Letting Go

Chapter Three

DISCLAIMER: Me? Own Bonanza? HA! I wish!

Later that night, Joe was awakened by a soft crying sound. He groaned and tried to block it out with his pillow, but the whining just got louder, and the last thing Joe wanted was to have it get so loud that everyone in the whole house woke up. So he very reluctantly dragged his tired body out of bed and shuffled over to the drawer where the noise came from, still rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Whassa matter?" Joe asked, stifling a yawn. He looked down and saw the six wolf pups crying in the dim light of a full moon. "Don't tell me you're scared you're gonna turn into werewolves, cuz that only happens to us people."

The wolf pups still cried. Joe's assurance of werewolf-immunity had done nothing to make them feel better, since that wasn't what they were worried about.

Joe sighed. "Okay, okay, I'll try to get you something to eat."

Still yawning and stretching, Little Joe made his way to the door and quietly opened it. Then he slipped into the hall and crept down the stairs, being very careful to skip the second-to-last step, since it squeaked rather loudly. Joe made his way silently into the kitchen and dumped some milk into a small bowl. Still in his bare feet, Joe went out to the front porch and set the milk bowl on the top stair to warm up a little more in the heat of the summer night.

Joe looked up at the full moon. It was big and bright, giving off enough light to read by, Joe figured. Well, except if you were reading from one of Adam's books by Shakespeare with the miniscule print. Those were the most boring things Joe had ever laid eyes on. There were way too many dictionary words, and what did 'deny thy father and refuse thy name' mean anyhow? Who in their right mind would want to deny that their father really was their father? Joe knew that he would never, ever do a thing like that. His Pa was the most important part of his life. Why would Juliet Capulet want to make a fellow like Romeo Montague…

A scowl crossed Joe's small face. Adam had duped him earlier that day when they had been naming the wolf pups! Oh, yes, Joe had been duped, but he wasn't about to let his sneaky older brother get away with it!

Joe stuck his finger in the bowl and, satisfied with the temperature, brought it back upstairs.

In his room, Joe placed all six wolf pups on the floor. Joe dunked his finger in the bowl and let the pups suckle on it until his finger was dry. Then he'd dip it in again and begin the process all over. Pretty soon, half the bowl was empty and all six pups were sound asleep. Joe smiled a little at them and went to dump out the milk and return the plate. When he came back, he put his new pets into their drawer and went back to his own bed, thinking of how he could make Adam pay for his little name-deception.

By morning, Joe had thought of something really mean to do to his brother. Unfortunately, Joe knew that he'd never get a chance to play his trick. If he did, Adam would undoubtedly get mad, and would possibly even change his mind about keeping the wolf pups a secret. The thought sat rather uncomfortably with Joe, especially since he knew that he would be the one sitting rather uncomfortably for a few days if Pa ever found out what they were doing. So, when Joe saw Adam for the first time that morning, he settled for a good pinch on the arm and an "I know what you did, meanie". Before Adam could say a word about it, Joe was already down the stairs and at the breakfast table.

"Morning, Pa," Joe greeted pleasantly.

"Good morning, Joseph," Ben replied. "Have a good night's rest? I thought I heard some noises in the middle of the night. Was that you?"

"Uh… yeah, Pa, I just went to get a drink," Joe explained. He felt a little guilty about lying to his father, but soon convinced himself that it hadn't really been a lie since he hadn't said who the drink was for.

"Mornin' Pa, Joe," Hoss said as he sat down at the table. "Say, I heard some purty peculiar noise last night. Was that you, little brother?"

"I just went to get a drink," Joe repeated. He couldn't believe Hoss would ask a question like that in front of Pa. The last time he had asked a question like that, they both wound up having to write reports for school over the summer! Joe gave him a warning look that was missed by Pa and Adam.

The Cartwrights began eating—well, most of them. Before Joe could get the eggs, Hoss grabbed them first.

