Bonanza
“Things
that go ‘Bump’ in the Night…”
By:
Jane Linnegar & Sadie
Richards
c . 2015
Ponderosa Ranch
Nevada
The
raven-haired young woman adjusted her hat a little lower onto her forehead to
protect against the bright July sun as she rode up Adam and Beth Cartwright’s
laneway. Her light hazel eyes glanced
around, and she could remember just how the area used to look years before: a
wide-open meadow that backed onto
She and Hoss got on very well, but it was her and Joe – being so close in age – who had hit if off immediately. They both had a great sense of humour and fun – not to mention a predilection for getting into all sorts of trouble, and a real talent at pulling pranks – not only on each other, but on the other family members, also…
As she continued up the laneway, she spotted her cousin Adam’s horse, Sport, standing in the shade in one of the paddocks. She pulled her own horse to a stop and jumped down, grateful to be out of the saddle; riding was one of the few things in which Dr. Josephine Cartwright did not excel, and for the first time since leaving the East more than a month ago, she questioned whether coming west had been a good idea. But seeing Sport contentedly munching grass in the paddock – living, breathing evidence of how close she was to her adored oldest cousin – the feeling spirited away, and she raced over to the rail fencing. “Sport! Come on, fella!” She reached into a jacket pocket, then held out a shiny red apple. The horse’s head popped up on hearing his name, and he ambled over when he spotted that apple. As he crunched it out of her hand, she ran one hand gently along the gelding’s neck. “Good boy, Sport.” She could envision Adam astride the animal and remembered how handsome he always looked perched on the horse’s back. She gave Sport one more pat, swung clumsily up onto her own horse again, and continued up the laneway.
As Josie drew
closer to the large ranch house, she smiled at its resemblance to her Uncle
Ben’s home – though this one was a little larger and had a few more windows to
it. When Adam had written her to tell
her about building the home and of his marriage to his college sweetheart, Beth
McCord, Josie couldn’t have been happier for him. When he also added that he’d found out that
Sarah was his and Beth’s daughter, and later that he and Beth had had triplets
– well, how could she not come to see him?
She had fallen in love with the Ponderosa as a little girl visiting from
Josie raised a hand and knocked crisply on the door. She heard a hubbub inside of a young child’s voice and some crying in the background. The door was opened by a young girl, who looked just like Adam. Josie’s breath caught as she smiled down at the little girl. “May I help you?” the child asked.
“Well – you must be Sarah!” Josie exclaimed, finding her voice again. “You look just like your father!”
Sarah looked at her questioningly, then frowned a little. “Yes, I’m Sarah, but who are you?” Ever since her little sister, Rosie, had been kidnapped the previous year, Sarah was suspicious of strangers who seemed to know too much about her family. Yet this young woman seemed familiar somehow. It took Sarah a few moments to realize it was because the smiling dark-haired lady had the same eyes as her and her pa.
Just then, Josie heard a very familiar baritone voice. “Who is it, Sarah?”
Then Adam appeared from around the corner of the dining room with a baby boy in each arm. When he spotted Josie, Adam’s face split into the biggest grin Josie had ever seen in her life. “Josie?! Is that really you?!!!” Adam stepped to the settee, set the two babies down, and then just flew into her waiting arms. They spun around joyously, laughing and practically shouting at each other, in their excitement.
“Where did you come from? Beth – get in here – Josie’s here!”
“
“You weren’t supposed to be here for another two weeks! Why didn’t you tell me you were arriving early?”
“I wanted to surprise you, Adam!”
“Well, you certainly did!”
Adam looked down to a confused Sarah. “Sarah, this is your – I mean my – I mean our – cousin Josie.”
Sarah’s eyes lit with sudden recognition. “Oh, yeah! Pa told me all about you. How do you do?” She held out her hand, and Josie reached to shake it.
“I’m just fine, Sarah. So nice to finally meet you, too!” Josie beamed at the little girl. She had been surprised, certainly, to learn that Adam was the child’s father – they had all believed Sarah was another Cartwright cousin, the daughter of Ben’s middle brother, John – but Josie was secretly pleased when Sarah’s true paternity was revealed. Josie’s happiest memories were of the times she had spent with Adam when he was in the East for college when she was a little girl herself, and Josie knew he would be an incredible father.
Adam wrapped one arm around his cousin’s shoulder and herded her towards the settee. “Come on, meet the family. This is Wyatt and Shane. That’s Wyatt, on the left.”
Josie looked down to see Wyatt and Shane grinning up at her, then looked to her dear cousin again. “Oh, Adam! They’re identical! And they both look just like YOU!” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she swallowed hard to keep them at bay. Adam had dedicated so much of his life to helping Ben raise Hoss and Little Joe, and Josie was overcome with joy at the sight of him finding his own happiness.
Adam looked to his cousin and grinned. “Yeah, they definitely have that ‘Stoddard’ look to them, don’t they? Just like Sarah, here!” He reached one arm around his daughter’s shoulder as she smiled up at the two of them.
“Just like all three of us,” Sarah added, eliciting chuckles from her father and cousin.
They then heard another voice. “I’m afraid Rosie and I don’t look like anyone else in this family!” Josie glanced up to see Beth with Rosie in her arms as she walked in from the kitchen and across the dining room. Both mother and baby had the prettiest auburn hair and blue eyes she’d ever seen – a sharp contrast to the dark, wavy hair and hazel eyes of the other family members.
Beth held out one hand in greeting as Adam introduced them. “Josie, this is my beautiful wife, Beth, and my lovely daughter, Rosie. Beth, Rosie, this is our Josie.”
Josie bypassed Beth’s outstretched hand and caught both her and the baby up in a tight embrace. “Adam’s told me so much about you in his letters, Beth. It’s so wonderful to finally meet you.” The tears Josie had been fighting broke loose and coursed silently down her face as she reached out one hand to gently caress Rosie’s cheek. The little girl smiled coyly at her, and Josie smiled back through her tears. “She’s just beautiful, Beth. And she looks just like her Mama! It’s only fair that you got one who looked like you.” She and Beth shared a warm smile, their friendship instantly cemented.
As Beth smiled at her husband’s cousin, she marvelled at the resemblance between Adam and Josie. Adam had a small portrait of Josie on his bureau, but seeing the cousins together in person was much more striking. They could have been brother and sister as they shared the same light hazel eyes, bow-shaped mouth, black hair, and that ‘cute nose’ – though Beth had kept that thought about Adam to herself, not wanting to perhaps embarrass him. As it was, Adam often referred to Josie as his younger sister since they were cousins on both sides of their family – Ben was the oldest brother of Josie’s father, Jacob; and Adam’s mother, Elizabeth, and Josie’s mother, Hannah, had been sisters. Beth knew how special Josie and Adam were to one another, and she was thrilled that Josie had finally come for a visit. It would be nice having another grown woman on the Ponderosa for a while.
Adam gestured towards the dining room table. “Have you eaten? Can I get you a cold drink?” They all ambled towards the table and took their seats around it, Josie sitting rather gingerly as she was sore from her ride over. She pulled off her hat – black with a studded band, just like Adam’s – and hung it on the back of her chair.
“I could use a cold drink, but Hop Sing fed me well before I left Uncle Ben’s place.”
Adam looked at her incredulously. “Pa knows you’re here?”
Josie smiled at her cousin again. “Of course, silly. Where do you think I’ve been staying? I got here two days ago. You nearly spotted me yesterday. I almost laughed out loud and gave away my position behind those dining room curtains of his.” She grinned at him wickedly.
Adam laughed at the memory. “I thought the curtains looked a little fat, but we were all more focused on that sick horse, and waiting for the vet to get there.”
Josie’s laughter rang out in the large room, too. “That was a close call, but the horse is just fine now.”
Adam nodded. “Well, that’s good. But what brings you out our way? And how long are you staying? Your last telegram was kind of vague.”
Josie braced herself for the reaction she knew her answer would bring. “In answer to your first question, I wanted to see you and meet your family! In answer to your second… Just long enough to open up my medical practice. Right here in Virginia City!”
Adam leapt from his seat and took his cousin into his embrace, yanking her out of her chair in the process. “You mean – you’re staying for good?!”
Josie gazed into those hazel eyes – so familiar, and so like her own – and grinned. “As long as Virginia City will have me as one of its doctors. I arranged it all with Dr. Martin when I got here. I’ll be working out of his clinic a couple days per week and spend the rest of my time receiving patients here on the Ponderosa.”
Adam felt like his heart had suddenly sprouted wings. He couldn’t believe it: his honorary little sister, Josie, living and working right there! He finally released Josie and sat heavily back down in his chair, still in shock over Josie’s announcement. He ran one hand through his black hair and stared in wonderment at his cousin. Josie had always been audacious, and she never ceased to amaze him.
“What happened to Boston? I thought you and Aunt Hannah were staying with Aunt Rachel while the war was on.”
Josie scrunched her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose, setting Sarah to giggling. It was the same expression her Pa always made when he was irritated.
“Living with Aunt Rachel was its own private war,” Josie grumbled.
Now Beth giggled. Adam had told her about his and Josie’s Aunt Rachel, the older sister of Adam’s and Josie’s mothers. A spinster, Rachel had taken it upon herself to preserve the integrity of the Stoddard family – as she saw it, anyway – and as a result tended to be highly critical of its members, especially her unconventional niece. Josie had grown up in Washington, DC, but her father had forbidden her to return home after she had graduated from medical school the previous spring. The Civil War was raging too close to the capital city for Jacob Cartwright’s liking, and as he himself was headed into the Union Army as a surgeon, he wanted his wife and only child far away from the danger.
Josie had tried it for a year, but between putting up with Rachel’s snide comments and finding few professional opportunities in the Boston medical community, she had gotten fed up pretty quickly. As Adam’s letters about Sarah, Beth, and the triplets trickled in, Josie decided to act. If her father wanted her far away from the war, then she would take herself very, very far away from the war. Without consulting either of her parents – or Ben or Adam, for that matter – Josie had booked her passage out of Boston. She would forever remember the deliciously naughty feeling of leaving the ship line’s ticket office with her second-class ticket tucked safely in her pocketbook. Her second stop that day had been to the telegraph office to let her Uncle Ben know she would soon be on her way. His response had been elated – so much so that he never stopped to question whether Jacob and Hannah approved of their daughter’s decision. But at twenty-one years old, Josie would have made the trip with or without their support, though she was relieved when her mother was genuinely pleased by the prospect of Josie moving west. Hannah had also been unsurprised when Josie announced she was not planning to return to the East. After their visit to the Ponderosa when Josie was nine years old, it had been clear to Jacob and Hannah Cartwright that their daughter belonged in Nevada with her cousins.
Adam leaned back in his chair and smiled at Josie. “I can imagine that living with Aunt Rachel was tough for you – I remember that much, from my college days! But I guess, in some ways, leaving to head West was tough, too. I thought it was awfully brave of you to attempt Boston in the first place.”
“It meant a lot to Mama and Papa,” Josie said as she swirled the last inch of water around in her glass. “I just hope I haven’t let them down.”
“Something tells me you haven’t let anyone down in your entire life,” Beth observed, still studying this new family member. Josie cast her a grateful smile.
Sarah, as she tended to do, had been watching and listening closely and could no longer contain her curiosity. She usually warmed up slowly to new people, but Josie felt so familiar already that she piped up. “Are you really a doctor?!”
Josie grinned at the little girl she was already considering her niece. “As real as they come.” She jerked her head in Adam’s direction. “Knock your pa over the head with something, and I’ll prove it to you.”
Sarah giggled as Adam shot Josie a look of mock indignation. “I didn’t know that girls could be doctors,” Sarah confessed.
“Why not?” Josie replied with another smile. “They can be ranchers, can’t they?” Josie winked at her, and Sarah grinned, pleased that Josie was obviously aware of how much help she was on the Ponderosa. Indeed, Adam had written to Josie about Sarah’s skill with a rope, a rifle, a branding iron, herding cattle and also in the barrel-racing ring. Josie leaned over and gently cupped Sarah’s chin in her hand. “Girls can be anything they want to be,” she said seriously, making direct eye contact with the child. “Especially if they’re Cartwright girls.” Sarah smiled again as Josie released her chin, and the family retired to the living room.
They spent the rest of the afternoon catching up – Adam and Beth telling Josie about reuniting with one another, building their new home, their marriage, and having the babies, and Josie reporting the latest news of their family back east and the progression of the war. But Josie was easily distracted by the antics of the triplets, who were now walking – and often running – all over the house. She tried to hold Wyatt and Shane in her lap, but the two little boys squirmed and wriggled until she let them go. Rosie, however, was perfectly content to sit quietly with Josie as the adults talked, and by the end of the afternoon she had nearly perfected saying Josie’s name.
“Joey!” Rosie cried, eliciting laughter from all of the adults plus Sarah.
“Close enough, Rosie, close enough,” Josie said laughing.
Adam’s eyes just shone at his youngest daughter. “What are your brothers’ names, Rosie?”
The little girl smiled as she answered the question. “Wyatt and Thane!”
Adam winked to Josie, then asked, “And what do they call you, sweetie?”
The baby grinned very broadly again, as she reached her arms wide, as if to exemplify it. “Me Wosie!!!”
The attending adults, and Sarah, all smiled at the youngster. At just fourteen months old Rosie’s language skills – as were those of her two brothers – were quite advanced for her age. Adam attributed that to the fact that Beth was a former school teacher, who spent as much of her busy days as she could reading to her youngest children, and teaching them how to talk. Though – as with most very young children - some of the letters were a little harder to enunciate than others.
