It was mid December and the crisp mountain air filled the Ponderosa. Everyone was working with a bounce in their step more so than during the rest of the year. It wasn’t because of the worry that the snows would come before they could catch up. It was because Christmas was fast approaching. Everyone on the Ponderosa, Cartwright and ranch hand alike loved Christmas, usually. This year was a bit different. There was one man on the Ponderosa who wasn’t joining in the anticipation of the grand holiday as he usually would have.

“I’ll never get all this work done in time for the holiday!” Ben Cartwright yelped.

Just then, all three of the boys came in at once.

“Hey Pa, come see what we got!” Hoss shouted merrily.

“Oh what is it, boys? I certainly hope it’s something that’s gonna get all of this paper work done for me faster and get all of the work done on time.”

“No, actually it’s not Pa but it’s somethin’ just as good.” Joe grinned.

“Well, Pa what do ya think?” Adam asked holding up the beautiful green pine tree that they had cut.

“Think about what? Why did you cut that tree down?”

“Because Pa, it’s the perfect Christmas tree, don’t ya think?” Joe asked.

“Sure Joseph, sure it is.” Ben said without very much convincing enthusiasm.

“Well you gonna help us put it up and decorate it?” Hoss asked.

“Decorate it? What kind of time do you think we all have around here? There’s still work to be done! We have fences to mend, supplies to buy! No time to be doing such silly things as children do!”

“But, Pa we’ve always decorated for Christmas” Joe said, his disappointment reflecting in his eyes.

“I’m not saying we won’t decorate at all, just not right now!”

“Alright, Pa, whatever you say.” Adam said calmly trying to ease the boys out to leave Ben to his work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do ya reckon is his problem?” Hoss asked.

“I don’t know but it’s best if we just leave him alone right now.” Adam advised.

“Agreed, but then how do we get the tree up and decorated?” Joe asked.

“Simple, we just have to wait until he goes to bed tonight.”

“But he usually stays up longer than the rest of us.” Hoss pointed out.

“Trust me, he won’t tonight. He’s too tired already from doing all that ranting!” Adam said.

Later that night after Ben had gone to bed; a copy of a book by Charles Dickens on his lap, the boys snuck down and started to quietly put up the tree. They were doing pretty well until one of its braches accidently hit the side of Ben’s desk knocking things off of it and making a big crash sound.

“Boys”, Ben Called, “What the devil’s goin’ on down there?!”

The boys shuffled each other around for a moment all trying to make the other be the one to answer their father’s angry, sleep- disturbed call.

As usual, Hoss had the wonderful job bestowed upon him.

“Ah, nothin’ Pa.” Was all he said.

“Good then nothin’ stopin’ you from getting to bed!”

“Yessir” Hoss said, nervously.

“Now what do we do?”  He asked his brothers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not a half hour later, Ben was back to his state of attempting to rest for the night and forget all of his problems when a strange thing happened. He had just closed his eyes when he heard the noise of his curtains blowing in a breeze, which was impossible because his window was closed to keep the cold air of the chilly night away. He sat up in bed to find his suspicion of the noise to be correct. A strange light was also coming forth through the curtains.

Suddenly, Ben Cartwright was rendered silent upon seeing a vision of someone who had long since been gone.

“Hello Ben, my dear brother.” The voice said in a gasp.

“John, My brother John Cartwright?” Ben exclaimed.

“That’s right Ben, it’s me.”

“But you’re-

“Dead, I know and that is true but all the same you needed me and now I am here to try and help you to escape the same horrible fate that I am doomed to for the rest of eternity due to the sad way I lived my life.” The ghost of Ben’s brother explained.

“What fate would I have to escape? I have not lived my life as a drifter the way you did. I have land and a family and roots. What would I have to fear?”

“You don’t understand, Ben. It’s wasn’t my life as a drifter that brought forth this suffering to me, it was the way I spent my time with others around me.”

“So what the devil would that have to do with me?” Ben demanded.

“You have not let the spirit of the season into your home this year. You have let work and business take over your life and not left any room for the pleasures of everyday living. This must be stopped if you are ever again to enjoy life as you know it!”

