From The Diary Of Jerrod Bently
J.W.Osborn’s


PORTERSVILLE

Copyright© February 14, 2010-JWO


The New Homestead


“Come on Victoria,” he said, “Lets go out for a ride. Been dying to drive the new team.”
“Doc. You are just like a child with a new toy.”, she said as she crossed the parlor and headed for the kitchen. “I am tired, and I have to bake those pies for the preacher’s wife.”
He stopped her at the open door way to the kitchen. “It’s Sunday, Vic,” he persisted “And if you are tired, you can rest in the buggy.” She slid her arms around his neck, and looked him straight in the eye. “You are a persistent man, Elliot Stevens,” she said.
“Yes I am,” he agreed. “Now get your coat and come on. There is something I want to show you.”
She smiled up at him, watching that lazy smile cross his face. He was such a handsome man, and she loved him so much. “Oh, all right,” she agreed. “How long will it take you to get the team hitched?”
“No time at all, Honey,” Doc replied slyly “I already did it. Now come on. Let’s go.”
“I ‘ll get my coat,” she replied. Back in Texas, on the day Jerrod and Sam Bently were married, Victoria had surprised her husband with news of the baby she was carrying. Now what was he up to? He’d been acting like he was keeping some big secret and was about to bust. She pulled her black wool coat over her shoulders and buttoned it. “I am ready, Doc,” she said. He offered her his arm. “Let’s go, Missus Stevens,” he drawled “Those greys are going to be a wonder to drive.”
Victoria laughed. “Hap said they were real high steppers.”
There in front of the cottage was a shining new buggy. It was black and silver with a leather hood over the top, a front and rear seat, both thickly padded and covered in black leather.
“Oh Doc!,” she cried “It is BEAUTIFUL! I love it!” Doc drew his wife close to his side. “I thought you would, Vic,” he said. “There is room in there for a whole family.” She rushed to the side of the beautiful new conveyance and ran her hand over the polished wood on the hand rail. “Where did you get it?”, she asked “It is new.”
“From your friend The Contessa,” Doc replied. Before Victoria could move, he scooped her up into his arms and deposited her on the front seat of the buggy. The seat was very comfortable for a lady who was nearly five months gone with child. Doc climbed up beside her and undid the reins from the hook. “Oh Doc,” his wife declared again “What a beautiful surprise. Thank you.” That famous cockeyed grin crossed his face. “Glad you like it, honey gal,” he said “But I ain’t done yet.”
“Why Doc Stevens!,” she declared “Whatever do you mean?”
“You’ll find out,” he said as he released the break and clucked to the matched team of tall grey geldings. With the jingle of harnesses and the crack of Doc’s whip, they were off at a brisk trot, passing by the church, onto the main street of Portersville and out of town. The ride was exhilarating for Victoria as she sat beside her husband, smiling and wondering just what it was that he was up to.
Upon reaching their destination, Sheriff Elliot Stevens helped his wife down from the buggy. “I tried missing all the ruts and bumps,” he said apologetically.
“What are you up to, Doc?,” Victoria asked suspiciously as she pulled her coat tighter around her as a cold breeze swept by. “This is The Double J and out there is Jake Titus’s back fields.”, she added as she took her husband’s arm.
“What do you see out there, Victoria?”, Doc asked as they walked toward the split rail fence at the edge of the lane. Victoria scanned the wide pastures before her. It was dotted with a dozen or more horses and a copper colored mule. “Jake’s horses and Molly,” she answered.
“No, Darlin’,” Doc replied with a crooked grin on his face.”There is more than that out there. Look again.”
He whistled loudly and out of the trees at the far edge of the field, his black stallion, Smokey Joe, appeared. The black whinnied his reply. Suddenly all the other horses took notice of him and prepared to run if he chose to. “That’s Joe! ,” Victoria declared, “What is HE doing out there with Jake’s mares? I just put him in his stall no more than a hour ago.”
Doc slid his arm around her. “And I snuck him out when you went into the house,” he drawled, “Joe is at home, Mrs. Stevens. This spread will no longer be known as the Double J , it is going to be called The Stevens Ranch,” he added “ A new home and a new life for us and that baby you are carrying.”
Tears of joy filled her brown eyes.” Oh Doc!,” she cried as she threw her arms around him, “When you said you had a surprise for me, I never dreamed it would be this! I thought it was just the buggy.”
Doc grinned. “I bought the place from Jake,” he said “We made the deal before we rode back to Texas with Sam and Jerrod. Seems that Mrs. Titus has made Jake a rich man with her stories of adventures out here in the West. Been kind of quiet since they moved back East. “
”I miss them,” Victoria replied “I have known them for years, Since Suzy was a baby.”
“She ain’t no baby now, honey,” Doc replied “Seems that there is going to be another baby in Portersville, come spring. Had a letter from Jake this morning.”
“Suzy and Hap are having a baby so soon ?”
“Yes,” Doc replied “and Jake is real happy about becoming a grand pappy. I sure do miss ole Jake. He’s a fine man.”
“He and J.W. will be back for a visit one day.”. Victoria said as she smoothed the front of her dress, and felt her baby move. It had been happening often lately and she smiled to herself. “It’s a girl,” she said in her thoughts,“ I just know it.”
”What about Molly?”, she asked as she turned her attention to the red mule grazing near the fence. “That mule is dangerous to anyone except Jake Titus. Even Kane Wolf has trouble with her. Is Jake planning to send for her?.”
“No,” Doc replied, a bit of humor in his voice. “I think I have the perfect buyer for that mule. Been thinking about it since yesterday.”
“Ah, Doc,” Victoria said “She is such a mean old critter. She always was. Who in the world would want her?”
“My old fried, the Reverend Zachariah Dodge,” Doc replied proudly. “And one day he will come to visit and I am going make sure that he doesn’t leave here without that miserable , stubborn, long eared critter.”
“I am well aware of Scrub Pot’s expertise with horses, Doc,” Victoria replied apprehensively. “But he is not a young man, and that mule is mean as ten rattle snakes.”
“That don’t matter.,” Doc replied “There isn’t a horse, mule, or mustang that old coot can’t tame.”
“And he may never speak to us again.,” Victoria added worriedly.
“Trust me, Darlin’,” Doc drawled,” I know Scrub Pot as well as any man and he will have that mule in a harness the very day he takes her off my hands.”
Victoria gave her husband a doubtful look. “I will have to see that myself,” she said.
“Come Spring, “Honey,” Doc promised “You probably will.” He took her hand, led her back to the buggy, and helped her up into the seat again. “Let’s go look at our new house, Vic,” He said as he climbed into the seat next to her and took up the reins of the team. “I walked through it this morning, and I can see just what I want to do to make it ours.” She took his hand and smiled at him. “When do we move in, Doc?”, she asked.
“Anytime you want, Vic,” he replied, then clucked to his team and they were off back toward town and home.

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MOVING DAY


Carpet bags, trunks, boxes and furniture were being taken from Victoria’s cottage in a steady parade through the front door and loaded into several wagons from former Double J Ranch. Doc had rounded up everyone he knew to help with the move to the new homestead and he was all ready gone with the first load of their household goods. It was moving day, for Doc and Victoria Stevens. The cottage held many memories for Victoria, not all of them good, but she chose to not think about the passed and the loss of her first husband, Jack and dreams that never had quite come true, until the day Elliot Stevens walked into her bake shop and changed her life. She looked around herself at the quaint two bedroom cottage that she had called home. How her life had changed and how it would change even more once she brought her baby into the world. It had been a bitter sweet medley of memories as she went through her belongings and prepared them for the move. A new life lay ahead of her with the man she loved and she welcomed it, but at the same time, letting go and selling the cottage to a new owner had not been as easy as she had thought, but the big house at ranch was a palace, and she had a lot of work to do making it home for herself, Doc and the baby.
.
Young Hap Johansen III and his wife, the former Suzy Titus were ready to take possession of the cottage and small barn that had been home to Victoria Stevens for the decade she had lived in Portersville.
Now Doc would never say it, but he was right proud of young Hap III. He’d turned out to be a fine deputy sherif and when he had finally been called to duty with the US Cavalry, he earned the rank of Sargent. He’d saved his pay while his fellow troopers drank and chased after women. Hap chose to stay faithful to his wife and stayed in the barracks dreaming of carrying her across the threshold of their own home. He ‘d gone to Doc and made an offer for the cottage once he’d heard the news that he’d bought the former Double J.