The afternoon passed in record time, and as they sat at supper that evening, Sarah was struck by a sudden thought and turned to her cousin.
“Are you gonna live here with us, Josie?”
“That’s a wonderful idea!” Beth exclaimed. “You could stay right here in the downstairs guestroom.”
“Oh no, thank you, Beth. I wouldn’t dream of imposing. You have a full house as it is, and Uncle Ben already has me set up comfortably in his upstairs guestroom.”
“At the end of the hall?” Adam asked. Josie nodded, and Adam smiled. “I designed that room with you in mind. All those windows. I know you like getting the daylight.”
Josie smiled, touched not only that Adam had remembered this but also that he had planned a room for her, as if he knew that she would one day return to the Ponderosa.
“Uncle Ben said I can stay as long as I need to,” Josie continued. “Though he kind of muttered it. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if he said that he’d put me up or that he’d put up with me.” Her brow furrowed in concentration as she replayed the conversation in her mind.
“Well, if Grampa Ben gets tired of you, you can stay here,” Sarah offered.
“Thanks, Sarah,” Josie replied, ruffling the eleven-year-old’s hair.
After supper, Sarah offered to help Beth put the triplets to bed so Adam could accompany Josie back to Ben’s house. Josie was good with a gun, but her riding was unsteady, and Adam disliked the idea of her riding home alone in the dark. He and Josie headed outside, where Adam saddled up Sport, and the cousins set off together down the laneway and onto the road toward Ben’s.
They rode silently for a time, happy just to be back together; Josie and Adam had never needed much conversation between them. Finally, Josie broke the silence.
“I’m sorry I didn’t make it out here for your wedding.” She frowned a little as she kept her gaze pointed straight ahead over her borrowed horse’s head.
“Don’t think twice about it, Josie,” Adam replied. “It would have been wonderful to have you here, but everything happened pretty fast. Besides, it was right in the middle of your school term.”
“That’s true. Still, I feel bad I wasn’t here for everything that’s happened over the past couple years, especially the triplets being born.” Josie fell silent again for a moment before continuing. “Uncle Ben told me Beth had a real hard time.”
Adam sighed. Fourteen months after the triplets’ miraculous birth, he still felt a sharp clenching in his gut when he thought of how close he had come to losing both Beth and Rosie during the delivery. “Yeah, she did.” He played for time by grabbing his canteen and taking a long swig of water. When he spoke again, his voice was chipper once more. “But everything turned out all right, and now you’re here, too!” He grinned over at Josie, his eyes dancing in the moonlight as they rode along.
“Yes, I am,” she affirmed with a decisive nod of her head.
Just then, Josie’s horse took a little hop over a fallen tree branch Josie had not seen lying on the trail. She squeaked in alarm and clutched frantically at her saddle horn to avoid falling backwards off her horse. Adam quickly reached over and grabbed her arm to help steady her.
“Ugh!” Josie exclaimed as she straightened back up in her saddle and tried to regain her composure. “So much for confidence.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” Adam assured her.
“Are you sure?”
“On this ranch, anything’s possible.”
As they continued the ride back to her Uncle Ben’s home, Josie came to realize just how much she’d missed not only her beloved cousin, Adam, but all her other family members, and even the Ponderosa ranch itself. Although under the silvery glow of the full moon in the inky black, star-splashed sky, the ranch looked a bit different than it did in the full light of the day, Josie kept remembering little pockets of the ranch as they passed them: a small copse of Ponderosa pines where she and Adam had had a picnic when she first came to the ranch, and she was just learning how to ride a pony. As they splashed through a shallow creek, she remembered fishing there with Hoss: he, the proud older cousin, teaching a nine-year-old the finer details of the sport. And just about everywhere she looked she was reminded of various adventures with Little Joe.
When they finally reined to a stop at Ben’s home, Adam swung down from Sport’s back to walk Josie to the door. Like he often did, he placed a protective arm around his younger cousin’s shoulders.
Josie turned to him as they reached the door and hugged her cousin warmly. “I’m so glad I decided to come west for good, Adam. I love your family – the kids are all so cute, and Beth is such a warm, wonderful woman – I feel like I’ve known her my whole life, already!”
Adam grinned at his cousin. “Yeah, a lot of people say that about her. Guess it’s because she’s so down to earth. It’s what first attracted me to her. Well… that, and that auburn hair of hers…” Adam winked at his cousin, and she smiled wickedly at him.
“Would her lovely blue eyes have had anything to do with that initial attraction, too?”
Adam threw up his hands in surrender. “Yeah, those too – guilty as charged!”
“Speaking of being guilty,” Josie began slyly. “You and Beth were married two Octobers ago?”
“Yeah.”
“And the triplets were born that following May?”
“Yeah…”
Josie ticked the months off on her fingers and gave Adam a devilish grin.
“Yes, yes - you’re very clever with arithmetic…”
“You’re a cad, Adam Cartwright.”
There was a sudden serious look on Adam’s face as he gazed back at his cousin and reached one arm lightly around her shoulders again. He had written to her with the general story of him and Beth. Now he thought he’d come clean with her, and tell her the rest.
“Well, you see, Josie... It’s when Beth and I were in college and planning to be married, that I got her pregnant with Sarah. It wasn’t planned – it just happened one night. We were just two young kids in love. When her parents found out she was pregnant, they sent Beth away and told me she’d moved to another college out of state and that she didn’t want to see me anymore; they didn’t even tell me the real reason why she’d left: that they’d sent her away because she was pregnant and that they were infuriated with her, and me, for ‘doing that to her.’” He sighed heavily. “I was absolutely shattered, when she left me behind…”
Adam paused for a few moments, trying to figure out just how to tell his young cousin the rest of the story. Josie could see the raw emotion on his face, before he continued, and she reached out and grabbed hold of Adam’s hand. “So, years later, when we finally found each other, again, and I’d found out Sarah was not my cousin but my own daughter, and that Beth was her mother – well, it just all suddenly ‘fit’…
“We’d been apart for about ten years when we found each other again, a couple of years back.” There was an awkward, momentary grin, on Adam’s face as he continued. “I guess we were just catching up on all the loving we’d missed with each other, when she got pregnant with the triplets. We’d already planned, again, to be married – it just kind of moved it up a little. All we wanted was to be together, and have a family, at last, so it certainly wasn’t a hardship. Just a very natural progression, of our love for each other …”
Adam’s voice trailed off at that point, and he blushed awkwardly, a little, as he lowered his gaze to the ground. Josie knew Adam rarely bared his soul to anyone, so she was touched that he’d been so candid and open with her. The devilish grin on her face had disappeared as she’d listened to Adam’s very personal details about him and Beth. She reached her arms gently around her cousin, and they huddled together, just hugging warmly, as they stood under the porch overhang.
Moments later, Adam reached for the door latch, then swung the door open, and said simply, “So, Josie, now you know: I’m not a ‘cad.’” He paused for a moment, again, then, “By the way - we’re having a family picnic on Saturday. Everyone’s going: Beth and I, the kids, Pa and my brothers, too. That ‘family’ includes you too, of course, if you don’t have to work! Say, pick you all up at noon? I’ll give your bottom a bit of a break, and bring the buckboard.” He grinned cheekily at his cousin, and she smiled back at him.
“A buckboard would be wonderful, Adam - I’ll see you all then! By the way – your Beth is a very lucky woman.” She reached up to give him a peck on the cheek, and another warm hug, then waved him off as he strode back to Sport and swung up onto his back.
As Adam reached the corner of the barn, he reined Sport to a stop and turned around to look back at the house, once more. Josie had already entered the great home and closed the heavy, dark pine door behind her. Adam smiled to himself – somehow, with Josie living there, it looked even homier than it usually did. He clucked to Sport, and they loped off into the darkness, following the trail that would take them home.
******
Two days later, Josie was in Dr. Paul Martin’s clinic in Virginia City getting the grand tour of the older physician’s facility.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you’ve come to Virginia City,” Dr. Martin said as the pair of them stepped out of the supply room and back into the main office. The skeleton Dr. Martin kept on display in the front of the office grinned eerily at Josie, and she turned her head to avoid its vacant stare.
“That makes two of us,” Josie replied. The skin on the back of her neck prickled, and she turned around and glared at the skeleton as if to admonish it for gaping at her. All the while, she silently chastised herself for being spooked by a set of dry bones. This was hardly the first batch of human remains that Dr. Josephine Cartwright had encountered, and they had never bothered her before, but for some reason, this skeleton was giving her a terrible case of the willies. She turned back to Dr. Martin. “Felt like I couldn’t get to Nevada fast enough.”
Dr. Martin smiled at her. “Spoken like a true Cartwright.” Dr. Martin was, indeed, pleased that Josie had come to Nevada. He had treated the entire Cartwright family for the last twenty years, and had been the attending physician at not only Little Joe’s birth, but also the birth of Adam and Beth’s triplets. After all this time, he considered the family more friends than patients, and he was highly amused by this new addition to the clan. “But what I was referring to, Dr. Cartwright,” he continued, “was how badly the West needs more doctors. There is only one physician every few hundred miles out here. That spreads one man awfully thin. And even with both of us based in the same town, we’ll be able to reach far more patients than I ever could alone.”
Josie grinned. “Thank you again for the opportunity. You certainly were under no obligation to help me get started.” She didn’t say so, but they both silently added “especially since I’m a woman” to the end of Josie’s sentence. Josie knew she would be fighting an uphill battle to gain credibility as a doctor, but she was ready for the challenge.
“Any friend of Ben Cartwright’s is a friend of mine,” the senior physician replied genially. “And don’t you worry. The good people of Virginia City will feel the same.”
There was a sharp knock at the door just then, and Dr. Martin hustled over to answer it. He swung the door open to reveal Beth, Shane, and Sarah. Beth was smiling broadly as she balanced Shane on her hip, but Sarah was ducking behind her as if she were trying to hide.
“Beth!” Dr. Martin greeted her. “Wonderful to see you! I do hope everyone’s well?”
“Yes, yes,” Beth said, waving at Josie. “We were just in town, and Sarah insisted we stop by to see how Josie’s getting along.”
Josie grinned and stepped around Dr. Martin to greet Beth and the children. Her heart soared when Shane stretched his arms out to her, and Beth handed him over.
“Joey!” the little boy cooed, placing his chubby palms on Josie’s cheeks.
Josie laughed delightedly and kissed the toddler’s nose. “You’ve been talking with your sister Rosie, I see,” she said as Shane grabbed the end of Josie’s long, dark braid and began twiddling it between his fingers. She glanced around Beth and Sarah and peered down the empty street. “Where are Adam and the other two corncobs?”
Beth smiled at Josie’s disappointment over Adam’s absence. “He’s down at Cass’s General Store with Rosie and Wyatt. He said if we wanted to meet him there, we could all head over to the Baxter’s Restaurant for lunch.”
Josie’s face lit up. “That sounds great! Come on inside while I get my things.”
Beth stepped into the clinic and took Shane back from Josie, but Sarah hesitated on the porch. “I’ll just wait out here,” she called.
Josie and Beth turned and looked back at her.
“Don’t be rude, Sarah,” Beth chastised gently. “Come inside and say hello to Doctor Martin.”
Sarah poked her face through the doorway so that she was, technically, inside and hollered “Hi, Doctor Martin!” Then, so quickly that Josie worried the child would injure her neck, Sarah snapped her head back out of the clinic.
Beth sighed with exasperation, but she could not investigate the issue with her oldest child just then because Shane had wriggled loose from her arms and was making a beeline for Dr. Martin’s bookshelf. She ran to snag him before he could start ripping the books off the shelf and flinging them around the room. Josie chuckled at the little boy’s antics and ambled outside to her other cousin. Sarah was sitting on the edge of the wooden porch and scuffing her boots around in the dirt. The battered, too-big round hat she always wore had drooped over her brow, and Josie reached out and pushed it back so she could see the girl’s eyes.
“What’s wrong, kid?” she asked, unconsciously echoing the exact words Adam had spoken to her so many times when she was a child.
Sarah sighed and did not look up. “Nothin’,” she mumbled.
“Aw, come on. You can tell me. I’m really good at keeping secrets. Not like your Uncle Joe.”
This elicited a tiny giggle, and Sarah looked up at Josie. “It’s that skeleton Dr. Martin has,” she whispered. “I think it’s scary.”
“I don’t blame you for that,” Josie said in all seriousness. “I’ve been around plenty of dead people, and that thing’s been making my skin crawl all morning. You feel free to wait out here.” She tipped Sarah’s hat brim back over her eyes and went back into the clinic to grab her hat and collect Beth and Shane.
A few moments later, the four Cartwrights were strolling down the wooden sidewalk toward the general store. True to her word, Josie had not told anyone why Sarah refused to step foot in the clinic, and Sarah was now chattering away happily to her new cousin, giving Josie her entire life story from her very first memory right through to what she had eaten for breakfast that morning. Josie had just finished telling Sarah how happy she had been to learn that Adam was Sarah’s father, when Sarah, who was beaming up at Josie and not watching where she was walking, tripped on a loose board in the sidewalk and fell forward. Neither Josie nor Beth had time to react, and Sarah hit the sidewalk hard, her outstretched hands skidding painfully along the rough boards.
