Dear Daisy,
Thank you so much for the belt buckle. The man who made it must love wood as it is quite well made, and my name on the back makes it a very special gift which I will wear with pride.
Instead of going to the church service this year, I bought a chicken dinner at the cafe and along with a bottle of Windy's finest whiskey drove to Slim's on Christmas Eve day. Each time I had seen him in town, which hadn't been often, he seemed more and more withdrawn. Oh, he would stop and say hello with that fake smile on his face, but he wouldn't look me in the eye and kept pushing me away. He told me the other day that he was about to bury Jess and move on with his life!
After all this time of stating that he believed that Jess was alive and now to say he thinks he is dead! Anyway, I was determined to get to the truth of the matter and so I told him I would be at the ranch at 3pm on Christmas Eve.
Daisy, I feel that you and I have become good friends over the years and even more so now that we share this terrible loss. I know you love and miss your family -now, don't deny it! I can read between the lines of your beautiful penmanship. The truth of it is that I've known Slim a long time. We rode together in the war and he was the one who suggested me for the sheriff's job in Laramie. When I first met Jess, I knew that he was a gunslinger but the more I saw him with Slim, the more I realized that he might have the fastest draw I'd ever seen but that he had the heart of a lion and a streak of loyalty a mile wide. Those two boys just bonded so well together even before they made their brotherhood public in the sharing of that ancient ritual.
I came to the realization not long after the Greevy incident that I felt more like a father to Jess than a friend and tried to guide him in the directions he needed to go. The more Slim pushes me away, the more I lose my link to Jess. I'm not sure that makes any sense or not.
We had a pleasant conversation over dinner and then as we shared that bottle in front of the fire, we told our favorite stories about Andy, Mike, Jess and you. I didn't know that you came west to open a store!
As I was leaving, he said something to me, that even now has been rattling around in my head ever since. He said that he felt guilty every day that he hadn't ridden out that first week Jess was late to go and find him. He said that at the time he felt that something was wrong, but decided not to act on it because of his hand recovering and he couldn't leave you and Mike. He said that he needed to "bury" Jess and move on with his life and he couldn't wait forever. I gently asked him if he thought that Jess might be trying to get home or that he might be missing the family too.
I drove away with tears in my eyes and a heavy heart. You see, Daisy, I feel guilty too. I'm not sure I did enough to find Jess and I wonder, even now, if I should go hunting for my 'son' and one of my best friends. I would have to leave the job to do it though. I'm not sure I could leave it all behind me.
Mort Cory
Mort POV:
"I probably shouldn't have written all that to her" I told myself when I stopped to wipe the tears from my face. My heart ached for Slim and his family. The heart of the family was still beating but it was bleeding badly. I needed to do something, but what?