It is dedicated to my best buddies the Wrangler Twins, who just seem to know just the right and proper words to coax a shy horse with, and keep it from “wrangling” away as to writing… (as some times us horses wonder what the heck we are doing writing and all), …AND… to my friend Barb, as she most anxiously wanted to “read a puzzle” with very sincere desire.
What you will be seeing is a connecting of:
DUEL AT PARKISON=2
LICENSE TO KILL=3
LOST DUTCHMAN=5
BETRAYERS=11
THE DEBT=7
THE LAWLESS SEVEN=8
LOST ALLEGIANCE=10
THE BAREFOOT KID=9
I listed the episodes as the events were remembered or mentioned by the characters in my story, the actual order that they happened are in shown in the numbers. (I did not use this in the story so it is not listed, as it did not concern Jess’s neck, but there is an interesting phrase Jess blurts out AND he is the only one to freely volunteer THIS insight as to hangings. In, “DAY OF THE SAVAGE”, it is similar to this, as I may not have remembered it word for word: “You’ll die a thousand times just waiting for that rope!” As you will see here, who knows better than … Jess Harper.
BY NEEBEESHAABOOKWAY
---CHAPTER ONE---
---MIKE, THE ROPE AND THE TREE---
Jess sat there for a moment and then looked up, something was bothering him, all day, in fact…now he knew. Jess quickly looked away, it was not the time or the place to deal with it now. He was more concerned with the worried look on Mike’s face. I best be dusting myself off, and getting up out of this here dirt, Jess thought, but it was a bit too late, as Mike was already by his side.
“Hey, Jess… I’m really sorry, really I am” Mike said softly, wincing just a bit, as he watched Jess for a reaction.
“No need to be, Tiger…we were just horsing around. You didn’t know the rope was still stuck on the fence when I ran after you...just naturally goes to follow, I’d get tripped up.” Jess finished his dusting and stood up …searching for his hat … he smiled with pleasure as Mike handed it to him. “My ain’t you just the finest gentleman today” Jess said spiffily and with a bow, then, with a nice hat-tug he fit his hat into position.
Jess looked down at himself, clean enough Harper, he thought. He finished up with a last minute dusting off of the seat of his pants and was set to relax. “Guess I may be just a mite too grow’d up to be playing tag, as it is…we been playing around here this last hour instead of me teaching you more roping. What do you think Slim would say if he saw all this going on anyway? Why, he just might send us BOTH to the woodshed…and you know, ‘pardner’. I just bet he could at that, as worn out as I am now.”
“You know Jess, you really did make me feel better” Mike said, as he remembered how the day had started. It seemed all day long like he had nothing but bad luck on his tail. Not at all like earlier in the week. He looked at the two rope burns on his hands. One was so bad that Jess had to wrap it up for him. That was when the game of tag started, a fun distraction. Although now, his newly worked up sweat was stinging the rope burn on the side of his neck something fierce. Mike just grit his teeth, with thoughts of being a real man warming his heart. Mike smiled as he looked at his homemade bandage, and said “You sure know how to make a man feel like a kid, don’t you Jess!”
“Huh? What’s that Mike?” Jess, since finished from his dusting off was busy rolling up the rope, oblivious to his surrounding as his mind was elsewhere attending to his gnawing thoughts. A gnawing that was wearing away at what Jess had previously thought was a ‘solid enough floor board’ in his life, well, at least one that would ‘hold his weight’ most of the time. He finally looked over at Mike, a bit perplexed.
“You mean, me? A man, feeling like a kid, and I sure know how to do it?” Jess realized something important was happening here, and knelt down to Mike and discarded the newly coiled rope. “Will you run that by me again, pard, I think I got dust in my ear or something.”
“Well, yeah, that’s true, too Jess”, Mike said as he looked down at his hands again, “but I meant more like for me.” He smiled and looked at Jess again. “You said these rope burns are the marks of a kid becoming a man and all…well…this was a pretty hard day and all, and just now, you sure made me feel like a kid again. Thanks Jess, I sure do feel a lot better.” Expecting a familiar friendly gesture from Jess, and not getting it Mike slowly turned to pick up the rope, and head for the house, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. The curiosity in him, the little kid that he was, wouldn’t let him go.
“Jess…is something wrong? Maybe Slim will understand, right Jess?”
“Huh?” Jess stood up and as he did, he realized he was in the sunlight, out of the shade of the nearby tree. That tree again…rope burns…a kid becoming a man, and all…I think I was the man needing to feel like a kid just a few moments ago, not Mike, Jess thought, as he quickly turned away from Mike and pulled off his hat. He wiped his brow, and just as quickly turned back to Mike giving his shoulder a quick light punch.
“Yeah, Tiger, Slim will understand, now you go on in and get readied up for supper, you hear?” he said, as he put his hat back on… then settling it just right he continued on with “it sure is hot out here, ain’t it.”
Jess was watching Mike as he left with the rope, he could tell that Mike wasn’t completely satisfied with what had just occurred between the too of them, but he was satisfied enough to let it sit for now, and so was Jess. Slim will be along soon, and danged if that Slim can sometimes just read me like a book. … Well… I’m just gonna’ close this here book up here and now, Jess said to himself as he sat down on the porch and wrestled with his thoughts, as he stared over at the corral and then a bit further off. A bit further off … at the tree.
---CHAPTER TWO---
----PLAYING CARDS---
“You know, Slim…you’re here because your supposed to be here” Jess said as he proceeded to deal the cards as they sat in the front room.
“Well, yeah, Jess. Seeing as I own the place, I guess I can agree with that.” Now I know sometimes Jess seems ‘a bit on a rabbit trail’ now and then, but this is a mite early in the day, Slim thought. “I’ll take two” Slim said, as he studied Jess.
“That ain’t what I mean Slim. Dealer takes one.”
“You mean I don’t own the place…well, if I don’t, you don’t, seeing we’re partners and all. Hey, did you know we’re playing with a marked deck, Jess?”
“No we ain’t. I’ll bet you half my egg, and three of these pork strips…and what I meant was you can’t FORCE the cards. They show up, as they will. Sometimes a prayer will give you a reshuffle, and sometimes it don’t. You can play them out as best you can, and not as a fool … BUT YOU CAN’T FORCE what is just not meant to be … and IF it’s meant to be and you do all you can to try stop it, and it still happens, you have to accept it whether you like it or not.” Jess was getting annoyed, more so with himself and the thoughts behind his reasoning. He needed an outlet and until now, this card game had seemed just the thing. Daisy and Mike were at church, and they had the house to themselves. He just wanted to “roll with the cards” a bit, and let his thoughts fall where they may. But they weren’t falling into any places he liked too well.
“Now, are you gonna’ match my bet, here or not. I can’t wait all day, I’m getting hungry here Slim.” Jess scooped up some of the egg with his biscuit, and watched Slim slap some pork strips on his biscuit. “Hey, what about my bet Slim your stealing from the pot.”
“No I’m not Jess, I’m right pleased to keep my food right where it is now, on my plate, some things just aren’t meant to be, you said it with your own mouth. These cards are marked, and whatever high hand you think you had, is just one of those things not meant to be. All bets are off, now eat up or yours is up for grabs too. Now what’s all this heavy philosophical talk you’ve been coming up with?” Slim mumbled as he chewed.
They were musically interrupted with Daisy, making a singing entrance into the room with a lovely little tune, all her own. Mike was quickly on her heels, and heading for the table. Working desperately to get off his tie, and succeeding, he crammed it in his coat pocket, and neared the table and stood between Slim and Jess.
“Did you save me some breakfast, we only had biscuits?” Mike asked. “Hey, where’d you get my cards? I marked them all special like, so I could learn to beat Mose, but I ain’t cheating Jess, honest…Mose marked his too, so we’re even.”
