Summary:   A lost little girl, a restless Little Joe and a hungry puma converge, sparking a story that explores what it means to have family looking out for you–or counting on you to look out for them.

Rated: K+ (word count: 9,300)

Expect hurt/comfort with a focus on the comfort.

 

Big Sisters, Little Brothers and Moving Mountains

1

Ben Cartwright was just about to take his first bite of Hop Sing’s pot roast when a tiny voice called in from the front yard.

“Hello! Hello! Is anyone home?”

“Sounds a bit young to be one of Little Joe’s friends,” Hoss said.

Ben couldn’t help but smile at seeing Hoss’s small grin and the dimples it drilled from his cheeks.

Adam, too, started grinning. “It does take me back a few years.”

“Hello?” the child cried out again.

Surprise and fond memories shifted quickly to curiosity. Ben set down his fork and pushed away from the table. “Maybe that child’s family met up with Joe on the road. I’d sure like to know why he’s not home yet.”

Adam rose to join him. “If they did meet up with him, I’d like to know where. Joe shouldn’t have been anywhere near the main road.”

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?”

Even Hoss stepped away from his meal. “Whatever it is that brought them out here, sounds like their little one’s plumb scared.”

Almost before the last word had left Hoss’s mouth, Hop Sing scurried out of the kitchen. “Little missy alone!” he proclaimed, waving his hands in emphasis. “All alone! On Little Joe horse!”

“What?” Anxious to see what his cook had already glimpsed from the kitchen window, Ben threw open the front door to find a very young, very frightened, tow-headed little girl perched high atop his youngest son’s horse, just as Hop Sing had described. And she was, indeed, alone.

“Are you Mister Ben?” she asked, her eyes going wide.

“Why, yes,” he answered softly, forcing a smile for the girl’s sake. He glanced toward Adam and Hoss before continuing. “Did Joseph tell you about me?”

His question left the girl looking puzzled. “Joseph?”

“Joe?” Ben ventured. “Little Joe? The man whose horse you’re riding.”

“Little Joe!” she exclaimed happily. “He told me his pa’s name is Mister Ben and he has white hair like you and Little Joe has two brothers named Hoss and Adam. I told him Hoss was a silly name and he said Hoss had eyes that were big and blue like mine. Is that Hoss standing behind you?” Ben barely opened his mouth to answer when the girl went right on talking. “I think that must be Hoss because he’s big as a bear just like Little Joe said and—”

“Slow down there, punkin,” Hoss broke in, moving forward to lift the child off of Cochise. “Don’t ya’ think you ought to stop and catch a breath?” He held her in his arms and studied her, just as she studied him.

“I can breathe just fine, Hoss. You are Hoss, aren’t you? Because your eyes sure are blue.”

“I’m Hoss, all right. Now—”

But she wasn’t finished talking yet, and wasn’t about to let Hoss intervene. “And Little Joe said Hoss was big enough to move the whole mountain if he had to and you sure look big enough but you don’t have to move the whole mountain you just have to move enough of it so Little Joe don’t have to be down at the bottom of it no more.”

The child’s words struck like a physical blow to Ben’s stomach.

“At the bottom?” Hoss asked, sounding as though he, too, had taken a punch in the gut.

Ben swallowed the feeling as best he could. He needed to know more. “Where, sweetheart?” he asked softly, forcing another smile. “Where is Little Joe?”

“At the mountain where he fell when the cat jumped on him.” Her eyes went wider than they had on first seeing Ben—and Ben’s heart seemed to stop at the implications of her words. “It made a real scary roar and I started running and I was screaming and then Little Joe was there and he shot it and I ran to him on account of I was still scared and I wanted him to hold me like you are now only the cat wasn’t dead like I thought and it roared and I screamed and Little Joe pushed me down and the cat jumped on him and they both fell down all those rocks and the cat didn’t move anymore but Little Joe tried to climb up only he couldn’t climb back up and he told me all about his pa and his brothers and how to make friends with Cocheese—”

“Cochise,” Hoss corrected softly as he met Ben’s eyes, showing that Ben’s fear wasn’t his alone.

“Co-cheese,” the girl repeated. “He’s an awfully smart horse. Little Joe told me how to get him to stand by the rocks and wait for me so I could climb all the way up on top of him all by myself.”

“He didn’t help you?” This time it was Adam who spoke…and Adam whose eyes reflected Ben’s deepening worry.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

Adam managed a veiled smile of his own. “I’m Little Joe’s other brother, Adam. And who might you be, little one?”

“My name’s Mary. But you can’t be Adam. Little Joe said Adam was real smart but you don’t sound too smart to me.”

Adam’s eyebrows shot up.

“He’s brother Adam, all right,” Hoss answered. “And he is mighty smart, just like Joe said. What makes you think he ain’t?”

