Summary:\u00a0 Cattle are being eaten, and their picked-clean skeletons are being deposited near the lake, but when the Cartwrights investigate, they find a lot more than they ever bargained for … and the effects will last forever.<\/p>\n
(Note: This story was first posted on BonanzaWorld in 2009. I just realized it apparently never made it over to Brand. The story begins in the 1940s, but don’t let that frighten you away. This is a Cartwright story.)<\/em><\/p>\n Rating T\u00a0 (20,000 words)<\/p>\n The Ballad of Tahoe Tessie<\/strong><\/p>\n by Sandspur<\/p>\n The advantage of working in the War Department, as Sarah Morton\u2019s father did, was that he found out all kinds of interesting things. The disadvantage was that he couldn\u2019t tell anyone. The Japanese were sending balloons to drop fire bombs over Oregon\u2019s forests. A German U-Boat was off the coast of Florida. Spies had been \u201cdropped off\u201d by another sub right off Rehoboth in New Jersey. There were multiple submarines\u2014definitely German, and some possibly Japanese\u2014off the coast of Virginia. No one could know this, of course. J. Edgar Hoover, Bill Donovan, Harry Stimson, and all the other powers that be, had said so: this information was not only secret now, but for at least 50 years after the war\u2026assuming the Allies won. Otherwise, well, people would find out pretty darn quick.<\/p>\n It all added up to one thing for Cliff Morton: Sarah could not stay in Washington, DC. And she could not be told why. She could not go back to her mother\u2019s sisters in New York, and certainly not to her grandmother in England\u2014talk about from the frying pan into the fire. England was being bombed daily.<\/p>\n That left his family, but his brother Edgar was in the Navy, and Edgar\u2019s wife could not stand Cliff. Not too surprising, since Cliff couldn\u2019t stand her either. And so by process of elimination, Sarah was sent to Reno, Nevada, to stay with Cliff\u2019s much-younger sister, Cathy.<\/p>\n Cathy was only 22, ten years older than Sarah and ten years younger than Cliff, but she had the world\u2019s strangest job: she worked on a \u201cranch\u201d that catered to women coming to Reno to obtain a divorce.\u00a0 Reno, in the 1930\u2019s, had become one of the few places people could go to get a divorce for reasons other than adultery, and one of the few places where a divorce could be obtained in weeks, not years. (Walter Winchell, the great gossip columnist of the day, nicknamed the place \u201cReno-vation.\u201d) All a person had to do was reside in the state for six weeks to become a resident, and any resident could get a divorce. So all around Reno, boarding houses, luxury hotels, and even ranches had sprung up to offer their services to those needing to establish residence and have some fun while doing it. Most of those using these facilities were women. And the FreedHeart Ranch, whose brand showed a heart wrapped in broken chains, didn\u2019t have a single cow, but there were thirty horses for the ranch\u2019s women guests\u2026and another ten for the wranglers. And the ten wranglers, bless \u2019em all, were all men who were designed specifically by the Lord God Almighty for the sole purpose of giving broken-hearted women a reason to live.<\/p>\n Cliff didn\u2019t know this when he sent his 12-year-old daughter there; he only knew Cathy was a secretary at a place called FreedHeart, Inc. She was a busy secretary; she booked women visitors into the ranch, handled all the ranch billing and correspondence, set the guests up with the best lawyers to handle their cases, booked all the meetings, and even provided donuts and coffee.<\/p>\n So this was quite an interesting place, Sarah thought when she arrived. Cathy lived on the ranch, like many of the employees, and since there were only 25 guests at any time, there were five extra horses, a plethora of places to ride, and gorgeous desert scenery and color\u2026not to mention gorgeous local<\/em> scenery and color in the form of those ten, bless \u2019em all, wranglers. What more could a 12-year-old girl ask than horses to ride and ten, bless \u2019em all, wranglers?<\/p>\n Now the men, for their part, knew why they were there, and they took wonderful care of the horses and grounds, they took the broken-hearts and the hard hearts and the lonely hearts out on long and diverting trail rides; they spent hours in the corrals working with the women who\u2019d never ridden before, building their confidence and of course \u201cimproving their seats.\u201d And Sarah\u2014who had grown up in New York and used to ride in Central Park (but not with those heavy western saddles or horses that reined with pressure on their necks) pretty much thought she was in heaven. Forget that the world around her was at war, that sugar and nylons and gasoline could only be obtained by means of ration coupons. Her sugar was right in front of her, leather was infinitely preferable to nylon, and the sight of one of those ten, bless \u2019em all, wranglers was fuel enough to run her engine for hours.<\/p>\n Of course, the great liberator and simultaneous torture in all this heavenly setting was the fact that at age 12, Sarah could fall in love with as many of the men as she wanted\u2014but they, of course, could not fall back. They were all her best friends\u2014gravely polite, and occasionally mildly flirtatious, just to make her remember that someday she would be a woman after all, but they all knew where the lines were drawn, and would never, ever cross them. This was okay most of the time, since at age 12, Sarah had no idea what men were for, other than to do heavy lifting and look beautiful when they took their shirts off.<\/p>\n Now the nicest, and best looking, of all the wranglers, was Frank Benson. Nevada Frank, they called him, because his family had lived in Nevada since ancient times. (He confessed to her, on pledge of her everlasting silence, that his real name was Francis, but of course cowboys named Francis did not have a pleasant life.) He was her all-time favorite. A little under six feet tall, he was wiry, had beautiful chestnut curls that framed his sweet face like a portrait in an art museum, and eyes that, depending on the light, looked hazel or even emerald green. He was beautifully tanned, like Douglas Fairbanks Senior, the silent-movie star who did his own stunts. Sarah could picture Frank in the movies, and she knew he would never let a stuntman do his stunts either. But why should he? Frank had the body of a Greek god. He also had the face of an angel, and the eyes of Lucifer on the Prowl. Sarah often wondered exactly what it was Lucifer prowled for, but whenever she heard the ranch guests talking about Frank, they always said he was Lucifer on the Prowl.<\/p>\n But for Sarah, he was a best friend. He giggled madly at her jokes and told her hilariously outlandish stories about his two brothers in return. Whenever he had to run an errand, she usually found a way to accompany him, and they sang all the way there and back, whether the errand was run on horseback or in his old pickup truck. He was the only one of the wranglers who would race her, as well\u2014he rode a flashy tobiano paint named Geronimo that seemed to beat any other horse in the remuda\u2026but could barely keep up with any horse she rode. But aside from letting her win at racing, Frank was always the epitome of courtesy to her, and told her that \u201cwhere he came from\u201d (which apparently was only 50 or so miles away) women were raised to be \u201cladies.\u201d<\/p>\n When she heard from him how \u201cladies\u201d were supposed to behave, it was a bit confusing since she lived with Aunt Cathy, who didn\u2019t behave that way at all. Cathy\u2019s only concern, once she got off work, was that the seams of her stockings should be completely straight and that her lipstick (two shades darker in the evening than in the day time) was properly applied.<\/p>\n Cathy really wasn\u2019t the best person to shelter a twelve-year-old girl. She still hadn\u2019t finished sowing her own wild oats, and in the evening she frequently left the ranch\u2014sometimes accompanied by one of the wranglers (but never by Frank) and sometimes alone\u2014and didn\u2019t come back until the wee hours of the morning. Sarah had no idea what Cathy did during these evening excursions, but she didn\u2019t much care, either. She was pretty self-sufficient and always had been since her mother had died.<\/p>\n About the most interesting thing about Cathy, as far as Sarah was concerned, was her wardrobe. Sarah had always been a tomboy, far more comfortable in pants than dresses, but at 12, she was at least curious. She was particularly curious about Cathy\u2019s brassieres. Sarah was neither old enough nor developed enough to wear one, but she thought they must be wonderful contraptions, since a lot of the women movie stars were photographed in them for ads in Time<\/em> and Motion Picture Weekly<\/em> and they were all beautiful.<\/p>\n When Cathy went out on Friday nights she frequently didn\u2019t come back until Sunday, and so one particularly boring Friday evening, Sarah pulled out a few of Cathy\u2019s brassieres and began to try them on in front of the mirror. Having nothing to fill them out with, though, she thought they looked pretty ridiculous, even the lacy ones. Deciding to put them away, she was in the laborious process of unfastening the one she was wearing when Cathy came in\u2026and to say Cathy was displeased would be putting it mildly.<\/p>\n By the time Cathy had left again, Sarah\u2019s mind was made up. In short order she had packed a few necessities into a hiking knapsack, and slung her guitar over her back. She was going home to her father if she had to walk every step of the way.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Sarah was walking down the dusty road toward Reno when the rusty pickup truck came rattling by. The brake lights came on a couple of seconds after it passed, and the truck backed up level with her. Frank\u2019s angelic face appeared. \u201cWhat the dickens are you doin\u2019 walkin\u2019 down the road all by yourself, Jailbait?\u201d (He always called her that; she had no idea why.)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll only tell you if you\u2019ll give me a ride into town.\u201d<\/p>\n He shrugged and yanked on the door a couple of times until it opened. She dumped her knapsack and guitar on the floorboard and crawled in next to him, sneezing at the dust cloud her movement raised, and then jerked on the door handle until it groaned and swung shut.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere do ya wanna go in town?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBus station.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHm. Does yer Aunt Cathy know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a witch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay\u2026\u201d He asked no more; just shoved the clutch down a couple of times until he was able to get the stubborn transmission into gear. \u201cYou sure you want to go to the bus station?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2026\u201d Then he brightened. \u201cI\u2019m goin\u2019 to Virginia City. If you\u2019re really running away, why not come along with me? There\u2019s a bus station there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n A shrug. \u201cOne bus station\u2019s pretty much like another.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked at her in concern. \u201cYou look like you got run over by a buffalo herd. Wanna talk about it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy aunt\u2019s a witch. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOkay.\u201d He raised his hands in surrender and then put them back on the steering wheel as he pulled onto the road again.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank, if I ask you a funny question, will you promise not to laugh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI dunno. If it\u2019s funny, ain\u2019t I supposed to laugh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot this time. I got nobody to ask and it\u2019s driving me nuts. Frank, when am I gonna get breasts?\u201d<\/p>\n He nearly ran the truck off the road at that, but manfully pulled back into his lane and held his breath. Finally, he turned and looked thoughtfully at her chest for a minute, then nodded and looked back at the road. \u201cNext Tuesday, I reckon. That good enough?\u201d<\/p>\n She giggled. \u201cI reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou figgerin\u2019 on runnin\u2019 back to Washington, to be with yer Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cDon\u2019t blame ya. I miss my Pa somethin\u2019 fierce, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour father\u2019s still alive?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy Pa\u2019s way too ornery to ever die.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019re so old! Cathy said you\u2019re nearly 30!\u201d<\/p>\n Frank laughed as if he\u2019d heard a great joke. \u201cCathy doesn\u2019t know me very well. I\u2019m way older\u2019n that. And my Pa is older than the hills.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTell me about your family again, Frank. I don\u2019t have any brothers or even sisters, just Daddy, and he\u2019s always at work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll go you one better, Jailbait. Have you ever heard of the Cartwright family?\u201d<\/p>\n She thought for a while. \u201cI think so\u2026they lived a hundred years ago, or something like that, and the state park over on Lake Tahoe was their idea, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHey, you\u2019re good.\u201d He grinned. \u201cWell, some folk say I\u2019m descended from the Cartwright family. And I do look a lot like one of them in particular. Now, back in the day, in Virginia City, the Cartwrights were famous, famous like President Roosevelt is famous today\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The story I\u2019m gonna tell you is what we call the legend of Tahoe Tessie. You may have heard of her before. When the guys with boats take tourists out on the lake, they like to drop little hints about how there\u2019s a sea monster in Lake Tahoe, you know, like the Loch Ness Monster? Yeah, a sea monster. Don\u2019t make faces. It\u2019s in the encyclopedia. They say it started in April of 1865 when there was a church picnic on the shore on the eastern side of the lake\u2014most of which was on Cartwright land, by the way, though the encyclopedias never see fit to mention that. There was a concert that afternoon, and the bandmaster was the one who turned around and saw what he called a \u201csea serpent\u201d in the lake. He said it was something like 80 feet long and was just four big humps in the water, trailing a wake. You can imagine what the good folk of that area thought.<\/p>\n Especially the Cartwrights. They were the ones who suffered the most\u2014and lost the most\u2014and gained the most. And all because of Tahoe Tessie.<\/p>\n Like I said the Cartwrights owned most of that land\u2014in those days their ranch, the Ponderosa, was 1,000 square miles of wood, desert, mountain, lake, and meadow, just about every landscape you can imagine in one place. Ben Cartwright, \u201cthe Old Man\u201d as some folks called him, had three boys\u2014Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe. Remember these names, kid, you\u2019ll be hearing them a lot.<\/p>\n Ben was one of the pioneers you read about\u2014covered wagons, Indian fights, you name it, he did it. And he still looked good after doin\u2019 it, even if his hair was goin\u2019 gray. He was the one who scraped the Ponderosa out of the bare wilderness. His oldest boy, Adam, liked to claim credit for a fair piece of the action himself, but who knows. He was around before there were witnesses. There are those who claim Adam was kind of like Mozart, you know, one of those bratty-genius types. They say he designed the ranch house when he was still in knee pants. Adam was the one who looked and acted most like his Pa, and he was every bit as stubborn, too.<\/p>\n Hoss was the middle son, and he didn\u2019t look like Old Ben at all. Hoss had a real name, but nobody except his mama ever called him by it, and she died before he got to know her anyway, just like Adam\u2019s mama died before either of them got to know each other. Back to Hoss though\u2014he was a big bear of a fella, scared a lot of people half to death just lookin\u2019 at \u2019em, but trust me\u2026he was a teddy bear. A lot of people thought Hoss was stupid, just because he was big, but trust me again\u2014just because he thought kind of slow and careful doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t think at all. He thought a lot, and in the end he might have been the wisest of all the Cartwrights.