After breakfast, Ben led Sally out to the barn where he began saddling his horse.
"We'll go to town and see your mother first thing, Sally, and then I have a few business errands to run, perhaps we can go and see what's new at the General Merchandise. How does that sound?"
"All right," Sally said, swinging her feet.
Ben finished saddling the horse and taking Sally's hand he led her and the horse out of the barn.
"Let's get you up here," Ben said, grabbing her under her arms.
"My dress is going to wrinkle," Sally said struggling and kicking her feet.
"Oh, that won't matter to your mama, she'll just be happy to see you," Ben said jovially, trying to keep his temper in check.
"Can't we go in the buggy?"
"The buggy will take longer to get to town. It will be much faster to go on Buck, now come on, up you go."
"That's all right," Sally said, but she didn't struggle, as Ben put her in the saddle.
Ben narrowed his eyes for a moment, before he reached up and took Sally back out of the saddle. He put her on her feet, then took her hand and led her over to the porch. He sat down on one of the chairs and pulled her into his lap.
"Don't you want to go to town, Sally? I'm sure your mother will be happy to see you." Ben said reassuringly.
"Yes, I want to see my mama," Sally said looking down.
"Then why all the roadblocks today?"
"Roadblocks?" Sally asked, still looking at her hands.
Ben put her on her feet and turned her around to face him. He took her chin in his hand and gently tipped her face up before saying, "Yes, roadblocks. You wanted Hop Sing to wash your purple dress, which would have taken time. You ate your breakfast very slowly; despite the fact that I kept encouraging you to eat and now you want to take time for me to harness the horses to the buggy when getting to town on Buck will be much faster. Those are all roadblocks to our getting to town, now why do you think you're putting up all those roadblocks?"
"Dunno," Sally said softly.
"Well, let's see if we can figure it out, shall we?"
Sally shrugged.
Letting go of Sally's chin, Ben asked, "Do you really want to go and see your mother?"
"Yes," Sally said nodding.
"Are you scared of something? How she's going to be? Or what she's going to look like?"
"No…" Sally said hesitantly.
"Sally, honey, you need to tell me the absolute truth, I won't be angry or upset at you, what are you afraid of?"
"Dunno," Sally said turning away from him.
Ben stared at Sally's back for a few moments and decided to take a different tack.
"You do know, Sally, and telling me that you don't is a lie. I will not tolerate being lied to," Ben said in a commanding voice. Softening his voice he said, "We are going to town, Sally, and I want you to tell me the truth about what the trouble is."
He reached out and turned her around, putting his hands on her shoulders, he said, "Listen, sometimes the hardest things are easier if you just do them quickly. Do you think you can just say it? I'll count to three and you can just blurt it out and not worry about how it sounds," he said as he looked into her eyes and nodded. "Ready? On the count of three: one, two, three…" Ben used to use this tactic with Little Joe when he was a boy and he needed to say something, but couldn't quite work up the courage to say it. Joe called it a running start and Ben hoped it might work with Sally.
"Grandpa hates me because of me getting Mama hurt," she screamed, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Oh, Sally, you did really good telling me that," he took her in his arms and rubbed his hand on her back. Ben fought with himself as to what he should do next. The most overwhelming emotion he was feeling right then was anger at Joshua for his selfishness. He thought punching the man in the face would give him quite a bit of satisfaction. His attention was almost immediately drawn back to the sobbing girl in his arms. He sighed and tried to come up with some words of comfort that would ring true with her.
"You're grandpa doesn't hate you," Ben started. "It was an accident and both he and your mama know that."
"No, no, no," Sally cried.
"Now you listen to me," Ben said firmly, pushing her back so that he could look her in the eyes. "I told you I don't abide lying, not even in myself. I'm not lying. Your grandpa doesn't hate you. Do you hear me? Now, we are going to go to town and you are going to see your mama and we'll work this out, all right?"
Sally nodded sadly.
"All right?" Ben asked again, firmly, but with the slightest of smiles on his face.
