Clouds still piled up against the mountains, but for the first time in days the sun broke through them and created glowing patches on the fields.
The day was clear, a little cold maybe, but not as dark as the last weeks had been.
Ben Cartwright stood on the front porch and enjoyed the wind on his face. Tasted the wood fires, harbingers of a rapidly approaching fall. He was content and more thankful than he had been in a long time.
"Sir?" Griff´s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
He turned around to face the youth, who leant on his crutches.
He looked better. His face still was bruised and swollen in some parts. He moved slowly and the way he stood spoke of his broken ribs and bruised hip. But the haunted look in his eyes had vanished.
He smiled and it was just like the sun breaking through the clouds.
The girl was with him.
She had lived with them for the last few weeks, but she had told Ben a couple of days before that she wouldn't be staying with them. Ben didn´t know if Griff knew that by now, but he assumed. He watched the two observingly. There was something that radiated from Griff whenever he was near her, it was the same force that appeared around Adam when one of his brothers was challenged. It had nothing to do with desire, but it was all about love.
They had buried her father in Virginia City. Maria had no fix address, just now she didn´t know where she wanted to live, but here were people who would take care of the grave, who knew its story and who wouldn't forget the man resting in it.
It had taken a lot of money, to get the remains of a father and a friend out from behind those prison walls, but not nearly enough to outweigh a life.
Griff hadn´t made it to the grave until now. The doc had made it quite clear that he couldn't come next nor near a horse until he was much improved.
Maria had offered to work off the money. Ben had told her, friendly but determined, that he wouldn´t accept a penny from her. This was the good thing about money, it couldn´t buy you something of real value, but it made things easier.
She apologized repeatedly for trespassing on the ranch, but Ben had just laughed and told her, next time she felt like coming over she should knock on the front door. There was plenty of room, and he was tired of his sons stomping through the dung trying to catch her.
Now, coming out on the porch behind Griff, Maria beamed.
Ben smiled back and said towards Griff:" You should sit down. Especially since you have this monstrosity standing here."
This strange woman had brought the chair for Griff. It wasn´t a traveling chair, it was massive, made out of oak. Higher than normal chairs, with a wide back rest and comfy arm rails.
She had shown up with the thing, placed it on the porch and said it was a gift from Albert to Griff. Whoever Albert was… but Ben wouldn´t ask.
Griff had looked at her in disbelief and had laughed like a small child.
At this moment Ben realized that Griff hadn´t owned a lot in his life and had been given even less. Now he sat on his chair every day, his bad foot on a rest before him and smiled at the horizon.
Ben sat down with Maria on the comfortable bank and the three spend half an hour in pleasant silence.
Then Griff cleared his throat and Ben looked at him. Griff´s eyes still followed the quickly moving cloud shadows, he didn´t seem ready to talk. Something Ben had seen in him sometime before. Griff did not relish being the center of attention, he would shrink back. If you wanted him to talk, you had to talk to him.
"Clem said that they have enough evidence to put the two Germans behind bars for a long time." He started carefully.
Griff´s eyes darkened:" Good." He said.
"This gypsy."
"Sinti and Roma." Griff corrected instantly:
"Her name is Liz."
"Liz, I´m sorry. She had collected enough for four trails. She seems like a very… energetic woman." He added.
That made Griff smile.
"They weren't allowed to keep the money either." Ben said, not without a grim satisfaction:" We don´t know to whom it belongs. But I´m sure Clem will keep a good eye on it, till we find out."
They sat again in silence.
Suddenly, without any connection Maria asked: "Who is Elisabeth Beltam?"
Bens head jerked upwards:" Where did you get that name from?"
"After they…" she couldn't seem to find the right words to describe the contract killers properly:" took Griff away." She shuddered and Griff automatically laid his hand over hers.
"I was in their room to, take the money for Pa…" she interrupted herself, but carried on after some seconds:" In this suit case, with the money, was a letter." She watched Ben with intelligent eyes and asked:" She send them, didn´t she?"
Ben nodded deep in thought, he stood up and closed the front door: "Is Adam still at this confounded bridge?" he asked after returning to them.
Griff nodded, surprised at the rapid change in topic.
Ben proceeded:" Clem has seen this letter too. We weren't sure whether we had to bring it up to give Schmied and Strack the death sentence they deserve. They have done enough while the sheriff was right in front of them." He trailed off somewhere lost in his thoughts.
He leaned back on his chair, one leg over the other, looking like a grandfather ready to tell his grandson a story.
"I think you two have a right to know…. After all. But you have to promise me, that everything I tell you now, will stay in this room. There has been enough pain."
Maria nodded, her brow furrowed.
Griff just stared, completely perplexed.
"First off: Elisabeth Beltam is dead. We had a correspondents with her lawyer, who found this letter in her estate, with the note to send on to Mr. Strack."
Ben scratched his temple:" He, the lawyer I mean, couldn´t think of a way how Mrs. Beltam got to know this rather… exotic pair. But it was written down in her last will and the lawyer didn´t know the meaning of the letter. He was shocked when we told him."