<\/p>\n And that brings us to the youngest one: Joseph, better known as Little Joe. He was the best looking of the three without doubt, and probably the smartest too, at least in all the ways that counted. Nobody\u2014especially Joe\u2014could figure out why he stayed broke all the time since he was so smart, but he always was broke and usually owed someone money as well. That plays into this story some, because it was Joe who, being broke again, had the idea of charging people to come onto the Ponderosa and go out to the lake to see if they could find Tessie, the sea monster. Pretty funny when you think of it\u2014Little Joe had never seen Tessie either, but he didn\u2019t care; as far as he knew Tessie was a dead branch floating in the water, and the bandleader had been tippling a little too much from his hip flask\u2026but two bits was two bits. Then and now, right, Jailbait?<\/p>\n So Little Joe came up with the idea of getting rich by turning the Ponderosa into a tourist attraction, or at least, the lake portion of it, and he charged everyone two bits a head to come down to the lake and look for Tessie. Hoss, who was way too easy-going to ever say no to one of Joe\u2019s moneymaking schemes, went along with it and helped him collect all the quarters, and before the first day was out the two of them had made over $100\u2026most of it in 25-cent increments, true, but if you didn\u2019t mind having that many quarters in your pockets, so many you couldn\u2019t even pick your legs up under the weight, it was a lovely thing to have all that money.<\/p>\n And that feeling lasted for several days, since they made more money as each day passed, until Pa\u2014that is, Old Ben\u2014and Adam came back from the San Francisco business trip they\u2019d taken.<\/p>\n Oh, it was a shame, Jailbait, a rotten shame, but sometimes businessmen have no respect for other businessmen. The very next morning poor Little Joe\u2019s plan was discovered, as Adam going out to the pasture, found some 30 people on the way out to the lake\u2014and Little Joe opening the gates for them at two bits a head\u2026.<\/p>\n Now, whatever you might want to say about Adam, he was no snitch. Oh, he could be, if it was life and death, or if the mood hit him\u2014or something like that. But in a situation like this, he nobly stayed silent and settled for pounding his sad, helpless little brother into the manure pile near the gate, since poor Joe couldn\u2019t maneuver with all those quarters in his pockets. But it was all for naught\u2014Hoss had spilled the beans already. Hoss wasn\u2019t really a snitch either, but he had a face that was way too honest for this sinful world, and Old Ben knew something was up.<\/p>\n Ben and the three boys rode down to the lake, and there were about 200 tourists sitting on the shore with Hong Kong Mulligan stew and Shanghai barbecue and Kentucky stir-fried chicken\u2014seems that even Hop Sing, the Cartwrights\u2019 cook, had been drafted as a short-order cook for yet another profit-making venture, the \u201cCantonese Kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n What Ben Cartwright had to say about this shameful situation is best not recorded for posterity, since Ben had the reputation around those parts as being a pious man, and he was\u2026most of the time. But before he became a pious pioneer he spent many years as a sailor, and well, you know what they say\u2014sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.<\/p>\n Ben also had a voice as big as one of these Ponderosa pines, too, and he could use it like a foghorn when he wanted. Well, his feelings translated pretty well into loudness that day, and those 200 tourists headed home fast. And there was Hop Sing left with enough food to feed a legion of railroad workers; thankfully, Hoss was on hand and always obliging enough to help.<\/p>\n It took the better part of two days for Joe and Hoss to clean up all the trash the tourists left behind. Adam didn\u2019t have to help because it wasn\u2019t his fault, so said Ben. Of course, he didn\u2019t get a share in the $750 profit of the week, either.<\/p>\n But it was while Hoss and Little Joe were cleaning all that area, the lake shore and the meadow beyond and the woods off to the side and the road back to the gate, that the first cow carcass was found. Yeah, as in \u201ca dead body.\u201d Only it wasn\u2019t exactly a carcass either. A carcass ought to have a little meat still left on it, at least. Well, this one didn\u2019t. It was just a skeleton, clean and shiny as a little kid\u2019s face when he\u2019s gettin\u2019 ready for Sunday School. Now the first skeleton they found like that, they thought maybe the wolves or coyotes had gotten it, and it had just been out long enough for the buzzards to finish off the rest\u2026but they also knew better than that even when they said it.<\/p>\n The next day they found another cow skeleton; like the first it was picked clean, and like the first it was within 100 feet of the lake. Then another one turned up the day after. And they realized either the wolves and coyotes of the area were getting really<\/em> clean and tidy, or someone was playing a very elaborate practical joke.<\/p>\n \u201cThird possibility,\u201d said Adam. \u201cMaybe Tessie\u2019s doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n You can bet the eyes of the other three men were on him pretty quick, wondering if he had heat stroke or something. In reality he had been joking, but since Adam never could resist being the center of attention when his brains were showing, he decided to run with it. \u201cLet\u2019s think this out,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething is killing our cattle, and we don\u2019t know what. I suppose it could be barracuda or piranha, but\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBarrawhata?\u201d Joe puzzled. He was used to Adam using big words, but usually Adam couldn\u2019t resist the opportunity to look even smarter by defining the big words, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re meat-eating fish,\u201d Adam illumined. \u201cThey pick all the meat off the bones and just leave bones behind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAin\u2019t all fish meat eating? I mean, they eat each other, right?\u201d Hoss asked. Joe just rolled his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cLet it go, or we\u2019ll be here all day,\u201d he told Hoss. (I told you Joe was smart.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt can\u2019t be fish,\u201d Ben said. \u201cThe skeletons are on dry land 100 feet away from any water. There\u2019s no fish that can just walk up onto dry land and spit out a skeleton.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the more reason to think it\u2019s Tessie,\u201d Adam shrugged.<\/p>\n \u201cAw, come on, Adam,\u201d Joe said. \u201cTessie is some kind of sea serpent or monster or something\u2014if she\u2019s even real, which we don\u2019t know she is. A sea serpent can\u2019t walk up on shore and spit out a skeleton either.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know? You haven\u2019t seen it, remember?\u201d Adam always loved a good debate.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s a serpent, for Pete\u2019s sake! That means it\u2019s a snake, and snakes don\u2019t walk!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019re not taking the lake into account,\u201d Adam replied calmly. \u201cWhatever that thing is, it has to be able to dive pretty deep in order to hide from all the people. There are people on or around the lake all the time. You know as well as I do how clear that water is. On a good day you can see 120 feet down\u2014and in the deep spots the lake is 1600 feet deep anyway. It\u2019s April. The surface temperature of the lake isn\u2019t more than 50 degrees, and it\u2019s well into the 30\u2019s at night\u2014not to mention that in the deep areas where the thing hides, it\u2019s colder still. No reptile could live out there\u2014and snakes, I remind you, are reptiles.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben always had a tendency to fidget whenever Adam\u2019s education reared its ugly head. \u201cYou\u2019ve just told us that there\u2019s no way Tessie can be a reptile, is that correct?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely correct,\u201d Adam said serenely.<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s roar was heard clear over in California. \u201cTHEN WHAT IN BLAZES IS IT?\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Adam was used to that roar, so he didn\u2019t jump more than a few inches, a foot at most. \u201cI never said I knew, Pa. I just said it might be the thing that\u2019s eating our cattle. It\u2019s not a fish, and it\u2019s not a reptile. As far as finding out what it is, the best way to do that is to go take a look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n And they decided to do just that\u2014well, the three brothers did. Adam had a theory that the beast was probably nocturnal, that\u2019s to say a night critter, and it only came up a little early the day it was spotted. So they all went back to the house and packed their coats, lanterns, shotguns (with premium buckshot only), along with a couple of sticks of dynamite each. Hop Sing\u2019s tourist fare became lunch pail fodder real quick, and each of the boys took a rowboat out on the lake. Ben of course thought the entire idea was codswallop, and refused to go. To tell the truth Hoss and Joe thought it was a dumb idea too, but they were always game to go on a hunt, even a dumb one. Besides, Adam was taking his guitar out, and that promised some singing to be had, to while away the long night hours. Joe loved to sing; so did Adam, and while Hoss couldn\u2019t carry a tune in a bucket, he loved to listen.<\/p>\n Of course Adam didn\u2019t tell them he\u2019d written a song of his own especially for the occasion. Did I mention that Adam was something of a smart aleck?<\/p>\n \u201cYou see,\u201d he told his brothers, \u201cI figure Tessie is probably a shy animal, like a wolf. So she\u2019ll respond better to gentle, soothing sounds. So I\u2019ll serenade her with a ballad I wrote especially for her.\u201d<\/p>\n And so he leaned back in his boat as they all drifted along near each other\u2014not too<\/em> near, but after all sound carries great on the water and especially at night. Hoss was eating, and Joe was half asleep. Say what you will about Adam, he played guitar beautifully and had a great voice.<\/p>\n In Tahoe\u2019s clear waters, way down underneath, <\/em><\/p>\n Where you\u2019ll freeze your behind in the blue<\/em><\/p>\n There resided a monster known only as Tess, <\/em><\/p>\n And she loved to sneak up and say \u2018boo.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n The King said no monsters could live in his lake<\/em><\/p>\n So the word was sent all through the land<\/em><\/p>\n And one day a knight, from the king\u2019s summons came<\/em><\/p>\n To slay the beast by his bold hand.<\/em><\/p>\n The knight wore all green and his name, it was Joe<\/em><\/p>\n And he fancied himself very fair<\/em><\/p>\n With the weapons so brave, with the men quite a knave<\/em><\/p>\n And with ladies, so \u2018tres debonair<\/u>.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n Sir Joe lay in wait for bad Tessie to show<\/em><\/p>\n \u2019neath the surface of water so blue<\/em><\/p>\n But when Tessie appeared, poor Sir Joe was afeared<\/em><\/p>\n And he ran for the hills. Wouldn\u2019t you?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHey, that ain\u2019t funny!\u201d Joe protested. Adam just grinned and kept on singing.<\/p>\n So the King once again sent out for some brave men<\/em><\/p>\n For to tell the truth he was quite cross<\/em><\/p>\n He didn\u2019t need braggin\u2019, just slayin\u2019 the dragon<\/em><\/p>\n And who came this time? \u2019Twas Sir Hoss.<\/em><\/p>\n It was known by the King, Hoss would eat anything<\/em><\/p>\n That didn\u2019t bite first. This was true.<\/em><\/p>\n But then Tessie bit first, and Hoss came out the worst<\/em><\/p>\n And now he lives in Kalamazoo.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhere in tunket is Kalamazoo?\u201d Hoss asked Joe, who shrugged, \u201cNever mind; he\u2019s on a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n So the King said \u2018I\u2019ve had \u2019em. I\u2019ll call in Sir Adam.<\/em><\/p>\n He\u2019ll come rid me of my despair.<\/em><\/p>\n He\u2019ll clear out the lake of this meddlesome snake<\/em><\/p>\n And he\u2019ll get the beast out of my hair.<\/em><\/p>\n Sorry about laughing, but I have to admit it was a funny song\u2026Adam could be pretty amusing when he wanted to be.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cYou sound like you knew him,\u201d Sarah said. \u201cFor that matter, you sound like you knew all of them. Like you\u2019re talking about real people in the here-and-now.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank snorted and it turned into a laugh. \u201cI guess I do sound like that, Jailbait, but I feel like I do know them. I\u2019ll tell you, they feel as real to me as if they were my own family.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey sound wonderful. I wish they were my family.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Well, that funny song of Adam\u2019s was the last bit of laughter for a while. Nobody ever heard the rest of the song, because just then a huge head rose out of the deep. As Hoss and Little Joe jumped up and nearly overturned their boats in terror, Adam sat up to see what was going on\u2014and then he saw it. \u201cGet back!\u201d he yelled, dropping his guitar and jumping up as well.<\/p>\n All three brothers reached for their shotguns, but as more of the beast appeared from the black water, they knew shotguns would never be enough. That critter was as long as a train pulling five cattle cars, and just one eyeball was the size of a wagon wheel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gotta use the dynamite,\u201d Hoss said as he watched the beast look at all of them. It was Adam she fixed her eyes on, though, and Adam saw it. His boat was the closest to her, at that.<\/p>\n A strange calm came over him, and he waved his brothers back. \u201cShakespeare said music could charm the savage breast\u2014or beast,\u201d he said with a little quaver in his voice. He was shaking all over, but he picked up his guitar again and began to sing\u2014a different song, this one, a song they all knew well.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly one morning, just as the sun was rising<\/p>\n I heard a maiden singing in the valley below\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The monster blinked a couple of times, and the boys noticed she had eyelashes\u2014long ones\u2014and a sweet face. Kind of horse-shaped, with a nice expression.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be okay,\u201d Adam said softly, and reached out toward her. It was the last thing his brothers heard him say. Tessie opened her mouth; Adam, his boat, and his guitar all disappeared, and Tessie belched before diving below again.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cHoly cow!\u201d Sarah cried. \u201cAre you kidding?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNope, this is a true story,\u201d said Frank, and there was a detached look about him; wistful, almost, as if he was reliving something he could never have lived through in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026I thought this was going to be a fun story! A family story!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies don\u2019t always stay together,\u201d Frank replied quietly. \u201cThis is Virginia City coming up. Shall I take you directly to the bus station, or do you want to meet my Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about the rest of the story? There\u2019s more, surely\u2014you didn\u2019t just drive me through the desert to tell me Adam Cartwright got eaten by a sea monster!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou remembered the name. Good. Let\u2019s stop here for a minute\u2026you can grab a Victory burger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want any burger! What about Adam? What about the monster?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMonsters don\u2019t make very good burgers.\u201d Frank pulled in between a tiny diner and a bank. \u201cI need to go to the bank. You want to come with me, or get a burger?