Summary: From disasters to memories, could a warm bed be the piece de’ resistance?
Written for day 10 of the 2021 Advent Calendar.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1306

Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 10 *

Bottom Line

Joe and Candy were late to breakfast which displeased Hop Sing. He said nothing but then he didn’t have to as cold toast and congealed eggs on the table spoke louder than shouting Cantonese curses or banging pans in the kitchen.  The ultimate sign of his displeasure, of course, was the empty coffee pot which neither Joe nor Candy dared ask to be filled.

The duo had been late getting in the night before, which displeased Ben Cartwright but he said nothing to his son and foreman because they were grown men who made their own beds to lie in.  He did however indulge in a sly smirk and a bit of satisfaction knowing they would spend the day chasing the clock if they hoped to get to the annual Fireman’s Christmas Ball before the ladies were all taken.

Irritated when there was no morning coffee, Cochise stomped on Joe’s boot causing him to hop backwards out of the stall and into Candy who ended up in a wheelbarrow full of mucked out straw.

The rest of the day proceeded in similar fashion, the men moving from one disaster to another on what should have been a normal December 10. By midafternoon, Joe had had enough and called it quits, saying that nothing was as urgent as getting to the Ball on time. “Let’s get cleaned up,” he said. “I want to make it down the mountain by 4 o’clock before it gets dark.”

“As it is, we’ll be lucky to get to Bower’s Mansion before the girls are all spoken for. Unless…” Candy hesitated.

“Unless what?”

“We take that shortcut through Franktown.”

“The way our luck’s been running?” Joe pulled out a coin and flipped it in the air catching it on the descent. “Your call.”

“Heads we take the trail; tails the shortcut.”

Joe opened his fist. “Trail.”

They hadn’t traveled far before their path was blocked by a fallen tree.  With the mountain on one side of the trail and a steep ravine on the other, the only way through was to move the tree parallel with the trail.  Both dismounted and ground tied their horses.  Joe took the anchor position at the base of the tree while Candy moved to the other end.

“On three,” Joe said.

“Three,” Candy answered, lifting the narrow end and swinging wide to pivot the pine to the side of the road. Unfortunately, when he lost his footing on a patch of ice, the tree rolled knocking him down and trapping him on the snow packed ground.

“Are you all right?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, nothing hurt but my pride. Fetch the hand axe from my saddle bags and chop these branches off me, will ya.”

Joe worked quickly and soon he was able to pull Candy to his feet. When Candy turned around to pick up his hat, Joe commanded, “Take off your pants.”

Candy croaked, “What?”

“You heard me,” Joe said.

“Why?”

“Do you want to go to the dance or not?”

“Of course.”

“Then do as I say.”

“Why?”

“Your pants caught on the branches and ripped.”

Despite the frigid weather, Candy felt heat creeping from his throat to his scalp and he mumbled incoherently.

Joe’s brow knitted together as he worked to decipher his friend’s ramblings. When he thought he had the gist of it, he asked, “Which John? Ferguson or Stanfield?”

“Not John…long Johns.”

“What about them?”

“I’m not wearing any!”

“Not wear—it’s colder than a dead man’s nose! You trying to freeze your cojones off?”

“No! That’s why I’m not removing my pants!”

“You’re an idiot. Why would you leave the ranch in December without long underwear on?”

“I didn’t have a choice. We were late getting home this afternoon if you’ll recall.”

“We were both late but I managed to put my long johns on. What was your problem?”

“I forgot it was laundry day and… all my clothes were frozen in the wash shed.” Candy shrugged. “I found this pair of pants in Adam’s dresser and they fit… sort of… a little tight in the seat perhaps.”

Joe stood stone faced with his arms folded across his chest and stared. “It’s a lot roomier now,” he said. Slowly, his shoulders began to heave, then his whole body shook. Finally, he threw his head back and let out cackling howl.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s hilarious!” Joe managed to say between guffaws. “Wait until I tell—

“—you wouldn’t dare!”

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding up one palm against the sky while the other one rested on his bent knee. As he straightened up, he handed the axe to Candy and walked back to Cochise.

“Are you leaving me?”

“I’m getting my saddle bags.”

“You got spare pants in there?”

“No, but I do have a needle and thread.  Start a fire with those branches while I mend your pants.”

“And stand here stark naked while you do?”

There was an edge of hysteria to the protest, Joe noted, so he untied Candy’s bedroll and tossed it to him.

“You can wrap up in that while I stitch. Hurry up. We’re losing the light.”

As soon as the fire was roaring, Joe began mending the rip which traversed the seat of the pants in a straight line from the waistband to the crotch.  He finished in no time and handed them back to Candy who held them up to the firelight.

“How old were you when you learned to stitch like this? I mean, I can cobble together a patch if needed, but I can’t even see your stitches!”

“Seven.”

Candy whistled. “That’s young.”

“My mama died the summer before I turned five. The week before the accident she had made me a new flannel shirt for Christmas.  Since I didn’t grow very fast, I was able to wear it for a couple of years more.  One day Hoss and I were roughhousing in the barn and I caught the back on a nail.”

“You break skin?”

“Oh yeah. Pa was afraid of lockjaw and scrubbed the scratch hard with lye soap. Worse than a tanning, let me tell ya!  I put up quite a fuss and in the ruckus someone threw the shirt away. It was the last thing she ever made me and I was inconsolable when I found it in the rag pile. Wailed louder than when I got scrubbed.”

“Ouch!”

“Hop Sing repaired the shirt but he wouldn’t give it to me until I learned how to do a ladder stitch to his satisfaction.”

“Were you able to wear the shirt again?”

Joe nodded. “It was another year or two before I finally outgrew it. By then I’d made a few more repairs, but that was okay because every time I put a needle into the fabric and pulled the thread through, I could feel Mama guiding my hand as if she were right there beside me.”

“At the Army Posts I grew up on, the wives would give clothing to an orphanage when there were no more children in their own family to wear hand me downs. What happened to your shirt?”

“I still have it. In winter I wrap the flannel around heated bricks to warm the bed.” Joe gazed reflectively into the fire. “Thanks for helping me remember, Candy.”

“You know, we’re not that far past Franktown road. What do you say we backtrack and take the short cut?”

“Agreed. I don’t know about you, but my bottom’s frozen even with long johns on!”

Candy kicked a mound of snow onto the fire to extinguish it. “The sooner we line up our dances, the sooner you can get home to that warm bed.” And your memories.

The End

Character:  Joe
Activity: mending clothes

Link to Day 11 of the Bonanza Brand 2021 Advent Calendar:  Snow Angels – Pt 1 – by Sierras