{"id":17742,"date":"2018-07-14T12:37:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T16:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=17742"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:40:13","slug":"without-you-by-psw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=17742","title":{"rendered":"Without You (by PSW)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: The brothers share a bittersweet day.\u00a0 Written for the July 15 Pinecone Challenge and (very slightly) expanded for inclusion here.\u00a0 Prompt\/lyrics: God only knows what I’d be without you. (Brian Wilson, Tony Asher)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: K\u00a0 \u00a0WC<\/strong>: 576<\/p>\n

Without You<\/strong><\/p>\n

The late February skies had been gray over the past weeks and they had expected more of the same, but that morning dawned sharp and clear, the sun rising in a blaze of winter glory over the Ponderosa.\u00a0 Joe uttered a teary cackle at the brightness and slugged Jamie\u2019s shoulder as they exited the big house for the funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess we know what Pa thought of all them clouds, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Guess so.<\/p>\n

Now the ceremony was over, and all the many friends and neighbors and wives and children had returned to the main yard to put on last minute touches and set out the funeral meal.\u00a0 The three brothers alone remained around the fresh-hewn headstone beneath that winter brilliance\u2014four brothers, really, for Hoss was there as surely as the others, his own weathered stone a bulwark at their father\u2019s side in death as the man himself had been in life.\u00a0 Jamie suspected that Joe and Adam must be thinking something similar, for his brothers had been touching Hoss\u2019s stone every time they passed it\u2014brief, quick pats and rubs of which he suspected they weren\u2019t even aware.<\/p>\n

Yes, it was only right that they were all together here, on this of all days.<\/p>\n

They shared a few memories as they framed Ben Cartwright\u2019s grave, one at each compass point\u2014a few laughs, a few tears, a few rolled eyes and shrugs, all seasoned with a healthy dose of respect and love for this man who had been rock and guide to each of them.\u00a0 The air was thick not so much with grief but with the weary acceptance of a long life well-lived, a life which had been at last brought to its logical conclusion.\u00a0 Their pa had been ready, there at the end, to join his loved ones who had gone before.\u00a0 How could they wish otherwise for him?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should go.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Adam, of course\u2014not that he was ready to leave this spot any more than Joe or Jamie, but he would be the first to think of the crowd awaiting them at home.\u00a0 They could have lost hours, the three of them, coats draped across the nearby grass and shirtsleeves rolled to their elbows despite the crisp February breeze that ruffled hair and reddened cheeks.\u00a0 Time stood still there for the sons of Ben Cartwright, and without that gentle reminder they might have stayed until the sun dipped down behind the western horizon and never even noticed the day\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 Joe dragged a sigh from his depths.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, I guess you\u2019re right.\u201d\u00a0 Green eyes surveyed his father\u2019s grave, then turned on them both.\u00a0 \u201cAnybody want to say anything else before we go?\u201d<\/p>\n

It had been there for hours\u2014for days now\u2014swirling just beneath the surface, and he knew suddenly it was time.\u00a0 Ben Cartwright had been the turning point in his life.\u00a0 Without the man\u2019s generosity, without his love, without his steady influence during that time of great upheaval in a young boy\u2019s life \u2026\u00a0 No.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to think of it.\u00a0 Jamie stepped forward and laid a calloused hand on the chill stone.\u00a0 \u201cPa \u2026 God only knows what I\u2019d be without you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sharp indrawn breath, and then suddenly Joe was there at his right, warm heavy arm wrapping around his shoulders.\u00a0 \u201cGod only knows what any of us would have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam was there too, encircling them both from Jamie\u2019s left.\u00a0 \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amen indeed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Adam Cartwright,\u00a0brothers,\u00a0Family,\u00a0Jamie Hunter Cartwright,\u00a0Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright,\u00a0Memories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: The brothers share a bittersweet day.\u00a0 Written for the July 15 Pinecone Challenge and (very slightly) expanded for inclusion here.\u00a0 Prompt\/lyrics: God only knows what I’d be without you. (Brian Wilson, Tony Asher)<\/p>\n

Rating: K\u00a0 \u00a0WC: 576<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10468,"featured_media":17741,"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":[8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories","category-challenges","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\/2018\/07\/488C0EA0-90EC-4A50-88D0-843B02C51C1F.jpeg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17742","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=17742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}