Chapter Twenty-Nine
The next morning, when Ben, Joe and Hoss got ready to leave for home, Adam didn't prepare with them. "Pa, I don't think the Army will stop you now. You're too close to Aurora for them to risk it."
"I don't like it. They'll be looking for you. You need to come with us," said Ben.
Adam resolutely looked his father in the eye. "I'm not leaving until it's done. I'll be all right. I know how to blend in."
Taking a deep breath, Ben nodded. He knew this was something Adam needed to do to live with everything that had happened the last few weeks; to say goodbye. When the Cartwrights and their hands mounted, Ben looked back one last time before he turned to leave while Adam waved as they rode away.
Joe lingered for a moment, looking at Adam sadly, knowing that his brother's journey had turned out to be just as difficult as his own…different, but hard just the same. When Adam smiled and nodded, Joe forced a smile and nodded back, then turned to catch up to the others.
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Adam carried Ayasha's body to the funeral pyre, handing her up to the Shoshoni medicine man, who offered prayers so that her spirit would be not be bound to the earth. When the medicine man came down from the pyre, he handed a lit torch to Kimama standing on one end of the pyre and to Adam standing at the other end. After the last prayer was sung, Kimama and Adam lit each end of the pyre and stepped back with the other Shoshoni, watching the smoke carry Ayasha's spirit to the heavens.
Kimama leaned over to Adam. "Ayasha said you lived bravely with the Aha macave to save all our peoples. She said you are tsaa' mukua, a good spirit." She turned to face him, holding his arms. "Tsiishchili, the Shoshoni; Homar huwhen, the Aha macave; Adam Cartwright, the white man, you are welcome in the land of the Shoshoni." She took his face in her hands, and kissed both cheeks, then turned and walked back to the village.
A Shoshoni brave handed him the bosal reins of a horse. Adam swung his leg up and over, looked back at the pyre, then turned and left, never to return to Furnace Creek.
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When they rode into Aurora, all eyes turned to watch. "Joseph, we're getting supplies, and then we're leaving."
"But, Pa, the sheriff…"
"The sheriff will be dealt with in due time along with the men who took you if they survived. Hoss, you make sure he stays here with the horses."
"Yessir."
Joe didn't argue or give Hoss any trouble. He was bone weary and mentally exhausted and just wanted to get home and sleep in his own bed. Still, there was Adam. "Hoss, you saw Adam." Hoss nodded and looked at the ground. "He's different. What if he doesn't come home?"
"Little Joe, don't you be sayin' nothin' like that. He may have had to change to blend in with the Indians, but he's still the Adam we've always known. You just wait…he'll be back."
"He could stay and fight with the Indians."
"Little Joe, didn't you see, boy? There ain't hardly any Indians left."
When they arrived home, the first thing Joe wanted was a bath; something that Hop Sing was all too happy to prepare for him. Next, Hop Sing prepared a feast, and afterwards, Joe went straight to bed. "Pa, if Adam comes in, wake me up, all right?"
"Joseph, when Adam comes in, I'm sure he'll want to sleep in his own bed as much as you do." Ben put his hands on Joe's shoulders. "Stop worrying about your brother. He'll be fine, just like you will. Now, let Hoss check your bandages before you lie down," he said, nodding toward Hoss to follow Joe upstairs.
Adam arrived home a day later while Hoss and Joe were in Virginia City to see Dr. Martin. He paused at home long enough to write a letter to Colonel Adamson before he left again, hoping to fulfill his promise to Mike with it.
"Adam, Little Joe is anxious to see you. He's worried."
Adam snorted. "I'm not the one who went to Hell and back, Pa."
"That's not true. There are all kinds of things we go through that can be likened to going through Hell. Your time in the desert affected you…in different ways than Joe…but just the same, it must've been hard for both of you."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Adam lowered his head not wanting his father to see his eyes. "Tell him I'm all right. Tell him…tell him I'll be back; that there's something I still have to do." He took his gunbelt and hat from the cabinet in the entryway and left.
When Joe stepped through the door, he had one question for his father, who was sitting in the leather chair next to the fireplace. Had Adam gotten home?
"Joseph, sit down. I want to talk to you."
There was a certain look on his father's face that Joe had come to recognize as one of quiet concern; a look that said he wanted to do something, but wasn't going to…a look that said he knew he had to let his sons be the men they were.
"He came home, didn't he?" asked Joe.
"Yes, he did."
"And he just left?"
"No, he wrote a letter first."
"Did he say anything?"
"He asked about you. I told him you had gone into town to see the doctor, and that you were worried about him. He asked me to tell you that he was all right…that he'd be back, but he had to do something."
Joe stood up, looking into the fire with his hands on his hips, then turned to his father with his nostrils flared. "He should be here…at home with his family. What could he possibly have to do that's more important?"
Ben answered very calmly…sadly. "You…we all…have to give him time to grieve."
"How could he…" Joe choked on his words. "How could he love her? She was…young."
Ben's eyes became moist. He stood and squeezed Joe's shoulders without looking him in the eye. "Like a father loves his sons…or a man loves his brothers." He walked to the desk and sat down, busying himself with the books.