"Hey! Not again!" Joe yelled in exasperation. Hoss laughed at the evil scowl on his brother's face. Joe sighed and drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. By the time Hoss gave him the plate, there wasn't much left. Joe groaned and scooped the rest of them onto his plate. This day wasn't going very well so far, and he only hoped that it wouldn't get worse.

Unfortunately for Little Joe, it did.

It was Joe's day to feed the chickens. It usually wasn't a very bad chore. As a matter of fact, Joe actually liked feeding all of Hop Sing's chickens and watching them peck madly at the food and, if need be, each other. Today, the chickens had found something else to peck at.

"Hey, those are my favorite boots," Joe complained as a chicken tried to make breakfast out of his footwear. "Eat your food, not my feet, please!"

When the chicken didn't listen, Joe swung the bucket at her. She hurried off, squawking all the way.

"Serves you right," Joe said to himself. He bent down to see how much damage had been done to his shoe. There was a small hole near the big toe. Joe muttered to himself, not realizing that the chicken who had done the damage had decided to get revenge. She took advantage of Joe's stooping position and pecked at his backside.

"OUCH!" Joe yelped, leaping into the air and clutching his bottom. It was still sore from yesterday's meeting with the lunch pail, and that chicken had only made things worse.

"Whaddya do that… oh, it's you. The one who wanted to eat my boots," Joe mumbled, rubbing his bottom. Suddenly, he heard laughter from the barn. Joe looked up and saw Hoss laughing at him.

"It's not funny!" Joe cried. "That hurt!"

"So I heard," Hoss chuckled. He walked out of the barn and came over to Joe. "I also heard ya talkin' to that chicken o'er there. I hate to say it, but I think yer goin' crazy."

"If you hate to say it, then don't!" Joe snapped. He picked up the pail and stormed inside the house, leaving Hoss to laugh to himself. Joe put the bucket down on the kitchen table very forcefully and stomped upstairs. He wasn't looking where he was going and bumped straight into Adam, who had been coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Joe," said Adam.

"Leave me alone, Adam!" Joe said. "I'm in no mood to be criticized!"

"I wasn't going to criticize you," Adam replied irritably. "I just want to show you something. Come on."

Adam led the way to Joe's room, and Joe trailed not far behind.

"What are you doing?" Joe demanded as Adam locked the door behind them and pulled the top drawer out. "You aren't supposed to be in here without my permission, even if I did share a secret with you."

"And it's that secret I want to show you," Adam explained. He placed the drawer onto the floor and scooped all the little wolf pups out. Joe watched in delight as he realized that their eyes were open.

"Wow!" Joe said, picking one up and looking into its deep, dark, serious brown eyes. They reminded him of Adam's penetrating stare, and he knew by instinct that this one must be a boy-pup.

"Say, what's this one's name again?" asked Joe.

"Um…" Adam mumbled, speechless. They all looked the same. How were they supposed to tell one from the other?

"You mean you don't know!" Little Joe cried in panic.

"Well, do you?" retorted Adam. Joe shook his head wordlessly. Why hadn't they seen this problem yesterday afternoon, when Hoss had suggested naming the nearly-identical wolf pups?

The two sat in silence for a minute. Then Adam got an idea. He took a sheet of paper and a pair of scissors from his brother's desk and cut the paper into six long strips. Then he wrote something on each strip while Joe looked on curiously. Adam picked up some glue and began to wrap the strips around the pups' necks.

"What do you think you're doing?" inquired Joe as he saw Adam gluing paper around the precious wolf pups' necks.

"I'm making collars with their names on them," Adam said. "I made them a little big so they can grow into them. We'll be able to tell them apart easily from now on."

It didn't take long before the pups were used to their new apparel. As a matter of fact, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Montague kept pawing at Sam's; Juliet would sniff Martha's and Tomahawk's; and Flapjack loved to lick everybody's.

"Good idea, Adam," Joe grinned as he watched the pups.

"Thank you," said Adam. "By the way, have you fixed that shirt of yours yet?"

"Whoops! I forgot!" Joe exclaimed, smacking himself on the forehead. He quickly regretted the action. Now, not only did his bottom hurt, but he also had a headache.

