Summary:  Grief, a misunderstood statement, and a heartfelt wish collide with unexpected consequences in this prequel.

Rating:  G   2,620 words

Weather Vane stories:
Weather Vane aka Looking to Heaven (by BettyHT)
The Weather Vane and Coming Home (by BettyHT)

Weather Vane

Looking To Heaven

For the third meal in a row, Little Joe Cartwright refused to eat. At lunch on Sunday, Ben Cartwright thought his youngest son might be ill or coming down with something. He was concerned. However, even though he insisted that his five-year-old son take a nap, he didn’t think Little Joe had any kind of fever, and after his nap, the boy seemed fine.

At dinner, however, Little Joe once again refused to eat and gave no reason for his lack of appetite. Cajoling and tempting him with promises of a dessert did nothing. It was Sunday evening, so there was dessert, but even that didn’t sway the boy from his stubborn refusal to eat.

“Pa, I’ll eat up his piece of chicken and his dessert too ifn he don’t want it.”

“Hoss, you have had quite enough to eat. Little Joe will sit here and he will eat.”

That didn’t work either. Hours after the meal was concluded, Ben had to admit defeat and send the youngster off to bed assuming that in the morning, he would be famished and eat. Apparently he wasn’t and he didn’t. Frustrated, Ben ate his breakfast nearly sputtering with indignation at being bested so easily by such a small boy over such a simple thing. He had an important meeting to attend and couldn’t stay there to force the issue with Little Joe.

“Adam, I need to go to town. The meeting about setting up the first school is today. I have to be there. The meeting is likely to take most of the day. With the weather the way it is, I’m not sure I can make it back home today. You are in charge of the boys. I’ve already talked to the men about making sure the chores get done. There’s not that much to do. Now, Christmas is in three days. I’ll certainly be home by then. I want the decorations to be complete. You know where everything is stored and where everything should go.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll take care of that.”

“Make sure that the boys help you. I want them to be in bed at their regular time at night too. No staying up late because I may not be home.”

“I’ll make sure they get to bed on time.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to have them take a bath too.”

“I can take care of that.”

“I know I can trust you to handle things. Now, one last thing: get Little Joe to eat. He’s skipped three meals, and I don’t want him to skip any more.”

Until then, Adam was feeling good about the instructions and being in charge. That last one though, he felt was unfair. “But, Pa, you couldn’t make him eat.”

“Now, Adam, he hasn’t eaten for a full day. Surely you can get a hungry boy to eat now. It shouldn’t be that difficult for someone as smart as you. In less than six months, you plan to travel east to attend college. Certainly someone who can do that can find a way to make a five-year-old eat his lunch.”

Unable to respond to that without being disrespectful or petulant, Adam remained silent but Hoss saw that muscle in the side of his cheek working and knew he was angry. He guessed he was going to do exactly whatever Adam told him to do that morning. However he doubted that Little Joe would be that compliant. He wasn’t.

“You kin tan me. You kin yell like Pa. I ain’t eating.”

Although Adam was angry to be addressed like that, Hoss saw that he was curious too. He wanted to know why so he asked.

“Why don’t you want to eat, Little Joe?”

“I just don’t.”

Pursing his lips and frowning, Adam was quiet for a time as he finished his lunch and waited for Hoss to finish his. Then Adam went into the kitchen, and Hoss and Little Joe could hear him talking softly with Hop Sing. When he came out, Little Joe was defiant.

“I don’t care what you told Hop Sing. I don’t care what food he makes for dinner. I’m not eating it.”

“Fine. C’mon, boys, we got a tree to decorate. I’m going to get the ladder and start putting ornaments on the top branches while you two decorate the lower branches. I’ll tell you which ornaments to use.”

Surprised that Adam didn’t make a bigger issue out of his refusal to eat, Little Joe went along with the instructions to decorate the tree. He was getting awfully hungry, but he had a goal that was more important than food. In the middle of the afternoon, it got even more difficult though. Hop Sing brought out three plates with two cookies on each plate.

“I try out new kind of cookie. You try. Tell me if you like.”

