Portersville - J.W. Osborn (black authors fiction TXT) 📗

away. My memory has improved by being here with you and around Sam and Brian. I’d like to try to regain what I can on my own. Go to places where I once lived, or worked and see people who knew me back then and maybe I could recall more of my past.”
Scrub Pot closed his bible and looked at his son.
“Joe,” he said quietly as they sat together at the table . “If you saw Doc again, do you think it might help you?”
Joe Dodge looked down at his folded hands as they lay on the table in front of him. He never liked feeling helpless and now that part of his memory was returning, that was how he felt. “You say I rode with him and the rangers,” he said quietly, as misty, far away expression crossed his handsome face. “But all I remember is the sounds of battle, fire and then blackness.”
“It is as Brian has told you, my son,” Scrub Pot said “You were shot from behind, and the bullet is still lodged in your skull. What you see in your memory is right, there was a fire, and an explosion. You went after Caldero and that was the last glimpse I had of you until the day you showed up at the ranch.”
“May be we should go to Portersville., “ Joe said as he pushed back and rose from the chair, then crossed to the fire place to add another log. “I want to remember Doc Stevens., “ he said as he watched the sparks fly. “He visited me when I was staying at the ranch. We talked, but I had no memory of any history with him until the other day when I was at the house with Sam and Brian. Before then, I recalled nothing of a past with him, since the day Sam and Jerrod were married.”
“He was like a brother to you, Joe,” Scrub Pot said “but as stubborn as that man is, you are going to have to one day convince him that you really are my son. Not some drifter.”
“I have been thinking over what Brian said ,” Joe replied “ If there is a fragment of that bullet keeping me from remembering my past, and if it were to be removed, maybe I could regain all that I have lost.”
“Or you could die, Joseph,” Scrub Pot replied firmly “it is far too great a risk.”
“ I might be willing to take that risk, Father,” he said quietly “Some of my life and memory has come back, but it has only been since I have been around here where I lived once, where my wife and I started our family and then it was all gone.”
“It is not all gone, my son,” Scrub Pot replied “May be some time with Doc will open up yet another door.”
“I don’t know,” Joe replied “I would like to see him, before I make a decision about going to that doctor in Saint Louis..”
“Then you are yet to decide about it that.,” Scrub Pot said quietly and Joe could see the hint of relief that briefly crossed his somber expression.
“I would like to see Doc Stevens,” Joe replied “ You say we were close and may be spending a little time with him and his wife would help. ”
The old man smiled as rose from his chair. “Then we shall go,” he said “We can leave as early as tomorrow.”
Joe looked at his father. “I will have to let Sam know I am going to be away for a while,” he said “Ely can take over for me at the ranch.”
Scrub Pot was all ready rolling up his woolen army blankets. “Then you better ride,” he suggested. Joe slid his empty chair back into the table. “I will be back as soon as I get things arranged with Sam and Jerrod,” he replied, as he started for the door of the cabin.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++


I sat at my desk, going over the monthly accounts. Sam was sitting on the floor reading a letter that had come with the morning mail delivery from Grants Creek. “Jerrod!,” she said suddenly, “Victoria had a little girl!”
I filled the column in the ledger in with numbers in black ink instead of red and smiled. “What they name her?.”
“Sarah,” Sam replied as she looked up at me with tears in her dark eyes.. “ after my mother.”
“When did the new addition to the Stevens clan arrive?”, I asked as I lay aside my pen.
“Two months ago,” Sam replied “I was there when Victoria discovered she was going to have Sarah.”
My mind slipped back in time to that horrifying day out on the Kansas planes when Sam had been badly injured in that fall. I had hated to let her go, but I knew that she would be all right if she went back to Portersville with Doc. “We should go see them and the new baby,” I suggested “Think Trouble will be ready to go back to Portersville?”
She smiled up at me “He is ALWAYS ready, Jerrod,” she replied “But we have to much going on with the mares, the cattle and now there is a chance that my father might be able to get his memory back if Brian and I can convince him to see that doctor. Come summer we’ll go out there to see Doc and Victoria.”
Now I had no idea that while we sat in my office, talking about Doc and Victoria Stevens and their new baby girl, that my wife had a secret of her own, but she was not ready to share that with me yet. That secret would turn out to be my own beautiful daughter, Cassandra Ilene, but it was not time for that yet and there was a whole lot of events that were fixing to happen between now and then.
A knock sounded on the closed door of my office. “Boss?” I was not yet used to the foremen and ranch hands calling me that. I preferred to be called Jerrod, but they did not seem comfortable with it so I was “the boss.”
“Door’s open,” I replied “Come on in.”
Dakota Joe walked in his hat in his hands and from the look on his face I could tell he had something on his mind. “Mornin’ Pa.,” Sam said as she got up from her place on the brightly colored Indian rug she’d been sitting on. “There was a letter in the mail this morning from Doc,” she added “He and Victoria had a baby girl.”
“That is good news,” Joe replied. “I hope everyone is well.”
“They are,” Sam replied “What is on your mind?”
“I must to take some time off, “ Joe replied quietly “I need to get away from here for a while.”
Sam looked at her father, a worried expression crossing her face . “Have you changed your mind about seeing Dr. Evans?”
“No,” Joe replied “I have not made a decision yet. “I don’t know how long I might be gone, Sam. Ely will take my place and I will get back as soon as I can.”
“Where are you going?” she asked and from the tone of her voice I could tell she was a little worried. Her father had just come back into her life, and now he was leaving again.
“Portersville,” Joe answered “I want to see Doc Stevens.”
“Seeing Doc might be good for you.” Sam replied “When do you plan to leave?
“In the morning, ” Joe said. Sam looked at me and I nodded my agreement.
“Ely is a good man,” I said “and he will do a good job for you while you are away, but I sure don’t expect him to be as good with all those horses as you are, Joe.”
“Thank you, “ Joe said as he turned to go.
“Wait,” Sam protested “It is a long and dangerous ride over into the territory. Please tell me that you are not going alone.”
He smiled at her, “Your grandfather will be joining me.”
“That is good,”I added as I closed up my ledgers.The ranch accounting work
was done. “Just don’t let him cook for you . “, I added “ All right?”
Joe grinned “I have heard that my father is no cook.”