Summary:\u00a0 People have pegged Hoss as different his whole life. \u00a0Is he really that different from his father and brothers?<\/p>\n
Written for the 2014 Bonanza Roundup 2 Writer’s Seminar.<\/p>\n
1824 words<\/p>\n
Different<\/strong><\/p>\n By Patina<\/p>\n I came within a hair\u2019s breadth of killing my brother last night.<\/p>\n The Ponderosa was dressed in all her glory to welcome Regan Miller, the woman I aimed to marry.\u00a0 Before the party I meant to talk to Adam about her but, doggone it, my temper got the best of me.\u00a0 Pa tried to talk to me after but the arrival of our guests put all thoughts of Adam out of my mind.<\/p>\n While Regan danced with man after man, Pa told me Hop Sing saw Adam leaving, probably to have the doc patch him up.\u00a0 Even though I\u2019d figured I\u2019d wait until Adam came back home to smooth things over, I was up before dawn and on my way to town.<\/p>\n Doc said Adam\u2019s still asleep, probably from the painkiller for his busted ribs but I could stay with him if I wanted.\u00a0 Pacing the doc\u2019s sitting room, I think on that ugly duckling story.\u00a0 That little duck grew up to be a handsome swan.\u00a0 Wish I could say the same had happened to me.<\/p>\n From the first time I recognized the reflection in the looking glass as me, I saw I didn\u2019t bear any resemblance to Pa or my brother.\u00a0 I was different.<\/p>\n When I was a little shaver, folks we met traveling made sure they told Pa it was awful nice of him to raise an orphan boy as his own.\u00a0 I suppose it was only natural they might think that after getting a look at Adam.\u00a0\u00a0 If Pa convinced those folks otherwise with a few sharp words, they disagreed again right away when I opened my mouth and spoke.\u00a0 I figure I sound like most of the people who journeyed west in those days; I don\u2019t rightly know.<\/p>\n Pa used to show me a picture of my ma and said I was her spitting image.\u00a0 It was mighty charitable of Pa to say so but I don\u2019t look much like her, except maybe around the eyes.<\/p>\n After we settled on the land Pa planned to ranch, we got to know the Paiutes by visiting them in their village and by having them over to our place.\u00a0 They shared meals with us and Pa swapped stories with them.\u00a0 At first, all of the Indians touched my hair in greeting\u2014I worried something awful they wanted it for a trophy.\u00a0 Maybe they just hadn\u2019t seen yellow hair up close before.\u00a0 I picked up words here and there in our visits and pretty soon I understood Paiute pretty good.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I discovered their name for me was Lake Eyes.\u00a0 My brother didn\u2019t have a special name; I think he was kind of jealous about it.<\/p>\n As white folks trickled into the area, yellow hair and blue eyes became a more common sight.\u00a0 My looks weren\u2019t special anymore, which suited me just fine.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to be different.<\/p>\n Newcomers asked Pa if I was an apprentice ranch hand or maybe the cook\u2019s boy.\u00a0 Pa used to get so mad his face turned red and his eyes got black as coals.<\/p>\n When Pa hired a Frenchman from New Orleans, a fella named Johnny\u2014John\u2014 de Marigny, folks said he talked funny, too.\u00a0\u00a0 I thought Johnny talked just fine.\u00a0 Johnny taught me some words in French but I\u2019ve plumb forgot most of them since I\u2019ve no call to use them.\u00a0 He told me to ignore insults because they were just words and no one\u2019s words could hurt me without my permission.\u00a0 I told him I\u2019d been cut to the quick many a time but he said folks who hurl words around don\u2019t have the guts to stand on the field of honor.\u00a0 He was right\u2014folks who bark loud rarely bite.<\/p>\n Johnny taught Adam and me all sorts of things\u2014how to judge horseflesh, the best way to hold a calf down for branding, and how to shine our boots with nothing but spit and a bandana.\u00a0 He told us he\u2019d learned all those things working on a ranch back in Louisiana.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think Johnny was the ranching type but he, and Pa, told me not to judge folks on how they looked; instead, a man\u2019s actions tell who he is. \u00a0Anyway, I was just a boy so if Pa had told me Johnny had hung the moon up in the sky, then I would\u2019ve believed him.<\/p>\n One afternoon Johnny and I were fishing down at the pond when he asked about our ma.\u00a0 I was ashamed to say Adam had had two but I hadn\u2019t even known my own.\u00a0 Johnny allowed a man should have good memories of his ma to draw on when life got him down.\u00a0 It was after that Pa gave me a picture of my ma for safe-keeping.<\/p>\n Shortly after that day at the pond, Johnny died saving Pa\u2019s life.\u00a0 Johnny made Pa promise to track down his wife back in New Orleans.\u00a0 Well, Pa\u2019s a man of his word so he went and left me and Adam here.<\/p>\n When Pa came home with a pretty lady who talked with a touch of French, I thought I was the luckiest boy in the territory.\u00a0 If I cut my finger, my new ma kissed the hurt away.\u00a0 Truth was it still hurt, but knowing she wanted to take the pain away made me feel better. \u00a0\u00a0Eventually, all that was left was a scar and a memory of the love she\u2019d had in her heart for me.<\/p>\n Before too long I had another dark-haired brother.\u00a0 Where Little Joe was rambunctious, I was quiet.\u00a0 Or at least not as noisy.<\/p>\n Adam helped Pa make decisions about the ranch and Little Joe was the center of attention.\u00a0 All I seemed good for was digging fence posts and holding down calves during branding.