a struggle going on. Broken glass was everywhere along with newspaper, books and files. Two men were menacing a third – a young man with dark brown hair wearing a leather jacket. We were all surprised when the lights I'd switched on illuminated the mess and the struggle that was occurring.

One of the two men ran for the door when he saw us. He never made it. Sam delivered a one-two combination that knocked him cold. The other man who was wielding a knife paid us no mind but slashed at the young man slicing right through the leather of his jacket and leaving a deep gash in his right forearm. In the time it took me to react and grab a heavy vase for a weapon of my own the leather clad young man had stepped on a bottle that rolled under his foot causing him to lose his balance and his head quite hard on the wall behind him. He was an easy target now for this attacker except that I now recovered from my shock and knocked the guy cold with the vase.

From the looks of the young man I knew I'd better act fast to get the bleeding stopped. At my request Sam got some towels from a supply cabinet in the back and we set to work tending to him. I did manage to get his first name from him as I thanked him for stopping the burglary before he passed out.

Thank goodness for Sam. Though our Good Samaritan was a good inch taller than he was he picked him up as though he were merely a child and carried him into the back room. While I tended to the arm wound and tried to determine if he had a concussion Sam looked in our patient's wallet for the name of someone to notify. He found a business card for a pub called McGinty's that had the same address as our victim so he called and explained to the person who answered just what had happened. He came back a couple of minutes later as the police arrived to take our statements. I didn't understand at the time why Detective Crumb was so interested in my patient whom I wouldn't allow him to see until the next night.

About an hour later my patient started coming around. He was groggy and confused at first. He tried to sit up and promptly lost the ice pack we'd put on his head. Sam caught him and the ice pack and helped him sit up. Now that he was conscious I checked his pulse and blood pressure. I wasn't thrilled with the way his eyes reacted but at least they weren't unequally dilated or anything. About the time I finished checking him out a man and a woman arrived. The man was Caucasian, about five-eight with brown hair and blue eyes. The young woman with him was about the same height, African- American and apparently blind as she had a guide dog by her side. These were Gary's friends Chuck and Marissa. Now I hadn't seen or heard of Chuck since he and Gary graduated from High School more than 15 years ago. If I'd heard his name that night I wouldn't have been left to wonder why Gary's name was so familiar. I wouldn't realize why until I paid a house call the next night.

Gary wasn't feeling well – not that he'd admit it – and he fought the idea of my having to see him again the next night but when his friends gently chided him he gave and went meekly out the door with my jacket on to guard against the chill of the night air. I threw his jacket out after we made sure there was nothing in the pockets. Sam and I agreed that night that we would replace it since his interference had prevented the thieves from getting into our drug cabinet. We thought it was the least we could do. As I watched the trio leave I told Sam that Gary and Chuck were familiar but I just couldn't place them right off. While Sam and I cleaned up the mess I thought about my Gary Hobson but dismissed the notion that the young man who had just left could be him. That Gary, in my mind, was still an eighteen-year-old youth. I hadn't seen Gary, or a picture of him, since 1983.

When the last patient was gone the next night I still had my house call to make. Sam knew I was tired with a long commute to Oakdale still ahead of me. He shooed me out the door saying he'd finish the filing and lock up so I got into my truck and drove off to see my patient.

When I walked in a young woman employee took me to the office to see Marissa who would take me up to Gary's loft to give him his check up. As Marissa went downstairs I noted with approval and pleasure how comfortable at ease she was in these surroundings and with her disability. She almost didn't seem to need her cane here in this building.

Upon entering the room I found my patient, still quite pale, sitting up in bed looking bored and cranky. It was apparent to me that he hated being an invalid. Talking all the while I took off my jacket and placed it on the back of the armchair. Then I took my bag that I had placed on the seat of the chair and walked over to his bedside. I had gotten a quick briefing from Marissa about his night. The fact that he had been nauseous and then sick to his stomach didn't alarm me too much. He'd sustained a mild concussion so it was to be expected. As long as it didn't linger and wasn't serious it would be ok.

I checked his vitals and his temperature and fielded his questions and complaints about getting up. When I was through I got an apology from him for being grumpy. I teased him about it but told him that I heard worse from my dad when he was sick – which was true. Daddy hates to feel sick or be treated like an invalid.

As I got ready to leave I told Gary I'd be back the next day sometime to see about getting him up for a while. Crossing the room to the chair where I'd left my jacket I put my bag down and yawned briefly before reaching my for jacket. In the process of putting it on I accidentally knocked one of the pictures on his end table to the floor. With a sheepish smile and an "oops, sorry about that" I leaned over to pick it up and did a double take. The middle-aged couple in the picture was Bernie and Lois Hobson – my friends from Hickory. The young man in the picture was Gary – my "baby brother" whom I hadn't seen in something like fifteen years.

Gary himself was stunned when I recognized him. He didn't understand how I could at first. My cousins' names that I mentioned as best friends with his parents didn't strike any chords. I had to take him down memory lane asking him if he remembered being lost when he was four-years-old and almost getting bitten by a rattlesnake. Did he remember the big girl who had saved him and brought him back to his parents? It was when I showed him the necklace that he and his parents had given me when I graduated from High School with some memory prodding about how I'd cut off the head of the snake that he finally remembered me.

It was like watching the sun break out from behind dark clouds to see Gary's dark eyes suddenly light up in recognition. I reached out to embrace him and started chattering like a squirrel or a magpie about how wonderful it was to see him and how silly and foolish I felt at not having recognized him the night before. I told him I should have recognized those muddy green eyes of his if nothing else. When I told him he was better looking than ever he turned beet red.

We sat reminiscing for a few minutes before there came a knock at the door. Marissa was there with Detective Crumb. As much as I may have wanted to spare him I knew that Gary should talk to the police. I gave Detective Crumb ten minutes. In those ten minutes I concluded that he and Gary had some sort of history or relationship that appeared to be a mixed blessing. The officer seemed somewhat cynical and was apparently skeptical about Gary's answers. Ten minutes later I put a stop to the questions and sent the office on his way. Then I invited Marissa to have a seat while we told her the new about Gary and me.

We sat talking for about an hour before I noticed the time and said I needed to get going. My worrywart brothers would almost literally have an APB (all points bulletin) out on me if I didn't show up or call soon.

I made Gary lie down and pulled the covers up to his chest. Then Marissa and I both kissed him good night and made our way out of the loft as Gary drifted off to sleep. On our way down the stairs we encountered Chuck. Now that I had figured out who Gary was I knew that his was "little" Chuck Fishman – Gary's best friend and my nemesis since he moved to Hickory. Nemesis as in a Dennis The Menace type – not as in a true enemy though when he teases me about how Gary and I met and calls me "Snake Killer" I sure could strangle him – cheerfully.

Chuck asked about Gary whom we had just left drifting off to sleep. When he asked if he could go see him I got slightly irritated. I probably shouldn't have gotten so upset about if, after Chuck was just concerned, but Gary was just falling asleep and I didn't want him disturbed. So I told Chuck that Gary was asleep and he was going to stay that way. And if Chuck dared defy me and disturbed Gary I would pack him up, ship him off to Scotland and have Uncle Angus feed him to the Loch Ness Monster. Boy did that do the trick! Chuck's blue eyes got round as saucers as he looked at Marissa and me in shock. That statement jogged his memory too – he knew exactly who I was and I'd used that threat a lot when I visited Hickory when he and Gary were growing up. I could sense that Marissa was imagining the look on his face by the way she tried not to giggle. We chatted for a few minutes and then I had to leave for home before my brothers started worrying.

The next day I went back and, after a quick examination allowed Gary to get up and dressed. He was exuberant. When he was a kid he hated having to stay in bed and I could see that whatever else had changed in fifteen years, that hadn't. I waited on the stairs for him and then we walked arm in arm and I loudly announced his return to the "real world". He blushed like crazy but I know how happy he was to be out of bed.

I spent about an hour chatting with Gary, Chuck and Marissa. It was a fun time of getting Marissa acquainted with me and filling her in on what we all did as kids in Hickory. Besides cooking disasters (very minor – too much coffee due to an unclear recipe note on a cupcake recipe), taking out bikes up to the steepest street in town and then coasting down at top speed before veering off onto a side street to slow down and stop and then start it all over again.

After a bit Gary got up to go do some errands. As he started to leave I warned him of the untold consequences if he didn't take it easy for the next few days and he broke that wound in his arm open again.

Over the next couple of weeks Sam and I spoke to the police about the upcoming arraignment and grand jury hearing for the two men who had broken into the clinic. I found Detective Crumb to be so much like the Nyholm brothers back in Kentucky. Gruff, but with a heart of gold under the tough exterior. But I didn't let him know that I knew. Better to let him keep thinking he has everyone buffaloed. Wouldn't want to hurt his feelings or blow his tough guy image.

Then came the day Gary saved my life – literally. Sam and I were running a flu clinic at a local carpet warehouse and we were doing physicals too. I went over to set up the infirmary and start administering the flu shots. But first I wanted to have a talk with the foreman. I had concerns about one of his employees. I was sure he was drinking heavily and even while he was on the job. He was fast becoming a menace to himself, his family, his co-workers and anyone else he came into contact with. I was determined to do something about it.

I had my chat with the foreman and got his assurances that he intended to look into it. I was walking back to the infirmary lost in thought when something heavy hit me from behind propelling me forward and landed on me knocking the wind out of me. Five minutes later I woke up in the infirmary with Gary's pale face looking down at me. The foreman was also nearby and explained to me that the man I had been concerned about had nearly dropped several hundred pounds of rolled up carpet on me. Gary had somehow heard that the guy was drinking that morning and managed to get past security in time to tackle me from behind pushing me out of the path of that load of carpet. Other than getting the wind knocked out of me my only injury was a scrape on my cheek. Gary wasn't injured but he sure was shaken up. So much so that the foreman insisted on driving us back to the clinic where Sam administered a mild sedative and made him lie down. About the time we were ready to let him leave Chuck showed up. Apparently he'd been driving Gary to try and catch me at the clinic but he'd gotten stuck in traffic.

Somehow I wasn't too surprised when Detective Crumb showed up on our doorstep the next morning. Apparently he'd heard through the grapevine about the incident at the warehouse and wanted to reassure himself that his "star witness" was really ok. I imagine he checked up on Gary as well.

Things went along smoothly for the next few days and then came the morning the police showed up on our doorstep at 7:30 in the morning. The Chief wanted me to come to the station and see if I could identify two men taken into custody after a routine traffic stop showed that they were out on bail stemming from an arrest for breaking and entering.

I left a note for the family, it seems to me Jamie was the only one home at that point, and went with the officer to the station. Imagine my shock when I saw the two men from the break in were the men in question. I nearly had a heart attack when the chief showed me Gary's wallet that they had found on the men. I knew it was his even without the credit cards with his name on them because he had my college graduation portrait and a picture of his folks. The only thing missing was his driver's license.

My fear grew stronger when I called McGinty's and learned that nobody had seen Gary, or heard form him, since the afternoon before when Marissa had given him a message that Detective Crumb wanted to see him. Crumb hadn't seen him nor had he sent for him. And nobody knew who the two "officers" were that had been seen taking someone who matched Gary's description into custody outside of Crumb's precinct building.

A house-to-house search yielded nothing so the search parties went to the store where the men in custody had been just before they were arrested and the woods where a van matching the description of the one they were driving had been seen.

I followed three sets of footprints to the side of a hill where I knew there was a cave. But now the cave entrance was blocked by rock and dirt. Sunlight flashing off something shiny caught my attention. When I picked it up I was even more worried. It was Gary's driver's license and furthermore there were only two sets of footprints leading away from the hillside. I had no doubt that Gary was trapped in that cave. Tom Fitzpatrick, the young office with me, had his doubts but I had a gut feeling that that was where Gary was. I turned on Tom and told him that if he didn't call for some help I surely would. Faced with what mama calls my hot Highlander temper he was soon calling for help at our location. In the meantime I started moving what I could of the rocks.

Help arrived soon and so did Bernie, Chuck, Marissa and Spike. They had to stand by and watch helplessly as the rescue team worked to dig a hole big enough to let some air in and to allow someone to squeeze their way in. In spite of protests from the police and firefighters present I was the first one into the cave when that hole was dug. Besides the fact that he's as close to me as my blood relations it was only logical that a full-fledged physician be the first to reach him if he needed medical assistance.

Taking the flashlight one of the rescue workers gave me I shone it around the cave looking for signs that Gary was in there. About fifteen feet from the entrance I found him - barely conscious and obviously hurt. He was having difficulty breathing, as was I briefly, because of the bad air in that cave. His hands were cuffed tightly behind him, his ankles were tied together and he was gagged as well. I was boiling mad when I saw his face. It was bloody and bruised, streaked with dirt where sweat had run down from the stuffy (to put it mildly) air. Swiftly taking my pocketknife out I cut the ropes that held his legs helpless and then I removed the gag. By now the hole at the entrance was large enough to let the paramedics through with a gurney and a drug box. I sent one of them back for bolt cutters to free Gary's hands. When his hands were free we were able to gently roll him over and check for injuries. Even without x-rays I was pretty sure from his reaction that there were some cracked or broken ribs. The paramedics loaded him onto the gurney and we wrapped a couple of blankets around him. Then I went out to tell his father and friends that we'd found him and he was hurt but I wouldn't know how badly until I got him to the hospital and ran some tests. I then arranged for a police escort to the hospital behind the ambulance and climbed in said vehicle to ride with my patient.

In the ambulance Gary came around again. He was weak and in a fair amount of pain. Looking at me he tried to speak but I told him to lie back and relax. I was going to take care of him just like I had when I found him in the mountains so many years ago. Still holding my hand he closed his eyes and tried to relax.

Upon arrival I ordered x-rays, blood tests, a CT scan and MRI. I wasn't taking any chances of missing something. When all the tests came back clean except for a couple of cracked ribs I sent him to a private room, at my expense, and went to tell his parents and friends the good news. However they wouldn't be allowed to see him until the next morning when the sedative I gave him wore off and he was aware of his surroundings. I sent them home and then I went home long enough to shower and change. Then it was back to the hospital for a bedside vigil.

