What If (Inspired by a query posted on Facebook)
A warm summer rain fell steadily throughout the day, saturating the ground and stirring up a strong, earthy aroma that filled the nostrils and teased the brain with memories of summers past, of childhood days digging youthful fingers deep into the mud in search of night crawlers, running barefoot through warm, wet fields of grass, purposely stomping muddied bare feet into puddles that formed along the lane leading from the house to the road. It was the kind of rain that mellowed the soul and lightened the heart. It was the kind of rain perfect for sleeping, and dreaming.
Kid was taking full advantage of the opportunity for extra hours of sleep, never bothering to drag himself out from under the warm comfort of his quilt-topped bed.
But sleep seldom came easy to Hannibal Heyes and he welcomed a day such as this that evoked a sort of melancholy laziness, that displaced his worries and schemes, and slowed his always thinking mind. While Kid slept the day away, Heyes curled up in an oversize chair next to the fireplace, a warm blanket tossed loosely about his legs and torso, a brandy in one hand, a good hardbound book in the other. The only sounds were the crackle of the fire and the rhythmic taps of raindrops on the window pane.
This blissful, peaceful solitude eventually claimed victory over Heyes as well, and by mid afternoon, he too had surrendered to the realms of sleep-induced unconsciousness where dreams abound...
Jed Curry worked the horse-led plow with stubborn determination as sweat dripped from his bare chest and back. Though spring, the Kansas temperatures were reaching record highs and along with them came humidity that stagnated the air, making it hard to breathe. But the field had to be plowed, the clumps of dirt had to be churned and broken before actual planting could begin.
Jed hated the spring season work of farming. But ten years earlier Becky's father had given them a hundred acres of land as her dowry and now, with their fourth child on the way, Jed was committed to making a successful go of farming. His own parents had lost their farm to the bank years ago and had moved in with Jed's older brother Samuel, a man of rather successful means having started up a granary in the town of Hobart some forty miles away.
Seeing a rider coming up the lane, Jed yanked hard on the reins and shifted his shoulders to free himself from the harness. He walked across the plowed dirt to the single shade tree where his still sweat damp shirt lay and quickly put it on, buttoning it as he headed toward the house.
He first he thought the rider was Becky's father, a lean, tall man who sat a saddle well despite arthritic hips that had actually shortened the left leg by nearly an inch. Standing now on the porch, Jed squinted and raised a spread hand to his forehead to block the glare of the sun. Slowly a broad smile began to spread across his face.
"Becky," Jed called to his wife inside the cabin. "Come out here. I want you to meet someone!"
The screen door opened and a pretty, dark haired woman, heavy with child walked out and stood by her husband. Jed automatically slipped an arm about her waist as they watched the rider approach..
"Who is he?" she asked while wiping her hands on her apron.
The man was now within calling distance and Jed wasted no time in greeting him. "Heyes!" Jed shouted. "Wait here," he said to Becky and stepped briskly off the porch.
Hannibal Heyes, dressed in a fine black business suit with a white shirt, black string tie, and a black hat pulled his horse to a stop and smiled with great affection at his cousin.
"Well come on, get down off that horse," Jed said with open arms just waiting for Heyes to walk into.
Heyes dismounted and spread his own arms wide as the two men embraced, slapping each other's backs and laughing joyfully.
"Becky, this is my cousin, Hannibal Heyes," Jed said, pulling out of the embrace but keeping a hand on Heyes' shoulders as he turned to his wife to offer an introduction. "Heyes, this is Becky."
Heyes removed his hat and smiled warmly at the woman standing on the porch. "I'm so happy to finally meet you, Ma'am. I wanted so much to come to the wedding, but business just wouldn't allow it."
"You was supposed to be my best man," Jed reminded him and Heyes nodded with an apologetic look in his eyes.
"Becky, we got any of that cherry pie left?" Jed asked as he led Heyes up the steps and into the house that was in a bit of disarray with children's wooden toys scattered about the room.
"You two sit down and I'll get you some pie and coffee," Becky said. "I'm sorry about the mess, but you can't keep a neat house with three small boys."
