Left

(Being as I can't log on to the Forum, this is my little submission for the prompt "Left").

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Kid Curry sat in a chair he had long ago crafted from logs of wood. Today, nearly thirty years after its construction, the chair sat on the roofless porch of a small log cabin located high in the foothills of southern California. The cabin had once been owned by Soapy Saunders, a friend considered old when Kid and Heyes were seeking their amnesty. But now, at the age of eighty, Kid was thirteen years older than their trusted friend when he had died, leaving Kid and Heyes the cabin as a place of refuge during those turbulent post-outlaw years.

Kid sat with a half-spent cigar protruding from the corner of his mouth and a shot of whiskey in his right hand and gazed almost yearningly down the steep canyon that ended at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. It was late in the day and a vibrant red sun was slowly disappearing beneath the horizon. The view was peaceful and brought him a sense of being close to nature. It offered an almost spiritual sense of contentment, and a tranquility he had seldom known throughout his life.

Kid was alone now; his partner having succumbed to a bout of the grippe nearly three years prior. He had left this world right here at this cabin, and Kid had crafted the wooden casket and dug the grave with his own hands. He had cleansed and dressed his partner in his brown suit and had meticulously placed the black hat with the hole in the tip of the hat on his partner's head just as Heyes had worn it most of his life. He had spent well over a month carefully chiseling his partner's name and the years 1853-1929 on a flat rock he had pried out of the ground. When he had finished his final tribute to the only person he had ever considered his family, he placed the stone so that both the stone and the head of the grave faced the panoramic view that Kid himself now gazed upon.

Kid had always been the quieter of the two outlaws, the reflective contrast to Heyes'out-going exuberance. Heyes had always thrived on the presence of an audience, even one as small as the participants of a poker game. But Kid had always been a bit more subdued and hard to read. An old man once told him he must have invented the poker face, and countless others had thought the same. But Heyes had always been able to read his every thought and every emotion and Kid trusted that this connection extended into whatever lay beyond the here and now. So, it was not unusual for Kid to engage in a silent conversation with this man whose body was entombed just yards beyond the place where Kid now sat.

"Wish you could see this sunset Heyes. Don't think I've ever seen the sun so red and the sky with so many yellow and purple swirls fillin' the space between the water and the clouds. It looks like someone took all the hearts and diamonds and spread em all out and spilled a bottle of fine dark wine all over the deck, so all the colors just spread out and blended into each other. S'pect it'll likely be a fine day tomorrow."

Kid fell silent for some time as he polished off the whiskey remaining in his glass and reached for the bottle to pour another drink.

"A few things I've been meaning to talk to you about. I suppose now's as good a time as any. I suppose you know I'll be joining you one day soon. I ain't never thought much about it before but something inside you just lets you know when your time is winding down. Ain't no point in diggin' a hole, being as there's no one here to lay me in it. So, I was thinkin' that iffin you don't mind, I'll just etch my name into the stone I laid for you."

Kid finished off the contents of his second glass but instead of filling it a third time, he set the glass down on the floor and picked up the bottle of whiskey and took a long, slow drink.

"I'm glad you agree to my plan. It just seems fittin' being as we're partners…. I've got one more thing to talk to you about. It's the only thing left to settle and it shouldda been done before you passed. It's been gnawing at me for some time, and I suspect you know what I'm gonna say cause you always did seem to know what was on my mind, sometimes even before I knew it myself."

The sunset had now long since surrendered to the darkness of the night and a chilly wind blew in from the ocean, but Kid was oblivious to it all. Though fully sober, he took another drink of the whiskey to steel his nerves.

"I don't know as I ever told you that I know you carried a heavy burden most of our lives. You looked after me when I couldn't. You did that when I was small, and you did that after I was all growed. You never left my side, and even now I know you're hearing what I'm tellin' you. I know in my heart you ain't never left, and I know you never will. I do wish we'd talked about this before you passed. Maybe I couldda eased some of that burden. Knowin' you, you wouldda listen to everything I wouldda said but…"

Kid paused and a knowing smile crossed his face.

"You wouldda listened, but I doubt you wouldda changed your ways. You always done things the way you wanted em done. You always lived the way you wanted to live. You might of taken pause to what I had to say, but in the end, you wouldda just gone on doing things according to your own plan. I can't fault you for that. I just wish… I just wish things couldda been different for you."

Kid set the bottle down on the floor and snubbed his cigar. Then he stood and walked to the edge of the porch and looked at the grave now illuminated by the light of the moon.

"I wish things couldda been different," he repeated.

He then stepped off the porch and walked to the grave.

"I can hear you right now as plain as day. You're telling me there's nothin' you wouldda changed. You're probably right, Heyes. But there's things I wouldda changed if I knew then what I know now. I wouldda told you to go easy on yourself. Most of all, I wouldda had this talk…"

Kid paused and choked back the guilt that had settled in his gut.

"I wouldda had this talk before you left."

In the still darkness of the night, with the moon glimmering off the distant water, and the stars emerging like tiny diamonds in the now black sky, a chilly breeze began to blow in off the water. Kid raised the bottle above his head to use the moonshine to judge the level of whiskey that remained. He then brought the lip of the bottle to his mouth and took a long, slow drink to empty the contents from the bottle. When he was done, he dropped his hand and let the empty bottle dangle in his hand as he rested his free hand on the marked stone.

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust I think is how that saying goes. You'd know better than me with all the book readin' you done. You know, I can't say I'm eager to part this world, but if there is a hereafter, it'll be good to be partners again. I do miss that, and I'm glad you're here for these talks. I don't know how you manage it, but I can hear you just like you was standing right here beside me."

Kid patted the top of the marker and an amused smile spread across his face.

"I hafta say Heyes, I'm thankful that you never really left."