Chapter Five
Previously:
Jarrod looked at the book in his hands. Once again,his eyes read the single word on its cover. Journal. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd been wrong about Bradley. Oh, not that he was doubting the fact that Bradley Hutchings was a good man only he had been single for more years than he'd been married. The minute Jarrod silently voiced the thought he was startled to have the strongest impression his original feelings were right, and that Bradley was not Badger's father. 'Middle' he frowned slightly and opened the book, hoping he wouldn't have to look to long in order to find the answers his newest client wanted Jarrod to find.
Jarrod stood in front of his office window; some of the papers that had been in the book Bradley had him read lay on Jarrod's desk. 'Take them; they will be prooffor this man you call Badger. He will need that, the proof that is.' Those had been Mrs. Hutchings words before he left, a feeling shared by her husband-as he'd struggled to say 'Yes' after his wife had spoken.
He could see Badger walking towards the office. Would the man be able to accept the answer to who had left him in the cabin? And..'why' held only more questions. And there wasn't any way to get the answers to those questions. As much as Jarrod would like to tell the man different there simply was no way to get any more information than what lay in the journal. Guess, whether or not Jarrod liked it, some answers simply stayed hidden. Only when he saw Badger open the outside door, and Esther had announced the man's presence, did Jarrod turn away from the window.
"I didn't expect for you to send for me so soon." Badger spoke only when Esther had shut the door.
"I didn't either." Jarrod sat down in the chair behind his desk. When Badger seated himself in a nearby chair, Jarrod confessed to having recognized the handwriting in the letter Badger had shown him. "I didn't say anything because I couldn't say for sure where I'd seen it. I figured half the battle would be won if I could remember." He picked up the papers Mrs. Hutchings had taken out of her husband's journal and given him. "I certainly never thought it's all it would take. Well, besides a trip to Abbotsville." He handed the pages to Badger. "A man by the name of Bradley Hutchings and his wife wanted you to have these, and; no, he's not your father."
"Who is he then? Why does he want me to have these?" Badger held the papers which he held in his hands up for a few seconds before lowering them once again.
"To prove what I'm about to tell you is true. Though, I'll say first I'm sorry that the answers to who left you at the cabin and why brought only more questions..ones no one can answer." He then started explaining that it was Bradley Hutchings who had put him in the Rowan cabin. "He'd been out hunting for about a week and came across you lying on a small blanket." Jarrod shook his head. "There was a letter in your jacket, along with the small book. The letter looked as if it had been soaked in water. Of course, he had no explanation for that one. Anyway, he had no way of knowing who had written the letter, and who they had originally meant to give you to. There was no one around, and he-as a single man-had no way to care for you. As you will see, he wrote he would have simply taken you to an orphanage only the nearest one was fifty miles away."
When he paused, Badger urged him to continue. "I need to know."
Jarrod nodded and began talking again. "Bradley knew about your mother's infertility. With the letter being so hard to read, he copied it word for word the best he could onto a piece of paper and took you to the Rowans.. He readily admits in the journal that the C and B were the only letters he could make out when it came to your name-even notes that he probably should have left them out only it was too late to leave them out once he'd already written them down." Jarrod leaned slightly forward. "I don't know if he read any of the book you brought with you. My guess is no, since he talks about the bad weather and the need to get you to the Rowans as fast as he could. Why he just left you without waiting to talk to your mother-and father since he thought he was alive- isn't something he wrote in the book and; before you ask, he couldn't tell me." He went on to explain the man's misfortune in having a stroke. He then told Badger of the conversation Jarrod and his Uncle Jim had had concerning the Barton family. "Your mother very well could have been one of their daughters-Bradley mentioned them, and mused he thought it was a possibility only he never wrote if he had actually confirmed it." Jarrod sigh. "As I said, I'm sorry this has left you with more questions that I fear will never be answered."
Badger sighed. "Guess life is like that more than we'd like to admit. At least you got the answers I wanted the most...who left me in Mama Rowan's cabin and why. And, if I'm to be honest, I'm glad that orphanage was so far away. I've seen those places; I was a hundred percent better off with Clara Rowan." He stood, shook Jarrod's hand and left. Hours later Victoria would find Jarrod standing in front of the fireplace.
"Things didn't go as you had hoped?" Victoria walked up to her oldest son.
"Not quite," Jarrod told her what he'd found out in Abbotsville, and what Badger had said afterwards. "He may be right only I don't like it. I almost feel like I wasted my time and let Badger down."
"No, no you didn't. You found the answers to the questions he wanted answered the most. Alright, faster than you thought you would only you did find out." She laid her hand on his arm. "Son, life is a riddle; there will always be questions and answers. We don't always get the answers to all the questions that come up. However, I think that, most of the time, we get the answers we really need… just like Badger did."
Jarrod couldn't help but smile and give his mother's hand a squeeze. "Do you have to be right all the time?"
Victoria laughed, and then 'whispered', "I'm not right all the time, but let's keep that one a secret."
Her words had them both laughing as they continued visiting for awhile longer.