Summary:  Prequel stories set in the time shortly after the family has lost Marie and in the pre-Christmas season.  The first one is about Adam, and the next two are about Little Joe who is sad and the couple of ways that Adam finds to bring him out of that sorrow including one his father isn’t entirely pleased to see but the other is amazing.

Rating:  K+  (2,336 words)

Messages

A Message to Ma

Getting a ranch established in the near wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains wasn’t easy. There were many dangers in the environment, and some who wanted to take by force what others paid for and sweated to develop. People had to be strong and tough to survive. One resilient family was headed by Ben Cartwright. He had two young sons when he arrived in Nevada: Adam who was seven years old and Hoss who was almost two. There weren’t many youngsters in the area, and Adam was befriended by some Paiute boys. They taught him a lot of their skills through play. Adam learned to fish their way, to track and to set snares, and how to walk almost silently.

Early one summer morning, Adam was with his Paiute friends and saw a shaman performing a ceremony. He was burning desert sage, chanting something, and then using his hands to help the smoke dissipate above his head as he bent into the column of smoke. Adam asked what he was doing, and his new friends said he was talking with the spirits. They would speak to him in dreams. Adam wasn’t sure who their spirits were, but he had two he knew about: his mother who had given him birth but who had died as a result, and his Ma who had loved him, cared for him, and then been taken away brutally in an Indian attack. Every day he wished he could somehow talk with his Ma. She had been a source of comfort to him every day they had been together. She had taught him to love. When she was so violently taken from him, he had lost some of his ability to express his love. He thought now that perhaps there was a way to speak with her. He gathered some desert sage with the help of his friends and wrapped it carefully into his knapsack. When he got home, he stashed the sage in the bedroom he shared with Hoss. That night he used a sheet of paper that he would normally have used for drawing pictures, and he wrote a letter using the skills his father had been able to teach him.

Dear Ma

            Pa, Hoss, and I are living near Lake Tahoe now. Hop Sing lives with us. He cooks and does our laundry and we love him. We have some land with big trees. We have cattle too. We have enough to eat now. We hunt and we fish too if we have to. There are some Indians living near us and we are friends. I know some Indians killed you but Pa says they were fighting because they had to. I miss you very much. I want you to know that I am taking good care of Hoss for you. He’s getting real big. I can hardly carry him any more. He sleeps with me when there are storms. He sleeps with me too when he is sad. He is not sad too much so please do not worry. Please say hello if you see my mother up there. Pa says I look like her so look for a mother who looks like me. Tell her I am a good boy if you see her. My friends say you can talk to me in my dreams so I will wait to hear from you.

Your loving son,

Adam

The next morning after finishing his chores, Adam stood at the fireplace in his home. He had to watch over Hoss as his father had left to work with the cattle. He retrieved the sage from his room and took the letter from the small writing table in his bedroom. Hop Sing had lit a fire in the fireplace earlier to removed the morning dampness from the room. He laid the sage on top of the coals there and when the sage caught fire, he dropped the letter on top of the small fire. The sage and the letter were quickly consumed by the flames and the fire returned once again to glowing coals

Playing In the Snow

After a long cold ride back from Virginia City, Ben Cartwright was warmed emotionally as he rode into the yard of his home only to be greeted by his youngest son who was as excited and happy as he had ever seen him. Only months before, Little Joe had been morose at the death of his mother. For quite a long time, his sorrow had matched his father’s and neither could find much joy in life. Early that morning when preparing to go to town, Ben had wondered if it was wise to leave him in the care of his brothers when Little Joe had begged instead to go with his father. However it appeared all had gone very well and Ben was quite relieved and in fact pleased at his decision. Little Joe was showing some of the happy child spirit that had been missing for a long time. Perhaps Christmas would be a happy time after all and the small gifts in his saddlebags and the candy for the stockings would bring back some of the joy in the household.

“Pa, come and see the snow people we made.” Little Joe was very excited and grabbed his father’s hand to pull him to come with him to the back of the house.

“A snowman?”

“No, well yes and no. Adam helped me and Hoss make a snowman and a snowwoman. Come and see.”

Little Joe tugged harder at his hand and led him around to the back of the house where the snow was trampled thoroughly and two very large snow people stood majestically looking out over the Ponderosa. Each was at least eight feet tall and clearly there had been some significant effort expended in producing these works of snow art. Yes, there was a tall male snowman with a hat, broad shoulders, and what appeared to be a pipe in his mouth fashioned from some twigs. There was a slightly shorter figure who was clearly a female with a broad skirt for the base. It was apparent that Adam had applied his considerable skills to the project. Ben did have one question though. A rather large ball of snow was on the ground directly between the two snow people.

“Little Joe, what’s that round ball at their feet?”

“I dunno. Adam said they’re making a baby. What’d he mean by that, Pa?”

“He meant that I will be having a talk with my eldest son and soon.”

“Are you mad at Adam?”

“Let’s just say that we need to talk and leave it at that.”

“When you talk to me, I usually am in trouble.”

“Adam is a young man. It’s different when you’re a young man. But, he might just get coal in his stocking instead of candy when Saint Nick visits.”  Muttering a bit more, Ben turned to leave.

