Summary:\u00a0 For Ben remembrance comes from an unusual source.<\/p>\n
Rated:\u00a0 T \u00a0Word Count: 5500<\/p>\n
Bubbles in Honey, Roses and a Button<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Small things can make the most poignant focus points in a story as we found out when we began “Bubbles in Honey, Roses and a Button.” Intrigued by the flowers that always seemed to be the Cartwright’s doorway, we decided to tell the story of how they got there. Little did we know that we were simply adding a layer unseen to the character of Ben Cartwright. That of lover\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The winter had been especially hard. Little insulating snow had fallen to blunt the effects of the deep cold and howling winds. For days and weeks, the daytime temperatures had hovered near the zero mark. As much as mankind suffered, the livestock and wildlife had suffered more. Then, just as the promise of spring lay right around the corner, a late snowstorm dumped four feet of snow on the high Sierras. The early-born calves, floundering in its depth, were easy prey to the hungry predators who had come down the mountains. But Mother Earth had tired of winter and with her fickle wont, turned the air warm and the snow melted with the same rapidity with which it had fallen.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell you, Pa, we\u2019ve lost a good quarter of the herds, \u201cAdam said as he sliced into his apple pie. All the dinner talk around the Cartwright table that evening had been of a dismal sort: livestock lost, soggy, impassable roads, run-off damage to valuable pastureland, predators seen and those whose handiwork was their only notice.<\/p>\n \u201cThat might be a blessing in disguise since the pastures are not gonna support much right now. We\u2019re gonna have to keep taking feed and hay out to the south herd for at least another two weeks!\u201d Hoss complained as he forked the last of his slice of pie into his mouth and washed it down with a gulp of coffee.<\/p>\n Across the table from Hoss, Joe merely shoved his pie slice around the plate. He was too tired to eat, too disheartened with the talk that evening. His last few days had been spent with too many of the herds that hadn\u2019t survived. Pa had always been adamant about such things. You either buried or burnt the carcasses to discourage coyotes, wolves or vultures from scavenging. It seemed no matter where he went, death had preceded Joe. So, like his brothers, he\u2019d dug and burnt then dug and burnt some more. And it left him with no appetite for anything besides escape.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ain\u2019t gonna eat that, Joe, pass it over here,\u201d suggested Hoss with a quick gesture to Joe’s uneaten pie.<\/p>\n Noting the eyes watching him carefully, Joe passed Hoss the plate without comment. He was sure that his father would do all the commenting necessary and he was right.<\/p>\n “Something wrong, son?” Ben asked, concern overly abundant in his tone.<\/p>\n “Just too tired to eat, is all Pa. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll head on up to bed.” And so without another word spoken, Joe rose from the table and headed up the stairs, leaving his father and brothers still at the table.<\/p>\n Ben thought about asking Adam or Hoss if they knew what was going on but one raised eyebrow look around the table showed that they were more interested in their plates suddenly. But from what he could see of their faces, he saw all that he needed to see: they were tired, all of them. There was something else there too but he couldn’t put a name to it.<\/p>\n “What’s wrong with you boys?” Ben finally spoke up, his eyes seeking to make contact with the ebony ones at the end of the table or the blue ones to his left.<\/p>\n Adam looked up first and half-grimaced. Why is it always my job? he thought, then plunged on, “It’s just been a rough winter and now a spring that is just as ugly, Pa. We’re all stretched pretty thin right now. We know there’s more work that needs doin’ and that there isn’t the ready cash to hire more men even if they were available. So we bust our humps out there but it never seems to be enough. I know I’ve burnt more carcasses of livestock this spring than any other. It turns my stomach, Pa, to see what we’ve lost. I can’t imagine what Hoss here and Joe,” and he jerked his head to the ceiling before meeting his father’s visage again, “are feeling, having to deal with all this but I know I’m tired of it.”<\/p>\n Ben slowly lowered his coffee cup and considered the big man at his left hand. Hoss simply sat still, his hands motionless at the side of his now empty plate and his head down, not wishing to see anything else. Ben reached over and touched one of the big hands and patted it gently.<\/p>\n “There’s something else too, Pa,” Hoss whispered. “Joe noticed it the other day but he didn’t say anythin’ about it till I said somethin’.”<\/p>\n “What?”<\/p>\n Hoss and Adam traded a knowing look between themselves before Adam spoke up. “The roses, the ones at the side of the house-” he started but didn’t continue.