Summary:  What could  a 17-years-old Adam do to avoid chores ?

Rating:  K+  (1,600 words)

A visit and a cup of tea

Adam, 6ft,2in,  moved on….  He closed his book and put it down on the edge of the chimney…

– Reading will kill you, big  brother, said Joe with an ironic smile….

– Ah ah very funny.

– But that’s true.. Joe is right, you pass sooo  much time in your books , you brain will melt… ., replied Hoss…

– That’s something that won’t never happen to you..

As he headed for staircases, with satisfaction on his face for having closed his brothers mouth, he stopped… He didn’t reach the first step… Adam fainted and collapsed…

– Hey,. OH ADAM… DADBURNIT, what happens ?

Joe  rushed to Adam… Adam was on the flour,  unconscious…

-PAAAAAAAAAA….

Big  panic on the Ponderosa… Adam had just made a very funny joke and now he was on the ground.. Unable to moove, unable to speak…. Just on the ground…  Hoss grabbed his brother  and put him on the chesterfield… Ben placed pillows behind the head of his son… He undid the shirt and the belt of Adam’s trousers…. He lightly slapped Adams cheeks… Adam didn’t regain consciousness…. Ben put his head on Adams chest….

– I don’t hear his heart beating..

Ben tried to shake Adam’s shoulders, pressed Adams chest…. He had to do something…. Acting was always better as doing nothing… Hop Sing, not here….He had left to celebrate a birthday in  Virginia City….

A tear went down on Bens cheek, he felt powerless, the situation was beyond him.. It was not possible , his son could’nt be now at the end of  lifestrip… Impossible … Not  like that… Not without telling… Without telling, of course that The Rearper never tells , before taking someones life…

*****

-Toc-Toc….Ben was s so prostrate , that he didn’t hear knocking on the door…  Joe put his hand on his fathers shoulder.  Ben was only watching Adam….

– Hi, Joe….

– Hi Mr Coffee… Come in…

– I won’t stay longer… But what happens…Oh, Ben,  What happens to Adam ?

Ben didn’t give any answer…  Joe explained.

– He fainted…. Hoss left to catch the doctor… You didn’t see him?

-I arrived by the other track… I just came back from Carson City,  I had to verify something.. And Adam had said, I had to come to pick him…

– What for?

– He made me a proposition.. I need some help in town…

– I don’t understand, Adam had to leave next week to go to San Francisco…

– He did not tell me about any displacement… He said to me that he was available and that I could count on him…

********

No need to say  that people on the Ponderosa were shaken by what had happened.

-Pa, I found the doctor…

And yes, sometimes miracles occured.. In the middle of thriller, a light shines… Hoss  had crossed the doc on the track….

– where is he?, asked the doctor

– there on the chesterfield, Doctor…

– Since how long is he just like that?

Nobody could tell. How long ?

Paul opened his bag and caught his instruments, to listen to the noise of the ill organ… He hoped, he would be able to hear a heartbeat or fell Adam’s breathing.

– he’s breathing, but it is weak….

– He is alive, then?

– Yes, it’s serious but he is alive… I do not understand; the heart beats very slowly…. I have to manage to support the heart rate…

– How?

-A herbal tea of hawthorn… I have it in a bottle…

Roy and Hoss move back, letting Joe pass with a cup filled with shaking water… Ben supports his son in the arms and  slip the drink between Adams lips.

– Have a drink, son,  slowly…

As when he had been a baby.  Ben was doing now for  his son the same loving gestures that he always had had … With loving gestures, with love… Like a mother….

– this should stabilise the heart.. And he will be able to stand… He is strong… But I would like to understand what could cause this… He is going to regain consciousness…. You know what, Ben, you will take him up in his room…. I will now  leave , but I will come back again very quickly… He is in the clear, Ben….

– Thank you Doctor…

Paul Martin left  the ranch with Roy Coffée…Ben heard the ring of steel against steel as a far door clanged shut.

Adam was left unconscious on the chesterfield, Roy, Joe and Hoss completely into a panic and Ben devastated..

You, dear readers,  deserve to have some explanation…. Adam had spent some hours in the city… He had  done a lot and had met different people. His first visit had been for the sheriff, Roy Coffee, he had offered to help him, without saying  more.. Then he had met Sally from the saloon, then an old schoolfriend.   But afterwards, Adam hadn’t gone back at home… No, he had spent a few hours in the teepee of his friend «young wolf» in the tribe.  He had shared a meal with them and had exposed his projects.