Griff snarled, but said nothing.
"I met Elisabeth´s brother, Tom, in a timber camp in California. This was a long time ago, Adam was very young, Hoss hadn´t been born. On this Day I was scheduled with Tom – he was a truly, truly good man – I should have gone out with him and cut down some of the bigger pines. Make room for a log rack. There had been a storm, and it blew us far behind schedule. But that night Adam developed a fever. At that time we lived on the road, I had bought a covered wagon."
Ben´s lips trembled as he thought of their time in the draughty vehicle. The winter had been lousy cold, no wonder the boy fell ill:" The fever climbed and Tom, being the man he was, insisted for me to stay with my boy. With Adam. If I had known what would happen… But I stayed and Tom went to clear the path, so the log rack would be free. The ground was too wet, the wind too strong, he shouldn´t had been out by himself. Perhaps he wouldn't have had the accident. Tom got jammed under one of the falling trees. When I went to search for him in the evening, he had been dead for hours." Ben´s eyes had dulled while he talked. In body he was on the porch of his home, safe and sound. His mind on the other hand wandered in dark memories searching for the soul of a lost friend:
"Adam took it very bad, worse than everyone else. He never blamed me, never blamed the storm, never blamed bad luck or fortune – he blamed himself. Not more than a boy. I believe it was the fever that drilled it into his head. Made it his fault. In his mind he killed Tom, and over this I nearly lost him too."
Maria made a unconscious movement, like she wanted to grab Ben, but he ripped himself out of his memories. Blinked a couple of times:" Elisabeth blamed me. Of course she was perfectly right with it. I should have gone with her brother, but I couldn´t leave my son. Elisabeth adored Tom. Since the two were small she had taken care of him. I believe he was just as much her son, as her brother. At the time I tried to … support her, help her… but she wouldn't let me. Didn´t want to see my, didn´t want to talk to me. I killed the most important person in her life."
"It was Tom´s decision." Griff said quietly.
Ben pulled his eyes from the table in front of him, to look up at Griff: "Pardon?"
"It was Tom´s decision. He wanted you to stay with your son. You can´t take responsibility for his actions, as long as you trusted his decisions." Griff´s arms were crossed in front of his chest and he looked at the patriarch thoughtfully:" Humans make decisions. Have their own will. If you take that from them, you´ll kill them."
It didn't surprise Ben that Griff thought like that. Griff had seen the worst side of this world for so long, that it couldn´t hide anything. In this way here and there Ben sneaked a peek into the soul of the young convict, it was astonishingly complex. Ben had learned that everything Griff said in his moments revealed an absolute truth for the youth. It comforted Ben somehow. Griff didn´t say it to help him with his guilt, he said it, because he thought it was the truth, and this made it so much easier for Ben to believe in the words.
"So you're telling us, she made sure you would die? With her last will?" Maria sounded horrified.
"She wanted me to suffer like she suffered." Ben cited from the letter.
"This is bullshit." Said Griff, his eyes still on his employee:" This wouldn´t have ended. There would have been more sorrow, you can´t erase pain with pain."
Then Griff realized what he said and looked away.
Ben cleared his throat:" I would be much obliged to you if you kept this to yourself. It had taken years for Adam to stop talking about Tom. I don´t know if he ever stopped thinking about him." He made a break:
"The story Clem will work with is an unknown client. The two hangdogs have refused to give evidence."
Griff smiled suddenly:" Probably are afraid of Liz visiting them in prison."
That made Ben smile too.
"She had asked me if I wanted to go with her." Maria inserted.
Both men looked at her surprised.
"And?" Griff asked.
"I think I will." Answered Maria:" She is nice and to be honest… I think she could use a little help, too."
"And a comb." Griff added, which earned him a slap from Maria: "She saved your life!"
"Good." Griff surrendered: "I´ll donate mine."
Ben listened to their bickering while watching the fleeing clouds. There are some days when you open your eyes, and you know you probably shouldn´t have. There would always be days like this. Ben stretched and let his dark thoughts go with the storm.
The important thing was how you faced those days.
END
So this was the story. I want to thank all of you who kept up with me all this time, it was a pleasure to write for you.
Particularly Glenandme, who never got tired of reading the nonsense I produce. Thank you it really means a lot to me.
As my next project I wanted something funny and challenging, so I decided to let other people choose what I write about.
The next story will contain 6 terms which other people selected for me.
These terms could be a person, an object, a weather phenomenon, an abstract concept, anything!
The first two were selected by Glenandme, they are: cave and dogs.
The second two were selected by my little sister, they are: endoplasmic reticulum and Irish jig. (Before you ask, yes she is a rather unusual girl)
And the last two are up to you! The first two suggestions which are posted in the comments will be taken to consideration for the next story.
I´m really curious about that and look forward to the next story.
On this way I wanted to wish you all a happy and successful new year – may the best days of the past be the worst days of your future.