<\/p>\n A quick stab went through Ben’s heart at the mere mention of the roses there and he quickly and sharply asked “What about the roses?”<\/p>\n Adam closed his eyes momentarily then resumed, “They didn’t make it through the winter either. When Hoss said something to me, I went and checked to make sure. Tough as they’ve been over the years, this winter was too much for them. They’re dead, Pa. When Hoss and I get the chance, we’ll pull them out. Get rid of them so they don’t rot and damage the side of the house.”<\/p>\n “No,” was all Ben said and dropped his own eyes to his empty plate.<\/p>\n “Pa, they have to be pulled out. Gotten rid of. If not, they’ll rot and bring pests-” Adam said defensively.<\/p>\n “That’s not what I meant when I said ‘no’, son. I meant that you and Hoss don’t need to do it. I will,” their father said and each son heard the quiet heartbreak in the last two words.<\/p>\n The rest of the evening was spent quietly, each man reflecting on his own thoughts of what the roses climbing over the west end of the house signified. The roses were an old-fashioned climbing wild rose with tiny blossoms that would mass over that end of the house for most of the summer months. The bees humming and gathering their pollen could be heard sometimes five feet away and the gentle fragrance was one that had wafted through the house when the windows were opened. Despite the fact that the house was inhabited by only men, it was a curiously feminine touch to their lives that they loathed to remove. The bushes, with their long runners, had graced that wall for nearly twenty years and last spring had reached all the way to the second floor windows. They were something passed by daily and never really taken notice of, like the wall itself. As much as Ben wanted them to stay, he knew that it wasn’t feasible. The dead bushes would be removed tomorrow, hauled down into the field behind the house and burnt. And he would do it himself for he had been the one who had teased Marie about planting them there in the first place those long years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the first fingers of dawn caressed the tops of the eastern mountains, Ben pulled himself reluctantly from his dreams. For just a fleeting moment, he felt Marie there beside him again, her warmth giving him peace, her silken hair across his chest as she would have snuggled into his side. Then as he came fully awake, she disappeared into his dreams again and his heart cried as it had so many mornings since her death. Twenty years and still I miss you, he thought, reaching out across the cool sheets to where she should have been. Then reality and his plans for the day came crashing back in on him. Today it would feel as though he was burying her again, by removing her roses. Mindlessly, he gathered up the other pillow and pulled it close as though it was her. I don’t want to but I have to. And laying the pillow aside, he arose to start his day.<\/p>\n Ben took his accustomed place at the head of the table and was part way through his first cup of coffee when Adam and Hoss came down the stairs together.<\/p>\n “Mornin’ boys,” he greeted with more light-heartedness than he actually felt.<\/p>\n Half way across the main room, Hoss stopped in his tracks. Tossing his hands into the air, he turned, shaking his head and headed for the stairs muttering, “I’ll get him.”<\/p>\n “Well it is your turn,” Adam replied, continuing on to the table and breakfast.<\/p>\n “You would have thought he would have out-grown such school-boy habits by now.”<\/p>\n “Joseph will always be hard to get out of bed. Some people just are, Adam. I don’t expect you’d change some of your ways, like reading in bed late at night before you go to sleep, so why should Joseph?” Ben teased, buttering a slice of toast that Hop Sing had just brought into the table.<\/p>\n “Yeah, I know, you can’t make a tiger change his stripes no matter what you do to him but that is one tiger I would love to try it on!”<\/p>\n There came a heavy thump overhead that drew both of their eyes toward it and the loud yelp that followed it made them both smile. Shaking his head slowly from side to side, Ben went back to his breakfast.<\/p>\n Hoss returned downstairs shortly and slipping into his place began to heap eggs onto his plate. “Joe’s out of bed now,” was his comment. “He’s old enough to dress himself. Pass the marmalade, Pa.”<\/p>\n “Hoss, I want you this morning to go into town and get the mail. I believe Hop Sing needs some things so check with him before you leave, please. Adam, I want you to ride over to Washoe Lake and check the water level. If it’s still low, we may need to follow the river back upstream to find the ice blockage and blast it apart,” Ben directed, casting his glance around the table to further emphasize his orders.<\/p>\n Adam laid his fork down and touched his napkin to his lips as he cleared his throat. What he was about to do would have earned any other man on the Ponderosa payroll a quick and curt dismal. “No,” he said bluntly and looked his father in the eye.<\/p>\n Ben copied Adam’s movements of a second before, taken aback at the refusal not only in the word but in the tone Adam had used as well. “No, what?” he asked.