Late the next morning Gary finally awoke as he cried out for me to help him. The trauma of his ordeal had caused him to have nightmares about snakes again. When I was sure he was awake and alert I asked him how me felt. Tough guy that he tries to be when he's sick he admitted only to being sore. I ran a quick check of his vitals and found that his pulse, BP and temperature were normal. I checked his eyes and was happy to find that he didn't appear to have a concussion. Then after asking him if he was up for some company I admitted his parents, Chuck and Marissa with Spike into the room to see him for a few minutes. I made them keep their visit short and I also made Detective Crumb keep his visit as short as he could. He had to speak to Gary but I didn't want my patient getting worn out before he had a chance to begin his recovery. Surrounded by loved ones I knew he'd recover fairly quickly. But if he thought I was going to let him go back to the loft alone right away he had another thing coming! Doctor's orders included at least two days at home in Hickory under the care of his folks or he'd stay in the hospital for those two days. Gary scowled at the thought of his Mom's smothering but I didn't care. His parents had almost lost their only child. I was looking out for their mental health as well as his physical well-being.

The weekend at home did him a lot of good. Lois put him to bed right away in his old room and gave him some soup. He spent the better part of the weekend eating soup and resting before I would allow him to go back to Chicago.

Not too long after that our families, Sam, Chuck and Marissa had dinner and a party at McGinty's. It was right around Christmastime and boy did I get a surprise when Jamie walked in! I hadn't heard that Gary had overexerted himself his first day out of bed after the burglary at the clinic. Consequently he had become rather faint after preventing an elderly man from being injured by a reckless cyclist. Jamie, off duty at the time, witnessed his heroics and went to the aid of the hero – helping him to a bench, getting him some water and arranging for a cabbie to take him home. In light of what he'd just been through I let it pass and didn't let him see that I was perturbed with him.

Good food, talk among friends, good music – we had it all. Daddy talked with Bernie more than he danced but my brothers made sure Marissa didn't feel left out because of her disability. Jamie almost literally swept her off her feet as he took her out to the dance floor to waltz with him. My first dance was with Gary.

Gary was soon part of the family again and mama gave him a big hug and a kiss for saving me from the guy on the forklift. I swear he blushed to the roots of his hair when she did that in front of everyone. I think, when he was little, he had kind of a crush on her like so many little kids get on grownups. Daddy shook his hand and hugged him too (Southerners and Texans are very huggy people – especially my family). I still say I told the best joke 'cause I got Gary to smile and laugh when I told him that when you cross a snowman and a vampire you get frostbite. He told me it was ridiculous but I didn't care.

After the party things went along pretty quietly for all concerned until Grandpa Mac's rodeo rolled into town in the spring. Suddenly I was face to face with the one person I never thought I'd see again.

I remember the day that Grandpa Mac arrived quite well. He had called Mama and told her he was coming to Oak Park with the show and he was looking for a good staff to run the infirmary while he was there. Well who better than his grandchildren? And who else would I want for a nurse but Sam? It was a no brainer. If I'd known what was ahead I might hot have been so eager.

On a cool, but pleasant, spring day the MacGregor Rodeo and Wild West Show started rolling into town. Jamie, Sam and I had put our heads together and worked out a site map for them so they'd know where to set up in accordance with their needs for electricity and running water. Jamie and I hadn't seen Grandpa Mac for a couple of years so it was a joyous reunion.

All morning long we directed trailers and trucks to their designated spaces. We put up our tent and set up shelves and put in desks and chairs and such so we had an office of sorts. We were strictly a triage unit. Serious injuries would be sent to one of the city hospitals. I sincerely hoped there would be none. Rodeos are thrilling for the audience but they can be dangerous for the participants.

Much to my shock and dismay my former brother-in-law, Mark Bradley, showed up on my doorstep so to speak at a time when Jamie happened to be in a different part of the fairgrounds. Mark and a friend came over to the infirmary pretending to have an injury. When I discovered that their "injury" was nothing that needed my attention I blasted their eardrums but good and told them not to come back unless they had legitimate business with me.

As they were leaving a trio of men approached from the opposite direction. The one in the middle, obviously favoring his right leg, looked familiar. When they drew close enough to recognize I realized that Jamie and one of the cowboys from the show were supporting Gary who apparently was unable to walk unassisted.

Directing the guys to put him in one of the chairs I turned my attention to the business at hand. And that was to find out what had happened and how badly he was hurt. Jamie's assessment was right – it was only sprained but it was a bad one and he wouldn't be walking on it for a while.

Jamie went looking for some crutches and Gary and I had a little "discussion" about taking care of himself. Actually I was proud of him for helping that youngster and grateful too since Grandpa Mac's insurance rates would have gone up and there could have been a lawsuit as well. People go to court these days over everything it seems.

When Jamie returned Grandpa Mac was with him. You'd never know it to look at him but he was eighty years old and as tall and straight and strong as he was when Mama and her siblings were growing up. Grandpa Mac was introduced to Gary and thanked him profusely for his help. Gary was a little embarrassed so I cub Grandpa Mac off before he went any further.

By now it was lunchtime and Gary needed a ride home, some lunch and to get that injured ankle elevated. We piled into my truck and drove to McGinty's.

When we walked in the door Chuck and Marissa were sitting there. Chuck got sort of a panic stricken look on his face when he saw Gary hobbling in slowly on crutches. His yelling startled poor Marissa. She may not be able to see but she's got great insight into people's hearts and souls and reads emotion in people's voices like I read books. (I've never known her to be wrong in the short time that I've known her.) So naturally when Chuck yelled she knew something was wrong by the concern in his voice. Gary tried to head him off but it was too late so I slid into the seat next to her and told her about Gary's ankle.

When Jamie asked her when they were going dancing again she giggled, called him "handsome" and told him she was waiting for him to ask. This set both of us off and made Grandpa Mac ask what the joke was so we had to stop laughing long enough to explain how Jamie had almost literally swept her off her feet and out onto the dance floor at our party a few months earlier. Then we introduced Grandpa Mac to Chuck and Marissa. He shook hands vigorously with Chuck but, like always when he is with a lady, he was very gentle. I think Chuck called me "Snake Killer" just to be even with me for calling him the "little guy" with the worried look on his face when I introduced him to Grandpa Mac – but then again he's delighted in tormenting me with that stupid nickname ever since he found out how Gary and I met. This time I told him if he called me that again I was going to knock him into the middle of the next county. He just grinned at me insolently and told me that that's why he does it – because it annoys me. He was saved from whatever I might have contemplated doing to him and Gary from breaking up what was warming up to be one of our legendary fights when Crumb came over to take our orders. Crumb had recently retired and gone to work at McGinty's as a bartender. It benefited both parties because he got to work at something he was good at and Gary got a bartender who not only knew what he was doing (ask him about Chuck as a bartender) but would manage the rowdiest drunk – not that McGinty's is that kind of place but there's always on idiot.

Crumb, being Crumb, couldn't resist giving "the kid" a hard time when he saw us come in. I mean, he's had sort of a rocky relationship with Gary from what I understand. I hear Gary even caused him to lose part of his staff once when they first met. How I don't know but apparently Gary kind of got in his way a lot at first.

We ordered cokes and meals and then Jamie just had to go make a wisecrack about how I'd been swapping recipes with the cook – Tony. I love my brother dearly but I could cheerfully strangle him as well as Chuck when he starts making wisecracks about my cooking 'cause now Grandpa Mac had to throw his two cents worth in. He's proud of my education and my skill as a physician but he likes to see my domestic side as well.

We spent a little time eating and chatting before finding that we really needed to get back to the fairgrounds. But I wasn't going to go back until I had Gary safely settled up I the loft with his injured ankle elevated. Of course I got an argument from him. He thought he could rest downstairs in the office but with Jamie to back me up he didn't really stand much chance of winning the argument.

Once he was settled we got ready to leave. I was almost at the door with Jamie when Gary called me back. He was curious about Mark and his friend. Now there was no way that I wanted him involved in any trouble so I tried to evade the question. Jamie took my warning look as an excuse to leave and rescue Chuck and Marissa from Grandpa Mac's tall tales. That left me to try and sidetrack Gary to a safer topic of conversation. It wasn't easy but when I left I was pretty sure it had worked. You see, somehow in all the confusion of his illness at the time of my wedding, we'd never told him about it and didn't see any reason why we should tell him now. There wasn't anything he could do about what had happened less than a year later.

When we got back to the fairgrounds we dropped Grandpa Mac off at the office and continued on to the infirmary. Sam had gone to lunch himself and wouldn't be back for a while. Jamie asked me why I didn't just tell Gary the truth since I had nothing to be ashamed of. Now I know that but I just can't help myself – I always feel like I have to protect Gary. If that included keeping Mark's identity and relationship to me a secret then so be it. Besides, with two older brothers, cousins soon to arrive, my grandfather, a boxing champ and long-time rodeo staff members I didn't see the need for another bodyguard.

About noontime the next day Jamie called me to come out of the tent where we were putting the finishing touches on our infirmary. When I got outside seven voices of varying tone, gender and age greeted me. It seemed that some of the MacGregor clan had arrived. Chris, Rob, Alex, Andrew, Hannah, Anne and Rebecca brothers, sisters and cousins to each other and favorite cousins to their Fairfax relatives and MacGregors alike. I marveled at how tall Andrew had gotten. I hadn't seen him since he was something like a junior in High School. He was the easiest of the bunch to tease since he has the shortest fuse. He's what we like to call our half-hearted Scotsman because his mom is Irish.

The first order of business was to have them check in with Grandpa Mac. Chris is the oldest of this group and Andrew, at twenty, was the youngest. They have other siblings and cousins but this was the group that was with Grandpa Mac's show right now. Over the course of the next three weeks I would be happy to have my Texas relatives get to know – and treat like a member of the family – their surrogate cousin. It would be the first time they all met though the MacGregor's had heard me talk about Gary for years.



Checking in with Grandpa Mac didn't take long and we were all pleased to see that Grandma Phoebe was there as well. After the usual questions about whether they had taken care of their animals it was the usual about keeping out young hothead, Andrew, out of trouble. Then we were free to pile into vehicles and to get lunch. And where else would that hungry horde be steered for good food and plenty of it but McGinty's. All right, so I'm prejudiced and Jamie is too, but the fact is that Gary's got a good staff and a friendly, informal atmosphere. It was the perfect place for the gang to go. Besides we'd been corresponding for a year over when and where to throw a big surprise party for our grandparents sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. The family had taken turns since their twenty-fifth hosting a party for them. This year we wanted it to be extra special. We were planning a huge barbecue for after the awards ceremony at the end of the rodeo's stay and were even hiring a minister to perform the wedding ceremony so Grandpa Mac and Grandma Phoebe could renew their vows in front of family and friends. McGinty's would be a good place for us to met after the day's events and plan and organize things.

We crowded in and introductions were made all around. Chuck was thrilled at having several attractive women around. Unfortunately for him they weren't buying into his nonsense because Jamie and I, as well as Alan and Kim, had told them what to expect. Marissa, bless her heart, should have been overwhelmed at having seven new voices at once to try and keep straight. But she continues to amaze me – she had them all figured out in less than five minutes!

After we ordered I went upstairs to check on my patient. Now it was my turn to scowl at him. His ankle, which should have looked a little better, was every bit as swollen, if not more so, than when he injured it the day before. Gary hates needles and, trust me, he was not too happy to see me pull a hypodermic out of my bag. The half empty Tylenol bottle was a good indication that the ankle was paining him – probably because he had not stayed off of it like he should have. And that particular dart hit the mark – I could tell by the way he squirmed when I asked him about it. Now hypodermics of anti-inflammatory medication may be somewhat old fashioned but there are times when the old methods are the best methods. Our pioneer ancestors learned a lot from the Native Americans in regard to herbal medicine and I, in turn, learned from White Eagle and used those methods in my practice wherever I could.

When that was done I sat down to talk business with him. On the way over we had talked the "planning committee", meaning the cousins who had just arrived, into hiring McGinty's to cater the party. I told him what was up and immediately Gary's generous, but not so logical at times, heart wanted to cater the party for free. Now there was no way on earth we were going to let him do that. The family members alone would constitute a big crowd. My grandparents had nine children and each of them had at least three kids and there were ten great-grandchildren at the time. Now there are fifteen grandchildren. My brother Alan has five and our cousins Ken, Beth and Will are responsible for the other ten. We weren't out to drive anyone into bankruptcy, which may be a slight exaggeration, but it would have been a pretty heavy dent in his supplies and cash flow if we'd allowed it – which we didn't. I told him he could give us a discount but absolutely no freebies. Then I packed my bag and impishly mussed his hair before rejoining the troops downstairs. A few days later Gary was walking without the crutches again although he still limped some. But he was back to normal by the end of the week.

During that time Mark kept up his campaign of subtle harassment – careful not to be seen by my brothers, cousins, Sam or anybody else. After a couple of days of this I'd had it! I could handle anything that jerk threw my way except implied threats to my family and friends. And those guys he was hanging out with gave me the creeps. I was sure they were up to no good. You may ask why I didn't go to Crumb or one of my friends on the Chicago Police Department. Well I'll tell you why – what most of those guys know about horses in general wouldn't fill two pieces of paper and they know even less about rodeos. No, there was someone I knew that would fit right in and I intended to send for him. So when I got to my hotel room that third night I sent a telegram to Texas. Addressed to a certain party it read "ga-ri-yo-gi" and "a-li-s-de-lv-di". He'd know what it meant.

A few days later Gary showed up at the fairgrounds while Jamie and I were watching the calf roping practice. Something, or someone, had told him that Alex was in danger. If he took his practice run his horse was going to throw a shoe, stumble and fall on him causing some fairly serious injuries. I think we both looked at him like he'd lost his mind at first but the earnest "please believe me" look that we'd seen so often convinced us we'd better look into it.

Sure enough, when we checked Comanche's shoe it was loose and Alex could have been seriously hurt. I don't know how he does it and it doesn't matter but once again Gary saved someone from harm. Now wouldn't you know it? Mark showed up and started taunting Alex with talk of being afraid of a little competition. One of the judges happened to be there and he told Mark that if they found any proof that he was responsible he'd be barred from this and all future competitions – in any legitimate show anyway. Alex was ready to fight it out but we managed to keep it verbal between them.

