nineteen

She spent the next hour sitting at the kitchen table with Matt. She brought out the writing tablets and lead pencils she'd purchased at the Emporium, along with the big picture Alphabet book, and began showing him how to form letters and numbers. His first attempts were not very good, for he gripped the pencil too hard and broke the lead. She pried his fingers loose and showed him again how to hold the writing utensil. The second efforts were better.

Lilly stood in the doorway watching them, giving Kitty an uneasy feeling. Her suspicions of Lilly were forming a solid base, but she needed a little more data before drawing a final conclusion. "Sit at the table next to Matt." Kitty offered, "We'll play school."

"School? I ain't never gone but a week, when I was nine. Weren't there long anuff to get teached nuthin'."

"Well, sit down then, this may be your big chance." She handed Lilly a tablet and a lead pencil of her own. They went from A to Z, printing each in large capitol letters. Lilly's results were no better than Matt's worst effort, but Kitty had a sense that the woman was working at appearing inept. Dillon on the other hand was making steady improvement. Indeed, as he progressed through the alphabet his penmanship became more confident, even bolder. After the rocky start, he hardly needed more than gentle guidance.

Sitting there, Lilly gave a quick side-glance at Matt's paper and then spoke, "Miss Kitty, I always fancied to write my name proper like."

"I'd be glad to show you " at the top of a clean page, Kitty wrote out Lilly's name. "What's your last name?" she asked.

"Ain't got one leastwise, not one I remembers."

Kitty looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "We'll work on a last name later, for now, Just copy what I wrote. Do a whole page of your name."

He'd been watching and now he made a similar request. Pointing to his paper he said, "Me do it, Matt do it."

By the end of the lesson, both Matt and Lilly could copy Kitty's lettering. Even after Lilly had left the kitchen to tidy up her sleeping area, Matt continued to practice his name; with each attempt his penmanship came closer to the handwriting she was familiar with. She moved to stand next to him watching over his efforts. "Very good."She praised.

He took a second sheet of paper from his writing tablet. "Matt …" he said. "Matt Dil-lon." As she watched he formed with painstaking care the letters of his last name, which she hadn't shown him how to write."D-i-l-l-o-n," he said again, "Matt Dillon."

Kitty swallowed hard, for as pleased and surprised as she was by the effort, and verification that his mind was returning, it was also hard evidence that could be used by both Wilcox or Barger should the paper come in to their hands. She took a deep breath to balance herself,"Good work, Why don't you pick out a book for us to read on the sunporch." He nodded and left the room, when he was gone, she took the paper, on which was written his full name, crumbled it to a ball and tossed it into the stove.

By mid-day the rain had stopped and the sun had broken through the clouds. "Let's go for a walk." She suggested. Her objective was two-fold, for she realized the need to build up Matt's stamina, but she also felt the necessity to get away from Lilly's watchful eye.

He jumped eagerly to his feet, "Wall-k." He said, "I walk." And he took three great steps forward, spun around and took three giant steps back before he sat down again.

"Yes, you walk, but I meant let's walk outside."

His face brightened, "Fish?" he asked.

"No fish, we'll just walk … and talk."

"Taww-k, I tawww-k."

"Yes, you talk." His feet were bare. "You need your shoes." She said.

"No."

"Yes. Put them on!"

"No."

He was trying her patience with this shoe issue, but she suspected his autonomous stand a healthy sign. She made a bargain, or a bribe, depending on how you looked at it. "You put your shoes on for our walk, and we'll go fishing later."

He frowned, and gave a reluctant nod of his head, "Shoes." He said unenthusiastically.

Twenty minutes later they were walking up the road toward the heart of town. The first block he had taken exaggerated steps as he attempted to get used to the constraints of shoe leather. "Shoes." He grumbled."Bad shoes. Need boots."

"Boots?" she couldn't remember ever saying the word to him. "Why boots?"

"I like boots."

"You wear the shoes for now, and I promise, someday we'll get you apair of boots."

"Someday. Someday boots."

The road wasn't busy, just an occasional passing buggy or wagon. She saw Matt was showing interest in their surroundings and she made comments of all they observed. She talked about the houses and children outside playing; she talked about mothers in the kitchen and fathers at work.

"Work?" he asked.

"Jobs to make money, so they can pay for things. Shopkeepers, doctors, farmers, ranchers … " She rattled off a list of occupations, knowing he wasn't understanding half of what she was telling him.

"Doc - tors?" He repeated the word, putting emphasis on the first syllable. "Doc." He said again, forgetting the last half of the word. She had an urge to stop him in his tracks and shake the memories from him, for she could see they were close to the surface now, but she held back. Once they were free from this place, once she had convinced Wilcox, Matt could be of no help to him, then she would talk to him about everything.

After a while, they walked in silence. She thinking about the best of times, when Matt was strong of mind and body, and wondering if they would ever see them again. Unconsciously, she had picked up the pace, and in his weakened state Matt had difficulty keeping up with her.

"Home." he said a little breathlessly, "Home. Go home."

"Are you getting tired?" she asked.

"Tired, go home."

"All right." And they turned around and started back.

They had walked twenty paces when he spoke again, "Dodge." He said.

"What?" she asked, and this time she did stop in her tracks. She grabbed his arm and gave it a little shake. "What did you say?""Home … Dodge … Matt and Kitty, go home to Dodge."

"Dodge?"

He smiled and it was plain he was seeing something in his memories eye. He nodded his head and his grin grew wider. "Matt and Kitty, go home to Doc. Go home to Dodge."