Dear Mort,
I so wanted to say goodbye to you in person. You've been such a good friend to me and my boys over the years. I kept on re-dusting hoping you would arrive before I left, but I think Slim caught on because he insisted I get on the morning stage. He was afraid I would miss my connections and have to spend the night in a strange hotel or relay stop.
Life is so different here in Denver. My sister insists that I need rest; that I have been working too hard. Work was my middle name when I was home at the ranch. If I was home now, the breakfast dishes would have been washed. I would be planning supper. I might be making a pie or putting up jam. If the boys were to be home for lunch, I might be washing sheets so that they could hang them up on the lines Slim put up for me. In the afternoon I'd be helping Mike with his homework or sewing. Always doing something on a working ranch, Slim always says. Please look out for him, Mort. I do so worry about all my boys but especially for my level-headed, honest-as-the-day is long, "Hard Rock" as Jess calls him. Slim needs a friend now. He's all alone.
Daisy Cooper
Daisy Cooper POV
Daisy sat back in her chair. 'Have I written enough?' She wondered. Her eyes closed for a minute picturing her family. The ache in her heart was lessening but she could still hear their voices in her head.
"Oh," she said suddenly to the empty room. "I forgot to write about the quilt!" She grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and began to write: quilt, Mike, bond, ranch help.
She looked out the window. The sun was setting and the Good Lord was painting a picture just for her on the Denver sky.
In her mind's eye, her family was just sitting down for supper. Mike's hair was tousled as usual. Jess' blue eyes were twinkling at a joke he had just shared with Slim, and her eldest 'son' was smiling contentedly at all of them .
Oh, how she missed her family. Sighing, she rose stiffly to join her sister for dinner. ' She could write again next week' she thought.