\u00a0 Not that I minded too awful much as it meant spending time with the hands, learning how to work cattle and studying the lay of the land.<\/p>\n As I grew taller and larger, kids and a few men in town made fun of my size and many times boys my age, though smaller, pushed my temper to its limits.\u00a0 I forgot Johnny\u2019s advice because those boys\u2019 words did<\/em> hurt.\u00a0 I shut their mouths by ramming my knuckles into their faces, which earned me many a lecture from Pa.\u00a0 After hitting an older boy so hard I broke a few of his ribs, taunts and insults didn\u2019t stick so much, like water off a duck\u2019s back.<\/p>\n Ma was taken from us when I was nearly twelve.\u00a0 She\u2019d rode into the yard as she did every day but the horse lost its footing, crushing her beneath it.\u00a0 Pa locked himself in his room, leaving Adam to run the ranch and tend to Little Joe.\u00a0 I went down to the lake to grieve in my own, different way.\u00a0 We all finally worked the hurt out and came back together, but it took a long time to get used to life without her.<\/p>\n When I started noticing girls could be downright pretty I\u2019d needed a woman\u2019s advice on courting. Maybe if Ma had lived a while longer I wouldn\u2019t get so tongue-tied around pretty gals.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t know how to talk to them.\u00a0 If they\u2019re already spoken for, it\u2019s easier, maybe because I don\u2019t have to use fancy words or impress them before they get a look at one of my brothers.<\/p>\n Most gals, pretty or not, treat me different than they do other fellas.\u00a0 Gals just hand me their packages to tote to their buggy and don\u2019t give me a second look, sort of as if that\u2019s all I\u2019m good for.<\/p>\n But not Regan Miller.\u00a0 No sir.\u00a0 She not only thanked me for carrying her parcels but she smiled as if she meant it.\u00a0 Then she told me to call her Regan, not Miss Miller.\u00a0 My heart skipped a beat or two as I waited for her answer when I told her I\u2019d be happy to show her the countryside and I could\u2019ve plumb walked through fire when she accepted my offer.<\/p>\n She was a big-city gal and real sophisticated, too.\u00a0 I believe I stood taller just knowing she liked spending time in my company.\u00a0 Some gals hang on a man\u2019s every word or look at him all calf-eyed, but not her.\u00a0 Regan laughed at my jokes and never once led me to believe she wanted me to be anything but the man I am.<\/p>\n When we met up in town and I escorted her to the shops, she tucked her dainty little hand in the crook of my arm.\u00a0 She nodded all polite-like when men tipped their hats to her but she never made me think she was with me until someone better came along.<\/p>\n Joe and Pa were happy I\u2019d found a catch like Regan.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Joe was surprised Regan didn\u2019t fall for his charm, but he\u2019s just a kid.\u00a0 Pa was downright tickled I aimed to marry Regan.<\/p>\n But then, doggone it, Adam had to come home and ruin everything.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t stand that a right pretty gal was interested in me, not him.\u00a0 Adam may be the educated one but sometimes he\u2019s not all that smart.\u00a0 Instead of offering his congratulations, he set out to prove that he could win her from me.\u00a0 My heart liked to have exploded like a stick of dynamite when I caught him with her in the Millers\u2019 front yard.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t blame her for falling for his charm but I could darn well let him have it.\u00a0 And I did.<\/p>\n As soon as Adam walked into the bunkhouse my blood boiled over.\u00a0 The only thing that mattered was beating any love Adam had for Regan out of him.\u00a0 My anger grew hotter with each punch and I didn\u2019t stop until Pa and Little Joe interrupted us.<\/p>\n Afterwards, I didn\u2019t care if Adam stayed in the bunkhouse and nursed his pride.\u00a0 Or if he climbed up on his horse and went to town.<\/p>\n Regan loved me<\/em> and wanted to be my wife.<\/p>\n Well, turned out she didn\u2019t want to marry me after all. I was just a means to pass the time during her visit with her sister.<\/p>\n I\u2019d fallen under her spell like so many other men before me.\u00a0 Even Adam.\u00a0 She\u2019d used them and tossed them aside when she\u2019d grown bored.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget the jealousy that pounded through my blood when I saw her with Adam \u2018cause I don\u2019t ever want to feel that way about my brother again.\u00a0\u00a0 I suppose I\u2019m lucky Regan\u2019s true colors showed through before we set up house somewhere to raise a passel of kids, me jealous of any man whose eyes lingered a mite too long and ready to kill to keep her mine.<\/p>\n Just goes to show a man can get suckered in by a pretty face and plumb lose his senses.<\/p>\n Maybe I\u2019m not so different after all.<\/p>\n The End<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:\u00a0 ESH,\u00a0Hoss Cartwright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary:\u00a0 People have pegged Hoss as different his whole life. \u00a0Is he really that different from his father and brothers?<\/p>\n Written for the 2014 Bonanza Roundup 2 Writer’s Seminar.<\/p>\n 1824 words<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5941,"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":[23,13,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-whn","category-challenges","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-13-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\/2014\/05\/Hoss.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}