Beth gasped and danced around on the spot, wanting to reach down to Sarah but afraid to set Shane loose on Virginia City. Josie’s hands, however, were empty except for a slim, black-leather bag she carried in her left, leaving her free to drop to her knees beside Sarah, who was snuffling as fat tears rolled down her face. The left knee of her jeans had ripped open, and the broken skin beneath the torn fabric was oozing angry red droplets of blood. Sarah’s left hand was merely scraped up, but imbedded deep in her right palm was a massive splinter. Sarah hiccupped as she bravely fought to stanch her tears, and Josie scooped the little girl up in her arms. The eldest Cartwright child was a bit small for her age: more the size of a nine year old, as Adam had said in his letters. She carried her to a bench in front of the telegraph office, a few feet away. Beth rushed behind them, Shane bouncing in her arms.
Josie deposited Sarah on the bench and before tending to the girl’s wounds, she dug into her skirt pocket and drew out her handkerchief.
“Hey, you’re all right,” she said softly as she dabbed at her cousin’s tears. “This is pretty mild as far as Cartwright injuries go.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Beth muttered.
Josie glanced up at her honorary sister-in-law with a bit of surprise. She’d already noticed that Beth seldom used words like ‘yeah’ or ‘ain’t,’ always using ‘yes’ or ‘isn’t,’ the more proper terms in ‘polite conversation’ – Beth being a former school teacher – so the use of that colloquialism surprised Josie a little. “Sounds like there’s a story there!” she said, her eyebrows raised in perfect imitation of Adam’s expression of interest.
“Several,” replied Beth with a little laugh. “Each more ridiculous than the last.”
Josie snickered as she unclasped her black leather bag, which Beth now saw was filled with basic medical supplies. Josie caught Beth peering over her shoulder and smiled up at her. “Best to be prepared when you’re surrounded by Cartwrights,” she explained with a cheeky wink. Beth giggled again, amazed and amused at how quickly Josie could shift between looking just like Adam and pulling off a singular impression of Little Joe.
Josie applied some iodine to a clean rag and dabbed gently at Sarah’s knee. The little girl sucked in her breath as the iodine stung her raw skin. Once the area was clean, Josie wrapped it in a bandage and then reached for Sarah’s hand to inspect the splinter. Sarah snatched her hand back from Josie like a dog with an injured paw.
“It’s fine,” she insisted, cradling the injured appendage. “Let’s just go get lunch.”
“Sarah, let Josie see your hand,” Beth commanded. She knew why Sarah was reluctant to allow Josie to tend to her hand. The last time Sarah had gotten a splinter, Beth had had to dig it out with a sewing needle. The sensitive child had sobbed through the entire procedure and then hidden under her bed for the next two hours.
Fresh tears already streaming down her face, Sarah obediently extended her hand to Josie. As Josie bent over her cousin’s hand, she accidentally bumped Sarah in the face with her hat brim. This elicited a giggle from the child, and Josie looked up at her and grinned. Sarah’s own hat had fallen off during her tumble, and her dark, wavy hair was frizzing in all directions.
“Here, maybe you better hold this for me,” Josie said, removing her hat and dropping it on Sarah’s head, purposely letting it droop over Sarah’s eyes so she couldn’t stare at the nasty fragment of wood sticking out of her palm. “Hey, Sarah,” Josie continued as she dug into her medical bag for her tweezers. “Did you ever hear about the time your pa attempted to be the first man to achieve human flight?”
“No,” Sarah replied in awe. “Did he build wings?”
Beth let out a snort of laughter, and Josie chuckled. “No,” Josie answered. “He didn’t have time to plan that far ahead.” She found her tweezers and began planning her attack on the splinter as she continued. “He took me tobogganing the last Christmas he was in college. Guess that would have been the year before you were born. Anyway, he was racing a friend down the hill and hit a bump. He shot straight up off that sled like someone had lit a stick of dynamite under his rear end. He flew a good thirty feet before he landed headfirst in a haystack.”
Both Sarah and Beth burst out laughing. Shane didn’t understand what was so funny, but joined in the laughter all the same. “Adam never told me about that!” Beth exclaimed, wiping at her streaming eyes with the back of the hand that wasn’t full of toddler.
“And I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know that I told you,” Josie sniggered.
As Sarah’s laughter died away, she pushed the brim of Josie’s hat back from her eyes. “You’ll tell me when you’re about to pull that splinter out, won’t you, Josie?” she asked nervously.
“You mean this splinter?” Josie replied, triumphantly holding up the bloody sliver.
Sarah’s mouth dropped open. “But- but I didn’t feel a thing!”
“That, my dear, is the power of a good distraction,” Josie said with a grin as she wrapped a bandage around Sarah’s palm. “Come on, let’s go meet up with the Incredible Flying Cartwright.”
Sarah gave Josie a quick hug around the neck. “Thanks,” she whispered in Josie’s ear.
“Anytime, kid,” Josie whispered back.
As Sarah hopped down from the bench, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the telegraph office window. She paused for a moment to admire how she looked in Josie’s hat. She knew Josie had intentionally purchased a hat identical to Adam’s, and Sarah liked the way it increased the already uncanny resemblance among herself, Josie, and her Pa, and she suddenly wanted everyone to know she was related to Dr. Cartwright.
“Here’s your hat, Sarah,” Beth said, handing her daughter back her raggedy old hat. Reluctantly, Sarah removed Josie’s hat and gave it back to her and then took her own hat from her mother and placed it on her head.
Beth led the way to the general store, where they found Adam, Rosie, and Wyatt paying for their purchases. Adam kissed his wife and hugged Josie. He was about to inquire about Sarah’s bandaged hand and knee, but Sarah tugged on his elbow and beckoned for him to bend down to her level.
“Pa?” she whispered in his ear. “Could I please have a new hat?”
Adam straightened up again in disbelief. “You want a new hat? What brings all this on? You’ve been turning down the idea of a new hat for as long as I can remember,
Sarah …”
Sarah watched as one of her Pa’s eyebrows arched at her, and she scuffed one toe a little into the floor boards of the store as she gazed down at them.
“Yeah – I know Pa…. but I really like Josie’s hat. And yours.” Her face brightened up as she looked up to her Pa again. “She let me wear hers while she pulled out my splinter – see?” The young girl held out her freshly bandaged hand – well, at least that explained that, Adam thought. “Besides, Pa – I think it’s only fitting that because we all look so alike, we could wear the same hat, too – don’t you think?!”
Adam couldn’t remember the last time his eldest daughter’s voice had sounded so imploring, so he smiled at her again. “Of course you can have a new hat, Sarah. Let’s have a look right now, shall we?”
He led the way to the hat section of the store and reached for a black felt hat – the very same style as his own and Josie’s – and plunked it onto her head. He watched as the hat just about covered her whole face. All that showed was the bit of a frown just below the brim. Adam winked and smiled very broadly at both Josie and Beth. “Hmm – that seems to be a little too big…” and he heard Sarah giggle at his comment, as she lost the frown again.
He placed that hat back on its stand, reached for a much smaller one, and placed it squarely, and levelly, onto her head. Stepping back a bit for a better look, he instructed, “Give your head a bit of a shake, Sarah.” She did, and the hat sat right where Adam had placed it. “Okay, now nod your head up and down a few times, sweetie.” Sarah complied again, and the hat didn’t budge once. Adam grinned in great satisfaction. “It’s a perfect fit, Sarah.”
His daughter grinned up at him, modeling her new hat, then reminded him, “I need the same hat band, too, Pa!”
Adam was touched by the whole procedure – imitation was the finest form of flattery, after all. He ambled along the store’s aisle a few more feet till he got to the small display stand of hat bands. Sorting through them quickly, he removed the one he was looking for: Black leather, with shiny silver studs – exactly the same as both his and Josie’s. The sun that filtered through the red lettering of the shop’s front window glinted on each of those silver studs as Adam wrapped the band around the crown of the hat and buckled it lovingly on. “There you are, Sarah! How’s that?”
She turned to look into a small oval mirror that perched on the counter’s top. A very wide smile fell across her face, as she looked to Adam again. “I really, really, like it, Pa!”
Adam nodded once, as he placed one arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go pay for it, then!” He tossed a sideways wink to Beth, and she smiled back at her husband.
While Adam paid for Sarah’s new hat, Josie caught a glimpse of herself, Adam, and Sarah in the mirror that hung behind the shop’s counter. All three of them with the same dark, wavy hair, hazel eyes, and black hat. She smiled at their reflection, touched not only that Sarah wanted to imitate her and Adam, but also that the little girl – and her mother – and indeed the triplets - had so fully accepted her into their family. Yes, Josie thought, she truly had come home.
After loading their purchases into the buckboard, the seven Cartwrights headed towards Baxter’s Restaurant for a well deserved lunch. Beth fell back a few paces and grinned as she saw the six members of her family walking and chatting in front of her as they continued along the board sidewalk. From left to right it was Adam, holding Wyatt’s hand, then Sarah hanging onto Shane’s hand, and Josie on the far right, clinging to Rosie’s hand, as the smallest of the triplets had to trot a little to keep up with the happy group: The “Three Musketeers” in their matching hats, and the other “Three Musketeers” traipsing along happily beside them. Beth only wished that she had her very own camera, so she could capture that precious moment forever. They should have another family portrait done, she thought, with Josie in it this time. She took a few fast strides to catch up again and then tucked her arm in around Adam’s. He glanced down at her and gave her a slow wink and a broad grin.
The Cartwright clan soon reached Baxter’s Restaurant and made their way to one of the larger tables in the establishment. It took a bit of figuring, but they were all soon seated. There were no high chairs, so Adam, Beth and Sarah each took a side of the table and had one of the triplets on their lap, and Josie sat on the fourth side of the table. She was amazed at how Adam, Beth, and Sarah all managed to keep everything on the table top out of the reach of the triplets – almost like they had eyes in the backs of their heads. Not to mention quick reflexes.
Just as Wyatt reached for the salt shaker, Adam deftly moved it to one side. “You can’t have that, son.”
Beth reached for the table syrup at the same time as Shane and stopped him from pouring it all over the tablecloth. “No, no Shane – that’s too sticky to play with…”
Even Sarah – with the tiniest of the triplets, Rosie, on her lap – easily stopped her little sister from grabbing at the cutlery that was already set on the table. “No, Rosie, you’ll hurt yourself!”
As a sort of compromise, and to help keep the babies entertained and quiet, Adam let Wyatt play with a spoon - that seemed safe enough – and the little boy was soon alternating between sucking on it and banging on the table with it. Both Rosie and Shane thought that that looked like a lot of fun, and grabbed spoons, too, and were banging out a tune, along with their brother. At that point, Josie snickered, and Adam rolled his eyes, at the three youngest ‘Cartwright musicians’, then silently, and patiently, removed the spoons from each of their little hands, as the waiter reached their table to take their order.
Adam glanced around the table. “Beef stew okay for everybody?” They all agreed that would be easy, and fast. Adam intercepted Wyatt’s reach to the pepper pot, just as he asked, “Can you add a little extra to my, Beth’s, and Sarah’s plates please, Luke? You know, for the babies?”
The waiter smiled at Adam – the Cartwrights were very good long-time customers. “Sure, Mr. Cartwright. Three more spoons, too?”
Adam folded the menu, and handed it back to the young man. “Yeah – that would be great - thanks, Luke.”
While they waited for the order to arrive, Adam kept his son entertained by bouncing Wyatt up and down on his knee and making little ‘clip-clop horsey noises’ at him. As soon as the other triplets heard and saw that, they all wanted a turn! Adam obliged, and Josie smiled at her cousin. He was so good, and patient, with the three littlest Cartwrights.
The meal soon arrived, and everyone happily dug in. Especially Wyatt, Shane and
Rosie: They were just learning the mechanics of eating with a spoon! After a few minutes, Wyatt tired of using the spoon, and dug eagerly into his Pa’s plate with both hands. Adam grabbed him quickly, and wiped his hands off with a napkin, and then commented very dryly, “Now, come on buddy – use your spoon, like the polite little gentleman your Ma and I are trying to mould you into…” He put the spoon patiently back into the baby’s hand, and Wyatt was soon eating fairly properly again.
Shane – who had been sharing Beth’s meal - suddenly liked the look of Sarah and Rosie’s plate, and quickly reached across to sample a small piece of potato. Rosie took great exception to that, “No, Thane!” and swung out with her spoon at Shane’s head.
That’s when the yell went up… “Oh, Rosie – don’t hit your brother!” Beth cuddled the baby to calm him down, and he was soon eating again happily – with his fingers. Beth just turned to Adam, and grinned, as she gently wiped off Shane’s hands and started feeding him with a spoon herself – alternating between bites to her own mouth, and then Shane’s. Josie thought that perhaps she should lend some assistance, but she didn’t want to disrupt the show – the whole scene was just so entertaining to watch.
Meanwhile, Rosie was trying an alternate route to her stomach, via her ears, by shoving little pieces of carrot into them. Sarah rolled her eyes at her little sister. “No, Rosie – through your mouth, like this, see?” She raised a spoonful of the stew up to Rosie’s mouth. The baby grabbed at it, and promptly threw the spoon across the table. Josie caught it in midair, before it could splatter against anything - which just made Rosie fall into gales of giggles.
Adam smiled at his cousin. “Hey, good catch – you’re hired.”
And so it went…
It wasn’t too long before everyone had had their fill, and even the babies had gotten more inside of themselves than outside, so the meal was deemed a great success. Beth sighed as she pushed her empty plate away. “I think I’ll go clean up the babies a little bit, Adam. Come on, Sarah – give me a hand, please.”