“Yeah, well, Slim here was just about ready to eat for two” Jess said, as he threw his cards down and stood up forcefully kicking the chair back, “and I ain’t hungry anymore, so looks like it’s up for grabs. I sure don’t know what this “philly” talk stuff is Slim, but like I said…SOME things you have to accept, whether you like it or not, and I sure don’t like how this mornings started out.” Looking over at Daisy, with a slight lowering of his head, Jess said, “now, if you all will excuse me” and left through the same door, that had just opened to fresh notes of song.
“I know, it ain’t me, Miss Daisy, Slim, I know that…Jess, well, he’s been upset since I got rope burned yesterday. Guess I better go change and put my cards away.” Mike slowly and carefully picked up the cards, and pushed them into a neat little pile, awkwardly picking them up for stashing in his pocket.
“Mike, let me take a look at that hand, can we unwrap it Daisy” Slim asked, as he looked back at her. She was busy looking out the window at Jess. “Here, sit down and eat, Mike.” Slim sat there and waited for Daisy’s answer.
“Oh, just leave it Slim. Mike is all right. It was worse when he got it stuck around his neck. Here, look.” Daisy came over and reached under Mike’s shirt, and showed Slim the scar on the side of Mikes neck. It was only on the side and reached down to his chest just a bit.
“He was roping the fence and slipped, and had the slack around his shoulder in a loop. When he slipped, the part he had thrown was like a clothesline between him and the post. It rubbed up against his neck and left a pretty bad mark. It happened half way through the day, and Jess got so pale, I though he was about to faint. It was too taunt to choke him, it just scraped his neck as he fell, why, even I could see that. But you should have seen Jess when he saw it, I ran up to help, as Jess barely seemed to stand up after he caught Mike. It was the strangest thing I ever did see Slim.”
“Aww, Slim, I was just having too many accidents that morning.” Mike said as he gladly cleaned Jess’s plate, all the while watching Slim’s face as Daisy related their roping lesson gone sour. Mike still knew there was a missing piece, he was becoming more curious though now...so much as to start figuring out his own agenda as to how to go about handling it. It was very obvious to him that something happened the other day, but he knew it wasn’t him, and it surely wasn’t Jess, and that left him right back where he was. A kid eating Jess’s breakfast.
No, if I will ever find out what is wrong, I will have to come right out and do it as a man, Mike liked this thought, but how to approach Jess would take some learning, I know…he thought some more, I will watch and learn. Just like Jess always tells me, ‘watch and learn, then you’ll know what to say Tiger and you won’t open your big mouth, like me’.
“You two stay here, Daisy, I have some book reading to do. And I’m going to get to the end of it, even if I have to pry the cover off.” Slim wiped off his hands with his napkin, and swallowed the last of his coffee, and set his face to meet Jess. Times like this, I could swear he’s only twelve years old. Sometimes I feel more like a pa to him, than a brother, or a pard…seems to just go with the territory of keeping order around here, I guess, Slim thought, as he walked across the floor, boots beating a steady determined path to the door. The same door that had opened to song, and then to frustration, in that order, just a few moments ago. Now it opened, to a determined Slim Sherman, but closed to find a very remorseful, and reluctant Slim Sherman instead. A Slim Sherman that was standing on the front porch staring at the back of Jess Harper as he sat on the side edge of the porch … facing the corral.
---CHAPTER THREE---
---JESS AND HIS “PHILLY” TALK---
“Jess…I’m sorry Jess. I’m really sorry, I thought you forgave me for that years ago.” Slim slowly walked up to Jess, and put his hand on his shoulder and waited. Slim knew only too well why Jess was sitting there, and what he was thinking. He just didn’t know why, after all these years. As far as he could recollect he had never seen Jess stare at the tree since that one week Jess took off for the lineman’s shack to be alone. He had seen Jess around certain times of the year, though, head on over to where the Sherman family plot was set up. He knew he was thinking on his friend, Mac, and that for some unknown reason something would call him to Jess’ attention, but figured that was natural and personal business, belonging to Jess alone.
That seemed mighty natural alright, Slim thought Why, heck, I’d visit Jess’ headstone occasionally, and sure would like to hope, he’d think on me a bit if I was gone, just as well. And when he had gone up to the lineman’s shack after we buried Mac, it was to ‘walk it off’, walk off the hurt alone, where no one would see. That was natural too. It must have worked, Slim thought, as all seemed well, and we worked and carried on with our lives here, with a new bond of understanding in our friendship. We became closer in our trust of each other. So why, now? Mike, and the rope burns, that must be it. Little did Slim know, there was more to it than that, Jess had a bit of a long rope he was holding on too, and was nearly free to let go of it…his episode with Mike was just another stepping stone to freedom.
“Jess, did you hear me…?” Slim ventured to sit down at Jess’s side, his “personal place” on the porch at this time that was staked with a fierce “no trespassing sign”. Surprisingly, Jess did not object, and Slim was relieved to know that he was reading this chapter of Jess Harper correctly.
“Yeah, I did Slim, and I truly did forgive you…you know that, don’t you, Slim?” Jess said as he looked solemnly up into Slim’s clear face as he sincerely strove to remind Slim of it. Jess remembered the savage beating Slim took for trying to save Mac and how unclear Slim’s face was that day afterwards.
“You and I both know it wasn’t your fault…pure and simple” Jess continued as he looked down at his hands, he remembered how he had caught up to the men that had captured Mac. He remembered how he had come so very close to setting Mac free. “And it wasn’t my fault either…pure and simple,” Jess added.
Jess looked over at Slim and gave him a faint half-hearted smile. “It’s one of those things I mentioned in the house a while ago.” His face changed now as he came into a deep dark river of thought and became much more serious as he looked into Slim’s eyes. “You can’t FORCE the cards, no matter how hard you try, so you play what your dealt, and do it with all you got, the best way you know how. We tried to fight off their winning hand, and win the pot, but it wasn’t meant to be, or Mac would still be here and he’s not. We have to accept it, whether we like it or not. I have to accept it, whether I like it or not.”
Jess stood up and looked around the yard. He stretched a bit and felt the warm morning sun on his face, a slight change from the darkness that had been traveling through his head…there sure is some kind of hope that goes with a fresh new day, Jess thought, wonder just where it’s hiding at.
“Guess that card game just wasn’t meant to be either, Slim …marked deck and all…dad-gum.” Jess said in slight disbelief. He rubbed that back of his neck, standing there squarely on two feet, as he hung his other hand on his belt, and looked at Slim. “Honest, I sure didn’t notice. I had a great hand Slim…you’d of GONE HUNGRY for sure … how did you know?”
“Oh, it was just one of those MEANT TO BE type things Jess.” Slim laughed “well, actually, Mike gave them to me for safe keeping, and I left them on the table by the oil lamp where you picked them up from.”
“Meant to be huh?” Jess said. “Well Slim, I’ll tell you something I just recently heard around here somewheres this morning, and that is: you’re here because your supposed to be here…and I’m here because I’m supposed to be here. As either one of us could have been hung in the past as well you know. BUT THERE’S A BIT MORE TOO IT THAN THAT Slim, and lately it’s been coming home to roost…now, I need to take a walk.” With that remark of mystery, Jess took off for the nearby hills, and Slim stood there thinking, well, at least I got through chapter one, and didn’t even have to pry the cover off this time, course I only got a peek, as the cover sure didn’t open very wide.
---CHAPTER FOUR---
---PUZZLE PIECE PERSPECTIVES---
The sun had just set a few hours ago, and the smell of rain was in the air. Slim and Daisy were talking in the front room at the table, and Mike was asleep. Jess had not come back all day. Slim talked to Daisy about Mac and the tree. He tried to explain a bit about how Jess felt about a man getting unjustly hung, and that it was a much stronger and more personal feeling than he had ever run up against.
“He won’t let loose come hell or high water if he figures he can save a man from an unjust hanging … NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT…it’s like he has a personal hate against it. Naturally, any man should, but this is different Daisy.”