\u201d<\/p>\n Disgusted but hungry, she went next door and ordered a Victory Burger. She counted her money as she waited for it to arrive. She had enough for a bus ticket to Washington, DC, with enough left over for about four meals, counting this one. She sighed, foreseeing hungry days ahead.<\/p>\n There were old Matthew Brady-type photos on the walls of the place, detailing Virginia City\u2019s history, and she found herself looking at one particularly faded photo of four men just above her table. \u201c\u2026rtwright Family, pioneers of Virginia City.\u201d Well, who could this be but the same Cartwright family Frank had been telling her about? The two men on the left were most difficult to tell; one was an older man, tall and, from his stance, confident. The other\u2014well, he had curly hair and was a little shorter than the other three\u2014Little Joe perhaps? The older man\u2019s hand was on the curly-haired man\u2019s shoulder. But their faces were washed out and it was impossible to see any features. The other two men were slightly easier to make out: the first was a gigantic, moon-faced fellow in a huge white hat. His size was intimidating, but the open, friendly grin suggested nothing but warmth. The last was a tall, spare fellow dressed head-to-foot in dark clothing, with a holstered Colt hanging low on his right hip and a threatening squint to his eyes. He looked like a movie cowboy\u2014same as Frank, she thought. Obviously the big fellow was Hoss; she wondered if the dark one was Adam\u2014the one who\u2019d been eaten by the sea monster.<\/p>\n \u201cBag the burger and let\u2019s get out of here,\u201d Frank said as he came back in. \u201cWe need to make tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n They returned to the truck, and she hastily ate as he drove out of town. A couple of miles north of town, Frank pulled onto a dirt road that led deep into the woods.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are we going now?\u201d Sarah asked.<\/p>\n \u201cTo see my father. He should be here\u2026let\u2019s see, it\u2019s April second\u2026yep. He should be here by now. We meet here every ten years sometime in April.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnce every ten years?\u201d Sarah wondered if she had heard him right. \u201cIf you\u2019re just 30, how can you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little complicated. Do you want to hear more about the Cartwrights or not?\u201d<\/p>\n Wondering which family she was more curious about, Sarah was silent, and Frank took up his story again as the truck wound through the crazy, zig-zagging road onto another, smaller lane.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Well, Adam was gone, no doubt about that. There was no use calling for him; he and his boat had disappeared right down that monster\u2019s gullet, and she hadn\u2019t left so much as his hat. Joe and Hoss had their shotguns out blasting, but it did no good; Tessie was gone too.<\/p>\n Little Joe was panting so hard he could barely breathe. \u201cH-H-Hoss\u2026what are we gonna do?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss was peering intently into the water, but nothing was to be seen. His voice was hard and carefully controlled as he answered. \u201cReckon there ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 to do\u2026except to tell Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTell him what<\/em>?\u201d Joe cried. \u201cThat there really is a sea monster and it ate<\/em> our brother while we sat and watched? Oh, Lord, Hoss, what have I done? I\u2019m the one who started all this!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph, just stay calm. Pick up your oars and row the boat ashore. I\u2019ll be right back of you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut Adam!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWherever Adam is, he ain\u2019t in a place where we can help him, and if we stay out here much longer Pa may have to arrange our funerals too. Now row the dad-blamed boat ashore!\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss\u2019s mention of a funeral hit Joe Cartwright as he\u2019d never been hit in his life. There would have to be a funeral for Adam\u2026he\u2019d have to speak about his brother. And how do you get up in church and say \u201cHe was my brother, and it\u2019s my fault he\u2019s dead\u201d?<\/p>\n They rowed their boats to the shore and turned back to look again. Black and tranquil in the moonlight, the lake looked harmless as a kitten. But the boys knew better. Slowly they went to their horses, mounted, and took the longest ride they\u2019d ever taken in their lives\u2014the ride home to tell their father.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The truck came into a clearing, where the burned-out ruins of a large ranch house were crumbling into the soil.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the Ponderosa ranch\u2019s main house\u2014or rather, what\u2019s left of it,\u201d Frank said in a flat, tired voice. \u201cThe good citizens of Virginia City burned it to the ground after what happened at the lake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWitchcraft.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBein\u2019 stupid never stopped a bad thing happening. My father will probably be up at #4. That\u2019s a few more miles yet, but I thought you\u2019d want to see the famous spot where the Ponderosa once stood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNumber four what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere used to be a string of line shacks around the Ponderosa perimeter. My Pa\u2019s kinda partial to #4. Never figured out why. Well, wagons roll.\u201d He put the truck in gear and they lurched forward. They were soon climbing up another road even narrower than the last; this one was full of holes, and tree roots stuck up through the dirt like veins on an ancient hand.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n You can well imagine that Ben Cartwright was knocked for a loop by the confused tale his two sons started yelling when they got to the house. He was bewildered, furious, and pretty well grief struck, too. At first he refused to believe it. But even when Hoss and Little Joe settled down, they told the same story and they stuck to it.<\/p>\n It was daylight and Ben went flyin\u2019 out to the barn to saddle his horse and ride to the lake. Joe and Hoss each got a fresh horse and followed their Pa. It took a couple hours to get to the lake shore, and Hoss was the first one to sight the skeleton. Yup\u2014skeleton. And this time it was no cow; these bones had once held up a man. It was Adam, all right. They could tell because even lyin\u2019 there with no skin on, he was leaning. Adam always leaned. Pa used to say it was because he hurt his back once as a kid, but Joe and Hoss knew better\u2014Adam just liked to lean. And that darn skeleton was leaning.<\/p>\n Oh, there were other ways to recognize it. There were chipped spots on the arm and shoulder where he\u2019d been shot a couple of times, and some healed-up ribs that had clearly been broken at one time or other, and a sliver of bone splintered off one thigh where he\u2019d been hit by a Shoshone arrow. Yup, it was Adam all right, and Ben Cartwright just sat down on the grass next to that bony heap and wouldn\u2019t move or say a word for I-don\u2019t-know-how-long. Some folks would\u2019ve cried, I guess. But not Pa\u2014er, Ben. He just sat, and what was goin\u2019 through his mind was anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n When he got up he quietly announced that the funeral would be after<\/em> they\u2019d killed the monster. He took a blanket and wrapped the bones up in it, and then he went back to the house.<\/p>\n That night they returned to the lake with enough dynamite to blow the lake itself right into Virginia City, and Pa and Joe got in one boat and Hoss got in the other, and out they went, to get rid of Tahoe Tessie and avenge Adam\u2019s death. But Tessie was a wily one, and she didn\u2019t show. They rowed around all night long and never saw hide nor hair.<\/p>\n On the way back to the house, it was Hoss who brought up the fact that Adam had been singing when Tessie appeared, and she might just like music. Ben looked daggers at his second-born for that, but Hoss, while he\u2019d never been a real fast<\/em> thinker, was a real careful<\/em> thinker, and his thoughts usually had some meat to them. So they decided they\u2019d go out again the next night, and this time they would sing.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n They pulled up in front of a rickety-looking cabin that Sarah was pretty sure was located in the middle of nowhere. A buckskin horse was tethered out front, contentedly feeding from a nosebag.<\/p>\n \u201cYup, my Pa\u2019s here,\u201d Frank said with a smile. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna like him, Jail\u2014oh, guess I better call you Sarah<\/em> now, eh? I don\u2019t think he\u2019d like that nickname, however apt it might be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is it an \u2018apt\u2019 nickname\u2014and when are you gonna finish the story?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI may let Pa tell you some of it,\u201d Frank replied as he wrenched the truck\u2019s doors open. \u201cThen tomorrow I\u2019ll take you back to Virginia City and put you on that eastbound bus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh. Okay.\u201d<\/p>\n The silver-haired man who emerged from the shack didn\u2019t look much like Frank, except maybe for having the same mischievous grin. \u201cHello there,\u201d he called out, and grabbed Frank in a tight, back-pounding hug. Sarah didn\u2019t know men hugged other men; she\u2019d never seen it done. Certainly her father never hugged his brother. And she\u2019d never seen him hug his father\u2014her grandfather\u2014back when the old man was alive, either. But she decided she liked it.<\/p>\n The older man looked at her with a moist-eyed grin. \u201cSarah, I presume?\u201d<\/p>\n She wondered how he had known her name, and could only guess that Frank must have been talking to him during that hug. Funny, she hadn\u2019t heard either of them say anything. But she shrugged and held out a shy hand. Frank\u2019s father took her hand gravely\u2014and kissed it, like Ronald Colman or Errol Flynn in some romantic movie. Sarah turned a little red, and murmured, \u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure to meet you, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCall me Ben.\u201d He grinned at her and ushered her into the little one-room cabin. \u201cComing Jos\u2014er, Francis?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa, please<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI meant Frank<\/em>,\u201d Ben harrumphed, and Frank followed them, rolling his eyes. \u201cSupper\u2019s cooking, the two of you. Get washed up.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a pitcher and ewer near the fireplace, and Sarah washed up, feeling very old-fashioned, almost like a pioneer. The thought made her smile, even as she wondered why Frank\u2019s father had the same name as \u201cLittle Joe\u2019s\u201d father, and how he had known to fix enough food for three people. But in answering Ben\u2019s questions, she was soon distracted.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been telling her about Tahoe Tessie,\u201d Frank told Ben over the beans and rice.<\/p>\n A strangely cautious, almost painful expression passed across Ben\u2019s face before he coughed and said, \u201cWhy tell her that old chestnut? Everybody \u2019round these parts has heard it a dozen times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSarah\u2019s not from these parts,\u201d Frank shrugged. \u201cShe\u2019s from Washington. Her pa works for the War Department.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Sarah had told Frank all about herself, but she found herself looking at him in awe upon realizing that he had listened to\u2014and remembered\u2014everything she\u2019d ever told him. That man sure didn\u2019t miss anything, she found herself thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cWar Department,\u201d Ben snorted. \u201cWe should\u2019ve stayed out of that whole mess. I\u2019m half surprised you didn\u2019t run off and join up like your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy brother ran off and joined a long time ago. And I may yet do it,\u201d Frank said thoughtfully. \u201cThe world gets smaller all the time, Pa. We can\u2019t always say it ain\u2019t our affair anymore. Pearl Harbor\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPearl Harbor is thousands of miles away and in the middle of the ocean!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t wanna argue about the war right now, Pa. I told Sarah here that you would tell her some of the Tessie story. The part where Hoss and Joe and Ben Cartwright went after Tessie.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben swallowed, and held Frank\u2019s gaze a long time before turning to Sarah. \u201cWell, Adam had disappeared\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know that part, sir,\u201d Sarah interrupted. \u201cThe monster killed him. Hoss, Joe and Ben already went after Tessie once but they couldn\u2019t find her, and Hoss suggested music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d Ben said faintly. Then he cleared his throat and began again.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Joseph Cartwright was the youngest of the brothers, and some people said he was the father\u2019s favorite. That isn\u2019t true, you understand; but while all three of Ben Cartwright\u2019s boys held a special place in his heart, it\u2019s possible that he showed his affection a little more freely with Joseph\u2014and that\u2019s probably just because Joseph was such an openly affectionate boy. Adam had always been too reserved to display his affections freely, and Hoss was easily embarrassed. Little Joe, however, was the lovingest boy you ever saw\u2014with his mother, his father, and every girl he ever fell in love with. And there were a great many<\/em> of them.<\/p>\n He also had a smooth and lilting voice that could charm the little birds right out of the trees. On occasion, he and Adam would sing together, and while Adam\u2019s rich baritone always sang harmony in those occasions, Joe took the melodies right up to the heavens. And so Hoss\u2014who, God bless him, was wonderful in so many ways, but music wasn\u2019t one of them\u2014Hoss suggested that Joe sing to the monster.<\/p>\n The plan was that once the creature showed herself, all three men would throw their bundles of dynamite at her. This was a risky operation from the start, Sarah, because if they threw too early, the dynamite would either hit the water so the fuse would get wet, or it would explode in mid-air before it hit the creature. If they threw too late, well, the monster would get them before they threw anything.<\/p>\n As things happened, though, it didn\u2019t make much difference, because they never threw a single stick.<\/p>\n Hoss had remembered hearing a soft splashing sound before the monster appeared before, so we\u2014um, the Cartwrights\u2014were all listening for that sound while Joseph sang. But all they heard was Joe, and he was singing \u201cCarrickfergus,\u201d a sweet old Irish song he\u2019d learned from a little old lady who stayed at the Ponderosa once. It was one of Adam\u2019s favorite songs, and it may well be that Joe was singing to his brother that night.<\/p>\n None of the Cartwrights ever heard a splash that time, though, for Tessie came up directly under the boat in which Ben and Joe were sitting. One ear\u2014(small, considering the rest of her) about the length of a three-year Ponderosa pine\u2014bumped the boat, which tipped over, and Ben and Joe were tossed into the frigid waters of Lake Tahoe. As Hoss yelped and dropped his dynamite in his wild effort to get to his father and brother, Tessie looked at the two men in the water, then swiveled her head toward Joe. Ben did his best, shouting and splashing to divert her attention, trying in vain to get his pistol to fire, but she was fixated on Joseph Cartwright\u2026and she got him.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Ben ran a hand through his hair and looked at Sarah. \u201cIt\u2019s late,\u201d he said gruffly. \u201cYou should get some sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut what about Joe Cartwright?\u201d Sarah demanded. \u201cYou\u2019re not<\/em> going to tell me that he died too!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he replied quietly. \u201cI\u2019m not. Get some rest now.