Sally nodded as she said, "Yes."
"Yes?" Ben asked, raising her eyebrows and using his thumbs to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
"Yes, Ben," Sally said with a slight smile.
"Good girl, now let's get up on Buck," Ben stroked her hair, stood up and guided her to the horse and put her in the saddle.
It was a long, quiet ride into town. Ben's emotions flickered between anger at Joshua and sympathy for Sally. When they arrived in town, Ben lifted Sally down from the saddle and led her to the watering trough and dampened his handkerchief with water from the pump. He wiped that tear stains from her face and standing back, he put his hands on his hips and said, "All right, you look very pretty, are you ready?"
Sally nodded. Ben nodded back, as he turned to head towards the hotel, he felt Sally put her hand in his and he gave it a squeeze as they walked across the street hand in hand. They stopped at the registrar to find out which room Ruth was in and walked up the stairs to room 14. Ben smiled warmly at Sally, who was fidgeting nervously next to him, and stroked her hair before knocking on the door. The door was answered by Dr. Fellows, who stood back and gestured for them to come in.
"Sally!" Ruth said happily, she sat up quickly and held out her arms.
"Ruth," Dr. Fellows said, rushing forward to grab a washbasin "don't move too quickly."
Just as the words came out, Ruth's hand flew to her mouth, and she began to vomit quietly into the washbasin that Dr. Fellows pushed under her chin. Ben, who was a veteran of sympathetic vomiting in children, grabbed a bowl from the bedside table and pushed it under Sally's mouth just as her breakfast began to come up. He stroked her back and whispered consoling words. Dr. Fellows eased Ruth back down when her vomiting had stopped and poured two glasses of water: one for Ruth and one for Sally. He also soaked two cloths in water and handed a glass and a cloth to Ben before starting to bathe Ruth's face. Ben crouched down and did the same for Sally before handing her the glass of water.
"Your mama can't sit up, Sally, take a sip of water and then go say hello to her," Ben said, not mentioning what had just happened. Sally obediently took a sip from the glass and then handed it to Ben before making her way to the bed.
"I've missed you so much, Sally. Are you okay out at The Ponderosa?" She reached out to stroke Sally's hair.
John Fellows set Ruth's glass on the bedside table and took the bowl from Ben's hand. "I'll take care of these and be right back," he said.
Ben eased into the chair in the corner and watched Ruth and Sally catch up.
Dr. Fellows returned shortly with the clean bowl, the washbasin and Joshua. Ben watched Sally stiffen when Joshua came in the room and he stood, laying a hand on Joshua's arm. "If I might see you a moment, Joshua?"
Joshua frowned but followed Ben out to the corridor and downstairs to the almost empty saloon next door.
"Two beers, Charlie," Ben said waving two fingers in the air and moving toward a table as far away from the other patrons as he could find.
"Is something wrong, Ben?" Joshua asked as Charlie brought the beers to their table.
"Thanks, Charlie," Ben said handing him a coin. Take a drink, Joshua. I have something unpleasant to tell you."
Joshua took a drink and sat back in his chair, "Well?" he said.
"Joshua, you and I have been friends for a long time. We've had our arguments and disagreements about things just as all friends do, but I don't believe I have ever been as angry with you as I am at this very moment."
"Ben, what's happened? What's got your ire up?"
"Sally," Ben started, but before he got farther than that one word, Joshua slapped his hands on the table.
"I knew it, she can't even make it one night without misbehaving…" Joshua said angrily, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Now wait a minute, friend," Ben said standing, and putting his hands on the table, "I want to talk to you about your misbehavior, not Sally's"
"My misbehavior?" Joshua growled, standing up.
"Yes, yours," Ben said in a deep voice, pointing his finger at Joshua's chest. "You are a selfish, thoughtless man who doesn't give one moment of consideration to how his behavior affects his daughter and more importantly his granddaughter."
"And what behavior, precisely, is that?" Joshua shouted, putting his hands on the table and leaning into Ben's face.