Victoria wore her hair up and tied a red bandanna around it to keep the dust off. She was busy packing up her belongings from the spare bedroom where Sam Dodge had stayed during her recovery after being hurt in a trail accident. Victoria smiled at the memory and how she had sworn Sam to secrecy about the baby. There was no keeping a secret now, as she was well on her way to motherhood. Suzy Johansen paused at the door, a stack of folded linens in her arms. “Doc said that you are to take it easy, Miss Victoria,’ she cautioned. “Hap is going to load the other wagon after lunch. Where do you want these table cloths?”
“You can put them in the trunk I left open in the parlor,” Victoria replied, pausing to rub the soreness out of her back. “Did Doc get the red davenport out the front door?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Suzy replied “He sure did, but it took him , Hap and Old Pede to do it.”
“Then the parlor is almost empty.”, Victoria replied as she resumed packing up the last of the small items from the bedroom. “I think you can start moving your furniture in if you want to, Sue,” she said as she stooped down to pull open the bottom drawer of the nearly empty dresser. “Hap is over at the Double J, I mean, The Stevens’ Ranch,” Suzy answered “He is loading up our stuff and helping Doc unload yours. May be we will get to spend our first night in our new home.”
“I know I am going to be spending it in mine,!” Victoria declared with a smile on her face. “I told Doc to set up the bed first thing when he got over there. I am going to be one tired lady when we get this job done.”
Suzy giggled “I think Hap and I will probably just sleep on the floor.” At that she walked away to continue packing. Victoria pulled the lowe drawer of the old dresser open. There in the corner, under a piece of faded calico lay the tintype of Jack Langford in his uniform. For a moment she looked at the face of her long dead husband. She felt nothing. He looked like a stranger. She set the picture aside, thinking that she might return it to his family back in Virginia. She had not thought about her life back East in many years. As she sifted through the bits of fabric, ribbons, old letters and forgotten souvenirs she saw another picture, in a frame, but it lay face down in the very bottom of the drawer. She reached for in and picked it up, carefully turning it over.
It was a water color painting of a beautiful young woman with her golden blonde hair piled on the crown of her head and falling down over one shoulder. Her eyes were a warm and soft shade of brown as her smile was sweet. “Claibie.,” Victoria said to herself. “We were both so young then.”
How many years had passed since the day she and her older sister parted and never spoken or seen each other again? Victoria has lost count. Would Claibe want to know that Jack had been killed at Shiloh? Or had she read the names of the dead as they were posted outside the court house during the years of the Civil War.. After all, he had once been betrothed to Claibe, but eloped with Victoria in what felt like a different life time. Her fingers traced the delicate smiling face of the sunny, happy looking girl in the portrait. “I do not even know if you are alive or dead, sister,” she said to herself. The last time she had seen Claibe Shilling was in Richmond during the siege. “It is the past,” she told herself as she slipped the watercolor into the wooden box that she was packing with items to be taken to her new home. “I will not go back and remember. I can not do it. Not even for you, Claibie.”


++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Stevens Ranch
Spring 1876


Victoria had to work to get herself out of bed that morning. Doctor O’Brien told her that the baby could come at any time. She was to rest and take it easy. Victoria Stevens was not a woman to stay down for long and she wanted to get up early to do some baking. Doc lay on his back on the opposite side of the bed, sound asleep and snoring like buffalo. She glanced over at him and smiled. He would be surprised when he got up and she had breakfast all ready for him, just as she had when they were first married and living in town. Rubbing the soreness out of her back, Victoria walked across the bedroom to her closet and chose what she would wear for the day. Silently she dressed and slipped out of the bedroom, making sure she did not wake her husband. She was bound for the chicken house, down by the horse barns.
That late April morning was crisp and clear, and it looked like a beautiful day was just getting started. She heard the men milling about, getting ready for their day of work on the ranch. Doc would be leaving for town about 9:00 so she had to hurry.
Victoria was in the chicken house gathering eggs when her water broke. The baby was coming NOW and there was no stopping the contraction that came next. She knew she had to make it back to the house, but those birthing pains the doctor had explained to her about were getting stronger as she attempted to get through the open door of the chicken house. Suddenly the house seemed like it was a hundred miles away. That was when she saw her husband on the porch, pulling his shirt on over his broad shoulders. “Victoria?”, he called out to her. A few seconds later he was scooping her up in his arms and carrying her back to the house. Doc seemed to have a sixth sense about things and when he woke up and found his wife gone he got up and went to find her. She looked up at him as he carried her through the front doors of the ranch house.
“Get Doc O’Brien, “ she said as she gritted her teeth against the pain “We are going to be having this baby real soon.”
“Maria!!”, Doc shouted as he carried his wife toward the stairs, “Go get Dr. O’Brien, and HURRY!!” The Mexican cook appeared at the door of the kitchen wiping her hands on a white dishtowel. At seeing what was happening, she dashed out the door to fetch the Doctor.
“Doc,” Victoria hissed as another contraction took hold of her “There isn’t time.”
It had been his plan to get his wife upstairs to give birth, but his baby was not going to wait. “The parlor.,” Victoria instructed as Doc turned and carried her through the door. “Now Vic,” he said as he lay her down on the davenport. “I-I don’t know what to do.” She gripped his hand. “Pray first,” she said as she gritted her teeth. “Then help me birth this baby.”
Doc was no stranger to birthing, he’d done calving, been around for foaling, and even helped with lambing back in the old days, but he had never dreamed of bringing his own child into the world. He remembered something and Scrub Pot had talked about many times. “All things are possible with God, Elliot,” he heard the old man say in his memory. “Yes,” Doc said out loud as Victoria cried out with another pain. “All right, Vic,” he said as he began to pull up her skirts, “Let’s you and me have this baby together.”
She bared her teeth “I didn’t get this way by myself, Elliot Stevens!” she growled. If Doc had not been so scared, he might have laughed. “Oh God,” she cried “It’s coming!!” Doc had only a minutes as he positioned himself at his wife’s feet and prayed that the horses he heard tearing into the front yard were the doctor and the cook. “Come on, Victoria,” he said “We are going to work together until the doctor gets here. Ready, honey girl?”
She nodded, but she could already feel her body pushing the child out. “I am going to push,” she said as she braced herself. Doc looked around himself for something to catch the baby in. All that he had at hand was his leather fringed jacket. He rose and, stripped it off then lay it aside. “All right, Vic,” he said. “I can see the head..”
She nodded and then bore down with all her might and the next sound she heard was the wails of a new born child. She fell back against the pillows that lay against the arm of the davenport to catch her breath. “It’s a girl!” Doc cried as he caught his baby daughter in his hands. “I got my girl!” Victoria seemed to black out for a few seconds and in that time, Doc tied the cord off and cut it. It felt like a dream, but she could hear her husband talking to her and her baby crying. She stretched out her arms. “Give her to me,” she said “I want to hold her.” As Doc wrapped the baby in his jacket and handed her to her mother, Doctor O’Brien and Maria rushed into the parlor. Doc had never been so glad to see anyone as he was to see them.
“I see that your little one did not wait for me,,” the Doctor commented as he took charge of the situation. The baby lay in her mother’s arms wailing. “She’s got a voice,” Doc declared proudly.
“Victoria.” , the doctor said “I want to get you upstairs to your room.” She looked up at him, exhausted. “I can walk,” she said. The Doctor motioned to a tall thin gray haired woman who had followed him and Maria into the house. “This is Evita Mendoza,” he said “She is my assistant. She is also the best midwife in Portersville.” The woman smiled warmly as she came to Victoria’s side and took the baby from her. Doc had recovered some what from his becoming a father so quickly and helped his wife up from the ruined davenport. “You done good, honey girl,” he whispered to her as he gathered her into his arms and carried her up the stairs followed by the doctor and the midwife who gently carried his new born baby girl. He lay his wife down on their bed and kissed her. “Vic,” he said “I am going to leave you and the baby in the care of the good doctor here. “ She smiled up at him. “I love you Elliot Stevens,” she said “and we have a beautiful baby girl.”
He smiled back at her. “We sure do.,” he replied.
“Sheriff,” Doctor O’Brien interjected “Why don’t you wait down stairs. I will let you know when we are finished here.”
“Very well,” Doc replied as he took his wife’s hand. “I’ll see you in a little while.” he said. Sometimes the last nine months seemed to be dragging by and that the day his daughter would be born would never come. He thought of Jerrod and Sam and wished he could get on his horse and ride across the back forty acres to tell them the good news. But Sam and Jerrod Bently were in Texas. He walked out onto the long porch of his house and sat down on the swing he had made for Victoria. Yes, it was a good day. He was going to be a good father, and he already loved the little girl, he had loved her since the day Victoria told him she was having his baby “Sarah,” he whispered to himself as he sat down. “Think that might be the right name for her.”
Behind him the windmill creaked as it spun lazily in the mid morning breeze. The air was heavy, and he could smell the rain coming. He lounged in his slat back rocker and stretched his long legs out in front of him, observing the muddy and well worn boots on his feet. The sounds of the ranch were common place to him as he sat on his porch. Goldy lay beside his chair, doing his best be as supportive as a collie knows how to be.