Adam smiled, as he watched them leave, and Josie just propped her chin onto her hands as she leaned her elbows onto the table. “I just don’t know how you all do it, Adam. All we’ve done is have lunch, and I’m already exhausted!”
He just grinned broadly at his cousin. “‘Practise’, Josie, ‘practise’…three times a day…” Then he winked at her, and the two cousins each just started to laugh.
By the time Beth and Sarah had cleaned up the triplets, Adam had paid the bill, so they all set off for Doc Martin’s office once more to drop Josie off. After a block or so, the triplets were starting to tire of walking. Rosie suddenly stopped dead in her little tracks and reached her outstretched arms up to Adam. “Up, Papa, up!”
Beth smiled at the little girl, as Adam lifted her up into his arms. “It is just about time for their nap, Adam – they’ve all had a busy day!” Adam smiled in agreement with his wife, as he gently rubbed the baby’s back. Rosie tucked her face into the crook of his neck, closed her eyes, and fell right asleep. Watching her tiny cousin drift off, Josie smiled as she remembered a Fourth of July when she was only seven years old, and she had fallen asleep in Adam’s arms in just this way.
It wasn’t too many more steps before Wyatt and Shane were slowing down, too. Wyatt rubbed his eyes, as he looked up to his Mama. “Me sleepy, Mama.” Beth stooped down, and scooped him up into her embrace, where he cuddled quietly.
Not to be outdone, by his siblings, Shane reached his arms out to Josie. “Me, too – me, too!” Josie grinned down at the youngster. How could you resist that little face – so like Adam’s, with those big hazel eyes, and those long eyelashes, his little face framed in the same dark wavy hair, and looking so imploringly up at her?! She reached down for him, and cuddled him into her arms. He soon had his cheek nestled against her shoulder. “I go sleep now…” and he promptly closed his eyes. True to his word, his deep, regular breathing, soon told Josie he’d set sail for the ‘Land of Nod.’
As they headed along the sidewalk – now with all three of the babies asleep in their arms – Josie looked over to Beth. “It’s times like this that make it all worthwhile, isn’t it?”
Beth smiled back at her. “Yes – all the work, and the worry, when they were first born …Since they were so small, we could never even be really sure they’d all survive. All the through-the-night feedings – and having to bottle feed Rosie for the first few months, because she just wasn’t strong enough to breastfeed properly… But Adam – and, indeed, Sarah - was always such a big help. He was my rock, my strength, when I was just so tired, and overwhelmed, some days, during those first few months… He always IS my rock.” She looked up at her husband, and Adam smiled down at her.
“We’re both each other’s ‘rocks,’ Beth – you know that, sweetheart. It goes both ways, in this family.” He leaned to give her a peck on the cheek. Josie made a mental note to herself that - if she ever got married - the man would have to have the same good traits for being a husband and father that her own dear cousin Adam had.
Doc Martin was just stepping out of his office when they arrived. “Oh, Josie – there you are! How was your lunch? I have to head out to the Andersons’ ranch. Mrs. Anderson has gone into labour – they sent one of their riders in to let me know. You can ‘hold the fort’, for a few hours?”
Josie smiled at the senior doctor. “Of course I can, Doctor Martin – I’m looking forward to it.”
Sarah tugged at Josie’s sleeve. “Thanks for fixing my hand, Josie – it hardly hurts at all!”
Doc Martin smiled down at her. “You see, Sarah? Doctor Josephine Cartwright knows just what she’s doing. Well, I’d better be off: time, and babies, wait for no man!” He doffed his hat at the ladies, then popped his medical bag up into his buggy’s seat, and, climbing aboard, slapped the long lines onto his horse’s back, and set off at a quick pace down the road.
As Josie watched Doc Martin roll away, a thoughtful expression crossed her face, and she turned to Beth.
“Please forgive me if this is entirely too personal, but I would love to talk to you sometime about your experience carrying and delivering the triplets. As a physician, I find it fascinating. It’s not often you run into a set of triplets, especially with two of them being identical and the third being the opposite sex.”
Beth smiled and laughed softly; Josie had the same scientific curiosity as Adam. “Of course. If I can ever manage to get away for more than a minute.”
Josie chuckled as Adam turned to her once more. “So, still on for the picnic, Saturday?”
Josie passed a sleeping Shane into Adam’s empty arm. “I wouldn’t miss it – I’ll see you all then.”
Adam grinned broadly. “Don’t forget your bathing suit, now. Sarah here can swim like a fish – I know she’ll love to go swimming with you, too, Josie – we can all go for a swim!”
Josie gulped a bit at that comment – she didn’t even know how to swim, but she was not about to admit it. She blushed a little, then “Oh – ‘swimming’ - alright – see you Saturday!” Then she quickly ducked into the clinic.
Adam looked to Beth, after the abrupt departure of his cousin. “Well, that was pretty strange… Hmm…Oh, well - let’s get these sleepy heads home!”
From behind the clinic window’s curtain, Josie watched them leave and wondered if it was at all possible to learn that particular skill by the weekend. Her thoughts soon had to turn to all things medical, however, as a couple of patients arrived at their medical office.
When Josie got home later that day, she was met in the barnyard by an excited Little Joe. “Hey, Josie! Come on to the barn! I gotta show you something!”
Josie rushed right past him. “Can’t Joe – gotta get into the tub!”
Joe crinkled his nose. “Why? You been sprayed by a skunk or something? You smell okay to me. Besides, I want you to see my new saddle!”
Josie just waved one hand at him. “Later Joe, later, okay? Gotta go, now.”
Joe shrugged as he watched her rush into the house. “Women!” he exclaimed as he shook his head and wondered again why his oldest brother had thought getting married was a good idea.
Inside the house, Josie pulled off her hat and dashed across the great room. She took the stairs two at a time and hurried along the upstairs hallway to the washroom. Closing the door behind her, she quickly pulled off her clothes and turned on the bath’s tap, grateful that Adam had finally installed plumbing into the great home. By the time the bathtub was nearly full, Josie had steeled herself to the idea that she could teach herself how to swim.
How hard could it be?
She stepped into the warm water, sat down, and settled back. “Now, I guess the first thing is getting used to your face being underwater.” She nodded her head decisively and then took a big breath and slipped down into the depths of the massive tub. In a very few moments, she popped back up again like a cork, coughing and spluttering. Holding her breath underwater was not exactly one of her strengths. Indeed, Josie had always been of the firm conviction that if the good Lord had intended people to flop about underwater, then he would have equipped them with gills rather than lungs.
Josie scraped her long, inky-black hair back from her face and rubbed the water from her eyes. “You can do this, Josie.”
Another big breath, and another plunge. She managed a few more seconds this time – an improvement, at least.
“Maybe if I can just teach myself how to float, I could fake it.” Josie wiggled down in the tub a little and let her body go limp.
She sank like a stone, and the water swirled around her face and up her nose. Practically leaping into the air again, she came up coughing up bath water, and grabbed at the sides of the tub.
“Dr. Josephine Cartwright – you CAN do this!” By sometimes referring to herself in the third person, she could convince herself of things she otherwise found unbelievable.
Relaxing once more, she stretched out her arms, then put her head back. Her head didn’t sink – she was floating! No – wait a minute. She realized her backside was planted firmly on the bottom of the tub. She was only sitting, and her head was reaching way back, as her hair floated on the warm water in a black circle around her face. A little snort of laughter escaped her, as she made the realization.
“Well, at least my hair can float,” she muttered. “Oh well, I guess the truth will out come Saturday.” Josie reached for her wash cloth and the bar of soap. “No use all this good water going to waste, I guess,” she sighed as she began washing herself.
Josie had soon shampooed her hair, too, then, stepping out of the tub, and pulling the plug, she grabbed for a towel, wrapped it around herself, then sprinted across the hallway to her own room, to get dried and dressed for dinner.
******
Later that same evening, Adam was having his own adventures with a bathtub as Beth was catching up on her sewing upstairs and Sarah was working on her studies up in her bedroom. Adam thought he’d help Beth by giving the triplets a nice bath.
“Now, Wyatt, you stand right there for Papa!” Adam commanded, as he reached the first of the triplets out of the big hip bath and onto the kitchen floor. He turned – just for half a second – to get Shane out, when he heard a very loud giggle and the ‘ploop – ploop - ploop’ sound of the wet feet of a dripping baby racing away from him towards the great room. Adam’s head just about swivelled all the way around as he watched the chubby, dimpled cheeks of his little son disappear around the corner of the kitchen. “Wyatt?! Get back here!” His words went unheeded. Adam heaved both Shane and Rosie out of the tall tub and wrapped the two of them in a single, big towel. “Now - you guys wait right here for Papa – I’ll be right back!”
Adam took off after his first son as Rosie and Shane just looked at each other, and grinned. It didn’t take long for those two to unravel themselves from the big towel, and join the chase! Adam was amazed how well a fourteen-month-old little boy could avert capture. He realized that because Wyatt was so short, the toddler could easily dodge under the tables, behind the chairs, and all around the various pieces of furniture, as the wild chase continued. After a few moments even Adam was laughing, in spite of himself, as his young son was managing to elude him and keep just beyond his grasp. Adam finally cornered him behind the desk in his study. He scooped the little lad up into his embrace, and Wyatt just laughed out loud.
“Me wun fast, Papa!”
“You sure do, buddy!” Adam agreed, with a broad grin, as he headed back towards the kitchen, his tiny son still cradled safely in his strong arms. That’s when he realized he had two more escapees to round up, who were giggling as they ran after each other, going around and around the coffee table in front of the large fieldstone fire place. Just for a moment, Adam thought this could take a while, then he had that magic ‘eureka’ moment, and called out, “Who wants a cookie?!” Adam thought it was worth a try – it had always worked for both Hoss and Little Joe at that same age. Come to think of it, it STILL worked on Hoss and Little Joe! A bit of bribery sometimes went a very long way… And work it did! Both Rosie and Shane rushed after their Papa, as fast as their chubby little legs could carry them, as they all galloped back to the kitchen to get dried, diapered, and dressed in their sleepers, and readied for bed. Also to each eat that sweet cookie reward, for letting themselves be ‘captured,’ of course.
By the time ten o’clock rolled around, all the kids were long in bed, and both Adam and Beth were ready to call it a day, too. Beth sat at her mirrored vanity table, brushing the braiding out of her hair as Adam sat on the bed, pulling off his boots.
“Those three babies of ours sure have a lot of energy. They all led me on a merry chase when I got them out of the tub tonight. It’s easy enough to herd them up, though, if you dangle an offer of cookies in front of them.”
Beth laughed out loud. “I’ll have to remember that one, Adam. Some days it’s a case of ‘whatever works,’ I guess!”
Adam chuckled, too. “Well, it certainly saved me a whole lot of running around tonight – that’s for sure!” Adam unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, then stood to undo his jeans and slipped them off, too. He let out a loud sigh, as he slid under the covers. “It’s sure been a long day – and this bed feels extra comfortable tonight!” he commented as he clasped his hands behind his head.
Beth glanced into her mirror and caught Adam’s reflection there. “You must be getting ‘old’, my love – looking forward to your bed that much…” She stifled a smile as she turned her head to look at him.
Adam playfully flipped back the bed covers: all he was wearing were those short, black briefs of his. “Oh? Is that right, hey? Well, come on over here, and I’ll show you just how ‘un-old ’ I am…”
Beth just loved that familiar expression on his face – that mischievous smile, the one raised eyebrow, and the twinkle in those hazel eyes of his. She smiled as she stood and walked towards him. “I’ll be right there!”
Adam reached out his arms as she slipped into the bed beside him. Then he pulled the warm covers back over the both of them as Beth cuddled against his chest. “I really love your cousin Josie, Adam. She’s so good with all the kids – and I can see she already has a young fan in our Sarah. It’ll be so good having her around.”
Adam laughed softly as a thousand memories flooded his mind at once. “Yeah – she’s always been a lot of fun - ever since she was a kid herself. She’s never really lost that childlike quality, that sense of fun, somehow. I guess it’s what endears her to a lot of people. Pa says my mother was the same way.”
Adam reached across Beth to turn down the oil lamp on their bedside table, and then they lay in the darkness for several moments before Beth spoke again. “That was strange when we dropped Josie off at Doctor Martin’s, wasn’t it? She practically ran through the doorway, almost like she couldn’t escape fast enough.”
Adam grunted in agreement. “Yeah, that was pretty strange wasn’t it? I don’t remember the last time she made such an abrupt exit - it was right after I mentioned about going swimming at the picnic this Saturday. Hmm… By the way, Beth. I’m thinking about teaching Wyatt, Shane, and Rosie how to swim. With Lake Tahoe in their backyard –well, I think it would be a good idea, and the sooner the better.”
Adam felt Beth nod her head against his shoulder in agreement. “Good idea, Adam. Well, G’night, sweetheart.”
Adam kissed her gently. “G’ Night, Beth.” It wasn’t long before they were both asleep.
******
Ben glanced up from his dinner plate the following evening, and, seeing Josie still hadn’t joined the family, he looked to Hoss. “Where’s your cousin, Hoss? It’s not like Josie to miss a meal.”
Hoss shrugged as he snagged a slice of beef off the platter his Pa had just passed to him. “Beats me, Pa. I dunno - she’s been spending a lot of time in the tub the last couple of days. I guess it’s a ‘lady thing.’ I find that a bath once every coupla weeks or so is enough for me.”
