Authors Notes:
This is the second book to the two-part series Good Boy.
In the first book Joe is returned after an extended stay at a neighbor's house but he came back different. We got to follow along with the family as they sought to discover what happened to their youngest. After much prodding, Joe would eventually open up to his kin about the abuse he suffered at the hands of their neighbor whose care Joe had been entrusted to, but the details remain foggy (at least to the reader). The story focused mainly on the after-effects of child abuse.
In this book we will be seeing it from Joe's point of view, what exactly happened to him while his family was away. How a change so significant could happen to what was once a happy, go-lucky kid; in such a short period of time.
Trigger Warning* This story deals in depth with the subject of child abuse. Reader discretion is advised. Rated* Teen for subject matter.
Disclaimer* I do not own these characters. All rights reserved to NBC and the creators of the television series Bonanza.
Chapter
Epoch Everlasting
Joe had lost track of how long he'd been here. He hadn't really considered that it was something that he should have been keeping track of from the beginning. He felt like it was right around a fortnight or so. As he laid there in bed with Scotty at his side, he stared out the window at the night sky, longing for home and wondering how much longer he would have to endure this nightmare. He tried to focus his mind to calculate the number of days it's been. He thought of the first few days. The days of bliss, where his biggest hardship was homesickness. Before the worst of it really began. Four days. Then there was the hole. Two days, maybe three. The days became a melding number of times in and out of the hole. Five days, two days, three days. They blended together and was impossible to recall with any real accuracy. If he thought of it as weeks rather than days, it was clearer and less work which he determined to be about two.
If that newspaper Tom was reading today was of any indication it told him, it was no sooner than August 12th. No sooner, but it had to have been after that by at least a couple of days. Tomlinson hadn't gone anywhere since he'd been out of the hole and nobody's been by to see them. So that means that the only chance Tom would have had to have gone anywhere to get that paper was when he was locked up and that was two days ago. That meant that today was at least August 14th. Now if he arrived here July 28th then that means he's been here two and a half weeks. His heart jumped with elation. He was halfway through. He committed himself so that now he was going to start keeping track. With his thumbnail, just at the point the mattress hid the wall (the last thing Joe would need is for Paul to catch him vandalizing his house, he counted on by the time Paul ever would see it Joe would be long gone and in the safety of his family) he etched into the wall two dates; the date he believed he arrived and next to that, the date he determined to be today. A few spaces below that line he etched in one more date. After some scratching of the head, he came up with a date that he designated would be the day his family would be here to come get him. Now he knew not to put too much faith in this date. It could be a few days before this date or a few after. He would love it if it were a few days before but if he could make it to this day, then he knew he could make it a few days more. If this wasn't the exact day, this would at least give him a rough estimate of his time here and how much he's got left to go. Somehow having this etched for him to look at gave him some semblance of control over his own life. Something he could look ahead to, give him hope for a brighter future.
(In later years when he would look back on these times, he'd find that recalling those specific dates that he tried so desperately to keep track of became an elusive feat. The dates themselves had less significance than what had occurred, the significant events that rolled into each other within those times. Those memories would be much more difficult to forget.)
Now as he lies in bed, he thinks about how all this started. That was easy. He smarted off. Tomlinson got sick of him. He disappointed his pa. But how did it truly happen? It started the day his pa dropped him off. He was doomed to fail. But even before then. The drive. Hoss turning 16. His family needing a sitter. Tomlinson coming into their lives. The Fight. That's the moment it happened. That's the moment that would set them on this course to lead Joe to be where he is now. Everything else was inevitable, but if it weren't for that stupid fight.