He told her about something else that had happened here at the ranch much later. He told her about how Sam Jarrod had come and took Jess off, and how Jess was desperate to no end as to not wanting to face what he was sure was going to be his own hanging.
“He DUG UP A TREE Daisy!”, Slim exclaimed. “Sam Jarrod had Jess handcuffed with his arms in front of him, around a young tree. During the night he dug it up somehow, slipped off of it and took off on us. We heard the horse kicking up dust. Took us most of the day to catch up with him. He had fallen off the horse, dehydrated and had cut up bleeding wrists from the cuffs scraping his hands all night with that digging. Now if THAT DOESN’T SAY DESPERATE, I surely in all my born days don’t know what does”.
“Why, he wouldn’t even trust me to get him out of it the legal way. I guess I should of understood more clearly, seeing as I failed to save his old buddy Mac, the legal way.” Slim stoically looked over at Daisy, “You now Daisy, I guess sometimes I’m just a sucker for justice and believe it will work, even above all sound reasoning. Just can’t seem to shake loose of it. Jess…well, seems he knew better all along.” Slim glumly began to wonder if just maybe Jess had never really even forgiven him at all. But he felt so much peace the day they buried Mac up in the Sherman plot and that along with the bond between him and Jess being truly forged stronger then, he just knew he could not start doubting that forgiveness now. He had let it lay then and he had to let it lay now, as well.
“And you know Daisy, there’s more … he soon faced hanging again unexpectedly when old man Parkison took him off our property at gunpoint when he took off to mend a portion of fence. Funny thing, too Daisy…Jess handled standing there with that noose around his neck, like an ol’ professional there…set his face for whatever was to be. He sure didn’t like it none, I could tell that a mile away. Jess sure knows how to face up to things when he has no choice.”
Slim watched Daisy, usually she would knit right fine as they talked, but now she kept messing up. She was beginning to piece together Mike’s rope burns, more so the one on the side of neck, and Jess’ experiences and she kept dropping stitches. It was almost as if her dropped stitches somehow were administering Jess’ freedom to her as her dropped stitches slipped into a freedom of their own.
“It a good thing Jess was in my corner, when I was nearly hung for murder in Jackson City,” Slim informed Daisy. They accused me of killing a Mr. Lake. Jess never quit until he got me free from that rope. I do believe he was more worried about me than the mess he got himself into with that real bunch of briared-up coyotes.”
Slim continued on, “something was bothering him at the time we hit the trail for Jackson City then, I remember…he had just come back from being forced out into the Utah territory. Jess sure can turn up missing at the oddest times. He was supposed to be breaking in a horse for me … just disappeared … had no clue as to what happened to him, came back on the stage of all things. Well…before we hit town that night, I think he was going to tell me something, but he couldn’t quite decide on it. Odd, too, on the way back after he saved my neck, he was aggressively mumbling in his sleep something about a noose of trouble always seemed to be waiting for him when he least expected it. Just a bit after that he woke up in a cold sweat tugging at his bandana. I just thought it was from what we just been through at the time.”
Slim got up slowly and zeroed in on the window. Pushing the curtains back he looked out the window, searching through the darkness for any sign of Jess. “The dang cows know when to come home just fine, WHY HELL, even chickens got enough sense to roost.” Slim was starting to get restless… odd…new curtains? … he wondered, as he unconsciously pushed them around with his fingers.
“Slim…”
“Yell, Daisy…I think I’ll give a ‘yell’” Slim replied as he threw the curtain back and turned to look at her.
“No, no Slim…I wasn’t chastising you” Daisy set her knitting down…ropes and strings were just a bit much for her now. She turned and looked at Slim. “Remember Slim, when you were up hunting with Mike? Jess was stuck in jail and just real desperate for your help, after it was all over, we told you the whole story. Remember? They were going to hang Jess for presumably murdering a deputy, all because of an old friend of his named Darby. I didn’t know that at the time, but I went to help him as the telegram was so very urgent, if I hadn’t gone…why…Slim, Jess wouldn’t be here even as we speak. If Lottie had not helped us that very night, Jess was going to hang in the morning. I would have greeted you and Mike, alone, Slim.” Daisy began to choke up as a wave of weakness moved through her.
Slim took hold of Daisy’s hands… “Look at me Miss Daisy…there’s more going on here than just Mike triggering Jess to think on how he found Mac hanging dead there on that tree out there.”
Daisy stopped and yielded to Slim’s strength. He had a way of being a strong rock…a calm solid ground in the middle of her mind where she could anchor her worries. She was actually a woman of inner strength and adventure, but at night when it was time for adventures to be over her anxious unfinished chores of settling down her new family could cause her many a worry. Slim knew that, he knew how and when to be a friend or to be a son, to a woman who had none left.
The oil lamp was burning low, and it was too dark to knit anymore. Daisy’s heart wasn’t in it either. Slim and Daisy sat a bit and listened to the fast approaching rain.
The smell of rain had finally presented its follow-through, with soft flashing light and faint rumbles. Giant fireflies seemed to be coming and going in between Slim and Daisy as they sat with the oil lamp on the table. Slim noticed the cards on the table…looks like Mike forgot three. Slim thought on the morning card game a bit and then made a note of the three cards. It seemed strange that they sat there, almost as if they were waiting for someone to pick them up.
Daisy watched Slim begin to get up from the table. They were both tired and ready for sleep, but Daisy knew Slim would go check around the yard first for Jess, as it was quit possible he could be lurking in the barn or bunkhouse, sorting out more puzzle pieces of his own. Just as they finished their half of the “puzzle”, the door burst open along with the wind and a much louder and nearer peal of thunder. Slim seemed much more startled that Daisy, oddly, but then she had full view of the dramatic entrance of the soggy tumbleweed rancher, too tired to drift and tumble anywhere, except to bed.
---CHAPTER FIVE---
---MIDNIGHT MESSAGE---
The Sherman house was dark and still in the respects to people action. In the respects to storm action, it had died down a bit. Jess suspected that Slim was asleep now. He had followed Jess in and questioned him a bit as to his choice of wet sleeping clothes, to which Jess replied “this suits me just fine for now.”
Jess got up from his soggy nesting place and made his way to the last embers of some warm comfort in the fireplace. He sat a spell by the fire, watched the embers, and then lay on the floor a bit, studying the last flickers of lightening throughout the room. It had been a long time…a very long time since he dwelt on “this”. The “this” being a rope burn of his very own, and not one that many live to tell about…but, one that sure didn’t need a night like tonight to be a reminder of it even more so. Feeling warmed up and a bit dryer, he walked around the room a bit, knowing he would not be able to sleep. Small soft flashes of lightening seemed to guide his steps.
He spied the cards on the table, sat down, and played out a hand of “three card” poker by himself with only God as his witness. “Well, Sir” Jess looked up to the heavens… “One for You, and one for me and one more for You.” Jess looked a bit shocked, and stared a bit at the three cards as they faced upwards at him on the table. A chill ran down his spine as he continued to stare in a long hard way at them.
Jess’ mind quickly flashed to Harry Merkle, a mystery man of the past now unmasked. In a sense, Jess had spent all day with this man as he walked the Sherman hill’s until dark. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, the cards or the thought, and pocketed them for safe keeping. Watch and learn, I always say, Harper…watch and learn…there is more here than would appear to meet the eye, and I’m prepared to find out just what it is. With these last thoughts Jess prepared himself to meet up with a night he already knew he could not escape.
He grabbed a blanket from one of the chairs and went over to the sofa to lay down. He threw the blanket over his nearly dry body and lay down. Usually he loved the sparkle of the waters against the glass, always did since he was a kid, but this time he forced himself to turn from the window, as he knew it made the memories stronger. Still, he knew they were coming and he waited quietly.
