"How did you now where to find me?" Walter asked as they drove away from Dovedale.
"I was out tending the cattle in the north end of the pasture and saw the car drive by. I had the feeling that you might need a friend. So, I followed you here and stayed out of your way until you needed me," Gideon answered as he drove.
"I can't thank you enough."
Gideon continued to drive and never looked to Walter, "I don't expect you to. That's why God gave us friends, to look out for one another."
"There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother," smiled Walter, quoting from The Good Book.
"Tell me, why do you think God is punishing you?" Gideon asked, some of his late father's evangelical insight coming through.
"I'm not really sure, but I feel that He must be. I tell you Gideon, I feel like Job," Walter confessed.
Gideon knew that Walter needed to talk with someone about everything, so he continued to probe, "Why is that?"
Walter stared at Gideon incredulously, "Isn't it obvious? I've have the kind of life you only read about in novels. I was injured in the war, my family was told I was dead, and I had amnesia. I fell in love with my nurse, married her, and began a new life, only to learn my true identity as a result of the same accident that ultimately led to my wife's death."
Gideon started to say something but didn't because Walter was nowhere near finished. "Then I took my children home with me, and things began to look brighter when a ghost from my past returned."
It was only a short drive to the McGowan ranch from Dovedale and Gideon knew that Walter wouldn't be finished talking before they got there. He pulled to the side of the road and looked to his friend. "What do you mean a ghost from you past? I heard some of what you were saying at the grave, but I tried not to listen."
Walter sighed, glad to purge his heart of what he was going through, "There's this girl, no make it, woman that I had once been very close to," he paused.
"Go on,"
"We were only good friends when I left for the war. However, as you know, living in the trenches can make a man reevaluate everything in his life and what matters the most. Every letter I got from home always was filled with all of the positive aspects of life. That was good in some ways. It reminded me of what I was fighting for. Her's were different though. Sure they contained positive points to make me feel good, but they were also human. She would give me a light into the darkness that everyone at home was trapped in. She let me know that I wasn't the only one with a difficult task. It's easy to forget how hard things are at home when you're surrounded with death and destruction on a daily basis. Slowly, I think that I was beginning t fall in love with her.
The night before Courcelette, she was very much with me, especially her eyes."
"The eyes that you told me about long ago?" Gideon asked, remembering a conversation shared long before.
"The very ones," Walter answered with a timid smile.
"When I arrived at home, she was gone, and I thought no more of her than I did before Katie died. It wasn't difficult not to think of her, no one spoke of her because she ran away to join foreign missions."
"Foreign Missions?" Gideon asked, thinking there couldn't be much more of a difficult life to live.
"Yes, in India. However, she came home suddenly. Hope actually met her and fell in love with her in her own way. She worships the woman for some reason. Strike that, I know why. Anyway, she came home again and was there for months never telling us much about anything, just keeping to her quiet self. My heart began to have feelings again. Though this time they've been greatly conflicted by the feelings I still and always will hold for Katie. I had just started to allow myself to feel for her, when out of the blue, a man showed up, claiming to be her fiancé."
"This woman's engaged?"
"It seems to be. As it turns out, this was only discovered the day before I had to leave to come here. I have no idea what happened, and I've been trying very hard not to care."
Gideon sighed, secretly thinking that he should have gone to college and studied that newfangled psychology Ginny was always reading about. "I can definitely see where you would think that you're being punished, but I don't believe that you are.
Walter, what you have to do is to stop looking at what you don't have and what was lost, and to start looking at what you do have. You have two beautiful, healthy children who adore you. You have from what I hear, a large family that is very grateful to have you back in their lives. You are not starving. You are not wearing rags. You haven't lost your home," he added, thinking of his own troubles.
A wave of guilt washed over Walter. "I-I'm sorry Gideon. I've got to stop wallowing in my own self pity. I don't know how anyone has stood to be around me. My life isn't as terrible as it could be. I could still be that nameless soldier, lost knowing no one and nothing in Europe. Gideon?" he asked.
"Yes."
"I do appreciate everything you've done for me. Now might I make you a proposition?"
Later that evening, Walter and Gideon were discussing the proposition to Ginny at the kitchen table, over their empty plates when Jacob, the oldest of Gideon and Ginny's children exploded into the house.
The little boy was bursting with excitement, "Daddy, Daddy! I think that Cinder is going to have her puppies!"
Walter was excited upon hearing this. "Cinder? Isn't that Boomer's pup?"
Ginny smiled and took his hand, leading him outside to where the dog was nesting in the barn. "She sure is. She's been a good dog, too. She's has the same nature as Boomer did."
"Who's the sire? Is he a great lab retriever like Boomer?"
Gideon laughed, "Well, actually, the sire is a dog down the road a bit. The owners are new to the area. The dog is a Chow Chow. The puppies aren't full blood."
"Maybe they'll still make good pets, though," Walter thought, optimistically.
"Maybe so, but they could have either a spotted or black tongue," Gideon told him.
Walter chuckled at such an odd notion. "That would be interesting."
Several hours later, eight healthy puppies were born. It was still too early to tell what they would look like, but two of them had the sleekest black fur that Walter had ever seen.
"Do you like the new puppies?" Walter asked Maddie, who was the same age as the twins.
The little girl nodded her head. "I only hope that we can take some when we have to move."
Walter looked to Gideon and Ginny and all three smiled. Maybe they would be able to keep some after all.