Summary:\u00a0 There’s just something about Finn.\u00a0 Good or Bad.\u00a0 You decide.<\/p>\n
Rating:\u00a0 K+\u00a0 Word Count: \u00a01952<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finn<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The weather was strange that summer.\u00a0 Instead of hot and dry we had days on end of wind and dark clouds.\u00a0 Most nights it was cool enough to keep the fireplace goin\u2019 which helped to keep the evenings cheery in between the cracks and bursts of some mighty fine thunder storms.\u00a0 It was the kind of weather that made Pa shudder; most likely from all the time he\u2019d spent out at sea way back before I was born.\u00a0 Me though, there\u2019s nothin\u2019 I like better than a cool breeze and the smell of rain in the air.<\/p>\n It was on a day, a week or so into June, when Finn came into our lives.\u00a0 He dropped onto our front porch at the same time the first few splashes of a late afternoon shower started pattering the ground.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t weigh hardly more than a couple sacks of flour, so I\u2019m surprised we even heard the little thud he made.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s the one that went to check on things, then yelled for me and Little Joe when he found Finn lyin\u2019 near the kitchen door.\u00a0 Turned out, the fellow was burning up with fever, so it wasn\u2019t until a few days later that we officially got to meet him.<\/p>\n Seemed he\u2019d been travelin\u2019 for quite a while.\u00a0 He was makin\u2019 his way to San Francisco, he said.\u00a0 From the first time he mentioned the place, it seemed liked he never stopped talking about it.\u00a0 He had a way with stories and he told us all about the little fishing port in Maine where he\u2019d spent his childhood.\u00a0 His mama had been a laundry woman for all the sailors that docked there, and from the time Finn was old enough to understand what a ship was, he\u2019d started dreamin\u2019 of the day he\u2019d go to sea.\u00a0 Little Joe took an instant liking to him, which made Pa nervous.\u00a0 Bein\u2019 nearly fourteen, my youngest brother was at, what Adam called, an impressionable age.\u00a0\u00a0 I watched Finn real close after that, but the truth was, I liked him just as much as Little Joe did.\u00a0 He seemed, to me, a lot what Joe would be like when he got older.\u00a0 They even looked a little alike, except that Finn had blonde hair and blue eyes.\u00a0 I could understand Pa bein\u2019 worried about him making an impression on Little Joe.\u00a0 Whenever Finn talked about San Francisco and the ships there, those blue eyes would light up, and if I looked real close, I could almost see the waves bobbing up and down inside them.\u00a0 It was hard for a fella not to catch his excitement.<\/p>\n After Finn got to feeling better, Pa offered him a job.\u00a0 What with it bein\u2019 summer there was always plenty of work to do.\u00a0 Finn liked the idea of filling his pockets with cash, but made sure we all knew it was just until he had enough to get him to his ship.\u00a0 I used to make fun of him for talkin\u2019 about something he didn\u2019t have as if it was real, but after a while, I got to feeling about his ship, the way he did.\u00a0 He dreamed about that ship every waking moment.\u00a0 It would be his livelihood, his home, and provide all the adventure a young buck could handle.\u00a0 We\u2019d get to talking late at night sometimes about me and him sailing together and what places we wanted to visit.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for him to win over the guys in the bunk house either.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t afraid of work, always ready to jump in and lend a hand with the tough jobs.\u00a0 One of the men thought it would be a good joke to have Finn hammer out branding irons on the anvil.\u00a0 What with him bein\u2019 so scrawny the fellows expected to get a few laughs out of it, but he showed them all up when, only an hour later, he\u2019d not only mended the dents, but fashioned a ring for Little Joe out of an old horseshoe nail.\u00a0 After that, the guys started calling him the blacksmith.\u00a0 Turned out he was real good with his hands, \u2018specially at making small things.\u00a0 His fingers were nimble and he had an eye for detail.\u00a0 That worked in his favor with Adam but got him into an awful lot of trouble with Pa.<\/p>\n Me and Finn were sittin\u2019 on the front porch playing checkers one night when Adam joined us with his guitar.\u00a0 My older brother was in one of his moods and the noisy plunks and strums during the next ten minutes proved it.\u00a0 I snickered a few minutes later when Finn started makin\u2019 up words and the next thing I knew even Adam was laughing.\u00a0 Adam offered to teach Finn a few chords, and he picked it up right off. \u00a0By the time we went to bed, Finn was playing Sweet Bessie From Pike like he\u2019d been playing most of his life.<\/p>\n It was the day after his guitar lesson that we found out Finn wasn\u2019t born on a pedestal.\u00a0 Those nimble fingers were also quick.\u00a0 Quick and sneaky, and unfortunately, he picked the wrong person to practice his . . . side profession on.\u00a0 Big Tom had signed on during the spring cattle drive and had quickly proven himself to be as capable as he was cantankerous.\u00a0 We\u2019d just finished eating lunch when he came pounding on the front door, holding Finn up by his shirt collar and accusing him of stealing his pocket watch.\u00a0 It took some mighty fine convincing to keep Pa from firing Finn on the spot; most of that convincing coming from me and Little Joe.\u00a0 Finn promised not to let it happen again and Pa moved him to a different bunkhouse, away from Tom.