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank had made up the only bunk in the place for Sarah, and there were two sleeping bags on the floor he had spread out for himself and his father. \u201cCome on, Sarah. It\u2019s been a long day on a dusty road, and tomorrow I gotta get you into town for that bus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut surely you\u2019ll finish the story!\u201d Sarah cried. \u201cAll I\u2019ve got now is a half-eaten Cartwright family! What about Hoss and Ben? Did they find Joe\u2019s skeleton in the meadow the next day? What did they do? Did they get the monster or did it get them? And what about the people of the town who came in and burned down the Ponderosa? When do I hear about that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll in good time,\u201d Ben said flatly. \u201cSleep now.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah was sure she could have stayed up all night, but once she was lying down it was amazing how easily sleep found her, and the two men smiled, washed the dishes, and went outside to put up the buckskin horse and talk a while.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Joseph, I\u2019ve barely had so much as a thought from you this last decade,\u201d Ben said quietly as he groomed one side of the horse.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought of you plenty, Pa,\u201d Frank\u2014or Joseph\u2014replied as he brushed the horse\u2019s other side. \u201cI just didn\u2019t necessarily think to <\/em>you. Remember the old days, right after Tessie, when we didn\u2019t know how to use our gifts and couldn\u2019t stay out of each other\u2019s heads? I\u2019ve always been afraid of reverting to those times. Being linked together the way we all are isn\u2019t always a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but it would keep me from missing you all so much. Not being able to stay together\u2014I know it\u2019s a natural part of life, especially our lives, but it\u2019s not really a good thing, either.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we have our Tessie times.\u201d Joe smiled, hoping that would ease things.<\/p>\n \u201cOne month out of ten years isn\u2019t much time. Did you know I saw Adam three years ago in Ohio? He was testing a new plane\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d Joe chuckled. \u201cHe accidentally got into my head then, and I heard all about that visit. Adam was the first of us Tessie took, and he still hasn\u2019t learned to think without broadcasting. I think he\u2019s just too opinionated.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben cleared his throat and changed the subject. \u201cI know you\u2019ve been in Reno the last few months, working on some awful place that calls itself a ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know the place where I\u2019m working isn\u2019t a place you\u2019d approve. But I\u2019m just there for the horses. I don\u2019t court the women.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs I understand it, they\u2019re not there to be courted. They\u2019re there to be\u2026\u201d he shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cPa, they just want to feel like ladies again. And that\u2019s how I treat \u2019em. Like ladies\u2014every last one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLittle Joe, why haven\u2019t you married yet? You and Adam are downright obstinate. Oh, he\u2019ll<\/em> never get married\u2014he\u2019s impossible to please.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe laughed out loud. \u201cThat ain\u2019t the problem anymore. The problem is the girls he favors, well, he always ends up accidentally getting into their heads. And boy, do they run the other way then!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, at least you<\/em> should have a wife. Why, I\u2019ve been married going on 40 years now, and Hoss has been married close to 60 years. And why are you running around with this child\u2014and making me tell her that story? You know how I hate re-living that time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa, that\u2019s what we come here for! To re-live that time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t. I come here to see you boys, since it\u2019s the only time I can see all of you together in a place that used to be our home. And yes, I thank Tessie, but I still hate to remember that time. I thought you were\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t. Try remembering that.\u201d Joe chuckled throatily. \u201cAnd Pa, as to why I\u2019m running around with this kid, well, it\u2019s a long story. But don\u2019t give up on me and Adam getting married\u2026yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben raised an eyebrow. \u201cJoseph, she\u2019s a little girl. What\u2019s she doing with you?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe smiled. \u201cRight now I\u2019m just sizing her up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen why is there a warrant out for your arrest?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHeard about that already, huh.\u201d Joe sighed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was on the wireless. I heard several hours ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I think somebody must have seen the kid get in the truck with me. I\u2019m betting it\u2019s the girl\u2019s witchy aunt that put the cops on me. I heard about it in Virginia City and got us outta there fast. We weren\u2019t followed; don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you tell me why she\u2019s with you in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n A shrug. \u201cShe had some kind of fight with the witchy aunt, and ran away. I gave her a lift. She shouldn\u2019t be with that woman anyway, Pa; Cathy Morton\u2019s a bad business. She\u2019s everything you used to warn us boys away from, and everything we used to look for when we were mad at you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh.\u201d Ben carefully caught up one of the horse\u2019s front hooves and picked it clean; then moved to the rear hoof and repeated the process. \u201cWell, what are your intentions?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to finish telling her the story,\u201d Joe said, taking the hoof pick from him and cleaning the horse\u2019s hooves on the other side. \u201cWe\u2019ll see if she believes it. And then I\u2019ll put her on the bus for home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then what?\u201d Ben raised an eyebrow.<\/p>\n Joe flashed a grin. \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n In the shack, Sarah Morton had awakened, wondering where she was, and wandered around until she heard the two voices. She listened long enough to realize that she was, of course, having some kind of bizarre dream, and then she went back to bed.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Of course, Ben Cartwright was shattered when Little Joe disappeared (Frank took up the story on the drive back to Virginia City). It was Hoss who got Ben back on shore, and then the two of them sat on the sand and cried for a while.<\/p>\n It was hardly characteristic of Ben to ask his sons for advice; usually things worked the other way around. But that was a rather historic occasion; Ben was all out of sorts, you see. \u201cHoss,\u201d he said brokenly, \u201cwhat am I gonna do? Two days ago I had three sons\u2026now I\u2019m down to one, and there\u2019s no way to make things right.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss shook his head grimly. \u201cAin\u2019t nothin\u2019 gonna be right as long as that critter\u2019s alive.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Frank\u2019s truck rattled into Virginia City and stopped in front of the bus station. A Storey County Sheriff car was parked nearby. He slowly drove on. \u201cThat would\u2019ve been your dog,\u201d he muttered. \u201cA Greyhound. But I don\u2019t think you can go that way now, kid\u2014the cops are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do they have to do with anything? I need to get home. I just wanna hear the rest of your story first, and then I\u2019ll go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUm\u2026that may not work, honey,\u201d Frank said with a little gulp. \u201cSee, the problem is I think your aunt called the cops on me. They think I\u2019ve kidnapped you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike I told you Jailbait, bein\u2019 stupid never stopped a bad thing happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell them the truth. You won\u2019t get in any trouble, Frank.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019d be swell, kid, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna be that easy,\u201d Frank said as he saw the sheriff approaching with his handgun drawn. \u201cDangit, why do these people still think they\u2019re in the Wild West?\u201d He turned back to Sarah and said calmly, \u201cGo and catch your bus now. You\u2019ll have to be sneaky, Sarah\u2014move the door quietly and slowly, get out and edge around the cars. I\u2019ll delay this guy. He catches you, it\u2019s back to Aunt Cathy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t want you to get in trouble!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it. Look, my brothers are coming this way, you know. If you can\u2019t catch the bus for any reason, you find them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut what about you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be fine. You come back here in 10 years and we\u2019ll meet up at the cabin by the lake again, okay?\u201d He got out of the truck and moved toward the sheriff. \u201cMornin\u2019 sir, what can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGet yer hands up and tell the little lady to come on out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019d give for Roy Coffee right now!\u201d Frank sighed.<\/p>\n Following instructions, Sarah had eased the door open, crept out of the truck and moved around the other parked cars. Virginia City\u2019s streets were narrow and crowded, a factor that worked in her favor\u2014until the two deputies saw her and started shouting.<\/p>\n With that, she gave up, dropped her luggage near the doorway of the Delta Saloon and ran out the back door to circle around, down the sloping street, in and out of the people on the board sidewalks, until to her surprise she heard a shot fired. She dodged around the corner of another building and was back on C Street, where she saw Frank attacking the sheriff. She gasped and stood, transfixed, as the sheriff\u2019s gun went off again\u2014and this time Frank fell. Tears came to her eyes and she started to run back to him, only to see him struggle partway to his feet. \u201cRun, Sarah\u2014run and find my brothers!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrank, don\u2019t die\u2014\u201d she gasped, and started to sob.<\/p>\n \u201cRun!\u201d he shouted back, collapsing onto the sidewalk. She took off again, and barely heard his last words\u2014\u201cRemember\u2026come back in 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The station wagon she had hidden under was an enormous, nearly new wood-paneled 1941 Ford. The deputies had looked under every car around, but the steps on the side of the Ford would have kept most normal people from crawling under it. Not a resourceful 12-year-old, though.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t feel very resourceful at the moment. She\u2019d been running and hiding all over the steep, sloping streets and occasionally crying too. And she\u2019d come in a big circle, bringing her back almost to the spot where she had been with Frank.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was supposed to be getting on a bus,\u201d she heard a deputy say at one point. \u201cLet\u2019s go see if she bought a ticket.\u201d It was darkening by then\u2014it got dark early in spring here\u2014and she risked coming out from under the car after they left.<\/p>\n Find my brothers.<\/em> It was one of the last things Frank had said to her. But how she was supposed to find them was another matter; she didn\u2019t know what they looked like or where they were, and they didn\u2019t know her at all. She knew they must be around somewhere\u2014they were probably heading to that old line shack to meet their father, as they did once every decade. Another thing Frank had said, although, since a decade was 10 years, it made no sense either.<\/p>\n She knelt by the car and looked around. No one seemed to be nearby, so she decided to chance standing. Then the sky darkened above her, and she looked up to see one of the biggest men God had ever put on the earth. \u201cYou must be Miss Sarah,\u201d he said in surprisingly gentle tones. \u201cI\u2019m Frank\u2019s brother Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n She hugged him violently, although she couldn\u2019t even get her arms all the way across his front, much less around his body. \u201cPlease tell me, is Frank okay?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Course he is, Miss Sarah.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I saw him get shot!\u201d<\/p>\n Eric chuckled. \u201cHe\u2019s prob\u2019ly been shot 40 or 50 times before, too, li\u2019l miss. Don\u2019t you worry yourself none about that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re sure he\u2019s okay? He was bleeding\u2026did you talk to him?\u201d<\/p>\n Eric just shook his head. \u201cLook, Sarah\u2026if Frank said to come back and meet him in ten years, you can count on him bein\u2019 here to meet you. So don\u2019t you even crease your forehead for him. Now come on; I gotta get you outta here before the sheriff and his deputies come back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did you find me?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrank told me where to look. Let\u2019s get a move on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy stuff is just inside the door at the Delta Saloon, Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll get it for ya.\u201d<\/p>\n With that he opened the door of that nearly new 1941 Buick and she slid across the slick leather seat. He walked off, reappearing a few minutes later with her guitar and knapsack. As he got in, she also noticed a big paper bag in his hands that he put on the seat between them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d she asked as he drove out of Virginia City.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a hidden military installation\u2014like a fort, you know\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure, I know. My father works for the War Department.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s right, he does. I forgot. Well anyhow, I\u2019m gonna get you out there\u2014it\u2019s about a day\u2019s drive from here\u2014and then my brother\u2019ll take you home from there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour brother?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSurely Frank told you he had two brothers. The oldest one\u2019s in the Army Air Corps and he flies planes for a livin\u2019. Ever fly in a plane?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u201d The thought was exhilarating, though.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, don\u2019t you worry. My older brother has a positive way with airplanes. Just like Frank with horses, that\u2019s my Admmm\u2026Stoddard.\u201d He slid the paper bag in her direction. \u201cFrank said you\u2019d probably be hungry, so I got a little sandwich in there for ya. Oh, and a root beer, too. The rest of it\u2019s my lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n As she began to eat, he looked in her direction with a cherubic grin. \u201cAn\u2019 apparently I\u2019m supposed to tell you more about the Tahoe Tessie story, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n I don\u2019t reckon there was ever a time in old Ben Cartwright\u2019s life when he felt quite as lonesome as he did in that moment, realizing he\u2019d lost two of his boys. He\u2019d had a hard life already, losin\u2019 a whole lot before that day. His first wife\u2014Adam\u2019s mama\u2014died when Adam was born. Then he lost his second wife\u2014Hoss\u2019s mama\u2014in an Indian raid a few years later. Guess he thought he\u2019d be okay when he met Marie\u2014who would become his third wife and the mama of Little Joe\u2014by then he was older, wiser, had his own place, was on good terms with the neighboring Indians. And Marie was one healthy lady, not one to die birthin\u2019 a child. In fact, she lived four and a half years after Little Joe was born, only to die in a silly ridin\u2019 accident.