Jamie almost came to blows with him though when he asked me about going out for a drink. There's just something about Mark's tone of voice and attitude that really sets Jamie off. It wasn't easy but I kept him from doing something he'd regret (not that he'd admit he regretted it if he socked him one). Then Mark saw Gary who was hovering nearby and wanted to know who the "pretty boy" was. Not that it was any of his business but I told him Gary was a friend. Apparently Mark read more into that word than he should have because he told Gary, who'd decided he needed to protect me and had moved forward pulling me behind him, to stay out of it – it was none of his business.

About the time things would have turned into a free-for-all Grandpa Mac, Sam and one of the Security Guards arrived on the scene. If there's one person in our family that you don't argue with it's Grandpa Mac. So when he told the crowds to break it up and Alex to get his horse over to the farrier for new shoes it happened. Grandpa Mac's eyes were blazing with green fire and Sam's fists were cocked and ready should his considerable boxing skill be needed to enforce the order to disperse. Fortunately, at that time, they weren't.

Hugging me before he left Grandpa Mac headed back to the office. Jamie and Sam fell into step with me as we started back to the infirmary. A few seconds later Gary was calling for me to wait up. He was curious about Mark. I knew that even though I didn't say anything at first to the questions in his eyes. As I told Jamie and Sam to go on I said I'd catch up with them later.

Gary wanted to know all about what had just happened and who that guy was we'd just tangled with. I tried real hard to give him the brush off and dismiss it as unimportant. However, if Gary is anything, he's persistent. When he was little I used to tease him about being a pest. There was no way I was going to be able to ignore him this time though. Sighing I took him by the hand and led him to a quiet place where there was a tree and a bench. There we would sit and I would tell him everything. I think you could have knocked him over with a feather when I told him my "secret" about how I'd been married and then widowed in such a short period of time. He didn't even really remember much about the few guys I'd dated back home in Hickory. Of course, he was only eight when I started dating seriously. By the time I was through explaining everything I was bawling my eyes out. Gary, for his part, listened closely and held me in his arms when I started crying. "The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang aglae" as the poet said. (I'm not sure I'm spelling this right and Mama would shoot me for not knowing my Scottish poets, so I hope she doesn't read this, but I think it was Robert Burns.) I had, for years, kept all this a secret from Gary. After all a fourteen-year-old kid doesn't need all this emotional baggage dumped on him like a ton of bricks. Especially if they're as sensitive to people's needs as Gary is. When I finally calmed down I also had to tell him that the reason he didn't remember any of this was because he'd fallen ill just before the wedding and his parents couldn't and wouldn't leave him. If I knew Gary, like I thought I did, he'd be calling his mother for all the details I was leaving out. It had been as much her decision as mine anyway.

When we were through talking I kidded Gary about "big sister's prerogative" to worry about and protect him as much as possible. That really makes him mad when I tell him that so it's a lot of fun. But he wasn't to get any bright ideas about hanging around and playing bodyguard or I'd kick his butt all the way back to Hickory! Then I went back to the infirmary while Gary went on his way.

Those two rats, otherwise known as Jamie and Sam, were waiting for me. They knew what had just transpired and wanted to make sure I'd told him everything about Mark and Jon and their parents.

The day of the Grand Opening Parade as we like to call it dawned bright and clear. The fairgrounds were abuzz with activity that morning as all the participants that had arrived ran back and forth between their tents or campers and stabling areas. Getting their mounts tacked up with their show saddles and bridles, many of them trimmed with silver. Besides that they had to get their parade clothes on. I was to wear a red divided riding skirt embroidered in yellow with a matching blouse and a white flat-crowned Stetson on my head. I wore my long black hair in a single braid down the middle of my back this time.

To say the least I was not happy when I saw Gary that morning. I hadn't invited him and I was pretty sure Jamie hadn't invited him out for a visit. Our cousins hadn't even met him yet so I knew they hadn't and I was pretty sure Grandpa Mac hadn't. My suspicions that he was there to try and play bodyguard were pretty well borne out when he blushed and stuttered his way through his explanation of how he had helped a lost trucker find his way here with a load of horses. Gary's lived in Chicago for over ten years. I highly doubted he had to show the guy how to get to the fairgrounds. He could just as easily have given him detailed directions complete with mileage and landmarks. As fate would have it, or luck if you prefer, Grandpa Mac, Jamie and Chris came along just as I was all set to give Gary a piece of my mind. Chris stood there grinning while Jamie greeted Gary. That little weasel knew I was mad about something and when Grandpa Mac offered to let Gary ride in the parade as a way of thanking him for his help the first day I was furious that Gary took him up on it.

My attempt to get rid of him was thwarted when he assured Grandpa Mac that his partners could handle things without him for a while. The decision to let Gary stay was then taken out of my hands and he was turned over to Chris who was to lend him a costume and find him a suitable mount. But I wasn't through with him – not by a long shot.

I'm not sure how I got through that parade I was so mad. Just because he's grown up now and an inch taller than I am he thinks he can get away with ignoring my wishes. The girls, Anne, Hannah and Rebecca knew I was mad but they didn't try to interfere – not at that point. I'll bet their brothers and cousins got an earful later on though just because by taking Gary's side they had made me mad. When the parade was over I went looking for Gary. I was determined to give him a piece of my mind.

I caught up with him as he and Chris exited the tent Chris was sharing with his brother. Chris came in for his share of the eardrum blasting tongue- lashing I was about to give Gary. I didn't need my brother or my nitwitted cousins encouraging him to hang around. I wanted Gary out of "the line of fire" – the danger zone. Help was on the way. I was sure of it but I still didn't want Gary thinking he was going to be a bodyguard. If he kept making me mad it would be his body that would need guarding!

After Chris left us I dragged Gary off to the same quiet corner where we'd sat a few days ago and started to ream him out for interfering after I'd told him to stay away. (Well, maybe it wasn't interfering really but I was too mad to care right then.) And once again I bawled my eyes out – this time as I relived the time I found him half dead in that cave six months ago after seeing the guys from the burglary in a jail cell in Oakdale.

As Gary was holding me while I cried myself out again Jamie found us. (He always seems to know where I am. Years of practice at hunting me down I guess.) He had some paperwork, entry forms for the saddle bronc and bull riding competition. When I saw the name I knew help was on the way. I felt that it would be safe for me to lift my edict on Gary's coming to the rodeo. So, at Jamie's suggestion, I invited Gary to be my escort to the dance the next night.

The next day Gary arrived at the fairgrounds as the calf roping competition was winding down for the day. Alex had just beaten Chris by 3/10 of a second. Chris spotted him as the crowd was dispersing I guess and invited him to stick around. Chris had come to like Gary very much in their brief association so he kind of took him under his wing so to speak. Next thing Jamie and I knew (we were watching from a distance) Chris was trying to teach Gary some trick riding.

It didn't go very well at first for all Gary's being a pretty good athlete. I kept shaking my head as I watched him try to master the "Pony Express" mount where you grab hold of the saddle horn, run with the horse and vault into the saddle. Poor guy just couldn't seem to get the timing right no matter how hard he tried so I decided it was time for me to step in.

The look on Gary's face was priceless! He had no idea that I knew how to do any of that kind of stuff. I swear his jaw dropped to the ground when I not only successfully performed the "Pony Express" but vaulted out of the saddle to either side, back and forth a few times, rode like a Comanche clinging to one side of the horse and virtually invisible and stood behind the saddle as the horse galloped around the arena before dropping back down into the saddle and gradually bringing my mount to a walk. When I rode up to the two guys Gary looked stunned and Chris called me a show off to which I replied that he was just jealous.

By this time the dance was only a couple of hours away and we all had things we had to do before it started. Chris had to take care of his horse, eat and clean up. I needed to go back to my hotel room I had taken for the duration and change and Gary, well, he was a mess. He'd fallen in the dust so much that afternoon that his jeans were extremely dusty as was his shirt. His face was streak with dirty here and there and there was a slight rip in his right sleeve.

Gary and I started walking back toward the infirmary. I needed to get my purse and let Jamie know that I was leaving. He'd opted for dinner and a show with our parents and grandparents in lieu of the dance, which would leave me the senior member of the family in attendance. Gary felt funny about his "date" driving him so after some teasing I gave him the keys to my truck and let him drive me to my hotel to shower and change while he went home to do the same. He'd pick up about in about an hour or so. I couldn't resist a little dig about the green and gold parade costume he'd worn the other day. I asked him if he wanted to borrow Chris's costume again or wear his own regular clothes. I was very satisfied to see the blush on his face when I kidded him about that. If I'd had any idea what was going to happen that night, especially to Gary I'd have found a way to keep him away - even if it meant slipping him a Mickey Finn. He'd have been mad at me but at least he'd have been safe.

When I got to the hotel I had an answer to my telegram. Washo had arrived with his partner Jimmy Trivette in tow. I was so happy to see them I almost started crying right then and there in the lobby of the hotel. But I managed to keep myself under control until we were safely away from prying eyes in my room.

I showered quickly and changed into slacks, shirt and loafers. While I combed and dried my hair I told my two Ranger friends everything that had happened since Mark had arrived. The loose shoe on Alex's horse could have been a coincidence and it could have been the result of another jealous cowboy's actions or maybe Alex was careless and overlooked the loose shoe. All I knew for certain was that there were too many implied threats to my family and friends coming from Mark's mouth and I was sick of running into him or one of his so-called friends every time I turned around.

The whole things took about half an hour including giving them directions to the fairgrounds and suggesting a place for them to set up their campsite. I'd find a way to meet with them when necessary or get word to them.

They weren't gone five minutes when Gary arrived to escort me to the dance. He noticed I'd been crying again and asked me about it. I told him I'd been watching some sappy old TV show before he came and that was why I was crying. I don't know for sure if he believed me but I wasn't going to trust even him with the knowledge of Washo's arrival in Chicago. Only Jamie and Sam would know that.

Things got crazy when we got to the dance. First thing was having to deal with an argument between several of my cousins over whether or not the boy's were going to sing that night. Their sisters/cousins had made an agreement with them that if they sang the "boys" would too. As senior member of the family and the one in charge of things that night my word was law. If such an arrangement had been made then all parties would be expected to hold up their end of the bargain. One thing I hadn't bargained on though was the cousins all deciding that I had to sing.

Without further incident we got to the dance floor where Rob was currently acting as DJ. I got up and made Grandpa Mac's usual announcements. No smoking, no drinking, no fighting or suffer the consequences. As a general rule that meant disqualification and forfeiture of prize money and half their entry fees.

Apparently my cousins had gotten their heads together because as I started to go back to the table where Gary and I were sitting Rob announced that I was going to sing "Crazy". I was ready to kill him. I'd already told the girls that I had no intention of making a fool of myself but I was forced into it by the applause that rang out after the announcement. Revenge is sweet though – they were going to have to sing two of my favorite Statler Brothers songs to make it up to me.

The guys and the girls all got up to sing as agreed upon. Gary was just seating me at our table again when Chris, Rob and Alex surrounded us and dragged Gary off with them. I tried to find out what they were up to and was barely able to hear Gary say they wanted him to sing with them before Chris pushed me back to my seat and told me to stay there.

Poor Gary! Being considered part of the Fairfax Family hadn't prepared him for what his surrogate cousins had in mind. They wanted him to sing with them all right but nobody was prepared for the hilarity that was about to come. Rob, the practical joker, had gotten himself a braided wig and a bandana and was doing his best Willie Nelson impression as they sang "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys". Poor Gary. I don't know how many different colors his face turned before they were through. I tried not to let it show for his sake, but I was laughing so hard my eyes were watering. He had a difficult time getting through the crowd to get back to our table what with all the guys whistling, cheering and pounding him on the back and the women blowing him kisses and whistling.

He was seated, catching his breath and having a cold drink after we'd had a dance together when Chris came up and asked if he and the others were forgiven for their little stunt. Gary did of course, he's very forgiving and, after all it wasn't like any real harm had been done, he'd just been embarrassed. My new nurse Elena Prescott had arrived after that was all over. She was a pretty thing with light brown hair and aquamarine eyes. I could see that Gary was attracted to her though he didn't really say it aloud. To me it was obvious by the way he stuttered when they were introduced. Chris hadn't been at our table for more than a few minutes when Rob came running up to tell Chris and Alex, who'd come with Chris, that there was a problem at their stabling area. They'd hardly left when someone came up to me and said there'd been an accident on the other side of the fairgrounds. Now it was my turn to get up and leave. Gary started to go with me but I told him to stay and enjoy himself while Elena and I took care of the emergency. Within a half hour I would have cause to regret not allowing him to come with me.

I left Gary with Anne, Hannah and Rebecca. Andrew was still there too having a good time. Elena and I went to the infirmary to get my bag. I kept two bags supplied at all times – one at home and another in my truck. Since I was at the fairgrounds rather than home, the hospital or the clinic for the next few weeks I'd brought my bag from home to keep in the infirmary so as to keep my other bag in the truck for emergencies.

When we arrived at the location where the accident was supposed to have happened there was no one there. I didn't think anything of it at first because the accident could have been very minor in nature and the parties involved could have just brushed themselves off and gone back to whatever they were doing previously. But I got a sinking feeling in my stomach when the next thing I heard was that there was a fight going on.

Elena and I rushed to the scene to find Gary lying face down in a heap on the ground unconscious. Chris, Rob and Alex were close on my heels having heard about the fight themselves and believing it was Andrew that was in trouble. It wouldn't have been a first if it were Andrew. Andrew was already there sporting a black eye. When I sized up the situation and came to the conclusion that someone, and I strongly suspected who, was out to get us – or me, I started issuing orders to my cousins. The dance was over as far as I was concerned so I had Chris shut things down. Chris was the next oldest of the family after me and also a Texas Ranger. Nobody in their right mind tangles with him if they know what's good for them because he's one tough cookie when he's mad. Rob and Alex were to find their sisters and cousin and send them to my hotel for the night. Then when I was through with Gary and Andrew my youngest cousin was to stick close to the other three and they to each other. Security needed to be notified to keep a close watch on things the rest of the night.

As they jumped to obey my orders I turned my attention to Gary. He was still unconscious, was breathing hard and bleeding from a split lip and a gash on his left temple. The broken glass liquor bottle I saw nearby was probably responsible for it. The two men deliberately standing back in the shadows some from the group were Washo and Jimmy. They'd come upon the scene just as Gary was passing out and Washo had easily broken up the one- sided fight I'm sure. However, I was more concerned about Gary than then men who had attacked him so I left them go. Washo knew what they looked like and he wouldn't be apt to forget very soon.

