Chapter Two

Mort Cory stopped a moment on the Laramie Road and checked his pocket watch. Two-thirty. Well, he was sure going to arrive early at the Sherman place. But when Barton from the telegraph office brought him the message for Slim marked 'urgent,' he figured he'd best deliver it right away. As he had ridden past the town's small post office, he'd also made a quick stop there and asked if there was any mail for the folks at the Sherman Ranch. He had brought with him a small stack of various correspondences that the clerk had handed him.

Riding up over the hill and down into the ranch yard a few minutes later, he found Slim at the coral with Mike. They both greeted the lawman as he dismounted.

"You're a mite early, Mort." Slim smiled.

"I know. Hope you don't mind. Maybe I can even help with some last minute things you need done."

"No thanks. You've already helped plenty. We're all set. But glad to have you here. Come on in for some coffee."

Mort nodded his thanks.

"I'll take care of your horse, Sheriff Cory." Mike grabbed the mount's reins. "We're gonna keep 'em all out in the back pasture over the rise, so Jess won't see 'em."

"That's fine, Mike," Mort replied, pulling a coin from his pocket and offering it to Mike as a tip for the service.

"Oh, no thanks, sir. I don't want anything for helping out. I'm glad to do it for Jess. I can't wait to surprise him!"

With a bounce in his step, Mike led the animal away.

"Somebody's raising that boy right," Mort patted Slim on the back, and they headed into the house.

After greeting Daisy, Mort handed the bundle of letters to Slim and then reached into his vest. "Here's the main reason I came out here so early. This telegram for ya, marked 'urgent.' It actually came in three days ago." He accepted the cup of coffee Daisy poured for him. "But Barton said right after it arrived his wife sent a neighbor over to tell him one of his kids was real sick. He hurried straight home, and he's been at the youngster's bedside ever since. So distraught he forgot all about his work and this message until the little girl's fever finally broke early this morning. Thought I'd better get the wire out here as fast as I could. Wondered if it might be a birthday message for Jess from Andy and Jonesy."

"No, they already sent cards and a gift. I've got 'em all ready for Jess, another part of the surprise for him," Slim said. He couldn't keep the look of concern from his face as he opened the telegram. Daisy paused nearby, also worried that any message marked 'urgent' could mean bad news. Slim's sudden frown proved that was indeed the case.

"Oh no." Slim rubbed his hand across his chin.

"Slim, how bad is it? Who is it from?" Daisy's voice held a mild tremble.

"It's from Francie. No one's sick or anything like that, Daisy. Thank goodness. But it's sure not something we wanted to hear. Let me just read it to you both."

To Slim Sherman. Laramie Wyoming.
From Francie McKittrick. Eureka California.

Urgent.

No to party.
Do not mention birthday to Jess.
Letters explained. Did you not receive either?
Please respond.

Francie

"No party! Why not?" Daisy's confusion was matched by Slim and Mort's. "Surely there's some mistake. Francie must have misunderstood what we were wanting to do. How could she object to a celebration?"

"I don't think there's any misunderstanding, Daisy. It isn't just about the party." Slim viewed the telegram again. "She says not to even mention his birthday to him."

"Yep, that much seems pretty clear," Mort agreed. "But why avoid saying anything to him? And I wonder what letter she's talking about. Didn't you say a reply from her never came in?"

"That's right. I never got one. But maybe she had sent one, answering my letter a few months back. In fact, it sounds like she's saying she sent two letters."

Glancing at his desk, Slim walked over and picked up the stack of mail the sheriff had brought to him. He had set it aside, figuring on sorting through it after the party. He quickly scanned the postmarks, and seeing one from California, he ripped the envelope open and checked the signature.

"This one is from her. Dated three weeks ago."

"Slim, does it explain?" Daisy asked anxiously.

Again, Slim read aloud.

Dear Slim,

I replied to your letter and asked you to wire me that you had received mine. As of today, I still have no response from you. So I am trying again with this letter. Please let me know right away that you have received this one. If I do not hear from you within a certain time, I will follow up with a telegram.

Slim looked up. "And we get them both─her second letter and her telegram─on the same day." He returned his view to the letter.

Please, do not draw Jess's attention to his birthday. Do not mention it to him. And above all, do not try to celebrate it. Jess does not want anyone to acknowledge his birthday. He has avoided even thinking about it himself, ever since he turned fifteen. You see, Slim, Jess's fifteenth birthday…"

Slim suddenly stopped. Daisy and Mort watched the transformation on his face. His mouth formed a tight line. His brows drew together fiercely as he studied the letter. "Daisy… Mort... What are we gonna do?" he said forlornly.

