Sherman and Mildred were sleeping in bed when a loud shot is heard from next door. Sherman and his wife sit straight up in bed and look around in horrified confusion. Max is still sitting up reading when the shot rings out, he turns to look out the window and looks over and his young daughter still sleeps through it. Hawkeye comes running out of the guest bathroom that is connected to the room that they are staying in, Margaret is turning down the bed covers when she stops midway.
They all grab their housecoats and run out , Walter comes driving home from work and when he hears the shot, he stops at his adopted father's house fearing the worst but when he sees Sherman and Mildred, he breaths a sigh of relief. Sunshine comes running as hard as she can and Walter gets out and runs to her and he asks,
"Honey, where's Misty?"
Trying to catch her breath she says,
"Still sleeping, I was out on the back porch when I heard the shot. What happened?"
Max says,
"I don't know, it came from down the block!"
Myron comes running out of his house with streaks of tears down his face and he yells,
"Help! Daddy is hurt!"
Sunshine runs to him and holds him and the men run and look in and see Reuben laying in his own blood with his wife looking on in disbelief. Hawkeye runs over and checks his pulse then says,
"He's dead"
They hear sirens coming closer in the background and they all look at each other in shock and the only sound that is heard is Myron crying.
Later that morning, they are all sitting on the porch and just as the sun comes up, Sunshine finally walks up and you can tell that she is beat. Walter goes to help his wife walk up and Mildred asks,
"How is he?"
Sunshine nods her head yes then says,
"I finally got him to sleep...he cried himself to sleep, clutching his teddy bear and crying for daddy"
Mildred asks Sherman,
"What do you think happened?"
Sherman sadly shrugs his shoulders then says,
"You saw the gun...he killed himself"
Mildred hands Sunshine some coffee then asks,
"You don't think his wife could have...?"
Sunshine takes a sip then says,
"No, from what Myron did tell me; he and his mother were in his room getting ready for bed when his father...did it"
Sunshine then asks,
"Where's Misty?"
Walter then says,
"She woke up at 4 to go to the bathroom then I bought her over here, she had to bring Lucy"
Margaret asks,
"Lucy?"
Walter then smiles and says,
"Her pet hamster"
They all sit back and try to recollect their thoughts after the long night then Mildred asks,
"What will happen to the poor boy?"
Sherman then says,
"That's what I'm afraid of, if his mother doesn't pull herself together..."
Mildred then says in horror,
"They may take him and put him in one of those horrid institutions!"
Sunshine asks,
"Can they do that?"
Sherman sadly shakes his head then says,
"I've seen them do it"
Margaret then asks,
"What are you going to do?"
Sherman looks at Hawkeye then says,
"I'm not going to waste any time...I'm calling for help...Hawkeye, what time is it in New York?"
Hawkeye looks at his watch then says,
"About 8...are you thinking of what I think you're thinking?"
Sherman shakes his head then says,
"Yes, I'm going to make a call"
He gets up and goes inside to the phone with the others following and listening to his side of the conversation.
"Hello? Yes, I'm sorry if I disturbed you...oh, fine...she's fine too. Hawkeye is here and so is Margaret. No, she hasn't had it yet...Hawkeye says she's holding it hostage..."
They all laugh and Hawkeye's words then Sherman says,
"There's a case here that I think you need to come and help us and I think it's just exactly what you need for your paper anyway...yes, right here in Hannibal, in fact it's our neighbor, her husband killed himself last night. You can? We'll be waiting, bye"
He hangs up the phone then looks at his odd family of sorts then says,
"Well, Sidney's coming...all we can do now is sit back and wait"
The breath a sigh of relief and go back out to the porch while Mildred goes to the kitchen to start breakfast.
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A little while later, Walter walks back into the Potter living room and he sees Sherman sitting in his chair reading a 'Zane Grey' book and he smiles then he clears his throat and says,
"I'm taking Sunshine back to the house to sleep for awhile, is it okay if I leave Misty here?"
Sherman puts down his book then says,
"Yeah, Mildred went back to sleep, Hawkeye and Margaret went to visit with B.J. and I'm just sitting here trying to catch up on Zane...just leave her, she's fine"
Radar smiles then turns and leaves and for the next hour and a half, Sherman just quietly sits and reads until finally, he falls asleep. His glasses on his nose then the quiet is broken by a heartbreaking cry,
"Grandpa!"