The light filtering into that grove of trees wasn't sufficient for me to see well enough to really examine Gary so I recruited Washo and Jimmy to carry him to the infirmary for me and told Andrew to come along because I wanted a look at him when I was through with Gary. Elena got an ice pack for Andrew's to put on his eye as he sat in a chair out of the way after getting me a pan with some hot water to clean Gary's cuts with.

Gary came around as I was cleaning him up and checking for other injuries. I'd found a goose egg sized lump under his dark hair and was thankful that he had such thick hair. Outside of the lump and a few minor cuts his head injuries weren't serious. His face was badly bruised and he had a cut and swollen lip but there were no loose teeth or broken bones in his jaw. He moaned when his eyes started to open. I was pulling his tee shirt out of the waistband of his jeans when he came around completely. I hated to cause him any more pain but I needed to check his stomach and ribs for bruising and breaks. His abdomen was fine. Apparently they'd "only" worked on his ribcage.

I should have sent him to the hospital but Gary protested and I caved in. As I was checking his ribs he'd gasped and I'd apologized saying that short of sending him to the hospital that was the only way to find out if anything was broken. Gary looked at me with such misery and fear of hospitals (and needles and such) and pretty much begged me not to send him to the hospital. Ever since we met I've had a difficult time resisting his "puppy dog" looks. That night was no exception. When he promised to go straight to be and stay there I gave in.

So Elena and I cleaned him up and bandaged him and then I had a quick look at Andrew before sending him to join the others with orders to see me the next day. Washo volunteered to drive my truck while Jimmy followed in their vehicle so I could ride in back with my patient who was dozing and already slightly flushed with what I call pain fever. I sent Elena home with an escort from a Security Guard that had arrived to see that she got to her car safely.

When we got to McGinty's I had Washo park the truck in the alley. There I roused Gary and when he got to the end of the tailgate, Washo and Jimmy put his arms around their shoulders and followed me as I led the way through the kitchen to the office and the stairs. The help that was in the kitchen was stunned. They're not used to seeing Gary in that condition that's for sure. About the time we got to the door that leads to the stairs Chuck walked into the office and saw us. He was shocked and concerned when he saw Gary. Trying to keep the uproar to a minimum I told him to show my friends the way to the loft and they'd help him put Gary to bed for me. I wanted to break the news to Marissa. Chuck wasn't going to be handed that duty. He'd be like the proverbial bull in the china shop. I wanted to break the news to her gently.

I left Chuck and Marissa, whom I brought upstairs with me, with Gary while I shoed Washo and Jimmy out. Actually I wanted them to meet Crumb. He'd be a big help in establishing the connections and resources they'd need for their investigation. After more than twenty years on the department I knew he'd be able to help. He wasn't surprised to see me but he was mildly surprised at my refusal of a coke and my half-hearted and distracted response to the greetings I got from the regulars in attendance that knew me. He didn't ask a lot of questions as I filled him in on what had happened to Gary. I took him to the office and introduced him to Washo and Jimmy and told him what I wanted. He was real quick to respond favorably to my request. They made arrangements to meet at his old precinct the next morning and then Crumb went back to work while I went out to my truck for blankets and stuff. My Texas friends hugged me and told me to rest easy because they'd find out what was going on. When they left I went back upstairs to be with my patient.

I didn't let Chuck and Marissa stay long because I didn't want to arouse the curiosity of their customers as to why all three of them were missing and I tried to reassure Marissa that Gary would be just fine. I'm not saying that I fooled her because I really wasn't sure but I'd promised Gary he wouldn't have to go to the hospital so I gave it my best shot.

After Chuck and Marissa left I settled in for the first of two long nights of sitting up with Gary as he tossed and turned and cried and talked in his sleep. I tried reading at first but he became very restless in a very short period of time so I went and got a basin of cool water and a facecloth and tried to bring his fever down. He kept mumbling about someone named Dobbs or Marley and Emma. And he was asking Marissa where someone was and what he should do. Then he started calling my name and telling me to watch out because Bradley had sent them. It was in the midst of this nightmare that Gary woke up to find himself held in my arms while I stroked his hair and crooned to him as though he were a sick child again.

He had difficulty recalling what had happened to him so I told him about the guys who'd beat him up and the two guys who'd saved him – not everything of course – just that two guys had stopped the beating. Gary told me that the three men who had beaten him had told him that I was Bradley's girl and he was to stay away from me. That really ticked me off because I hadn't been "Bradley's girl" (either Bradley's) since before my marriage. It just helped to confirm my suspicions of what was going on. I got up and reheated the peppermint tea Marissa had brewed for me before she and Chuck left and gave Gary a steaming mug full to drink. Peppermint tea is good for headaches and nausea. I was sure Gary had the former and wouldn't have been surprised if he'd had the latter. He slowly drank it all down and then I took the mug and put it in the sink with some water in it. Making sure there was some fresh air coming in I went back to his beside and straightened the covers that had become twisted during Gary's restless thrashing earlier. He looked up at me groggily and apologized for being so much trouble.

With a fond look I squeezed his hand and kissed his forehead telling him that he wasn't any trouble. I loved him with all my heart and had since the day I found him, lost and frightened and separated from his parents, in the mountains of Kentucky. He fell into a fitful sleep right after that and I spent a little time singing the old ballads I'd learned growing up and during my travels in Kentucky and Scotland. Unwilling to break the physical or psychological connection that Gary seemed to need right then I eased myself to the floor and leaned on the bed. Once I did that I couldn't have lasted another five minutes I was so exhausted. I was soon sound asleep and didn't hear a thing for quite some time.

I didn't hear Chuck come in to check on us, I didn't feel him put a blanket around my shoulders when he found the loft to be cool and saw me shivering, I didn't hear him pour Cat's bowl of milk or anything else until I woke up on Gary's couch several hours later when Jamie woke me up to take me to my hotel room for a real rest in my bed instead of on Gary's couch. I was too groggy to even argue with him when he insisted.

It was between four and five in the afternoon when I woke up on the bed in my hotel room. I didn't even remember how I got there let alone taking my shoes off or anything. Jamie told me later that he'd had to half carry me I was so groggy. When he got me there he'd taken my jacket and shoes and thrown a blanket over me. He said I was never really awake the whole time he drove me or guided me to the elevator and to my room.

I was sort of in a state of panic when I realized how late it was and where I was. When I wandered out into the living room of my suite I found Jamie and Grandpa Mac sitting there. Grandpa Mac looked at me with concern. I must have looked a fright with my rumpled clothes and tangled hair. I hugged him and told him I was fine when he asked me. I just wanted to get back to my patient.

First though Grandpa Mac wanted to know what I could tell him about the events of the previous night and how badly Gary was hurt. If I knew Grandpa Mac as well as I thought I did he was blaming himself for Gary being hurt because the "fight" with Andrew never would have gotten started. But Grandpa Mac didn't know Mark like I did. If he were that determined to get me back he'd do almost anything – as long as he didn't have to dirty his own hands.

I told Grandpa Mac what I could and Jamie helped me over the rough spots like who broke up the fight. (Grandpa Mac didn't know Washo and Jimmy partly because he's on the road so much.) Jamie told him about the "cowboys" that broke up the fight and how Gary had needed immediate medical attention and it was his call on whether or not to press charges.

I asked Jamie how Gary was when he brought me back to the hotel and in spite of his assurances that Sam, who was staying with Gary, would have called if anything changed I was anxious to get back to my patient. But James Robert Fairfax, my darling brother, is every bit as stubborn as those Missouri Mules he's always comparing me to. He wouldn't bring me back until I'd showered, changed and eaten. And I wasn't permitted to wolf it down or pick at it. I had to eat the whole steak and potatoes meal.

So while Jamie ordered for the three of us from room service I took a shower and changed into jeans, baseball jersey and sneakers. After we ate we said good-bye to Grandpa Mac and Jamie drove me back to McGinty's before going back to the fairgrounds to relive Elena who was on duty at the time.

Sam had never heard how Gary and I had met so I told him. I'm sure he wanted to stay with me while I kept my bedside vigil but I wouldn't let him. (Ok so I am as stubborn as a Missouri Mule! What do you expect from a Scotsman?)

After a quick briefing on Gary's condition Sam left and I started an evaluation of Gary's injuries. He looked so miserable – just like when he'd had the measles when he was six. He'd been out of commission for about a week that time. As I sat there wondering who these people were that he had dreamed about the night before he started to mumble in his sleep again as his temperature went up again.

All night long I talked and sang and mopped his face and put cool water on his wrists to try and bring his fever down. I listened to him moan and cry and talk to people I didn't know. He told someone named Bat or Mike not to shoot someone because they weren't worth it. He asked his ex-wife Marcia "why" and mumbled something about a suitcase and his ex-boss Phil Pritchard (a lousy excuse for a human being from what I've heard). He cried for his mom and Crumb to help him. He thought he was lost and couldn't stop a fire. Two fires in fact because one of them was in a room he was in the way he talked. He warned me to watch out for something or someone and said he had to save me. He was afraid of falling from some high up place.

Just before daybreak his fever finally broke for good and he fell into a deep restful sleep. He woke briefly and surprised or confused to see me there asked if he had been that sick. We talked for a minute and I got out of him about his ex-wife, whom he'd loved dearly, and how she was supposed to marry his ex-boss but left him standing at the altar. It was then and there I vowed to myself that if I ever got the chance I would tell Ms. Roberts exactly what I thought of her. Trading Gary for that pitiful specimen of the male species by the name of Phil Pritchard.

Gary fell asleep again and I busied myself with cleaning up. I had just finished when Marissa, Chuck and even Crumb came up to check on Gary. From the looks on the faces of the two guys I must have been a sight. Marissa knew something was wrong but none of them said anything at first. Not until I was escorting them to the door and was hit with a sudden attack of vertigo. I never would have thought that a man the age and size of Crumb (I love him dearly but he is definitely too heavy for his own good) could move as fast as he did. But he caught me by the elbows and steered me over to the couch telling Chuck to make himself useful and get the pillows and blankets squared away. They took my shoes off as he eased me back on the pillows and Chuck put my feet up. Crumb chided me for trying to make like nothing was wrong. I was only dimly aware of Marissa settling herself in the chair and Cat jumping up in her lap before I was sound asleep. There I would be for several hours before Jamie once again took me to my hotel room to sleep and eat. In a couple of days Gary and I would be back to normal – whatever that is for us.

The first day that I allowed Gary to leave the loft on his own I went to McGinty's for lunch. I was right when I guessed he wouldn't be there. I don't know what he does all day but he's seldom there when I drop in unannounced. Anyway, I was very curious about these nightmares Gary had had when he was delirious those two nights but I didn't want to spook him by asking so I did the next best thing – I "cornered" Marissa and Chuck.

We must have sat I the office for two hours while I quizzed them on Dobbs, Marley and the rest. The answers about assassins, lost love and drug czars were enough to curl my hair and curdle my blood. When we were through I had a stronger love and admiration for Gary than before. I've told only three other people what I learned that day. Two of them are still here in Chicago and care about him as much as I do. The third one has moved out of state. All of them have vowed, along with me, never to speak a word of this to Gary or anyone else outside our inner circle. His secret is very safe with us. When I got up to leave I thanked Chuck and Marissa for their openness and told them to expect the gang in for supper around six that night. After supper we planned on sorting through pictures and starting to letter signs for our displays and other little jobs we had to do before the party.

Promptly at six that night the nine of us trooped in and got seats in an isolated corner where we could eat and work without being in the way. I swear Chuck had dollar signs in his eyes when he saw the amount of food we ate. Jamie and I both shared a secret laugh when we saw Chuck's face. Now I've always had a healthy appetite but the amount of food that I eat compared to my cowboy cousins and firefighter brother put away that night would stagger someone with a "normal" appetite. And I'm talking steak, chicken, salads plus side dishes, drinks and dessert. And the MacGregors and Fairfaxes may be Scottish and all that goes with it but they are always generous tippers. At least two of the wait staff made about twenty dollars apiece when they served us that night. After the dishes were cleared away and the tables wiped down some of us went out to our vehicles and started bringing in the boxes of photos, awards, report cards and such as well as the poster boards and other art supplies.

Marissa got a good laugh out of our grade school report cards and I don't blame her. Who would have figured that one who did so poorly in math and science when she started school would end up being a doctor? Or that our "silver tongued orator" who practices law these days would have gotten bad marks in Oral English? And as for Jamie – he'd actually flunked Science twice when he was in the fourth grade. She was curious as to how we ever got to where we are today with grades like that. I told her it was because of good tutoring from Aunts and Uncles. And, of course, the obligatory parental lectures.

When the conversation turned to extra curricular activities my dear, dear cousin Alex was "cruisin' for a bruisin'" when he bragged that I'm a champion softball player and sing like an angel. I hate when he does that but he always sticks by his story. I did manage to divert their attention back to the matter at hand though – currently the music for the party. When we settled for the time being, that part of the celebration, we went over the guest list. Besides our relatives, Gary's parents, Gary, chuck and Marissa we had old neighbors coming. But one name nearly sent Chuck through the roof and set off a prolonged period of giggling from Marissa and me. Phil Kazakian - Chuck's uncle. Uncle Phil is kind of eccentric and you might call him an overgrown Dennis The Menace because he causes problems and accidents without meaning to. He's only trying to be helpful.

About this time Gary wandered in. He seemed to be limping a wee bit and he was still pale but I couldn't see that there was anything especially wrong. I guessed he was probably just tired. It would be a few more days before I would consider him more or less 100% again. As he came over to join us I had Chris do some quick calculations for Chuck and Marissa as to how much food we would need to feed everyone who was expected. Jamie and Sam were handling the transportation issues and I was in charge of the accommodations at area hotels. Our friends were told to order the food and hire any extra staff they might need and give me the bill. If there was anything extra they needed they were to order or hire as necessary and we'd foot the bill.

Now the nonsense would start as we sorted through pictures and papers. Rob found my term paper on Will Rogers and told everyone present that I was twenty-one in 1968 when I wrote it. Those boxes we'd brought in were full of class pictures (Jamie, Alan and I especially usually managed to be in the middle or back row of all our pictures). The wedding pictures we found brought back happy and sad memories. It was just a little painful when we got to my pictures. Gary, who was sitting next to me, squeezed my hand by way of encouragement. Both of us had had marriages that ended abruptly, thought under far different circumstances and that just cemented our bond even more strongly than it already was.