"You'd better do it fast. Make sure Hop Sing doesn't notice that stain, otherwise we'll all be in for it—especially you," Adam reminded him, unlocking the door and leaving the room.

"You always do have something positive to say, don't you?" Joe hollered after him. He looked at the soiled shirt on his bed, sighed and took it downstairs. Today was wash day, and he had a plan.

"Hey, Hoss, would you take care of the wolf pups? I'm gonna distract Hop Sing while you heat up the milk," Joe said.

Hoss, who had long since wandered inside after Joe's little incident with the chicken, looked confused. "How do I feed 'em?" he asked.

"Just let them suck from your finger until they don't want any more. Then dump the rest out the window," Joe instructed as he walked through the kitchen and outside, where Hop Sing was busily washing the family clothing.

"Hi, Hop Sing," Joe greeted with a friendly wave, still hiding the shirt behind his back. The Cartwrights' long-time cook—and often times, friend—looked up from his work, smiled warmly at Joe and went back to scrubbing somebody's pants.

"Hey, uh, by the way," said Joe, trying to be nonchalant. He showed Hop Sing the shirt. "I found this upstairs in my drawer. It's kinda dirty."

Hop Sing made a move to take it from Little Joe, but the boy quickly said, "I'll do it."

Hop Sing gave Joe a very confused look. Was it really true that Joe Cartwright was offering to do chores? He usually put up a fuss about doing his regular chores on a beautiful summer's day like today… come to think of it, Joe put up a fuss about doing his chores on any day! However, he moved to the side and allowed Joe to work next to him.

-

Meanwhile, upstairs, Hoss was having his own problems. His fingers were just a little too big to fit comfortably in the pups' mouths, so neither party was getting anywhere.

"Come on," groaned Hoss. "Jist stretch yer mouths a little wider? Please? Fer me?"

Try as they might, the pups couldn't get their little mouths to go any larger. The six pups and Hoss struggled for a time—and all getting extremely frustrated—when Joe walked in triumphantly with his newly-washed shirt. He had had to wash three other shirts and a jacket along with it so as not to arouse suspicion, but it had been worth it.

"Hey, how's it goin'?" asked Joe. Hoss glared at him.

"Okay, I guess we're having problems then," Joe muttered. He stuck his shirt back in the drawer and pulled out his oldest shirt for the pups to go on when they needed to. He walked over to Hoss and assumed feeding duties.

"Wait'll they get a bit older, big brother," suggested Joe. "Then you can do it."

"But… don't they git teeth when they're older?" gulped Hoss.

"Well, yeah, but you're so big an' tough that it won't bother ya none. Right, Hoss?" Joe looked up at him with his most angelic of expressions. Hoss had to admit that it would be hard for anyone to say no when a ten-year-old as innocent-looking as Little Joe was staring admiringly up into your face.

Joe could see that Hoss was already in his power, so he said, "Could you dump the rest of the milk out for me? Just throw it out the window as far as you can so that none of it stains the roof."

"Okay," agreed Hoss. Only after he had stood up did he realize that his brother was taking advantage of his kind and gentle nature—again. It was too late to go back on his word, though, so he flung the leftover milk out Joe's bedroom window as far as he could.

There was an exclamation from outside. Joe ran to the window and looked down. He laughed. So did Hoss. Not far from the house stood Adam, his hair tinted white from the milk. The whitish liquid dripped down onto his shirt, dying his shoulders various shades of gray. The oldest Cartwright brother glared up at the two youngest Cartwright brothers and stormed over to the water trough to clean himself up before Pa noticed.

Dick: Well, that was... interesting...

Me: That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!

Dick: Don't let it go to your head.

Me: I won't. But only if you do the replies.

Dick: I do them anyway!

Me: Just go!

Reviewer Replies

Sister Golden Hair-Thanks! And Panamint reviewed "Just as Long as We're Together", just to let you know.

Dick: Boy, that was easy. Can I go now?

Me: No.

Dick: Why not?

Me: Because you are my current Muse and I need you.

Dick: ARRRGH!