- 3 -

In the evening, Little Joe came home with a string of fish in his hand. He had gone to the lake with Mitch after school and ran into Adam when he entered the house.

"Hi, big brother, I got dinner!" He held up the fish and Adam gave him an appreciative look.

"Looking good."

"I'll take them to Hop Sing. Is Pa home?"

"No, he's still in town." Adam bit his tongue. He was about to tell Joe why he went but remembered Ben's instruction not to tell him before he had tangible evidence against Carl.

The house smelled like fried trout when Ben entered and found his sons gathered around the fireplace, Joe and Hoss playing cards and Adam reading.

"Hi boys, sorry for taking so long, Buck had a bruise and I had to ride real slow. How mad is Hop Sing?"

"You arrived just in time before he could get mad. He only started cooking ten minutes ago.", said Hoss.

"Good." Ben let himself fall in his red leather chair.

"How did it go?", asked Adam.

"Well, I pressed charges against Carl and at the moment it doesn't look good for him."

Joe quickly spun his head towards his father. "What did he do?"

"It is very likely that he's responsible for the fire yesterday. He wanted to get back at me for firing him. But don't worry, he can't do any more harm. He's put away safely in one of Roy's cells."

Joe felt like someone had just pulled the floor out from under him. All his blood rushed in his head and his throat felt as dry as the desert.

"Pa..." Joe swallowed. "Are you sure it was him?"

"He was there, Stuart saw him and he doesn't deny it, said he picked up two liquor bottles that he forgot. He had a motive and he is the only suspect."

"But I saw him coming out of the bunk house. He ain't lying.", stammered Joe.

"Oh... why didn't you tell me?", frowned Ben.

"I'm sorry... I didn't think it was important so I forgot. It was long before the fire." Joe used all his strength to prevent his voice from breaking.

"A fire can take a long time to spread. That doesn't exonerate him." Ben stood up. "Let's go to the table, smells like dinner is gonna be ready any minute."

Everybody except Joe stood up. He seemed to be glued to the coffee table, where he always sat when he played a game against Hoss.

"You coming, short shanks?", smiled Hoss. He figured that Joe was feeling sorry for Carl, since he had always been nice to him.

Joe was ripped out of his daze. "Yeah." He forced himself to stand up and walked to his chair.

After eating a few bites, Joe looked around the table. He knew he had to tell the truth in order to get Carl out of jail. As he tried to think of the right words, images started to rush through his mind. Adam pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head, Hoss looking at him in disbelief, Hop Sing despising him and his Pa being more disappointed in him than ever before. He would have to fess up to the sheriff and apologize to Carl, who would be furious as soon as he laid eyes on him. On top of that, the evening would likely end with him getting the worst tanning of his life.

Little Joe's stomach was suddenly turning. "Can I be excused?", he asked sheepishly.

"You only had one tiny fish.", remarked Hoss.

"I had some of Mitch's biscuits at the lake, so I ain't very hungry... and I have some homework to do."

"Sure, Joe. You're excused.", said Ben.

He stood up and slowly walked up the stairs to his room and sat down at his desk where he could look out the window and wished for wings that would carry him out into the woods. Joe put his head in his hands and started pondering. Carl was innocent; therefore, he would not be sentenced. Adam always said that a functioning justice system is one of the most important things in a civilized society. On the other hand, he had heard his father saying that the courts aren't perfect. He could ask Adam or Hoss to take him to town and confess to Roy, so that he would let Carl go. If he offered to do chores for him he could maybe convince him not to tell his family. But then Roy would have to lie to his father about why Carl got out of jail and he would never do that. He could write an unsigned note. But who would believe such a note? Joe lied down on his bed and as he looked at the ceiling he realized that there was no way to avoid it. He had to tell the truth in the morning. He closed his eyes and went to sleep within a minute.

Joe didn't sleep well and woke up several times, dreams about being locked up in a windowless room haunting him. At dawn he had dozed off again and hadn't heard his Hoss calling him for breakfast. He woke with a start when his brother suddenly entered his room.

"Joe, wake up... you'll be late for school. You got 15 minutes before you hav'ta leave."

He wiped his face. "Coming." When Joe sprinkled water on his face he remembered that he had a confession to make and took a deep breath. He quickly put on his clothes and slowly walked to the staircase.

He stopped as he heard Ben talking in a tensed voice. "Hoss what do you mean we have to go into town again?"

"Well, I forgot to order the wires for the fencing." Hoss said meekly.

Ben pursed his lips. "You forgot to order it, which means we might have to wait another week for the delivery?!"

"Sorry, Pa, won't happen again."

"I'll go into town right away and take care of it." Ben shook his head and walked to the door to put on his gun belt.

Joe forced himself to walk downstairs and was met by Ben's angry eyes. "Little Joe, I'm glad to see you finally made it."

"Sorry, I didn't sleep so well... but I'll make it to school on time."

Ben tightened his belt and didn't look up. "Alright, see you in the afternoon."

"Bye, Pa.", said Hoss and Adam mumbled something with his mouth full.