++++++++++++++++++++++++


. “She is beautiful, Missus,” the midwife said as she lay the precious baby in Victoria’s arms. “I have bathed and dressed her. Now she needs you.”
The Doctor was getting ready to leave. “Mrs. Mendoza will stay with you for a day or two till you are feeling stronger, Victoria,” he said. Then he smiled and shook his head. “Sheriff Stevens did a find job today,” he added. “It was good that he was here to bring the baby into the world with you.”
“I was glad he was here too,” Victoria replied as Mrs. Mendoza arranged the pillows behind her. “Will you send him up here please? “
He picked up his black bag and started for the door. “I will, Victoria,” Doctor O’Brien replied. “Now you and the baby rest. I will stop by tomorrow to check on you.”
Victoria smiled as he left, but her attention was on her daughter. “You are finally here, baby,” she whispered “and you are such a sweet little angel.” She did not hear Doc come up the stairs or walk into the bedroom. She was under her daughter’s spell. He tapped on the door casing. “Want some company, Vic?”, he asked.
“Of course,” she replied with a warm smile for her husband. “Come here and meet your daughter.”
Doc laughed as he crossed the room to the bed where his wife lay. “We met earlier,” he teased.
“Doc, I am so sorry,” Victoria apologized “I thought I would be back in the kitchen making breakfast for you. I didn’t think I’d end up in the parlor having this beautiful little girl.”
“Well, it was just how things worked out,” Doc replied as he touched his daughter’s face.”
“Here, you hold her,” said Victoria as she placed the baby in his arms.
“She’s a beauty, Honey,” he said as a tear slipped down his cheek, “just like her Ma.”
Victoria smiled up at her husband. “I thought I might call her Ellen” she said “Have you thought of any other name ?”
“Sarah,” he said “after my sister. Sam and Jerrod will like that too.”
“Not Lillie?”, Victoria teased..
Doc grimaced. “No .” he said flatly, “I wouldn’t do that to my baby girl!”
Victoria giggled, remembering her rather difficult sister in law and her overbearing behavior at Sam and Jerrod’s wedding. Doc sat down on the edge of the bed , near his wife and holding their daughter. “Sarah Ellen,” he said in amazement. “You got here before the doc even had time to get in the front door. I doubt I will ever forget this day..”
Victoria smiled at him, as he returned the baby to her waiting arms. “Our sweet little Sarah,” she said softly.
Doc and Victoria were sharing the joy of just becoming new parents when suddenly there came a loud commotion down stairs in the front hall of the ranch house. “Senior Doc!” someone shouted in great urgency“,Senior Doc! You have to come quickly!!”
It was Fernando Vasquez, Doc’s top hand on the ranch. He was Mexican and the man knew horses better than anyone Doc Stevens knew in the territory. Doc hesitated as he rose to his feet. Then looked back at his wife. The midwife took Sarah from her lay her in the cradle Doc had built months ago. “Go,” Victoria said “It might be Fancy.”
“Senior Doc!” Vasquez shouted “You must come NOW!!”
“I’ll be back,” Doc promised as he left the room to find out what all the commotion was. Vasquez was half way up the stairs as they met. “My wife had baby girl!,” Doc proclaimed with great pride.
“That is good,” the man replied worriedly “But you are about to see another birth. If it hasn’t happened all ready.”
The men hurried from the house and down the lane to the large brown stained horse barn. There in a large straw filled birthing stall, Fancy Lady was nosing her new born foal to stand up. The foal was black and white with a wispy little mane and a stubby white tail. As Doc and Fernando watched, in amazed silence, the baby rose on four spindly legs and took an unsteady step toward its mother. “She was up and down only a few minutes ago,” Fernando said “The last time she rolled. I thought I better find you.”
“Glad you did,” Doc replied as he watch the baby find the mare’s udders and start to nurse. “Looks like Joe threw us a fine little stud colt,” he added proudly.
“And good markings too,” Valquez replied.
“This one is for my daughter,” Doc said “When the time comes, I will break him myself, just for her.”
“That is good, Senior Doc,” Valquez agreed, “Your daughter will have a very special friend to share her birthday with.”
“Get your book out ,” Doc instructed “and write down, April 11, 1876, Saint Joe’s Spirit is on the ground. Sire is Black Diamond’s Smokey Joe and dame is Victoria’s Fancy Lady.”
“You keep records of all the foals. ,” Vasquez commented as he pulled a small leather covered note book and pencil out of the pocket of his dirty overalls. “Why?”
“Kind of like a register, “ Doc replied “I know what Joe’s first git was like and how they grew, where they went when they were sold.”
“Is like you are making a new breed of horse,” the man said.
“I am,” Doc replied, with a side ways grin. “Fox trotters.”
“Make sure you note that this foal is a stud colt,” Doc reminded Vasquez. “This one doesn’t get gelded.”
“Yes, Senior Doc,” the man replied as he began writing in the note book where the birth of each foal born on the ranch was recorded.

Doc and Victoria welcomed their first child that day, a little girl they named Sarah Ellen and just about the same time Doc was helping his wife bring their daughter into the world, Fancy dropped her black and white foal. Somewhere in the future, this little girl would grow up along side this very special colt and they would be together for many years to come. Sarah Ellen Stevens and the paint she would name “Spirit” would come to know many an adventure in the future they began together, 23 April 1876.


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The Bently Dodge Ranch, Grants Creek, Texas

1876

THE ROAD HOME


Dakota Joe, or Joseph Marley Dodge, which was his given name, was a big man, with dark hair. which he wore long and straight, Indian style. When he turned up at the ranch some months back, he was quite ill, but once recovered, we hired him on as a wrangler. Joe turned out to be one hard worker too. He got along well with the crew, did wonders with even the worst of our horses, yet the man had no memory of who he was. Something had happened to Joe Dodge and amnesia kept him from remembering his past.
Zachariah (Scrub Pot) Dodge was his father and Dakota Joe looked very much like him in some ways, but it was easy to see that Joe’s mother had been a white woman. He had the strangest colored eyes I had ever seen. They were a blue grey and they changed color with certain clothes he wore and his skin had a golden tone to it, almost like a dark suntan. He was a very strong and ruggedly handsome fellow. I could see where Brian had gotten his good looks and Sam her dark beauty. The joy that this man’s presence brought to Scrub Pot’s life was a blessing. He had his only son back, and for that we were all very grateful. I had my own thoughts about Dakota Joe and Sam. My wife had no idea who he really was, and she would have to learn the truth sooner or later. However, I’d watch them working with the horses, especially Sam’s stallion, Trouble, and it was so clear to me that this man was indeed her father. They seemed so much alike, yet to Sam, he was Dakota Joe, a half breed drifter who turned out to be an asset to The Bentley-Dodge Ranch in more ways than we had ever dreamed he would.
The man was amazing with horses. He could take the wildest of mustangs, and with confident yet gentle ways, he calmed them and gained their trust. I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice when he worked with them and broke them to saddle. He had a will stronger than iron, the patience of a saint and he always won. My brother in law, Brian Dodge had pretty much accepted that Joe was his father come home after so many years. Over the months Joe had been with us Brian had been trying to help him regain his some of his memory. Now I had been sworn to secrecy about Joe on the day he came to the ranch. Scrub Pot would tell Sam when he thought she was ready to hear the truth.

Brian Dodge had been only three years old when Bear Claw was sacked by outlaws and his father believed killed in the fighting. He had some recall of that terrible night and memories of his father and his mother as well. It was easy for him to make the connection to Joe as time went on, but Sam had been only a few months old when this happened and therefore had no memory of her father at all. She harbored bitterness over being left by both her parents. Her father at Bear Claw and her mother two years later from scarlet fever . Sam never really knew either of them. But unlike so many people in this life we lead, God chose to give Sam and her father a second chance, but it was not be an easy journey for either of them.

Winters in North Texas were nothing like what I remembered of the cold months in New York. We had some snow, it got cold, but that was all right with me. Those were the nights Sam and I would build a roaring fire in the fire place and sit there for hours watching the flames and making plans for the future. Yes, I would have to say that for a city boy like I once was, I had come a long way. I had a beautiful wife, a fine ranch, good friends and plenty of adventures to write about. Scrub Pot and Esparanza seemed to be a happy too. The old man looked less sour than he did when I’d first met him and Esparanza was content to stay on and cook for us at the ranch. Now I love my Sam with all my heart, but the truth is, the Dodge side of the family is kind of lacking when it comes to cooking skills, so I was relieved when Esparanza decided to stay. She and Scrub Pot took a room upstairs, but retired often to his cabin at Bear Claw when ranch life got on their nerves.
Sam did not want her grandfather far from her sight. She had three mares in foal, including one that belonged to Scrub Pot that was bred to Trouble nearly a year ago. Sam informed me that it took eleven months for a foal to be born. This mare was a golden palomino, with a white mane and tail. Her name was Cactus Nell and she was ready to drop that baby at any time.