Joe snorted in laughter. “Too bad it’s not enough for the rest of us, Hoss!”
Hoss had just pulled a face at his younger brother, when they heard Josie trotting down the stairs. She hurried over to the table a little red-faced as she sat in the chair that used to be Adam’s place. “Sorry I’m late, Uncle Ben.”
Ben smiled at his niece. “That’s alright, Josie. No harm done. But the boys tell me you’ve been spending a lot of time in the tub recently. Nevada a bit dusty for your liking?” His dark brown eyes twinkled as he teased her.
Josie blushed a little again. “They do say that cleanliness is next to godliness.”
Hoss grinned and his eyes sparkled in amusement, too. “I always thought that cleanliness was next to impossible on a ranch!”
They all laughed at his joke, but Josie made no further comments as the various platters of meat and vegetables were passed along to her. She didn’t want to risk the laughter that would erupt if she told them the real reason for the twice daily visits to that big tub, especially since she was making no progress in learning to swim.
******
Saturday dawned nice and early at Adam and Beth’s home, and there was excitement in the air as Beth prepared the food for the picnic that day. Several of the biggest chickens from their flock had been selected the previous day, and now Beth was frying up the various cuts after first dipping them into her secret old family recipe: a light batter blended with tasty spices. Sarah was chopping up the potatoes for the potato salad as the triplets watched from their high chairs – the best place to keep them safely out of trouble – as Adam was outside doing the morning feed and stall-cleaning chores.
By the time the potatoes were cooked, Beth had made the potato salad fixings: homemade mayonnaise mixed with finely chopped green onions and sliced and diced hard-boiled eggs. Wyatt’s eyes were the largest, and the most excited, as he watched his Mama work, so he got first taste. Beth handed him a little piece of the potato salad on a spoon. He pulled it to his mouth and took a bite.
“Good, Mama!”
Beth lovingly brushed the little lad’s hair out of his eyes. “I’m glad you like it, sweetie!” Shane and Rosie each had a taste, too. It was pretty unanimous – their Mama made great potato salad.
It was just before ten o’clock when Adam finished the chores and joined his family in the kitchen. “That smells great, Beth!” He reached into the basket to check out the contents, and Beth slapped his hand playfully.
“Now, that’s for the picnic, Adam! You’ll just have to wait!”
Adam looked at her with a wounded expression. “Just one little wing won’t hurt!”
How could she say no to that sorrowful face? “Oh - one wing, then!”
Adam grinned triumphantly as he raised that tasty morsel to his mouth and took a big, mouth-watering bite. “Just excellent, Beth – excellent! Well, come on family – we’re burning daylight, here. Let’s get going to your Grampa’s house and pick up everyone else!”
A last minute check was made to be sure that everything they needed was piled by the door. There was a change of clothes and multiple diapers for the triplets, towels and bathing costumes for everyone else, and of course the huge, packed picnic basket for the ‘main event’.
Once the buckboard had been loaded, Adam tried to place Wyatt in beside his siblings, who were already settled in the back. The little boy objected, as he braced his feet against the edge of the buckboard’s side panel.
“NO! Me dwive, Papa! Me dwive!” Adam took the upper hand, here, and eventually got Wyatt safely settled into the buckboard’s box. Wyatt snuffled and held his arms out to his Papa, his big hazel eyes on the verge of tears, as he looked pleadingly at Adam.
Adam rolled his eyes. There were times when he wanted to be the strict, yet fair, father – like his own Pa had been with him – and not let his children always get their way and end up being spoiled. But when he also thought of how many precious years he’d missed watching Sarah grow up, he just sometimes weakened.
Adam shook his head in resignation as he lifted Wyatt out of the back of the buckboard once more, then popped him up beside his Mama onto the high perch of the driver’s seat. After pulling himself up, Adam sat Wyatt on his lap and let him hold the long lines as he carefully wrapped his big hands around the tiny hands of his little son.
“Okay buddy – give ’em the command!” Adam winked over to Beth, as Wyatt shouted out “Giddy up!” to the team. With an accompanying slap of the long lines on the backs of Beau and Belle, they were on their way.
Once they’d covered a mile or two, Sarah popped up to stand behind her parents’ seat. “Can we sing ‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’ Pa?!” Adam smiled – singing was an integral part of just about every one of their outings. “Sure, Sarah! Why don’t you start us off?”
Beth grinned to herself as she heard her young daughter’s sweet voice and Adam’s baritone, as he’d soon joined in. Her mind wandered back to two summers previously, when they sang the very same song, together, as Adam and Sarah had driven her back to her boarding house in Virginia City, after sharing dinner with them out at the ranch, and meeting Adam’s family, too, for the very first time. It had been not only the day that Adam proposed to her – twice! – but also the day that she had been reunited with Sarah, after so many years of being apart. Beth joined in singing along happily, too, with that wonderful memory still fresh in her mind.
Meanwhile, in the other house on the Ponderosa, Josie was having one last practise session in the tub. Much to her chagrin, she still couldn’t swim; she couldn’t even float. Resigned to those little facts, she hauled herself out of the tub once more and sighed as she dried herself off and got dressed.
As the young Cartwright family continued their journey to Grampa Ben’s house, Sarah spotted a little cabin she’d never noticed before, off in the distance.
“Pa, what’s that cabin doing there? Who owns it? I never saw that before!”
Adam glanced off into the distance and squinted against the sun’s rays. “That’s actually a little storage shed. The house it belongs to is off back in the trees, there. You can’t see it from here. It belonged to old man Rayner. He used to own this piece of land before Pa bought him out. That’d be about twenty years ago now, I guess… Rumour has it that it’s haunted by his wife, who died mysteriously a couple of years before that. Her death is the reason he sold out, apparently. He died himself a few years after he sold the place to Pa.”
Sarah’s eyes had gotten wider and wider, as her Pa had told her the tale. “Did you ever see her ghost, Pa?!”
Adam threw a sideways glance to Beth and grinned a little. “No, Sarah, I haven’t. But, then, I’m not always around here, either…”
Beth gave him a pleading look, so Adam shut up again, but not before sending another very broad grin Beth’s way. Sarah was suddenly absolutely intrigued by the whole, spooky idea, and she knew exactly who she wanted to talk to about it.
******
The rest of the Cartwright family was already out in the barnyard when Adam, Beth and the kids pulled up. The happy greetings were soon made, and then they all hopped on board the buckboard and headed out to Washoe Lake. Adam noticed the apprehensive look on Josie’s face, but she had just finished a busy week at the clinic, so Adam figured she was probably just worn out. It didn’t take them very long to get to the swimming spot, which was popular with both Virginia City and Carson City families, not to mention many of the homesteaders in the area. Adam and his brothers all had happy memories of swimming in that lake, when the three of them were youngsters. Ben had his own happy memories there, too, swimming with his young sons, as they grew up.
A cheer went up amongst the youngest members of the family when Adam reined the team to a stop under a small copse of Ponderosa pines. As they looked across to the lake they realized that no other family was there that day – they had the beach and the lake all to themselves. Adam hopped down from the driver’s perch then lowered Wyatt and took Beth’s hand as she stepped down, too. Adam glanced around and spotted two very familiar large clumps of bushes. “Okay – boys on the left – girls on the right! Let’s get into our swimming gear, family!” The bathing costumes were passed around, then everyone hurried off, in very high spirits.
As usual, Adam was the first one to get changed. He tore back across the small expanse of grass and onto the sandy beach. He didn’t stop running until he was about waist deep, and then he dove into the crystal clear, cool blue water, his shoulder muscles rippling as he cut through the water. The rest of the Cartwright family had soon joined him. Joe and Hoss got to the water about as fast as their elder brother had, then dived right in, too. When Adam saw Beth and the kids emerge from the trees, after getting changed, he stopped his swimming, and ambled onto the shore again, to help Beth get the kids into the water. A smiling Ben followed closely behind, and a very doubtful-looking Josie brought up the rear.
Adam took Wyatt’s hands gently as he coaxed the small lad towards the water. Wyatt’s eyes were almost as huge as the lake itself as Adam led him waist-deep into the water.
Wyatt looked up to Adam as the water lapped around him, just below his little waist. “Cold, Papa!”
Adam smiled down at the little boy, and knew just what he was feeling. “Well, no, it’s not as warm as your bath tub, that’s for sure!” He led Wyatt a little farther out. The farther Wyatt got, the more he liked it. Adam was soon towing the little guy carefully around by the arms as Wyatt kicked joyously. Maybe teaching them how to swim wouldn’t be as hard as Adam had imagined.
It was another thing entirely as Beth and Josie tried to coax Shane and Rosie into the water. The farther Beth walked out with Shane in her arms, the higher the little lad tried to climb up his Mama’s chest to avoid the water.
Beth sighed as she glanced back to the shoreline, where Josie was standing with Rosie. “I guess he doesn’t like the water today. He loved it the last time we came swimming!” Beth walked back to the shoreline with her young son, handed him to Josie, and picked up Rosie. “Can you please watch him for just a few minutes while I take Rosie in, Josie?”
Josie grinned broadly. “Of course I can, Beth!” She was thrilled that Beth trusted her to watch her children. “We can build a sandcastle together!” She also felt she was off the hook – for now, anyway – as far as swimming was concerned.
Beth waded into the water, leading Rosie by one small hand. Rosie loved the water – and the deeper, the better! Her favourite thing was to dip her face in just enough so she could blow bubbles in the water. It always made her giggle, and her Mama smile. As the water got too deep for the baby to stand in, without disappearing entirely, Beth picked her up and joined the rest of the family at Wyatt’s first swimming lesson.
Sarah had also joined her Pa and Wyatt and was paddling around and around the two of them as Adam continued Wyatt’s instruction. Even Ben and the boys had joined the small swimming group to see Wyatt’s progress and give the little boy some encouragement. Ben smiled fondly at his brave grandson; Wyatt’s fearlessness reminded him so much of Little Joe, and Ben was moved nearly to tears every time he saw his oldest child interacting with his own children. Adam had grown up to be a fine man, and father, who did his own father proud.
It wasn’t too long before the baby got tired, so Adam headed back to shore with him in his arms. Beth had already gotten out with Rosie moments before, along with Sarah, and then they had joined Josie and Shane in building a very elaborate sandcastle. Adam admired it for a few moments – Josie would have made a fair architect, he thought – before putting Wyatt down in their midst. He glanced to Josie. “Come on, Josie – come for a swim!” He reached down and hauled her up by one hand and loped off across the beach, a very reluctant Josie sprinting to keep up with Adam’s long legs.
Adam released her hand as they got to the water’s edge. After a few more long strides he dived right in again, then popped up and shook the water from his dark hair. “Come on Josie! I’ll beat you to the raft!” All the other Cartwright men were up for that challenge, too. Josie gazed off into the distance. The raft was about two hundred feet from shore. She was sure the water was also pretty deep out that way.
Hoss, Joe, and Ben were bobbing near Adam.
“Yeah, come on Josie!” Little Joe shouted.
A broad grin came across Hoss’s face as he hollered out, “I reckon you can’t beat me!”
“I reckon you’re right,” Josie muttered under her breath. As she waded towards them all, Josie took a deep breath, then started doing the breast stroke – the same one she’d seen her own father do back home, except she had one leg kicking, and one leg hopping along the sandy bottom of the lake. Maybe she could swim after all.
It worked for several more yards until she hit the lake’s drop off. Josie sank like a rock; the water transitioning from light blue to practically black as she continued her downward plunge. She was simultaneously terrified and fascinated by the experience. She had read about drowning in her medical texts and had once performed an autopsy on a drowning victim, and even as she continued to sink and her lungs screamed for air, a wave of peaceful contentment settled over her, just like victims of near-drowning so often reported. If this was death, she thought, it wasn’t so bad.
Suddenly, Josie spotted a large, dark figure cutting swiftly through the water toward her, and she used the last vestiges of her rationality to remind herself that there were no sharks in Washoe Lake, so she shouldn’t panic. As the figure drew near, Josie realized it was a human, who stretched out a hand and grabbed hold of her arm. She fought to maintain consciousness as she felt herself being hauled upward. Finally, just before she blacked out, she erupted through the glassy lake surface, coughing up lake water and drawing deep, ravenous, gasping breaths. Josie had never known air to taste so sweet.
As she blinked the water from her eyes, and raked her long, raven hair from her face, Josie realized she was safe in Adam’s arms, and she dropped her head against his chest as she continued to suck in oxygen.
A wave of guilt punched Adam in the gut as everything suddenly came together: his mention of going swimming, and what Josie’s swift departure at Doc Martin’s in town just days before had all meant. He brushed a lock of hair out of Josie’s eyes and smiled apologetically at his cousin.
“You might have mentioned you couldn’t swim.”
Josie gazed up at him as she tried to stop her chin from quivering. “In a whole family of swimmers? How could I admit to that? I already can’t ride. I didn’t want to admit I can’t swim, either.” Her voice trailed off sadly at that point, and their hazel eyes locked for a moment or two before Josie dropped her gaze. Adam could feel her utter frustration at her perceived helplessness, and he smiled encouragingly at her again.
“It’s not a big deal, Josie. I can teach you, if you want to learn.” Then he gave her a gentle little kiss on her forehead and hugged her more closely to his chest, grateful that he had pulled her up in time.
Seconds later Ben, Hoss, and Joe reached them, too.
“Are you alright, Josie?” Joe queried, his pupils still dilated with fear.
