<\/a><\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t about giving up hope or losing faith. It was about accepting that sometimes a man\u2019s fate is just plain out of his hands. Whatever that fate might happen to be\u2026well, it ain\u2019t up to any man what God has in store for him, is it? Comes a point in everyone\u2019s life when you have to accept that it\u2019s time to set back and let God do what He will.<\/p>\n
Joe had never figured that point would come for him before he\u2019d seen the other side of twenty-one. Seemed to him men weren\u2019t supposed to set back until their bones were bent so much they didn\u2019t have the strength to do much more than set back, anyway. Joe\u2019s bones weren\u2019t bent at all. When he rode, his back was straight as could be. He could sit the saddle longer than anyone and outride the best of \u2018em.<\/p>\n
Well…he\u2019d been that way right up until a few days ago.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d been young and fit and bursting with so much energy he couldn\u2019t set back with his family for a moment longer. They\u2019d been riding slow and steady, like they had all the time in the world. Pa might enjoy moving slow, but Joe couldn\u2019t bear it. He\u2019d always felt like he had to chase time from here to Sunday and back again. Time was something to be attacked full force, not savored. And so, with a challenging shout for a race back home, he\u2019d kicked his heels into Cochise until it felt like he and his horse were flying with the eagles.<\/p>\n
No one had taken Joe up on that challenge.<\/p>\n
And maybe God had had a reason for that, too. Joe had ridden far enough ahead of his pa and brothers to save them from ambush. He hadn\u2019t known Percy Gladstone had a whole passel of men lined up just the other side of the ridge with rifles loaded, waiting for the Cartwrights to cross over onto his land\u2026or land he\u2019d decided was his, anyway. It didn\u2019t much matter to Percy what the law said.<\/p>\n
No. It did<\/em> matter. Just not the way it should have. When the judge had ruled that stretch of good grazing meadowlands was within the boundaries of the Ponderosa, Percy had decided to appoint himself judge and write his own laws, the kind that made rulings based on how many men he could buy and how many bullets they could shoot.<\/p>\nOf course, when only one rider had crested that ridgeline, they hadn\u2019t had to shoot a single bullet. Joe had ridden right into the thick of them before he\u2019d even known they were there. And that had made Percy change his ruling. Rather than gunning the Cartwrights down in cold blood and starting a war fighting law against law, Percy had decided he could use Joe to convince Ben Cartwright to sign that piece of land over to him fair and square.<\/p>\n
Fair and square in Percy\u2019s mind, anyway.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d had two of his men take Joe up into the timberlands. \u201cFind a tree somewheres up yonder,\u201d <\/em>Percy had told \u2018em. \u201cI don\u2019t much care where. Tie him to it, good and tight. Then head on over to that line shack we was talkin\u2019 about to hole up \u2018til ya\u2019 hear from me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cDon\u2019t ya\u2019 want us to guard him?\u201d <\/em>one of the men had asked.<\/p>\nPercy had shrugged. \u201cCan if ya\u2019 want to. But looks to be a storm comin\u2019. I figured you\u2019d rather sit through it inside than out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cWon\u2019t it make more sense to jest take him with us to the line shack?\u201d<\/em> the other had asked.<\/p>\nBut Judge<\/em> Percy Miller sure didn\u2019t like the idea of a man telling him he didn\u2019t make sense. \u201cYou questionin\u2019 my orders, boy?\u201d<\/em> he\u2019d shot back.<\/p>\n\u201cN-no, sir. It\u2019s jest\u2014them clouds don\u2019t look too good. Storm could be a bad one. Leavin\u2019 a man out in that, well, seems to me\u2014\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cSeems to me,\u201d<\/em> Percy had answered, although his eyes had been locked on Joe and looking like the storm was coming straight from inside him, \u201ca storm might be damned good incentive to get Ben Cartwright to do what we want quick-like, without causin\u2019 any fuss.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nJoe hadn\u2019t been too accepting right then. He\u2019d fought back hard as he could. But one young man, no matter how fit, wouldn\u2019t stand a chance against twenty armed codgers, and there hadn\u2019t been a single codger amongst Percy\u2019s men. In fact, the whole lot of \u2018em were almost as fit as Joe. And some were just as young.