<\/p>\n So Ben Cartwright was well acquainted with death, but he\u2019d never believed it would be so cruel as to take his boys before him. And to lose two of \u2019em in the same week\u2026and Hoss had no words of comfort for him. Hoss was the middle child, following Adam and leading Joe. And suddenly he had nobody to either follow or lead. In a way, he was even more alone than Ben. Yet he couldn\u2019t break down, or lay down and die like he wanted to, because his Pa needed him. He got Ben up to a line shack\u2014number 4, which was close to the lake\u2014and got him dry and warm, got some coffee and bacon into him, and then made him sleep a while.<\/p>\n Then Hoss finally laid hisself down too, and slept the sleep of pure despair.<\/p>\n The whole day passed by and evening came again, and Hoss was awakened by singing. He looked up, recognizing his father\u2019s voice\u2014but his Pa was gone. And that\u2019s when Hoss realized exactly what was goin\u2019 on and went out toward the lake, where his father was treading water and singin\u2019 \u201cThe Fields of Athenrye.\u201d It wasn\u2019t the best song to showcase the old man\u2019s voice, I\u2019ll tellya. Ben Cartwright had a booming bass voice and \u201cAthenrye\u201d is really done best by a tenor\u2014or maybe a really good baritone. But Ben was singin\u2019 it and with a stronger-than-usual vibrato, maybe \u2019cause he was sad or maybe just \u2019cause he was cold. And there was Tessie, lookin\u2019 right at him. And Hoss yelled \u201cno!\u201d and ran right into the water, but too late. His father and Tessie were both gone.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cDoes this story ever become happy at any point?\u201d Sarah asked, with tears in her eyes. \u201cFrank made it sound like it would be fun, but I\u2019m still waiting for the fun! Of course\u2026\u201d she looked witheringly at Eric. \u201cYour family\u2019s pretty weird too, if you think Frank getting shot 40 or 50 times is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHey, li\u2019l gal, I\u2019m just followin\u2019 instructions. My brother Frank and my Pa both told me it was important for me to tell you the Tessie story. I couldn\u2019t figure out why they wanted me to tell you, but I\u2019m doin\u2019 it. Now do you want to hear the rest of it or not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnly if it gets better<\/em>.\u201d Sarah folded her arms across her chest and looked at him sullenly.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has a whale of a happy ending,\u201d he shrugged.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, fine.\u201d<\/p>\n He coughed, and refrained from saying, only it gets worse before it gets better<\/em>.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Hoss Cartwright had never been so alone in the world, and he flat-out didn\u2019t know what to do. And worst of all, he couldn\u2019t even persuade Tessie to take him as well, because he couldn\u2019t sing a lick. The only thing he could do was kill her, and the only way he could do that was to kill himself as well. That night he roped two of the rowboats together and put a whole box of dynamite in each one. He carried a stick of it with a long wick attached, and he figured once he saw Tessie, he\u2019d put the lone dynamite stick in the top of the first box. When he lit it, the explosion of the first stick would set off both the boxes as well. Dynamite is nothing if not sensitive<\/em>, that\u2019s what Adam always used to say.<\/p>\n Only problem was, Hoss couldn\u2019t sing, and he needed to bait the monster up close to him. So he went back to the ranch and brought out one of the ranch hands who could sing and play guitar pretty decent. \u201cPedro,\u201d he told that hand, \u201cI want you to stand here on the shore and play and sing your heart out. Don\u2019t you come anywhere close to the water, and in fact, if you see anything comin\u2019, you grab your horse and run like blue blazes and don\u2019t ever look back.\u201d<\/p>\n Pedro was a pretty smart cookie and decided to go Hoss one better. He climbed about 30 feet up a stout old oak tree. And then<\/em> he began to sing.<\/p>\n Hoss pushed the boats out and jumped in the emptier one, then maneuvered out to the deep water. He could barely hear Pedro, so he turned back to tell him to sing louder\u2014but then Pedro went quiet as a little church mouse. That was how Hoss discovered that Tahoe Tessie was standing\u2014yes, standing\u2014on the shore. Turns out she had legs. Short little stubby legs, but legs all the same, with big flipper-like feet on the end. Fourteen of them, seven on either side, running to within ten feet of her tail.<\/p>\n Hoss figured, of course<\/em>\u2014it was two days after she\u2019d eaten Little Joe. She was probably depositing the bones on the shore. And as long as Pedro didn\u2019t sing any more, he was probably safe. Tessie was making a beeline right for the water again; seems she didn\u2019t care much for spending time on dry land. And without him singing a note, Hoss realized Tessie was heading right for him.<\/p>\n He looked into those eyes, each one the size of a wagon wheel, and figured if she got just close enough he could set off the dynamite. Of course it would kill him too, but he didn\u2019t care. He struck a safety match, held it close to the wick, and waited.<\/p>\n Tessie had both eyes on him. She had left Pedro alone; he could see Pedro getting down from the tree and running back toward his horse. He wasn\u2019t payin\u2019 no mind to instructions, but Hoss wasn\u2019t worried about that. He kept his eyes on Tessie and held tight to the match.<\/p>\n The funny thing was, as he looked into her eyes, those great big wagon wheel-sized eyes, he didn\u2019t see anything there but love and gentleness. Strange thing to see in a sea monster that\u2019s just eaten your whole family, but that\u2019s what I\u2014um, what Hoss Cartwright\u2014saw. And he knew he couldn\u2019t kill that critter. So that left just one way for him to join the rest of his family.<\/p>\n When the match burned down to his fingers, he tossed it into the water and didn\u2019t light another one. He just looked at Tessie\u2014right at her, into those beautiful, wagon-wheel eyes\u2014and then he jumped into the freezing water.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cI thought you said this had a happy ending!\u201d Sarah cried, tears running down her cheeks. \u201cEverybody\u2019s dead! How can this be happy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell you interrupted me,\u201d Eric said quietly. \u201cSee, if you hadn\u2019t interrupted, by now you woulda found out that right after Pedro looked back at the lake and saw Tessie swallow Hoss, he turned around again and saw Adam Cartwright sitting in the meadow leanin\u2019 back against a pine tree.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWHAT?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan I finish?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t say another word.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n He was bleached solid white from the gasses in the critter\u2019s stomach, mother-nekkid as the day he come into this world, leaning back against a tree in exhaustion and shivering with the cold, but he was Adam Cartwright, and Pedro Dominguez nearly fell over in shock. He ran over to Adam, yelling \u201cBoss! Se\u00f1or Cartwright! Are you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n For a while Adam just looked at him like he didn\u2019t know who Pedro was, or for that matter like he didn\u2019t know who he was himself. He pulled a piece of half-chewed seaweed out of his hair and stared at it. \u201cTake me home,\u201d he finally said, in a hoarse, tired voice. Pedro wrapped him in a blanket from the shack, and put him up on Hoss\u2019s horse and took him home. Adam went inside, fell down on the couch, and slept all that day and all that night. Next morning when he woke up he put on some clothes, thought for a while, and then got a set of clothing for Little Joe, Hoss, and Ben as well, and rode his horse back out to the lake, leading the other three. And there they waited. Sometime that morning Adam found Little Joe, pretty much in the same state Adam had been in the day before. He put him in the line shack and let him sleep, and by the time Little Joe was up and around again, Ben was back. Finally, Hoss also joined them, and they all went home together.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? Just like that? But what happened to them? Why\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThought you wasn\u2019t gonna say another word.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSorry.\u201d Sarah sighed.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n What they hadn\u2019t counted on was that Pedro Dominguez had been talking to just about everybody he met, whether it was other ranch hands or strangers on the road. Nobody much had believed him, but then the four Cartwrights turned up, all looking like they\u2019d been put through a salt-and-lye bath, with not a word to say about where they\u2019d all been the last few days, and one of the hands found two boats out floating on the lake with enough dynamite in them to blast a hole right to China, and eventually people started putting two and two together. And as Adam said, they got five.<\/p>\n The good folk of Virginia City\u2014and remember, this is a town where there was scarcely a family that the Cartwrights hadn\u2019t helped at some point in time or other\u2014sent a committee up to get the straight story\u2014but nobody was talking. By and by Adam and Little Joe started gettin\u2019 tired of the questions, and took to avoiding conversation, and that started making people more curious. Hoss and Ben were already staying out of sight as much as they could out of sheer embarrassment.<\/p>\n Their natural colors started coming back little by little, but one day when Adam and Hoss went out with a crew to mark some timber, lighting struck a nearby tree, and it landed smack on Adam. Nobody was too surprised that Hoss picked up the tree and moved it\u2014even though that tree was about two feet thick and 60 feet long\u2014but when Adam stood up without even sayin\u2019 \u201coof\u201d it raised some eyebrows.<\/p>\n Another time Ben and Adam rode out with a posse and ended up gettin\u2019 captured by the outlaws. Joe was 40 miles away and Hoss was home at the ranch, but somehow both of \u2019em knew all about the trouble, and they rode out and found the outlaws\u2019 hideout\u2014somethin\u2019 the posse still hadn\u2019t been able to do\u2014and freed their kin. When people asked how they\u2019d done it, they didn\u2019t know. All they knew was that they could read each other\u2019s thoughts somehow\u2014not that they would\u2019ve told the townspeople that<\/em>. They would\u2019ve been put in an asylum for sure. But even without them telling a word, people were gettin\u2019 their own ideas, and that didn\u2019t bode well for the Cartwrights.<\/p>\n And then came the corker. When Little Joe went into town and went straight to the bank without even looking at the saloon, more than eyebrows were raised. Only then he got shot during an attempted robbery by the Clinton gang\u2026and without so much as spittin\u2019 out a hairball, he got up and walked away. Within a few minutes the bleeding had stopped and nobody could even tell he\u2019d been shot.<\/p>\n People got so spooked then that half the ranch hands up and quit, and even Hop Sing, the Cartwrights\u2019 cook who was almost part of the family, took off for Hong Kong.<\/p>\n That was when the townspeople started demanding some answers, and the Cartwrights had none to give them; partly because they didn\u2019t understand themselves what had happened, and partly because they didn\u2019t like bein\u2019 called to account for crimes they hadn\u2019t committed.<\/p>\n And then one day when Sheriff Coffee was outta town, one too many people had one too many drinks, and I\u2019ll tell ya, Miss Sarah, it looked like a scene out of that Frankenstein<\/em> movie. Come nighttime the good folk of Virginia City were storming up to the Ponderosa carryin\u2019 torches and not in the mood to talk sensible. They started shouting about witchcraft, and then they started shooting, and then they set the whole place afire. Sometime during the night the whole Cartwright family disappeared. Now, four human skeletons were found in the wreckage of the fire, down by the lake, and by the various bone scars and fragments missing, Doc Martin, the town sawbones, made a positive identification.<\/p>\n A few people figured this was a great time to start claimin\u2019 some of that 1,000 square miles, but then Sheriff Coffee, Doc Martin, and Hiram Wood, the town lawyer, started talking about wills and testaments, and all four Cartwrights had left one. The end result of it was that that 1,000 square miles was to be donated to the state of Nevada for a park if there wasn\u2019t no Cartwright progeny. So nobody got anything out of it but some of the trees did eventually grow back and there\u2019s a lot of parkland there now.<\/p>\n As for the Cartwrights, of course they were generally assumed to be dead. But there were rumors spread by and by, that one or the other of \u2019em had been seen over at Reno, and San Francisco, and as time went on, even Canada and Georgia and New York and Texas. Of course, by and by the people that spread those rumors all got old and died, too, and everybody forgot about the very existence of that Cartwright family. There\u2019s a few faded photos in the town archives, or maybe on a wall here or there. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been almost 80 years since then. Once every ten years or so, Tahoe Tessie surfaces\u2014or so they say. When she does, they say a couple of cattle disappear, and one thing\u2019s for certain: nobody goes out for a concert at those times. And people stay outta the water.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Sarah glared at Eric. \u201cThe story is dumb, and I never heard the whale of a happy ending either.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I thought the fact that the Cartwrights didn\u2019t die made it happy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut their bones were found in the fire!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell sure, but those coulda just been the bones that Tessie put there, too, the ones left from when she ate the Cartwrights.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought of that, but it still<\/em> doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric grinned. \u201cMiss Sarah, the beauty of legends is that you can believe \u2019em or not. Unless you choose to act on the belief or disbelief, it ain\u2019t gonna make no difference at all to you. I just told you the story. It\u2019s up to you to believe it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut Frank swore it was a true story!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid he?\u201d Eric scratched his head. \u201cWasn\u2019t too sensible of him, was it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still trying to make sense of it!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ll ever do that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbout Tessie, or about Frank?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Specially not Frank.\u201d Eric laughed. \u201cAnd these days, only person that even has a theory on Tessie is my older brother, and it makes no sense at all to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen I\u2019ll ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, you\u2019ll get your chance right enough. Older brother\u2019s got a theory on just about everything.\u201d Eric grinned. \u201cHe\u2019s as big of a know-it-all as you are, li\u2019l miss.\u201d<\/p>\n But it was late, and dark, and they couldn\u2019t go too fast in the twisting mountain roads. And while Eric didn\u2019t seem to get tired, Sarah did, and before she knew it she was asleep and dreaming of a lake monster with beautiful, wagon-wheel-sized eyes.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Sometime in the night Eric pulled off the road and took a little nap himself, but only for a couple of hours. Then he started driving again, and only stopped to gas up the car later that morning, and to get breakfast and lunch for Sarah and himself. By that evening they were in Colorado at yet another gas station, and it was cold as anything, but there was a fellow out there casually leaning on a red 1940 Indian Chief motorcycle and drinking a root beer. He was in an Army Air Corps uniform with a brown leather flying jacket and the floppy, billed cap of an officer.