\u00a0 Once in a while, after that, some little thing or other would come up missing, but nothing worth the effort of making an accusation.<\/p>\n If I\u2019d thought the weather was strange that summer, then the weather toward the end of August the day we left for Elko was downright upside down and backwards.\u00a0 The pounding rain gathered in gullies flowing hard enough and deep enough to sail Finn\u2019s ship on.\u00a0 I\u2019d been excited when Pa decided to send the two of us on this trip, not just because Pa trusted us enough to bring back a small herd of mustangs he\u2019d bought at an auction, but also that Finn and I were going to be able to spend some time on our own.\u00a0 The summer was coming to an end and I could tell Finn was anxious to get to San Francisco.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want him to go, and I\u2019d kind of hoped that I could use the time to try and convince to stay on, or maybe, just maybe, there was a small part of me that wanted him to talk me into going with him.<\/p>\n We arrived in Elko late that night, but thankfully the local tavern was still open.\u00a0 Our intentions were just to have a drink to warm us up, but considering I don\u2019t remember anything else until the next morning, I think it\u2019s safe to say we had more than just one drink.\u00a0 The next morning was when everything changed.\u00a0 For one thing there wasn\u2019t a cloud in the sky and even though it was only seven o\u2019clock, it was already unusually warm.\u00a0 We packed up and checked out of the hotel room, neither of us much in the mood for breakfast.\u00a0 I\u2019d just finished saddling Chubb when the sheriff came in to collect us.\u00a0 On the way to the jailhouse he informed us the bank had been robbed during the night.\u00a0 Since we were the only strangers in town, and he didn\u2019t have any leads to follow, that made us the most likely suspects.\u00a0 The faces on the townsfolk had me worried.\u00a0 I saw suspicion and anger in their eyes, and the heat wasn\u2019t helping matters any.\u00a0 Me and Finn had only been in our jail cells for an hour or so, both soaked with sweat, when we heard voices from a crowd gathering outside.\u00a0 The sheriff looked worried when he came in to check on us.\u00a0 He told us he\u2019d make sure the judge went easy on us as long as we returned the money.\u00a0 He talked on about how \u00a0times had been hard for the town lately and the people outside couldn\u2019t afford to lose all they\u2019d worked so hard for.\u00a0 I swore to the sheriff that I didn\u2019t know nothin\u2019 about the robbery, then he turned to Finn.\u00a0 I turned too, and he was sittin\u2019 there with his head down, not making a sound.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, son?\u201d the sheriff said.<\/p>\n My heart sank when Finn didn\u2019t answer.\u00a0 The sheriff released me and as he handed me my things he leaned in real close.\u00a0 He kept his voice down as he told me I\u2019d best ride for home quick and get some help if my friend was to have any chance at a fair trial.\u00a0 I\u2019d made it as far as the first rise when a crack of thunder, louder than any gunshot I\u2019d ever heard, spooked Chubb and, a minute later, had me picking myself up off the ground.\u00a0 Chubb was running full speed for an outcropping of rocks and made it under a ledge just in time to avoid the stinging hailstorm I experienced.\u00a0 Then as suddenly as it had come up, the storm was gone, and everything was deathly quiet.<\/p>\n For the next few minutes, I just stood there, feeling like I was going to choke on every breath of air, and then, slowly, the ice at my feet crept over me until I was numb.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember fetching Chubb, but somehow, we both ended up back in Elko.\u00a0 I turned away from the jail and headed instead for the doctor\u2019s office.\u00a0 The doctor paced and ranted about injustice, but all I could do was stare at Finn.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t understand it.\u00a0 Why he\u2019d stolen the money, why he\u2019d been lynched.\u00a0 Impatience.<\/p>\n It was late in September when we got a visit from the sheriff in Elko.\u00a0 He had a small scar on his left cheek; a token from the day the angry mob had broken Finn out of his jail.\u00a0 He told us that it had been a mistake.\u00a0 That Finn had taken the blame in order to get me out of there.\u00a0 The men that really committed the robbery had been caught in a little bar just inside the border of Utah.\u00a0 Having had more than their fair to drink, they\u2019d bragged a little too loud and in a little too much detail.\u00a0 Their story got back to the local sheriff and, for the little town of Elko, all was well.\u00a0 The majority of the money had been recovered and the robbers were sentenced to prison.\u00a0 The sheriff had made the trip out to see us in person so that we would know the truth, and to deliver an envelope of money the townsfolk had collected.\u00a0 The sum total of what they considered Finn\u2019s worth.\u00a0 Since he had no next of kin, the sheriff left the money with us to do what we thought best with it.\u00a0 It sat in the top drawer of my dresser for a long time, until one particular rainy day, an idea came to me.<\/p>\n I called the small ship The Blacksmith, and someday Little Joe and I plan to take it San Francisco where we\u2019ll find a young sailor full of dreams that\u2019s just in need of a ship.<\/p>\n THE END<\/p>\n Written for the Ponderosa Paddlewheel Poker Tournament.<\/p>\n My words were:\u00a0 Ship, Blacksmith, Guitar, Robbery, and (Joker)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:\u00a0 Hoss Cartwright, jail \/ jailed<\/p>\n