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t surprising that Joe had gotten a whole lot more than he\u2019d given back. He wasn\u2019t even conscious when they\u2019d flung him belly down across the saddle with one of the riders. He\u2019d come to a time or two on the trail, but riding like that after having the wind punched out of him had left him so lightheaded he couldn\u2019t stay conscious for long. It wasn\u2019t until they\u2019d dropped him like a sack of grain at the foot of a towering ponderosa pine tree that Joe had been able to start focusing his thoughts enough to try fighting them again. But beat up and breathless as he\u2019d been, he\u2019d stood less of a chance against those two fit riders than he had at his best against twenty.<\/p>\n
They\u2019d pressed him back against the tree and knocked him to his butt so hard he could almost believe the force would drive his spine right through his skull. Then they\u2019d dragged his arms behind him and around that tree, wrapped him with rope from his chest to his hips, and tied knots so tight nothing short of an ax was going to get him free. Heck, he could hardly even move.<\/p>\n
Then they\u2019d started talking like they really were planning to abandon him there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least leave me a canteen<\/em>,\u201d he\u2019d told them. \u201cAnd give me the use of my hands so I can actually lift it to take a drink<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\nThey\u2019d just mounted up and started riding away, like Joe hadn\u2019t said a word.<\/p>\n
Joe still hadn\u2019t quite been ready to accept anything right then. Instead, he\u2019d shouted louder and louder, making good and sure they could hear him.<\/p>\n
When volume alone wasn\u2019t turning them around, he\u2019d changed his choice of words. They grew darker and more profane every time he\u2019d opened his mouth. Joe used words he\u2019d never had reason to use before, words he\u2019d never heard outside the Bucket of Blood\u2026words that would make his pa\u2019s<\/em> blood go cold if he\u2019d heard them coming out of his own son\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\nThey were the right kind of words to finally turn those men back.<\/p>\n
Trouble was, those men hadn\u2019t turned around to honor Joe\u2019s request. They\u2019d only done it to shut him up for good, gagging him with his own bandana.<\/p>\n
Even then, Joe hadn\u2019t found any sort of acceptance. Instead, he\u2019d tried to tear at the rope with his fingertips, hoping that maybe he could fray it enough to weaken it. But the tree was so wide there had to be more than a foot of rope separating one hand from the other. And his fingers couldn\u2019t bend down far enough to grip the rope binding either of his wrists. He\u2019d have willingly broken his own bones if it meant getting free, but he couldn\u2019t even seem to do that. After a while, the only tearing he\u2019d done was to his own skin and fingernails. Wriggling his wrists this way and that didn\u2019t work either; it just scoured him raw.<\/p>\n
The rope was too thick, there was too much of it and it was tied tight enough to hold a grizzly\u2026or ground an eagle. By sundown, Joe had to figure he wouldn\u2019t be flying anywhere anytime soon. He was just going to have to set it out.<\/p>\n
But the only acceptance Joe had found then was in realizing he was going to have to wait for his pa and brothers to help him. He hadn\u2019t liked that thought any. He\u2019d hated feeling so helpless. Still, he hadn\u2019t felt hopeless<\/em>. No. He\u2019d never really run out of hope. Even coming to that sort of acceptance hadn\u2019t meant running out of hope. It just changed what he\u2019d come to hope for.<\/p>\nYep. The nature of his hope might have ebbed and flowed, but the strength of it never faded.<\/p>\n
At first, he\u2019d hoped for his bonds to weaken. Then he\u2019d hoped he might shout loud enough despite the gag to get his family\u2019s attention. Finally, he\u2019d hoped for the storm to shift. But neither of those hopes had been fated to happen.<\/p>\n
The storm hit him good and hard, first with winds so strong even pine needles left stinging marks on his face. Twigs and branches had done much worse, shredding his already torn shirt and trousers, and tearing into every bit of exposed skin. Then the rain had sent its own stinging needles. Before long, Joe had been drenched to the bone and so cold he was still shivering long after the storm had passed, deep into the night and well into the following day.<\/p>\n