<\/p>\n “No, sir. Hoss and I talked it over last night after you went to bed. We’re gonna stay here and help you today. We don’t think that is something you need to do alone, pulling out those roses.” Adam’s words came out haltingly.<\/p>\n “I don’t need help with that chore,” Ben spoke sharply.<\/p>\n “Didn’t say you did, Pa,” Hoss interjected, “Just that we feel like we need to be here. Them flowers were important to her and I don’t know about Adam, but ever’ time I saw them bloomin’ I would think of her.”<\/p>\n Ben pulled his mouth into an angry straight line that was echoed by his dark brows. “The two of you sound like a pair of sentimental fools. For God’s sake, they were only bushes! I saw last summer that they were weak and I should have pulled them out then but I got busy doing other things and forgot about it. There are other things more important on this ranch to do than deal with some dead rose bushes and I think I just delineated some of them.”<\/p>\n “If that’s all they mean to you, Pa, some dead rose bushes, why don’t you have one of the hands do it?” Adam asked then quickly continued before his blustering father could form a reply, “Because they are more than some dead rose bushes. They are the ones Marie planted there just before she died. As long as they lived, there has always been a part of her here and now that they’re gone, you feel like you are desecrating her memory by pulling them out. And if anyone has to do it, you think it should be you. Now who’s being the sentimental fool?”<\/p>\n There was a sharp reply on Ben’s tongue and he was ready to let it fly when one of the other things Marie had left showed his tousled-headed-self at the head of the stairs. Stretching like a long limbed cat, Joe yawned and clattered down the stairs, oblivious to the silence he was stumbling into. Running his hand back through his hair, he slid into his chair and poured himself a cup of coffee. With the cup to his lips, he finally realized something was amiss. Figuring it had to have something to do with him, he smiled innocently at his father and mumbled a ‘good morning’ to him. But the silence continued and made him more uncomfortable. As he looked around the table, he couldn’t fathom for the life of him what the problem was that Hoss and Adam both would be paying so close attention to their food. And the black look on his father’s face was usually a sure sign that someone was in deep trouble.<\/p>\n “What? I got up!” Joe whined, his brow furrowed.<\/p>\n That broke the silence as around him, for some unknown reason, his family started laughing and his father said “All right. We all will be sentimental fools then.”<\/p>\n Unsure of just what had transpired around him, Joe was completely bewildered. And his face showed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even though he wore thick leather gloves, the thorns had snagged at his hands more than once that morning and Ben considered again just what to do. They had started by cutting the long runners that extended up the side of the house into more manageable lengths then grabbing hold and pulling on them. Only Hoss’ strength had proven up to the job. Adam had started digging at the roots and had found how dense and intertwined they had become. Joe’s job of dragging the lengths away and down into the open field behind the house for burning had kept him constantly moving. And Ben just found himself directing the work. More than a few times, Adam had suggested that he go back into the house and rest. Or wasn’t there something else he had to do? Ben stayed resolutely on.<\/p>\n When lunchtime finally rolled around, everyone was ready for a break. The wall was now cleared and all that remained were the thick bases, some six inches across, and the insidious root system. Of the four men, there wasn’t a one of them not scratched and gouged by the thorns. Ben dallied in following his sons in to clean up, stopping to study the now vacant wall. Without thinking, he ran his hand over one of the logs.<\/p>\n You’re fighting this, aren’t you, my love? Is Adam right? As long as these flowers were here, so were you? Are we burying you again? Marie, I would have left these roses here for all eternity but it would be such a harsh memory not of your life, but of your death. I can’t think of you that way. Dead. No, my love, they have to come down. I’m sorry, Ben thought and turned from the wall quickly, rubbing his face over his sleeved arm to wipe the pain from his face. He wasn’t sure if he had been successful.