Hoss and Adam took a break from working and sat by the fireplace to eat the cookies. Hoss ate his first one so fast he hardly tasted it while Adam ate his slowly. Hoss did his best to eat the second one more slowly but still finished it before Adam had finished his first one.

“These are really good. Hey, Little Joe, kin I have yours seein’ as how you ain’t eatin’ ’em?”

“Now, Hoss, that’s not right.”

“But, he ain’t eatin’ ’em, Adam.”

“I know. But we should share them. How about one for each of us?”

With a grin, Hoss agreed that was fair and took a cookie from the third plate. Adam ate his second cookie and then broke the one from the third plate and gave half of it to Hoss who grinned broadly with sugar and cookie crumbs on his lips and chin. Adam shook his head at his brother.

“You’re going to be twice as big as me someday if you keep eating like this.”

“I hope so.”

Laughing, the two went back to work as Little Joe scowled. He trudged back to the tree looking back at the empty plates with a sad expression. At dinner, Hop Sing put a plate of fried chicken on the table with freshly baked biscuits and a bowl of fried apples still steaming with the smell of cinnamon and brown sugar wafting from the dish. Adam and Hoss filled their plates and began eating without even offering any to Little Joe. He sat there completely ignored by his two older brothers who smacked their lips and murmured their appreciation for the delicious food with nearly every bite.

Standing then, Little Joe was furious and addressed Adam. “You’re mean. I hate you!” Then he ran up the stairs. Soon they heard the door to his room slam shut.

Hop Sing stepped from the kitchen. “First part of plan work. Now you go see if second part work.”

“What plan? I didn’t know there was a plan.” Hoss looked from Hop Sing to Adam and back again.

“That’s because I knew you’d play along without being told what to do. Now, I need to go find out what got our little brother so upset. He might be mad enough to talk to me now.”

Upstairs, Little Joe was on his bed and ready to cry. When Adam came into the room, he wanted to yell at him or hit him or something. He expected Adam to yell at him and he was ready to retaliate.

“Little Joe, what’s wrong? Why are you angry at me?”

That approach confused him. He settled down a bit not knowing how to answer at first. Honesty won out. “You know I don’t want to eat, and you decided to make it harder for me to do that.”

“Pa’s not here. I thought it would be nice to have some good food for Hoss so he would be happy. It made me happy too, and Hop Sing was happy that he could please us. Now why would you be upset that we were happy?”

“You got me all mixed up now. I only don’t want to eat so I can go to heaven.”

Shocked, Adam sat on the side of the boy’s bed and reached out to take his hand. “You want to die?”

“No, I don’t want to die. I just want to go to heaven so I can see Mama.”

“Little Joe, what makes you think that not eating will make you go to heaven and see Mama?”

“At church, I heard Mister Willis say that his wife wasn’t eating and that she was gonna be in heaven by Christmas. You and Pa said Mama was in heaven. I figured if I didn’t eat, I could be in heaven by Christmas too. Then I could see Mama.”

“Oh, Little Joe, I’m sorry. It doesn’t work that way.”

“It don’t? Then was Mister Willis lying?”

“No, he wasn’t lying. Gertrude Willis has been very sick for quite some time. She stopped eating because she’s so sick. When her husband said she was going to be in heaven, he was trying to be polite.”

“How is that polite? I thought polite was saying pleases and thank you.”

“He didn’t want to come right out and say she was dying. He means she’ll be dead by Christmas.”

“So I can’t go to heaven and see Mama?” Adam shook his head. “But Adam, I miss her so much, and I want to see her. I can’t ever see her. At night, I look out the window and I make believe that one of those stars is her. But during the day, I can’t look at anything that is Mama.”

“I know. It’s hard. It’s hard for all of us.” He hugged his little brother. “Now, do you want to go have some dinner before Hoss eats it all?”

“I guess so. I’m starving.” He had one more plea to be sure before he ate anything. “And you’re sure I can’t get to heaven by not eating.”

“Sorry, but that won’t work. Nobody gets to go to heaven and come back. You only get there by dying.”

