Summary:  A long-awaited Christmas present arrives on the Ponderosa
Rating  G

Written for the Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar

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Bonanza

~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~

* Day 21 *

The Telegram

Holding the telegram in his weathered hands, Ben Cartwright leaned back in his desk chair and stared at the brightly decorated Christmas tree across the room. He had watched three sons decorate that tree only an hour earlier and listened to them share stories. His heart could not have grown any larger except for one thing. He was missing his eldest son, who had been expected to be home already. Instead, he had received this cryptic message.

“Delayed. Coming home. Delay unknown.”

Now, he had to wait and worry. He had done it many times, but it never got easier. Over the years, telegrams about his sons were bad news sometimes. The worst was when Adam was missing in the desert, and Joe wired that news to him and Hoss. Even this one seemed a bit ominous because Ben wondered what it was that delayed him on a short trip from California to Nevada that he couldn’t mention in the telegram. Hoss, Joe, and Jamie tried to alleviate his fears.

“Aw, Pa, you know Adam. He probably found a way to make money and had to stop to make all the arrangements.”

Laughing at his own statement, Joe looked around to see if it had helped lighten the mood any. It hadn’t.

“Pa, now, if it was something serious, it wouldn’t have been Adam sending the telegram, now would it? It woulda been someone else sending it. It’s probably something too complicated to put into a few words so he would rather explain when he gets here.”

‘Or maybe it’s too embarrassing.”

Jamie’s statement got their attention. Ben wanted to know what he meant.

“Well, you know if something happened that, well, Hoss and Joe might make fun of him about, he likely wouldn’t want to say anything. You know how they are. If I do something stupid, I don’t want them to know. They never let anybody forget about anything like that.”

“Oh, you mean like you falling off the back of the wagon when we were bringing the tree back to the house?”

“Yeah, Joe, he looked so dadblamed funny all sprawled out there in the snow and yelling for you to slow down.”

“You took off fast like that on purpose when you saw me standing at the back of the wagon. I was only retying the rope on the tree. That wasn’t funny.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jamie. That was funny. I may never forget seeing you go flying off the back like that with arms and legs swinging in the air and trying to grab onto something. The funniest dang thing I saw in a long time.”

“Don’t forget the squealing, Hoss. It got especially loud when he landed in the snow.”

“Yeah, that was funny too.”

“I got snow down my neck and back, and it was cold. I didn’t get warm again until we got home.”

While Joe and Hoss snickered, Jamie glowered at them. It was a good show, but no matter how much they tried, the sons had not diverted their father’s attention from that telegram.

“So making money, embarrassed, or hurt? Which one of those do you think would make him miss Christmas with his family?”

The telegram lay on Ben’s desk in that alcove for the remainder of Christmas Eve and was there on Christmas morning as gifts were opened. Adam’s gifts remained under the tree. Ben had the telegram on his mind musing about it on and off for twenty-four hours.

“I remember my son’s first adventure with the telegraph. When he learned it had its own language, he had to learn it. However, no one else except the telegraph operator here knew Morse Code so it was of little use to him until Little Joe got sick.”

Joe and Jamie had different reactions to that last statement.

“Hey, could he listen and know the messages that were being sent to people?”

“Yes, he could, and I had to step in and tell him that he couldn’t repeat anything he learned by doing so. I had to discourage him from being anywhere near that telegraph office. He was so excited to have this new skill that he wanted to use it as often as he could, but it seemed to be a potential quagmire, so I had to discourage him from getting into that.”

“Then how did Little Joe getting sick help him use Morse Code?”

“We all know how much Joe likes to talk. He got a very bad infection, and his throat was very inflamed. The doctor didn’t want him to talk at all. He wasn’t willing to oblige the doctor. Now, if he talked, there was a chance he was going to damage his throat and voice forever. So Adam stepped in.”

“He taught Little Joe how to do Morse Code!”

“Yes, I think he regretted that decision almost as soon as he began teaching him. A seven-year-old who couldn’t spell well and lacked, shall we say, a bit of patience was a challenging student, but they worked out a system eventually.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that. Little Joe even had an old broomstick from Hop Sing, and he could pound on the floor to ask for things when we were down here. It was mostly one-word messages. Water. Milk. Cookie. Checkers. You know, things like that.”