<\/p>\n The lunch Hop Sing set before them was expediently devoured, with little conversation between them other than the obligatory “pass the salt”, and “hand me the butter.” None wanted to talk about the chore they were doing, most of all Joe. As a child with no real memory of his mother, the roses over the years had taken on the role she might have played in his young life. When the world had gotten a little much for the boy to handle, he had retreated to the space between the walls of thorny blossoms and the logs of his home. They seemed symbolic to him now. The protection of not just his home but that of his family he would feel at his back when he leaned against the rough logs. And before him, the beauty of his mother’s love and the pain her loss had brought symbolized by the blossoms and thorns. And now, they were taking away that beauty but to Joe, the pain still remained. Not wanting to appear weak before his family, Joe stayed uncharacteristically quiet, afraid that his voice would betray him. At one point that morning he had looked up the slope towards the house and remembered vividly, leaning out his father’s window just last summer and picking one of those pale pink blossoms. If he closed his eyes, he could recall the delicate scent of them. It was a fragrance that had dominated his life and now it would be no longer.<\/p>\n “Joseph? Did you hear me?” Ben was saying and Joe stopped his thoughts dead in their tracks and his father addressed him again.<\/p>\n “Sorry, Pa, little distracted is all. You were saying..?” Joe scrambled verbally.<\/p>\n Ben opened his mouth to say something then seemed to change his mind about what he was going to say. “You and I will finish up here this afternoon. Hoss, the mail, please and you, eldest son, have a ride to take I believe?”<\/p>\n The two older brothers rolled their eyes. Sometimes, Pa you remind me of some old bulldog. Get an idea in your head and it won’t come out, Adam mused but would not have said it aloud for the life of him. So, heading for the barn to saddle his horse, Adam considered himself fortunate that he had learned early on in life to keep his mouth shut.<\/p>\n Throughout the afternoon, Ben and Joe dug and chopped at the obstinate roots. Finally they brought out one of the huge draft horses and tied a strong rope onto the roots. They pulled away easily but left holes Joe was sure Hop Sing would have gotten swallowed up whole in.<\/p>\n Wiping the sweat off his brow, Ben assessed the situation and decided on a course of action. “I’ll drag these roots down to the burning pile. You, my dear boy, get a shovel and level this ground out.”<\/p>\n Joe groaned but did as his father commanded. He was nearly finished when he spied something creamy white in the dirt at his feet and bent down to inspect it. It was a button. A pearly white small domed button with a shank on the back to allow it to be sewn on but the shank was broken. He made a face at it and nearly threw it back into the dirt but something stayed his hand and he was scrutinizing the button again when his father came up beside him.<\/p>\n “What’d’ya got, Joe?” and when Joe extended the button held between his fingers, Ben inhaled sharply.<\/p>\n “Just a button is all,” Joe replied and went again to throw it away but his father, with a strange expression on his face, took the button from him.<\/p>\n It couldn’t be, Ben thought, not after all these years\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2026\u2026..”I just lost a button is all!” Marie giggled, one hand, smudged with dirt making her white blouse dirty where she held it closed at her breast. The other hand she pressed against her husband’s broad chest as he playfully pulled at her other arm.<\/p>\n “Well, I think that was the best one to lose. Here now, let me take a look,” he teased her. Looking down at the top of her head, he couldn’t see much beyond her soft curls of gold.<\/p>\n “Ben!” she whispered, “The boys!”<\/p>\n “Adam is building fence in the south pasture. Hoss is at school and the last time I saw Joseph, he was taking a nap. Do you know what that means, Mrs. Cartwright?” He didn’t wait for her answer but encircled her with his arms and pulled her tight to his chest. He tipped her delicate face up and would have kissed her except the mischievous expression on her face made him pause.<\/p>\n Marie took advantage of his hesitation and ducked from his embrace. “No, no, Mr. Cartwright. I need to finish planting these bushes. If you have that kind of energy to spare, help me!” But as quick as she was, Ben was faster and caught her up to him again, holding her easily as she wiggled, laughing all the while.<\/p>\n “The bushes can wait. I can’t!” To prove it, he leaned down, pulling her ever closer and kissed her with all the longing he could muster. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when his passionate wife returned the ardor, her hands, now forgetting to hold her blouse closed, found their way to the back of his neck, knocking his hat to the ground so she could run her fingers through his hair.<\/p>\n When they parted, Marie, her eyes dancing merrily as she sucked in a breath, murmured, “Forget the bushes then. Come on,” and she grabbed his hands and playfully tugged him towards the back door. Feeling like two naughty children, they slipped up the back stairs and down the hallway to their room. Once inside their sanctuary, Ben halted Marie’s headlong drive, whipping her back around to face him as he leaned against the door.<\/p>\n “Are you sure you don’t want to look for your button?” he teased, running the back of his fingers down her exposed cleavage, marveling at the softness he felt there.<\/p>\n “What button?” she coyly asked, fingering the buttons of her husband’s shirt open.