Chapter 1 ~ The Dream The letters always began the same and ended with a heartfelt plea, "Please watch over my boy." Any other sheriff would have grown tired of the desperate missives but to Sheriff Mort Cory, the writer was a dear lady and the boy was one of his best friends.
It was the clink of a spoon in a cup that woke him. He lifted his head and looked around the room. There weren't any prisoners, so there should not be any noise and yet, there it was again -someone was stirring a cup of coffee. He ran his hand over his scraggly face. 'I must be dreaming' he thought.
"Hi ya, Mort." Mort Cory, Laramie's long time sheriff blinked. 'I must be dreaming' he thought again.
"What are you doing here?" He ventured to ask.
"Visiting."
"Have you been home yet?"
"Nope, thought I'd see you first."
"You need to go home. Slim needs you."
His guest sipped his coffee and ambled around the jail. Not much had changed in six months, except he had painted the cells.
"You need to oil those hinges," his guest swung the cell doors back and forth.
"Where have you been?"
"Here, there, lots of places."
'Oh, heck, talk about not answering a question!' He was getting frustrated.
"What have you been doing?"
"Lots of things, riding, you know, just living." Mort shook his head. This was getting him nowhere fast. He looked at his guest. He looked the same, but now he was fading in and out.
"You need to go home. There's a very lonely man out there and it's hard running a ranch by yourself, you know."
His guest lowered his eyes and sighed. " I need you to do something for me," he said softly.
"What's that ?" Mort asked.
"Tell Slim not to give up. I think about him and the ranch every day."
There was a hard knock on the door just then and Mort yelled, "come in" and looked back at a disappearing Jess Harper. "Wait," he shouted frantically.
"Don't forget to tell 'im, " Jess said and then he was gone.
************************** "Sheriff, you alright?"
Mort Cory raised his head off his desk. He blinked several times and looked up at Laramie's Bank Manager.
"Didn't mean to wake you," John Larsen said apologetically.
Mort shook his head. " Just resting my eyes," he mumbled. "Need some coffee.." As he glanced over at the stove, he half-excepted to see his friend but Jess was definitely not there. 'That was some dream,' he thought. He missed Jess terribly but probably not as much as Slim. It never ceased to amaze him when he thought about the steady level-headed rancher, his oldest friend and the brotherly bond Slim had with an ex-gunslinger now his best friend and partner of the Sherman -Harper Ranch. Those two were so different and yet had grown so alike in just a few short years. After helping John Larsen ,Mort walked around town and stopped into the cafe for breakfast. Upon returning to his office, he flipped through the mail. Wanted posters, thankfully not with Jess' picture on them, forms to be filled out and there it was -the letter. He'd been expecting it.