“What happened – did a turtle bite ya?” Hoss asked with alarm. Those Washoe turtles could be vicious little buggers, and Hoss had a scar on his left big toe to prove it.
Adam shook his head. “No, no. She’s fine. Just a little cramp in her leg. Come on, little sis – let’s get you back to shore.”
Josie looked to her older cousin with even greater gratitude. She knew her embarrassing little secret was safe with him. She wrapped her arms around Adam’s shoulders and let him tow her back to shore.
Beth, Sarah, and the triplets had watched from the shoreline as the drama had unfolded, and they were relieved when Josie was safely back on dry land. As they crowded around her, she insisted she was fine – and that she just needed to rest a bit, and get her breath back.
Beth nodded, and smiled in agreement. “How about a bit of lunch for everybody, then?” The whole family agreed that was a great idea.
A very large blanket was spread across the beach for everyone to sit on, and Beth dug into the picnic basket. The chicken and potato salad were soon passed around to the hungry swimmers. Adam, Beth and Josie each took one of the triplets in hand, and then carefully pulled off bits of chicken meat for them, and popped it into their enthusiastic, hungry little mouths. That was soon followed by the potato salad, which was also a very big hit with the various family members.
When the meal was finished, Josie stood and glanced around to her family. “I think I’ve had enough swimming for one day. I’m going to get dressed.”
Sarah watched as Josie dashed off, and after a minute or two of hesitation, followed her to the ‘bush change room.’ Josie had just pulled her shirt and jeans back on when Sarah poked her head around the edge of the bushes.
“You know what, Josie? I’ve had a leg cramp swimming before, but I never sank the way you did!”
Josie blushed a little; her cousin was perceptive, just like Adam. “Well, Sarah – can you keep a secret? I don’t know how to swim, and it was foolish of me to pretend I could. I just didn’t want to admit I couldn’t do it.”
Sarah nodded her head thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know how to be a doctor, either. And I would never even try. But I do know how to swim – I could teach you! We Cartwright girls have to stick together, right?”
Josie looked down into that little smiling face and those big hazel eyes, so like her own and Adam’s. “You’ve got a deal, kid! And maybe while we’re at it, I could teach you a thing or two about doctoring. I could show you how to perform a simple examination – listening to a heartbeat, checking a throat, that sort of thing.”
Sarah’s eyes lit up. “That sounds great! Thanks, Josie!”
Josie reached out to hug her little cousin. “Let’s get back to the others, okay?” Josie reached for Sarah’s hand, and the two young ladies ambled hand-in-hand back to the sunny beach.
When they’d returned to the group, Sarah sidled over to Adam and whispered in his ear.
“Pa – can I talk to you, please? In private?”
Adam put down the chicken leg he’d been gnawing on, and stood slowly. “Sure, Sarah, lead the way.”
He followed as Sarah led him back to the ‘bush change room,’ and he leaned over as Sarah signalled him, then whispered in his ear “Well – you see, Pa. Don’t tell her I told you, but –Josie can’t swim! I offered to teach her, but I may need your help! If she starts to sink like she did earlier – well, I’m not big enough to haul her out!”
Adam stifled a smile, as he stood up again. “Sure, I can help you Sarah. Anything for Josie, right?” Adam winked at his young daughter, and Sarah nodded in agreement, as she took her Pa’s hand, and they walked back to the beach again.
After the prerequisite hour’s break after lunch, the family headed into the water again. Adam patiently gave each of the remaining triplets a bit of a swimming lesson. Rosie was the keenest of the three – even more so than Wyatt had been – but Shane needed a bit more coaxing into the water before he got comfortable with the whole idea. Once he found himself safe under his Papa’s tutelage, though, he relaxed and kicked and splashed away happily as Adam gently towed him around by his arms.
Once the lessons were over, Hoss took over the care of the triplets for a bit. It truly was a sight to see: That big, gentle, happily grinning uncle of theirs – floating flat on his back in the shallow area by the shore – with the three triplets bouncing happily on his big tummy that was covered in a bright red and white striped suit. Both Hoss and the babies were laughing and giggling away joyfully, and Josie thought that perhaps the triplets had hit upon a good idea. When Hoss had selected that red and white suit, however, Joe had quipped that he looked like an overgrown barber pole. Hoss had laughed out loud at that remark.
“Better a barber pole than a zebra like yours, Little Joe!” That had shut his little brother up. Adam, too, had smiled at that comment. He’d gotten just plain black, to dodge any comments on his appearance.
Seeing that the kids were well looked after, Adam and Beth decided to have a bit of a private swim, away from the family. They were both very strong swimmers, so headed out to a point of the lake several hundred yards away that would put them out of sight to the rest of the family.
It was an invigorating swim in the cool water on that early July day. As they rounded the point, they headed for the shallows by the shoreline to take a break. As Adam’s feet finally touched the sandy lake bottom, he shook the water from his hair, then smoothed it back into place, just before he took Beth into his arms.
Beth smiled up into that handsome face. Unlike Ben and Hoss, both Joe and Adam preferred a topless swimming costume, and just wore the short trunks, when they went swimming. Beth just loved that look on Adam. As she admired that very masculine looking wet, matted look to Adam’s chest hair, she encircled her arms lovingly around his neck.
“That was a great swim, sweetheart! And it’s nice to see the babies are getting more used to the water, too!”
Adam gazed down into those beautiful blue eyes that he just loved, as Beth moved in closer to him. He felt that familiar tingle below his navel as his body responded to the closeness of Beth as she cuddled against him. A few moments later, Adam smiled slowly and grinned. “Well, who’d have thought that could happen in water this cold?!” His eyes twinkled as he bent to kiss her – a long, and lingering, kiss. Beth smiled when their lips finally parted.
She looked up into the hazel eyes of the man that she loved. Beth always felt just like putty, in Adam’s arms, at moments like this… Very willing putty…
“Well, it’s hard to keep a good man down, isn’t it? Come here, ‘cowboy’...” She reached her arms tenderly around his waist, as they kissed again…
Back at the beach, Hoss was trying to teach Wyatt and Shane how to catch a ball, while Little Joe was helping Rosie construct another sandcastle. Their progress was hindered, however, by Josie and Sarah poking Josie’s stethoscope into Joe’s chest so Sarah could listen to his heart and Josie thumping him in the knee with a soft mallet to check his reflexes. Sarah giggled as she watched her uncle’s leg give a little involuntary kick, and she snatched the mallet to give it a try on her Grampa Ben. Something seemed a little off to Joe, however, and he glanced around, taking inventory, and then looked over to Ben, and called out.
“Hey, Pa! Adam and Beth have been gone a long time. Want me to go have a look for them?”
Josie snorted once and then bit her lip as Ben looked up from the book he was reading. He gazed over his reading glasses at his youngest son and smiled knowingly.
“I’m sure they’re just fine, Joe. Let them have their privacy, son.”
Joe just shrugged and went back to the sandy construction, still blissfully ignorant. Josie, meanwhile, had to avoid making eye contact with anyone for the next ten minutes, fearful that if she did, she would burst out laughing and be unable to stop.
Once Adam and Beth had completed the swim back to their family’s beach, they found the rest of the family stretched out around the picnic blanket. They plopped down wearily, side by side, and then Sarah plunked down in between her Pa and Josie.
“You know what, Josie? Pa showed me a real live haunted house on the way here. And it’s right on our ranch!”
“Haunted, huh?” An amused grin spread across Josie’s face. She glanced over at Adam, who nodded.
Sarah’s statement had gotten the attention of all of the family members, and Ben spoke up. He knew just what house they were talking about. He’d heard the rumours, too, when he’d purchased the property years before.
“We don’t know if it’s really haunted – but rumour has it that it is.”
Sarah’s face lit right up. “Can we explore it, Pa?!”
Adam just smiled at his eldest daughter as he tilted his head to one side and then raised one hand to help shield his eyes from the bright sun as he gazed at her. “Who’s the ‘we’?”
Josie answered that question. As a physician, she certainly didn’t believe in ghosts, but she recognized the opportunity to spend some time with her little cousin and get to know her better.
“Why – Sarah and me, of course! It could be a lot of fun! We could camp out and check it out right after nightfall – that’s when the ghosts come out!” Josie’s eyes were just as wide and full of excitement as Sarah’s were, and Adam chuckled at the similarity in the young ladies’ faces. Adam glanced to Beth, and she smiled and nodded her head in acceptance of the idea: She knew it would be fun for them, and she trusted Josie to keep Sarah safe.
Adam grinned at the two cousins. “Your Ma and I don’t have any objections. I guess it would be a real adventure for the both of you, wouldn’t it?”
Ben himself was getting in on the plans, too. “There’s a full moon next weekend. Just right for hunting down ghosts!” His dark brown eyes sparkled at Josie and Sarah, and it was confirmed that the adventure would take place the following Friday. Meanwhile, Joe and Hoss had just looked to each. They both got the same idea, at just about the same time, and they winked knowingly to each other. That house would be ‘haunted,’ all right!
******
Two days later, Hoss and Little Joe convened a secret meeting in the barn loft.
“All right, now, Hoss. We gotta make this cabin real spooky. I want the people in San Francisco to hear Josie and Sarah screamin’.” Joe’s eyes gleamed with mischief.
Hoss’s blue eyes mirrored Little Joe’s delight, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Then his brow furrowed.
“Joe? You think that house is really haunted?” He ducked his head, a little embarrassed by his own silly question.
“Nah,” Joe scoffed. “Hoss, you know there’s dozens of those old cabins all over the Ponderosa from before Pa bought the land. They’re just empty cabins. Josie and I even set one on fire once, and I promise you, no ghosts came flying out. Ain’t no such thing.”
Hoss’s eyes shot wide. “You and Josie set a cabin on fire?! When did you do that?!”
Little Joe waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, that was a long time ago. Back when Josie visited the first time when we were kids. We were out riding and got caught in a downpour. We ducked inside one of those old cabins, and when we tried to light a fire to help dry us out, it got a little out of control.”
Hoss’s eyes went even wider. “You set a cabin on fire in a downpour?! That’s actually kinda impressive.” He thought about this for a few seconds. “You know? I’m not sure you and Josie livin’ in the same house is such a good idea.”
Joe scowled at him. “Oh, quit worrying, Grandma ! Now, about this haunted house…”
Two hours later, Little Joe and Hoss cackled as the plans were finally set.
Hoss glanced down the supply list of all the items that would make the haunting ‘come to life’. “So - Josie and Sarah are goin’ out to the old Rayner place Friday afternoon, so I think we should set everything up the day before.”
Joe nodded in agreement. “Good idea. But we’ll need to sneak out there on Friday just as it gets dark to light the smudge pots before Sarah and Josie head into the house.”
“All right,” Hoss agreed, still looking over their supply list. “Smudge pots, whiskey jugs, hammers, an old bed sheet, rope, and some wire. You think that’s all we need?”
Little Joe thought for a moment. “Hey, do we still have those old jingle bells up in the attic?”
“Yeah!” Hoss’s eyes widened in excitement, again. “They’re in the attic with the Christmas decorations. I’ll sneak up there later and dig them out !”
“Then, my dear brother,” Joe announced, carefully stashing their plans under some loose hay, “we are finished!”
The brothers winked very broadly, at each other, as they both reached out in an enthusiastic hand shake. They were still snickering over their brilliant scheming, as they each clambered down the loft ladder.
******
On Thursday afternoon, Hoss and Little Joe snuck away early from rounding up some cattle and rode over to the old Rayner place. They had stashed their supplies there the day before when Hoss had taken the wagon into town, so now all they needed to do was set up for Josie and Sarah’s surprise.
The Rayner home was an old, sagging, two-story log structure that had been empty for a couple of decades. Hoss surmised it would probably fall right over in the next big storm and wondered aloud if it was safe to even go in.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Little Joe reassured him. “If it were as unsteady as all that, Adam never would have agreed to let Sarah and Josie come out here.”
Hoss agreed with the soundness of this reasoning – their older brother was a trained architect, after all – and asked Joe what they should do first.
In reply, Joe handed Hoss a whiskey jug. “We’re gonna hang these in that tree over there so they howl like ghosts. Start hanging.”
Hoss grabbed the whiskey jug and heard a sloshing sound in the bottom.
“Hmm - Sounds like this one ain’t empty yet. Be a shame to let good whiskey go to waste.” He raised the bottle to his lips and took a deep swig.
Little Joe glanced again at the jug he had just handed his brother, and his eyes shot wide with horror. “Hoss, no!” he hollered, a second too late. Hoss’s eyes were already bulging as he sucked in his cheeks at the repulsive flavor now flooding his mouth.
“Gack!” Hoss gagged as he spit out the offending liquid. He coughed and sputtered for several seconds as he fumbled to grab his canteen off of his horse’s saddle. He rinsed his mouth with the water several times before his eyes stopped streaming. Once recomposed, he turned and advanced on Little Joe.
Shrinking back from Hoss’s fiery glare, Little Joe sputtered, “That, uh, that was the, uh, the lamp oil for the smudge pots.”
“You mind tellin’ me, Little Brother, why you put lamp oil in a whiskey jug?”
“Thought it would look suspicious if anyone saw me carrying a bottle of lamp oil out of the house.” Little Joe’s voice had risen a full octave, and this reply came out as a squeak.
“Yeah, because a bottle of lamp oil is way more suspicious than the half-dozen whiskey jugs you were already spiriting away,” Hoss grumbled, his sarcasm making him sound remarkably like Adam.