<\/p>\n \u201cStoddard, I guess,\u201d Sarah observed.<\/p>\n Eric was grinning ear to ear. \u201cFrank said you was smart.\u201d He braked next to the motorcycle and jumped out of the car. \u201cHey, Older Brother!\u201d He wrapped the other man in a bear hug and lifted him right off his feet.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, cut it out!\u201d the other yelped. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna break my ribs!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou long for them days,\u201d Eric laughed, which made no sense to Sarah, but then a great many things about this Benson family made no sense to her.<\/p>\n Eric had grabbed Stoddard\u2019s cap and put it on himself, and while the two of them stood grinning at each other, Sarah sized up this latest Benson. He actually looked more like Ben (Ben Benson?<\/em> she realized for the first time) than either of the other two, but he had hazel eyes like Frank, only with flecks of gold throughout. And he had the same mischievous grin that they all had.<\/p>\n She realized Stoddard was looking at her, as well. \u201cSo this is why I\u2019m missing the reunion,\u201d he said levelly.<\/p>\n \u201cAw, you ain\u2019t gonna miss it, are you?\u201d Eric fussed. \u201cYou\u2019ll just be a little late, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard shook his head. \u201cIt would have been a short visit at best. When I got the kid\u2019s message, I was in Utah and had to turn around to get back here. There\u2019s a lot of storm activity eastward, especially over the Smokies, so we\u2019ll be flying right into it. By the time I get her to Washington, it\u2019ll be Monday night, and my unit\u2019s locked down as of Thursday. Sometime soon we\u2019re leaving for England. I don\u2019t know when.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s too bad.\u201d Eric sighed and looked down. \u201cYou be careful. You know Pa\u2019ll worry hisself to death over you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know, but he should know better by now. And so should you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter all the scrapes I done got you out of, it\u2019s a little late to stop worryin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell then, worry about our kid brother. Didn\u2019t he just get shot\u2014again?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you heard from Frank? Do you know how he is?\u201d Sarah cried eagerly, and Stoddard looked at her in surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank is fine,\u201d he said with a quirky grin. \u201cTrust me. I see you\u2019re a musician. Guess that means we\u2019ll get along well. Well, Little Brother, give Pa and Baby Boy a hug for me. We\u2019d best get going before it gets dark.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn that<\/em>?\u201d Sara indicated the motorcycle.<\/p>\n \u201cOn that, exactly. Sorry; I don\u2019t have a car.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh no, that\u2019s great\u2014I love motorcycles. Especially Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lady with excellent taste,\u201d Stoddard said with a grin. He handed her a leather jacket like his own. It was a size \u201csmall\u201d but she still could have wrapped it around herself twice. He then handed her a leather helmet and goggles. Finally he gave her a pair of gloves, and as she finished putting them on, Eric burst into a laugh. \u201cI should\u2019ve taken a photograph. Frank wouldn\u2019t recognize you himself, \u2018Jailbait.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019d you know he called me that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat else would he call you?\u201d Eric chuckled. \u201cWell, older brother, take care of yourself. Reckon we\u2019ll see you next time.\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard rolled his eyes as he stamped the motorcycle\u2019s kick-starter. \u201cUnless the kid gets himself into hot water again. Hop on behind me, little lady, and don\u2019t squash that guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n She stayed surprisingly warm on the ride to the airfield, and the guard asked no questions when Stoddard Benson rode in with her. He threw a tarp over the bike and tossed the key over to the guard as they walked past.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you giving him your motorcycle?\u201d Sarah asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not? I won\u2019t be coming back this way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think you\u2019ll die in the war?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a thought,\u201d Stoddard laughed. \u201cNo. I just don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be back at this air base again. Kind of a shame. I liked that bike. Had it four years now; it was a good ride. Here, our plane\u2019s the one with the horse painted on the nose.\u201d<\/p>\n There was indeed a prancing red horse painted on the nose of one plane, and underneath, in red letters, \u201cSport.\u201d Stoddard picked Sarah up and held her up to an opened trapdoor in the bottom of the plane; a set of hands reached through and pulled her up into the cramped compartment.<\/p>\n \u201cWelcome aboard,\u201d said the co-pilot. \u201cI guess you\u2019re the contraband cargo.\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard pulled himself into the cabin then. \u201cHey. This place is too small for all of us. Sarah, follow me. Powell, I need you to start the pre-flight; I\u2019ll be back as soon as I get her strapped in.\u201d<\/p>\n He pushed Sarah back into the main cabin and sat her down against the curved wall of the craft. \u201cThis is a C-47, Sarah. We normally use it for troop transport, but this one\u2019s being tested for other uses, so you can feel pretty special. Tonight you\u2019re the only passenger. Listen, I gotta help Lieutenant Powell get her up in the air, and then I\u2019ll come back and we\u2019ll talk a while. Will you be okay until then?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you flown this kind of plane before?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, sure. I was one of the test pilots when this plane came out a long time ago. We know each other like family. So I\u2019m gonna strap you in and then you just enjoy the ride for a little while, okay? I promise I\u2019ll come right back, but getting us off the ground is a little complicated and I don\u2019t want Powell to have to do it by himself. It wouldn\u2019t be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n She nodded. \u201cI\u2019ll be okay. I never flew before, but I always wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy kind of girl.\u201d Stoddard grinned at her and headed back to the pilot\u2019s cabin.<\/p>\n Sarah held tightly to the metal railing of the side-facing canvas seat and looked out the window. There was an intense pressure of the lift-off pushing her down and she could see an enormous propeller spinning on either wing.<\/p>\n Stoddard came back later to find her still staring in fascination out the window.<\/p>\n \u201cHow high are we?\u201d she asked<\/p>\n \u201cOh, only about 12,000 feet right now. Still climbing for a little bit.\u201d He unfastened the webbed belts holding her in place and sat down next to her. \u201cCan you tell me something, Sarah?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll try.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it that brought you and my family together?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI met Frank at the ranch. He was working there and my father sent me to live with my aunt while the war\u2019s on. Frank was my friend\u2026but my aunt and I\u2026well, she was a witch. So he was helping me run away from my aunt when he got shot.\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard digested this. \u201cBut what does all that have to do with Tahoe Tessie?\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah wondered how he knew they\u2019d told her about Tessie, but then they all seemed to know more than she did about what they had told her; it was a fact that didn\u2019t make sense, but a fact nonetheless. \u201cI guess Frank just started telling me the story like you\u2019d tell a little kid a story. Then Ben told me some more, and Eric finished the story on the way here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTahoe Tessie is not a story for little kids, Sarah. I think you would know that by now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I found that out. I don\u2019t know why Frank told me, but he seemed to think it was important for me to know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, my brother has funny ideas sometimes.\u201d He sighed and looked away, his eyes cloudy and unfocused.<\/p>\n \u201cStoddard?\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t respond, so she called him again. Finally he looked back at her.<\/p>\n \u201cEric said you had a theory about Tessie and that nobody understands it. Can you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n He smiled almost sadly. \u201cWhat makes you think you\u2019ll understand it?\u201d<\/p>\n She just shrugged. \u201cI\u2019ve got nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands. \u201cEver hear in Sunday School about the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve? And how they sinned, and that\u2019s how the world became bad?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you believe it?\u201d<\/p>\n A shrug. \u201cI don\u2019t know. We can\u2019t prove it one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n He sighed. \u201cTrue\u2026but we know there are some parts of the Bible that have been proven true. And there may be others. Do you believe evil exists?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course. Look at Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood example. Well, I heard a preacher once say that when Eve ate the apple, people didn\u2019t immediately become bad. They became bad when Adam did it too. In other words, both of them had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo? What does that have to do with Tahoe Tessie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2026Satan spoke to Eve through a serpent. A male<\/em> serpent\u2026but back then, animals were different, and so were people. Remember that God cursed the serpent for helping Satan. I don\u2019t think God would have cursed the animal if it didn\u2019t have a choice. Maybe Satan had to get the serpent to agree.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI still don\u2019t see what\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPatience. I\u2019m getting there. The Hebrew word for serpent was \u2018nachach.\u2019 That means \u2018to hiss.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a snake like a rattlesnake or a cobra or a garter snake. It just means something that hisses. Lizards hiss, too. So I did a little research. There\u2019s a fellow named Darwin who said that different breeds of things came later, so maybe, in the beginning, there was only one kind of serpent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard of him, but I thought he was supposed to be bad or something.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo\u2026I just think he gave credit where it wasn\u2019t due. Darwin said nature changed animals over time as they needed changing. I don\u2019t that\u2019s the way it happened. I think God changed animals whenever they needed changing. And they didn\u2019t need changing until that male serpent made a bad choice.\u201d He sighed again. \u201cWhen Satan went to the serpent, he probably went to the female first, just as he did with people. The female serpent said \u2018no.\u2019 So Satan entered into the male serpent, and used him to corrupt people. But the female was still pure.\u201d He gestured vaguely with one hand. \u201cGod had already used the rib of a male to make a female; he could have done it again to give the male serpent a mate. But they were both cursed to crawl on their bellies in the dirt and be the enemies of mankind. The pure female, though, wasn\u2019t cursed. She kept her legs and her feet\u2014and she never crawled. She either walked, or swam. But God had cursed the earth, too. The very dirt became man\u2019s enemy; he had to wrestle food out of it from then on. So the pure female didn\u2019t stay on \u2018earth\u2019\u2014she became almost exclusively a water animal.\u201d He grinned at her. \u201cGetting too deep for you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty weird, but I\u2019m following it. Go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n He tilted his head in thought. \u201cShe already had eggs inside her belly, and when she took to the ocean, the eggs hatched, and a species of pure animals came into being. They were untouched by any of the bad things people did, and they stayed far away from people to keep it so. Hence their staying in the deepest parts of the oceans\u2014and when the oceans broke up and some became inland seas and lakes, they took to the deepest parts. But every now and then they were spotted, and so the legend of sea monsters and lake monsters came about. Only\u2026they\u2019re not the monsters, Sarah. There\u2019s never been an account of a monster actually attacking a ship in the deep. I tend to think we<\/em> are the monsters. The people. The ones who hate each other for no more reason than a skin color or a different belief. The ones who kill not to survive, but for power, or even for fun. Think how many killers there are, how many wars\u2026and yet there are so few people who help others. Like\u2026I don\u2019t know, teachers. Doctors. Nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n He punched one fist into the other hand, and looked down. \u201cEver hear the expression that some people are bad to the bone?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all are.\u201d He bit his bottom lip for a minute. \u201cWe have to decide every day to be decent, not to hurt other people when they hurt us, to control ourselves and our baser instincts. It\u2019s deep in us, the urge to do wrong. Right in our bones. The Nessies and Tessies of the world try to stay away from us, but every now and then they see some people they think they can help. Usually those people are exceptionally kind, or maybe they know how to create some exceptional beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike music?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cExactly. Nessie can tell which people are decent and which aren\u2019t. Ben Cartwright raised his boys to be God-fearing, law-abiding men. Tessie took the four Cartwrights because they impressed her: three with music and innate decency, and one with purest kindness. Once she got rid of their bones by vomiting them out onto dry land, those people just didn\u2019t have to fight the inclination to be bad anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut people also should\u2019ve become puddles of jelly if they didn\u2019t have bones,\u201d Sarah pointed out. \u201cThat\u2019s what my science teacher would say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, as I said before, God provided.\u201d He laughed abruptly. \u201cThey were also immortal, like Adam and Eve before they sinned.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey thought they were, at least,\u201d Sarah snorted.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, they really were. That\u2019s why, when the tree fell on Adam it didn\u2019t hurt him, and when Joe was shot he was fine\u2026and why they all lived through the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they never aged again? They just stayed the same?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my theory,\u201d Stoddard said thoughtfully, and then he chuckled. \u201cWhat are we talking about this for, anyway? I\u2019ve got to coordinate our next stop. This bird only carries enough fuel to get us 1600 miles, and we\u2019ve got 2000 to go. If we run out of fuel we\u2019ll end up in the Ohio River!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, but I can\u2019t swim!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t swim? You\u2019re 12 years old and can\u2019t swim?\u201d She wondered why that shocked him. He shook his head. \u201cSarah Morton, all I can say is, you had better learn!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow about, just in case you ever end up in a river? Seriously, it\u2019s a good skill to have. I\u2019d teach you if we had time, but\u2026sorry, this war gets in the way of everything. Promise me you\u2019ll learn someday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomeday I\u2019ll learn to swim,\u201d she promised. \u201cBut why\u2019s it so important for you that I learn to swim?