We were in the middle of sorting pictures when the phone rang and Crumb called Gary away from the table. I didn't pay much attention to his departure until he called me over to the bar. Now I've seen the panic stricken look he had on his face before and it usually has something to do with his mother. I was right. A hurried explanation from Gary confirmed my suspicions – it was Lois talking about coming to Chicago ahead of the party date to look after her baby. Somehow or other the story of Gary's beating and my fainting spell had gotten all twisted around so as to sound a lot worse than it really was. I took the phone from Gary and talked to her while Gary hovered nervously nearby. After a few minutes I had her calmed down and convinced that she need not come to Chicago until the day of the party. While Gary talked to his mom one more time prior to hanging up I waited at the end of the bar near my Texas friends who'd come in and explained to Washo and Jimmy about Lois' serious "mother hen complex". They grinned in appreciation. When Gary was finally able to hang up he came over and hugged me as tightly as his still sore ribs could stand. I told him never to complain about me smothering him again because I've got nothing on his mother.

Together we walked back to where my family and our friends were sitting. Baby pictures, vacation pictures and school activity pictures were now among those that had come out to be examined and sorted. Both of my brothers had played Little League and coached as well so there were team pictures and individual pictures as well. When they got to my school pictures Andrew let out a whoop. When I was a senior in High School the Drama Club put on Annie Get Your Gun and I won the part of Annie. What Andrew had found and Chris and Jamie confirmed was that it was the "good" pictures – the ones when Annie still wore buckskins and had messy hair. (Incidentally the real Annie Oakley never, ever looked like that. She never even wore pants. She was a lady in every sense of the word but show business has to have its way you know.) Now this got Chuck's attention. For some reason he equated "Annie" with "Calamity Jane" which Chris pointed out was one of my favorite movies (he's got a big mouth at the wrong time sometimes I'm tellin' ya). Chuck knows my full name is Schuyler Jane Fairfax and he's always looking for something to tease me about. Chris handed him some ammunition (Thanks cousin!) and the next thing I knew I was being tagged with a new nickname – "Calamity Jane". Well let me tell you I wasn't going to stand for that! Chuck is at his most annoying when he's calling me by some stupid nickname. You've never seen Chuck move so fast as when I got up from my seat that night. He knew he as in trouble. Hiding behind Gary wasn't going to save him and Gary got himself into trouble when he decided that "Calamity Jane" was a good nickname for me – he thought it was funny. Just before thins got completely out of hand though Crumb came over and threatened to break a few heads and/or throw us out on our ear if we didn't settle down. From that point on we were all a bit more subdued.



Late the next morning Gary arrived at the fairgrounds burdened with several packages including a bouquet of flowers. Washo and Jimmy were there in the infirmary, talking to me, Jamie and Sam, when he arrived. Without giving anything away as to their identity, or the real reason for their being in Chicago, I introduced Gary to my Texas friends. Washo commented on how much better Gary looked and Gary thanked him for his help the night he was beaten. Then my friends left and went back to poking around looking for information.

Once they were gone Sam and Jamie started in on Gary. They'd seen the packages and knew something was up. I figured Jamie had told Sam about what had transpired the night before. Jamie had put his foot down when the nonsense that caused Crumb to threaten to throw us out on our ear started to erupt again. That may have ended some of it but Jamie's not above teasing Gary like he would me. Poor Gary! Hanging around my family can be very embarrassing for him and that day was no exception.

Sam wanted to know if Gary would really do anything that required an apology with flowers to which my darling older brother responded "Of course not! My sister will tell you that Gary's a sweet innocent kid who'd never do anything wrong. She's been telling me that for years." Enough's enough. At that point I made them leave. Not that my own suspicions weren't aroused but my first thought was that he wasn't feeling well (Gary admit to that?) or that he had questions about the party scheduled for Friday night.

I watched his face, half in amusement and half in concern, as he tried to come up with the words for whatever it was he was trying to say. He made me think of a schoolboy called on the carpet in the principal's office. Suddenly I wasn't concerned – I was suspicious as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and then suddenly handed me one of the packages he was carrying. It was full of carnations – red, pink and white with greenery. Gary knows that carnations are one of my favorite flowers. I also adore roses, lilies of the valley, mums and violets. Gary's got a good memory not to bring me lilies or lilacs. I love them but I'm extremely allergic to them. My eyes get all puffy and watery and I have difficulty breathing when I'm around them.

Then I opened the bag from the gift shop and found at least five dollars worth of Lindor chocolates in my three favorite flavors – milk chocolate, dark chocolate and mint. Now I was really suspicious. Gary wanted something but I didn't know what it was just yet. If I gave him enough rope he'd soon hang himself so to speak. He wouldn't be able to hide what he was up to for very long. When I asked him what he was up to he just played it innocent and asked if a guy couldn't guy flowers and candy for a friend once in a while to which I responded with a question about whether or not he bought Marissa flowers and candy. He tried to steer me away from questioning him by asking me if I was going to open the box that was left.

I was thrilled when I opened the box from the toy store (slowly so as to torture Gary). He'd bought me the most adorable stuffed pony! It was jet- black in color except or a white star on its forehead and fitted out with artificial leather western tack (saddle and bridle to the uninformed). Gary was just a little too eager to please me when he agreed that "Starlight" was a good name for it. (I've always named my stuffed animals so why should this time have been any different?)

Well let me tell you I was really suspicious now! Gary had spent an awful lot of money just to apologize for that nonsense of the night before or to pay a bill I never gave him and never would. And while I may have overreacted a little bit to that nonsense I never would have really punched Gary but I did want to scare him a little bit. No, this was going overboard so I knew he wanted something pretty bad.

Turning my attention back to him I told him to come out with it. What was it he wanted? My warped sense of humor went to work when he told me that he was curious about my nurse. I resolved to torture my "little brother" and started telling him all about Sam when I knew it was Elena he really wanted to know about. I didn't get very far before Gary glared at me indignantly. So then I told him what I knew about Elena and her background. Her likes and dislikes and all that.

When Gary asked me if she'd date a guy who was divorced I had to tell him I didn't know because I'd never discussed that particular subject with her. Then I looked at him with a gleam in my eye (so he says) and accused him of buying me all that stuff so I'd set him up with her. He turned beet red and denied it and then said that this wasn't a blind date exactly. (His mom was always trying to set him up with somebody when he was in his teens and twenties – something I'd sworn I'd never do without his consent). His reasoning was that he'd already met Elena – they just didn't know each other and he wanted to check it out with me before he asked her out.

Ecstatic that I'd given him the information he wanted he grabbed me in a bear hug and kissed me. Laughingly I told him that he was smothering me. It was at this point that Mark walked in with a sneer in his voice and on his face. I wasn't happy to see him at all. I'd told him two weeks ago to stay away unless he had legitimate business with me. Gary tried to protect me but he wasn't really a match for Mark. It's not that he's a weakling or anything like that but Mark is a tough cowboy who grew up working with cattle and horses. Yeah, he'd studied medicine for a while but his family had owned a small working ranch. When Jon died I inherited his share and when his parents died I inherited half of their share making me the majority owner of the ranch which I still own to this day. I long suspected that part of the reason he wanted me back was to try and get his hands on my share. Anyway when Gary tried to force Mark to leave after I gave him a tongue lashing Mark pulled loose and shoved Gary who stumbled backward and knocked me off balance. When I fell I hit my head on one of the desks hard enough to make me cry out in pain. I remember Mark making some comment to Gary about his not having learned his lesson the other night just before I fell. I was kind of dazed for a minute but when my head cleared I saw Sam and Jamie. Jamie and Gary helped me to a chair and he and Elena, who'd come in right behind them, checked me out. All I had was a small bump on the head – nothing serious. Mark was lying on the ground breathing heavily.

Jamie was in a tearing rage when Gary told him what had transpired. Only my restraint and the ex-boxer turned nurse that stood between him and Mark kept him from attacking Mark himself. Sam, on the other hand, told Mark point blank that if he caught him harassing or harming Gary or me he'd take him out and leave the pieces for Chicago's finest to pick up. Mark slunk off after giving all of us dirty looks.

After Sam ascertained that we were both ok I asked how they'd known we were in trouble. Turns out that Elena was on her way to the infirmary and recognized him because Jamie had pointed him out the other day. Knowing he was liable to be trouble she'd gone looking for Jamie or Sam and found both of them together. I thanked Elena verbally and gave Gary a hug and a kiss that made him blush again. Then he took Elena outside and asked her out. When I heard about this I was determined to see that he had a good time. Jamie and I put our heads together and decided to loan him Jamie's Grand Am. One could hardly expect him to impress a date by taking her on the el as a means of getting to their destination.

After he was gone I had a short talk with Elena about Gary. I don't usually tell near strangers about his past loves but after hearing about Marcia and others I didn't want to see him hurt again. I told Elena a little bit about the women in Gary's life. Then, even though I knew Gary would strangle me if he found out what I said, I told her that if she broke his heart I'd break her neck. She told me not to worry – if it didn't work out she'd let him down real easy or let it be his idea. I also warned her about his being somewhat absent minded but told her all his good points too.

A short while later Jimmy arrived at the infirmary on Jamie's heels. Jamie had gone looking for him at Sam's insistence (to get him out of the infirmary before he lost control and attacked Mark). Washo arrived a few minutes later. After a brief discussion about what had happened Washo decided that I should be careful about going anywhere alone until this whole situation with Mark was resolved. And he'd have a chat with Crumb about trying to keep an eye on Gary.

Early the next evening as he got ready to go out I sat on the couch watching Gary finish dressing and comb his hair. And I had to tell him about Hercules. Hercules was Elena's dog – a brown and white St. Bernard. He wasn't mean or dangerous or anything but to the uninitiated he could be a little intimidating. In fact I knew of at least a half a dozen guys that had never made it past the first date because of him. But Gary had a secret weapon – the Fairfax siblings! We all knew the dog and Hercules adored us. In fact with Kim, the girls, and me he was as gentle as could be. And he loved to roughhouse with Jamie and Alan and Sam too when they were around.

So Jamie was going to lend Gary his car and I made sure he had everything he needed including some juicy soup bones (the thought of needing bones to distract the dog made Gary somewhat nervous – he wasn't sure what to expect). Gary was pleasantly surprised to find out that he as being given the loan of a car for the night. For my part I was happy for him and I was determined to get the details of where they went and what they did from one or both of them in the morning. Before I even talked to them I suspected he'd had a good time because Marissa told me his footsteps were very light and he sounded a million miles away when she asked him how things had gone.

Two days before the party Gary arrived at the fairgrounds around lunchtime and promptly landed in the middle of a fight. (I don't know what I'm going to do with him.) Gray Wolf, an elderly Cherokee man who sold handmade jewelry, had accidentally bumped into a teenager and spilled the kid's soda on his pants and jacket. This kid happened to be the leader of a bunch of punks, not really an officially recognized gang, but a bunch of punks all the same. They wanted to make sure the old man paid for his "crime" so they apparently set their sights on his pendant and bracelet that were silver and turquoise. Gary tried to intervene and almost got stabbed or slashed for his trouble. Fortunately for both him and Gray Wolf Chris, Alex and I were on the way to the refreshment stand ourselves. Chris and Alex jumped into the fray immediately while I hesitated long enough to summon Security on my Walkie Talkie. Then I joined in.

Chris got a grip on the leader's wrist and exerted enough pressure to break it. When the kid screamed in pain and protest Chris told him that he'd break his head next time. Alex took out the African American kid (who went after Chris for hurting their leader). Though the kid outweighed him by thirty pounds it made no difference. Alex is wiry and tough. Having spent his teen years through the present wrestling calves, steers and broncs has helped that. I personally took out the last kid myself using a couple of the moves that Washo had taught me.

When the Security Guards arrived to take charge of the kids until the police arrived Chris was the first one to ask Gary it he were ok. I knew Gray Wolf sometimes struggled with English (we'd become good friends over the last couple of weeks but I hadn't told him about my time on the reservation) so I took him aside and spoke to him in Cherokee. His face lit up when he heard the language of his people come out of my mouth. Not many non-Cherokee people can speak their language. My time in Texas had been well spent – language lessons, self-defense lessons and founding a clinic on the reservation in Oklahoma.

Gray Wolf was shaken but unharmed. I was concerned that his son may have heard what had happened so I asked Chris and Alex to escort him back to his trailer. Then I turned my attention to Gary who'd kept Gray Wolf out of the fracas. He wasn't hurt in the fight but he did have a tear in his jacket. As I looked him over I noticed some scratches on his hand. He told me a cat had scratched him and I'm thinking his cat – my furry buddy which didn't seem likely to me. But, no, he'd climbed a tree and got a little girl's cat down for her. Knowing his fear of heights I was kind of surprised to hear this but then again Gary is such a sucker when it comes to kids. (I always wish he'd had kids of his own – he'd make a great dad but it wasn't to be I guess.) The scratches didn't look too bad but I wanted to clean them up and put a bandage over them to be on the safe side so I took him to the infirmary.

While he was sitting there waiting for me to finish cleaning up he started asking questions. Where did I learn that move I'd used on the kid? What was that language I was speaking to the old man? Where'd I learn to speak Cherokee? The clincher was when he asked me who "Washo" was. All I told him was that he was a friend – a very special friend. I told him a little bit about Washo's heritage and that he was the one who had trained Jonathan.

Now the one thing, besides Gary's curiosity, that I hadn't counted on was his memory. He remembered my mentioning Washo to Mark when I was giving him that tongue lashing a few days before. So now he suspected that Washo was here. True enough, but not even to Gary would I betray Washo's cover story. Instead I nervously changed the subject by looking at his watch and declaring that I'd better get the food my cousins, Jamie, Sam and Elena were waiting for. I teased him that I knew that the real reason he was there anyway was to see Elena.

Gary walked with me to the refreshment stand. Mr. Morgan, the proprietor, was an old friend of Andrew's dad – my Uncle Rob. He wasn't the least bit taken aback by the amount of food I ordered but Gary sure was. He thought I was kidding him when I told him that two of the dinners were for Elena and me and the rest for the others. I ordered a dozen chicken dinners on top of ten hot dogs, and two dozen each cheeseburgers and plain hamburgers. Then I added chips, soda, and, once I got Gary's attention again, a cheeseburger, chips and a coke for him.

