Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 8 *

Summary: Jamie tries to learn more about his oldest new brother, but gets something unexpected in the end!
Rating:  G
Words:  1,800

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 White Christmas

  

 “He is his favorite, isn’t he?”

The tip of the big man’s tongue stuck out between pursed lips as he glued tiny white sticks into the head of a freshly whittled ox. Adding the last touches to the figure, meant as part of a surprise Christmas crèche for Joe’s new home, left him without much attention for the redhaired sixteen-year-old’s question. “Who ‘n’ whose?” was all he squeezed out around that busy tongue.

“Your brother Adam. Is he Pa’s favorite son?”

Hoss set the ox – now equipped with a pair of horns – on the dining table and looked up at his brother in confusion.

“What’cha mean? And besides, he ain’t just my brother but ours and that means yours, too. And no, I don’t think so.”

“But…”

“I think Pa has a special connection to each of us because of our mothers and his memories of when we were young. Take Adam – he and Pa spent more than six years travelling on the road. Then the three of us, we lived here in a little cabin, learning to survive on the frontier. With Joe and his mother, Pa – well, all of us – had a very happy time as a family, something Pa never really had with his other wives. And you, I know Pa told you this, were chosen to be his son.”

Jamie responded with a small nod. He had taken an old portrait of Adam as a student from his father’s desk and was scrutinizing it closely. “He’s handsome with that big grin and his glossy black hair.”

“Jamie, what’s wrong? Pa never rates his sons by their beauty. But…” Hoss made a pause for effect. “If he does surely I’m his favorite.” Hoss posed like a prize boxer and bared his teeth in an oversized grin.

At that moment the door opened and Joe came in with something in his hands. “Hey,  Hoss, you remind me of someone.” He seemed to frown for a moment. “Oh, that’s right–Harry Hawkins*! Good thing I’m here in time to squash this nonsense, little brother. I can tell you this: the most handsome man on the Ponderosa is me and always has been!”

When Jamie glanced over at him, Joe quickly put his hands behind his back, just as Hoss snatched up the little ox and tried to conceal it from Joe. Each man decided he should hide his secret present in the downstairs guestroom; Hoss sidled to his right while Joe backed around the credenza, keeping a wary eye on Jamie. With both of them aiming for the same place, they inevitably bumped into each other. By instinct Joe flung out an arm to fend off Hoss, then, realizing that Jamie might see what was in his hand, he twisted to put his back to the wall at the left of the door to the guestroom. Hoss had reached an equivalent position on the right side of the doorway. They exchanged momentary glares, then simultaneously tried to slither sideways into the room. After another collision they ended up back where they had been.

“What are you doing, sons?” Ben was just coming down the stairs. “A dancing competition to determine the Adonis of the Ponderosa?”

“Oh, you heard us,” Hoss said sheepishly. By now the men were flanking the door like a pair of antique armless statues. They might have stayed frozen there forever if Hop Sing hadn’t come out of his kitchen to greet Joe. Recognizing their dilemma, he quietly collected both hidden gifts and took them to safety in the kitchen.

“As for you, young man, you will never win the prize. You need a haircut!” Ben continued.

“Pa!” Joe said indignantly.

Ben grinned. “I know. Old habit. If you and your wife are both happy with that long hair ….” Ben shrugged. “Have you brought the mail and everything for Hop Sing?”

“Sure, Pa,” Joe said with renewed cheerfulness. “But with all this snow, I don’t think anyone will be going back to town before Christmas.”

“Anything from Adam in the mail?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

Ben’s dark brown eyes became a little darker and his shoulders slumped.

“But, Pa,” Jamie blurted out, “I brought you a parcel from Adam on Monday!”

“Oh Jamie, it wasn’t from Adam,” Ben sighed.

“But I read it in bold letters, Pa, ‘Adam Cartwright’.”  Then he added in a low tone, “I wondered why you weren’t happy. I guessed that you miss him very badly…”

“Jamie, it was marked “return to sender.” That present I sent for little Paul’s second birthday.”

The happy, joking mood in the big room vanished like a popped soap bubble. 

“What do you think happened, Pa?” Joe asked with a raspy voice.

“I don’t know. I sent a telegram but as you said, Joe, nothing come back from Adam.”

“Why didn’t ya tell us before now?” Hoss frowned.

“Let’s sit down to talk, sons.” Ben collapsed into his armchair.

“I’m bringing some coffee and cookies!” Hop Sing bustled out of the kitchen, carrying a tray.

After a short pause, Ben muttered, “Look boys, I didn’t want to upset you so close to Christmas.” He looked at Jamie, then at the other two. “And to your wedding, Hoss, and the birth of your first child, Joe. Yes, I’m worried, but we all know worrying changes nothing. So we shouldn’t.”

“Maybe you wrote the address wrong?” Hoss suggested.