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause drowning isn\u2019t fun, that\u2019s why. Look, for now, why don\u2019t you take a nap?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow you\u2019re treating me like a kid,\u201d Sarah pouted.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but that\u2019s not why. You\u2019re treating me like one because you don\u2019t want to answer my questions. Is it really because of this swimming business, or did you just change the subject because Tahoe Tessie isn\u2019t a story for children?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, in all honesty, Sarah, but grown-up thinking takes a while to work its way through your head in any case. What do you think of my theory?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s weird\u2026and you\u2019re right, it\u2019ll take a while to work its way through my head.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cProbably,\u201d he chuckled. \u201cIt never has worked its way through my family\u2019s heads, and I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s worked its way through mine. Okay, I\u2019m gonna go fly the plane for a while and look for a place to re-fuel. I\u2019ll come back later to see if you\u2019re okay. Do you have anything to read? I can light up the cabin for you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all right. I love to read, but for right now, I\u2019d rather think.\u201d<\/p>\n She did think for a while\u2014wondering whether the Tessie story was true or a legend; wondering if Stoddard\u2019s theory had any possibility of being true\u2026and then she remembered the glimpse of the faded photograph in the Virginia City diner. And she thought for the first time how much Hoss had resembled Eric, and how much Adam had resembled Stoddard. She could actually picture Stoddard in dark clothing, with a Colt revolver low on his hip and a threatening glint in his eye. It gave her a strange idea.<\/p>\n When Stoddard came back to check on her again, she handed him her freshly tuned guitar. \u201cI remember you\u2019re a musician. Can you play for me?\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard looked as pleased as a cat with a mouse dangling from its lips. \u201cAny requests?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to hear the Ballad of Tahoe Tessie<\/em>. Frank sang it to me on the way out to meet your father. He has a really nice voice. I\u2019d like to hear it with your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n That got him. Now he looked doubtful.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course maybe you don\u2019t know it,\u201d she said very softly.<\/p>\n He grinned wryly and strummed the guitar. \u201cI know it.\u201d<\/p>\n His clear baritone rang out:<\/p>\n \u201cIn Tahoe\u2019s clear waters, way down underneath,<\/p>\n Where you\u2019ll freeze your behind in the blue<\/p>\n There resided a monster known only as Tess,<\/p>\n And she loved to sneak up and say \u2018boo\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He had beautiful hands, Sarah thought as she watched him changing chords and picking the strings. And a beautiful voice. Just like they said Adam had a beautiful voice.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026So the King said \u2018I\u2019ve had \u2019em. I\u2019ll call in Sir Adam.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll come rid me of my despair.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll clear out the lake of this meddlesome snake<\/p>\n And he\u2019ll get the beast out of my hair.\u201d<\/p>\n But then Sarah couldn\u2019t stifle a little gasp as the singing went on:<\/p>\n \u201cSir Adam was known to be bad to the bone<\/p>\n And nobody could pull a gun faster<\/p>\n He was called the black knight ’cause the man sure could fight<\/p>\n To challenge him was a disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cSo Sir Adam went out and \u2019twas all but a rout<\/p>\n When with the lake monster he met<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t desist \u2019im\u2014no girl could resist \u2019im<\/p>\n And so the black knight won the bet.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd as for the snake that lived down in the lake<\/p>\n She\u2019s enamored of black so I hear,<\/p>\n And when Adam goes swimmin\u2019 with all of his women<\/p>\n She\u2019s been seen to shed many a tear.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, do you have fightin\u2019? Just call the black knight in<\/p>\n He may be himself or in disguise,<\/p>\n He\u2019ll appear on the double and solve all your trouble<\/p>\n He just can\u2019t help bein\u2019 so wise.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah burst into applause as the last notes died away. \u201cThat was great!\u201d<\/p>\n Stoddard shrugged. \u201cNot really. Turned out Adam wasn\u2019t as smart as he thought he was. If Adam was wise, he\u2019d have been a doctor, not a smart-alecky dragon hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n He left her thinking grown-up thoughts.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Stoddard sent a thought to his youngest brother. \u201cSarah is a pretty smart cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAin\u2019t she?\u201d came the reply. \u201cI like her myself. Nice kid. Smart. Decent. Likes motorcycles.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The storm was bad over the Smokies, just as Stoddard had predicted. Bad enough that he put a parachute on Sarah and put her in the cramped pilot\u2019s compartment with himself and Lt. Powell. They didn\u2019t have to leave the plane, although Sarah thought several times that it would be a good idea and at one point, Powell thought so too. \u201cWell, you two go right ahead and jump if you feel that way, but I\u2019m going to land this thing,\u201d Stoddard muttered. Powell had a few choice words to say about Stoddard Benson\u2019s stubborn, mule-headed ways, but for some reason they only made Stoddard smile. Then he started an argument with Sarah over whether or not modern musicians like Freddy Martin should be putting words to classical pieces like Tchaikovsky\u2019s piano concerto, and before Sarah was ready to concede the point, they were on the ground and safe.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n As the taxi pulled up in front of her father\u2019s apartment, Stoddard said, \u201cI know you said you\u2019ll be fine, but I really think I should go in with you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay, really.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe so, but where I come from, a gentleman always walks a lady to the door.\u201d He stepped out of the cab, and crooked his arm for her. Trembling, she put her hand through and went with him.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n For a while, the Cartwright and Benson families weighed heavily on her mind. Since her father had grounded her, there was little else to think about, but in truth there was nothing else on her mind. Not the war; not her witchy aunt. The legend\u2014and especially the ballad\u2014of the lake \u201cmonster\u201d occupied most of her thoughts. She wondered if the crazy dream she\u2019d had about Ben berating \u201cJoe\u201d for not being married, and all the talk about \u201cAdam\u201d and \u201cHoss\u201d and marriage and mental links could be true. She even joined a Bible study group, but no one had anything good to say about serpents.<\/p>\n One night in the summer of 1944, she had a terrible nightmare. It happened again in the spring of 1945, and she begged her father to find out some information from her on the Benson family. He learned that Frank had been reported killed during the Normandy breakout of August, 1944, and a few days before the end of the war Stoddard apparently was testing a captured German jet when it exploded. She told herself then that that was the end of the story.<\/p>\n Sarah graduated from high school in 1946, college in 1950, and nursing school in 1952. Her father went to work compiling and analyzing intelligence reports on Korea, where another war was going on.<\/p>\n In 1953 she was working in a hospital in Mexico when she remembered a promise she had made. She thought herself crazy for even thinking of keeping it, but decided to return to Lake Tahoe anyway, just to satisfy her curiosity. Before she could do anything about it, however, her appendix ruptured. She nearly died, and when she finally was out of danger it was late June. She shrugged her shoulders, bought a used motorcycle, and moved on with her life. She always rode wearing the jacket Stoddard Benson had given her; it fit pretty well now, although still a bit slack in the shoulders. But she never married, or even became seriously involved. She couldn\u2019t have said why. She just had no inclination.<\/p>\n More years went by; Cliff Morton started compiling and analyzing intelligence reports on a place called Vietnam, where yet another war was going on, but he was killed in a car wreck in early 1961. By then Sarah had signed up for the newly established Peace Corps. She spent the next two years in Nigeria. And it was there that the strange dreams began\u2014not nightmares, this time. She just saw the Benson family; sometimes all of them together, having a reunion at the lake, while a sea monster swam around gleefully eating people; sometimes she dreamed of one particular Benson, and woke up flustered and sweating and wondering if she was crazy. Not that the sweating was that different; she was in a tropical rainforest, after all; but being so disconcerted that she questioned her sanity was an unusual state.<\/p>\n It was the middle of March, 1963, when Sarah returned to the United States. The years had been full and busy, but she really needed to update her nursing skills. She was signed up for a class in California to begin in May. \u00adGoing through the storage shed, she unearthed a knapsack\u2026and her old guitar.<\/p>\n Funny, she hadn\u2019t consciously thought about Tahoe Tessie, or the Benson family that might have been the Cartwright family, in years\u2014not since a decade earlier when she\u2019d spent six weeks in the hospital at the time she had planned to go and see if their story was true. Somehow they were always at the back of her mind, along with all the questions her brief association with them had raised, and sometimes she had dreams about them\u2014especially one of them. But she never allowed them to \u201ccome out and play.\u201d She never told anyone about them, and she tried not to think about them at all. The fact that one of them visited in her sleep was something she couldn\u2019t control\u2014and besides, psychologists now were saying that dreams were just brain waves bouncing the wrong way anyway.<\/p>\n But she thought about them endlessly that day. She even tuned her guitar and sang what she could remember of the Ballad of Tahoe Tessie.<\/p>\n Then she pulled her 12-year-old motorcycle out of the storage shed, spent two days cleaning and re-jetting the carburetors, and then packed her knapsack and headed off for California. She figured a slight detour to Nevada wouldn\u2019t hurt anything, either. It was a child\u2019s story, and she\u2019d been a child\u2026but then again, Stoddard had said it wasn\u2019t a child\u2019s story at all, but one for someone who could think grown-up thoughts. There were a lot of grown-up thoughts going through her mind now.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Virginia City was practically a ghost town. It had still been thriving in the early days of World War II, but now it was just a dusty little desert town with few people and fewer attractions. She fueled her bike there and tried desperately to remember where the Ponderosa was. Finally she resorted to asking an ancient tour guide.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, it\u2019s gone, Miss,\u201d he told her. \u201cBurned to the ground a hundred years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see the ruins,\u201d she replied, so he shrugged and supplied a complicated set of directions\u2014complicated, but accurate, she found as the bike wobbled into the clearing where the ranch house had once stood. This was the place Frank had brought her 20 years earlier, when he had told her that families didn\u2019t always stay together, and that being stupid never stopped bad things from happening. She knew the truth of both statements now.<\/p>\n There was a dirt road, heavily overgrown but with recent tire tracks, that ran toward the foothills, and she shook her head, willing to bet that it would lead to Line Shack #4. It would be a challenge to her motorcycling skills too, if she remembered the road as she thought she did. Rough, slippery, covered with tree roots. Well, she couldn\u2019t resist a challenge.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The paper on the kitchen table between the two brothers held a penciled drawing of a woman\u2019s face. It was an attractive face, not quite beautiful, but arresting. The eyes were large; the hair, windblown and tousled.<\/p>\n Adam Cartwright shook his head. \u201cNope. I\u2019ve never seen her before. Reckon I\u2019m crazy?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe laughed. \u201cYup. Have thought so, too, for about a hundred years, Older Brother. But in this case, no more insane than I am, since I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve never seen her either.\u201d<\/p>\n They both stood in silence looking at the picture. Hoss looked over their shoulders. \u201cSo this is who all the fuss is about. Two years you\u2019ve been dreamin\u2019 about her, huh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYup.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMust be a pretty strong link to be dreamin\u2019 about somebody all the time and you\u2019re not even married or related to \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEither that or it really is insanity,\u201d Joe said thoughtfully.<\/p>\n \u201cThink I\u2019m gonna go for a ride,\u201d Adam announced.<\/p>\n \u201cMe too,\u201d Joe put in. \u201cOn a real<\/em> horse, Older Brother.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t fight progress,\u201d Adam sighed. \u201cHey, you\u2019ll probably get back before I do, so\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know, I know, bring in the firewood on my way back in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood for both of you,\u201d said a woman, turning from the sink. \u201cJoe, not so much green stuff this time. It smoked pretty bad yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes ma\u2019am!\u201d Joe saluted and followed Adam to the door.<\/p>\n Hoss looked at the picture again. \u201cHe ain\u2019t a bad artist, Bonnie.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrue, but if you tell him that, you\u2019ll never hear the end of it.\u201d She came over to pick up the picture and look at it thoughtfully. \u201cDo you think she\u2019s the one?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo way of knowin\u2019 that until we meet her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think she\u2019ll come?\u201d Bonnie asked, her hand on his arm.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she will,\u201d Hoss said, and smiled.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n The Indian sputtered and died as Sarah turned the key and looked around. The line shack had changed\u2014it was a full-fledged house now, big enough to house a family, she thought\u2014but well-hidden enough that it would take some effort to find.<\/p>\n \u201cWell what do you know,\u201d said a soft, well-remembered voice, and she turned to see Frank Benson emerging from behind the house with an armload of firewood. \u201cYou came.\u201d There was a long silence as they looked at each other.<\/p>\n Sarah finally managed to find her own voice. \u201cFrank?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho else\u2014Jailbait?\u201d And then he laughed.<\/p>\n Frank hadn\u2019t changed even a little bit. Same chestnut curls, hazel-green eyes, angelic smile. Not a gray hair, not a wrinkle. She launched herself at him and hugged him tightly. He hugged back for several minutes, and then held her at arm\u2019s length to look her up and down. \u201cGee whiz, I thought<\/em> something bumped into me. Reckon you finally grew them after all.