Little Joe mumbled an apology and then quickly started helping Hoss hang the empty whiskey jugs in the branches of an enormous, ancient black cottonwood. Hoss was still annoyed with Joe and hoped he would rip out the seat of his pants on a stray twig as he clambered up into the tree, but Little Joe returned safely to the ground a few minutes later, his pants still firmly intact.
Joe glanced up into the wide spread of the old cottonwood’s branches. “Now, we just need a breeze…” The brothers stood silently, holding their breath, as they prayed for a puff of wind. The good Lord must have wanted in on their prank because just then, a strong gust of wind stirred up and blew straight across the open mouths of the jugs, letting loose an eerie howl. Hoss, suddenly no longer annoyed with his little brother, hugged Little Joe for joy as they gazed up into the tree and watched their musical trick go off without a hitch.
Hoss slapped Little Joe heartily on the back. “Why, Little Joe, I think these harebrained ideas of yours might actually work!”
“Of course they’ll work!” Joe huffed indignantly. “Now, come on, let’s go loosen some floorboards.”
The brothers spent the rest of the afternoon loosening random floorboards so they would creak when stepped upon, stringing wire around a few doorframes so it would make a “ping!” sound when the door was opened, and Hoss’s favorite, hanging a bed-sheet ‘ghost’ in the doorway of the old master bedroom. Hoss very cleverly rigged the spectre at the top of the door so it would swoop down upon whoever was unlucky enough to open the door first. They discussed rigging the second floor, too, using the Christmas jingle bells, but when Little Joe moseyed over to the staircase to see what was up there, he discovered that most of the staircase had fallen in some years ago; all that remained were the bottom three steps.
“Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about Josie and Sarah going up there!”
The brothers walked through the house again to make one last inspection. At Hoss’s suggestion, their final touch was to grind dirt into all of the door hinges so they creaked loudly at the slightest movement.
It was getting dark by the time they finished – they had fed Ben some cockamamie story about checking on a herd of cattle so he would not expect them for supper – so the brothers decided to test their smudge pots. Joe planned to scatter the smudge pots around the outside perimeter of the house to douse the entire area in a creepy fog. He sent Hoss around to the back of the house with four of the pots while he lit an additional four in front. He was just lighting his final pot when he heard a squawk from the porch right behind him.
“How’s it look back there, Hoss?” he asked, without turning around. No answer. “Hoss?” Figuring his older brother was trying to spook him, Joe plastered on a smug smirk and turned around slowly. “Nice try, Hoss. Too bad you’re about as quiet as a swarm of angry hornets.”
Hoss wasn’t there.
Joe squinted through the smoke from his smudge pots toward the front of the house, searching for the source of the noise, but he saw no sign of man or beast. His gaze swept over the front of the house, and as he watched, the front door swung slowly open. Little Joe would later realize that the oddest thing about that door swinging open was that it made no sound – and he and Hoss had crammed the hinges so full of dirt that the citizens of Denver should have been able to hear the groaning.
“Hoss?” Joe peeped one last time. Then, as if drawn in by an invisible magnet, Little Joe crept toward the front door.
He was careful to make no contact with the door as he slipped past it into the dusky gloom of the abandoned house, as if he were afraid that whoever – or whatever – had opened the door might still be behind it, waiting to grab him. He peeked around the door but saw no one, and he let out a sigh of relief.
“Probably just the wind,” he said to himself. He turned to leave, but just then he heard the unmistakeable sound of pots and pans clanging around in the kitchen. He rolled his eyes. “Aw, now you’re not even trying, Hoss!” he called out, as he strode across the living room toward the kitchen, being careful not to trip over any of the floorboards they had loosened. He made note of a few that were nearly rotted through and decided he should tell Ben it was probably time to bring this place down. But not until he and Hoss had had their fun with Sarah and Josie.
Little Joe flung open the kitchen door. “Good thing I came up with all the ideas for this place!” he declared as he stepped into the kitchen. “Otherwise Sarah and Josie would be getting a good laugh instead of a good sc-”
His voice caught in his throat as his eyes landed on the shimmering, translucent figure of an old woman bent over the stove. Her gnarled, ghostly hand was stirring something in a large, spectral cauldron, and as Little Joe watched with eyes as big as wagon wheels, the apparition pulled the spoon from the pot and turned slowly toward him.
She was wearing a simple housedress, much like Beth and Josie often wore, but because she was not solid, Joe could see right through her to the buttons on the back of the dress. Her silvery hair was pulled tightly into a bun similar to so many other women of Virginia City, but it was her face that burned itself permanently into Little Joe’s memory. Where her eyes should have been were empty sockets – black, gaping holes that Joe felt certain would swallow him whole if he allowed her to get too close. He wanted to turn and run, but his feet felt like they were bolted to the floor.
The phantom raised her spoon toward Joe and opened her mouth. “Soup?” she rasped, her voice an unearthly, hollow scratch.
Little Joe’s scream of terror somehow loosened his feet, and he turned and shot out of the kitchen, through the living room, and out the front door onto the porch, where he collided with something large and solid. He bounced backward, nearly back into the house, and scrabbled around, desperate to get back on his feet. The enormous, dark figure he had collided with loomed ominously over him, and Little Joe shrieked again as a massive hand grabbed the front of his jacket.
“Joe!” Hoss hollered as he hauled his flailing brother to his feet. “What’s the matter with you, boy?”
Joe thrashed a moment longer before he realized who had hold of him. He quit fighting and sagged in relief, though his speech was still failing him. “Gh-gh-gh-gh-“ he stuttered.
Hoss’s forehead wrinkled in concern as he peered into his little brother’s eyes. “You havin’ some sort of a fit?”
Little Joe shook his head, still trying to spit out the word. “GHOST!” he managed at last, jabbing a frantic finger toward the still-open front door.
Hoss dropped his head to one side and raised a sceptical eyebrow at Little Joe. “Nice try, Shortshanks. But ain’t no such thing as ghosts. You said so yourself, remember?”
“I was wrong,” Joe whimpered, scooting closer to his big brother for protection.
Hoss sighed. “I think you’ve been out in the heat too long today. Let’s put out these smudge pots, and get you home. Dump some cold water on your head, or somethin’.”
“But I saw a ghost! I really saw a ghost!” Joe whined. “She spoke to me – she offered me soup, for cryin’ out loud!”
“Sure, buddy.” Hoss shook his head and ambled back around to the rear of the house, to extinguish his smudge pots. Little Joe did the same with the pots in front, but he continually looked over his shoulder toward the front door, terrified that the ghost of Mrs. Rayner would come floating out at any moment, with her darn soup spoon...
The second he had snuffed the last smudge pot, Joe tore across the overgrown yard to where his horse, Cochise, stood waiting patiently. The pinto was completely unperturbed, leaving Little Joe wondering if he had, perhaps, imagined the whole incident in the kitchen. Surely the horses would have sensed something supernatural. But, no, he decided. He had seen a ghost, and the hideous being had… well, it had offered him soup!! Not quite what he would expect from a ghost, but Joe supposed she probably didn’t get many visitors and was just trying to be friendly. He also decided not to say anything further about his encounter. If the usually trusting Hoss was sceptical, Joe didn’t want to know what Ben or Josie would say. Not to mention Adam. By the time Hoss returned from putting out the smudge pots in the rear of the house, Joe had plastered a smile on his face and reported to his brother that he was feeling much better.
“You’re right, Hoss. Guess I did just get too hot.” Hoss clapped him on the back and then swung up into the wagon seat. Joe mounted Cochise, and the brothers rode off for home.
******
The next morning, Josie was all in a tizzy as she packed a small bag for her and Sarah’s camping trip. From his seat in the living room, where he was enjoying a final cup of coffee before heading out for the day’s work, Ben could hear his niece scurrying frantically around her bedroom, and he decided to see if he could help her. He rose from his chair and treaded up the stairs.
“Come in!” Josie called when she heard her uncle’s knock on the door.
Ben stepped into the room and took a quick survey of Josie’s progress in packing. Nearly every stitch of clothing she owned was piled onto her bed next to a small carpetbag that had no hope of holding even an eighth of what lay next to it. Josie was staring into her almost-empty wardrobe and muttering to herself.
“Josephine, would you like some help?”
Josie continued to stare into her wardrobe. “What makes you think I need help?” Then she turned around and saw Ben smiling in amusement at the teetering pile of clothes on her bed, and she giggled. “Sorry about the mess, Uncle Ben. I was just looking for my swimming costume. I could have sworn I put it back in my wardrobe after the picnic last week, but I can’t seem to find it.”
Ben’s brow furrowed in thought. “Hop Sing washed them all. You should have gotten yours back with the rest of your laundry.”
Just then, Hop Sing himself shuffled into the room, and made a quick bow to both Ben and Josie. “Dr. Cartlight! Ranch hand just bring note from Mrs. Beth. She say she accidentally grab your swimming costume last week. It waiting for you at her house.”
Josie grinned at Hop Sing. “Mystery solved!” Hop Sing bowed again and hustled back out of the room.
“Why do you need your swimming costume?” Ben inquired. “Planning to go back to the lake?”
Josie waved a hand dismissively as she began reloading her wardrobe. “No, but Sarah said there’s a shallow duck pond near the Rayner house that would be good for cooling off after we ride out there.” She didn’t mention that Sarah had also said it would be a good place for her to give Josie a swimming lesson since the water wouldn’t be over her head.
“That sounds like a great idea! Just watch out for those leg cramps.”
Josie reddened ever so slightly as she assured her uncle that she would be careful. Ben left the room, and Josie hurriedly put the rest of her clothes away, buttoned up her carpetbag with the clothes and supplies she would take camping, and skipped downstairs to say goodbye to everyone.
Much to Josie’s surprise, Little Joe pulled her aside. He looked suddenly very serious. “Josie? You and Sarah be careful out there. It gets real spooky after dark.”
Josie patted his cheek affectionately, certain he was just trying to scare her. “Sure it does, Joe. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”
Ben had lent Josie a rifle for the excursion, so once she had buckled her new Colt revolver around her hips, she grabbed the rifle from where it was leaning against the sideboard next to the front door and headed out into the yard where she recognised Betsy, a bay horse, that stood saddled and waiting for her. She rolled her eyes. Hoss had shown her how to tack up a horse, but he and Little Joe still insisted on doing it for her nearly every time she had to ride out. It was getting a bit annoying. Josie slid the rifle into its scabbard next to the saddle, tied her carpetbag and medical bag onto the back, and mounted up. She was still a bit clumsy getting onto a horse, but she took pride in the small improvement she had made in the two weeks since she had arrived on the Ponderosa.
Even on horseback, Josie enjoyed the ride out to Adam’s house and felt reassured that despite her lack of several skills important to western living, she had made the right decision in moving here. And she was an intelligent, competent woman. She could learn those skills in time. She even felt brave enough to nudge Betsy up to a trot, though this lasted only a few paces. Josie made a point to care for her teeth, and she didn’t feel like having every last one of them shaken out of her head just then.
Adam was leading Sarah’s already saddled Appaloosa mare, Rebel, out of the barn when Josie rode up. He waved, and Josie just smiled in return; she was afraid to take a hand off her reins for even a second. But she admired her little cousin’s horse. Rebel was fairly small, compared to her cousin’s and uncle’s horses – just barely fifteen hands high – but what she lacked in size, she more than made up for in her splashy Appaloosa markings. Her light buckskin colouring was enhanced with a large, brightly spotted blanket. Large black, and darker buckskin, irregular spots, covered the white ‘blanket’. With her typical striped hooves, and white blaze down her face, she really was a nice looking little mare. Her great looks were capped off with her black points, or ‘socks’, and black, wavy, mane and tail. Sarah spent hours lovingly grooming the little horse – to keep her ‘spots’, and the rest of her, just sparkling! Appaloosas weren’t common back east, and Josie had never seen one in the flesh, until she moved west. She gazed thoughtfully at the animal and decided that if she was ever crazy enough to spend some of her hard-earned money on a horse, she’d like an Appaloosa, too. She tried to imagine herself buying a horse, but then determined that if she had to choose, she’d rather have a dog. Although Adam had once pointed out to her that, “You can’t ride a dog, Josie!”
Josie reined to a stop in front of the hitching rail where Adam was waiting for her, and she slid down from the tall bay horse. She wrapped her reins around the post and turned to give Adam a hug. Though it had been only a few days since she had last seen him, Josie felt as happy as if she hadn’t seen Adam in years. The novelty of having Josie so close by hadn’t worn off for Adam yet, either, and he swung her around playfully as he hugged her.
“Hey, Little Sister.” Adam pushed a stray lock of hair out of Josie’s face. “Ready for your big adventure?”
Josie giggled, still breathless from being swung around. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Adam put his arm around Josie’s shoulders and led her into the house.
Sarah was sitting on the floor, playing with the triplets: several stacks of colourful wooden blocks teetered around the foursome. When Adam and Josie walked in, she jumped to her feet and raced over to hug her cousin. “Ready for our expedition, Josie?!”
Josie grinned and ruffled Sarah’s hair. “You bet!”
Adam grinned at the endearing closeness of the two young cousins. “Sarah, why don’t you run upstairs and grab your things? I’ll watch the babies for you.”
Sarah spun on her heel and scampered up the stairs. Rosie stood up from where she was playing with her brothers on the living room floor and toddled over to Josie. “Up, Joey! Up!” she begged, stretching her chubby little arms up to Josie. Josie happily obliged and rubbed noses with the little girl to make her giggle. Not to be outdone by his sister, Wyatt ran over to Josie and demanded to be picked up, too. Laughing, Josie hefted Wyatt up with her other arm. Shane then waddled over and looked up at Josie with pleading eyes.