“No, absolutely not. You know Adam is living in his grandfather Stoddard’s house. If I know any address by heart, it is that one. I lived there with Elizabeth. I thought perhaps I could visit him in the spring and see my grandsons. I was going to ask you this week if you’d be ok with that.”

All three sons nodded solemnly.

“Maybe Adam moved? He’s an architect, maybe he built a new house,” Joe said hopefully.

“It’s possible, Joe. Now we have only to wait. At least once the snow stops.” Ben gulped down his last swallow of coffee and tried to smile. “We have work to do, to secure the barn and the house. Let’s start. And Joe, wouldn’t it be better if you and Ann come to us in the big house?”

“M…maybe, Pa. I wanted to have my first Christmas with my wife in my own house. But … being here with you would be better, maybe.”

“I know you were looking forward to that…” Ben nodded. “But I always worry about a pregnant wife. You know I lost Elizabeth and almost your mother, too.”

“She’s expecting in the spring, Pa. But I do think staying here is a better idea.” Joe put a firm hand on his father’s shoulder.

“Yippeee, we’ll all be together for Christmas!” Jaime cheered, but broke off when he saw the still-anxious expressions of the rest of his family.

****

“Pa, come out!” Jamie cried loudly. “I’m not a child anymore, but here … here is Saint Nicholas coming on a sled. I know it’s not really possible. But look!” Jamie squinted his eyes against the blinding noon sun reflected off the virgin snow of Christmas day. “I can see his cap trimmed with white fur and his beard.”

Then the sled and the traveler stopped, while not only Ben but also Hoss, Joe and Ann, and Hop Sing ran outside.

“Look, look!” Jamie cried again. Then everything began to happen very quickly.

Ben grabbed the traveler, nearly yanked him from the coachman’s seat of the sled, and hugged him with all his might, laughing and crying at once, before he scolded: “If you weren’t a father yourself, boy, we would have a serious talk in the barn. To worry me in such a way! To vanish from the earth without a word!” Ben hugged the stranger again.

“Ah… it was meant to be a surprise, Pa, a happy surprise. And I sent you a telegram,” the man stammered.

“But when? It never arrived!”

“Last week.”

“Only a week ago?”

“Pa, I didn’t want you worried about our travelling – a man and his wife and two small sons.” The newcomer’s voice was serious and he gestured behind him to where in the back, almost smothered in blankets and furs, three more heads appeared. “So I telegraphed when we arrived in San Francisco. And, Pa, a telegram isn’t like a letter with the stagecoach, it’s faster, you know?” 

Jamie could just make out a smirking mouth above the beard.

“Oh, yes, even an old man like me knows that,” Ben said with a sarcastic undertone. “But have you ever thought that we still need messengers to bring telegrams to the Ponderosa? And that it snows?” Ben had risen his voice with each word, his arms akimbo.

“Oh.” The man slipped off his cap and tugged at his left earlobe with his right hand. To Jamie’s surprise, he was almost entirely bald. “I think, out in the world, in Europe and in the East I really forgot about that, and how bad the snow can be here.”

Ben grinned and then again they hugged each other. “I am happy,” Ben whispered, and the other man mumbled softly to him, “I found an engineering job in Virginia City, and I sold Abel’s house in Boston to a distant cousin.” In a louder voice he said, “And now I would like to introduce my wife and my sons, and hug all the other Cartwrights here and Hop Sing of course. Maybe before that trip to the barn, Pa?”

“You scalawag! You are right, first things first. I’m so happy to meet them all finally. Welcome, Glorie, welcome, Mark and Paul.”

“Yes, yes, come all in! Hop Sing never too surprised not to feed all Catlights! Good soup to warm up the cold from big snow and later turkey.”

“But snow can be also fun, ol’ brother? What about a snowball fight after supper? Or have you forgotten how to aim, too, in the East?” Hoss snickered as he wrapped the newcomer in a bear hug.

“I have surely not!” the other man said as he moved on to embrace Joe. “But not two against one any more!”

Then he turned to Jamie. “Would you like to take my side against those brothers of – ours?”

Jamie stood there hesitantly, staring at the almost bald-headed man with the short gray beard. Could this really be Adam?

But then the strange face broke into the same brilliant smile he had seen in the old family photograph!

“Yes, older brother, yes, Adam, I will!” An equally broad smile split Jamie’s face in two as he fell into Adam’s outspread arms.

 

 

Notes:

My phrase: “the sled and the traveler stopped,” from The Snow-storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
My Character: Jamie

*Widow Clementine Hawkins deceased husband was Harry Hawkins – The Strongest Man on Earth – see the Burma Rarity.

 

Thanks to Sklamb for her beta-read and polishing, and her time to discuss some details!

 

Link to Bonanza Brand 2023 Advent Calendar – Day 9 – The Miracle of Midnight by Inca