The Seasons Of My Life
Usual Disclaimer: Just taking our friends out for a bit. Will put them back when I'm finished. No Profit to be made here!
Sitting back making himself comfortable, running his hand through his hair, swiping it across his mustache
then tugging on his ear, breathing in deeply, looking around the room then exhaling! "Ahhhhhh"
"The seasons of my life?" He took a look around at all the faces in the room, saying to himself:
"Galen,ol' boy, .no complaints here. There've been good days. There've been bad days.
But all in all…"
Then his mind drifted back. "It all started many, many years ago."
"I was born and raised in Baltimore. That would be Baltimore, Maryland! Good city. Born to a good family of modest means. Grew up wanting to help people, animals.
When I was old enough and out of school, I went on to medical school. Johns Hopkins! Fine medical training.
Then.. well…
I began to feel the need to go where I could do more good. Branch out, go where I be needed more.
So, I followed that urge and as many people did, I headed west. Stopped in a few towns along the way. Then, when folks started settling along the prairie, I also made my home in Kansas.
Home became Kansas! A small town. Dodge City, Kansas. A cow town. It was rough, wild, no law,
cattle herds running through it, gun slingers. There was definitely a need for a doctor.
I made some real good friends here. No! Let me correct that. Great family here. Why Matt, Kitty,
Sam, Festus, Chester, and so many others over the years after I settled here in Dodge City.
Before long, the government sent in a Marshal. In the beginning there had been a few but we couldn't keep them. It was a big job for any man to be expected to take on.
Then Marshal Adam Stryker came on board. Good man. And with him a young deputy, Matt Dillon. He was a big fella. The two of them worked hand in hand. Marshal Stryker lasted a few years but then when he had a personal issue with the death of his wife and an accusation of revenge he was sent to prison.
His young deputy, Matt Dillon, became Marshal. This was a good move. Matt was a good man, honest, loyal, trustworthy, dedicated.
He gave his all to Dodge City and to his BADGE! We became close. After all, I was his Doctor and took care of him every time he was injured. There were always some outlaw putting a bullet or a knife in him. It had to be his strength, size, youth and most of all determination, that pulled him through, because I sure know there were some times I questioned, even with my skills, how he made it. He talked to me often. I knew he hadn't really had too many personal relationships. Oh sporadically
Then one day, one miserably cold rainy day, when the stage pulled in descending from it was absolutely the most beautiful young woman. Red hair, the bluest eyes. Had I been twenty years younger…" Smiling at the thought. "It didn't take a genius to know that when these two saw one another.
Well the sparks would… Ok. Maybe not quite that fast, being the stubborn lug he was. But I watched their relationship blossom over the years. It was really something else. I never saw two people so connected, so in tuned. They knew one another so well, so much so they could almost finish the other's sentences.
Oh, they had their ups and downs. Boy did they! But underneath it all those two would give their very lives for the other as well as for the folks here in Dodge. Which they have proven many times over. Oh, they thought they hid their relationship so well. In public they were discrete.
But they were "The Worst Best Kept Secret In Dodge" All the citizens knew, Miss Kitty Russell was the Marshal's woman and that the Marshal was Miss Kitty Russell's man!
And as for me? To me these two were, well… I love them like the son and daughter I never had!
Kitty watched me and helped dig more bullets out of Matt… Nurse him back to health. She was basically a nurse to me whenever I needed one, besides running her own business, the Long Branch Saloon.
She could be as tough as nails but then again she had a soft side. She made a point of taking care of anyone who needed it. Louie, the town drunk, making sure he ate and stayed warm. Making sure families who didn't have, got enough. She helped whoever she could without anyone knowing.
Sam. He was always a loyal man, a great friend, would do anything for anyone. A big man with a big heart. Sam, he came to me first.
Then Chester, Matt's first deputy. A simple fella, good hearted. He was like the brother Matt never had, sometimes he was glued to his side. Oh, I teased him, but it was all in fun.
Then Festus came to me. Now there was a character. Festus was a hill man. Couldn't read or write. Didn't care to either! Would give his eye teeth for his friends. And probably much more for Kitty. She held a special place in the hill man's heart, as he did in hers.
It was difficult, after Sam died. She was the first woman I let myself get close enough to, to think about marriage? Then when the virus… That was it. I just surrendered myself to being available to my patients and my friends.
And I am. They come to me one by one. As they need to. We're almost all here.
When Kitty came to me, my heart was breaking. She was so broken. I wanted to make it all right for her.
I held her, we cried together, then we decided we'd wait together. So, with my arms tightly wrapped around
her shoulders, with her head resting on my shoulder.
We're all here now. Waiting for Matt.
I promised her I will wait with her for as long as it takes. We all did.
Suddenly, two large hands were a top the batwing doors, and when I looked up….there in the doorway…filling it completely…. was the man I held in regard as my son at heart.
I nudged Kitty.
She stood. Walked to the middle of the room. "Hello, Cowboy," we've all been waiting for you!
Welcome Home!
4 June,18?
4 June2011
So, as I was saying, a man can't ask for a fuller more fulfilled life! Better, more loving friends….
no, make that loving family, then I, Dr. Galen Adams, found when I chose to make my journey
west and settle in a place called Dodge City, Kansas.
And to fulfill all "The Seasons Of My Life"
Fini