Dakota Joe took over the barn and the horses and Sam was glad for the help. She liked this half breed , she called “Dakota” but she was yet to learn who he really was. We were married now and no one could take the her ranch away from her. She had me and I had her. Doc and Victoria were back in Portersville, settling into a new life on the former Double J ranch. I missed them and I knew Sam did too. I hoped that not too much time would pass before we saw them again. Victoria had her baby and all was well, according to the last letter I’d received from Doc and Sam would have to be told about her father, the man she believed to be dead for these many years. I hoped Scrub Pot wouldn’t go anywhere when that time came because I knew my wife would not take this well. She would need her Grandfather to help her sort it all out. Doc had not been convinced that the drifter we took in the day of our wedding was really the long lost Joe Dodge, but Scrub Pot knew and believed that a miracle had occurred and his son had come home. I guess in a way, I agreed with him. I had a father, and a good one too. Sam deserved that much. I had seen Doc’s face that day when he first set eyes on Dakota Joe and I think that deep down, he knew too., but Doc Stevens was a man who had to have proof. My prayer was for a reconciliation to come for Sam, Brian and their father. Maybe with God’s help, all the questions that kept me awake at night would be answered .


Dakota Joe was a hard worker, but he was often taken ill with blinding headaches and sometimes seizures. He had regained some of his memory, but it seemed that was as far as he would recover. Those times when Joe was down, Sam always took care of him, and though she has really grown to love him, and care very much about him, Joe Dodge still had no memory of her being his daughter or Brian his son. That part of his mind was still in the darkness of whatever it was that was holding him back from recovery. Later Sam’s brother , would discover what was causing his father’s illness and be able to put into motion the events that would bring Joe Dodge back to his father, his children and a whole new life. But that had not happened yet so we all just kept Joe in our prayers, loved and appreciated him through the good days, and stood by him in the bad ones. I love my wife and I wanted her to be happy and I wanted her to have a relationship with her father too. But my Sam was one stubborn woman and knowing Joe Dodge as well as I had come to know him, I could see that she came by it all naturally. I think we started to become a family on that dark rainy night, that winter, when Cactus Nell foaled.

For days, Nell had been showing signs that she was going to foal just about any time. She was big and sluggish and though she was usually a good natured mare, she was grumpy. I felt sorry for her, Desert Rose and the two other mares that were also in foal but not as far along as Nell was. These babies, if they all survived would be our first crop so speak, and from what Scrub Pot told me about Trouble, there was no doubt he’d thrown some fine foals. Scrub Pot knew the lineage of that red stud and the black stallion that sired him and Doc Stevens’ Smokey Joe too.
Black Joe Diamond was the stallion’s name, and he’d been the pride of the Dodge family. He belonged to Joe’s wife Sarah Stevens-Dodge. Joe Dodge had given Sarah the choice of a horse from his herd when they married, and she chose Black Joe. But so much about a horse who had been gone for so many years. His blood line survived in the two last colts he had on the ground. Now Sam was mighty particular about those mares, and she was out in the barn with them for hours on end.

++++++++++++++++++


“Come on Jerrod,” Sam said as she turned to look up the stairs at me. “I have plenty of blankets and we won’t be too cold, I promise. ”
Outside the cold rain poured down and a strong wind flung it against the windows. “All right,” I agreed “But if it gets too bad out there, we are coming back in.” The thought of abandoning the warmth of the fire that blazed in the big stone fire place in the ranch house was disheartening. But I had given Sam my word, that I would be with her when Cactus Nell gave birth. Dakota Joe had retired to the bunk house, and his vigil in the barn would begin about two o’clock in the morning if the foal had not been born yet. I was hoping our shift would be short and I could go back to the house and climb into that big four poster bed, with the thick feather mattress and nice warm quilts that Sam and I shared.

Nell was up and down half the night but the foal had not been born yet. I wrapped myself in thick wool blankets and dozed off while Sam waited by the birthing stall, watching the mare and waiting. She’d done birthing before, so I knew she would be able to manage if I fell asleep. It was darn cold out there in the barn, and the rain drummed on the roof, but sometime after midnight, Sam shook me awake. She was pulling the blankets off me. “I need to wrap the foal,” she said worriedly. I got up. “What is wrong?”
“ She dropped him about twenty minutes ago and he won’t get up to nurse. It’s gotten colder than I thought it would and he is freezing to death.” Worried I went to the stall and there on the thick straw lay Nell’s new born foal. The little sorrel was barely breathing and shivering as Sam went in and carefully wrapped him in a woolen blanket. Cactus Nell nosed at her baby and looked so sad.
“Jerrod,” Sam said looking up at me with this dark eyes filled with worry. “Go get Dakota. He will know what to do. I can not let this little fellow die.”
I did not have time to think, and I did not even realize until it was too late that I was sprinting across the one hundred yard distance between the barn and the bunk house barefoot and in my long johns. It was much colder and much wetter than I had ever imagined. In a few minutes later, I was heading back to the barn with Dakota Joe ten steps ahead of me.
Sam was in the birthing stall holding the little horse in her arms. He was wrapped in the blanket, his little head resting on her shoulder. He was no longer shivering. Sam whispered to him the whole time and his mother stood by wanting him to get up and nurse. Joe spoke to the mare in the Black Foot tongue. Gentle words, almost like a prayer. Cactus Nell lowered her golden head and sniffed her baby as if whispering encouragement to him.
“He’s still alive,” Sam said quietly as she looked up at Dakota Joe. “But he never got up after she birthed him. I do not know what is wrong.”
Dakota looked down at the dark head and wispy suggestion of a forelock. “Go get some rest Missus,” he said. “I will take care of this little one.”
“He won’t even try to nurse,” she said.
“I think he will eat when he is ready, Missus,” Joe replied. “Now you and your husband go back to the house.”
Sam lay the sleeping foal down on the straw. “Send someone for me if anything changes,” she said “This little sorrel is our first and I don’t want to lose him.”
“Faith, Missus,” Dakota replied as he began to unwrap the blanket and gently start to massage the baby. “Now go. Let me do my job. It is what you pay me for.”
“He’s stopped shivering,” Sam observed as she turned to leave.
“That is because you were quick to wrap him in this blanket.”, Joe replied. I could tell that Sam did not want to leave, but she was worn out and needed to sleep. “Come on, honey girl,” I said as I put my arm around her. “Dakota will do all that he can for that baby.” We left the barn, and returned to the house. Scrub Pot met us on the steps. “What has happened?”
“The foal didn’t get up and would not nurse,” I told him as I ushered my wife passed him and into the warmth of the house. When I turned back to speak to him again, he had vanished like a ghost. For the life of me I never could understand how he did that, but I knew where he had gone. Sam was all ready in bed and asleep when I went to our room. Quietly I slid in next to her, pulled up the quilts and said a silent prayer that Dakota Joe and his father would be able to work their magic and help Catus Nell’s baby to live. It was nearly dawn when I closed my eyes and fell into a worried sleep.
While we slept, Brian Dodge returned from an emergency at a farm a good two hours away from Bently-Dodge. It was he, who walked into the barn hoping that there had been a successful delivery. There stood Scrub Pot at the door of the birthing stall watching as Dakota Joe let go of a hungry baby who cautiously took his first steps, found his mother and began nursing. “Praise God,” the old man said.
“Sorry I missed it all,” Brian said, breaking the predawn stillness in the barn.
“I am happy to see you home, grandson,” Scrub Pot said. “How is the little girl that fell out of the tree house?”
“She broke her arm and I had to set it,” Brian said “She will be fine. But it sure was a long cold ride out there and back. Where is Sammy? I thought she and Jerrod would be out here with the mare.”
“They were.,” Scrub Pot replied “They went in when your father came out to help.”
“When are you going to tell Sam the truth?”, Brian asked behind a wide yawn.
“As soon as she gets up,” the old man replied “This has gone on too long. She has a right to know.”
Dakota Joe was so busy with the foal and the mare he had not even heard Brian come in or the conversation that was going on between him and Scrub Pot. He was satisfied that the colt would be fine now and decided that he was ready to find some breakfast.
“Is Esparanza in the kitchen yet?” Joe asked as he slid the stall door open and walked out into the isle.
“No, my son,” Scrub Pot answered “I will make the coffee this morning. My wife is at the cabin, and she was planning to make corn cakes for me when I get back.” Joe reached for the black hat he had left sitting on a near by saw horse and placed it on his head. “Then I am going to Bear Claw.” he stated “I will see you later.”
“Don’t care for Grandfather’s cooking, Dakota?”, Brian teased as Joe walked passed him to get his tack and began to saddle his horse.
“Esparanza makes the best coffee I have ever had this side of New Orleans,” Dakota Joe said and he lay a brightly colored Navaho blanket on the back of his paint. “After a night like this has been, I am truly looking forward to having some.” He turned to Scrub Pot. “Are you coming?”, he asked.
“Not right away, Joseph,” the old man replied “I have something to tend to here first, then I will return home.”
Dakota Joe grinned at the old man, “Better not be too long, because I am really hungry for Esparanza’s corn cakes.”