Later;

– doctor? How is he ?

– hem Ben… Let me be frank….

What happened  ? An other faintness? An accident? Oh not, nothing. Ben wished that Paul Martin could examine Adam seriously to be sure that he had nothing and then especially, he absolutely wanted to understand what could  have caused that.

–  Ben…. Adam has no cardiac problem…. He fainted , that’s all… But I would like to understand why his heart beat less quickly… Ah Adam, here your are ? Ready now ? May I examine you ?

–  Allright, do what you have to do… , he sighed and took his shirt away.

– Does it mean, that my boy caused you some troubles ?  asked an angry Ben…

– oh no, I just….

– QUIET,  ADAM….”

Adam, as he saw the face of his father, told to himself that it was better to obey…

” He Adam; let me have a word with you….”

Paul Martins voice was unusually low, Adam disclose could even feel a little bit of irritation. Irritation, or even rage… The doc laid his hand on Adam’s shoulder…. The left hand of Paul Martin on Adam’s shoulder was strong and muscular. Fingers were moved aside and covered part of the shoulder and of the back of the young man, his patient, who could have been his son. Even if there were softness in the way the left hand of the doctor touched Adam’s shoulder, it was not without some firmness.

-“Adam, would you dare to swear me that you absorbed nothing in the hours which preceded your  faintness?”, added the doctor.

– My fai fa faintness ? What do you mean, doctor?, asked Adam, being suddenly nervous.

– Your father said to me that before you went to bed,  you had a spasm, or cramp; is it right ?, asked the doctor with a puzzled face.

-hem  yes, I guess so.

Adam had big GLOUPS in the throat, and he couldn’t swallow it…

– Well, euh,

– Adam I think that it is time to spill the beans…, replied Ben with sterness in his voice.

– Allright,  I went to «wolf young» and I asked him an herbal tea . I needed some rest. I just wanted to sleep… But I said to him, it has to be serious…

– Oh I see and what did he make you drink?

-pft, no idea…

– Adam, it is very important… Do you  remember what he gave you?

– Adam, I hope, you didn’t drink the first bottle he gave you without asking more about it, asks a very angry Ben..

– No, Pa,  I wouldn’t never have done something like that…

– You see me delighted son, the space of one second, I was very afraid….

– Then Adam, what did you drink ?

– I think that it was plants; a knack which finishes in INE: Disparine, or Diligatine, Digi

– digitaline?

-That’s right…

– YOU DAWN IDIOT….”

Ben exploded.

-“MY SON, GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL..”.

Oh no, Adam prayed  for  himself, please; His father was mad, for sure, he was in big trouble. He has just celebrated his 17 birthday and he was in danger of not reaching the next.

“Hey pa, calm down,  I am alive, it’s the most important.. Pa, I understood… I won’t do it again…

– Happy to hear you say that….. ADAM, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ? A FOUR-YEAR OLD BOY, I COULD UNDERSTAND… BUT YOU’RE AN ADULT, ADAM… AN ADULT…”

Please, no more yelling… no more shouting in my ears, or I will finish deaf… With a good heart but with a severe loss of my audition;.. Adam was praying again for himself.

“Adam, you know, I understand the anger of your father. You did something stupid, very stupid…” added the doctor with a stern voice.

– But doctor,  digitaline is a cure, isn’t it ?

– And it seems to ME, YOUNG MAN, that you are not  a doctor… You are only half informed.. Yes the digitaline intervenes in many cures to treat on diseases of the heart, but in strong doses, it can be lethal… What you had, it is a cardiac attack caused by the extract of plant….

– I did not know, doctor.., ADam replyed, looking at the end of the bed.

-You bet, you didn’t. Otherwise, I don’t think that you would tried it. And how many cups did you drink ?

– Maybe the whole bottle, or the half…”

…

Paul and Ben exchanged one look. … Adam surprised their connivance and started to feel more nervious.

-“Adam, I might give you a tanning for that.

– Bah, doctor, I am an adu…..

– No, Adam, don’t say that . An adult does not act suchlike, and you know it… You acted like a kid…, Paul replied, sharply.