"You have three kids?" Heyes asked with some surprise in his voice and a sad acknowledgment that the two cousins had not kept in close contact over the years.
"And a fourth one due in three weeks," Kid said proudly. "Now you know why I didn't become a priest," Jed explained. "Just couldn't take that one important vow."
Heyes smiled at his cousin. "Oh Kid, I have missed you," he said with a sigh and a laugh.
"Water over the dam, Heyes. We're together now. What brings you all the way from St Louis?"
"Here to settle my Pa's estate," he said dryly.
"Ah," Kid replied. "It's a shame you couldn't get back for the funeral. It was a nice service. Folks said an awful lot of nice things about your Pa, about your Ma too, didn't they Becky?"
Becky nodded and set a plate with a hefty piece of cherry pie down in front of each of them.
"Thank you, Ma'am," Heyes said and Jed gave her a thankful wink.
"Dig in Heyes. Her pie is as good as your ma's."
"Ma, can Tad and me go outside and play?" the eight year old, who was also the oldest of the three boys asked.
"You two stay in the front yard where I can see you. Han, you keep an eye on your brother."
"Yes, Ma'am," he said and the two boys darted out into the yard.
"Don't tell me you weighted that poor boy down with a moniker like Hannibal?"
Kid smiled. "I had to name the first born after you, Heyes."
"That's true, he was absolutely adamant about it. He said it was Hannibal or no name at all," Becky said pouring them each a cup of coffee. "Caleb is about due to wake up from his nap, Jed. I'm going to go check on him."
"We'll take the rest of our pie out on the porch so I can keep an eye on the boys," Jed said.
They carried their plates and coffee out to the porch and sat down in wooden rocking chairs that Jed had made.
"You are planning on staying here at the house while you're getting the estate settled, right?" Jed asked.
Heyes sighed. "Actually I think it would be easier to stay at the hotel in Derby. You know, easy access to the lawyer handling the estate, the bank, the courthouse, that sort of thing."
Jed nodded but Heyes could see the disappointment in his eyes.
"But I'll spend as much time here as I can, or you could come into town for an evening."
Jed shook his head. "Becky's too close to her delivery date for me to be away. All of them kids have come early. How long do you expect to be in town?"
"Just a couple of days. It's not a big or a complicated estate."
"I see the farm sold already."
"Yeah," Heyes said. "With a clause stipulating the family grave site stays and the new owners tend to it regularly."
"I could do that for you, Heyes. Might get tended a bit better by someone who actually knows them people resting there."
"If you wouldn't mind, Kid. I'd be truly grateful. I could pay you something, an annual stipend or something."
Jed waved a dismissive hand at his cousin. "I won't take no money. They was my family too, you know."
Heyes studied his younger cousin, wishing time and distance hadn't separated them, wishing he could erase the last ten years, wishing... so many things had been different.
"You seem happy, Kid," Heyes remarked.
"Ain't nothing to be unhappy about. I got Becky, I got the boys..." Jed paused and looked at his cousin, their eyes locking if only for a few moments and Jed feeling the same regrets that had just washed over Heyes' thoughts. "There ain't much I want for," Jed said quietly, reflectively.
Becky stepped out on to the porch with two year old Jeremiah in her arms.
"Let me take him," Heyes said and stood to relieve Becky of the child's added weight.
She sighed and smiled as she watched Heyes sit down with the child.
"He's got those Curry blonde curls, just like his Pa," Heyes said, letting the boy wrap his tiny fingers around Heyes' hand.
"S'pect you're still in the banking business are you?" Kid asked as he tousled the young boy's hair and watched his son smile up at him with great glee.
"Yeah, Vice President now," Heyes replied without a shred of bragging in his voice.
"You still ain't married? I'm still waiting for my own namesake, you know."
Heyes shook his head. "Just no time for that sort of thing."
"That's kind of sad, Heyes. You should take the time, so's you don't miss out..."
"On what life's all about? That was the advice you gave me when I left for St. Louis," Heyes said and again looked at Kid as though they shared some carefully guarded secret.