“He asked why Little Joe didn’t help me get up on Cocheese, silly. If Little Joe couldn’t climb back up then how could he help me? But he didn’t have to help me anyways ‘cause I could do it all by myself, just like I rode Cocheese here all by myself. Only I’m glad I didn’t have to tell Cocheese where to go ‘cause I didn’t know where you lived, but Little Joe said Cocheese could find his own way home and all I had to do was kick him some only I didn’t want to kick him. Momma always says it ain’t right to kick anyone and I figure the same should go for critters, too, and I didn’t want to kick him but I did sometimes but not too hard and I think we’re still friends anyway because Cocheese likes me just like Little Joe said he would as long as I—”

“Okay, punkin,” Hoss’s interruption of the child’s rambling story roused Ben enough to realize that Adam had disappeared into the barn. Surely he was saddling the horses. Good. Very good.

“I think we got a pretty good idea about what happened,” Hoss went on. “Now, how ‘bout you stay here with our friend Hop Sing while we ride on out there and find Little Joe?”

“You don’t have to find him. He ain’t lost. He’s at the bottom of the mountain.”

“Yeah, I…I know,” Hoss said flatly, sounding numb. “We’ve got to go to him, so we can bring him home.”

The little girl started to sniffle. “I want to go home, too.”

And suddenly Ben felt shamed for letting his concerns about a grown man—albeit a young man who also happened to be his youngest son—steal his thoughts entirely away from the wellbeing of a little girl who should never have had to ride anywhere, let alone such a distance, by herself. “Where is that, sweetheart?” he asked her. “Where is your home? Your parents?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” Crying, she buried her face in Hoss’s chest. “I got lost! I was lost and then the big cat was chasing me and I thought Little Joe would bring me home and then he said I had to ride Cocheese but I was so scared and I didn’t want to go!”

“No, of course you didn’t darling,” Ben said. “And I’m sure Little Joe didn’t want to ask you to go. But you were very brave.”

Sniffling again, she looked up at Ben. “Little Joe said I should stay right there. He said it over and over again that I should stay put. He even yelled at me when I wanted to look for someone to help. But then he said I should go and that’s when he told me how to get Cocheese to stand still so I could climb up on top of him from the rocks. I don’t know why he wanted me to go when all that time he didn’t want me to go except maybe I was talkin’ too much. Papa yells at me sometimes when I talk too much and he says he’s tired and Little Joe sounded even tireder than Papa when he yells. So I guess maybe Little Joe just wanted to take a nap and he didn’t want me to talk so much but I don’t know why he would want to sleep on all them rocks.”

Ben nearly choked on his increasingly growing fear. He was grateful to see Adam starting to lead the horses from the barn. “I imagine you must be pretty tired yourself after that long ride,” he managed to utter, surprised to find his voice sounding far more confident than he felt. “Why don’t you go on inside with our friend, Hop Sing? You can have some supper and a nice long nap, and then, after we come back with Little Joe, we’ll find your parents for you so you can go home, too.”

Her bottom lip quivered into a hearty pout. “It ain’t my home no more,” she sobbed.

“’Course it’s your home,” Hoss said. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I ran away.”

Ben could see there was much more to learn about this small girl who’d ridden for miles alone on Little Joe’s horse. She needed their help. But so did Joe. And from the sound of Mary’s story, he was hurt. Hurt so badly he’d felt it necessary to send her off on her own.

“Hop Sing take little missy inside.” Easing himself between Ben and Hoss, Hop Sing reached for the girl. “Have good supper. Make missy vewy comfortable.”

“I want to stay with Hoss.”

Hoss had to pry her arms from around his neck. “Now that wouldn’t be fair to Little Joe, would it? You said he needed his bear of a brother to move some of that mountain, now didn’t you?”

Mary nodded hesitantly and sniffled.

“Well then I’d better get to it before it gets so dark I can’t see that mountain to move it, don’t you think?”

Casting a glance around to Ben, Hop Sing and then Adam with the horses, Mary returned her attention to Hoss and gave another hesitant nod.

“Now go on with Hop Sing,” Hoss said. “Eat up all your supper and he might even give you some cookies. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Nodding again, she allowed Hop Sing to take hold of her, and even snuggled up into his shoulder. “Will you tell Little Joe Cocheese and I got along just fine?”

“I’ll tell him.”

“And…tell him I’m sorry?”

“What on earth do you have to be sorry for?” Ben found himself asking.

“I’m sorry he fell on account of me.”

“From what you’ve told us just now,” Hoss answered, “seems to me the only one to blame was that big ol’ cat. Now go on along with Hop Sing. We’ll be back before you know it.” The wink and the smile he gave her then were genuine, but in those big blue eyes that were so like Mary’s own, Ben saw a trace of doubt.

I don’t know why he would want to sleep on all them rocks, Mary had told them. Ben knew the answer did not bode well. Not well at all.

 

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