And the Rain Came Down

The next couple of days were hectic. With Maude out at the saloon, and me trying to help with the girls after work I didn't pay much attention to those figurative clouds I thought had started gathering earlier in the week. Maybe if I had I would have noticed they looked just about ready to turn loose on us. As it was, I was focused on only two things; keeping the saloon running smoothly in my mother-in-law's absence and helping Maudie and Doralice get some sleep. I really should have been paying attention to everyone in the house, one person in particular, but unfortunately, I didn't.

Whatever had caused Maudie's colic to return with such a vengeance stayed right with her Thursday night and Friday night, so that by the time Saturday rolled around, I was worn out, physically and mentally. I didn't think I could have handled our busiest night of the week by myself if I'd had to, but thankfully I didn't have to worry about it. Bret had already told me he was going to be there to give a hand whether I liked it or not, and Maude was once again ready to take over her regular duties.

Saturday night ended up being fairly quiet, for a Saturday night. We had a steady stream of business most of the night, but it was just busy. When Bret and I were growing up, Pappy rarely went out on Saturday nights, and walking the floor at Maude's always made me remember why that was. Pappy always said there were too many amateurs out that night, and he's right. Things can get pretty chaotic when those amateurs got a little inebriated too, but thankfully that wasn't an issue this week. Despite the crowds we had, we didn't have any cheaters or belligerent drunks. Even so, by the time I got home I was ready to find my bed for a few hours.

I'll be honest, by the time we got everything cleaned and locked up the last thing I wanted to do was go home and face the possibility Doralice and Maudie hadn't slept any. I actually considered going back to my office and trying to get an hour or two of sleep before heading home, but my sense of duty won out over my selfishness. If Doralice had been up most of the night, she would need me, so I did the honorable thing and went home to check on my girls.

I considered it a good sign that I couldn't hear any wailing from inside when I stepped onto the porch. Fervently hoping all would be silent when I went inside, I cautiously opened the door and tiptoed into the hallway. For a second I stood there almost afraid to breathe. When I heard nothing, I breathed a sigh of relief and went to investigate. What I found was Doralice in the parlor, asleep on the settee, a daughter in each arm. I'd never seen anything quite so beautiful, and I just stopped and stared a minute, overwhelmed by the fact that this was my family.

Finally coming back to myself I walked over and stroked Doralice's cheek with my finger. She stirred and I smiled when she opened her eyes. "Mornin'."

"Home already?"

"Mmm-hmm. How'd it go last night?"

She smiled tiredly. "Same as the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that."

I grimaced. "How long have they been asleep?"

"What time is it?"

"Almost sunrise."

"An hour or so maybe. I finally got Maudie asleep around midnight, then Belle got hungry a couple of hours later and woke her back up."

"I'm sorry. Think if we put them in their cradles they'll keep sleeping for a bit?"

"I'm willing to try."

I took one of the girls and helped Doralice to her feet. Both seemed to be sleeping like rocks and neither one stirred when we laid them down. Once we were both free of our tiny bundles, Doralice came over and gave me a kiss. "How long did Simon say this colic lasted?" I asked as I wrapped her in my arms.

"He said it should end around three months or so."

I looked over at Maudie. "She's gonna hold out till the bitter end isn't she?"

Doralice chuckled. "Seems that way." She pulled away and took my hand. "Come on, let's get some sleep." On our way to the bedroom she slipped her hand out of mine. "Go on; I'm gonna check on Jack."

I nodded and continued to our room where I started undressing. I'd gotten my boots, jacket, tie, and vest off and was unbuttoning my shirt when Doralice rushed into the room, eyes wide. "Jack's not in his room."

"What do you mean he's not in his room?" I asked my fingers already refastening my buttons.

Doralice shook her head. "He's not there."

"Maybe he . . . ."

Doralice continued to shake her head. "I've looked all over the house and checked the outhouse. He's not here, Bart." Tears filled her eyes. "What could have happened to him? I tucked him in last night and looked in on him after I fed Belle." She suddenly choked back a sob. "Do you think he ran away? Why would he do that?"

"Doralice," I said firmly as I put my hands to her shoulders. "Let's not jump to conclusions. I'm sure he's around here somewhere. I'll . . . ."

"I've already looked," Doralice said her panic evident in the tone of her voice. "I told you he's not here."

Suddenly, I wasn't feeling good about this. Feeling a sense of urgency, I pushed past Doralice and hurried into Jack's room, my wife on my heels. When I arrived it was just as Doralice had said; there was no sign of him. "You looked outside?" I asked. I didn't want to start a manhunt when the boy had just slipped outside to relieve himself.

Doralice nodded irritably. "Yes."