I carried the cold stuff back to where the gang was gathered along with the condiments, plastic ware and napkins. Gary carried the hot stuff. He wanted to carry everything but I pointed out that that would heat up the cold stuff and cool the hot stuff off. The gang was real happy to see us finally arrive. I think Rob and Andrew thought they were going to starve. I'm sure Chris had explained what happened but when those two are hungry that's all they can think about.

They would have fallen on the food like a pack of half starved wolves if Jamie hadn't stopped them. And it wasn't just fear of their elder cousin that stopped them – it was the thought of what their mothers would say if they caught them helping themselves before the ladies and their guest, Gary, had been served. Oh how they stopped up short! But only for a minute – once their sisters, Elena Gary and I had gotten what we wanted the others dug in in a hurry. After lunch we played some country music and some oldies and then our cousins talked us into some informal competition in calf roping, barrel racing etc. Gary was stay around and watch for a while. I was glad he did and so were the others. One of the girls, Hannah I think, repaired his jacket while he was there. In retrospect it was the calm before the storm – both literally and figuratively.

Thursday dawned cloudy, cool and windy. It was so windy that Grandpa Mac decided to postpone the competition. Grandma Phoebe decided to drag the "old goat" off to do some clothes shopping. There were some things she absolutely refused to buy him unless he went with her. My cousins decided to do some sightseeing and souvenir shopping. Plus we'd discovered that we were missing a few items for the party, like extra film for our cameras, so they were going to pick that up as well. Knowing them they stopped at McGinty's to have lunch. They liked the food and the atmosphere very much. Jamie and Sam, the Transportation Crew, as we'd taken to calling them were headed for O'Hare to pick up some of the relatives who were arriving that day. I'd given Elena a call not to come in since there would be no competition that morning and we wouldn't know about afternoon until we saw how the weather went.

I stayed behind at the fairgrounds to work on the music I was planning on playing at the party. I played a few popular country songs on my violin and guitar. I had started re-reading the Reno Westerns by Gilbert Morris the day before so I was reading and taken somewhat off guard when Mark showed his face at my door so to speak. One would think that he'd have learned his lesson when Sam let fly a few days earlier but no, he was not that smart.

It may have been the liquor he'd consumed or maybe he was just stupid and jealous. I don't know which but that was how he acted. Probably a little of both. Anyway he came up to me and told me he wanted me to hear him out. I told him I wasn't interested in anything he had to say unless it was to apologize for his behavior over the last couple of weeks or to tell me how sorry he was about Jon (something I'd been waiting for for sixteen years). When he didn't and then forced a kiss on me I saw red! I slapped him good and hard across his face. That only served to make him angry. He told me I thought I was too good for him and said he was going to show me what he meant. He grabbed my right wrist in a painful grip causing me to cry out in pain. He never got the chance to lay another kiss on me, or whatever else he had in mind, because just when I needed him most Washo showed up and sent Mark flying to land in the dirt a few feet away. Did I tell you that Mark is a moron? He stupidly got up and charged Washo with the same result as before. Security arrived on the scene as Mark collapsed in the dirty for the third and last time. He would be taken into protective custody and in the morning escorted to the office to get his entry fees returned, pack up his gear and leave Illinois. Provided I never ever had to see him again I wouldn't press charges. Washo hung around long enough to make sure I was ok and left word for Jimmy to look him up. Then he went back to do some more "snooping".

I tried to sit down and relax but I couldn't. I was too hyped up after my encounter with Mark. What I needed was to burn off the nervous energy so I went and saddled Midnight, the black gelding I'd ridden in the parade, set up the standard barrel-racing course and gave Middy a good workout.

I was still there when Gary showed up. I was a little slow to hear him and at first slow to figure out how he knew what had happened. But when I thought about it for a minute I knew how. Crumb must have heard from one of his cronies at the department and then he told Gary whom he knew to be worried about me. Gary and I walked and talked while I cooled Midnight out ten groomed him and cleaned his tack. When I was through I sat down on a bale of hay next to Gary and sighed with disappointment. I so hated to part with my former brother-in-law under such nasty circumstances. I'd so wanted to be friends with the last living link to my late husband other than cousins and the Rangers. Gary tried to cheer me up reminding me how I'd always treated everyone the same and it wasn't my fault Mark was such an idiot. It was while we were walking back to the refreshment stand to get lunch that disaster struck.

As we neared Gray Wolf's trailer I noticed that the door was ajar. This was not normal and I was concerned that someone might walk in and help themselves to his stock and whatever cash he had on hand. I was just about to take a quick look inside when I heard Gary calling for me to walk away. I halfway laughed at him because he sounded like such a worrywart. He practically ran up to me as I reached for the door to close it. As I did a man's voice coming from the interior told us not to move. What I had feared was coming to pass. Three armed men exited the trailer. When one of them grabbed my arm Gary tried to stop I but one of the other men punched him in the face and he staggered into the side of the trailer and then fell – striking his head on the trailer hitch. He blacked out almost immediately and lay still. The man, Milt Anderson, who had hold of me was reluctant to let me loose but finally did with a warning not to try anything. Now I ask you, if that young man lying on the ground meant as much to you as he does to me would you try something funny?

I ran to Gary's side and half listened to the men behind me. My worst fears were coming true – these were the men who had killed my husband and they weren't going to leave any witnesses behind that could identify them for committing this robbery. It had started raining and Gary's windbreaker was getting wet. He had a split lip, a bump on his left temple and his skin was cold and clammy. I wasn't sure if it was from the cold wind blowing against his wet skin or from shock. But his pulse was steady and he was breathing ok. I took my denim jacket off (it was big because it as an old one of Jamie's) and put it over Gary. Then I just had time to kiss his cheek and whisper, "I love you Gary Matthew" before I was taken as a semi-willing hostage. Having heard some of what the men said I was determined to save Gary so I told them that if they left Gary where he was and hurt no worse than he already was I'd go with them willingly.

The next couple of hours were agony to my spirits. We moved from one hiding place to another before we settled in a storage tent full of bales of hay and feeds sacks. I could have cried I was so happy when Cat showed up. One of my captors told me to get rid of him. I guess he doesn't like cats. I sent Cat away all right but not before taking my ring – a silver and turquoise ring that Alex and Washo gave me for my last birthday before I left Texas – and the necklace that the Hobsons had given me and tied them with one of my shoelaces (I'd worn sneakers that day) around Cat's neck before I did. I know it sounds corny, like something out of Lassie or Rin Tin Tin, but I just knew that Cat understood me when I told him to go find Gary.

Not too much later I heard Washo's voice outside the tent. Apparently Cat had showed up and Gary'd found help. When I talked to Washo I was relieved to hear that Gary was cold, wet and worried about me but otherwise he was ok. Anderson, using me for a shield, told Washo that he wanted four horses so that we could cross the arena quickly and safely and a car on the other side. And of course, no cops in sight or else. Washo told him he'd see what he could do.

It was a tense half hour before the horses were delivered. My hands were tied in front of me and Anderson took the reins of my mount himself keeping my horse close to his. With invisible leg signals I kept my horse jittery – moving nervously this way and that in confusion. This and the wind that had picked up again made all four horses nervous. The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was when the PA system suddenly came to life with the sound of Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. The already nervous horses came completely undone when that happened.

Washo appeared out of nowhere it seemed and tackled Anderson, knocking him off his horse. One of the other men gave up almost immediately when confronted by Jamie and Sam but he'd been ready to give up since he heard Washo was in town.

The third man tried to take me hostage again but Jimmy took all the fight out of him. I saw Gary head for the announcer's booth but he was too late. No sooner did Stars and Stripes Forever stop than it was the 1812 Overture complete with cannon sounds. The horses spooked all over again. Barely had he gotten it turned off when there was a single gunshot. I tried to stay in the saddle as my already nervous mount bolted and headed for the gate. When he stopped abruptly, thwarted by the closed gate, I flew over his head and landed against the gate. I remained conscious long enough to try and get up but the blow to my head and the pain in my right shoulder and my side caused me to black out almost immediately.

I vaguely remember going to the Emergency Room for x-rays and such but they gave me a fairly strong sedative for the cracked ribs and broken shoulder. Some time during the night I heard a disturbance in my room but I was so out of it that when Jamie told me to go back to sleep I did.

When I woke up the next morning I was surprised and concerned to find Gary asleep in a chair next to my bed. His head was down on his arms and he leaned on the mattress. He looked so much like a little boy to me – very young and very vulnerable. It took me a couple of tries before I could rouse him. He cried on my shoulder when I chided him for blaming himself for what had happened to me. After all, he'd tried to warn me but I didn't listen. I had just calmed him down when Cat arrived. How he got past "Damon the Demon" as I called Nurse Damon I don't know but I didn't care because Cat and I are buddies and I was happy to see him again.

Jamie arrived shortly afterward with breakfast. He knew something I didn't about Gary and the events of the previous day but he caves in as fast as I do when Gary gives him that look I can never resist. Because Gary gave him that look they kept their little secret in spite of my attempt to get it out of them. Chuck and Marissa arrived shortly afterward with flowers and a balloon. My grandparents, cousins, Washo, Jimmy and Crumb, followed them. I was presented with more flowers and another balloon and we all visited for a while before everyone went their separate ways. The doctor would release me later with orders to go home and rest. Rest maybe – home never! I had a rodeo to go to.

The competition closed the next day. Prize money was awarded and my grandparents were whisked away from the fairgrounds by my parents. The rush was on to get things set up. Washo and Jimmy pitched in and helped the family and staff get things ready. They had to leave right after the ceremony in order to pick up their prisoners and head back to Texas. Before they did though Washo gave me his prize money to donate to charity and then told Gary and me to take care of each other. I told them I'd be down that summer for a visit.

There were a few rough moments for Gary. He hates ties and he kept acting like his was choking him so I got him a bola tie from Gray Wolf. With a bola tie he could look dressed up but keep the tie away from his throat. That settled that particular problem. However the other rough moments involved his mother, food and women. Lois didn't think he had enough to eat so she got him a second plateful. Comparing his eating habits to my cousins is hardly fair to Gary but Lois will be Lois. She's determined to take care of her baby and see that he eats right. The final problem was when she inadvertently heard about Gary dating again. See, he'd been hovering over me all day and I was just a little tired of it so I told him if he didn't stop it and go have some fun I was going to tell his mother about Elena. Unfortunately for Gary Lois happened to be coming up behind us just when I made that statement and the inquisition was on. The last question she asked, before Sam came along and took her away, was whether or not Elena was THE one – the girl who would become her new daughter-in-law and the mother of her grandchildren. (Did I tell you that Lois wants grandchildren really bad?)

Still and all it was a good time. Lots of music (we took turns, singly and in groups, serenading my grandparents) and food. Photo memories. Dancing. My cousins and Elena kept Gary and Chuck busy. Grandpa Mac, Daddy, my brothers and Sam kept Marissa and Lois busy. We all made sure that Marissa didn't just sit on the sidelines. And good old Sam really kept Lois off her son's case. He's great at diversionary tactics.

My grandparents were thrilled to see every one of their kids and grandkids and the great-grandkids. The music we'd chosen really made their day and there wasn't a dry eye in the audience when Alan finished singing Kenny Rogers' hit "Through The Years".

I was kind of sad to see my family and friends pack up and leave when the rodeo closed and the party was over. I didn't see much of them what with the show being on the road so much. Soon enough Andrew would be back to school to finish the year and Chris would go back on duty with the Rangers. At least my parents were relatively close by. It only takes about an hour or so to drive to Hickory and I did sometimes drive up for a weekend. There were a lot of hugs and kisses and bad jokes and the same old warnings and invitations when they left. You know "Take care", "Call once in a while", "Come and visit", "Chris make sure someone puts flowers on Jon's grave for me". The usual plus Grandma Phoebe and Grandpa Mac held me a little longer than usual and told Gary that they were eternally grateful to him and adopted him as one of the family. Gary never knew his own grandparents but now he had mine who would never think of their grandchildren, Jamie and me in particular, without thinking of Gary and all he'd done for their family in just three short weeks. Of course, now I tell him that really makes him my "baby brother" with all that entails (like doing whatever I tell him to do – fat chance! But I can dream can't I?)

Off to Indianapolis they went and from there New York Cincinnati, Hartford, Boston and then down through Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Before the show finished its yearly trek Chris would be back at work and Andrew back to school to finish his second year of college. Unless he changes his mind he's planning on a career in speech pathology. No, I didn't influence him to a career in medicine or its related fields – he made that decision himself. He wants to work with kids especially and he'll be very good.

Things in Chicago settled down to kind of a dull roar and a quiet murmur for a while. Sam and I dealt with a short-lived flu epidemic at the clinic and the usual group of youngsters coming in to see Dr. Sky or Mr. Sam with their minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, the little ones knew that if they didn't fuss when we treated them then they would be entitled to a lollipop or a balloon or whatever treat we happened to have on hand. Rumors of fights between two rival gangs reached our ears and Sam made certain that neither Elena nor myself left the clinic alone. With my right arm still in a sling I couldn't drive myself anyway so Sam and Jamie were taking turns getting me to the clinic. It would be a bit hairy trying to work in the ER at County so I gave it up in favor of the clinic until my shoulder healed. And at that I was at the mercy of my brother and Sam. They'd take whatever file was in my hand away from me, gather my things and hustle me out the door before I could protest.

Four weeks after the rodeo left town Gary stumbled, literally, from what Sam says, into the clinic with a small boy in his arms. Sam said he would have fallen too if he hadn't been right there. I was in the back room having just finished, with Elena's help, cleaning up after a patient, when Sam called me to come out front. I got there just in time to see Gary's eyes roll back into his head as Elena took the child from his arms. Sam, alert as ever, caught him as he started to fall and carried him again to the back room where we would examine him. I put him on oxygen as a precaution and covered him with a sheet to ward off shock. He didn't seem to be hurt and that had me confused. Gary's pretty healthy for the most part so I couldn't understand why carrying a child would cause him to faint. Turns out he hadn't eaten anything much for the last few days and that, plus the strain of carrying the child several blocks was too much for him.

