Epilogue – Bret Maverick
I'd been sittin' in Simon Petry's front room for several hours now, waiting to see what kind of magic he could provide as a skilled surgeon. I'm Bret Maverick, Bart's older brother, and I wasn't sittin' there by myself. Bart's fiancé, Doralice Donovan, was here with me the whole time. Her mother, Maude de la Torres, and Maude's husband, Cristian de La Torres, had been here most of that time, too. Finally Maude couldn't stay here anymore; her nerves wouldn't take it and she had a saloon to run, and Cristian took her back there, with every intention of doing what was necessary to keep Maude in one piece.
Doralice was calm now . . . she hadn't been when we first carried Bart in here. They were within days of gettin' married, and Bart had stepped in front of her to save her when some unknown cowboy tried to hold the place up, panicked and took a shot at her. She wasn't hysterical, but she was crying pretty hard and just kept mumbling something that sounded like "My hero, my hero."
I would have worried about the cowboy gettin' away, but I'd taken a shot from the doorway of Maude's office and was lucky enough to hit him. What was left of him was Sheriff Dave Parker's problem; Bart was mine. Doctor Simon Petry was still in his office, and we got Bart there as fast as we could. He'd been hit in the right side of the chest, and from the way his breathin' sounded the bullet must have caught a lung. He never opened his eyes, even when we slid him onto the exam table, and Simon ran us all out of the room. The girl and me had been sittin' out here ever since.
"Bret," she finally murmured softly, "tell me he's gonna live."
"He's gonna live," I replied; I didn't know if it was a lie or not. I'd seen him hurt worse than this, but he was a little older now, and I had no idea what kind of damage the bullet had done to his lung.
"He has to. I can't . . . I can't live without him."
I reached over and took her hands in mine – they were as cold as ice. "This happened more than once when we were younger, and he always pulled through, Doralice. He ain't gonna quit on us now."
We sat in silence for another thirty minutes or so before the door to the exam room opened, and Simon emerged. His hands and arms were clean, but his shirt was full of blood. My brother's blood. I stood up, tryin' to read the look on Simon's face, then Doralice did the same. When Simon finally spoke he sounded beyond weary. "He's gonna make it," was the first thing he said, and the girl fell into my arms. "It ain't gonna be easy, that bullet did some serious damage. It could take quite a while before he's strong enough for you two to get married. But he'll live."
Doralice kissed me, then she kissed Simon before she collapsed back into her chair. Simon offered his hand and I ignored it; we'd been at some odds over the woman that was now his wife a few years ago. A handshake wasn't enough, and I wrapped him in my arms and murmured in his ear, "Thanks, Simon."
"You're welcome," he replied, then I let go and he turned to Doralice. "There's no sense staying here, he'll be out until way past morning. Why don't you go home and get some sleep? I'll be here with him."
Doralice nodded and I helped her out of the chair. "I'm takin' you back to the house, then I'll go tell Maude."
"Is it after four?" she asked, and I nodded. "She's closed up by now. She probably went to the house to wait. Just take me home, please."
It was a short walk, but it took some time to get there. The house had a light on inside and I could see Maude standin' at the window. She didn't wait for us to get inside, just flung the door open and stood framed in the doorway.
"He's gonna make it," I told her, and she threw her arms around me, then let go and enveloped her daughter.
"Thank God," she murmured, and we all trudged into the house to wait for morning.
The End