That wasn't the answer I'd been hoping for. I took a breath and looked around the room trying to gather my wits. "Alright, there has to be something that can tell us where he went." I opened up the small wardrobe and was relieved to see Jack's clothes still there. Obviously, he hadn't thought he would need his clothes.

"Bart." Doralice's voice was thick with tears when she said my name.

I turned and found her holding Jack's nightshirt. Mumbling a curse as I took it from her and found all my rational thoughts from just a few moments ago disappearing. I'd been thinking it was a good sign Jack hadn't packed anything up and that meant he probably hadn't wandered too far, but now I wasn't so sure. He'd felt the need to change to clothes which meant he certainly hadn't gone to the outhouse.

"Where would he go?" Doralice asked, the tears now freely falling. "Why would he go? What if something's happened to him? Bart, we have to find him."

"We will," I told her. "We will. First, we need to . . . . " What did we need to do? My head was now spinning with all the places he might have gone and, as Doralice pointed out, all the things that could have happened to him. A hard knot settled in my stomach as I looked around the room as though I would find some kind of answer.

"Why?" Doralice asked again. "Why would he leave? He doesn't know anyone outside the family. Do you think someone took him?"

"No," I said certain about that. The idea that Jack might have been taken hadn't even crossed my mind, and it didn't seem likely even now. "No one took him."

"Then where . . . ."

I wrapped her in a hug. "Shhhhh. I'll find him." Doralice quietly cried into my shoulder for a minute and then took a deep breath and pulled back.

"He's just a little boy."

"I know, and I'll find him, but I need to know you'll be alright."

She stepped back and wiped her eyes. "I'm fine. Go on."

"You want me to see if Maude can come over?"

"No. Just find him. I'm fine."

I wasn't convinced she was fine, but she was far more composed than she'd been a few minutes ago so I figured she'd be alright alone. At least the girls were asleep. "Any ideas about where to look?" I asked her as we walked back through the house.

"No. We haven't gone many places besides some of the stores and he can't be there. Why would he leave?"

"I don't know," I replied tugging my boots back on. "But we'll find out. I'll be back soon."

Doralice followed me to the door and gave me a hug. "Please find him, Bart. He's so little and he doesn't know anyone."

I kissed her forehead before turning her loose. "I will. Just stay here in case he comes back."

Stepping outside I tried to get my thoughts in order. I decided to look around the yard first, just to make sure he hadn't found a hiding place. I wasn't expecting to find anything, but I had to start eliminating some possibilities.

It didn't take me long to cover the area around the house and, as expected, I found no trace of Jack, so it was on to somewhere else. The problem was I had no idea what was going on in Jack's head or where to start looking for him. As Doralice said, Jack really didn't know anyone outside of the family. He'd been to the doctor's office and a couple of the stores with her, but that was it. None of those places were open now anyway. I thought about what I did know. Jack hadn't been gone more than a couple of hours so he couldn't have gotten too far. He also hadn't packed anything as far as I could tell. Either he hadn't planned on running away for long, or he wasn't thinking and just hadn't taken anything. How logically did six-year-old boys think?

I sighed and looked around wondering what I needed to do. Little Bend isn't a huge town, but when you're looking for a little boy, it's big enough. Did I just start looking in random places and hope I got lucky? Did I tell the sheriff? I hated to get him involved if Jack was just hiding somewhere but was looking by myself reasonable? It was then I remembered big brother. It had been less than an hour since he'd started home, if I hurried, I could probably catch him before he got there.

I ran to the barn and got Blue saddled as fast as I could. I then pointed her in the direction of Uncle Ben's and urged her into a lope, praying Bret had decided to take the ride home nice and easy today. For several minutes I rode Blue at the ground eating lope and about a half a mile from Ben's place I saw my brother. "Bret!" I called.

Bret stopped and turned his horse. I could see the worry on his face when I slid Blue to a stop beside him.

"Jack's gone," I explained before he could ask.

"What do you mean gone?"

"I mean gone. He was in bed a couple of hours ago and now he's not. We've looked around the house and he's not there."

Bret nodded and started his horse back in the direction of town. "Where's Doralice?"
"At home. And she's havin' a fit."

"I bet. Any idea of where to start lookin'?"

"I was hoping you might be able to help with that," I told him. "Cooler heads and all that."

Bret sort of chuckled. "All right, let's see what we can do."

XXXXXXX

It was nearly two hours later when I started thinking I might not find Jack. We still hadn't seen any sign of him, and the anxiety I'd felt earlier was worse than ever. Bret and I had talked things over and decided if Jack had intended to run away, and it seemed he had, he probably wasn't in town. Somewhere on the outskirts was more likely and Bret suggested we work our way back towards town searching as we went. If we didn't find him by the time we made it back, we could go see Dave about getting more people involved. That was better than anything my weary brain had come up with so that's what we did, and we'd gotten nowhere.