For about the next hour or so I popped in and out of the room. Gary wasn't real thrilled when I made him call McGinty's and tell Marissa and Chuck what had happened. It was after Sam went to get our lunches, including one for Gary, that trouble came into the clinic.

Now everyone in the neighborhood knows that my clinic is open to anybody who needs medical attention so I wasn't too surprised when a member of one of the gangs came in to be treated for a knife wound in his arm. He and his buddies wouldn't have been any trouble if a bunch from the gang that was their biggest rival hadn't shown up seeking treatment for one of their own. The trouble they caused, each claiming the clinic to be in their territory, never would have gotten started if Sam had been there, but they happened to arrive while he was gone after the lunches. Before you could say "Jack Robinson" the kids were going at it. Poor little Raul was terrified and cowered in Elena's arms as she tried to protect him.

I got in between a couple of them that were trying to get at each other with knives. They were screaming at each other in English and Spanish and I was matching them shout for shout when Gary came charging out of the back room to keep one of the others from attacking me with a club I would find out later. I saw Gary hit the wall – hard- with his head and right shoulder taking the brunt of it. I wanted to go to him but I had my hands full with the two teens.

No more than fifteen seconds later, Sam, several police offices and the father and uncle of my young patient came charging through the door and quickly subdued all of the kids including my knife wielders and the club wielding punk that was swinging on Gary who lay stunned on the floor when they arrived.

It turned out that one or more of our neighbors had seen the first group arrive and decided to keep a close eye on things. When they saw the second group arrive they knew that there'd be trouble and notified the police. Word reached Sam at Mrs. Inatelli's of the trouble and he came back on the double, meeting up with Raul's dad, Jose Cardoza and his brother. Together the three pitched in and order was soon restored. I sent Elena home as soon as every else was gone except for Sam, Gary and me. There'd be no danger for her now – the whole neighborhood was watching over us. Then Sam drove Gary and me to McGinty's. He knew I wanted to be sure Gary got home ok and I knew that Gary had to have a monster headache from slamming into that wall.

When we got there we stopped long enough to reassure Chuck and Marissa that he would be just fine. Sam did mention that Gary probably had a "whale of a headache" though he'd never admit it. I made "baby brother" go upstairs and lie down. Before I left he told me that he'd been thinking about us – how we'd met and how I told him when he was five and the class bully teased him about whether or not I was for real – that we'd be "forever friends". I'd been remembering the same thing myself and just as he was about to drift off to sleep Gary told me he was glad we were friends. "Forever friends Gary" I told him as I kissed his forehead and left the room.

Things seemed to settle down for a while. The spring seemed to fly by in a hurry. A couple of friends from county General went with me to a flower show. I brought a few of the kids from the neighborhood around the clinic with me while they brought their own kids or grandkids or whatever. Sometimes I really miss not having children of my own but being a single parent is tough and confining and hard on families. With no kids of my own I befriended kids from Hickory, Oakdale and Chicago and tried to show them a good time and give their tired and overworked parents a break once in a while.

The circus came to town in June. Sam and I gathered a bunch of kids from the neighborhood and together with my twin nephews Ethan and Tim, went three times. We all had a blast although I could have strangled Tim for getting cotton candy in my hair. Sometimes he's worse than the little kids. And Ethan's no better. And pranksters the two of them! The stunts they've pulled (for instance shaving cream on the telephone receiver) would fill volumes. And they pick up the corniest jokes from television, radio, movies and old books by people like Bennett Cerf and Steve Alan. Letting them read about Burns and Allen was a big mistake. But it's hard to stay mad at them. Their saucy grins will get to me or their Uncle Jamie or their grandparents every time.

In July, after a glorious Independence Day celebration, I went to Texas for a couple of weeks. Thankfully Mark was nowhere to be seen. I managed to get to Ft. Worth to visit C.D.'s for at least a couple of meals and Ranger Headquarters and had dinner with Alex. Before I came home I stopped over at the reservation to visit with White Eagle and some of the others. White Eagle showed me where I could replenish my supplies of medicinal plants and I stopped by the clinic to see how things were going there.

Tired, but happy, I flew back to Chicago. I had come to the conclusion that I needed to find a small house or an apartment in the city because of the long hours and the commute. I found a house near Lake Michigan – small enough to maintain with my crazy schedule but big enough to entertain family and friends. The kitchen was well stocked at all times due to unexpected visits from my nieces and nephews. The boys, like their second cousins in Texas, have phenomenal appetites. I could feed them an hour before dinner and they'd still go home and eat a full dinner and ask for more. Mama says it's a family trait. Her brothers were always hungry too no matter how much Grandma Phoebe fed them or how often.

Gary, Chuck, Sam and Jamie help me move. Alan, Kim and the kids were sorry to see me move out but Kim, Mary and Gwen helped me scour the yard sales, flea markets, estate sales and the like for furnishings for my new house. Marissa helped out by washing the dishes and putting them away. In that respect she was much more organized than I ever would be. My practice may be well organized but at home I'm not always that way. With her disability that we paid as little attention to as possible so as not to make her feel uncomfortable she has to have things organized and picked up so she was the perfect one to organize the dishes for me. She even managed to organize my spice rack for me. She continues to amaze me and I know when she gets her degree she'll be a fantastic psychologist! She's got a way of drawing people out. My nieces and nephews were somewhat uncomfortable around her at first but it didn't take her long to draw them out.

As for the rest of the gang – while Gary, Sam, Jamie, Chuck and Alan put the furniture in place Ethan and Tim made sure the kitchen was well stocked so I could have plenty of treats available for them and Bruce. Bruce is a senior in college about to get a degree in architecture. Poor Alan – not a lawyer in the bunch. Mary's studying to be a nurse and Gwen is a kindergarten teacher.

I got settled in my new house at the beginning of September. In October I went to Vermont for a week's vacation. Driving through Quechee, Killington and up Route 100 to Stowe was a boost to my spirits. I'd fallen in love with the area when I was going to Harvard and loved to go back any time of the year to visit the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch (stocking up on nice, sharp cheddar cheese from the Plymouth Cheese Factory while I was there). Lunch in the Austrian Tea Room at the Trapp Family Lodge was always nice too. And if it was warm enough it was a real treat to sit at a table on the deck and look out at Mt. Mansfield. The youngest von Trapp, their son Johannes, laid out a lot of cross country ski trails when they converted the farm into a lodge and if you're up for a climb you can visit the little chapel that sits halfway up the hill. Make that mountain. If you've ever been there or go there you'll know what I mean.

When I came back the director of the VA Hospital asked me if I'd take charge of planning a Christmas party for the patients and their families. To have complete charge of such a thing was, by turns, daunting and exhilarating. I love to plan parties – not the kind where you eat and then just sit around talking though. My Christmas parties include dinner, music and games. One year I hid a tape recorder and started two of my friends laughing – it turned into a laughing contest. That tape got played over and over again. Then there's the hysteria and pandemonium that stems from the Holiday Trivia Contest that we play. There's always someone who, when asked to name an actor or an actress, wants to be considered correct when they name the character they're best known for. And the dispute and comments about semantics when asked how many candles there are on an advent wreath. Things can get really crazy.

It was the beginning of November when they asked me so I got started right away. I had to find a DJ, select the songs for the sing along, find prizes, line up food donations and such and still manage to keep the clinic open. Sam, my ever loyal and helpful pal, pitched right in starting by volunteering to be the DJ and recommending some people to talk to about donating party platters or baked goods. When I told my family about it Mama volunteered to find some donors in Hickory. She and Lois knew enough ladies from the different clubs and societies to be able to get quite a large donation of goodies. And those whose husbands were in business would be asked to donate money or prizes. One donation that would be made to the clinic itself that Christmas, in the midst of all this confusion, would be most welcome and give me an opportunity to do something I'd been wanting to do for six months.

A week after Thanksgiving I was wandering around Chicago doing some Christmas shopping. It got to be around 11:30 or so and I was in the vicinity of McGinty's so I decided to drop in and have my lunch. Marissa was there so I sat with her while I thawed out and refueled so to speak. I needed her advice on what to get Gary for Christmas anyway. I knew that Marissa has a nice singing voice so I asked her if she'd mind helping me out with the music for the party. We chatted while I ate and then I got ready to leave telling Marissa that I'd get the music delivered to her sometime in the next few days. She would arrange a meeting with her pastor to see if maybe their choir could find time to sing the wonderful old classics "O Holy Night' and "Ave Maria" and help with the sing along.

I gathered up my packages with some difficulty and headed for the door. Just as I got there the door opened. As I jumped back in surprise the heel of my loafer caught in a crack on the floor and I stumbled backward, lost my balance and fell striking my head on the far from what I'm told. My packages flew every which way as I fell. The next thing I knew I was hearing Gary and Marissa's voices as she chided him for bursting through the door without looking. I opened my eyes at that point and saw their worried faces looking down at me. More than that Gary had a guilty look on his – he knew he'd screwed up and probably figured he was in big trouble.

Marissa handed me a makeshift ice pack and Gary, at my request, helped me sit up. I did give him a little bit of a tongue-lashing but, doggone it, he looked so woebegone and contrite I just couldn't put my whole heart and soul into it. I think we were all started when Zeke Crumb answered my questions as to where my packages were. I guess he came in right behind Gary and heard what had happened. The look he gave Gary would have melted a glacier. Calling him a klutz or whatever it was didn't help Gary's feelings any.

Now I'd been trying to find someone to play Santa Claus at the party. I wanted a Santa and two elves to help entertain the kids. I was going to play Mrs. Claus and I was looking forward to it but I needed a Santa. As I sat there holding the ice pack on my head and looked at my two heroes it struck me – Crumb would make a perfect Santa! He had the build and I just knew that he kids would love him. My Uncle Doug sounds just like him and the kids all adore him.

Crumb was eager to help but he had no idea that his willingness was going to put him on the spot or in the spotlight if you prefer. He thought I wanted someone to direct traffic or handle crowd control. Hardened cop though he is he nearly panicked when I told him what I had in mind. It didn't help matters when Gary started laughing and telling him how good that sounded. Well if "baby brother" thought that was funny wait 'til he heard what I had in mind for him!

Gary's grin faded and his laughter stopped when I told him I wanted him to be an elf. Now it was his turn to panic and Crumb's turn to laugh when I broke the news to him about him being an elf. Not only did his face get a panic stricken look on it but his voice went up at least an octave as he squawked my name in protest. I told him that he'd be an adorable elf. The kids would love him and they wouldn't care that he was too tall. Furthermore I wanted him to help he talk Chuck into being an elf too. Chuck claims he's Jewish and he may be by birth but everyone who really knows him knows that he's not exactly an orthodox member of the race or the Jewish faith. If I couldn't count on my friends to help me who could I count on?

Crumb thought it was hysterical and laughed liked crazy at the thought of Gary and Chuck as elves. Gary started to panic all over again at the thought of wearing a costume. Marissa threw her two cents worth in at that point when she said to Gary that I needed the help and how it would be fun. Besides which, she pointed out, he owed me for what he'd done and she volunteered to help him talk Chuck into it.

I got up to leave after telling them the date and time of the party and what time they should arrive there to get into their costumes. I guess I was kind of pale and looked unsteady on my feet because before I could protest Crumb had hustled me into his car and Gary had taken my keys and gone off to retrieve my truck. He'd park it in the alley behind the restaurant for the night. Crumb took me to see Sam who was at the clinic. He said I was ok but going home rather than finishing my shopping would be a good idea.

When Crumb brought me home my darling brothers insisted I go straight to bed. I figured that arguing with these three would be a waste of time so I told Alan and Jamie that I'd found my Santa and elves and then went to my room. I think Crumb was barely out the door before they started laughing about his being my Santa.

Later that night as I sat up in bed reading Jamie came over to check on me. He laughed and halfway scolded me when I told him how I'd taken advantage of Gary's "guilt trip" to get him to be one of my elves. Then I let loose on Marcia Roberts Hobson to him. Gary loves kids so much that what his low- life ex had done made me all the angrier that his dream didn't seem to be coming true. Jamie told me not to jump to conclusions and I really did try not to but the thought of her just makes me so angry sometimes.

As the days passed Sam and I finished decorating the clinic. We went to a local farm for our tree. No artificial trees for me no siree! I don't like the green ones but I'll tolerate them where necessary. But those ugly white ones take me back to when I was taking piano lessons. My teacher had one of them and one of the red, green, blue and yellow disks that revolve around a regular light bulb and make the tree appear to change colors as it does. I hated it and swore that I'd never have one like it in my home of my office. Yuck!

Right in the front lobby we had a box in which we were collecting new toys for Toys for Tots. I've always been a big supporter of this program and so has Sam. We both go overboard with dolls and trucks and stuff. And on top of that we were both heavily involved in Operation Christmas Child.

Operations Christmas Child is an offshoot of the Samaritan's Purse Ministry founded by Franklin Graham. Franklin is the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry that people, individually or in groups, can sponsor. The idea is to take empty shoeboxes, wrap the box and the lid separately in Christmas paper and fill it with things like school supplies, socks, balls, tops and toiletries. The boxes are sent to a regional collection point and from there to headquarters in Boone, NC where they are processed and shipped to wherever they're needed. Many a child has had a happy day, Christmas or otherwise, because they received one of those boxes. Sam teases me that I fill a box with enough stuff for two or three. But I can't help myself. It bothers me to think of children not getting gifts so I guy socks, ball caps, hard candy, pens, pencils and whatever else I can think of. There are three age groups up to about age 16 that you can fill a box for. I do a box for a boy and a girl in all three categories.

While we were decorating the tree Maria and Jose Reyes came in. Maria was in the last month of her pregnancy. She'd lost two other babies before this one partly due to overworking herself and partly due to an uncaring doctor. I don't know for certain if racial prejudice came into play there but the last OB/GYN she had didn't like charity cases. Why he was putting time in at the clinic I don't know. When Sam and I heard about how she was treated from some of their friends I set out to find her a doctor who would take her history into account and more importantly treat her right.

We were happy to see them. I ushered Maria into one of the exam rooms so I could check her out. We made sure that Jose was doing the heavy work and that Maria was resting well. Still, in spite of our precautions there would be trouble later.