Joe chest tightened. He opened his mouth to tell his father that he wanted to tell him something but no sound came out. Before he could try again, Ben was out of the door and Joe wasn't sure whether he was relieved or angry at himself. He grabbed a quick breakfast and rode off to school. On the way Joe was hit by a thought. What if he had committed a crime by playing with the magnifier and being reckless about the embers? He tried to push it away but when Ms. Jones focused her attention on the smaller children, Joe decided to ask his friend who sat next to him. "Hey, Mitch, what do you think, how long do you have to go to jail if you set something on fire?"

Mitch gave his friend a surprised look. "Why you wanna know that?"

"Well, one of our hands might have set something on fire...", he whispered.

"Joseph, I thought you had a reading assignment, but obviously you have something more important to talk about. Would you please tell us what you consider so important?"

"It... it was nothing.", stammered Joe.

"Obviously it was not nothing. Tell us."

"Well, I was just wondering how bad a crime it was and how long one would go to jail if someone set something on fire."

Ms. Jones frowned. "Arson is a very serious crime, Joseph, because whoever commits it, is endangering not only property but human lives. Besides, fire might become an uncontrollable force and could destroy entire tracts of land and kill hundreds of people and animals and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Therefore, one might face a prison term of at least ten to twenty years, even if nobody dies. Does that answer your question?"

Joe felt like a rock slide plummeting over him. "Yes, ma'am... thanks.", he said meekly.

"Good. Now back to your history assignment."

Mitch shrugged his shoulders and Joe bowed down his head and started reading, without giving the text's content much thought. Joe remembered that children would not be sent to prison, then he recalled what had happened to one of his classmate's brother and his body suddenly turned cold and numb. For the first time he didn't want school to end because he feared going home.

In the afternoon, Joe slowly rode into the yard and saw Adam fumbling in the charred remains of the tool shed.

"Hey Joe, help me with this mess.", said Adam. Joe nodded, dismounted and led his horse into the barn.

"Well, better half a pick axe than none." Adam held up the metal part of the tool, the handle had been lost in the fire. Then he put it on a pile that he had set up to collect the things that could be re-used or repaired.

Joe kneeled down next to him and stared at the black pile in front of him without moving a muscle.

Adam did was not used to his brother being so quiet, so he turned to him and saw that he was as pale as the wall. "Are you sick, Joe?"

He didn't answer, but Adam saw that he was holding back tears. He sat down next to him and slapped his shoulder gently. "What's wrong? Tell me."

Joe shook his head and closed his eyes. "Adam, I don't wanna go to no reform school. But if'n I tell Pa what I done, he'll think he failed and send me away, like it happened with Billy's brother." Joe wiped his eyes. "But then I gotta tell because if'n I don't, it'll be even worse."

Adam remembered that an older brother of one of Joe's classmates was sent away to a special home for boys because his parents had feared that he was on the straight path to become a criminal if they didn't take countermeasures.

To his surprise, Adam smirked. "You couldn't do anything that would result in Pa sending you away... maybe if you started a war. Have you started a war, Joe? With Canada, maybe? Better tell me now before I find out otherwise." Adam tried to lighten up the mood and was glad to see a tired smile on his brother's face.

"No... but it's almost as bad."

Adam expected to hear what had happened but Joe just scrutinized the ground. "Come on... out with it." He became a little nervous about what he was about to hear.

Suddenly Joe pointed at what was left of the tool shed. "That was me."

"What?!"

"I went to Pa's desk and fooled around with the magnifying glass while you were in Carson, then I didn't put out the embers like I should have and while I helped Hop Sing the fire spread... then I lied Pa in the face and because of me Carl is in jail and is likely to get twenty years. So, I get to choose between Pa never wanting to speak to me again or sending me away or someone who didn't do nothing gets jailed because of me." Joe buried his face in his hands trying to muffle the sniffles.

Adam's eyes had grown wide as he heard his brother's confession and he started tugging his ear as he always did when something was troubling him.

"Joe..." Adam pulled Joe's hand away from his face so he could look at him. "Yes, what you did was bad... but still, it is nothing that Pa wouldn't forgive you and he would never send you away." He saw in his face that he wasn't convinced. "You know that what you manufacture in your brain is always ten times worse than reality, and I figure you've been ruminating about this mess for two days now."

Joe nodded. He felt relieved that he had finally told someone, however feared what was still ahead of him.

Adam paused to think for a moment before he spoke again. "When I was about your age I had a friend in school and we would get into all kind of trouble together. Once I told Pa that I had to help him with some arithmetic and that's why I had to stay overnight at his home in town. Then we snuck out and went to see a... uhm... rather improper show at the saloon."

Joe's eyes grew wide. "What happened?"

"Well, the sheriff also attended the show, discovered our two-bit hiding place behind a plant and brought me home. You can guess what happened then..."

Joe raised his eyebrows. "I sure can."

"The point is that Pa forgave me and we quickly went back to the way we were... and the next day I was even able to sit in the saddle again and on top of that I provided enough firewood for the next two winters. But I wasn't put in a home for wayward boys." Adam smirked and Joe took a deep breath.

Then he took him by the upper arm and stood him up. "Should I talk to Pa before you do?"

Joe scrunched up his face. "Yes... but don't tell him exactly what I did. I want to confess it myself. Maybe he'll be less mad that way."

"Alright. Wait here." Adam slapped his shoulder and headed to the house.

"Thanks.", whispered Joe and ran his hand through his hair.

Thanks for your comments :)