---CHAPTER SIX---
---THE SOUND OF MANY WATERS---
As Jess lay there he heard the drip of the waters on the barrels outside. He also had heard them as he lay there wet and cold, earlier, in the room that he and Slim shared. Just what the heck are we doing with so many dang barrels around here anyways? Jess felt a bit annoyed with this thought, but he sure wasn’t in any mood to go out and move them at this point. He wished to God he could stop the flow of thoughts that the dripping waters would soon bring, but it was a vain wish.
Jess’ mind was now very tired and he felt like the luck of the draw was his as he started to doze off. He began to relax and feel the comfort of the bed against his tired body, as he unconsciously turned, the window came into his sleep-groggy mind. JESS’ UNWANTED MEMORIES BEGAN TO SEEP OUT AND HE FOUND HIMSELF IN THE PAST:
‘Someone cut me down…someone cut me down… that’s what she just said to me …I’m sure of it’. The words kept going through his mind, he could feel the bed with his feet, it seemed to be the only part of himself he could move without aching. It was hard to believe at this moment that his feet were making contact with a stable solid object. It amazed him over and over to no end, as he rubbed them back and forth on the bed as he began to awake. His neck was raw and aching, but worse yet his throat felt crushed inside. He tried to stretch out for some kind of comfort, but he just couldn’t bring himself to move his head, and his arms were a bit numb and his shoulders ached. He couldn’t seem to come to terms with the feeling. Sometimes he felt like he couldn’t breathe as the air seemed to choke-up in his throat, he would grasp at the blankets in fitful misery with each new try, and relax with each amazing success. Time seemed to stand still as to his this misery when it came and he desperately wished to escape it somehow, occasionally as he passed out he did… but he was becoming more and more conscious now.
He heard water splashing …sounded like it was falling on rain barrels, maybe even flowing over. Jess’ thoughts turned to the sounds of the waters rushing over the rocks of the river. The area where he had been laying in the dirt knowing his next destination was a high tree…how long ago that had been, he just didn’t know, and now he was laying here in a bed. Jess felt a woman always there helping him, along with the words that had by now cut deep a path through his mind… ‘someone cut me down…someone cut me down’…
Jess wasn’t sure how much later it was as he watched the rain on the window and listened to the steady drips of water. His head was clearer now and the noise had caught his attention again, as one side of his bed was against the window wall, he could easily look up at the sparkling drops. He liked the sound of the drops and the splashing on wooden barrels and it seemed to comfort him. But the window reminded him of home long gone, and he fought to hold back the tears. He shut his eyes tight as he could. He remembered he had no home, he’d been on the drift. It was still raw in his mind, the fire, his family dead, his brother Johnny taking off, and himself having to leave Francie. It was all too much. Oddly now, it seemed like only last year though it was much longer. Jess stared at the ceiling.
‘I was hanging, wasn’t I’ …he thought, ‘seem to remember gasping and no ground under my feet, no sense in looking for it either, I knew that…but my feet kept reaching for it…just couldn’t help it’. Jess’ thoughts soon moved from the desperateness he remembered hanging at the end of a rope, to the bed he was feeling now. He was definitely alive, and laying down. He reached up and felt ice and cold rags packed around his neck, but a hand stopped him, and he looked up.
“Someone cut you down, boy”… the woman looked nice enough he noticed, quite unexpectedly this woman hit a vulnerable spot in his heart, Jess thought of his ma, he nearly cried. “A man said he saw a group of men hanging you, wanted your horse or something, by the time he got there it was too late to stop it, but it sure hadn’t taken as yet, so he cut you down…do you understand me, boy? Someone cut you down.” She smiled, and said “my husband is the Doc here, you’ve been needing lots of care, boy, but you’re going to pull through this, you hear sweet heart? You had a really rough time of it these last few days, including being dangerously dehydrated, a bad fever and a very bad bruise on the side of your head, caused a slight concussion but the Good Lord brought you through all that hell.
You sure ended up in the right place, as my husband knew what to do for you. Not many Docs’ have experience with the aftermath of a hanging, as the neck breaks right quick if done right, and lynchers make sure a man’s good and choked dead before they leave.” Between the soothing rain barrel waters and her voice somehow he felt he could accept all this. But her story wasn’t quite right, but no need to try and tell her. He knew he couldn’t talk anyways and even if he could he would much rather know just where the man was that cut him down, as he owed him a man-size debt. Although he himself felt like a lost kid, this rope burn would forever brand him a MAN in his own heart, now he was truly Jess Harper the man. A man who knew what it meant to owe such a debt. Little did he know how many years it would take to ever pay it back, more than the two that was to be his search.
Having hit the ground hard at the time he was cut down, as the mystery man’s main goal was to free up the ‘boy’ fast to see if he would live, Jess’ head was aching quite a bit now. Night came and went, he awoke that next morning to the sound of waters again. This time they were dripping from a wrung rag, into a bowl. He watched the woman as she laid them on his head, and checked the rags around his neck…it still felt on fire inside and out, despite the coolness of the ice, and now his throat was aching mighty soar. She tried to get him to drink, as it seemed nearly impossible for him to relax up his muscles, they finally drugged him a bit and let the trickles find their own way naturally down his bruised throat.
As the rains had picked up, Jess heard the waters rushing down the rainspout all that day, as he remembered very vividly now the whole sorry mess. He had been traveling through a town, after being out on the Texas prairie. Some local law feeling his oats had told him to drift off back to the plains. “That’s PANHANDLE to you mister”, Jess had said with a smirk. Yeah, Jess remembered, got me kicked out of there and down right fast too. Stopped for work at that ranch just about sunrise and that foreman sure didn’t cotton to me there either.
‘Well, no matter…the country side suited me fine…just needed some money to take care of my horse and guns, so when I found Banister I could pay him what I owed him, with a nice loaded gun. Sure was good to be shuck of the town anyways. Sure didn’t expect those men to stop me though, sure learned the hard way alright’, Jess thought, as he started writhing desperately. He felt like he was choking again, and started gasping just as the woman came to his aid. He felt mighty relaxed before he knew it, and his thoughts continued:
He remembered how they bushwhacked him as he was resting his horse on the rocky grounds quite a ways past the ranch. He had been making fast tracks hoping to reach the low rolling hills before noon. They were a bit disgusted they had picked such a fast traveler to latch on to, but they had already planned to set him up, and the race was on. He had protested that he was innocent as to what ever was going down, while they held him at gunpoint, and he listened in disbelief as the head man laughed and said: “yeah, I know, and we’re gonna’ make sure that no one else knows.”
They made a fire and burnt a few bits of money with papers, what was to have been the near disposed of stolen money, and he witnessed some of them go off to bury the true portion for later. His own saddlebags had now been enriched with enough stolen money to prove his guilt. He now found himself facing the soon coming end of his very short lived life, as he was bound and gagged, and his pockets were enriched with treasures to please any pirate from the stolen jewelry of the ranchers wife.
They began their journey back, with Jess wearing a noose around his neck and hands tied behind his back, and to his body… and…oddly…all he could think of was Banister roaming the country side wild and free, like he himself now longed to be. His dreams to avenge his family were shattered. He remembered the hot sun on his face and his personal integrity shamed with dishonor, he now knew what it felt like to be a criminal and it sure as heck was no fun, especially with no way to voice your innocence if need be.
‘But I sure as heck tried’, Jess thought, as he looked up, his memories had just came to a temporary halt. The Doc had just come in. Continuing on, Jess remembered the lawman… ‘when we met up with that lawman, I threw myself off the horse, and tried spitting out that rag or any kind of noise I could to point out to the law that I was framed and innocent. And what’d it get me, quite a few good hard kicks… … and them telling the law they were tired of listening to me yapping … plus I got to walk or be dragged to my own hanging and the nearest trees were a long ways off.’ Jess now tried to concentrate on the Doc but drifted off from his “relaxed state” with the knowledge that the hands checking on his neck and throat were there to help and not to harm.
