{"id":15204,"date":"2017-09-02T14:47:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T18:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15204"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:41:05","slug":"younger-by-psw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=15204","title":{"rendered":"Younger (by PSW)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>:\u00a0 A quiet, light moment among family.\u00a0 Written for the January 1st Pinecone Challenge, and expanded (very slightly) for inclusion here.\u00a0 Prompt\/lyrics: I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.\u00a0 (Bob Dylan)<\/p>\n

Rating: K\u00a0 \u00a0Word Count: 518<\/p>\n

Scenes From Our Next Life Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like You Were<\/a>
\nYounger<\/a>
\nA Good Life
\n<\/a>Time and Change
\n<\/a>Home
\n<\/a>Warm Milk and Memories<\/a><\/p>\n

Younger<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll see your two, and raise you \u2026 three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five smooth stones joined the pile on the old coffee table, and a contemplative silence settled.\u00a0 The fire, the only light in the house, flickered against hair and eyes and the eclectic jumble of offerings heaped at their center.\u00a0 It was an odd time of day\u2014of night?\u00a0 of morning?\u2014for the undertaking, and an odd choice of entertainment for Ben Cartwright\u2019s home \u2026 but the man himself had only shaken his head in amused affection before climbing the stairs to his bed some hours past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll see your three.\u201d\u00a0 Adam, newly returned from nearly a decade in Australia, added several shells to the pile then settled back into the settee.<\/p>\n

At the opposite end of the striped couch, Joe had three bullets ready to go.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I.\u201d\u00a0 Lina dropped three dried black beans into the mix and settled back, tugging her skirt down to cover her bare toes.\u00a0 After years of knocking boots and guns and bodies off of the heavy piece of furniture, Ben had succumbed to his new daughter-in-law\u2019s habit of sitting cross-legged on the coffee table with barely a protest.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s second wife had conquered very quickly and without effort a heart already disposed to love her.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall?\u201d Jamie squeaked, and Joe recalled with sympathy his own long battle against adolescent voice changes.\u00a0 The boy was perched on the other corner of the table, having been quick to take advantage of Lina\u2019s work in that area.\u00a0 Grins began to spread.\u00a0 With a sigh and a low mutter, Jamie dropped a hand on the table which consisted of nothing more than \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cEight high?\u201d\u00a0 Joe\u2019s cackle rang out, quickly muted by a wave from Lina and a glance up the stairs.\u00a0 He smothered the volume, but not the laughter.\u00a0 \u201cYou raised<\/em> on that?\u201d\u00a0 Jamie shrugged, flashing that goofy grin that was half proud, half heartbreakingly shy.\u00a0 \u201cI remember a time you wouldn\u2019t have done anything of the kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie paused in the act of stealing a few rocks back from the pile.\u00a0 \u201cWell \u2026 I was so much older then.\u00a0 I\u2019m younger than that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was meant to be flippant, but the words caught them all off-guard.\u00a0 Memories assailed\u2014a rainmaker tarred and feathered by an angry town; long days on the trail and a vibrant woman cut down by an arrow, leaving a (semi) small, precious gift behind; too many losses one on top of another, aging a battered heart before its time; a father who seemed incapable of love and a late unlamented husband who most certainly was\u2014and for a moment the crackle of the fire was the only sound.<\/p>\n

Perhaps they were<\/em> younger now, having come through it all.\u00a0 They certainly felt it.<\/p>\n

A loud pop startled them back to the present.\u00a0 Joe grabbed for a toe peeking out from beneath Lina\u2019s skirt and she jerked away, stifling her giggle so as not to wake her sleeping father-in-law.\u00a0 Jamie hung backward off of the coffee table to scratch a dozing April behind the ears.\u00a0 Adam shook his head, gathering the cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhose deal?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next Story in the Scenes From Our Next Life Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Good Life<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Adam Cartwright,\u00a0Family,\u00a0Jamie Hunter Cartwright,\u00a0Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 A quiet, light moment among family.<\/p>\n

Rating: K\u00a0 \u00a0Word Count: 519<\/p>\n

Scenes From Our Next Life Series, links to stories of this series included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10468,"featured_media":15203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[23,8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-short-stories","category-challenges","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2442.jpg?fit=766%2C639&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}