Attempting to divert the subject from his childhood shenanigans to more serious matters, Joe remembered another time.

“I learned a lot of simple words. It came in handy a few times later, too. I remember once when two gunmen tried to hold up the trading station Adam and I were at. We shot one, but the other one managed to get a gun at my back. Adam used Morse Code to signal me to drop down. I didn’t get it at first, and he had to do it twice. Then I dropped like a sack of seed grain. The guy never expected it, and Adam got him. I’m sure no one there knew how we communicated.”

“Hey, that’s a handy thing to know. Joe, maybe you could teach me.

“I could, but.” Joe paused then because he was going to say that Adam would be a better one to teach him but didn’t want to remind his father about Adam being so late. “Today would be an appropriate time to start, too. It was on Christmas Day years ago when Hoss learned a little Morse Code. Adam used it to call us outside when it was time for our annual snowball fight.”

“How did he do that?”

“It’s easy. He just used the ones for snow. SNOW is ·-· ·- ·- ·- and that’s it.”

“Seems like a lot for one little word.”

“It isn’t when you get used to it. It goes fast.”

Joe repeated the sequence several times and had Jamie practice it. With the sons engrossed in conversation, Ben went to answer the door when there was knocking. The knocking was persistent. Jamie noticed.

“Hey isn’t that what you just taught me to spell?”

At that time, Ben opened the door to be hit in the chest with a snowball. Adam was home but expected a brother to open the door to his message of ‘SNOW’.

“Oh, Pa, I am so sorry.”

Limping to his father’s side, he made sure he didn’t fall and neither did his father. Ben wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulders and noticed the bandages on Adam’s leg and couldn’t miss the patch on his left eye. Then he offered a shoulder in support.

“Merry Christmas and welcome home, son.”

For the moment, the snowball went unmentioned. It would be a frequent topic later as Adam’s brothers wouldn’t let that ever be forgotten.

“What happened?”

“First, could someone get some coffee for the man who drove me out here and let him warm up before he drives back to town.”

While they took care of that request, they got Adam settled in a chair and wrapped in a warm blanket. Hop Sing was soon there with a cup of coffee for him too. Then, it was time for the story.

“I wanted to take the express, but it was overloaded. I didn’t want to take a seat up on top. The line decided it was profitable enough to send a second coach. I got on that one. Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t as experienced as he should have been to be driving that rig at night. He took a turn too sharp and slammed the coach into some trees. It wasn’t too bad except for snapping an axle when a wheel got caught up. We were lucky not to overturn or worse on that stretch of road.”

“So that’s how you were hurt?”

“No, perhaps a little bruised up, but not hurt. We were stranded though. With Christmas, there wasn’t another scheduled run for two days. Our coach wasn’t on the schedule, so they were not likely to miss us either. I knew Morse Code, and I volunteered to go up a telegraph pole to wire our predicament to the line.”

Joe assumed he knew what happened next.

“You fell instead.”

“No, I didn’t fall instead. I climbed the pole, and I wired the message through.”

There was a dramatic pause. Adam drank coffee, cleared his throat, and continued.

“Then I fell.”

Joe started laughing so much that Adam had to wait to finish his story.

“Coming down was more difficult than going up. I was up there a long time, too, and my legs were getting tired and stiff from the cold. It was darn cold. It wouldn’t have been too bad, but the pole was old, and I got a large splinter jammed up my thigh. Rescue arrived, but they didn’t want to take me to town with my leg bleeding, so they kept me at the next station. There, they bandaged my leg and splinted it, which did work to stop the bleeding. The patch on my eye is only for a scratch near my eye that caused some swelling. It’s more comfortable to have the patch on and my eye closed for a few days more. I did ask them to send a telegram to you to explain that I would be late.”

“They did.’ Ben said nothing of how cryptic the message had been and how worried he had been.

“Why didn’t they attach something to the pole to help you climb down while you were busy with the message?”

“Good question, Jamie. If I had thought of that or they had, I wouldn’t be sitting here with bandages on.”

“Can I ask another question?”

“You already did.”

“Sometimes I forget what it’s like having a conversation with you.” Thinking about how to phrase his question, Jamie was quiet for a moment. ” Will you teach Morse Code to me?”