"Boys, it's time to come in and get cleaned up for supper," Becky called to the children in the yard as she reached over to take the youngest from Heyes. "You will be staying for supper, won't you?" she asked.
"I really should be getting back."
"No, Heyes, you just got here. Stay... We want you to stay," Kid said and rested his hand on Heyes' arm.
"Alright. "i'll stay for dinner. Thank you, Ma'am."
"Supper will be in about an hour, Jed."
"Alright darlin. I think Heyes and me might take a little walk. I gotta go bring the horse in from the field anyway."
She nodded at him and ushered the children back into the house.
"Come on, Heyes. Let's take a walk," Kid said as he stood up and stepped off the porch. Heyes followed.
"Kid, you ever wonder what would have happened to us if things had been different?"
"You mean like if you hadn't gone off to college and I hadn't gotten married?"
"Yeah, those kind of things."
"I wonder about that sometimes. I remember when we was kids, we had such big plans for when we was growed."
"And I don't recall any of it involving farming or banking," Heyes laughed. "My favorite was owning a riverboat."
"I was always partial to moving to Kentucky and raising thoroughbreds," Jed said with a laugh.
"So what happened to us?" Heyes asked.
Kid was unharnessing the plow horse, but his hands stopped and his fingers rested on the bridle. "Life happened, Heyes," Kid said with the simplicity and wisdom of a child.
Heyes sighed. "You don't know how much I've missed you, Kid...How often I've thought about you. How many times I've wanted to..."
"Heyes, if you're not happy doing what you're doing...just don't do it. It really is that simple."
"You saying you like being a farmer? Cause when we were kids, you always said you would never be a farmer when you grew up."
Jed began leading the horse toward the barn. "Yeah, I like being a farmer. I like calling the kindest and most beautiful woman in the world my wife. I like having a parcel of kids at my feet always demanding attention. I tell you, Heyes, Han and one of the neighbor boys is just like you and me was when we was that age, and I'm getting the opportunity to see that from a whole different perspective now. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world."
Jed led the horse into a stall and hooked a feed bag on him.
"It don't have to be farming, Heyes. If you're still dreaming about that riverboat, then give it a go. If you got some new ambition, then try it. But don't let life bog you down with things that ain't right for you."
"Kid, how did you become so wise?"
Jed smiled. "By having a wife and kids. You're priorities change, Heyes. You learn quick what's really important in life. It ain't all about me no more, but at the same time, it fills me with the greatest pride and the warmest love I've ever known. You don't want to miss out on that, Heyes. Don't let it pass you by."
"Supper!" Becky called from the porch.
"We're coming, Kid called back to her."
Jed closed the stall and turned to his cousin and stopped, their eyes again meeting. "Just follow your heart. See where your heart leads you. I promise you won't be disappointed. You hear me?"
"You hear me, Heyes? Heyes, you hear me?"
Startled from the dream, Heyes jerked and the book he had been reading dropped to the floor.
Kid stooped down and picked up the book and examined it. "I shouldda guessed you'd be reading Mark Twain," Kid said with a grin. "The Prince and the Pauper. What's it about?"
"About a prince who trades places with a little waif boy."
"Is it any good?"
"Uh? I don't know. I guess I dozed off before I got much of it read. Has the rain stopped?"
"Yeah, looks like the sun's even trying to come out."
"Kid, what would you be if you wasn't an outlaw?"
"Broke. But I'm broke being an outlaw, too. Why you asking?"
"Just a dream I had...You ever feel like following some other trade, besides being an outlaw?"
"I like what I'm doing, Heyes, and I like the fact that you're doing it too."
"You're not afraid you might be missing out on what life's all about?"
"Missing out? That must have been some dream, Heyes."
"Yeah, I guess it was."
"You hungry?"
"You cooking, Kid?"
"Sure."
"Then yeah, I'm hungry."
"Give me twenty minutes and I'll have something rustled up."
"Kid?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad we didn't miss out on being partners."
"It was just a dream, Heyes. Let it go...But I'm glad too."