Man of Justice

Epilogue

Jarrod's reply was so soft they almost didn't hear it. "I don't know how."

Heath's small lopsided grin appeared on his face as he spoke one small sentence. "Let your family help you."

By the time they rode into *Paradise, all of the Barkleys were more than ready to get off their horses, though Jarrod didn't move off his saddle until Nick reached up, tapped his arm and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Time got get down, Pappy." Jarrod sent a slight, somewhat irritated, smile his brother's way. He was still not in love with that term, but never argued with his brothers using it either. He grabbed a hold of the horn of his saddle and dismounted.

Jarrod looked around. Paradise was still a small, quiet town, though he dared say it had one or two more occupants than it had back in 1858. A melochany feeling swept over him; it had been so many years and so many memories came flooding back to him. He still remembered the first day he'd actually come to town With Straight Arrow. He was speaking Shoshone quite well. Looking back at it, Jarrod was amazed he hadn't walked up to one of the men or women and simply told them the truth and asked them to send word to his family. Then again, he sighed, he was thinking of himself as Shoshone by that time.

Seeing his brother tense up for a quick second, Heath asked, "You okay, Jarrod?" He hoped it had not been a mistake in bringing his brother back to this place, even if their mother had suggested it as a way for her oldest to get some closure.

Jarrod's only answer was to head for the small boarding house that he saw at the end of town. After checking in and getting rooms for themselves, the Barkleys remounted their horses and rode silently out to Feather River. Other than one or two frames of former wigwams, **very few signs of the village existed anymore.

Once or twice, one of the Barkleys would make a comment or ask question, but for the most part no one talked. They seemed to know that the oldest Barkley son simply needed them to be with him as he walked around in the area that he had once called home. Jarrod found and walked the trail his mind and heart had never been able to forget, his family continued to follow behind him. What else was there to do? There was nothing to be done, but be there for him.

When Jarrod froze in his tracks and stared at the shell of a small wigwam with a mixture of relief and pain, they all took a wild guess, but it was Nick who voiced it. "Is that where you lived when you came here or where you and Bright Star lived?" It still boggled this brother's mind that Jarrod had been married at the mere age of fifteen.

Jarrod didn't answer at first; he simply let one memory after another race through his mind. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity turned his head so he could see his family, "It belonged to my Shoshone Father. The wigwam that was built for Bright Star and me was set over in that area." He pointed off to his left and then started walking in that direction only stopping when he felt as if someone had reached out and taken a hold of him. In a way he couldn't explain, Jarrod knew at the moment Bright Stars was standing beside him doing what she could to help him put things behind him for good.

"It's beautiful here." Audra spoke up. She'd loved what she saw the moment they reached the area, but had been afraid of saying anything out of fear she would initiate sad memories and upset her brother.

"It was my home," Jarrod turned around and looked at his family, "but, looking back on it, I never really enjoyed the beauty of this place as much as I might have because I wasn't with my real family. It was a fact at the time I suppose out of necessity I pushed to the back of my mind." He looked at Nick with remorse in his eyes, "I never meant for any of you to get hurt. I especially never meant to make a small child feel like he wasn't being listened to." That fact had also haunted him for years, the fact that Nick had tried so hard to get everyone to listen to him only to be ignored.

Nick felt a lump in his throat and swallowed hard as he again embraced his brother. "Told you none of this was your fault, never will be. Just," he pulled back and looked Jarrod straight in the eye, "don't get any ideas about inviting Jacob back onto the ranch. I meant what I said, I'll work on forgiving him because of his refusal to leave prison early, but I don't want him on our land!" He received no protest as Jarrod began leading them from one place to another telling them everything he could remember. He told them of the hunting trips with his friends and Shoshone father, and then his father-in-law. He also spoke of the games, along with the dances around the large communal fires. The friendships he'd made and the respect he had for the Shoshone people and the respect he'd earned from them were also on the list of things he talked about. The whole time Jarrod spoke, he could feel his late wife by his side encouraging him when he would choke up and want to quit talking.

When he finished speaking there was a reverent silence until Victoria broke it. "If I had to lose my son for a time," she said as she laid her hand against his upper arm, "I am grateful you were watched over by such a good man and good people." From other stories she'd heard over the years, she knew the story could have been just the opposite. By the time Jarrod and his family left the area he could have sworn he heard Bright Stars say "Go in peace, Man of Justice". For the first time in years a genuine smile spread across Jarrod's face. Life was good and he was fine.

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*Author's note: I have been unable to find out exactly when the town Pair of Dice changed its name to Paradise. That being the case, for the sake of the story, by the time the 1870's roll around the name has been changed. **By the 1870's all the Shoshone were on reservations; that is, from what I could tell from all the research I did they were.