Then that day had faded and another night had begun to settle in, and Joe wasn\u2019t really noticing the cold anymore. It was almost like he\u2019d forgotten what it meant to be warm, so he didn\u2019t miss it as much. There were other things that had started to disturb him more, like the yipping of coyotes to his left and his right, behind him and in front of him, making it clear a whole pack of \u2018em had surrounded him. They just couldn\u2019t quite decide whether he was too big a target or worth the risk, especially seeing as how he wasn\u2019t likely to fight back. There were several times when Joe heard deep, rumbling growls. Some he figured might have come from a bear, but most sounded like wolves.<\/p>\n
Whatever they were, they\u2019d left Joe expecting to feel claws or fangs boring into his battered if not yet bent bones every time he heard a rustling in the brush or the snap of a twig.<\/p>\n
But, somehow, all that strong hope of his seemed to have held all those predators off. They\u2019d left him alone. Well, not as alone as Percy\u2019s men had. But at least they hadn\u2019t bothered Joe more than making all that noise that night. It was the same the next night, and the one after that. And\u2026well, frankly, Joe had lost track of how many nights he\u2019d heard those growls and yips. He\u2019d lost track of time.<\/p>\n
Time\u2026. All that time Pa liked to savor and Joe had once raced against started swirling around Joe until he didn\u2019t even know why time should matter so much. He couldn\u2019t put a number to how many sunsets he\u2019d watched from his vantage there on the forest floor, or how many times the moon had poked its way through the canopy above him. All he knew was last night\u2014it had been last night, hadn\u2019t it?<\/em>\u2014the moon had been full, and it had shined straight down on him through the branches like it had singled him out. Maybe that had been God\u2019s way of telling him he wasn\u2019t really alone at all.<\/p>\nAnd maybe that\u2019s why he\u2019d come to this moment of acceptance. Whatever was going to happen was simply going to happen, whether Joe wanted it to or not.<\/p>\n
No. He wasn\u2019t giving up. He still had hope. He hoped Percy hadn\u2019t shot down his pa and brothers after all. He hoped his pa would come to his own kind of acceptance about Joe being gone. He hoped Adam wouldn\u2019t find some reason to blame himself. He hoped Hoss would find a way to fill the hole this mess was bound to poke in his heart.<\/p>\n
And he hoped the first thing he saw when there were no more moonrises to lift him up out of the darkness was his mother\u2019s smile.<\/p>\n
Instead, he opened his eyes to the sight of his father\u2019s worried brow. A gentle embrace replaced the tight pull of the ropes, and warm, salty tears began to fill in the rivets the frigid rain had left on his cheek. And Joe accepted that a man didn\u2019t have to be old and bent to set back and let God do what He would\u2014but that didn\u2019t mean God didn\u2019t want him to get old and bent. It just meant Pa was right about time being a precious thing worth savoring.<\/p>\n
One day, soon, Joe would get another chance to go flying with Cochise. But he wouldn\u2019t chase time. No. He would savor every minute.<\/p>\n
XxXxX<\/p>\n
~end~<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Old Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Reviewer: Cheaux Signed<\/p>\n
Date: 01 Mar 2014 11:54 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\n
You painted quite a picture. I could feel every stinging drop of rain and shivered right along. Well done, Freya.<\/p>\n
Reviewer: frasrgrl Signed starstarstarstarstar<\/p>\n
Date: 25 Jun 2013 11:39 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\n
There’s a really good lesson to be learned here. You need to slow down and savor life and not rush through every thing. But then again, if Joe wasn’t chasing time the whole family would have ridden into an ambush. You have a way with how you draw the picture with words. I could see Joe tied to that tree. I hope you do expand or follow up on it.<\/p>\n
Author’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much fras! \ud83d\ude42 I do hope to expand on it. I hadn’t thought of a follow-up as an alternative to an expansion. Thinking that way might help to stir the muses. We’ll have to see what transpires! …After I feel like I’ve added all the parts I need to finish the Dime Novel one. That one’s close to done…but just not quite there yet! \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\nReviewer: bahj Signed starstarstarstarstar<\/p>\n
