Dear Readers:
"The Run to Tumavaca" and other episodes made it clear that, as would be expected for handsome healthy ranchers in their twenties, our heroes sometimes had relationships with women that were of an intimate nature. The series handled this fact carefully and tacitly. This story does the same, which is the reason for the T rating.
Also, tearjerker alert! There is no death of our beloved characters here, but parts of this story are heart-wrenching. You may shed some tears as you read it. I sure did as I wrote it. But lighthearted and tender moments abound, as well, so if you choose to proceed and read the story, I hope you'll enjoy it.
A TIME and A TIME and FOREVER
First Phase
A Time... of Discoveries and Dreams
Chapter One
"See! I told ya. But ya won't never listen to me." Jess Harper barked, as he stomped into the barn with a winded Slim Sherman, after helping the tall rancher to his feet and out of the corral.
Slim cradled his left arm with his right hand and worked to reclaim the breath knocked out of him when bucked off the wild horse. "You expect me to just stand around… and watch you break your neck… on all four of those mustangs… and me not lend a hand?"
"I told ya that one ain't ready for a try yet. Needs more time just gettin' used to bein' fenced in. Now look at ya. Went and got yourself hurt. And at a bad time to be busted up."
"Didn't know there was a good time."
Jess glowered. "You know I mean 'cause of them bein' home. You don't want to mess up any plans, do ya?"
It's just a sprained wrist." Slim sank down onto a bale of straw. "It's not gonna slow me down much. And not for long at all."
"You'd better hope it's just a sprain. Could be a mite broke, ya know. One o' them… what the doc calls a hairline fraction."
"It's hairline fracture, Hotshot."
"I know that. The wrong word jus' came out. You got me too riled to talk straight."
"I know you're not actually worried about me anyway. You're just mad because I didn't do things your way. Did you forget who's in charge here?"
"You run the ranch, but let me run the dadgum bronc bustin'. You don't know them broomtails like I do."
"I suppose you're the expert on sprains too."
"Enough to know it needs wrapped, so ya don't make it worse." Jess opened a box on a shelf along the barn's far wall and pulled out a roll of cloth they kept at the ready for the oft-needed injury care on the ranch. He trudged toward Slim. "You want Daisy to patch ya up, or should I do it m'self?"
"Just give it to me. Or don't ya think I can handle that as well as you do?" Slim groused.
Jess pursed his lips in a taut line and threw the roll to him. Or, more like, at him. Slim grabbed the bundle as it bounced off his chest.
"I swear, Jess, one of these days you're the one I'm gonna break!" He shook the bandage roll at the scowling Texan. "Break right in two!"
A peal of laughter rang from the front of the barn. Jess and Slim both looked toward the wide open door and saw Andy standing there, every tooth in his mouth visible as he continued to chuckle. "You're still at each other's throats half the time, aren't ya?"
"Sure sounds like it." Jonesy nodded and, with a big smile, stepped alongside the younger Sherman. "Nice to know some things around here never change, huh, Andy?"
Slim sat at the breakfast table, grinning from ear to ear. He couldn't recall a more beautiful mid-May morning. Part of the day's perfection was the weather, pleasantly warm with low humidity and clear skies. The bigger part was the fact that his entire family was together.
This was the first time Andy and Jonesy had come back home since Daisy and Mike had joined the family. Daisy considered Slim and Jess to be like her sons and little Mike like a grandson, though he called her "Aunt Daisy." Slim was sure that before Andy went back to school in St. Louis, he'd also be another son to the sweet lady. And Jonesy had taken an instant liking to little Mike. Jonesy was more like an uncle than merely a family friend to Slim, Andy and Jess. He was the father figure all four of the boys so needed. Slim could see that Daisy and Jonesy were becoming fast friends, connected first and foremost by their mutual love for all their boys.
Slim dearly loved both 15-year-old Andy and eight-year-old Mike, but even Andy was too young to be a real compadre to him. Someone he could talk with about everything and count on to be there to hold his own through all the struggles of the ranch and beyond, both the physical challenges and the emotional ups and downs. That's where Jess filled a void Slim hadn't even realized was there until the former gunslinger had galloped into their lives. He'd been at the ranch well over two years now, Mike and Daisy just under a year, and with Andy and Jonesy home, it was great to all be under one roof.
Well, during the day, anyway. Slim and Jess had taken to the bunkhouse to sleep while Andy, Jonesy and Mike shared the bedroom next to Daisy's. Looked like it would be that way throughout the coming weeks of Andy and Jonesy's visit. And Slim and Jess were happy to do it, though the bunkhouse wasn't as comfortable as the main house.