Jess awoke with the warm morning sun on his face. Looking towards the sound of voices, he realized he was about ready to face starting his life back up again. Jess saw the Doc with a clear head now for the first time as he entered smiling with his wife. They sure were a nice looking and well-matched couple. Quite unexpectedly Jess felt good to be laying there in the Docs house, it felt like a home should. He marveled that he was alive and well, or least wise, alive. He wasn’t none too sure yet that he all that well but truly hoped he was.
The Doc was helping Jess sit up, wanting to get him walking a bit, and then, getting him to try to eat some soup would be the next plan. The rain had stopped and the sun shining through the window, was beckoning him. All Jess could think about now was finding the man that cut him down.
“Walk? … yeah, I can walk”, Jess hoarsely croaked out a medium sized whisper as they helped him to his feet. ‘You don’t know me Doc’, Jess said to himself, as wanting to say it, and much more, was useless. Thus, he settled for listening to his own thoughts as they continued on in his mind. ‘Why, I’m from the Panhandle you know, why, I can do most anything I set my mind to, and more so if you get me riled enough.’
It was the feel of his feet back on solid ground though, and the thoughts that went with it, that nearly caused him to give way as he stood upright again. Quickly setting his face to try walking with the Doc, Jess hoarsely and with strong determination forced an even stronger whisper, “now, where’s the man, and what’s his name?”
“He never left his name boy, he paid us for doctoring you, and he paid to care for your horse, and he made a point of telling us you were hanged by some thieves trying to make off with your horse.” The Doc proceeded to wrap up Jess’ arm into a sling.
Jess weakly tried to pull back in a “Harper protest”. “What are doing to me Doc?” Jess wasn’t about to be fitted for any more discomfort, and was a bit startled.
“Well, a young kid like you wandering the streets with his neck all wrapped up is just bound to get unwanted attention, so we been spreading friendly rumors that your horse threw you real bad, wrenched up your neck and shoulder, liked about killed ya’, understand? I’m fixing to wrap a bandage around your bruise too, make our story look good.” The Doc looked him straight in the eye, “you don’t want the local law checking out just exactly what’s wrong with you now, do you son? Just make sure to let the rope burns air out and keep it uncovered at night, they’ll heal with time, okay? As to scarring, well time will tell, son, time will tell. Sure won’t look a pretty sight for a bit, as to now. There now,” he sighed deeply as he studied Jess, “I guess we can send you on your way. We believe your no criminal son, or we would have turned you over to the law, but we know how drifters are treated in most these towns around here. Your welcome to stay, but near as we can tell, you dead set on finding that man that saved your life.”
Walking worked out as good as could be expected, Jess made his way into the front room and eyed the soup sitting on a tray on a small table near a real ‘comfy’ looking chair. ‘So I gotta’ tackle that now, do I’ Jess thought, well … it was one step closer for his search, and he knew it. After an hour of battling new felt discomforts and much aggravation Jess was able to finish the soup, and sat back and relaxed as best he could in the soft living room chair. It seemed all the “un-thought-of movements” that went with moving his head about, as well as his arm, just had to reward Jess with a new set of aches and pains.
The Doc’s wife took the tray that served as the battle ground, off to the kitchen, and went to check on the coffee. His desire for coffee was so strong, strong enough, that Jess figured it was worth just a bit more suffering, it sure smelled good as the aroma filled the house. But he just couldn’t forget about the man. The roots were deep in his brain and this was now a firm set tree that wouldn’t wither throughout his drift, Jess Harper was bound and determined to find this man. It would soon be time to make tracks.
“I’m mighty thankful Doc, Ma’am.” Jess shook the Doc’s hand and gave his wife a heartfelt hug, and took an extra minute holding her hand, offering a smile for someone that had been like a ma to him for just shy of a week. Jess started for the door but slowly stopped, displaying a slight disturbance and looked back, a bit worried. He approached them with a few steps and stopped.
“Well, what’s wrong there boy, you are feeling okay now…aren’t you” the Doc was a bit worried now and came up to Jess and put his hand on his shoulder, waiting patiently, with a bit of sorrow in his eyes. He had really hurt for this ‘lost puppy’ and now he was sending it back out into quite possibly a similar mess.
Jess was near afraid to ask it but he knew he would never rest unless he knew, “I will get my voice back, right? It sure ain’t setting too proper like in my throat right about now,” Jess said softly, as he slowly reached to touch the wrapped soft folds of light bandages around his neck.
“Whatever damage was done, would be known by now, son…don’t think about it, just rest it up a bit,” the Doc’s wife said as she came near, gave him a hug, and kissed his forehead. “And you be using it to give thanks to the All Mighty, occasional like, as He gave you breath after that hanging-rope almost took it from you.”
Jess stayed in town for another hour as they helped him ready up his horse, he passed the time standing outside the doorway of the little church the Doc and his wife would visit. It was always open they said, and full of song. ‘Seems really cheery like,’ Jess thought as he heard a phrase of the singing. He leaned back against the wall, staring down at the dirt, as the sun shone on it and the few thin scattered clumps of grass few and far between, near his boots. For the first time Jess dared to enjoy the day…as he stood there his eyes teared up a bit as he realized the last time he stood in the dirt, he was being pushed up on his horse to die. His last memories of his hanging were still stored in his mind as he stood there out side this church, listening to songs about “rivers of living water.” He thought over these memories with heaviness as he stood there feeling the warm sun on his face:
“You WALK or we drag you until we get to the first group of trees near the end of the ranch, and then your gonna’ hang boy, right Sheriff Joe? Look, I’ll bet his pockets are just as full-up as his saddle bags were with the money, he burned nearly all of it though, when he saw us coming down on him…why, see here, look at this, here’s our proof right here! Once we hit the ranch you better help us out with that FAST JUSTICE you just love to hand out, or come election time lots of town folk will be mighty disappointed in you. Why you know our boss, his wife and his dead brother are thought of highly in town, and they’ve been your friends for years now too.”
He remembered when they stopped for water at the river with the trees then in full view, the fenced border of the ranch was near at hand, and the noose was weighing heavy on his neck and mind. He lay there in the dirt where they shoved him down and listened to the sound of many waters over the rocks, while they watered the horses and splashed around and made small talk with the Sheriff. He never expected to be back here at the river again, where he himself had just less than an hour after daybreak watered his horse and then took off marking time. He thought of how pleasant it had been to him in the cool morning air, now it was nothing to him but a signpost on the way to his death.
At one point Jess almost thought the Sheriff was having second thoughts to the whole business, as he came over and stared at him for a bit. He stirred to attention, but it was not to be.
“You did this to yourself boy, if you just would have left town sooner maybe my friend’s brother would still be alive. A good hanging will suit me just fine, these good men here will get a handsome reward for doing justice…something you should have learned from you pa, boy.” All Jess could do was lay there and stare back at him in disgust.
Some things weren’t his to remember though, but they happened none the less. He didn’t realize they had followed him from the ranch where they worked for the foreman, or that they had robbed the owners and killing one of them, and had sought to pin the blame on Jess, the young drifter, the one that the foreman had seen for himself had been hanging around. There had been another drifter looking for work as well, but he was gone just before Jess showed up. Knowing the foreman would surely send the law, the men needed a clear-cut case against Jess, and they needed to shut him up fast and they were running out of time. They planned to make sure the young drifter was set-up, bound, and ready to meet the Sheriff in a condition unable to voice his innocence or their guilt. Killing Jess wasn’t the way, or they themselves may just be back in the same situation they were seeking to avoid. They knew just how to use the “law heavy” Sheriff and his personal hatred for drifters for their own good.
