Chapter 9
The Art of Making Adam Angry
Whatever his family thought of Adam’s unexpected declaration of love, he never heard a word about it. Obviously the hint of self-mocking in Adam’s voice had been lost on them and they still were in shock from his uncharacteristic display of affection. Adam was quite happy with this, especially since his feelings towards the talents of a certain writer of the Territorial Enterprise changed abruptly only a few days later, when, during his now usual late night read-through of said newspaper, he reached the local news pages and came across Juliet Heathersone’s account on the ‘Ponderosa’s Involvements In Irish Gold’.
“What the heck…I don’t believe it!” His cry startled his father out of his own evening reading of the Good Book.
“What is it, son?” Ben asked, standing up.
“No, she couldn’t possibly…. Oh, no…no, no!”
“What?” Ben repeated. “And who? Adam?”
“This, this…infuriating…mimesis of a lady!”
“A—mimesis?” Ben furrowed his brows.
“A mimesis, an imitation, a false gem, a forgery, a fake, a phony, a—”
“I got it, son, I got it. Calm down Adam, this can’t be that bad.”
“Don’t patronize me, Pa!”
“I don’t—” Ben made a defensive gesture and sat down in his chair with studied calm. “I just don’t understand why you are so agitated. Surely Miss Juliet didn’t write anything…improper?”
“Improper, that’s just the word. Improper, inappropriate and inadequate!”
“What did she do? I thought you liked her writing.” Ben was bemused. Adam wallowing in synonyms was always a sure sign he was very annoyed. But hadn’t his son spoken about Miss Juliet in very high praise only days before?
“Leprechauns!”
“What?”
“Lepre—bah, never mind. I took our fair ladyship here out to lunch two days ago when I supplied the horse. Juliet and I talked about English folk tales. She has a way of telling the Arthurian Legend….” Adam seemed to drift away for a second but jolted himself back immediately. “Anyway, I told her how Hoss stumbled across these phoney Irishmen taking them for leprechauns. And now today, what do you think is in the newspaper the whole district reads? Here, Pa, listen, and listen good: ‘The Ponderosa, never known for being substantial mining ground or harbouring notable amounts of precious metals, evidently has its own little bullion secrets in the form of pots of gold.’ And it goes on and on. The whole story is in there, but just like it had happened only yesterday. It’s all there: pots of gold, Hoss, small green men, and, and pots of gold and—everything!” Adam blurred, while time and again stabbing his index finger at the newspaper rather violently.
Despite Adam’s obvious rage Ben chuckled. “Well, you have to admit, this is a very entertaining story.”
“But Pa, don’t you see? It’ll be just like back then! She wrote about that stupid pot of gold. And the way she puts it people will think it’s still there. They’ll come in droves and roam the land in search of that bloo—of that gold. Just like then. Or like the time Sam Clemens wrote about the Big Man. Don’t you remember what happened then?” Adam slammed the paper on the coffee table with more ferocity than necessary.
Now Ben saw the point. “No! We can’t let that happen again. We have to do something about that.”
Adam got out of his chair. He picked up the newspaper and slapped it in the palm of his hand. “Don’t worry, Pa, don’t worry. I’ll do something about it.” He went to the fire place and made to throw the offending piece of paper into the flames. He caught himself at the last moment, gave the gazette one more glance and set it down on the table again. “I’ll go into town tomorrow and take care of it.” He spoke very calmly, very coolly. But his words carried a willful threat.
I just love so much that you developed a friendship between Adam and Juliet in this series before developing a romance (though of course there were sparks from the start). ? I just always feel like friendship is so important for a couple …
Enjoyable, as your writing always is. So glad there’s more to go. Thx for writing! (And hope all is well w you …)
Oh, oh, I’m so happy you are starting to read the series!
I agree, friendship is important for a couple. And I really wanted to explore why they would fall for each other rather than making it love at first sight. Even though I suspect ghat at the end of the day it was love at first sight, only they did not recognise it for what it was.
I hope you’ll enjoy the otherbstories, too.
(And yes, all is well. Just keep my fingers crossed it stays so.)
I would pay to give Adam a bath!!!? Like the way this is headed.
Well, yes, who wouldn’t? 🙂
Thanks a lot, Neano, for reading this and for letting me know you liked it. It’s very much appreciated!