SUMMARY: A short piece written for the Michael Landon Birthday Literary Challenge 2025.<\/p>\n
RATING:\u00a0 G\/K<\/p>\n
WORD COUNT: 536 words<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One hour.<\/p>\n
Just.<\/p>\n
One.<\/p>\n
Hour.<\/p>\n
The second hand agonizingly moved around the circle\u2026 touching each small mark on the clock\u2019s face, each resounding tick!,<\/em> each movement feeling like a stab in the heart.<\/p>\n Fifty-nine minutes.<\/p>\n That was all he had left.<\/p>\n Fifty-nine minutes.<\/p>\n Three thousand, five hundred and forty seconds.<\/p>\n Gosh, even Adam\u2019d be proud of the arithmetic needed for that.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s all the time he had left.<\/p>\n Pain-filled, sorrowful emerald eyes stared soulfully at the clock; he swallowed hard as he continued to watch the second-hand crawl its way around the clock face.<\/p>\n He squeezed shut his eyes, so deeply regretting the actions that had put him here. Actions that had caused unnecessary pain.\u00a0 Actions that had robbed him of his freedom.\u00a0 Actions that had changed everything for him \u2013 everything!<\/em> – \u00a0in just a split second.<\/p>\n Adam always told him his temper would someday be the death of him.\u00a0 The youngster sniffed, blinking hard, firming his lips in grim resolve.\u00a0 He refused to allow the emotions that bubbled within him to surface. He\u2019d be stalwart through this no matter what. He\u2019d make his Pa and his brothers proud of him, right up to the end. No tears. \u00a0His chin came up and his lips firmed\u2026 until he again remembered his brother, in a heap on the floor, bleeding.<\/p>\n Because of him.<\/p>\n Why?!\u00a0 What on earth had he hoped to gain?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It was supposed to be funny, a joke!<\/em> <\/strong>he’d insisted.\u00a0 I never meant…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Even now, Joe Cartwright truly couldn\u2019t answer that question of ‘why?’ with anything that made sense, beyond the thought that it had seemed a good idea at the time.<\/p>\n At the time\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, well\u2026 now time was running out.<\/p>\n Once again, he nervously glanced at the clock.<\/p>\n Thirty minutes left.<\/p>\n What could have been thirty minutes of good times. \u00a0Thirty minutes of \u00a0riding like the wind, wild and free. \u00a0Of being with his friends\u2026 his brothers\u2026 his Pa.<\/p>\n Ten minutes.<\/p>\n The youngster squeezed shut his eyes, struggling to remember happier times, a more positive memory to hang onto as that blasted clock inched along.<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph.\u201d<\/p>\n He jumped, startled, and swiveled his head to look up at his father, standing beside him.\u00a0 Joe quickly glanced again at the clock.<\/p>\n The hour was done.\u00a0 Time was up.<\/p>\n The ten-year-old\u2019s mournful face looked at his father in shame. \u201cI really, really am sorry, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Cartwright struggled not to smile. \u201cI imagine you are.\u00a0 Being forced\u00a0to sit still for an hour is a stiff punishment for you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt sure is,\u201d Joe agreed, vehemently. \u201cI promise, I won\u2019t ever \u2013 \u201c<\/p>\n But Ben held up a hand. \u201cJoseph, don\u2019t make a promise you can\u2019t keep,\u201d he warned.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll be satisfied if you tell me that you promise to try <\/em><\/strong>not to devil your older brother any more\u2026 today, at least,\u201d the man said, shaking his head in weary resignation.\u00a0 \u201cGo on upstairs, now, and apologize to Adam.\u00a0 Hop Sing\u2019s got him resting in bed with an ice pack to try to bring down the lump on his head.\u201d\u00a0 Ben balefully gazed at his youngest son. \u201cAnd do it quietly.\u00a0 He\u2019s got one doozy of a headache thanks to you and your practical jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Pa,\u201d said the boy softly, and he trudged up the stairs as though walking the last mile to his execution.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUMMARY: A short piece written for the Michael Landon Birthday Literary Challenge 2025. (536 words, rating G\/K)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12518,"featured_media":60424,"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":[1007,8,40],"tags":[1305],"class_list":["post-60422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-cartwright","category-short-stories","category-challenges","tag-michael-landon-birthday-literary-challenge-2025","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/clock.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60422","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\/12518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}