Daisy twisted her apron in her hands. "Slim, what is it?"

Slim glanced at her and then at Mort, and then finished reading the sentence to them.

You see… Jess's fifteenth birthday was also the day the Bannister gang attacked our family.

Daisy gasped. Mort winced. Slim drew a deep breath and continued.

I know Jess told you that the Bannister raid occurred shortly after he turned fifteen. But it is obvious that he never said just how soon afterward. Jess had been born just after midnight. The Bannisters attacked at two o'clock in the morning on his fifteenth birthday.

"Oh my!" Daisy pressed her hand to her heart. "So the date is the same for both his birthday and the murder of his family!"

Mort shook his head sadly, and gritted his teeth as he thought about the horrible crime. "In the wee hours of the morning, only a couple of hours after he turned fifteen, the boy's world burned down around him."

Slim cringed. Then he proceeded with reading the letter aloud.

Out of respect for Jess, I will not divulge the date to you. As you know, Jess has always felt a lot of guilt over not being able to rescue members of our family from the fire Bannister set. To him, the date signifies only their deaths and what he considers to be his failure. He cannot bring himself to celebrate anything associated with the date. Not even his birth. He refused to let me discuss it with him when his sixteenth birthday approached and again when I saw him briefly after he returned from the war. It was the same when I tried to talk to him about it when Ben and I were at your ranch last year.

Daisy suddenly discerned the connection. "It was close to this time last year when Francie and Ben were here."

Slim nodded and returned his attention to the letter.

You can be sure, on that date Jess's thoughts will be filled with what happened to our family. He has blocked out any other meaning of the day. Please do not remind him of his birthday. It would only bring him more pain.

Regards,
Francie

Slim folded the letter and stuck it into his pocket.

The three friends stood silently, considering Francie's letter and telegram, as well as the plan they had created, which was about to unfold in a gathering that they now knew would be definitely unwanted and hurtful. Finally, Slim sighed heavily. "What should we do?"

"Oh, our poor Jess." Daisy wiped away a tear that escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek. "Well… we must not add to his anguish about this day. If he doesn't want to think of his birthday, we have no right to make him do it. He wants this day to be his own private remembrance for his family. We must honor that."

Standing beside Slim near his desk, she turned to look toward the dining table, raising her eyes to the large colorful banner above it. Slim did the same. Mort, standing near the fireplace, directed his gaze in the same direction.

"Well, we'd better hurry up and take down these decorations," Slim said.

"And we can temporarily store a lot of the food in the root cellar, using just enough for our regular supper portions," Daisy added. "When he sees the dishes I've prepared, Jess will just think we're having a nice supper to welcome him home."

"That's all well and good," Mort added. "But what about the guests? They've got to be on their way here by now. We can try to intercept them on the road from Laramie, and the other main road coming in from the south. But some of the nearby ranchers will ride straight overland, not on the roads. Some are bound to still get here."

Slim frowned. "What are we gonna tell any of them anyway? How can we call off the party without telling them why? And Jess won't want people hearing about the raid on his home, about the way his family died. He's always kept that private. The only ones who know about it are the three of us in this room, and Jonesy and Andy. Mike doesn't even know the details. It took Jess a long time to even open up to me about it."

"Well, you two can ride out to the roads and turn back guests you see coming," Daisy suggested. "For the Dixons, the Bates family, and others who may ride directly across the ranges and not on the roads, Mike and I will do our best to intercept them here and send them on their way. We'll just tell all of them the party is cancelled and they'll receive an explanation later." She sighed. "We'll have to figure out later how to handle that. For now, just ask everyone not to say anything at all to Jess about his birthday or the plan for a party."

She hurried to the mantel and began to pull the decorative streamers off it. Mort and Slim moved toward the dining table to pull the banner down, but first they discussed which of them would take up a position on which road and where, with Daisy occasionally turning toward them to interject a comment. With their concentration on each other's voices, they did not notice the sound of a single horse's hoofbeats slowly approaching the house. And all three had their backs to the front door when it opened and the lone rider stepped inside. They were unaware of his presence until the deep drawl sounded.

"What's goin' on?"

Daisy, Slim, and Mort whirled in unison to stare at the source of the question, their expressions showing their startlement and dismay as they laid eyes on the travel-weary face of Jess Harper.