There was plenty of comfort now, in the form of good rib-stickin' food. Daisy and Jonesy had cooked up a hearty breakfast, and as they all enjoyed it, they happily got to know each other better. One member of the family, however, wasn't among them now.
"Anybody know where Jess is?" Slim asked.
"Haven't seen him yet today," Andy replied.
"Probably still sleepin'. Stayed up awful late last night jawin' with Andy." Jonesy smirked in the younger Sherman's direction.
"Well, Andy managed to get here for breakfast." Slim said lightly, shaking his head in his usual amiable tolerance of his pard. Although they argued a lot too, they both were used to each other's quirks and, for the most part, just laughed them off. "Guess I'd better go roust him."
Just then, the door opened and Jess breezed in, a big smile on his face.
"Where ya been? You been missin' a lot of good conversation." Slim motioned Jess to the table.
"Just hitchin' up the buckboard, so it's ready to head straight for town when I git done eatin'." Jess tossed his hat onto the couch by the window and went to the table, tousling Mike's hair and giving Andy a friendly slap on the back as he took the empty seat between them. Both smiled broadly at him.
"How you doin' today, Jonesy?" Jess asked. "That back of yours holdin' up okay?"
"I couldn't be better if I was sleepin' in a palace. So good to be home."
Jess spooned huge servings of fried potatoes and scrambled eggs onto his plate. Andy handed him the platter with bacon and biscuits, and he helped himself to a generous portion of each, along with a big slab of butter matched by a heaping tablespoonful of strawberry jam, which he pile near one biscuit, while he smothered the other two with gravy. Then, grabbing the china dish beside his plate, he added an enormous scoop of sliced peaches from the bowl in the middle of the table. Slim smiled and shook his head. The amount of food Jess could put away always amazed him—and everyone else. But anyone who knew Jess's background understood.
He came from a large and very poor family in the wide-open, sparse Texas panhandle region; there was never enough food. During the war, he was captured and starved in a prison camp. Following that, he was on the drift for five years, rarely knowing where his next meal was coming from, and more often than he cared to remember, it didn't come. So now that he could eat his fill of great food anytime he wanted, he felt compelled to take full advantage of it, and he appreciated and savored every bite, the way someone does who's spent so many years struggling. But no matter how much food he put away, and it was always plenty, Jess stayed as lean as a racehorse. Worked it all off. The energy he expended on the occasional fistfight also did its part in keeping him trim. Not an ounce of fat on him, Jonesy had often lamented, wishing the young man had some extra weight to spare. Now, Daisy took up the same refrain. But Jess wasn't skinny or scrawny; he was simply pure solid muscle.
Daisy went to the kitchen and came back with fresh coffee, knowing Jess would want some. "I can't believe you've waited this long for your life-sustaining elixir," she teased, pouring for Jess as he held up his cup. "Up and at 'em, diving into work before your first dose." She wrinkled her nose in a smile.
"Aw, come on, Daisy, ya must know me better 'n 'at by now, don't ya? " Jess grinned. "I already had two cups in the bunkhouse."
"That's our Jess, all right." She laughed. "At least I think so. Slim, that is who's seated there, correct?"
Slim grinned. "Well, it sounds like him. Sure doesn't look the same, though, huh?"
The Texan looked from one to the other in puzzlement. "What ya talkin' 'bout?"
Andy glanced sideways. "Jess, you growin' a beard?"
"Oh, that." Jess self-consciously rubbed his hand across his chin.
"Yes, that," Daisy said with just a hint of disapproval.
Jonesy studied the five-o'clock-and-then-some shadow. "How long's it been since you shaved, boy?"
"Let's see. Day b'fore yesterday. Been busy. And didn't want'a waste time this mornin' that could be spent catchin' up with y'all. I'll git to it when I come back from pickin' up supplies."
The rest of the meal passed with stories, laughter, reminiscing, planning and listing things for Jess to pick up in town. By 7:30 he headed out, and Slim tackled chores, with Andy happily lending a hand and talking the entire time.
In the house, Mike dried the dishes Jonesy washed, and Daisy chatted with them from her seat at the small kitchen table where she mended clothes. And so the morning progressed in harmony and pleasantness.
At 10:00, the first stage of the day rolled in, with Mose at the helm and no shotgun rider, which told Slim there was no money of significance on this run, just mail and maybe some passengers.
"Howdy, Mose." He waved at the driver. "Passengers today?"
"Just two." Mose's wink and sly smile piqued Slim's curiosity.
As Slim made his way to the side of the stage, Andy began working with the team and took up his conversation with Mose where it had left off when he and Jonesy had come in on the stage two days earlier.
Slim opened the door to the stagecoach. And got two major surprises.