Summary:  Missing scene from “The Avenger”

Rating:  G  (890 words)

The Stuff of Nightmares

 

I could feel the coarseness of the hemp rope as it settled around my neck and a bleak despair filled me as, beside me, the hangman reached to loop a second rope over my father’s head.

The fire, started by Hawkins’s men, illuminated the street in front of the gallows and lit the faces of the watchers with an almost devilish glow. Triumph was evident in their expressions, the firelight highlighting their gloating smiles. I looked for my brothers, expecting them to be here, but they weren’t. Perhaps it was too much to expect, for them to watch their brother and father die in front of them.

The hangman reached for the lever that would operate the trapdoor and I felt myself tense, knowing this was it. There was no way out now. My life was over.

****

“Adam,” my youngest brother’s worried voice roused me from restless sleep, “Adam, you okay?”

I opened my eyes, realising that I’d been dreaming. On the bedroll beside me Joe was propped up on his elbow, watching me with concern. The flames from the campfire reflected in his anxious eyes and I shuddered faintly, the details of my dream still all too vivid.

“Nightmare?”

Joe’s question was sympathetic. He, of all my family, was only too aware of the terrors of bad dreams. He’d suffered from them a lot as a youngster.

“About that night?” he continued, when I didn’t answer, surprising me with his perceptiveness. “The hanging?”

Closing my eyes I tried to relax and push back the memories. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“I get them too you know,” Joe said softly. “Only in mine, Lassiter doesn’t succeed. Sally keeps to that lie and Hoss and me, we can’t save you. We try, but we’re too late. We’re just too darn late and you and Pa …”

As his voice trailed off in shuddering sigh I opened my eyes again and glanced over at him. He was looking away from me, toward the fire, and his expression was one of horror. I knew what he was imagining; I’d seen the same thing in my dreams many times since that night. Pa and me dangling at the end of the ropes.

“You never said anything,”

“How could I? You and Pa, you were the ones that lived through it, the ones that almost died. I thought if you were able to forget it, to put it in the past, then I sure as heck should be able to do the same.”

“Yeh well,” I found myself chuckling even though the situation was far from amusing. “Seems I haven’t been quite as good at ‘putting it in the past’ as you thought.”

“Can’t blame you for that. You came real close to dying. If it hadn’t been for Lassiter you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Sure I would. You and Hoss would have had to start that small revolution you were telling Pa about.”

“That would just have meant we’d all have been killed, I reckon, by Hawkins’s men. And the good people of Virginia City sure wouldn’t have lifted a hand to help us.”

“You sound kind of bitter there, little brother.”

“And aren’t you?” Joe turned his head to look me in the eyes. Not just bitter, I saw from his expression, but angry too.

“They were scared, Joe. Hawkins had them scared half to death.”

“I’ve known those people most of my life. I thought they were my friends, our friends, yet they just stood by and almost let you hang. How could they do that Adam? How could they?”

I understood Joe’s anger, though I didn’t share it. The man I was angry at was dead, killed along with half his men by Lassiter and my brothers. “Hawkins knew how to ‘persuade’ folk into his way of thinking. Threaten a man’s family, his livelihood, and he’ll likely do what you want.”

“A bunch of cowards!” Joe spat out.

“Perhaps, but try not to blame them too much. They were just too frightened to stand up to Hawkins.”

Joe didn’t reply immediately, instead lying back down on his bedroll, head cushioned on his saddle. “Think the nightmares will stop?” he asked eventually.

“Sure they will,” I told him confidently. “After all in the end it turned out okay. Pa’s fine, I’m fine and Hawkins won’t trouble us again. The memories will fade and so will the bad dreams I reckon. And talking of dreams, you’d best get some sleep, got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

Joe didn’t protest and within minutes the sound of his even breathing let me know that he’d taken my advice and fallen asleep. I shifted a little, trying to get comfortable and closed my eyes. As I drifted off I thought of Lassiter and gave silent thanks that he’d happened along when he did. I wondered vaguely where he was now, if he’d found the men he sought. He was a driven man, Pa had said, and I guess that was true. For Lassiter there had been no last moment reprieve, he’d seen his loved ones die before him. I was a lucky man, the bad dreams might remind me of what had happened but I was alive to have those dreams. What had happened to Lassiter’s family was truly the stuff of nightmares.

 

Inspired by:  The Avenger

Directed by:  Christian Nyby

Written by:  Clair Huffaker