SUMMARY:  A time of contemplation as a man reflects on what’s happened in the past, and what good could come from any of it. —  ‘How am I gonna be an optimist about this?’ —

Rating:  K  (695 words)

A Seedling Challenge inspired short story.

Finding Solace Series:

Between the Twelfth of Never and Forever
Between Forever and Where No One Stands Alone
So, This is Christmas

Between the Twelfth of Never and Forever…

‘How am I gonna be an optimist about this?’ he thought to himself.

The man sat watching the lives of others moving around him, and remembered all the changes that happened during his life.

‘People come and people go, I just never expected to one of those who… went.’

*****

It had been a dream that drove a man to cross the country to find land in the wilderness to call his own – The Ponderosa.

Ben Cartwright had raised three sons who any man, or woman, would be proud to call their own.  Three sons were nurtured with love and respect by their father, always with the memory of their mothers.

The ranch had prospered with the first shovel that pierced the soil, turned the earth, and became the foundation for everything else that was to come.  The abundance of livestock in the herds of cattle and horses that roamed within the boundaries of their thousand square miles was proof that they were doing right by the land.  Stands of fir and pine were harvested and replanted as good stewards of nature’s bounty.  As for the mines…  no strip mining would ever touch this jewel of the Sierra-Nevada.

One son had left for college, but returned once he received his degrees…  The other two sons had no inclination to seek a higher education, they wanted nothing more than to live their lives right there.  Oh, they might leave for a little while, cattle drives, vacations, business trips, or to help a friend, but their hearts were as firmly entrenched within the land as the trees for which their ranch took its name.

Over the years, there were distant family members who had essentially visited, left their mark on their hearts, and moved on…  Abel Stoddard, Gunnar Borgstrom, Clay Stafford, Cousin Clarissa, Cousin Muley, and Cousin Will.  But then there were the close family members who were such an unforgettable part of their lives… Elizabeth, Inger, Marie, and Adam…

Adam… He’s somewhere out there making his mark in the lives of others.  The man remembered the day Adam had proclaimed his desire to see the world, to maybe put his degrees to good use elsewhere.  Far-away lands and people, the desire to see the locations of literature’s classics… the draw had been too keen, he couldn’t resist the yearning any longer.  The Ponderosa could no longer sustain him.  That had been a sad day in the lives of the family; Adam had left to seek his own dream.

And then there were new members to the family, Jamie and Alice…

*****

The man remembered a younger Little Joe, and how the two older brothers would relentlessly tease him about the ‘girl of the month’ once he was old enough to be interested in girls.  

‘Cain’t believe Shortshanks finally found someone to settle down with and become a husband, and a father…  yeah, he woulda made a great father.

‘Pa always said everythin’ happens for a reason, but I know Joe cain’t accept that right now.  Probably won’t for some time to come.  Shucks, I had to go an’ die on him and now this…’

The big man had been as helpless as everyone else.  Forced to watch from afar as the flames consumed the house while Joe urged the team and wagon to race across the land; Candy and Jamie held on for dear life.  How he wished Joe could have been in time.

‘My little brother ain’t never done nothin’ to deserve somethin’ like this happenin’ to him.  Pa neither for that matter.  Guess the only thin’ good to come from what happened is that I’ll get to help Alice raise Joe’s child.  That, and Marie is dotin’ on her first grandchild somethin’ fierce.’

~The End

NOTE:  The opening thought in this story was the prompt from a weekly Seedling Challenge.  This story is a Missing Scene or What Happened Later for Forever, with part of the title inspired by the Jonny Mathis song, Twelfth of Never.

Tags:  Family, grief