Date: 19 Jun 2013 11:38 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\n
What a heart wrenching story, and what an incredible ending. It always amazes me how your stories can drag the reader through so much pain and fear, but in the end leave you with a feeling of hope–a feeling that makes you glad you’re alive.<\/p>\n
Was this story the inspiration for your Dime Novel series? Thank you so much for sharing your work!<\/p>\n
Author’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much, bahj! Your words mean a lot to me! “A feeling that makes you glad you’re alive.” Gosh! I love that! \ud83d\ude42 Actually, no; this story did not inspire the Dime Novel series. Frankly…I’m not sure what did! It was just one of those things. Sometimes a feeling strikes me and the only way for me to “answer” is to clear my mind and start with a word, phrase or sentence. Then I look at it and figure out where it needs to go. And…Joe’s story (the first) in the Dime Novel series was one of those events. (The Darkest Hour was another of those “events.” That all started with one word: Dark.) *This* one was inspired by Lisa Marie always asking for rope! \ud83d\ude00 How much rope could I reasonably wrap Joe up in to please Lisa? My first thought was a cocoon! lol! \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\nReviewer: BluewindFarm Signed<\/p>\n
Date: 10 May 2013 03:52 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\n
WOW! The power of the story is so eloquently told.<\/p>\n
Joe should know that as the moon shown on him as God’s way of telling him he was not alone, it was also a beacon from God.<\/p>\n
Author’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much! As the song says: “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform….” \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary:\u00a0 Joe is forced to accept that sometimes a man’s fate is out of his hands. But sitting back and waiting for God to do what He would didn’t have to mean giving up hope.<\/p>\n
Rated: K+ \u00a0Word Count: 2,600\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[23,41,1007],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-hurtcomfort","category-joe-cartwright","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-41-id","wpcat-1007-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Joe_Racing_Cochise.jpg?fit=840%2C725&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a><\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t about giving up hope or losing faith. It was about accepting that sometimes a man\u2019s fate is just plain out of his hands. Whatever that fate might happen to be\u2026well, it ain\u2019t up to any man what God has in store for him, is it? Comes a point in everyone\u2019s life when you have to accept that it\u2019s time to set back and let God do what He will.<\/p>\nJoe had never figured that point would come for him before he\u2019d seen the other side of twenty-one. Seemed to him men weren\u2019t supposed to set back until their bones were bent so much they didn\u2019t have the strength to do much more than set back, anyway. Joe\u2019s bones weren\u2019t bent at all. When he rode, his back was straight as could be. He could sit the saddle longer than anyone and outride the best of \u2018em.<\/p>\nWell…he\u2019d been that way right up until a few days ago.<\/p>\nHe\u2019d been young and fit and bursting with so much energy he couldn\u2019t set back with his family for a moment longer. They\u2019d been riding slow and steady, like they had all the time in the world. Pa might enjoy moving slow, but Joe couldn\u2019t bear it. He\u2019d always felt like he had to chase time from here to Sunday and back again. Time was something to be attacked full force, not savored. And so, with a challenging shout for a race back home, he\u2019d kicked his heels into Cochise until it felt like he and his horse were flying with the eagles.<\/p>\nNo one had taken Joe up on that challenge.<\/p>\nAnd maybe God had had a reason for that, too. Joe had ridden far enough ahead of his pa and brothers to save them from ambush. He hadn\u2019t known Percy Gladstone had a whole passel of men lined up just the other side of the ridge with rifles loaded, waiting for the Cartwrights to cross over onto his land\u2026or land he\u2019d decided was his, anyway. It didn\u2019t much matter to Percy what the law said.<\/p>\nNo. It did<\/em> matter. Just not the way it should have. When the judge had ruled that stretch of good grazing meadowlands was within the boundaries of the Ponderosa, Percy had decided to appoint himself judge and write his own laws, the kind that made rulings based on how many men he could buy and how many bullets they could shoot.