He wakes up to see Misty standing in the door frame with deep streaks of tears down her little face...this time no thunderstorm is taking place so he knows something is wrong, did she somehow find out about Myron's dad?
So he puts his old arms out and he says,
"Come here"
She runs over to him with out any hesitation and when she is in his lap, he lets her cry some more then she asks her,
"What's wrong?"
She says in broken breaths and her voice is already scratched from crying but she says,
"L-Lucy...she won't, won't move! I think she's dead!"
His heart breaks for his grand daughter and he says,
"I'm sorry, her heart ... just gave out"
The little girl cries some more then she asks,
"Why? Why do they have to die Grandpa?"
He tenderly tells her,
"Misty, all things die...it's just how the world goes...things die for the new ones to come in"
She sniffles then asks,
"Did you ever have a pet die grandpa?"
He leans his head back on the couch then says,
"I sure have...do you remember 'Luke', the horse I talk about a lot?"
She shakes her head and brushes a tear away and he tells her,
'Well, that summer when I finished the first year of school, I rode Luke a lot, I had all that free time so I rode...felt good too with the wind in my face but I knew that summer was coming and he didn't need to ride in all that heat so there was days I just stayed with him...brushed him down until he was purely shining! Mildred didn't know this because she wouldn't have liked me doing this but once in a while, I sneaked around and got him a good bag of feed from the feed store..."
Back in 1965-
Sherman and Misty share a mischievous laugh over that-
'Well, one day in August, I went down to the stable and I was going to take him out for a walk, I even grabbed the reigns and I was whistling, feeling right good and snappy but when I got to the stable door and opened it, my heart dropped flatter than a pancake. There was my beautiful red and white horse laying on the ground and I knew from the cloud in his eyes that he was dead.
I didn't want to face it but I now knew it, my horse had got old over the years...he had a lot of grey hairs that I haven't noticed before...I just stayed there sitting in the loose dirt for hours just petting him...roaming my hands all over his fine frame and even tho he was old, he was in fine shape.
I finally saw that the sun was going down and I knew what I had to do so I got the old shovel in the corner and I went out to the field and I buried him. It took a while because a grave for a horse takes a mite bit of doing but I did it finally and I don't know how I did it but I got my horse in the ground'
Back in 1965-
"Did you say a prayer grandpa?"
He gives a little chuckle and he hugs her then says,
"As I matter of fact, I did. I said...'Lord, I don't know if you allow animals in or not...seems I remember something about a lion and a lamb my maw told me once. Luke is a good horse and I bet my bottom dollar that he'll do good for you up there...don't know what else to say Lord ...Amen.'
Then I tipped my hat and went home, told your grandmother about it and cried all night.'
Back in 1965-
He then stops his story then asks her,
"Do you know what we have to do now?"
She sniffs and wipes a tear away then says in a low voice,
"We have to bury Lucy"
He sadly nods his head and they go to the kitchen, he rummages around in the shelves until he finds a empty match box then they go to the guest room and over to the little hamster cage, see Lucy's still little body then put her in the matchbox but first Misty wraps her in a few pieces of tissue and Sherman smiles at her then he takes Misty's little hand and they go out to the back...he finds a garden spade and they walk down to a old oak tree and Mildred has pink flowers planted all around and cement blocks to hold them in and Sherman buries the little hamster there.
Neither Sherman nor Misty knows, but Mildred quietly watches the whole thing.
Sherman and Misty sit down in the swing then Sherman asks her,
"What do you want to do now?"
She thinks on it then says,
"Let's go read 'Black Beauty'"
He looks at her then asks,
"Are you sure?"
She nods her head firmly and says,
"Yes"
So they go in the house and go into the living room and sit down in a chair and Sherman pulls out his velvet covered copy of the book and turns to Chapter 26 but sees how it is talking about the death of the character Reuben that he read about yesterday so he quickly figures that he better not read that little chapter so he goes to Chapter 27 and he reads 'Ruined, and going Downhill'. He reads it then Kim Lee comes down and she sees her friend and say,
"Hey, let's go eat and go play"
Misty looks at her and smiles then says, "Okay". She gets down and runs to her friend and they walk hand in hand to the kitchen and Sherman smiles and his heart swells with pride.
A/N-I have cried and cried writing this chapter, please read and review!
Sand n Sable