"I'm open to any more ideas," I told Bret after searching through another section of trees and brush yielded us no results.

"I guess we need to go talk to Dave."

I nodded wondering why that felt like a defeat. It wasn't a reasonable way to feel; Dave's a friend and that is his job, but for some reason, going to tell him I had a missing child was like telling him I was incompetent. "Yeah, guess we better get it over with," I mumbled turning Blue back towards town.

"Get it over with?" Bret gave me a smirk. "You're not confessing to a crime."

I gave him a halfhearted smile in return. Maybe not, but that's sort of what it felt like. I'd told Doralice I would find Jack, I hadn't. I told Jim I would look after his son, I'd lost him. I told Jack he'd be safe with us, for all I knew he wasn't. In addition to that, he hadn't felt comfortable enough to stay there to begin with. Maybe I hadn't committed a crime, but I was feeling like I'd failed an awful lot of people lately and that's never a pleasant thing to face up to.

Bret reached out and grabbed my arm. "We're gonna find him, Bart."

"Before or after he gets hurt?" I snapped. "Or worse." Bret's expression immediately became one of concern. "I'm sorry," I added before he could say anything. "That wasn't called for."

"It just wasn't quite like you. I understand you being worried but you don't usually get this worked up."

"I'm supposed to be watching someone's child, Bret, and I lost him."

"You didn't lose him; he ran away."

"Which is even worse because for some reason he no longer wanted to be there. I'm pretty sure when Jim turns back up he's expecting his son to be here. If he turns back up."

"You really think he won't, don't you?"

"I don't know. I don't want to, but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get back. Doesn't really seem like he cares at all."

Bret started to say something then stopped. After a minute he finally spoke. "Let's find Jack, then we can worry about Dandy."

We rode on for another four or five minutes when Bret suddenly stopped and looked back behind him. "What?" I asked.

"I just had a thought," he said a slow grin coming to his face. "Come on." Turning his gelding, he started off to the west.

"Where are you going?" I asked once I caught up.

"The river."

"The river? Why?"

"Because I just thought of something I should've thought of earlier. Where did you like to go to think?"

"But Jack's never been to the river. I don't think. He's hardly been out of town."

"Maybe not, but it runs close to town in a couple of spots; it wouldn't be hard for a boy to find. I just got a feeling."

I wasn't sure that reasoning made a lick of sense but I guess it was as good as anything.

It didn't take us long to run into the river then we started following it back to town. "I don't know why we didn't think of this before," Bret said as we rode along carefully scanning the area around him.

"Could it be lack of sleep?" I suggested.

"Maybe so." Bret stopped and lightly hit my arm before pointing off ahead of him. "Does that young man look familiar?"

I followed Bret's finger and saw Jack sitting on the river bank, arms wrapped around his knees. The horrible knot that had settled in my gut earlier this morning loosened some and I urged Blue into a trot. Jack looked up as we approached and stood up when I dismounted.

When I reached him I dropped to one knee and put my hands on his shoulders. "Are you all right? You're not hurt are you?"

Jack shook his head. "No."

It was amazing how much relief that simple word brought. Being able to see Jack, to hear him, proved he really was all right; I hadn't lost a child after all. Right on the heels of that relief came anger that Jack had just slipped off without so much as a word.

"What were you doing?" I demanded. "Do you have any idea how we've been running around looking for you? You nearly gave Doralice a heart attack when she found you missing. You don't just run off without telling someone where you're going. Especially not at night."

"Bart, let him go," Bret cut in.

My tirade interrupted, I really looked at Jack and found him staring at me, wide eyes filling with tears. I realized I was holding him tighter than I meant to as well. Feeling guilty I turned him loose but kept one hand on his shoulder. He took a step away from me, and that was a punch in the gut. If I thought the incident in the kitchen had been bad it was nothing compared to this. "You just can't do that, Jack," I told him softening my voice. "You scared a lot of people and put yourself in danger. What were you thinking?"

Jack's lip started to tremble as he jerked away from me. "Stop," he yelled, the tears that had been standing in his eyes finally falling. "You're not my daddy."

For some reason, that was even worse than the look he'd given me just a minute before. "I never said I was."

"Then stop tellin' me what to do."

"Jack."

"You don't even want me here," Jack broke in. "You don't care if I'm here or not."

"Jack, that's not true . . . . "

"Yes, it is. You only came to look for me because Doralice wanted you to. You don't care so just leave me alone." Jack whirled and ran down the riverbank.

"Jack." I jumped up to run after him, but Bret stopped me with a hand on the arm.

"I'll go," he said. "I don't think he'll listen to you right now."

I nodded stiffly acknowledging Bret was probably right. I watched my brother run after the boy I was supposed to be looking after, feeling a little sick. Wearily I sank down beside the river wondering if some time out here would offer answers the way it had when I was younger.