But he knew exactly what was happening as they pushed him back up on his horse there at the far end of the ranches fenced boundary. He hadn’t eaten since the day before and was dehydrated from lack of water and had no strength left from the long walk. He had fallen a few times and was dragged a bit until he could bring himself to stand, all he could do now was just let them do as they pleased. ‘Looks like I’m gonna’ die easy’ he thought, as there was no strength in him or freedom of movement for a fight to die hard.
The noose he had been wearing as a constant reminder was now tightened and pulled up taunt to real suitable tree. As Jess sat there stretched tall in his saddle on his horse, half choking, he sure wasn’t up to remembering his captors as his last companions on this path he had recently traveled. ‘The wide open country sure was a beautiful sight,’ Jess wondered a bit just where he’d be if they had never showed up… ‘maybe half way through those hills past the rock-lands where I was…well… no use thinking on it now.’
He looked up to the heavens and watched the clouds as they rolled by. He had planned on watching the sunset from one of the hills, which would have been in the next few hours. Jess thought back on the Panhandle, and Francie, his best companion, she’d never know what happened to him. They had seen many a sunset together. As his body tried to twist as to his extreme discomfort, he wished to high heaven that they would quit taking their sweet time about it and get it over with, as by now he could hardly swallow and was near to faint with an awful feeling of queasiness inside.
As he was only half way in the shade of the tree, he felt the sun come and go between clouds, and heard the “caw” of a crow. Out of instinct and not thinking clearly he arched back to look for it, he needed to assure Francie that is was not mocking them, it was calling for help, calling its buddies. It was then that he heard the shots fired and felt his horse chased off from under him. At that instant, possibly the angle of his head as he looked back as his body fell, or the slight repositioning of the rope because of his action, or maybe even the holding his jaw in an odd position from the gag stuffed in his mouth … one may never know … but for whatever reason, his neck did not snap. He was however trapped in his own private hell and time seemed to have stood still. He felt himself desperately trying to find solid ground with his feet, as his pinned arms fought wildly from instinct only, to grab at his choking neck for freedom. All his mind knew now was that he was choking. With prickling shocking pains shooting down through his neck into his body, Jess writhed there, as his mind was trapped in eternity. Everything was fast going black, nothing was concrete anymore except for the fighting in his lungs that wanted but couldn’t do their work, and, the building pressure against his throat as he felt himself uselessly fighting to suck in air that was less and less forth coming…
On the spiritual level though, oddly, in the back of Jess’ mind he was aware of hearing many more shots. He felt his legs and lower body melting useless and heavy under him. Just as he passed out, he almost thought there was a rider by his side pulling at his body. A heavy thud jolted through his brain…it vaguely dawned on him that he had hit the ground as a terrible sharp pain was going through his temple deep into his head and his upper body was writhing with a force all its own. He could see the still bright sun glaring in his face as a dark shadow was now turning him over, his body was heaving as it dragged in tiny bits of air. Jess felt the gag yanked from his mouth and could now hear himself gasping heavily, someone was pulling or cutting at the rope around his neck. As this made it tighten again, he felt his throat closing up again with yet no freedom from the rope while waves of sharp pains were shooting down from his neck, through his still tied arms as he blacked out.
He never knew that Merkle had drifted by that same ranch earlier and had been out roaming some of the same territory as himself. He never knew that Merkle had killed the men that were hanging him. As Merkle knew by the way men sought to hang a man outside of the law, that the chances of his innocence were highly likely, this is what he proceeded to do when he happened upon the situation. This would be obvious to Jess later, as he thought on the shots he heard in the back of his mind. He would then come to realize that it would be a long and possibly futile search to find this mystery man. What he did know of, was being in and out of a fitful and extremely uncomfortable sleep for a few days… until he heard the comfort of the sounds of the waters splashing on the barrels from the rain’s rhythm outside the Doctor’s window…and the gentle voice of the Doctor’s wife as well. None of them would know, that in the end, it would be decided in town, that the sheriff and the men killed each other, as the jewels were there, and bits of money to point to the men of the ranch as the guilty party.
JESS CAME BACK FROM THE PAST… Jess lay there in a sweat and stretched out on the sofa staring at the sparkling rainy window, his thoughts were now on this front room where he had earlier laid by the fire. It was calm and comforting. The sounds of water splashing on the rain barrels still sounded the same as when he awoke that day years ago unexpectedly alive and in the unexpected safe haven of the Doctor’s house, but his mind was back now, firmly planted on stable Sherman soil. And the pressure of expecting hard memories was gone.
The thoughts of ‘He gave you breath after that hanging-rope almost took it from you’ still echoed in his mind though as Jess Harper fell asleep in peace. He dreamed he was sitting at the feet of his mother as she read to him a verse he always wondered about since he was a kid: HE shall come down like the rain upon the new cut grass: as showers that water the earth. The sound of many waters continued on through the night as a soft rain that ended with the morning light.
---CHAPTER SEVEN---
---TRACKS IN THE MUD---
The sun had been up for hours. So had the Sherman family, except for Jess. Oddly he was still asleep, and no one seemed to mind. The stage had long since come and gone, and most chores were done. The hot sun had dried up the rain, most of which had pretty much sunk into the ground. There were still a few cheery puddles left around for Mike’s amusement. He was busy now, looking at tracks left this morning after the stopping of the rains. He was fairly certain there were some from raccoons, and some from squirrels, rabbits, and even a skunk. He had tried earlier to do a bit of roping, as one of his hands was feeling better, and he had hoped to surprise Jess as to some improved abilities. Just maybe, thought Mike, it could be it was my lack of success that was bothering Jess. I know I didn’t do nothing wrong…but if you don’t win at a game enough, it CAN get a mite disappointing for sure.
Mike now had left the rope in a heap on the porch as it’s muddy state was not helping his skills one bit. He was startled a bit as a new creature that just appeared on the porch, it was one that had not made any tracks yet, it was Jess…cup of coffee in hand, and a nice warm smile, to match the singing birds.
Mike was ready to talk to him, they shared a spin and a hug, but then Jess moved on. Mike felt a bit left out, but his keen insight told him something was still going on, and Jess was seeking out Slim. Mike moved off to the side and busied himself, hoping to hear any word that may fall his way.
“Slim…so how ya’ doing” Jess started up, as he took a sip of his coffee, as it wasn’t too hot, it was followed by a much larger gulp, and a quick wipe of the chin with his hand. “I guess I kinda’ over slept there, that sofa is mighty nice there by the fire.” He watched for Slim’s reaction as he leaned on the fence post near the barn. Slim looked back at him, and smiled a bit.
“Yeah, I noticed with that spectacular entrance you made last night, that you looked a bit tired, you must of done quite a bit of walking…looks like you ended up a bit wet too there, Jess. Did the fire dry you off enough to sleep? You know, I wouldn’t mind a bit if you wanted to change first, before the day drags on and all … and before you start deciding that you just might like these here clothes to do you for one more day,” he said as he pulled a bit on Jess’ sleeve.
“Aw, your fooling with me now Slim, ain’t ya’...’” Jess looked at Slim real serious and said “Slim, I need you to come over here on the porch and sit so’s we can talk, I got to tell you something.” It was now obvious to Slim that fooling time was not to be on the daily agenda.
They went and sat on the side of the porch where Jess had been staring at the tree. To Jess, this seemed to be the spot for this kind of talk, as this is where Slim had felt the need to question him about forgiveness concerning Mac, so Jess settled himself down and opened up.
“Slim, you remember when Troy showed up here? And how I wanted to run her off. Well, there was something else about her I never told you.” Jess set the coffee cup down in the dirt.
“That’s long gone Jess, what’s so important about that…I kind of thought you had something bothering you and…”
“Slim, I GOT TRACKS!”
“Jess, what the heck is wrong with you…can’t you keep your mind in one place, you sound like the pigeons taking off.”