<\/p>\nOf course, when only one rider had crested that ridgeline, they hadn\u2019t had to shoot a single bullet. Joe had ridden right into the thick of them before he\u2019d even known they were there. And that had made Percy change his ruling. Rather than gunning the Cartwrights down in cold blood and starting a war fighting law against law, Percy had decided he could use Joe to convince Ben Cartwright to sign that piece of land over to him fair and square.<\/p>\nFair and square in Percy\u2019s mind, anyway.<\/p>\nHe\u2019d had two of his men take Joe up into the timberlands. \u201cFind a tree somewheres up yonder,\u201d <\/em>Percy had told \u2018em. \u201cI don\u2019t much care where. Tie him to it, good and tight. Then head on over to that line shack we was talkin\u2019 about to hole up \u2018til ya\u2019 hear from me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cDon\u2019t ya\u2019 want us to guard him?\u201d <\/em>one of the men had asked.<\/p>\nPercy had shrugged. \u201cCan if ya\u2019 want to. But looks to be a storm comin\u2019. I figured you\u2019d rather sit through it inside than out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cWon\u2019t it make more sense to jest take him with us to the line shack?\u201d<\/em> the other had asked.<\/p>\nBut Judge<\/em> Percy Miller sure didn\u2019t like the idea of a man telling him he didn\u2019t make sense. \u201cYou questionin\u2019 my orders, boy?\u201d<\/em> he\u2019d shot back.<\/p>\n\u201cN-no, sir. It\u2019s jest\u2014them clouds don\u2019t look too good. Storm could be a bad one. Leavin\u2019 a man out in that, well, seems to me\u2014\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cSeems to me,\u201d<\/em> Percy had answered, although his eyes had been locked on Joe and looking like the storm was coming straight from inside him, \u201ca storm might be damned good incentive to get Ben Cartwright to do what we want quick-like, without causin\u2019 any fuss.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nJoe hadn\u2019t been too accepting right then. He\u2019d fought back hard as he could. But one young man, no matter how fit, wouldn\u2019t stand a chance against twenty armed codgers, and there hadn\u2019t been a single codger amongst Percy\u2019s men. In fact, the whole lot of \u2018em were almost as fit as Joe. And some were just as young.<\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t surprising that Joe had gotten a whole lot more than he\u2019d given back. He wasn\u2019t even conscious when they\u2019d flung him belly down across the saddle with one of the riders. He\u2019d come to a time or two on the trail, but riding like that after having the wind punched out of him had left him so lightheaded he couldn\u2019t stay conscious for long. It wasn\u2019t until they\u2019d dropped him like a sack of grain at the foot of a towering ponderosa pine tree that Joe had been able to start focusing his thoughts enough to try fighting them again. But beat up and breathless as he\u2019d been, he\u2019d stood less of a chance against those two fit riders than he had at his best against twenty.<\/p>\nThey\u2019d pressed him back against the tree and knocked him to his butt so hard he could almost believe the force would drive his spine right through his skull. Then they\u2019d dragged his arms behind him and around that tree, wrapped him with rope from his chest to his hips, and tied knots so tight nothing short of an ax was going to get him free. Heck, he could hardly even move.<\/p>\nThen they\u2019d started talking like they really were planning to abandon him there.<\/p>\n\u201cAt least leave me a canteen<\/em>,\u201d he\u2019d told them. \u201cAnd give me the use of my hands so I can actually lift it to take a drink<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\nThey\u2019d just mounted up and started riding away, like Joe hadn\u2019t said a word.<\/p>\nJoe still hadn\u2019t quite been ready to accept anything right then. Instead, he\u2019d shouted louder and louder, making good and sure they could hear him.<\/p>\nWhen volume alone wasn\u2019t turning them around, he\u2019d changed his choice of words. They grew darker and more profane every time he\u2019d opened his mouth. Joe used words he\u2019d never had reason to use before, words he\u2019d never heard outside the Bucket of Blood\u2026words that would make his pa\u2019s<\/em> blood go cold if he\u2019d heard them coming out of his own son\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\nThey were the right kind of words to finally turn those men back.