\u201d<\/p>\n She glanced at her chest and giggled. \u201cThe following Tuesday, just like you said. My gosh, it\u2019s all true, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen have I ever lied to you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGuess you haven\u2019t\u2014Little Joe Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n Someone\u2019s throat cleared nearby, and Joe laughed. \u201cBonnie, come and meet my pal Sarah.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonnie was petite, dark-haired, and gray-eyed. She smiled and put out a hand. \u201cI\u2019ve heard of you, Sarah, but I wasn\u2019t sure we\u2019d ever meet. I suppose I should have trusted my husband. Don\u2019t just stand there\u2014come on in and make yourself at home!\u201d Bonnie ordered, and Joe grabbed her hand and dragged her inside where more people waited. \u201cSarah, you remember my Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n She put out a hand but instead got a fierce hug. \u201cWell, you did<\/em> come back! Sarah, you were a pretty child, but I had no idea you\u2019d be such a lovely woman. You know, Joe and Hoss said you\u2019d come back, but I never dreamed it would take you 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe shrugged. \u201cWell, it\u2019s not my fault the gal was ten years late. Or that she grew up so goodlookin\u2019\u2014you know, I didn\u2019t even recognize you at first! Sarah, what took you so long?\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah sighed. \u201cAppendicitis. Sorry. I really meant to come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2026better late than never,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n Ben looked at her. \u201cWas it just curiosity, or did you figure it all out?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI figured out some of it, Ben,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cI\u2019d like to know more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo would we.\u201d He reached back and took the hand of the woman behind him. \u201cThis is Ellen, my wife. We were actually married back when you and I met, but she was working in a hospital at the time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you a nurse too?\u201d Sarah asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a nurse,\u201d Ellen confirmed with a laugh. \u201cI had a feeling you would be as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you know me?\u201d But the question was not answered, for at that moment Eric, or Hoss, stepped forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you remember me, Jailbait,\u201d Hoss Cartwright said, and stepped forward with a welcoming smile as big as the rest of him. \u201cWho knew you\u2019d grow up to be so nice-lookin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody did,\u201d announced another woman, coming in from the kitchen holding a drawing.<\/p>\n Ellen said \u201cSarah, this is Adele. And you probably won\u2019t be surprised to learn that she\u2019s a nurse, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah started to hug Adele, but then she looked at the paper. \u201cWho\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAdam\u2019s back,\u201d said Joe. There was a loud silence as everyone else seemed to be listening for something, but Sarah had no idea what or why. A few seconds later, she heard a motorcycle\u2014an Indian, from the sound of it\u2014purring up the mountain.<\/p>\n Sarah turned to Joe. \u201cI have to ask\u2026were you really expecting me?\u201d<\/p>\n A grin. \u201cI was. Can\u2019t vouch for anybody else, but I knew you\u2019d turn up eventually. Hey!\u201d he turned rapidly to address the others in the room. \u201cDon\u2019t spoil the surprise. Keep your heads tight!\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah looked at him, wondering if he had gone crazy, but then the motorcycle stopped in the yard.<\/p>\n Ben was already at the door, blocking her view.<\/p>\n \u201cBoy, get in here before the coffee gets cold!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa, my gosh, what a beauty! That\u2019s a \u201951 Warrior! Whose bike is\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Ben moved aside and Adam saw her. For a minute they just looked at each other. A frown crossed his face, and finally, a light came to his eyes. Then he grinned and shook his head. \u201cHoly cow.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah raised her eyebrows. \u201cAdam Cartwright, I presume?\u201d<\/p>\n He approached slowly. \u201cSarah Morton. Let\u2019s see, you\u2019re about five inches taller than I remember, and you filled out pretty interestingly\u2026but it\u2019s amazing how little you\u2019ve really changed. I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t see it before.\u201d<\/p>\n Before she could ask what he meant by that, he climbed the steps and came into the house. \u201cThat\u2019s a real nice ride you\u2019ve got there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you must\u2019ve gotten your old one back.\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed. \u201cNot exactly. It\u2019s a Chief, but from \u201948. Had to wait until I got back from Germany to get it, and I\u2019ve kept it ever since. Sarah, I\u2019m glad to see you. A little surprised, but glad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are you surprised?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2026\u201d He indicated the paper in Adele\u2019s hand. She was smiling; so was everyone else, and Sarah wondered if there was some kind of practical joke being played that she was not privy to.<\/p>\n \u201cHe drew it,\u201d Adele said, handing Sarah the picture and gesturing toward Adam. \u201cHe said he didn\u2019t know who you were\u2014but he drew that picture almost a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd drove us crazy from 1500 miles away for a year before that, wondering who you were,\u201d Bonnie put in. \u201cPoor Joe was never getting any sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Ben cried. \u201cAm I the only person in this family with enough sense of decorum to make proper introductions? Sarah, meet Adele, Hoss\u2019s wife\u2014and Bonnie, who married Joe exactly 19 years and eight months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, you\u2019re married?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUm\u2026yeah.\u201d Joe\u2019s face paled noticeably. \u201cSarah, you weren\u2019t\u2014um\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations!\u201d Sarah cried, and hugged him, and Bonnie, in quick succession. \u201cHey, what\u2019s wrong, Joe? You look awfully white. Bonnie, he might need some smelling salts\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNever mind,\u201d Joe said with a weak little grin. \u201cAdam, what\u2019s wrong with you<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss suddenly nudged Adam. A nudge from Hoss being something akin to a nudge from a dump truck, this had the effect of sending Adam crashing into Sarah, and both of them landing in a heap on the floor. Apologizing profusely, Adam got up and pulled Sarah along with him. He gave Hoss a long glare, and then turned back to Sarah. \u201cLet\u2019s go compare motorcycles.\u201d<\/p>\n She grinned. \u201cSounds good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n As they left the house they heard every other occupant in the place burst into uproarious laughter.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said again as they ignored the bikes completely and walked toward the lake and away from the house. \u201cYou must think we should all be fitted for strait-jackets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOnly Joe,\u201d Sarah chuckled. \u201cI was just surprised because I thought Bonnie was married to Hoss; as far as I knew Hoss and your father were the only ones married.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou never had a crush on Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I thought he was beautiful. Still do. But he\u2019s way too much like the brother I never had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, he\u2019ll be devastated to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen we won\u2019t tell him. Where are we going?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEver since Pa became a park ranger and got permission to put a house up out here, we\u2019re not quite so careful about covering our tracks. And he gets to live here another 10 years before he has to \u2018retire\u2019 and go somewhere else. So I thought we\u2019d take a walk out to the lake. You can tell me how you\u2019ve been all these years, and why you missed our last reunion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI became a nurse, based on some childhood advice by a man I once thought very wise,\u201d Sarah said with a grin. \u201cAnd I missed your last reunion because I was in the hospital nearly dying of peritonitis brought on by acute appendicitis. Is that a good enough excuse, \u2018Mr. Cartwright\u2019? I can\u2019t give you a note from my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s face had gone very pale. \u201cI\u2019m\u2026uh\u2026glad you\u2019re all right.\u201d<\/p>\n The sun was setting, its rays turning the water all varieties of shades of pink, red, and purple, as Adam led her to a rowboat. \u201cEver been out on the lake at sunset?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNever been out on the lake, period.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you game to try it? That lake sure can get under your skin. In more ways than one.\u201d<\/p>\n He crooked an elbow and held it out. Trembling, she put her hand through and went with him.<\/p>\n As he took up the oars, he said \u201cAs long as I\u2019m apologizing, I have to say I\u2019m sorry for all the strange dreams you\u2019ve had the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of suspected it was you. How were you doing it?\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed, ducking his head in embarrassment. \u201cIf I could figure that<\/em> out, maybe I could quit. But a couple of years ago, you came into my head\u2014I wasn\u2019t sure the face I was seeing was Sarah Morton or someone else, but I couldn\u2019t get you out of my head, and so I ended up getting into yours as well. It\u2026um\u2026well, as Bonnie said, it usually has something of an adverse effect on everybody I know when I get interested in a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n She regarded him gravely. \u201cYou hold things in too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes you think so?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat night flying the plane in the storm, you were as terrified as I was, but you never said a word. Your knuckles were white on the controls. You hold things in and never tell anybody, but since now there are people you\u2019re somehow linked to, all the stuff you\u2019re holding in pours out through your thoughts. No wonder everyone says you drive them crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, thank you, Dr. Morton.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor. But I am thinking of going to medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not? I did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen why didn\u2019t you figure this out on your own?\u201d<\/p>\n Long silence. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe I was too close to the forest to see the trees, as they say. You\u2019re an insightful lady, Sarah. How deep exactly does the insight extend? For example, do you believe the Tessie legend?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I believe it. You were all trying so hard not to put yourselves into the story\u2026and you did such a good job of it\u2026but Adam, you\u2019re the one who finally gave it away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe? How\u2019d I do it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI heard your father and Joe talking about Tessie one night when I was supposed to be sleeping\u2026I thought it was all a dream, though. But Adam, you finished the song. \u2018The Ballad of Tahoe Tessie.\u2019 When Joe sang it to me, he didn\u2019t know all of it. He said nobody had ever heard all of it, because Adam Cartwright was eaten by the monster before he finished singing. But you sang the whole thing. I knew who you were that same night. And I knew I\u2019d be back someday.\u201d<\/p>\n He held her eyes. \u201cEver think about getting married? Say, to a slightly older man?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSlightly! You\u2019re 130 if you\u2019re a day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHmmph. I\u2019m 133. But I think I aged fairly well, don\u2019t you? And I am a doctor with a steady income, and you wouldn\u2019t have to change your initials since my last name is McIntyre these days, and I belong to the San Francisco Medical Society and the Symphony Volunteer League , and\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to hard-sell, Adam. You had me at \u2018nice ride\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n They kissed for a while, talked for a while, and sang for a while. And while they sang, a fast-moving wake approached. Sarah didn\u2019t notice. Adam did.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam, why are you rocking the boat!\u201d Sarah cried in sudden alarm.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s time to go swimming now,\u201d came his outwardly calm reply.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? Adam, I can\u2019t swim!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat? You promised me you\u2019d learn!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you kidding? That happened in two minutes, 20 years ago\u2014I forgot all about that!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe things I have to do for love,\u201d he muttered, and jumped off the boat himself.<\/p>\n \u201cAdam, what the\u2014oh no, no\u2014\u201d she turned and looked into a beautiful, wagon-wheel-sized eye that disappeared as she suddenly got a close-up view of tonsils the size of a jeep.<\/p>\n \u201cToo late to get cold feet now, Sarah!\u201d Adam cried through blue lips and chattering teeth.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m bettin\u2019 he comes back alone\u2014and engaged,\u201d Joe said to no one in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still early for Tessie to be out,\u201d Bonnie observed doubtfully.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019ll come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re remarkably sure of yourself,\u201d Ben murmured.<\/p>\n \u201cHorses and people have a lot in common,\u201d Joe proclaimed, looking quite satisfied with himself. \u201cI trained Sport, too, if you recall, and he was the best horse Adam ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you think Sarah has something in common with Sport?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPa, out of all of us, who\u2019s the best horse breaker and judge of horseflesh?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, certainly you think you are. But this is a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrue enough. But Adam\u2019s the one who used to say women and horses have a lot in common. I figure you watch out for the fast ones, and the best time to start gentling them is when they\u2019re young.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot at age 12!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you and Adam both said I needed to plan for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour own\u2014not your brother\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe sighed. \u201cYou gonna tell me I\u2019m wrong, Pa?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, son\u2014not gonna tell you that at all. Guess we need to start planning for a ceremony, then.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, Tessie sent up a cow skeleton this morning, so at least there\u2019ll be plenty for the weddin\u2019 dinner,\u201d Hoss observed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that have to do with anything?\u201d Bonnie asked curiously. She\u2019d never fully understood the business with the Tessie legend.<\/p>\n \u201cAw, honey,\u201d Joe replied with a long-suffering sigh. \u201cEverybody knows sacred cows make the best steak.\u201d<\/p>\n The End<\/p>\n Disclaimer: <\/strong>I am not promoting or bashing any religion. Nor am I trying to start one of my own. This is just a fantasy\u2026because we all wish the Cartwrights could live happily ever after, forever. This was my way of making it happen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:<\/strong> Adam Cartwright, Ben Cartwright, Hoss Cartwright, Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n