+++++++++++++++++++


I left Sam sleeping in our bed and headed for the kitchen. I figured that no news was good news and assumed that the colt was still alive. There was Scrub Pot sitting at the kitchen table. When he looked up at me I saw the serious expression in his dark eyes. I stopped dead in my tacks before I reached the black iron cook stove where the coffee pot boiled. “Tell me Nell’s foal survived,” I stated worriedly.
“The foal is fine, Jerrod Bently,” he replied “Is Sam up yet?” I crossed to the stove and filled my hand made cup with the bitter brew from the pot. I turned and faced the old man. “She was up most of the night with Cactus Nell and the foal,” I said. I think I already knew what Scrub Pot had in mind. The time had come for him to tell his grand daughter the truth about Dakota Joe. I knew from the day Joe arrived at the ranch that I was going to dread this day like no other.
“Samantha deserves to know the truth,” Scrub Pot said. His words made me uneasy after such a long and hard night. But he was right, Sam did have a right to know. I sat down at the table across from the old man and took a sip of the hot coffee. The bitter brew reminded me of our days on the trail. “I don’t know how she will take it,” I said. Above us, we heard the old familiar squeak of the floor boards and I knew Sam was up and on her way to the kitchen. “God be with us,” I thought to myself as I heard her coming down the stairs. She was fully dressed in her dungarees, boots and jacket when she appeared at the kitchen door. “I thought I heard you two down here,” she said with a smile on her pretty face. “Where is Dakota?
“He has gone over to Bear Claw, Samantha,” Scrub Pot said “Sit down, child. I must speak with you.”
Her smile turned to an expression of worry. “We lost the foal.,” she said quietly as she pulled out a chair and sat down.
“No, Sam,” I chimed in “That little fellow is just fine. Dakota got him up and nursing.” She looked over at me and I could see the relief on her face. I was grateful for that much. A moment of tense silence passed before her grandfather spoke. “Samantha Ann,” he began stoically , “What do you remember about your parents?”
“That is a strange question to be asking me first thing in the morning,” she replied as I rose to fetch her a cup of her Grandfather’s brew. “They are both dead. That is what I remember,” she said.
“Yes,” the old man replied quietly “That is what we have believed for all of these years.”
“Brian was three years old when our father was killed,” Sam said “I do not remember him at all. I was a baby. I barely recall my mother , other than the fact the she was a white woman with long gold colored hair, and that she was Doc’s sister.”
Scrub Pot studied her face as she looked back at him. There was no easy way to say what had to be said and I braced myself for the impact his words would have on my wife.
“Samantha,” the old man said “your father is alive.”
She stared at him in utter disbelief. “No,” she replied “That is not true. I have heard all the stories from you and from Doc about what happened when the Caldero gang attacked Bear Claw. My father died there.”
“That was what we believed, child,” Scrub Pot said, “Myself included. But we were wrong.”
“How could you be wrong?” Same defended “Especially when it was Doc himself who buried my father. They were blood brothers, and I doubt he made any mistake when he identified his body.”
“The man you know as Dakota Joe, is my son. His given name is Joseph Marley Dodge,” Scrub Pot stated firmly “He is your father.”
Sam stared at Scrub Pot in disbelief, her thoughts whirling with great confusion as she tried to accept what the old man had just said. “Dakota Joe is your father, Granddaughter.” The words had shocked her into silence. She wanted to deny it as soon as Scrub Pot had spoken the them. The tension was crackling around us and I was waiting for her to just explode in a fit of anger, but there she stood, trying accept it all. “No,” she said sharply after a few moments of silence, “That can not be. My father is dead and buried beside my mother at Bear Claw.” She looked over at me, and her beseeching look in her dark eyes made me feel more guilty that I ever felt in my life. “Jerrod”, she asked firmly “Do you believe this foolishness, about Dakota?”
“Sam,” I defended, “I believe Scrub Pot. I didn’t at first, but as I have gotten to know Dakota, I could tell. Especially when he is working with you or your brother.”
“You knew about this all along and did not tell me?” she spit in anger and glaring daggers at me.
“He has, child,” Scrub Pot intervened “I asked Jerrod to keep his silence until I myself was sure of who Dakota Joe really is. The man has no memory of his life here in Texas. Something happened to him and he doesn’t remember your mother, or you or Brian or even being at Bear Claw or Fort Dodge.”
Sam turned her angry eyes to the stoic and calm expression on her grand father’s face. “If he is who you say he is,” she said “He has been alive and out there somewhere for all of these years, and never contacted you in any way. Yet you are willing to accept that he is your son who was supposed to have died at Bear Claw many years ago.”
“A father knows his child, Sam,” Scrub Pot replied calmly “ and I know the man who tends your horses is my only son and your father.”
Sam was did not answer right away, she was searching her own memory, trying to remember her father’s face, or anything about him. There was nothing there, she was a infant when The Caldero gang attacked the settlement. Sam had no memory of the man who carried her and her brother to safety and handed them both over to their mother, and never came back. She had heard the story of his bravery many times but she could not remember him at all. “Does Doc know about this?”, she asked.
“Yes.,” I replied “But he said he needs proof before he will accept the truth about Dakota Joe.”
“That is what I need.,” Sam snapped “Proof that my father is dead and buried and this imposter exposed for who or what he really is and what he really wants from us.”
“Sam.,” I said firmly as I could see she was getting ready to bolt from the room at any second. “ Look at your brother. Then look at Joe. Even I can see the resemblance in them.
“I have heard that in this world, there is a double for everyone,” she said “Why not my father too?”
“She was in pain and I could see it on her face. ‘Sam. Honey,” I said “We need to talk about this with Scrub Pot. I believe that Dakota IS Joe Dodge and I would not say so if I thought he was some double, or imposter.”
She glared back at me. “Fire him,” she said coldly, “I want him gone before I get back. Do you understand??” With that my wife did what I had been expecting her to do, and we both heard the back door of the kitchen slam behind her and she was gone in seconds. Scrub Pot turned his dark eyes to me as we sat at the table across from one another. I could not help but notice how tired and sad he looked. “That did not go well,” I commented.
“I had not expected it would, Jerrod Bently,” the old man replied. I pushed my chair backward and rose to my feet and crossed to the door, taking my hat off the peg where I’d left it hanging in the wee hours of the morning, when Sam and I had come in from the barn. “I am going after her,” I said firmly.
“She will go to my cabin,” Scrub Pot answered “You will find her there.”
“What about Dakota Joe?” I asked “I am not going to fire him just because Sam is upset right now.”
“He has all ready gone, my son.,” Scrub Pot replied “Early this morning.”
That was not welcome news to be hearing. “Scrub Pot!” I said, unable to hide my own disappointment at hearing what he said. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
The old man looked up at me and grinned. “Because he was hungry for Esparanza’s corn cakes and he went to my cabin to have breakfast with her. I was supposed to be there myself, but I had to get this matter settled first.”
I was relieved. To lose a foreman like Dakota Joe would not do the ranch or the horses any good. And then it dawned on me what the old man had done. Sam would confront Joe and they would have to talk things out and maybe the outcome would be a time of healing in our family. No matter what had happened to Joe that caused him to lose his memory, he was still Sam’s father, and he deserved to have a place in her life and her in his. Just then the swinging door of the kitchen opened and a yawning , very tired Brian Dodge came through in search of the coffee pot. Scrub Pot looked up at his grandson. “How is the colt?” he asked.
“Still on his feet and nursing. Catus Nell is fine and looking after her baby. Joe said she stood by him the whole time he was down. Joe never gave up, he held that colt in his arms for hours to keep him warm, and finally he got him to nurse. He’s going to be fine. Thanks to Dakota. Where is he?”
“Gone to Bear Claw,” I replied. Brian crossed to the black iron stove and grabbed the old enamel coffee pot. Brian poured himself a cup of coffee. The aroma was a bitter one and the taste was worse. Being a polite young man, he took a sip and tried not to grimace. “I guess Esparanza is out at the cabin this morning,” he said. Scrub Pot just smiled. “Chicory makes a better brew, Grandson,” he said “Didn’t they have chicory up in Philadelphia?”
Brian sat down in the chair his sister has vacated only moments ago. “Did you tell Sam about Dakota being our Pa?”, he asked.
“I did,” Scrub Pot replied stoically. “It did not go well with her. Your sister is a strong woman, but this will be harder for her to accept than it was for you.”
“My brother in law looked up at me, seeing that I was ready to leave. “”Give her a while before you catch up with her, Jerrod,” he advised. “She needs some time to think. I knew from the beginning who Dakota Joe was. I remembered him. Sam wouldn’t remember any of it.
“I will ride slow,” I promised as I headed out the back door.