<\/p>\nTrouble was, those men hadn\u2019t turned around to honor Joe\u2019s request. They\u2019d only done it to shut him up for good, gagging him with his own bandana.<\/p>\nEven then, Joe hadn\u2019t found any sort of acceptance. Instead, he\u2019d tried to tear at the rope with his fingertips, hoping that maybe he could fray it enough to weaken it. But the tree was so wide there had to be more than a foot of rope separating one hand from the other. And his fingers couldn\u2019t bend down far enough to grip the rope binding either of his wrists. He\u2019d have willingly broken his own bones if it meant getting free, but he couldn\u2019t even seem to do that. After a while, the only tearing he\u2019d done was to his own skin and fingernails. Wriggling his wrists this way and that didn\u2019t work either; it just scoured him raw.<\/p>\nThe rope was too thick, there was too much of it and it was tied tight enough to hold a grizzly\u2026or ground an eagle. By sundown, Joe had to figure he wouldn\u2019t be flying anywhere anytime soon. He was just going to have to set it out.<\/p>\nBut the only acceptance Joe had found then was in realizing he was going to have to wait for his pa and brothers to help him. He hadn\u2019t liked that thought any. He\u2019d hated feeling so helpless. Still, he hadn\u2019t felt hopeless<\/em>. No. He\u2019d never really run out of hope. Even coming to that sort of acceptance hadn\u2019t meant running out of hope. It just changed what he\u2019d come to hope for.<\/p>\nYep. The nature of his hope might have ebbed and flowed, but the strength of it never faded.<\/p>\nAt first, he\u2019d hoped for his bonds to weaken. Then he\u2019d hoped he might shout loud enough despite the gag to get his family\u2019s attention. Finally, he\u2019d hoped for the storm to shift. But neither of those hopes had been fated to happen.<\/p>\nThe storm hit him good and hard, first with winds so strong even pine needles left stinging marks on his face. Twigs and branches had done much worse, shredding his already torn shirt and trousers, and tearing into every bit of exposed skin. Then the rain had sent its own stinging needles. Before long, Joe had been drenched to the bone and so cold he was still shivering long after the storm had passed, deep into the night and well into the following day.<\/p>\nThen that day had faded and another night had begun to settle in, and Joe wasn\u2019t really noticing the cold anymore. It was almost like he\u2019d forgotten what it meant to be warm, so he didn\u2019t miss it as much. There were other things that had started to disturb him more, like the yipping of coyotes to his left and his right, behind him and in front of him, making it clear a whole pack of \u2018em had surrounded him. They just couldn\u2019t quite decide whether he was too big a target or worth the risk, especially seeing as how he wasn\u2019t likely to fight back. There were several times when Joe heard deep, rumbling growls. Some he figured might have come from a bear, but most sounded like wolves.<\/p>\nWhatever they were, they\u2019d left Joe expecting to feel claws or fangs boring into his battered if not yet bent bones every time he heard a rustling in the brush or the snap of a twig.<\/p>\nBut, somehow, all that strong hope of his seemed to have held all those predators off. They\u2019d left him alone. Well, not as alone as Percy\u2019s men had. But at least they hadn\u2019t bothered Joe more than making all that noise that night. It was the same the next night, and the one after that. And\u2026well, frankly, Joe had lost track of how many nights he\u2019d heard those growls and yips. He\u2019d lost track of time.<\/p>\nTime\u2026. All that time Pa liked to savor and Joe had once raced against started swirling around Joe until he didn\u2019t even know why time should matter so much. He couldn\u2019t put a number to how many sunsets he\u2019d watched from his vantage there on the forest floor, or how many times the moon had poked its way through the canopy above him. All he knew was last night\u2014it had been last night, hadn\u2019t it?<\/em>\u2014the moon had been full, and it had shined straight down on him through the branches like it had singled him out. Maybe that had been God\u2019s way of telling him he wasn\u2019t really alone at all.<\/p>\nAnd maybe that\u2019s why he\u2019d come to this moment of acceptance. Whatever was going to happen was simply going to happen, whether Joe wanted it to or not.<\/p>\nNo. He wasn\u2019t giving up. He still had hope. He hoped Percy hadn\u2019t shot down his pa and brothers after all. He hoped his pa would come to his own kind of acceptance about Joe being gone. He hoped Adam wouldn\u2019t find some reason to blame himself. He hoped Hoss would find a way to fill the hole this mess was bound to poke in his heart.