Ben sat wide-eyed trying to take all of the shock in.

“Let me guess, to do this you will see to it that I am visited by three ghosts tonight right?” Ben sassed.

“That’s right, now you’re catching on!” John said.

With this Ben broke out in a fit of laughter.

“Oh-oooh-oh you can’t be serious! You simply can’t be serious!”

“Well if you don’t believe me, then I suppose you’ll simply have to find out for yourself.”

“Oh now come on John, you….John? John, where are you?”

He had faded away with the mist that had brought him.

Ben decided to think nothing of it and to take it as a side effect of something he had eaten and went back to sleep. In about an hour he was awoken again by the same strange light and breeze.

With this one came a new voice, a familiar voice.

“Hello my darling Ben.” Came the soft voice of Elizabeth, Ben’s first wife and Adam’s mother.

“Elizabeth?” Ben said with as much of a voice as he could muster with the shock.

“Who else, Ben?” She said kind of sarcastically.

“Why are you acting like that, dear? Are you angry that I married again?”

“Oh don’t be silly Ben! Of course not! If you hadn’t you’d have never been able to have those two other fine boys. No, what I’m angry about is how you are treating our son, Adam!”

“Treating Adam?” Ben exclaimed.

“Yes, you boss that boy around constantly and all the two of you do is butt heads!”

“Have you ever stopped to think that it’s because of his stubbornness that we butt heads?”

“Maybe, but you don’t help matters. Now Ben, I want to show you something.” With that she held out her hand for him to follow her. She took him through what looked like a portal.

“Where are we, dear?” Ben asked.

“Well you the smart one, you tell me!” Elizabeth smirked.

Ben looked around and saw a sight that seemed familiar. He saw a small town that looked very much like the one in Illinois where he had taken Adam when he was very young on their journey west.

“This looks like-”

“That’s right Ben, we’re back in time to when Adam was a boy. Look over there. Do you recognize those people?”

Ben looked to see a much younger man who resembled himself with a young boy that resembled Adam.

“That’s me and that’s Adam!”

Ben saw the man walk up to the boy and bend over in front of him.

“Now Adam, you just stay out here while I go see if this store will hire me, alright?”The man said.

“Yes, Pa, I’ll stay right here.” said the boy.

The man disappeared into the store while the boy sat outside and waited. Not long after, the man returned.

“Alright, Adam, let’s go!”

“Pa, can I show ya what I made now?” The boy asked eagerly.

“Not now Adam, maybe later!” The man snapped.

“Is this scene familiar to you yet, Ben?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes, I had to find work to be able to support myself and Adam. What was so wrong with that?”

“Nothing was wrong with that part of it, Ben, but you dragged that boy everywhere you went and didn’t even notice his feelings about it or about anything else!” Elizabeth scolded.

“I did the best I could, Liz!”

“Alright, if you don’t see the error of your ways in this scene then we should go on to the next one.”

Before Ben could say a word, he was transported to another scene that looked to him to be familiar. They seemed to be standing outside of the house.

“Oh good we’re home. Listen Liz, I’m glad you decided not to take me to another one of those….” Ben looked to see that he wasn’t in his time.

There was a distant sound of two people arguing that could be heard coming from the inside of the house. Soon, Adam came out of the house with Ben following him in a stammer.

“This, this was a few years ago when he left for college! I remember it like it was yesterday!” Ben said.

“Adam now you stop and listen to me! We have far too much to do around here for you to be running off after some education that chances are you’ll never even need to use!”

“Pa, I want to do this for me! I want to learn how to make something of myself! Besides, who are you to say that we won’t ever need to know something that I might learn in college?” Adam said.

“Now you tell me what on earth we would need to know about architecture for!”

“I don’t know right now Pa but I do know that it’s what I want to learn and until I go to school I’ll never know how to use it to my advantage!”

“Alright you go, but I will never forgive you for it!”

“So be it Pa. So be it!”

With that Adam got on his horse and rode away.