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben watched the shadows lengthen across the floral carpet that afternoon. Absentmindedly, he played with a long curl of her golden hair, twisting it around his fingers, letting it slip back and forth between them. She lay sleeping nearly on top of him but her weight meant nothing to him, only the delicate warmth of her breath on his chest registering somewhere in his subconscious. Slowly, he let one hand glide down her bare back, across her buttocks and down one thigh as far as he could reach without disturbing her. Her skin was so soft to his hand that he almost feared that the roughness of it would tear her flesh. She took a deep breath and slowly turned her face into the hollow of his throat.<\/p>\n What have I ever done to deserve this happiness? he thought, wrapping his arms about her, holding her gently to him. She stirred again, her hand reaching to his shoulder. The motion of her body against him awoke the passion in him again, and he stroked one finger down the line of her jaw.<\/p>\n “Marie,” he whispered into her hair and felt her stir again at his call.<\/p>\n She stretched then snuggled back to him, her hand running through the thick hair on his chest. Playfully, she tilted her head back and flicked her tongue out, catching him under his chin with just the tip. Even though he groaned, she could see his smile so she scooted up and blew into his ear softly. That elicited a louder groan from him but also a wider smile.<\/p>\n “Woman, we better get up,” he warned, but didn’t move. She pushed back down and rolled over onto his chest, sitting astride him, her eyes bright even in the shadows.<\/p>\n “Oh? Why? Are you going to help me plant the bushes now?” she asked, the picture of guilty innocence.<\/p>\n “No, because if we don’t get up now, we may very well get caught,” He teased but stroked her full breasts with both hands, letting their deliciously heavy feel pleasure him.<\/p>\n “I don’t think you want to get up,” she replied, a knowing petulance making her usually lilting voice become deep with desire. “Do you?”<\/p>\n Staring up into those green eyes of hers, he was entranced. She leaned down closer and heard him whisper “Never” hoarsely. Tossing her luxuriant curls to one side Marie eyed her husband closely.<\/p>\n “You realize, don’t you, that you broke a promise to me,” she said and Ben pulled back from the kiss he was about to take from her lips.<\/p>\n “What promise? When?”<\/p>\n “Back in New Orleans. Don’t you remember?”<\/p>\n Ben thought hard, trying to recall a promise he could have possibly broken that long ago that she would now bring up. If nothing else, Marie could hold a grudge, but for the five years they had been married?<\/p>\n Seeing his confusion, she smiled as she explained, lowering herself to stretch out fully on him. “When you offered to take me to dinner, you said that nothing we would discuss would be more personal than bubbles in honey. This, my dear Ben, is considerably more than bubbles in honey! But I wouldn’t have it any other way, my love.”<\/p>\n “Nor would I,” he chuckled and pulling her up so that he could kiss her, proceeded to show her\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Pa?” Joe asked, seeing the far away look that had come to his father’s face when he had handed him the button. When his father made no answer, Joe called to him again. That time, it seemed to break the spell the button some how had cast over him and Ben looked quickly at his son. Those same green eyes came his thought unbidden and he shoved it aside quickly.<\/p>\n “Are you okay, Pa?” Joe asked and reaching out, took hold of his father’s arm.<\/p>\n Ben caught himself looking at his son’s hand on his arm then back up into his face. The memory that had captured him completely just a moment ago was gone. And it made him sad. Then other memories came back: her silent scream as she fell not three days later not far from where they stood now; the fear in his heart and soul as he cradled her lifeless body to his chest; the crushing sorrow of loss as they had buried her. Ben shook his head, trying to dislodge those painful memories, willing the other to return.<\/p>\n “Pa?” Joe shouted and saw his father return fully to the present and now. “Are you okay? There for a minute, you were gone. Pa? What’s the matter?” he pressed, his grip tightening on his father’s arm.<\/p>\n “It was just a memory, is all, son. This button, it was on one of your mother’s favorite blouses and she lost it out here the day she was planting these roses,” he explained, trying to remain vague.<\/p>\n “Tell me about it?” Joe asked and was surprised when his father first blushed slightly then shook his head no, as Ben slipped the button into his shirt pocket.