With a sigh, Little Joe nodded to show he accepted that truth. They headed down the stairs together, and soon there were smiles all around as Little Joe ate his dinner. After dinner, Little Joe and Hoss played with toy soldiers while Adam did a drawing. When he finished the drawing, he showed his younger brothers and told them his plan. Little Joe jumped up and down with joy as Hoss grinned broadly. Adam cautioned his brothers though.

“Now that means I need some time to do the work. You two have to take your baths tomorrow without me there to make sure you wash everything. You have to clean up the washroom too. There will be a list of small chores you need to do without me watching over you every minute. If you can do that, then I can do this.”

With the three working together, everything got done. That next afternoon, when Ben got home, he was amazed that the decorations were in place, the boys were clean, and Little Joe was eating his meals. Ben praised Adam for his responsible care of the family and the ranch while his father was gone. He was tired from his trip to town and doing business there and didn’t ask why Little Joe had been refusing to eat. Little boys often did things for no logical reason so he didn’t worry about it now that it was resolved.

But it was on Christmas morning that the most important task that had been accomplished by his sons was revealed. Adam carried in a large item covered by an old quilt and put it by the tree. A large metal rod stuck out from it. Ben had no idea what it could be, but when it was time to open gifts, his sons presented it to him. He pulled the quilt away to find an angel clutching three stars and riding an arrow attached to that rod.

“What is this?”

“It’s a weather vane, Pa.” Adam was rather proud of his work.

“Hmm, usually weather vanes are roosters or cows, or even ships. I’ve never seen an angel especially one holding three stars.”

“Pa, it’s to show our mothers. Adam put a star there for each of our mothers.” Hoss was proud of their gift and what it represented. “Adam did the work, but me and Little Joe did the other chores so he could have time to git it done. Adam said that was our part in the gift.”

“Yeah, Pa, and the angel shows they’re up in heaven. That big star is Mama.”

“Yup, every time we look up to see that weather vane, it’ll be like looking up at our mamas.”

“Yeah, and when the sun is shining, Adam says the stars will shine too.” Little Joe leaned over the arm of the chair and against his father’s shoulder admiring the weather vane and reached out to touch the metal stars.

Hoss went around and sat on the other arm of the chair. “Yup, he said they’d be shining with heaven’s light. That’s a right pretty thing to say, ain’t it, Pa?”

“Pa, I can’t wait to see Mama’s star shine.” Little Joe reached out and touched the largest star again. “It was really hard not to tell you the secret. Adam said I had to keep quiet. I been quiet about it forever. That’s Mama right there. Adam made it so big so I could see it even from a long way off.”

Not even realizing it, Adam had been holding his breath waiting for his father’s reaction. Marie’s death wasn’t that long ago, and the pain of it was still fresh for his father too. He was watching his father for every nuance of reaction. At Little Joe’s words, Ben nodded too overcome with emotion to speak at first. When he could, he said only a few words before his voice was too choked with emotion for him to continue.

“Merry Christmas, boys. We have them all here with us, don’t we?” When he regained his composure, he looked more closely at the quilt and had one more question. “Adam, where did you get this quilt?”

“It was in storage where we have old blankets and things that are worn out and that Hop Sing uses for scraps and things as he needs them.”

“This is a quilt that your mother made. It’s called the weather vane quilt. We used it for many years. You can see here and here where it was patched first by Inger and then by Marie until it was used and washed so much, I guess we used it up.”

To an amazed Little Joe, it was magic. “Adam used it to wrap up your present, Pa. It’s one of those Christmas miracles, isn’t it Pa?”

“I’m not sure if it qualifies as a Christmas miracle, but it certainly is a Christmas blessing, son.”

In his heart, Ben had thought this might be the saddest Christmas ever, but instead, it was heartwarming to have all that love surrounding him. He reached out his arms to tell his sons to all gather into a big hug. Even Adam joined in. After that, he found his voice was stronger.

“Today, as soon as it warms up enough, Adam and I are going to put this weather vane on the roof. I want to see these stars shine with heaven’s light too. I feel a little closer to having heaven right here on the Ponderosa today.”

“Pa, are you crying?”

“No, Little Joe, these are tears of joy. This time, these are tears of joy.”

Click here for the 2018 Advent Calendar – Day 4 – Rolling Stone aka A Perfect Christmas Eve by Puppycuddles