Ben, that boy was never able to forget what you said to him that day. He spent his days in college feeling like he had made a mistake and lost his father because of it!” Elizabeth said.

“When he came home we talked about it! He forgave me for it, Liz! We haven’t thought about it since!”

“You haven’t maybe, Ben but he sure has!”

“What does this have to do with Christmas exactly?”

“You are hurting him even more now because you don’t want to celebrate Christmas the way he and the other two boys want to!”

“Oh now aren’t you being a little bit dramatic?”

“All I can say is, if you don’t change soon Ben Cartwright, you will lose your son forever!”

“Oh no I won’t L-Liz? Elizabeth!? Now where did she go?”

Ben looked around and realized he was back in his own bed in his own time. He decided once again that he had been dreaming the whole thing and that he should get some sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ben had finally drifted off to sleep when he heard his clock go off downstairs. He knew that there was no reason for this other than what Elizabeth and John had said; there was another ghost.

“Nah couldn’t be!” He said to himself.

He saw a bright light flicker against the wall. He rolled over and put the covers over his head to try and ignore it. Suddenly, something or someone pulled the covers off of him and whispered in his ear.

“Ben it’s time to wake up!”

“Wait a minute! I know that voice. It can’t be!”

“Oh yes it can be, Ben. Why don’t you turn around and look for yourself!”

Ben turned over to see his second wife, Inger, standing over him.

“Inger?! Is that you, is that really you?”

“Yes, Ben it’s me. I’m not here for a reunion though. I’m here to talk to you about Eric!”

Ben thought for a moment. “Oh please tell me you’re not here to tell me of something I did wrong with Hoss!”

“Now you should know I think he’s grown to be a fine boy and I think you had a great deal to do with that since I wasn’t around to care for him and Adam but I do think you need to re-examine some of your ways of recent.” Inger told him.

Ben sat with a sarcastic look drawn on his face just waiting to hear what it was he was doing wrong with his middle son.

“Ben, darling, come with me. There are some things I need to show you.”

Ben took Inger’s hand and before he knew it, he was once again transported out of his room to the Great Room downstairs. This time the place he ended up didn’t seem to be from a past memory.

“What time are we in now?” He asked.

“We are in the same time and place. We didn’t go back in time because I am not here to show you what you have done wrong in the past with Eric. I am here to show you what you are doing wrong right now with him.”

Ben looked in front of him to see all three of his sons standing in front of the tree that they had tried to show him earlier.

“What is this? Why do they have that tree cut down and in this house?”

“Don’t you remember, Ben? They tried to show it to you earlier this evening when you complained to them that there was no time to decorate it.” Inger reminded him.

“Oh yes, I remember now. Now just so you’ll know, I didn’t tell them that we would not decorate at all! I simply told them that there was too much work to be done right now!”

“I know what you told them, dear. I also know what you meant. When you said that, you had no intention of ever decorating because you didn’t think you would have time at all. You see, Ben, you are missing the forest for the trees. You are so wrapped up in your work that you are forgetting to enjoy the simple joys in life like celebrating the holidays with your boys and that it breaking Eric’s heart. Sure he won’t show it, but this is hurting him deep inside.”

Before Ben could say another word, Inger pointed over to the boys, signaling Ben to watch and listen to them for a moment.

“Pa don’t care about decoratin’ for Christmas this year! He ain’t never got time to do anythin’ but work! I reckon we’d just be better off celebratin’ Christmas without him and he wouldn’t even know the difference!” Hoss said.

“What is he talking about? Of course I don’t want my own sons to celebrate Christmas without me!” Ben snarled.

“They don’t know that, Ben. What Hoss said was what he, all the boys, actually truly believe!”

“I haven’t….” Ben stopped to think before he spoke for the first time in a while. He sat down and looked ahead. “Maybe you’re right, Inger. Perhaps I have been missing what my boys were truly feeling! If my own boys don’t think I want to celebrate Christmas with them then I must be doing something terribly wrong!”

A smile crossed Inger’s lips. “I see you finally understand. My work here is finished. Although, there is one more ghost left to visit you tonight. I think you’d best hear from her first.”