“Slim, Troy and her pa’s gang left me high and dry to face a lynch mob! Why, they had the rope around my neck and were dragging me to the outskirts of town to hang me. They near choked me first in the process …I can still feel the rope around my neck. If the deputy hadn’t come to my rescue in time with some evidence…you’d never be knowin’ a man by the name of Jess Harper, Slim.” Jess sat there real quiet for a minute as he himself pondered that thought.
“Well, there’s more Slim…like I said, I got tracks…and they all seemed to be leading to a tree just like Mac’s tree over yonder.”
“All right Jess, now were getting somewhere…NOW can you just tie these pigeons down for me? I’m listening, but I don’t quite know if I got the whole picture yet.”
“Way back before Troy showed up, when we were coming back from Jackson City, and I kept you from hanging, we made camp at that same creek, remember? And I had that bad dream…well, it has to do with these old tracks Slim. First off though, before Jackson City, when Clint Wade dragged me off into the Utah territory, well, you know the story…well what you don’t know Slim, is they were fixing to hang me out there. That’s what that bad dream was partly about out there on the trail with you. Why, if it weren’t for that sly ol’ Tully Casper stopping them with his scatter gun, well then…”
“Yeah, I know Jess…then I wouldn’t be knowin’ a man named Jess Harper” Slim said with a slight smile as he watched his friend open up.
“NO, Slim, now pay attention…I ain’t good at relating a lot of history, namely my own in particular. Seems these here tracks have been fresh of lately too Slim. I met Ginny running from a hanging reserved for me at the next highest cottonwood in Colorado. I already confessed up to you on all that mess, but I never told you later, about another time…during that big dust storm when I stoave in my ribs and ran into Christie…well, some ranchers up in them hills was fixing to hang me too Slim. ”
If Jess hadn’t been so deadly serious, it would almost have been funny. Slim had now added these to the other hanging troubles, the ones he and Daisy had recently talked of. Did Jess have a “hang me sign” around his neck or what? Slim felt like he had just dug out a stump that had a root system that had no end. He quietly wondered how much root was still buried, as he watched Jess’ face go through many changes of mood and feelings, he wondered where this was leading. It was not leading to anything he would have or could have ever been prepared for.
Jess stopped a bit and thought of his ‘intended’, Ginny, she was in a sense affected by all this too. In his eyes she would have been a widow before she was ever a bride. He really believed that he was ‘going down’ then when the ranchers had hold of him, but that time he wasn’t going to make it easy on the men with the rope. New arrivals to the scene led to a change of plans putting a halt to the hanging and opened a door to his escape.
Now, Jess’ mind flashed to Mike’s three cards on the table last night. “Well dad-gum…Dad-gum” he said again.
He still could remember the noose, hanging there in the rancher’s barn just waiting for him, waiting for the men to return and hang him as it appeared to stare at him and he stared back at it.
“I wouldn’t be a courtin’ man or a ranchin’ man or any other kind of man right now Slim, but I had an unexpected ‘Ace’ show up in my deck. And oddly enough it was a deck of cards that got me out of there, too.”
Slim was walking about beside Jess now, soaking it all in, making a few tracks of his own with his boots in the semi hardened damp ground. “Sure does look that way Jess…I mean about the tracks and all…I was remembering some times as well, last night with Daisy. About ol’ man Parkison, and then when Daisy and Miss Lottie saved you from hanging just about two years ago. Your history with near misses sure does beat all Jess. Why I wouldn’t blame you one bit it you took off running everytime a lasso was flung.” Slim looked at his friend, “and I think I’d to the same, as well.”
Slim straighten up and with a twinge of sorrow, turned and looked over at the tree. Slim didn’t see it happen that day with Mac, as he was left beaten, in the house. Slim now understood how much more personal this was to Jess…but there was more to come.
The ploughed up tragedy of that day concerning Mac had yielded up a crop of trust and respect in Jess’ heart towards Slim. Jess had come to find this true in the many other episodes they had shared as well, and Slim had proved he was worthy of Harper friendship. With this firmly in mind, Jess methodically stood up and walked up behind Slim.
“Oh, Slim …”
Slim was too engrossed in thought and still eyeing tree, though for the life of him, he didn’t know why.
“Slim…”
They both stood by the tree in heavy thought, the tree where they had cut Mac’s lifeless body down from years ago. They had cut down the innocent body of Jess’ friend, as the guilty man, tied to the fence had watched. Jess had brought him back to free-up Mac, but Jess was too late. They had cut Mac down after Jess had made peace with Slim in the house upon seeing Slims bruised face, a peace that Slim hoped would stand the test of time. It had.
“Slim…”
As his name hung in the air under the coolness of the tree, Slim had begun to feel mighty uneasy, he didn’t understand why, but he knew it had to do with the tree. He sought to walk himself out of the uneasy feeling, and left the tree heading for the porch, but turned as he finally realized he had been hearing Jess’ voice.
“Slim…” Jess had said again, as he lay his back on the tree. “A lot of tracks appeared along my trails after this tree, but there was certain tracks leading up to this tree. Some tracks I’ll never forget. His face was dead serious again and he there was a deep heaviness in his eyes with a bit of far away sorrow. Slim stopped walking and watched him in disbelief. Jess had never touched the tree since, and here he was leaning on it. Slim continued watching and wondering, something was definitely wrong, now he could feel it…somehow the sunlight seemed to frame the darkness of the tree and Jess as he stood there with his back laying up against the trunk. He almost looked like part of it.
“Ol’ Mac and I …well, we went way back. Only difference most could see was, I was faster on the draw, and I had a bit better run of luck as to holding a winning hand. One difference stands out in my mind really clear like, Slim, and I’ll never forgot it.
I was cut down from my hanging tree when I was still alive…Mac, he was cut down from his hanging tree, dead.” Having finished with these words, Jess walked over to the corral, leaving Slim in shock and staring blankly after him.
Slim joined him and they leaned on the fence in silence watching the horses. As he thought back, it began to dawn on Slim that Jess did have some faint odd looking scars that were more visible when the light hit just right. He had noticed them on occasion, even Mort and the doc had once asked about them, as they came to know of them accidently through various episodes during Jess’ ‘needing attention’ situations. But they both stating it was just general curiosity, nothing more. Obviously with all the injuries that go with the rough and tumble life Jess had seen, Slim had never given it a second thought. He never could make what could have caused them though, just looked like some kind of an accident maybe, but he never dreamed it was from being…
“Jess…from what you just said, it sounds like you telling me…”
“You heard right Slim.” Jess wiped his face with his sleeve, and calmly, with no shame as to the wetness of his eyes, said, “Another difference was Mac’s neck broke and mine didn’t. He didn’t even have a chance, even if someone had cut him down…but I did, Slim. I DID. I lasted just long enough… long enough for some drifter to stick his nose into a hanging, my hanging…and cut me down.” Jess looked out past the horses and watched the skyline as a few black birds crossed it.
Jess looked down at the dirt under the fence and looked back up over his shoulder into Slim’s face. “It was that man I set free from Mort’s jail, Slim, that man Merkle, the one the bounty hunter brought in. I said he caught me off guard as I thought he was sick, I said he took my gun, and he left me tied…remember.”
“Yeah, Jess…I do remember.” Slim now fully understood what Jess had gone through with Mac, knowing now that Jess had ‘walked in his shoes’…every action and reaction of that day had made deeper sense to him. But even more so, Slim now understood the deeper haunting of memories that Jess had… memories of himself… hanging from a tree… at a point in time gone by.
“You know Slim…after last night, I got the strangest feeling that I’ve seen the end of these tracks. Miss Daisy and Miss Lottie saved me from my last hanging rope Slim. It’s one of those gut feelings,” Jess said, as he thought of the midnight card game … “if you know what I mean. You do know what I mean, don’t you Slim?” Jess looked over at Slim.