++++++++++++++++++


Esparanza Dodge flipped corn cakes on the hot griddle she had heated earlier on her new black iron cook stove. A warm fire blazed in the cabin’s fire place, warming the room. Joe Dodge shook the snow off his heavy trail jacket and hung it on one of the wooden pegs by the door. “Sit down, Dakota,” the stout woman said “Breakfast will be ready in just a minute.”
“I love the smell of you cooking, Ma’am,” he said as he pulled out a chair and sat down. “Both here and at the ranch. She turned from her work and smiled at him. “Was my mule all right out there in the lean-to?” she asked as she cracked eggs into a brightly colored glazed bowl.
“Yes,” Joe replied ,” she was eating hay and staying out of the wind. I left before Scrub Pot did. He should be here by now.”
“He stayed over at the ranch.” she replied as she took the coffee pot off the stove and poured him a cup, “Did Catus Nell foal? Joe reached for the steaming blue and white enamel cup and clasped it between his hands. The warmth felt good as it flowed into his cold fingers and he found that comforting.”Yes.” Joe replied “She dropped a sorrel stud colt.”
“My father is a good man,” Joe commented thoughtfully as he sniffed the aroma of chicory.
“Yes,” Esparanza replied “His is a good man and he believes in you.” She stacked corn cakes on a chipped white china plate and placed it in front of Joe . “You look like him, Dakota,” she commented as she returned to her cook stove. Joe buttered the corn cakes generously and drowned them in molasses. “He is my father,” he said quietly “That I have been able to remember. It comes in glimpses that feel like broken pieces of something that was once whole.”
“We both believe that you will one day remember what happened to you,” Esparanza said, “Brian does too and as you know he is a doctor.”
Joe took a thoughtful sip of his coffee. “My son.,” he said sadly “ I try to remember our past, but I can’t. Something stops me. He’s a fine young man and he knows horses well.
“Yes, he truly is a good man and a good doctor too. He set my grandson’s leg when he broke it last year.” Esparanza replied as she joined him at the table.”The more I see you and Brian together, I can tell that you are his father and he is very much like you. A look for frustration crossed Joe’s darkly handsome features and his blue grey eyes seemed haunted for a moment. “I believe my father,” he said “Scrub Pot has no reason to lie and he has told me many things about my life with him and at Bear Claw, yet with every attempt to recall any of it, there is only darkness with flashes of light.”
“Have faith, Dakota,” she said “The answers will come. Now, eat, before your breakfast gets cold.”
“Good idea,” Dakota Joe agreed. Talking about his lost memory and past made the man feel very uncomfortable, sometimes even fearful.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++


Sam was upset and very confused. She felt betrayed by the people she loved the most and most of all by Dakota Joe, whom she had grown so close to over the past few months. Could it be true? It had to be true. Scrub Pot never lied to her and Jerrod was honest to a fault, maybe even too much so. Her father was said to have died in the massacre many years ago and that was all she knew. If he was truly Joe Dodge, then why didn’t he have any memory of her or her mother? She understood that amnesia robs a person’s memory, but to what extent? So many questions, so much pain and she bit back her tears when she slid off Trouble’s broad back and turned him loose in her grandfather’s paddock next to the cabin. Bear Claw was home to her, it was where she grew up and where she lived until her family moved to Fort Dodge with the Cavalry.
“It is where my father died defending his family against outlaws,” she said to herself as she walked through the dusting of snow to the front door of the cabin. She had not expected to find Dakota Joe sitting there at the table with Esparanza. Surprised to see Sam, the woman rose to her feet. “Good morning, Sam.,” she said “I wasn’t expecting to see you until this afternoon,” she said. She saw the look of confusion on Sam’s face. “Is something wrong at the ranch? Is your grandfather all right?”
“He is fine, Esparanza,” she said quietly , then looked at Joe. “I need to talk to Dakota,” she said tensely.
Joe looked up at her and smiled. “Come sit with me Missus,” he said . His voice sounded so much like her grandfather’s did. Part of Sam wanted to believe what Scrub Pot had told her, but another wanted to vent her anger and betrayal. All her life Sam had believed this man to be dead, and now here were her husband and her grandfather telling her that he was not. Sam pulled out a chair and sat down across from Dakota Joe.
Feeling that this should be private and between the two of them, Esparanza rose. “I almost forgot,” she said “I must go out and feed the chickens.”
“No,” Sam stated firmly “Stay. I want you to hear what I have to say.” Worried, the old woman sat back down in her chair. Sam looked carefully at Joe. Yes, he did look like a younger version of Scrub Pot, and his voice sounded like his. She felt safe when she was with him and confident in the decisions he had helped her make. In her dreams he was the father she had lost and never known, but this was not a dream and she had come to hear the truth. “Are you my father?” There was a cackling silence between them as Joe Dodge stared back into the dark eyes of his daughter. She was such a beautiful young woman and a father would be proud to claim her as his child. But the darkness in his mind became thicker and harder to pierce, the pain in his head started , causing his vision to blur. He was all to familiar with it, but this time he refused to give in. “I can not give you the answer you are looking for,” he said “I only know what Scrub Pot has told me.”
“Do you remember my mother?” she asked, her voice quavering with emotion. “My brother, Brian? My prayers as a child were that you were out there somewhere and you would come back for us after Mama died. She could not stop the tears, “But you never did.”
Joe reached out and took her hand. “I am sorry, Missus,” he said quietly “I wish I could say that I was out there trying to find my way back, but I can not lie about it. I wish I could remember you, and your mother, but.. I....” his voice trailed off into silence and the pain exploded inside his head, and he lost all control. As he was taken by the seizure he thought he remembered hearing a gun shot behind him. Sam was quick to respond as he hit the floor. Grabbing a wooden spoon from the kitchen she shoved it into his mouth so he could not swallow his tongue. Esparanza was paralyzed with fear, not understanding what was happening. Sam looked up at her. “He is having one of those attacks, Go get Brian and hurry!”

++++++++++++++++++++++


He fell into blackness, blind and unable to see. He could hear voices, and felt a sensation as though he was being dragged along the ground. His hands touched rocks and then water. He felt someone touching his face, but he was almost afraid to try and open his eyes. “Sarah?”
Shocked, Sam looked over at her brother as she wiped the beads of sweat from Joe’s forehead. “He’s coming around,” Brian said ,”Dakota? Can you hear me?”
Sam was still in shock at hearing him speak her mother’s name when she felt her grandfather’s hand on her shoulder. “He is going to be all right,” he said. “These seizures come once and while. The last one he had was when you and Jerrod were in California. “
”Dakota?”, Brian prompted. Joe opened his eyes and looked up into the face of his son., then at the faces of the others who stood around the bed he was lying on and a feeling of belonging came over him. Something he had not felt in a very long time. He looked at Sam as the tears flowed down her cheeks. He raised his hand and touched her face.. Then she sat down next to him on the bed. “It is true,” she sobbed.”You ARE my father.” He reached out for her, closing his arm around her and drew her close. Sam lay down next to him and cuddled close to his side, as she lay with her head on his shoulder.
Gently he smoothed her hair. “Samantha Ann.,” he said in a whisper “My little warrior.”
It was more than Scrub Pot could take in as he turned away. His prayers had been answered and grateful tears streamed from his eyes. For the first time since Joe Dodge has come back to Texas, he had begun to remember his wife and now had called his daughter by her proper name. “Praise God,” he breathed “He has recalled something of his past.”
Brian touched him on the shoulder. “Let’s give them a moment alone,” he suggested as they left the small room.
“I want to call him Pa.” Brian said as he and his grandfather stood in front of the fire place. “But he is not ready to hear that yet.”
“He will be one day, Grandson,” Scrub Pot replied.


