{"id":13418,"date":"2016-10-23T01:56:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T05:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=13418"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:41:23","slug":"close-to-a-guarantee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=13418","title":{"rendered":"Close To a Guarantee (by ForeverFree)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:<\/strong> This is a combined WHN\/WHI\u00a0for The Tall Stranger<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The first sentence is the Oct 1, 2016 Pinecone prompt, even though the story never made it to the challenge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0K+ (722 words)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Close to a Guarantee<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the original episode, Margie Owens breaks off the engagement with Hoss when crooked Mark Connors sweeps her off her feet with promises of a dream life, traveling the world.<\/p>\n

Connors’ motive for wanting to marry Margie is to bilk her father out of money, and when she finally discovers his true colors, he leaves her to fend for herself in San Francisco while she is pregnant. At this point, Margie’s father then asks Hoss to bring his daughter home.<\/p>\n

When Hoss finds her, she has lost all hope and will to live. She is in labor and Hoss promises that once the baby is born, the three of them are going to live as a family, like they planned before she married Mark Connors. But Margie dies in childbirth, and Hoss brings the little girl home to her grandfather.<\/p>\n

In my version, George Owens and Hoss never located Margie. She also survived the birth of her daughter. This is a glimpse of the consequences she is still suffering, about eight years after making the biggest mistake of her life.<\/p>\n

CLOSE TO A GUARANTEE<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The world is full o\u2019 complainers. An\u2019 the fact is, nothin\u2019 comes with a guarantee.”<\/em> Margie studied Hoss Cartwright’s words on the handwritten note before carefully placing it beside her on the bed. It was morning and the absence of brawling men in saloon downstairs was noticeable. Her seven-year-old daughter Erica had left for school, and Margie would have the room to herself for a few hours. On occasions like this, she often stayed behind her own locked door to sit for a while and think about the way things once were.<\/p>\n

Her life had turned out so differently than she once imagined. She absently stroked her fingers over the piece of paper. How young she had been. How naive. How much pain she might have spared herself if she had known back then what she knew now. That a person could not afford to love or hope or dream too much. The price was always too high, and that was why she was still paying for the one time, so long ago, when she had loved, hoped and dreamt too much. But she had kept her promise to herself never to love or dream like that again.<\/p>\n

Of course, Margie had felt tempted to give in, to let something into her heart. Especially when she looked at her daughter; the girl’s face turned toward her with such longing in her eyes. Margie saw in Erica a hunger for something that was expected of her, but she was incapable of giving it to the girl. Sometimes Margie would notice Erica just sitting and looking at her with an expression that displayed all the unreciprocated longing that could possibly be found on a child’s face. Part of Margie wanted to break her promise and go over to put her arms around her daughter, to feel her own heart beating in time with hers, but something always stopped her. At the last moment, before she could get up, before she could hug her daughter, she always had a sensation of Hoss Cartwright. His strong, gentle arms around her own body, enveloping her. His blue eyes looking at her with love and warmth.<\/p>\n

Erica… A child created without love, and in no way related to the man who inspired to her name. Eric Cartwright. She had given birth to Erica alone, in a room filled with strangers. She had felt the baby slide out of her body and then out of her heart.<\/p>\n

Margie put her hand inside the satchel and took out the bandana. She held it up to her nose, sniffing at it to see if it still held any trace of that sweet, warm scent that Hoss had when he held her in his arms. But there was nothing. The bandana had only a stuffy, musty odor. All those years had wiped away any scent of the big man, and she could no longer smell it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes she had thought about trying to locate him, maybe just to make sure that he was all right, but the idea had never gone any further. It was the same with the idea that she might wrap her arms around her daughter, and in that way free herself from the promise that kept her heart closed.<\/p>\n

“The world is full o\u2019 complainers. An\u2019 the fact is, nothin\u2019 comes with a guarantee.”<\/em> Hoss didn’t know how right he was when he said it but had he understood it? Margie didn’t think so. Neither of them had. Margie hadn’t known what it meant, hadn’t known what role it would play in her life, but sensing that it was important, she had jotted the message down and kept it.<\/p>\n

Carefully she put the bandana and the note back in the satchel along with the drawing little Erica had made for her last night. Because this was the only thing Margie was capable of giving to her daughter, a moment of love when she was alone with her memories. That was the only time she could allow herself to think of Erica not only with her mind but with her heart. As soon as the girl looked at her with hungry eyes, Margie’s heart would close up in fear.<\/p>\n

People who refused to love had nothing to lose. That was as close as she could come to a guarantee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Hoss Cartwright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: This is a combined WHN\/WHI\u00a0for The Tall Stranger.<\/p>\n

The first sentence is the Oct 1, 2016 Pinecone prompt, even though the story never made it to the challenge.<\/p>\n

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