“But I’ve changed! Inger I’ve- I’ve changed.” Ben looked up to see that Inger had disappeared as quickly as all the others had and that he was back in his own room once again staring at its four walls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ben tried hard, but this time he could not get back to sleep. He now realized where he had gone wrong so much and he wanted a chance to change. He didn’t need the third spirit to come but he had a feeling that wasn’t going to stop it from happening all the same.

Suddenly he saw her; the white mist came though his window one final time to reveal his beloved third wife, Marie.

“Marie! My darling! If I had known it would be you I never would have said I didn’t want to meet with the last spirit! I am so happy to see you but you must know I’ve changed! I won’t go wrong with our Joseph the way I have in the past with Hoss and Adam! I promise!”

“I’m afraid you already have, Ben.” She said.

“What do you mean?”

“Come with me and I will show you!” Marie held out her hand to Ben. When he took it he was transported to the kitchen downstairs where he and almost all of his family sat. Hop Sing had made a wonderful Christmas dinner that they were about to enjoy.

“Where is Joseph?” Ben asked.

“He is not here, Ben. You see, this is a Christmas from the impending future.”

“Is there any word from your brother Joseph?” The future Ben said.

“No Pa, I don’t think he’s coming.”Adam said in a low voice.

“Pa he ain’t been back in months. What makes ya think he’s gonna come back just to eat Christmas dinner with us?” Hoss asked.

“I don’t know, I was just hoping that-“, suddenly there was a knock on the door, “Will one of you go and get that please?”

Hop Sing walked over to the door. He opened it to a dirty, scruffy looking Joe.

“Mista Cartwright, its mista Joe!” He said.

The three other men rose up immediately and walked to the door.

“Joseph, I’m so glad you could make it son!” Ben greeted.

“I ain’t stayin’ Pa.” Joe said.

“Not staying? Why aren’t you staying?”

“I just come here to eat a little and then I’ll be on m’ way alright?” Joe snapped.

“But Little Joe” Hoss began.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Don’t you think you’ve been away from home long enough?” Adam asked.

“No I ain’t been away from here long enough! I don’t see why Pa’s making it such a big deal to celebrate Christmas with him seein’ as how he never wanted to before! If you two had any sense you’d see it the same way!”

“My Lord what’s happened to him?” Ben gasped.

“You’re lack of interest has happened to him. You didn’t want to celebrate Christmas with him before so he just decided he doesn’t want it in his life at all now. He runs the streets and lives life as a rogue.” Marie explained.

“All because of me?”

“All because of you and if you don’t change,” Marie stopped and sighed, “This may be your son’s last Christmas.”

“What do you mean? Why would this be his last?”

“The life he leads is a dangerous one, Ben. He isn’t going to live long enough to see another Christmas.”

“No that can’t be! It just can’t be! I’ll change, I swear I’ll change!”

“I’m afraid it may be too late.”

“It can’t be please! Please I’ll do anything!”

Ben woke himself up screaming. He found himself once again lying in bed, only this time, it was light outside. It was morning! Ben rushed downstairs to find the boys already up decorating the house.”

“Oh, hi Pa, we’re just finishing up here and then we’ll get right to our chores!” Adam said cautiously.

“Oh no, no please go on! In fact, let me help you!” Ben grabbed some garland and began to put it up. The boys looked at each other in pleasant surprise.

“Eh Pa, I hope you don’t mind we put up the tree last night.” Joe said.

Ben put his hand around the back of his son’s neck.

“Joseph, I’m thrilled that you did it! In fact, I think we’re going to throw a party in honor of what a great job you boys did! It will be a party to end all parties! Why don’t’ you go into town to tell everyone about it and I’ll finish up here!”

The boys all grinned and rushed out the door at once. Ben stayed behind and watched them go before finishing the decorations. He had learned a lesson the night before that he would never forget. He now had the true meaning of Christmas in his heart and he knew that he had the blessings of a lucky man. He walked over to his desk where the pictures of his wives sat.

“Thank you, my loves. Thank you.”

THE END

Merry Christmas!!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.