++++++++++++++++++


Two days passed that Joe Dodge did not come to work at the ranch. On the third he arrived at the barn, as he usually did, feeding the horses at seven in the morning and then turning the mares out, but he kept Catus Nell and her colt safe in the large straw filled birthing stall he had prepared for them when he knew her just before she foaled. Joe did not show any ill effects from the seizure he’d had a few days ago. Actually he decided he felt pretty good, even free of the headaches that always seemed to signal that he was going to have another episode. Years ago he had stopped hoping that they would go away. They never did, they had only gotten worse. He was about to start work cleaning the stalls when Brian walked through the open door of the barn. Joe paused and waited for him in the isle.
“Mornin’, Dakota,” he said “Glad to see you back in action. I was hoping I’d find you in here this morning. I have something to ask you and some news.”
Joe cocked a dark eyebrow , wondering what his son might have in mind. “What news?”, he asked as he watched Brian’s face. The young man’s hazel eyes reminded him of someone, something in a different place in time, but Joe could not pull the pieces of the puzzle together.
“I am going to be a father,” Brian stated with pride. “Essie’s having a baby.”
Joe Dodge grinned broadly. “That must be your news.,’ he said. “Congratulations to you both.”
“That makes you a grandfather for the first time, unless Sam and Jerrod are hiding something,” he said, hoping that his remark would not make Dakota Joe uncomfortable.
“I think I would like that,” he said quietly “I think I would like that very much, Brian.”
“I was hoping you would be happy about it. We sure are. ” Brian replied.”And you will be able to call yourself “Grandfather” in about 7 months.”
“I am happy for you and your wife,” Joe replied , sensing that Brian had more on is mind that just the news that he and Essie were having a baby.
“Dakota.,” Brian said “There is a doctor I know in Saint Louis. He is a man who knows far more about amnesia than I do and he has excelled in helping people who have had severe injuries to the head and brain related troubles. His name is Doctor Frank Evans. I think he might be able to help you get your memory back, or at the very least be able to find the cause of the seizures.”
Joe crossed to an empty stall and slid the door open. “I don’t know,” he replied “The idea of brain surgery doesn’t sound good..”
“It may not come to that, Pa,” Brian said “All I am asking is that you go to see him. You can always walk away if it is not right for you. I think the cause of the amnesia could be solved better if we could find out why you are able to remember some things, but not what happened to you and why these buried memories come to the surface after the seizures. I feel that if one day you can remember what happened, then we can help you get your life back. You may not remember the other day at Grandfather’s cabin, but you spoke Mother’s name and called Sam by her given name,the name I am told you yourself gave her. “
”I remember,” Joe said sadly, but I could not grasp all of it and pull the memory out of the darkness. “When I came to, I was holding your sister in my arms and she was weeping on my shoulder.”
“She was indeed and she now believes what Grandfather and I have believed all along,” Brian said with a warm smile on his handsome face.
“And what is that?,” Joe replied as he stuck his pitchfork under the dirty straw at his feet.
“That you are our Pa.”, Brian replied.
As Joe stared at Brian, a warm feeling came over him, a feeling of caring and pride. A distant feeling, yet one that felt familiar. “You have called me “Pa” twice,” he said.
“Maybe I should have done that from the beginning,” Brian replied.
“Thank you.,” Joe said quietly.
“Will you think about going to Saint Louis and seeing Frank Evans?”, Brian asked.
“I would go today if I thought they could help me remember my life here,” Joe replied “But what if I am not the person you, your sister and Scrub Pot think I am. What if I am....”
Brian cut him off, “You are Joseph Marley Dodge,” Brian replied firmly. “And no matter what, we are your family and we want you back.”
The edge in the young man’s voice was strong and stubborn, just like someone, someone Joe wanted desperately to remember, and suddenly the image of a Texas Ranger on a paint horse flashed across the black void that separated him from his past. Seeing the confused look in his eyes, Brian was quick to reach out. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” Joe replied “I saw something, but I don’t know who it was or why?”
“Something is happening.,” Brian said worriedly “Sit down.” A little shaken, Joe sat down on a sawhorse.
“What did you see?”, Brian asked.
“A ranger on a paint horse,” Joe replied “That was all.”
“Doc was a Texas Ranger,” Brian said “he rode a paint gelding. I remember that horse.”
“And his eyes are the same color as yours.,” Joe answered.
“Whose eyes, Pa?,” Brian encouraged ,“think!”
“Sarah’s brother.” he said. Now his head was spinning “Elliot. We rode together.”
Brian threw his arms around his father.
“Praise God,” he cried “Thank you Jesus! Now, will you come to Saint Louis with me?”
Tears were rolling down his face, tears that had never been shed for his losses. His hands were shaking as he took those of his son. “I will go, Brian.” he said , “and I will remember.” As they walked to the open door of the barn, Brian noticed his father rubbing the back of his neck. He could tell something was bothering him. “Are you all right, Pa?” he asked.
“I thought I was going under, like before,” he said “but it didn’t happen and I don’t know why. But every time I feel one of those spells coming on, the back of my head starts to hurt and the pain becomes unbearable.”
“Come on back to the house with me,” Brian said “I’d like to make sure you are all right before you start working again.” Joe agreed and a few minutes later he was sitting in the parlor with Sam holding a lamp for extra light while Brian pulled back Joe’s long dark hair to look at the back of his head. Carefully he ran his fingers over the ugly scar that started on the right side of Joe’s face and disappeared into his long thick hair. “It looks like a bullet trail,” Brian commented. “Were you ever grazed by a bullet?”
“If I was,” he said “I do not remember it.” Suddenly Brian looked up at his sister, “Sammy, go get me two mirrors, I want Pa to be able to see what I found.” She set the lamp down and dashed up stairs to her bedroom. Brian had found a thick lump of scar tissue at base of his father’s skull. He touched it gently and heard Joe draw in his breath sharply. “Sorry,” Brian apologized, “I am used to working on horses. I did not mean to hurt you.”
“That is where the pain comes from,” Joe told him “And leave it alone.”
“All right,” Brian agreed. “I think I know what may be wrong.”
“What ?”, Joe asked.
“From what I found at the end of that scar, it looks like you were shot from behind, a long time ago. I can not be sure, but I think the bullet, or part of it is still lodged in the old wound and putting pressure on you brain.”
“Then why am I still alive?”, Joe snapped as Sam returned to the room and handed him a mirror while her brother held the other one behind Joe’s head, so he could see for himself, the wound left from that terrible night all those years ago. “Someone wanted me dead,” he said to himself.
“There is a hard lump back here,” Brian said “and I think Dr. Evans will find that it is the cause of your memory loss and the seizures.”
Joe scrutinized the reflection he saw in the hand mirror he held and his mind began to drift. He could hear the shouting, the gun fire and the roaring of the fires around him, he could hear that voice, shouting to him.. But he was moving and did not turn around. “What is it Pa?”, Sam asked as she watched the haunted expression on his face.
Joe Dodge looked up at his daughter. “It was Doc trying to warn me to get out of the way. Something hit me from behind.”
“It was a bullet, Pa,” Brian said “and I believe that it is still there.”
Sam put her hands on her father’s shoulders. “We have to see this doctor Brian knows,” she said as she looked him in the eyes. “We are all going, you ,Brian, me , Jerrod, and Grandfather.”
Joe reached up an covered her hand with his. “Looks like we’ll be going to Saint Louis one day soon,” he said.
Sam smiled at him. “You bet we are.”, she replied.


++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bear Claw
Grant County Texas


Joe carried the fire wood inside and dropped it in the wood box by the kitchen stove. Scrub Pot was sitting at the table reading his bible. It had been a long day and the old man was tired.
“How was the baptism?”, Joe asked as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
“It went very well, “ Scrub Pot replied “Ely and Lilly have a fine baby boy. How are things at the ranch? I have not been over there since last week.”
“I have been thinking about going to Saint Louis,” Joe said. “But I am not sure I want to go right away. My memory has improved by being here with you and around Sam and Brian. I’d like to try to regain what I can on my own. Go to places where I once lived, or worked and see people who knew me back then and maybe I could recall more of my past.”
Scrub Pot closed his bible and looked at his son.
“Joe,” he said quietly as they sat together at the table . “If you saw Doc again, do you think it might help you?”
Joe Dodge looked down at his folded hands as they lay on the table in front of him. He never liked feeling helpless and now that part of his memory was returning, that was how he felt. “You say I rode with him and the rangers,” he said quietly, as misty, far away expression crossed his handsome face. “But all I remember is the sounds of battle, fire and then blackness.”
“It is as Brian has told you, my son,” Scrub Pot said “You were shot from behind, and the bullet is still lodged in your skull. What you see in your memory is right, there was a fire, and an explosion. You went after Caldero and that was the last glimpse I had of you until the day you showed up at the ranch.”
“May be we should go to Portersville., “ Joe said as he pushed back and rose from the chair, then crossed to the fire place to add another log. “I want to remember Doc Stevens., “ he said as he watched the sparks fly. “He visited me when I was staying at the ranch. We talked, but I had no memory of any history with him until the other day when I was at the house with Sam and Brian. Before then, I recalled nothing of a past with him, since the day Sam and Jerrod were married.”
“He was like a brother to you, Joe,” Scrub Pot said “but as stubborn as that man is, you are going to have to one day convince him that you really are my son. Not some drifter.”
“I have been thinking over what Brian said ,” Joe replied “ If there is a fragment of that bullet keeping me from remembering my past, and if it were to be removed, maybe I could regain all that I have lost.”
“Or you could die, Joseph,” Scrub Pot replied firmly “it is far too great a risk.”
“ I might be willing to take that risk, Father,” he said quietly “Some of my life and memory has come back, but it has only been since I have been around here where I lived once, where my wife and I started our family and then it was all gone.”
“It is not all gone, my son,” Scrub Pot replied “May be some time with Doc will open up yet another door.”
“I don’t know,” Joe replied “I would like to see him, before I make a decision about going to that doctor in Saint Louis..”
“Then you are yet to decide about it that.,” Scrub Pot said quietly and Joe could see the hint of relief that briefly crossed his somber expression.
“I would like to see Doc Stevens,” Joe replied “ You say we were close and may be spending a little time with him and his wife would help. ”
The old man smiled as rose from his chair. “Then we shall go,” he said “We can leave as early as tomorrow.”
Joe looked at his father. “I will have to let Sam know I am going to be away for a while,” he said “Ely can take over for me at the ranch.”
Scrub Pot was all ready rolling up his woolen army blankets. “Then you better ride,” he suggested. Joe slid his empty chair back into the table. “I will be back as soon as I get things arranged with Sam and Jerrod,” he replied, as he started for the door of the cabin.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++