After they left, having had a treat and some cocoa before they did, the mailman came. He was happy to stop at the clinic because he was able to half empty his truck in one stop. My family and some mutual friends (Washo and company) had sent Christmas gifts to the clinic to make sure that we got them. I was touched, as was Sam, by the jackets and fur lined moccasins we got from our friends on the Cherokee Reservation – especially when we read the note that Sam had enclosed. C.D.'s gift made us laugh 'til we cried and our sides hurt. See, if there's anything that C.D. Parker prides himself on other than being a good Ranger it's his cooking. He sent us a huge batch of his famous chili. There were other things as well, plane tickets to Dallas/Fort Worth so we'd be sure to visit and a picture of Alex, Washo and Jimmy. Washo, like Gary, is not fond of ties so naturally he looked like he was choking. I laughed, shaking my head, when I saw the look on his face. It was so typical of him. I'll bet Alex talked him into it.

On one of those cold days, about a week before the party, Gary wandered into the clinic. He'd kept an elderly lady from being run over but then, unfortunately for him, she thought he was trying to steal her purse. She didn't speak much English you see, being a member of the Polish speaking community within the city, and unfortunately the stutter that Gary has when he's excited or nervous didn't make it any easier for her to understand him. But fortunately a Polish-speaking priest came along and explained the whole situation to her. She then apologized profusely for whacking him on the wrist with her cane.

He was explaining to Sam how his wrist came to be injured when I came into the room. I couldn't believe my ears. To me, you have only to look at Gary, especially into his muddy green eyes and you just have to believe him and trust him. Anyway, Sam and I both took a look at it and determined that nothing was broken in spite of the swelling. I got a cold pack from one of the cabinets and gave it to Sam who grinned impudently at me as he popped the inner core, shook the contents up and gave it to Gary to hold on his wrist. The one thing I've always had trouble with is popping those stupid things and Sam knows it. He loves to give me a hard time about it.





After about an hour we checked Gary's wrist and found that the swelling had gone down considerably but there was a nasty bruise. I got him good as he started to leave. He's never been able to avoid my displays of affection, public or private, and this was no exception. He walked under the mistletoe Sam and I had hung in one of the doorways and I caught him, so to speak, before he could leave. Pointing to the mistletoe I walked up and kissed him on the cheek. He kind of blushed, mumbled something before he kissed me back and "made good his escape".

A week before the party I got sick. It wasn't anything too bad – just a cold- but I got an ear infection on top of it and ran a slight fever. Sam has been around me long enough to know the signs of when I get one. He took a look at it himself and then took me to County General to have Dr. Holmes take a look at it. Sam was right – it was that dratted otitis media that I've been plagued with since I was in my twenties. Sam took me home when I was released and then he called McGinty's to see if Chuck or Gary could retrieve my truck and park it behind the restaurant until someone else could come and get it.

Because of my hearing and balance problems Sam brought me to the house in Oakdale to recuperate. My fever didn't go higher than 101( but my family and friends don't trust me to take care of myself. Sam, Jamie and Alan just took over. Kim hustled me off to bed and gave me some herb tea, everyone fielded phone calls, Alan arranged with a neighbor to pick up my mail and newspapers and hired one of the teens in the neighborhood to keep my walkway shoveled. Just before I got sick we'd had a major snowstorm. Honestly I could just strangle them sometimes. They think I can't take care of myself – that they have to look after their baby sister. I'm not so sure it was a coincidence that Jamie wanted to spend the night the day of my accident at McGinty's. I think he conveniently was "too tired" to drive back to Oakdale.

Anyway, after a couple of days of bed rest, medication, herb tea and being waited on hand and foot by my sister-in-law and the kids I was back at work. Fortunately, before I got sick I had finished the Santa and elf costumes as well as Santa's beard and moustache. I heard that when Gary found out I was sick he and Marissa called Sam to see what still needed to be done for the party. By the time I got back to work everything was pretty well under control.

Two days before the party I went to the deli to confirm the order for the party platters. The committee was supplying the condiments and the extras such as pickles, onion, chips etc. A local bakery was donating the rolls. Sam kept a watchful eye on me the whole time. He's as bad as my brothers – always finding an excuse to manage things for me when I've been the slightest bit ill.

The day before the party a young woman about ten years younger than myself came into the clinic. It seems that my work with the so-called underprivileged has caught the attention of some prominent people in this city and she'd been tasked with the job of delivering a check for $15,000 for me to use in any manner I saw fit to keep the clinic running.

I accepted the check gratefully. We always needed supplies and I try to upgrade the equipment whenever I feel it's necessary. Now I'm not going to name names because it could be potentially embarrassing for someone I care about very much so let's just say that the woman works for a prominent business in the city. Telling what kind of business could get back to the person I'm trying to protect here so I'll just say that when I heard her name I let loose with both barrels just as I've been wanting to do for some time. Her name and what I said are known to only four people including myself and if I have my way it will remain an "unsolved mystery" to everyone else. Needless to say this person will likely avoid me from now on.

Anyway, the day of the party, last December 20th, arrived. Sam and I and the other committee members arrived at the hospital early to set up. I was fussy and nervous because Gary hadn't arrived yet. For some reason when Sam chided me for being a worrywart the word "early" triggered a panic attack of sorts. Mama had sent a few boxes of goodies down the day before with a friend who brought them to the clinic. But with everything else that was on my mind I'd forgotten them. So I left Sam in charge and, grabbing my jacket and purse, ran out to my truck to go back and get them.

The sight that greeted me fair took my breath away I was so surprised. Gary was helping Jose Reyes carry Maria down the street. She'd gone into labor and there was something wrong. Hastily exiting my truck I unlocked the clinic and had the two men carry Maria into one of my examination rooms. Then I shooed them out while I did a quick examination. Maria's own doctor was not available and the person who was supposed to be covering for him was not answering the page so they'd headed for the clinic only to have their car break down several blocks away. Gary had seen them and hastened to see if he could help.

My exam found the baby to be in a breech position. I was going to have to turn it or do an emergency c-section – something I'd only done maybe twice before. I was going to need help from both men. I needed Maria to stay calm – it would be Jose's job to keep her as calm as possible and I would need Gary to fill in as my nurse – there was no time to send for or wait for Sam. Gary looked a little unsure at first but he rallied gamely to the cause. He knew it was an emergency. (Now I hear that Chuck once delivered twins but I have my own theory about that.)

While we were working on saving a seriously weakened Maria and the baby (and Maria and Jose were made well aware that I hadn't done a caesarian very many times) the phone in the outer room started ringing but there was no time to waste in answering it.

About two hours later, though it seemed an eternity to me, Maria was safely delivered, via a c-section, of a seven pound eleven ounce baby boy. The proud parents named him Jose Schuyler Gary Reyes in honor of his father and the two people who had helped bring him into the world and saved his mama's life. Gary was honored and so was I. In fact Gary was floating on Cloud Nine for a while. As he went to call the ambulance, Gary looked back at me, smiled and said "good job".

Fifteen minutes later Maria had been loaded into the ambulance with little Jose. Jose, the new father, got a ride from a neighbor. Gary was just telling me how proud he was of me when it dawned on me that we were late for the party. It was remembering what had brought me back to the clinic in the first place, Mom's pastries, which triggered my memory. I raced back into the clinic with Gary on my heels to get the pastries and load them in the truck. Less than five minutes later we were on our way to the VA. Six blocks from the hospital I hit a patch of black ice and the truck spun out of control into a snow bank. The engine died and refused to start again. Gary and I were slightly shaken up but unhurt.

Looking at my watch and my dead truck I made a hasty decision to continue on foot – not even waiting for the police to arrive. Gary and I grabbed the boxes of pastries and started walking, then running, the rest of the way. It took us fifteen minutes but we finally got there. We were somewhat breathless and sweaty when Sam spotted us. He sent us off to get into our costumes while he let Crumb and the others know we had arrived and were ok.

It took about ten minutes for Gary and me to change into our costumes. Then I did a last minute adjustment on Crumb's Santa suit and his beard and moustache. That settled we made our entrance into the gym where the party was taking place and the children went wild at the sight of Santa. All of my elves were hard pressed to keep the kids from trampling Santa when he entered the room with a (somewhat) hearty "Ho-ho-ho". Gary and Chuck, along with the other elves, got the kids to form a line in front of Santa's chair. Then the children were brought to Santa, one by one, by the elves. Gary got a big hug and kiss from one little girl as his reward. Chuck, unfortunately, did not fare so well – one kid who didn't want to leave Santa's lap kicked him in the shins. (Guess I better not ask Chuck for any favors for a while.)

When the party was over, and we had a chance to catch our breath, Gary and I told our friends about what had transpired at the clinic that had delayed us so long. We also had to tell them about our slight accident in which the truck landed in a snow bank and wouldn't start again leaving us to run to get to the hospital before too much more time passed. They, in turn, exempted us from any of the clean up. Chuck went home or to McGinty's – I'm not sure which. Sam sent Marissa home in a cab then helped finish picking up. Leftovers would be given to one of the homeless shelters or soup kitchens or a food pantry in the city.

Gary and I were banished to a couple of chairs after we changed our clothes. The events of the past few days plus my brief illness had left me worn out. Gary sensed it – or maybe he saw something in my face that told him how tired I was. Either way he put his left arm around me and before I knew it I had fallen asleep with my head on his shoulder. Sam found us about fifteen minutes later. He says Gary must have been worn out as well for when he came back inside to see what was keeping us he found Gary, his arm still around me, sound asleep with his cheek resting on the top of my head. He was still smiling, or trying not to smile, when he woke us up to drive us home.

I don't think I lasted more than five minutes after I got home. No sooner had I put on my nice warm pajamas and crawled into bed when I was sound asleep. Jamie was staying with me that week. I never heard him come in after his shift was over. I never heard the engine of my truck when it was delivered (its only problem was a disconnected wire to the distributor cap) or anything else until I roused the next morning to the smell of sausage, eggs and biscuits. Hearing what had transpired the day before Jamie had taken it upon himself to fix breakfast, which he served to me in bed with orders to rest all day. Sam had put a sign on the door of the clinic saying that we were closed with a notice to seek help at County General for non-emergencies or, in case of an emergency, to call 911.

On the 22nd our families, Chuck, Marissa and Sam gathered at McGinty's for a Christmas party. This time the five nieces and nephew were there as well and Marissa, as always, amazed me with her ability to keep everyone straight. Gary was a little late in arriving and soaked to the skin as well when he did arrive. But he didn't complain he just went upstairs to the loft and changed into dry clothes before joining us.

Instead of individual gifts (except mine to Gary, Chuck and Marissa which I gave to them privately) we had drawn names for a Secret Santa though from what the gifts turned out to be we knew who gave what. (I never admitted to anything but Chuck strongly, and rightly, suspected that I was the one who gave him the lump of coal.)

On Christmas Eve I went to an early candlelight service at a pretty little Methodist church near my house before driving to Hickory to Mama and Daddy's. Jamie wouldn't be off duty until Christmas morning but I wanted to help Mama with dinner. Christmas morning all the Fairfaxes gathered to exchange gifts and sat down together at one in the afternoon to a ham dinner which included butter baked potatoes, panned carrots and Cole slaw.

The next few weeks flew by. I got over my cold and ear infection and settled back into the routine of the clinic and the Emergency room. I dropped into McGinty's for lunch or supper occasionally. In February I joined a bowling league that ran for two months. Now that April is here my thoughts are turning to baseball. I'm thinking I want to go to Boston for Opening Day at Fenway Park. I haven't been to Fenway since I got out of Medical School. It's just a hope, skip and a jump by subway from the Harvard Campus. And I've just received a letter from a Medical Missionary group that's looking for doctors to join them for short-term trips to Latin American and South America. I must say I'm tempted because I speak Spanish fluently and that would be a bonus for them – they wouldn't have to send me to language classes. Working with the so-called underprivileged has almost always been my life's work. It's been a good way to indulge my wanderlust when it attacks. We'll see what happens. If I decide to go I will make sure of one thing – that whoever takes charge of the clinic will look out for our people with no thoughts as to making a lot of money or refusing treatment to someone on the basis of race or lack of ability to pay the bill in a timely manner. That's not what my clinic is about. But if I do leave I'm sure my brothers will look out for things as best they can. If I know Sam he'll follow me wherever I go with the same old excuse of not wanting to break in another doctor.

********************************************************

Sky put down the pen with a tired sigh and massaged her cramped fingers. She couldn't believe she'd written so much. Nor could she believe how time had flown.

"Sky? Are you all right?" Marissa entered the office from the dining room of McGinty's. A few hours earlier she had suggested, upon hearing that Sky was to write a newspaper article for the Sun-Times, that she sit at Gary's desk to do it.

"Yeah, I'm fine Marissa," Sky said trying to suppress a yawn.

"Well you sound tired." Sky's yawn had not escaped the blind woman's notice. "Why don't you stretch out on the couch for a while before you drive home?"

"Thanks Marissa, I think I will."

Marissa left the room as Sky gathered up her papers and put them in a neat pile in the center of the desk. Then she took Marissa's advice and crashed on the couch in the office. For some reason Gary had left a blanket at the foot of the couch so Sky drew it up over her shoulders and fell asleep in moments – oblivious to any noise in the dining room or kitchen.

Several hours later Gary came back from one of his saves. He smiled at the sight of his "sister" sleeping on the couch in his office. He often marveled that she could look so young for her age considering her hectic lifestyle and the tragic loss of her husband at an early age. The stack of papers with her handwriting on them that sat in the middle of his desk caught his attention. He picked them up and started to read chuckling over her childhood experiences of watching the trains and playing hide and seek and such.

About this time Sky stirred roused by the sound of rustling paper and Gary's all too infrequent laugh. Rising from the couch walked the few steps to the desk and "confronted" Gary.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Reading."

"Reading what?"

"These papers I found on my desk."

"You're reading my article? How could you?" Sky was indignant. She hadn't planned on anyone else reading it until it was published. "Give me those!" she said reaching for the papers he held.

"Why? What's so important about them?" Gary wanted to know.

"None of your business," Sky said. "Just give them to me."

Holding the papers out of her reach Gary started to back away from her. "Not until you tell me why they're so important to you," he teased her.

"Gary give me my papers."

"No."

"Gary Matthew give me my papers."

"No." Gary was intrigued by her response to reading her "article" as she'd just called it.

"Gary Matthew Hobson give me back my article!"