“Now what kind of fool question is that Jess.” Slim stood back and stiffened his shoulder up and continued saying, “you know darn well that for these last few years I’ve had the biggest gut feeling that some no-account saddle-bum drifter with a fast gun and a big mouth was going to take root here. And it sure as heck came to pass.”
“Hey now, WHO SAID ANYTHING about a big mouth?”
“Why you did yourself, Jess…I heard you say it many a time…got a few witnesses too. You want me to hunt them down or not?” Slim said with half a frown, as he zeroed in on Jess close up.
“Naww, might just be more than we can handle, and we might just have to feed ‘em all, and we got barely enough for us as it is”, Jess laughed a bit at the thought and turned away from looking at the horses. Slim followed suit, and as they leaned back on their arms they stood there in quiet friendship and soaked in the comfort of the house. Daisy was now hanging clothes. They looked at each other and seemed to think the same thing…it was the right day for washing up old memories and hanging them out to dry…Jess’s past was slowly getting scrubbed into a newer brighter future.
Mike had been off a bit in the distance, and it seemed to him that something had been resolved, so he moved in closer for a ‘listen to’.
“Hey Jess, did you see all the tracks from this morning. Why I just had the best time following them. You just gotta’ come see Jess, please?” Mike looked up at Jess. Jess had to admit it sounded fun right about now, and took off with Mike. Plus, what he really needed was an excuse to free himself up from history relating, and being a kid again would just about do it. History relating concerning the life and times of Jess Harper had always been a bit hard on him, and no one knew better, than Slim Sherman.
---CHAPTER EIGHT---
---THE KING AND THE ACES---
It was nearly supper now…the day had finished up as usual. Stage had come and gone again. Slim and Jess were on the porch waiting on supper and Miss Daisy would come and go with reassurance for them as to it showing sooner rather than later. She sat with them on this occasion.
“You know Jess…Slim and I were talking last night about you.”
“Yeah I know Daisy. It’s okay, me taking off to the hills like that and not showing up all day…I understand … you had every right to talk.”
“Slim tells me you had some more finishing up to do talk-wise…looks like it turned out well.” She smiled at him. “Mike almost thought it was his fault, but he knows better now.” Daisy walked around the porch looking for forgotten cups of old coffee, spying Jess’ from earlier, she retrieved it and rejoined them.
“You know Daisy, in a big way you’ve been part of the thoughts running through my head since yesterday”, Jess said as he flipped Mike’s three cards through his fingers, and peered up at her intensely.
She was a bit unsure if this was good or bad, and earnestly set herself to understand. “Me, why what ever for Jess?” As the words came out of her mouth though she realized why. It had something to do with what she and Slim were discussing at the table late last night. She was quite aware she had saved his life. Jess was not one to take such a thing lightly.
“Mike was part of it too Daisy, but in a different was, Jess continued. You see his rope burns triggered some memories of mine, along with Mac’s tree. Rope burns have a way of making a man out of you…the worse they are …the more of a man you need to become.” Jess stared down at the old boards of the porch, they had been weathered from many years but still seemed firm. He then looked up and faced Daisy and spoke directly to her as well as Slim. “Well, one day I became a man in a right awful way, and I lived to tell about it. I realized the other night it was because of a king and some aces. I played a hand of ‘three card poker’ last night with the Man upstairs, and I learned something that settled my mind a bit. Didn’t understand it until today, over at Mac’s tree. My ma used to tell me ‘there’s a great King over all the earth’. Well, this here King and His Ace have always been there for me… Slim, Daisy… and He makes sure to always send me that ace just in time. That’s been my hand in this here life…everyone has their own hand. Mac had a good hand, but it only lasted so long. He didn’t get that ace, and I don’t know why…as to my family, they didn’t get their ace, but save for three of us… and it ain’t my business to question why. It goes back to not being able to force the cards. Play them with wisdom the best way you know…we don’t know the end from the beginning. I never knew I’d end up here…I never knew I’d have a home or a family again. I never knew I’d live after being hung from a tree.”
Jess quickly stood up, tossed the cards down and stepped off the porch, walking out into the yard. He was not wanting to face Daisy now, not yet, as he new her reaction already by the gasp and the ‘oh Jess’ that had followed and it pained him too much to bear. It had to be said to bring a close to these last days, and he said it. They didn’t need to know the morbid details, but now they had all the pieces, and his behavior from yesterday wasn’t a worry to those that loved him. By entrusting those missing pieces to Slim and Daisy, he had freed up another part of himself.
The moon was coming up, Jess saw it just near the tops of the trees. He turned back and faced the house. Slim and Daisy were still talking, it looked like she had been crying, Mike had appeared from almost out of nowhere and was running his way. Dad-burn it, thought Jess, I sure hope supper didn’t get burnt up. “What’s wrong with you Mike, your pants on fire or something?”
“Nope!” I found some new tracks I never seen before, come look! Oh, and I forgot …Daisy said she’s putting the food on the table now, almost got burnt too she said. It was ‘cause Slim and her was talking, she wasn’t feeling to well I guess when she told me. I reckon its cause the foods a bit over cooked. Jess…? Well…are you coming, we don’t have much time…you don’t want Miss Daisy upset with us do you Jess?”
“Sometimes it seems I reckon it just can’t be helped Mike…sometimes…well, yeah … sometimes … it just can’t be helped. Well, better she’s upset over this than something else, right Tiger. Lets go.”
Jess and Mike walked along side of the house and made their way to the back of the house to check out the tracks, and eventually came again to the front, stopping near the porch. They had both agreed. They were some might odd-looking tracks.
“Hey Jess, you been trailing and tracking a lot. Have you ever run into such odd tracks that you just couldn’t figure? Mike was looking up at Jess real puzzled like, but with such a serious desire to understand that Jess couldn’t help but think of himself.
“Yeah, there was a time…but it ain’t so now.” Jess started for the porch and as he stopped to scrape off some mud from his boots he noticed the muddy rope that Mike had left there earlier, the three tossed cards were laying face up next to it.
Jess lingered there transfixed on it all as if in shock. As he continued to stare at the rope and cards a variety of thoughts went through his mind. If I hadn’t stopped at that Sheriff’s office after Juan’s trial I’d be regretting it the rest of my life. I got Juan into worse trouble that I knew when I pressed charges about my horse…and YET I WAS ALLOWED to be his last minute ace to keep that boy from hanging…I could feel everything that was going to happen to him. I just couldn’t face it, for his sake and mine…had to bust him loose. Jess shook free of his thoughts, with the knowledge that that boy lived to become a man. Seemed there was another boy on his mind now, as he felt a few tugs on his pants, and looked up to see why.
“Huh…what?” Jess was wondering how long he was caught up in his thoughts “were you trying to tell me something, Tiger? I’m sorry…well, spill it out boy.”
“I tried practicing again Jess. I thought you might have been a bit upset, as I wasn’t doing too good at the roping. I was going to surprise you and make you proud of me.” He smiled as he spilled his words out to Jess in such excitement that Jess now fixed his gaze on Mike and not back on the rope.
“Those rope burns of yours were just a cause for concern in more ways than one, that’s all it was Mike…” relieved it was all finally over. Jess lifted Mike up in the air and swung him around once, set him down. Jess then reached for the cards and held them firmly resting in his palm as he drifted back into his thoughts.
This was it…it must be, Mike thought, maybe Jess had a rougher time with his rope burns than I did. Finally armed with some ammunition, as to what had been bothering Jess, Mike, feeling a bit like a man now, ventured closer to his trusted and much admired companion.
“Hey Jess…” a soft tiny voice was calling his name. “Did you ever have a bad rope burn like me, one that made you have to become a man real quick like? Were you ever worried you’d get another … just as bad …?”
Jess teared up a bit as he lifted his head looking away, he then looked at the king and two aces as he handed them to Mike. He reached for the front door, opened it and as they walked in to join Daisy and Slim for supper, Jess answered Mike, “Yeah, there was a time…but it ain’t so now.