Worth the Wait.
Rating K+
Disclaimer: The characters from Daniel Boone are not mine but belong to 20th Century Fox. I make no money off this work of fiction. It is merely for my enjoyment and hopefully others.
Rebecca Boone as used in this story is solely based on the television version and any mention of her past has nothing to do with the historical one. Fox played with her past and so am I.
Here you go Boone lovers, I hope this story was worth the wait as well.
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"Ma, why do you wait?"
Rebecca Boone looked over at her daughter, her smile a mixture of confusion and amusement.
"Why do I wait for what Mima?"
The fourteen year old, pushed a stray hair off of her forehead before picking her knitting back up. She had grown three inches this last year and not just up, Rebecca thought. Jemima was becoming a beautiful woman--a thought that she knew filled her father with joy and sorrow. And was somewhat of a concern for her as well.
"I mean why do you put up with it?"
"I'm afraid I still don't understand." Becky bit off her thread, holding up Israel's pants to see if the hem looked long enough. Jemima wasn't the only one who had had a growth spurt recently.
"This." the girl raised her arms indicating the cabin. "I'm here, you're here, Israel is here, well somewhere but Pa's not. Pa's not usually here, because he always is gone."
"Well you know as well as I do, that you father needs to be gone. Taking care of a family is a huge responsibility and he has game to catch, trap lines to check. Not to mention that a lot of people trust your father and he is called on to help ease tensions between the various tribes. And being the constable in this area, he often has to settle land disputes and what not."
"I do know that." the young woman got up from her stool by the fire, laying her knitting down on it instead. "But Pa is always gone, least ways it seems like it and lots of men hunt and check the traps and all, but they manage to stay at home, most of the time. I'm not angry with Pa for leaving like he does, I'm just curious, why you put up with it?"
"That's easy." the woman walked over to her daughter, placing her arms around her. "Because I love him. I know sometimes I get very angry with your father." She paused then smiled. "Actually I get down right mad, especially when he pulls one of his Oh Becky, I missed you and I know I've been gone for 6 months but something's come up and I've got to go again, do I have a clean shirt."
Jemima giggled, remembering seeing the fire in her mother's eyes at one of those very times. It was one of those occasions when she knew that her father's best friend was his dulcimer and his soft singing voice. "He loves you too," the girl said as though it were a new discovery she had stumbled upon recently. "I guess maybe it's because I'm older but sometimes I notice the way he looks at you, like you are precious or something. It's pretty." and she gave her mother a weak smile.
"Your father does make me feel precious." Becky nodded, a tender look in her eyes. "I guess you could say, he makes me feel wanted and needed."
"Is that why you love him?"
"Yes, I think so." the red head nodded. "And well because he's Daniel Boone and I couldn't love anyone else even if I tried."
"I'm not trying to be difficult but I guess I don't understand why you let him go without raising more of a fuss. People get married so they can be together."
Rebecca Boone furrowed her brow, trying to think of the best way to explain things to her daughter.
"Some men have a call, a feeling in their bones that makes them want to go. Your Pa told me that he met a seaman in Philadelphia one time that hadn't been home in five years, going on voyages to far away places to load off merchandise, only to do it all over again."
"That sounds like a dirty job." the girl mused. "Never getting to leave a ship, and spending all your time with nasty dirty smelly men." she wrinkled her nose, remembering the group of pirates she and her mother had encountered in Williamsburg.
"Well, not all of them are dirty and smelly." Rebecca laughed, remembering the handsome seaman that had become her friend on the voyage over from Ireland. "But many of them go to sea because they hear it call to them. And your Pa is like that, except, it's a different kind of call. He is only truly happy when he is alone in the wilderness with the sky for his roof and a bed of pine branches. And knowing that, I can allow him to go, because I also know that he will always come back to me."
When I was a very wee girl, there was a house up on the hill that had a fenced in platform at the top." Rebecca continued. "I remember little as I was, of seeing a woman standing there at times, her eyes watching the sea, almost as though she were looking for something that wasn't there. I found out many years later that the platform was called a widow's walk."
"Oh, Ma." Jemima's voice wavered a little. "That's sad."
"I always thought so too. But it was a special place where she could sit and look for him and pray that he would one day return."
"I imagine his wife spent quite a lot of time on her widow's walk." Jemima brow furrowed in an imitation her mother. "So, I do realize that men have to leave their families at times to provide for them, but sometimes I get the feeling that Pa enjoys being out alone."
"Your father is a solitary man. He does love being alone and away with only the woods for company. I learned that long ago, that part of keeping Daniel Boone is allowing him to go free. "Because that's part of loving him. That's who he is" she paused then looked at her child, who was no longer, a child. "Does that make sense?"
"A little. " her daughter admitted. "I suppose I will understand it better when I'm older." she brought up her father's reasoning on everything she wanted to know. She couldn't think back to a time when her father hadn't used that as a loving excuse to her childish questions.
"I suppose you will!" Rebecca laughed, thinking of Daniel as well. "But I need to warn you about one thing."
"What is that?"
"Some things you will never understand no matter how old you become. I found that out the hard way."
"Ma?"
"Yes, Mima?"
"Thank you for talking to me and helping me understand."
"That's what I'm here for." Rebecca kissed her daughter's forehead. "Or at least to do my best at helping."
"Do you think someday, I will find a man who loves me like Pa loves you?"
"I hope so." Becky said softly. "And I hope that when you do, you will know that beyond all things that too he was worth the wait."