Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 4*

Summary:  To some, the holidays aren’t always merry, nor bright.
Rating:  G
Words:  950

Yesterday Series:

Yesterday A Jealous Manb, aka Today’s Lonely Fool
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

Dressed up in their finest clothes, earlier in the afternoon the Cartwrights had ridden into Virginia City to attend the town’s annual Christmas dance.  The festivities had begun around four o’clock, and so far, was lasing well into the night.  Townspeople, ranchers and their families and hands, and visitors alike were enjoying the merriment of celebrating the upcoming holiday.  Adam and Joe were among the few suitable bachelors stealing the limelight, bearing with good grace all the mothers introducing their young and eligible daughters.  They willingly accepted that there were certain etiquettes when dancing in these circumstances, not too close, and certainly not too often less either wish to be involved in an arranged marriage, possibly with a shotgun held tightly by a concerned father.

Standing the opposite side of the room, away from the raised platform where the small band played, Ben half-heartedly listened to Sheriff Roy Coffee detail the virtues of the various partners with whom his sons danced.  In time, Ben realized that one of his sons was missing.  Looking across the dancehall, Ben excused himself and went searching.

It only took ten minutes for the worried father to find his wayward son, after a helping head tilt by Doctor Paul Martin alerting him that his son was no longer inside.  Stepping out to the planked boardwalk, Ben saw the object of his search leaning into one of the building’s gable support posts, forlornly looking up to the stars that twinkled in the cloudless night.

Approaching his son, “Hoss?”

Without facing his father, Hoss quietly answered, “Hey Pa.”

“What are you doing out here?”

“Ain’t much inside for me, is there?”

Understanding, Ben offered comfort by placing a hand to his son’s shoulder.

“I ain’t begrudging Adam and Joe, nor you.”  One side of his mouth half quirked up, remembering Ben and the Widow Hawkins sharing an earlier dance.  “It’s just the way it is.”

Standing straighter, slipping hands into his wool jacket pockets, Hoss turned away from the bright lights and noise, and strode towards the café down the street.

Ben followed.  His heart went out to his large and gentle son.  It had only been a few months since Ragan Miller had left Virginia City, and his son.

*****

Choosing from one of the many empty tables in the establishment, father and son pulled out a chair and took their seats.  After ordering coffee, they sat in quiet solitude.

“Pa, ya ever think that maybe our lives are just repeatin’ what someone else has lived, or wrote?”

Nodding in thanks to the waitress who placed two saucers and cups of coffee on the tabletop, Ben replied, “I’m not sure I understand.”

After taking a sip of coffee, “Sorry I dragged ya away from the party.”

“That’s okay, I needed a break from Roy and all the advice he was offering.  Anyway, I was ready to escape for a while, there was just too much noise.”

“If unmelodious was the song, it was a hearty note, and strong*,” Hoss expounded.

“That it was; whether the punch was spiked or not,” Ben good naturedly answered, slightly raising his coffee cup in a small salute.

“Naw, I ain’t thinking about the dance.”  With his eyes taking on a look of far away, “It was like I asked ya, are we just a different set of players partakin’ in a play?”

Concerned more than he realized, “Hoss, this doesn’t sound like you.”

“Ah shucks Pa.”  Blushing, Hoss continued, “I was reading one o’ your books, one by Sir Walter Scott.”

“He’s a very good author.” Unknowing what else to say, Ben drank the last of his coffee.

“I’d guess, what with him havin’ a book published.  But what I don’t get his how well he can describe life; it’s like he’s describin’ how we’re livin’ our lives.  Though there were a passel of words I didn’t understand, the rest a what he wrote kind of gave me the idea a what he was talkin’ about.”

Wracking his brain, trying to remember which book his son might be philosophizing about, Ben wrapped his hands around his empty coffee cup.

Finishing his beverage and setting his own empty cup down, “I don’t mean ta make ya so worried, Pa.  I know you and my brothers been talkin’ about me not being myself since….   I just needed help thinkin’ and what I read…. Well, I was hoping that, maybe readin’ would help bring back my holiday cheer.”

Nodding, “Ah, ‘Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale; ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer, The poor man’s heart through half the year*,” Ben quoted.

For the first time in a long time Ben saw a true smile appear on his son’s face.

Nodding, Hoss replied, “Just don’t be expected me to be ’gamboling’ about like Adam and Joe are so fond a doin’.”

“No, but we can share a good time watching the two of them scampering out from the clutches of many a daughter’s mother.”

Standing and dropping a few coins on the tabletop, the big man paid for his and his father’s drinks.

“Ya know, maybe instead of sittin’ like a flower on the wall, I think I might go ask one ‘o them kirtle sheened gals for a dance.”

“I think you might be pleasantly surprised.”

The End

My phrase:  “If unmelodious was the song, it was a hearty note, and strong” (*)from Old Christmastide by Sir Walter Scott.
My character: Hoss Cartwright

Episode inspired:  She Walks in Beauty
Title inspired by the BeeGees’ song of the same title. 

If you wish to read what I wrote of the immediate aftermath following Ragan Miller’s departure, see my story “Yesterday a Jealous Man, Today a Lonely Fool”, another song inspired story.

Link to Bonanza Brand 2023 Advent Calendar – Day 5 – Silent as the Snow by mcfair_58