"Now gentleman, " Charlie said coming over to the table, "if this is going to turn ugly, I suggest you take it outside."
Ben glanced at Charlie and threw himself back into the chair, "No, Charlie," Ben said taking a drink of his beer, "it isn't going to turn ugly."
Joshua shoved back his chair and started to leave before turning and sitting back down in his chair.
"You obviously have something to say to me, Ben, go ahead and say it, so I can get back to my daughter," he waved his hand in the air, gesturing for Ben to continue.
"That, right there, is the problem, Joshua. You have a daughter and a granddaughter to get back to, or did you not notice Sally was in the room."
"Of course I did, Ben, but Sally is not the one who has been injured," Joshua said angrily.
"Not physically," Ben said dismissively.
"Will you get to the point already, I am not getting any younger and I am growing tired of this."
"Fine, Joshua, Sally has come to the conclusion that you hate her."
"What?" Joshua asked incredulously.
"Your selfishness and your thoughtlessness towards her has led her to that conclusion and I can't say I blame her."
"You, what?" Joshua sputtered.
"I can't say I blame her, Joshua," Ben enunciated clearly. "Sally has been beating herself up about the horse incident and her mother's injury since it happened and your dismissive attitude towards her when you were taking Ruth to town added fuel to the fire."
"She shouldn't have gone into that corral," Joshua growled.
"I agree, but she is eight, and she is going to do all kinds of things she isn't supposed to. That's what children do! Why do you think children are given parents if they are never going to do something they shouldn't? God put a child in your life and you have selfishly shirked your responsibility and because of that she feels you don't love her."
"Now, wait just a minute, Ben," Joshua yelled, standing up again. "I do love that child, I just don't want to have to raise a child at my age." Joshua sat down with a thump as he realized the words that had just come out of his mouth. "I'm too selfish," he whispered, guilt washing over him.
"Drink up, Joshua. You have eight years of selfishness to make up to your granddaughter," Ben said raising his beer in a toast like motion.
"How?" he asked, picking up his beer, but not taking a drink.
"You start with forgiving her for going into the corral, really forgiving her. She needs to know that you love her as much as you do Ruth and you keep telling her you forgive her until she believes you. Then you take that guilt you're feeling right now and see if you can't change it into enough sorrow to let go of the selfishness and be that child's grandfather."
"Now, friend," Ben said, coming around the table and slapping his hand on Joshua's back, "let's get back to the hotel.
After Ben and Joshua left, Dr. Fellows seated himself at the foot of the bed and began massaging Ruth's feet with witch hazel.
"What are you doing, John?" Ruth asked when Sally finally ran out of words to tell her mother everything that had happened since they had last seen each other.
"Chinese medicine, massaging certain places on your feet is supposed to help the nausea. Is it working?" He asked with a smile.
Ruth giggled, "I don't feel nauseous, but I haven't tried to sit up."
"Well, don't," he laughed. "I just got everything cleaned up from the last time you tried to go vertical. Come over here, Sally. Do you want me to show you how to give your mama a foot massage?"
"Ewww," Sally said, screwing up her face.
"Ah, be brave, it's not that bad and you want to make your mama feel good, don't you?" John smiled. "Come on little lady, I need your help." He stood slightly, reached out a hand, took her wrist and pulled her gently to the foot of the bed.
"Hold out your hands," he said, and put some witch hazel on her hands when she held them out. "It smells good, doesn't it? You work on that foot and take care of this one, all right?"
Sally watched what he was doing and tried to copy his motions, the frown on her face gradually changing to one of concentration.
"You're going a good job, if your mama was a cat, she'd be purring," he teased.
Sally giggled and glanced up at her mama. Seeing the smile on her mama's face, she grinned quickly at Dr. Fellows and went back to massaging her mama's foot.
"Are you sure you haven't done this before today?" Dr. Fellows asked, nudging her with his elbow.
"No," Sally said seriously.
"Well, you're a natural," he complimented her with a smile.
She graced him with a big smile, which faded quickly as Ben and Joshua came in the door.