<\/p>\nAnd he hoped the first thing he saw when there were no more moonrises to lift him up out of the darkness was his mother\u2019s smile.<\/p>\nInstead, he opened his eyes to the sight of his father\u2019s worried brow. A gentle embrace replaced the tight pull of the ropes, and warm, salty tears began to fill in the rivets the frigid rain had left on his cheek. And Joe accepted that a man didn\u2019t have to be old and bent to set back and let God do what He would\u2014but that didn\u2019t mean God didn\u2019t want him to get old and bent. It just meant Pa was right about time being a precious thing worth savoring.<\/p>\nOne day, soon, Joe would get another chance to go flying with Cochise. But he wouldn\u2019t chase time. No. He would savor every minute.<\/p>\nXxXxX<\/p>\n~end~<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\nOld Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\nReviewer: Cheaux Signed<\/p>\nDate: 01 Mar 2014 11:54 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\nYou painted quite a picture. I could feel every stinging drop of rain and shivered right along. Well done, Freya.<\/p>\nReviewer: frasrgrl Signed starstarstarstarstar<\/p>\nDate: 25 Jun 2013 11:39 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\nThere’s a really good lesson to be learned here. You need to slow down and savor life and not rush through every thing. But then again, if Joe wasn’t chasing time the whole family would have ridden into an ambush. You have a way with how you draw the picture with words. I could see Joe tied to that tree. I hope you do expand or follow up on it.<\/p>\nAuthor’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much fras! \ud83d\ude42 I do hope to expand on it. I hadn’t thought of a follow-up as an alternative to an expansion. Thinking that way might help to stir the muses. We’ll have to see what transpires! …After I feel like I’ve added all the parts I need to finish the Dime Novel one. That one’s close to done…but just not quite there yet! \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\nReviewer: bahj Signed starstarstarstarstar<\/p>\nDate: 19 Jun 2013 11:38 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\nWhat a heart wrenching story, and what an incredible ending. It always amazes me how your stories can drag the reader through so much pain and fear, but in the end leave you with a feeling of hope–a feeling that makes you glad you’re alive.<\/p>\nWas this story the inspiration for your Dime Novel series? Thank you so much for sharing your work!<\/p>\nAuthor’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much, bahj! Your words mean a lot to me! “A feeling that makes you glad you’re alive.” Gosh! I love that! \ud83d\ude42 Actually, no; this story did not inspire the Dime Novel series. Frankly…I’m not sure what did! It was just one of those things. Sometimes a feeling strikes me and the only way for me to “answer” is to clear my mind and start with a word, phrase or sentence. Then I look at it and figure out where it needs to go. And…Joe’s story (the first) in the Dime Novel series was one of those events. (The Darkest Hour was another of those “events.” That all started with one word: Dark.) *This* one was inspired by Lisa Marie always asking for rope! \ud83d\ude00 How much rope could I reasonably wrap Joe up in to please Lisa? My first thought was a cocoon! lol! \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\nReviewer: BluewindFarm Signed<\/p>\nDate: 10 May 2013 03:52 pm Title: Chasing Time<\/p>\nWOW! The power of the story is so eloquently told.<\/p>\nJoe should know that as the moon shown on him as God’s way of telling him he was not alone, it was also a beacon from God.<\/p>\nAuthor’s Response:<\/em><\/p>\nThank you so much! As the song says: “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform….” \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary:\u00a0 Joe is forced to accept that sometimes a man’s fate is out of his hands. But sitting back and waiting for God to do what He would didn’t have to mean giving up hope.<\/p>\nRated: K+ \u00a0Word Count: 2,600\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[23,41,1007],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-hurtcomfort","category-joe-cartwright","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-41-id","wpcat-1007-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Joe_Racing_Cochise.jpg?fit=840%2C725&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Joe_Racing_Cochise.jpg\"){kind=link}