Dear Mort

by MustangSallie

This story is about the correspondence between Daisy Cooper and Mort Cory during the time of Jess Harper's disappearance. In order to understand this story, you'll need to read The Reluctant Imposter and Slim's Journal first as the characters and plot lines intertwine. Inspired by a reviewer, the story has multiple chapters each containing a letter and POV of the writer.

18. Chapter 18 Hope

Dear Mort,

My thoughts are very jumbled so this letter will be too. I thought that I should wait to write you but the need to tell you what's been on my mind was greater than waiting.

I perhaps am not telling you a secret when I say that Jess was always my favorite. Oh, I know that Slim knew but he wasn't jealous. I think he realized that his best friend needed a mother's touch more than he and he never came between us. Oh, Jess was a handful but he'd bat those blue eyes at me and I forgot to be mad at the torn shirt or "forgotten" chore.

Each and every time I've thought about him in the last months it's been with sorrow and regret. I still believe that he is alive somewhere but doesn't remember us.

Then you went on your quest. I can't tell you how proud I am of you. To think you rode all that way by yourself and found out more than we ever knew before. It only confirms parts of that dream I had, do you remember? Slim believed he was breaking horses and he was!

And now, we may be closer to finally finding him. Mike's letter was so detailed in "the plan" he and Andy had decided upon so many months ago. I only wish they had told Slim - it might have eased his mind some, knowing his brother and his 'son' were also looking and not just going to school.

But, be that as it may, they have a plan in place now. Mike wrote that they're just waiting to see how many doctors answer their invitation. To his point, they can't just travel all that way by themselves. Andy's friend and Jess' neighbor (who doesn't really know the whole story) seems to believe that Jess or Jack, as he knows him, is quite happy to open his ranch to Greenhorn easterners, even if they are doctors!

I am so fearful, though. What if they travel all that way and it isn't Jess at all? What if it is Jess and he doesn't recognize them? What happens if he knows them but won't leave Montana? So many 'what ifs."

Please watch over my boy, Mort. He is going to need you more than ever.

Daisy

Daisy POV:

I worry all the time now - for Slim, Mike, Andy and Mort. We all have a part to play and Jess is at the center of it all. I plan on writing Mike tomorrow. I am so proud of him and Andy.