I sat at my desk, going over the monthly accounts. Sam was sitting on the floor reading a letter that had come with the morning mail delivery from Grants Creek. “Jerrod!,” she said suddenly, “Victoria had a little girl!”
I filled the column in the ledger in with numbers in black ink instead of red and smiled. “What they name her?.”
“Sarah,” Sam replied as she looked up at me with tears in her dark eyes.. “ after my mother.”
“When did the new addition to the Stevens clan arrive?”, I asked as I lay aside my pen.
“Two months ago,” Sam replied “I was there when Victoria discovered she was going to have Sarah.”
My mind slipped back in time to that horrifying day out on the Kansas planes when Sam had been badly injured in that fall. I had hated to let her go, but I knew that she would be all right if she went back to Portersville with Doc. “We should go see them and the new baby,” I suggested “Think Trouble will be ready to go back to Portersville?”
She smiled up at me “He is ALWAYS ready, Jerrod,” she replied “But we have to much going on with the mares, the cattle and now there is a chance that my father might be able to get his memory back if Brian and I can convince him to see that doctor. Come summer we’ll go out there to see Doc and Victoria.”
Now I had no idea that while we sat in my office, talking about Doc and Victoria Stevens and their new baby girl, that my wife had a secret of her own, but she was not ready to share that with me yet. That secret would turn out to be my own beautiful daughter, Cassandra Ilene, but it was not time for that yet and there was a whole lot of events that were fixing to happen between now and then.
A knock sounded on the closed door of my office. “Boss?” I was not yet used to the foremen and ranch hands calling me that. I preferred to be called Jerrod, but they did not seem comfortable with it so I was “the boss.”
“Door’s open,” I replied “Come on in.”
Dakota Joe walked in his hat in his hands and from the look on his face I could tell he had something on his mind. “Mornin’ Pa.,” Sam said as she got up from her place on the brightly colored Indian rug she’d been sitting on. “There was a letter in the mail this morning from Doc,” she added “He and Victoria had a baby girl.”
“That is good news,” Joe replied. “I hope everyone is well.”
“They are,” Sam replied “What is on your mind?”
“I must to take some time off, “ Joe replied quietly “I need to get away from here for a while.”
Sam looked at her father, a worried expression crossing her face . “Have you changed your mind about seeing Dr. Evans?”
“No,” Joe replied “I have not made a decision yet. “I don’t know how long I might be gone, Sam. Ely will take my place and I will get back as soon as I can.”
“Where are you going?” she asked and from the tone of her voice I could tell she was a little worried. Her father had just come back into her life, and now he was leaving again.
“Portersville,” Joe answered “I want to see Doc Stevens.”
“Seeing Doc might be good for you.” Sam replied “When do you plan to leave?
“In the morning, ” Joe said. Sam looked at me and I nodded my agreement.
“Ely is a good man,” I said “and he will do a good job for you while you are away, but I sure don’t expect him to be as good with all those horses as you are, Joe.”
“Thank you, “ Joe said as he turned to go.
“Wait,” Sam protested “It is a long and dangerous ride over into the territory. Please tell me that you are not going alone.”
He smiled at her, “Your grandfather will be joining me.”
“That is good,”I added as I closed up my ledgers.The ranch accounting work
was done. “Just don’t let him cook for you . “, I added “ All right?”
Joe grinned “I have heard that my father is no cook.”
Sam joined Joe Dodge at the door. “Come down to the kitchen with me.” she suggested.
“You haven’t been cooking have you Sam?, ” I asked.
“No,” she replied “Esparanza has and I want to talk to my Pa before he leaves for Portersville.”
She had begun to call him her “Pa”. Though Joe was not used to hearing it, he sure seemed to like the sound of it. I saw the smile it put on his usually somber face. They left my office and I watched after them. Oh Lord, if you could just restore that man’s memory so he could remember that she is his daughter,” I said to myself as I walked out of the room and headed for the barn. With Joe leaving in the morning, I had to find Ely and tell him he was taking over.

++++++++++++++++


It was humid and misty that morning. But Spring was soon to give way to early summer and the heat would become close to unbearable at times. Scrub Pot looked back at the light in the window of his cabin. It was good to know that Esparanza would be there to tend his hearth and keep that lamp burning for him. He was not sure where the custom came from, but he liked it. Who would have believed that at his age, after many years of being a widower, he could have found such peace, happiness and stability with her. Two horses stood side by side by the front steps. Both were saddled and ready for a long ride. Joe Dodge checked the girth on his worn saddle as Scrub Pot tied his bedroll to the back of his. “Your journey has not been an easy one, my son,” he commented as he shoved his shot gun into its scabard on the saddle. With the ease of a man far younger than he was, Scrub Pot mounted his tall black and white paint. “Together we will find the way home,”.he added.
Joe placed his foot in the wooden stirrup and mounted his horse. “I have no wish to live on as I have, Father,” he said as he took up his reins. “I must reclaim what I have lost.”
"Then lets ride,” Scrub Pot replied and in the misty chill of the early morning their journey began.

“We face trials every day of life, Joseph,” Scrub Pot said as he rode along beside his son. “We must have faith, and hope that when we get to Portersville, something will awaken your memories.”
“Some days are light and others are dark,” Joe commented “I made a living as a wrangler all these years, as that is what I knew. I had to have a name, so I called myself “Dakota Joe.”
“Why would you pick Dakota for a name when you could not remember your own, my son?”, Scrub Pot asked.
“It was where I was living at the time.” There was such a gap in time and distance and in their relationship and Scrub Pot intended to build a bridge across it and learn all he could about what happened to Joe and where he had been for the last twenty years. “Do you remember anything more about Doc Stevens?”, he asked.
“I met him at the ranch.”, Joe replied “but I recall nothing about him passed that day.”
“Ah, but you remembered his horse, didn’t you?”
“I was confused,” Joe replied “Which seems to be the way my life has been. My stallion, Black Joe Diamond, I was so sure I saw him in the paddock that day.”
“You saw his son.,” Scrub Pot replied.
“Why do you not own him, Father?” Joe asked. The old man chuckled to himself. “Well, I had no intention of selling Smokey Joe to anyone, let alone Doc Stevens. That black stud colt was my last link to you and Black Joe Diamond, whom you loved so much. The mare I bred him too foaled just around midnight on All Saint’s Eve, about seven years ago. Doc was there when he hit the ground and made it clear that he was taking him. At the time I did not know that Black Joe had bred one last mare before he died. She was a big sorrel that belonged to Wolf Standing and Sam’s stallion, Trouble, is out of her. He is the last colt, Black Joe threw. He died that winter.
“How old was he?” Joe asked quietly
“He was twenty five years old.” Scrub Pot replied.
“Why I can remember him, but nothing else from my life, just shattered pieces of senseless images, I do not understand.”
“Black Joe Diamond was part of you, my son. “ Scrub Pot replied. “ and maybe Doc can help us make sense of those shattered pieces of your soul.”
“And what if Doc does not believe you, and what if I am not who you think I am?”
“You are exactly who I think you are, Joseph,” Scrub Pot stated firmly. Joe Dodge had no more to say as they rode on.

Impressum

Texte: Copyright (c)February 14, 2010-JWO
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 12.01.2013

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