<\/p>\n There is no way I can stand here and tell my grown son about the last time I made love to his mother, Ben chided himself silently. Out loud, he simply said, “Not right now, please son.” Let me have that part of her to myself for a little longer. “I think you can finish up here. I’m going inside and see if Hop Sing has any lemonade left over from lunch.” And with a pat to the restraining hand on his arm, Ben turned to go into the house, leaving Joe scratching his head in wonder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inside the house, he didn’t bother to ask Hop Sing for some lemonade. Instead he went to the small carafe of bourbon on the sideboard and poured himself a small amount into a glass. He sipped it, remembering the first time Marie had tried it and handed him back the glass with puckered lips showing her distaste. At ease now with the fleeting memories this day was bringing to him, Ben settled into his chair with his glass and closed his eyes. But the memories would not come now, only thoughts of that last intimate moment he had with her and how she had teased him about breaking a promise.<\/p>\n I did break a promise to you, my love, I brought you all the way out here into the wilderness. I never heard you seriously complain even once about the cold, the hardships of living here. But I promised to keep you safe and I failed. I told you that you could put your trust, your love and your life into my hands. You did, without hesitation, and look where it got you? I’m sorry, Marie, we should have stuck with discussing bubbles in honey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben heard Hoss and Adam out in the yard as he awoke from his catnap. They were calling back and forth with Joe, and he heard them laughing. That was a sound that had been in short supply around the house lately and it allowed Ben to shake the melancholy from his thoughts as he went to open the front door and greet the happiness. But when he did, he could see no sons in front of the house. He followed the laughter around to the side of the house. There the three of them were, spaced out along the side of the house, bathed in the late afternoon sun.<\/p>\n “What are the three of you doing?” he inquired. In response, he got three smiles, Adam’s very much like that of the Cheshire cat, Hoss’ guiless and Joseph’s that heart -stopping brilliant one. That was all very well and good but he still wanted an answer and said so.<\/p>\n “Well,” Adam started then paused to find the right words, “I was out by where the old cabin was this afternoon.” Adam rubbed his hand across his jaw, leaving a trail of dirt. He wondered if his father were telepathic enough to pick up on the fib he had told of where he had been that afternoon as it was not in the direction he had been sent.<\/p>\n “Okay, so you were out by the old homestead. Go on.” Ben encouraged and folded his arms over his chest expectantly.<\/p>\n “Any way, I was just riding by and I happen to see these little sprouts, all green and growing, and I thought that I should just go ahead and bring them back here.” So far, so good. He doesn’t have to know I went most of the way into town before I found a patch of ’em.<\/p>\n “Sprouts?” Ben queried, his eyebrows climbing closer to his hairline. “What sort of ‘sprouts’?”<\/p>\n Adam just continued to smile so Hoss piped up and supplied his father with the answer. “Adam found some roses, from the looks of ’em.”<\/p>\n Ben shook his head. “There were no roses out by the homestead. Must be something else. Let me see! For all the three of you know about flowers, you’re probably planting some noxious weed!” He reached out and grabbed the tiny green plant from Joe’s out stretched hand, only to be pricked minutely by a tiny thorn. Yes, they were roses. He inspected it then handed it back, considerably more delicately than he had taken it.<\/p>\n “Don’t matter where he got ’em. There needs to be roses here, Pa. Always. If for no other reason than to remind us that there is another part of life. The part that goes on.” Hoss spoke as he dropped to the ground and using one huge finger, made a hole in the soft earth and placed the little slip of a rose bush into it then closed the dirt around the root.<\/p>\n No, Ben thought, the part that loves forever even when you fail it. “Well then if you boys are so determined, hand me that bucket. I’ll get some water for them. Thought you boys knew enough about planting to know that you need to water ’em.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the fading rays of sunlight, Ben stepped back to survey their handiwork. Down the side of the house stood a line of small green bushes, some truly no bigger than a slip. But the promise was there, he knew, the promise of roses growing to his bedroom window above again. Beside him, their knees and hands dirty from contact with the dark soil, his sons were gathering the tools they had used. Ben saw Joe stop and pick up something small from the ground but then Joe continued on. As Joe came even with his father, Ben reached out and patted his shoulder.<\/p>\n “You might want to keep this somewhere safe for a while,” Joe said and handed Ben what he picked up then ran a few steps to catch up with Hoss.<\/p>\n Ben opened his hand that he had reflexively closed when Joe had pressed the item into his hand. Laying there on his callused palm was a tiny pink rose. Yes, he thought, love goes on forever. Carefully, he dropped it into his shirt pocket next to the broken button. And next to his heart.<\/p>\n And the love goes on\u2026.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:<\/strong> Ben Cartwright, Family<\/p>\n