Little Joe nodded and watched his father walk to the house. He ran toward the stable. “Hoss, Hoss, Adam’s in trouble and we might get more candy in our stockings cause he’s gonna get coal. Pa said so. Pa said he’s gonna give Adam a message and he better remember it.”

Messages To Mothers

For weeks before Christmas, Ben noted that Adam and Hop Sing were often deep in conversation about some secret project. He knew it was secret because both would be very quiet as soon as anyone else got near them when they were talking. Then Adam would lock himself in his room and be working on some project that he would cover if anyone knocked and wanted to come in. Clearly he had some secret for some member of the family.

On Christmas Eve, Little Joe was as sad as he had been many days since his mother had died. Not even the Christmas decorations, his stocking hanging by the fireplace, and the promise of a present or two was enough to shake the deep sorrow that afflicted the little boy. Sitting beside him, Adam asked him what he would say to his mother if he had the chance.

“I’d tell her I love her, that’s what I’d say. It don’t matter. She’s gone, and she can’t hear me.”

“She is, but what if I found a way for you to send her a message?”

Turning toward Adam and sitting up with a hopeful expression, the six-year-old was torn between misgiving and hope. “Adam, how could you do that?”

Hop Sing and I have been working on a project for tonight. Now, here, write your message on this paper.” Adam smoothed out a tiny piece of paper and helped Little Joe write. As soon as “I love you, Mama” was completed, Adam rolled the paper up telling Little Joe to get his jacket. Ben was worried but intrigued by what his son had planned and followed them out the door. He was sure that Adam wouldn’t do anything to cause harm to Little Joe but had no idea what he meant when he said he had a way for Little Joe to send a message. Standing in the back of the house waiting for them, Hop Sing set a small paper lantern on the table there and stepped back with a small bow to Adam. First telling Little Joe what he was going to do, Adam took the paper tube and lit it with a match eliciting a groan from Little Joe even as Adam used it to light a small candle in the lantern. Little Joe’s concern was replaced by amazement when the lantern rocked a little and then soon rose into the air and went higher and higher as it sailed off toward the lake on the light breeze. Little Joe watched, mesmerized by the sight, until the lighted lantern disappeared in the distance.

“Where did it go, Adam? Where did it go?”

“Mama got your message, Little Joe. That’s where it went. She took it and now she heard what you had to say to her.”

“Can I send another message, Adam? Can I?”

“Next Christmas, Little Joe. Every Christmas, we can stand here and you can send her a message. She’ll be waiting for it.” Seeing twelve-year-old Hoss standing to the side looking happy for his little brother but a bit wistful, Adam smiled. “Hoss, Hop Sing made one for you.”

Turning then, Hoss was overjoyed to see Hop Sing coming from the house with another Kongming lantern and a small piece of paper and a pencil. Hoss hurriedly wrote his note, and the family stood and watched the second lantern arise and float away to the lake. Hoss had tears in his eyes but not as many as his father had not only for his wives who were lost but for his sons who loved their lost mothers and for his eldest son who so honored them and the sons they had left behind. He could not have been prouder of Adam at that moment for what he had done for his brothers. What happened next though nearly overwhelmed Adam. Hop Sing brought out a third lantern and handed a small piece of paper to Adam.

“Now you do same as brothers.”

“Hop Sing, I don’t need to do this.”

“All family. All brothers. All do this. Important. Now write and go light candle. Cold out here and Hop Sing want to serve dinner soon and get warm again.”

Hop Sing put a hand on Adam’s shoulder to urge him forward, and after Hop Sing had done all the work to create the lantern, Adam couldn’t refuse him. However, seeing Adam’s hand shaking as he wrote and then lit the candle, Ben knew that they needed to do something more than they had already done. He moved the two younger boys forward and wrapped his arm around Adam’s shoulders. Little Joe took Adam’s hand and Ben’s other hand and Hoss draped his arm over his father’s even though he had to reach up to do it. They stood that way for a moment until Ben began singing Silent Night and Adam joined in with a shaky voice that grew stronger as he sang. It was cold so they only sang one verse outside, but it was enough. By the time it ended, they were losing sight of the third lantern.

By the time they turned to go into the house, Little Joe’s spirits were obviously improved as he grabbed some snow to throw instigating a mini snowball fight on the way back inside. It could have been more, but all were cold and none wanted to risk being late for the dinner that Hop Sing had told them he was anxious to serve. It was a wonderful atmosphere at dinner and later around the tree singing and sharing the Christmas story. After Hoss and Little Joe were sent off to bed, Ben and Adam made sure the house was locked up tight and the fires were banked for the night.

“Son, how did you learn about those lanterns?”

“I was doing some of my reading to prepare for college and they talked about the Mongol armies using airborne lanterns for signaling so I asked Hop Sing about that.”

“Intelligence, education, and research make for a powerful combination.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“What if it hadn’t worked?”

“Oh, Hop Sing and I tested a couple to make sure.” With a grin, Adam headed up to bed then leaving his flabbergasted father standing in wonder once more.

Tags:  Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Family, Hoss Cartwright, Joe / Little Joe Cartwright