“Of course, but under one condition: you tell me why you want to learn it.”

“I thought it would come in handy to be able to silently communicate with my brothers.”

The slight upturn to the corners of Adam’s lips and the hint of a crinkle around his eyes let Jamie know he knew there was more to it. Adam said nothing more about that topic, although Jamie expected they would talk about it at some point.

“I guess we could consider it an additional Christmas present from me to you. I plan to be here a couple of weeks because of my leg. That should be enough time to teach you what you need to know. I’ll even give a refresher course to my other brothers. If this is going to work, all the brothers need to know the language fluently.”

The two brothers had the attention of Hoss and Joe fully engaged with Joe thinking of ways this skill could be put to use. Then suddenly, it was a two-way conversation.

“Adam, I’ve never understood how a telegraph works.”

With a groan, Joe turned away and began looking for one of the new novels he had received for Christmas. Hoss decided it was time for a snack and asked his father if he wanted anything as Adam launched into a long explanation of the mechanics of the telegraph.

After about a week and a half of lessons at the dining table, tapping pencils and writing down letters and then words, Jamie mastered a basic understanding of Morse Code. Hoss suggested the four of them could go to the barn and test their knowledge and skills together while doing some basic chores.

“I think it’s a way for him to force me to help.”

“Aw, Adam, you don’t think Hoss would ever do that to a guest, would you?”

“Not to a guest, but to me even when I’m still recuperating, he would.”

“Recuperating? Ha! You ain’t even hardly faking a limp anymore.”

“Faking? I’m not faking. My leg hurts.”

“Sure it does. Hurts enough to make everybody wait on you and not expect you to do nothing for yourself. Well, that’s over, older brother. Time for you to pitch in and help a little.”

As Joe and Jamie snickered, Ben smiled. The teasing showed the brothers were no longer concerned about Adam’s recovery, although Joe had some ‘urgent’ business that required him to ride with Adam on his return to California. Adam didn’t seem to mind the company. He had not complained and offered to have Joe stay at his house when he got to California either.

“You can celebrate Christmas with my family too. I know how much you like Christmas, and they decided to wait until I got back.”

With grins, Joe and Adam joined their brothers and grabbed their coats and hats before heading out the door. Ben began rummaging in his desk. Adam walked back in because he forgot his gloves, which had been drying on the fireplace hearth. He smirked as he walked across the room.

“It’s still probably hidden in that stack of old survey maps on your bookshelf.”

“What? Oh.”

When Adam grabbed his gloves and turned to leave, Ben looked a bit sheepish.

“You knew?”

“You had to know all those taps and such when we were young were not nervous gestures or anything normal. I was careful not to communicate anything I would regret.”

“I had wondered about that considering what the other two would sometimes send.”

“I wonder what you will overhear now. Well, off to the barn to make sure they can spell everything correctly. I wouldn’t want you to hear some gibberish they might send to each other, and yes, there are times when it is valuable to know Morse Code. I’m not wasting time, and neither are they.”

“You’re enjoying this whole experience, aren’t you?”

“Yes, it’s my Christmas gift to myself and you too. Merry Christmas. Enjoy.”

Then Adam paused.

“I’m sorry you were so worried about me when I was late. I wish I had been able to send a telegram myself to better explain what had happened.”

Ben nodded. He should have known Adam would have understood how concerned he had been. They wouldn’t talk about this anymore though. It was history now, and the lessons had been learned. It was back to the present.

“Be careful though. Jamie was interested in my explanation of the telegraph itself. He might try to figure out a way to string some wire and install a real telegraph somewhere. I know he’s intrigued by the idea. He does take after Joe a little bit.”

“If he can do that, he takes after you a bit too.”

Then Adam grinned even more.

“I already have one. I strung one from my house to my office. I need to know what’s going on at home.”

Adam left his father staring in amazement. His eldest was always one for surprises. Then he thought about him saying his wife wasn’t up to traveling and now that he admitted a need to know what was going on at home. Yet he didn’t seem overly worried so it couldn’t be an illness. Ben smiled. He guessed it was going to be another good surprise.

 

prompt: Morse code,1836 or telegraph,1837

character: Adam

 

Link to Day 22 of the Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar – To Add or Not to Add by ElayneA