Josie gazed down at her tiny, forlorn cousin. “Sorry, buddy, I’m all out of arms.” Shane’s chin began to quiver, and Josie knew she had about two seconds to act before the child let out an ear-piercing wail. Tucking Rosie securely under one arm, Josie grabbed Shane’s hand and hustled them all over to the sofa. Josie plopped onto one overstuffed cushion, set Rosie in the middle of her lap, and balanced a baby boy on each knee. Thus covered in toddlers, Josie looked up at a very amused Adam and shook her head. “I still don’t know how you do it!”
Adam grinned and ambled over to the sofa. He sank down next to Josie and rested his head on her shoulder. “I’m a tired, tired man, Josie.”
“You poor baby,” Josie giggled, not sounding the least bit sympathetic. She turned her head and kissed his forehead, which Rosie found downright hilarious. The baby shrieked with laughter, and twisted around on Josie’s lap, so she was facing her papa. Placing one tiny hand on each of his cheeks, she gave him a giant, sloppy kiss right on his nose.
Adam laughed as he wiped his drool-covered nose with his sleeve. “But it’s worth it.” He sat up straight, snatched Rosie from Josie’s lap then swung her onto his shoulders, holding tightly onto her feet for safety. Rosie giggled delightedly, and started swirling both her hands through his hair. Adam looked over at Josie again, and continued their conversation, as if there were no toddler trying her hardest to make his hair stick straight up. “You sure you and Sarah will be all right out there tonight? It’s pretty spooky…” He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and his eyes flashed mischievously.
Shane had started to wiggle around, on Josie’s lap, so she released him again. He raced off to play with the blocks once more. Josie rolled her eyes at Adam, as she hoisted Wyatt onto her own shoulders. “If you’re trying to scare me with ghost stories, Older Brother, you’re at least ten years too late.” Josie reached up and took hold of both of Wyatt’s hands so he would stop using her long braid to slap Rosie.
Adam tilted his head back to look up at Rosie, and his face suddenly grew serious. “Well, Josie - you just never know.”
Josie sensed there was more that Adam wasn’t telling her, but just then, Sarah and Beth came down the stairs carrying Sarah’s carpetbag and bedroll. Josie gently deposited Wyatt onto the floor, and crossed the room to give Beth a hug.
“All right, ladies,” Beth said, her eyes shining with excitement for Sarah and Josie. “Time to head out! Josie, Sarah’s got your swimming costume in her bag.”
Josie thanked Beth and promised they would be home by noon the next day. Then she turned to Sarah. “Ready to go, kid?”
Sarah nodded enthusiastically and hugged her parents and each of her little siblings ‘goodbye’. Then she grabbed her new black hat and settled it on her head, cocking it over one eye at the exact same angle Josie always wore hers. After promising –again! - to be home by noon the next day, Josie and Sarah practically flew out the door, slowing as they reached the horses; Josie knew enough not to intentionally spook a horse. She helped Sarah tie her bag and bedroll onto Rebel’s saddle, and the cousins mounted up. With a final wave at Adam, Beth, and the triplets, the intrepid explorers set off.
Beth watched Josie and Sarah ride away with a small knot of apprehension deep in the pit of her stomach. “They’ll be all right, won’t they, Adam?”
“Of course they will, sweetheart.” Adam wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Don’t forget, Sarah is in the company on one of the best marksmen in Nevada.”
Beth smiled. Adam had boasted on more than one occasion of Josie’s sharpshooting skills and how he had been the one to discover them when Josie was only nine years old. “That’s true…” Then she remembered the shooting skills of their own eldest daughter.
“They’ll be just fine.” She gathered up Rosie, who was tugging impatiently at her skirt, and followed Adam back into the house.
******
Josie and Sarah chatted amiably on their ride out to the Rayner house. Josie entertained Sarah with a vivid description of her journey from Boston to Virginia City. Sarah regaled Josie with the tale of her winning run at the barrel-racing championship the previous summer, and how she’d gotten her Pa a nice pair of black leather chaps, for his birthday, with the money winnings. Josie was truly touched by that generous gesture, of her young cousin, to the man that they both adored.
“Maybe after you teach me to swim, you could teach me to ride,” Josie suggested.
“You’ll get it, Josie. Cartwright girls can do anything, remember?”
Josie chuckled. “Guess I did say that, didn’t I?’
Sarah grinned and then let out an excited squeal as she looked up again and spotted the Rayner house in the distance, about a half mile away. In the noontime sun, it didn’t look creepy at all; it was just another run-down house at the point where a meadow met the woods. Josie tried to imagine how such an innocuous-looking building could make people think of ghosts, but she just couldn’t do it.
“Gather your imagination, Dr. Cartwright,” she thought to herself. “Don’t spoil this for Sarah.”
The young ladies selected a nice shady spot a dozen or so yards from the house and laid down their gear and untacked the horses. Sarah showed Josie how to hobble her horse so the bay wouldn’t wander off but could still drink from the nearby pond.
After a quick lunch, during which Josie allowed Sarah to play with her stethoscope again, the girls changed into their bathing suits and set off for the small duck pond behind the house. The afternoon sun was hot, and Sarah and Josie waded enthusiastically into the pond’s cool water, laughing as they splashed each other on their way toward the center of the pond. Even at the pond’s deepest point, the water reached only up to Josie’s chest, though little Sarah had to tilt her head all the way back to keep her face above the surface, so they moved back a few feet closer to shore so Sarah could stand normally.
Josie glanced a little apprehensively at her cousin. “So all I do is relax, right?”
“Pretty much!” But as Josie started to lean backward, Sarah stopped her. “It’s easier facedown at first.”
Josie stared down at a little tuft of green scum that was floating past, and her lip curled up. “You mean I have to put my face in the water?”
Sarah giggled and confirmed that, yes, Josie did have to put her face in the water. “Just remember, this water is shallow, so if you start to sink, don’t panic. Just put your feet down.”
“Right.” Josie took a deep breath, gingerly stuck her face in the water, and lifted her feet from the bottom of the pond.
Just like she expected, Josie sank like a stone.
She dropped her feet and stood back up, her long, black hair dripping in her disgruntled face. Sarah reached over and plucked a strand of algae out of Josie’s hair.
“It’s all right, Josie. That was a good start. Try it again, but pretend that you’re lying on your bed. Trust the water to hold you up, just like your mattress does.”
Josie shook off her frustration and focused on her young cousin’s advice. She took another deep breath and plunged her face into the water once more. She lifted her feet and hoped for the best.
It worked! She was floating!
Josie floated for a full five seconds before she got so excited she lost her composure and sank again. This time when her head popped out of the water, she wore a huge grin from ear to ear.
“You did it, Josie! You did it!” Sarah grabbed Josie around the waist and gave her a huge hug.
Josie hugged her back. “I did! I wanna try that again!” Sarah giggled as Josie flopped onto the water’s surface again. This time, she was able to hold her float for half a minute before she needed to come up for air. The excited cousins hugged again.
Josie and Sarah spent the rest of the afternoon in the pond, and Josie eventually reached the point where she could float on her stomach indefinitely and was even mastering the mechanics of floating on her back – which, she discovered, really was a bit harder, just like Sarah had said. But at least she could breathe while she did it…
“That’s great, Josie!” Sarah cheered as they sloshed their way out of the pond in the late afternoon. “We’ll want Pa around for when you go out deep again – you know, just in case you get nervous or something – but you can do it now!”
Josie ruffled Sarah’s damp hair. “You’re a good teacher, kid. Must get that from your mother.”
The cousins changed back into their jeans and shirts and hung their swimming suits on a tree branch in the sun to dry. It was getting close to suppertime, but Josie was ravenous after her swimming lesson, so she treated herself and Sarah to two cookies apiece from the stash Beth had packed for them.
Josie polished off her cookies quickly and stretched out contentedly on the bedroll she had laid down on the ground. Sarah relaxed next to her and nuzzled her head into Josie’s shoulder.
“Josie? Would you tell me more about my pa in college? I liked that story about him flying off the sled.”
Josie laughed
and pulled her cousin closer to her side.
She thought for a moment, and then launched into the tale of one summer
when Adam had coached her to a victory at the Fourth of July spelling bee. “I was only seven years old. My schoolteacher couldn’t believe it when I
spelled ‘antediluvian’ correctly.”
Sarah giggled and begged Josie for another story. Josie was happy to comply, and they spent the
rest of the hour or so before suppertime swapping funny tales about Adam.
Josie also remembered when Adam had begun dating Beth. Sarah sat,
absolutely enthralled, as Josie described how happy and contented Adam always
seemed to be when he got home from those dates: with the pretty young woman,
who would eventually become Sarah’s own Ma!
“I never had the pleasure of meeting your mother until I showed up
here a couple weeks ago,” Josie explained.
“But I’ll never forget the huge, goofy grin your father would have on
his face when he talked about her!”
As Josie and Sarah bonded over some of Adam’s romantic moments, and some more humiliating moments, two other Cartwrights crept toward the Rayner house to light the concealed smudge pots.
Little Joe was jumpy after yesterday’s encounter with Mrs. Rayner, so he planned to get the smudge pots lit quickly, and then make tracks for home. Hoss, however, had other plans. When the big man returned to their hiding place in the trees after lighting the pots in the rear of the house, he told Joe he wanted to stick around for a bit to watch Josie and Sarah go inside.
Joe hated this idea.
“I don’t think we should, Hoss,” he squeaked nervously. “Don’t want Sarah and Josie catching us, now do we?”
Hoss grinned at the skittish look on his little brother’s face. “What’s the matter, Joe? You scared?”
Joe scowled at Hoss. “I ain’t scared of nothing! Just don’t want to spoil all our work by giving ourselves away is all.” Hoss just raised a mocking eyebrow. “Fine!” Joe hissed. “We’ll stay, but only for a few minutes. Then we clear out.”
Hoss grinned in agreement, and the brothers settled in to wait for Sarah and Josie to discover their surprise.
A dozen yards away, Josie noticed the sun beginning to dip below the western horizon, so she and Sarah dug into their food basket once more and feasted on more of Beth’s famous fried chicken and potato salad. Josie was just finishing off a drumstick when she glanced toward the house they would soon be exploring.
“Huh,” she said around a mouthful of chicken. “That’s strange.”
“What’s strange?”
Josie pointed toward the house. “It was really dry today. Wouldn’t have expected a fog to roll in.”
Sarah was unperturbed. “Odd things tend to happen around here,” she said wisely. “You’ll get used to it.”
Josie figured Sarah was probably right and returned to gnawing the last few succulent bits of meat off her drumstick.
The girls made quick work of their supper and soon were ready to enter the Rayner house. Sarah bounced with excitement as Josie pulled a small box of matches out of her pocket and lit the two lanterns they had brought along. Once they were lit, Josie handed one to Sarah, and the cousins crept toward the house.
“Josie!” Sarah whispered excitedly. “Do you think we’ll really see a ghost?!”
“I don’t know. But if we keep our eyes peeled and stay real quiet, we might get lucky.” Josie had to bite back a giggle at Sarah’s excitement; she was still determined not to ruin the adventure for her little cousin.
The unlikely fog grew thicker as they neared the house, and Josie detected the scent of burning lamp oil – and she knew it wasn’t from her lantern. The corners of her mouth twitched upward as she began to suspect this otherworldly atmosphere was the result of some earthly assistance.
They mounted the sagging porch steps and paused before the front door.
“All right,” Sarah said, taking a deep breath. “I guess this is it.”
“I guess so. You want me to go first?”
Sarah considered this for a second. The way the moonlight was glinting off the fog spooked her a little, but she didn’t want Josie to think she was a baby, either. “No,” she said at length. “I’ll go first.” Sarah reached out one tentative hand and grabbed the door latch.
Just before Sarah pushed the door open, a stiff breeze stirred up, and the cousins heard a ghostly howling from just behind them. They whipped around, Josie even reflexively drawing her pistol as they spun around. “Is that a wolf?!” she asked nervously.
Sarah shook her head. “No, that’s no wolf.” She held up her lantern and peered through its glow toward the trees. Squinting, she could just make out something twinkling in the branches of the giant black cottonwood nearby, and she nearly laughed out loud when she recognized it as an old whiskey bottle. Of course! Her Uncle Hoss often blew across the tops of bottles like that to make a funny tooting sound. Sarah had a sneaking suspicion that Hoss, and probably Joe, too, were behind this strange wail. But, not wanting to ruin the adventure for Josie, she bit her lip and turned back toward the front door.
Josie took a deep breath and holstered her gun with a slightly shaky hand. “You still want to go in?”
Sarah nodded, and she wrinkled her nose a little, and half smiled, the way she often did, if she was amused or intrigued with something, or thought she’d discovered a ‘secret.’ “If you’re scared, Josie, you can hold my hand. Pa always holds my hand when I’m scared, and it helps a lot.”
Josie frowned a little as she realized how silly she was being. There was probably a perfectly logical explanation for the howling; she just hadn’t discovered it yet. She turned her frown into a grin at Sarah. “No, I’m ok. But thanks for the offer.”
Sarah returned Josie’s grin and then reached out and pushed the front door open. It protested with a mighty groan that echoed off the trees, and both young ladies cringed at the bone-jarring sound. Sarah even clapped her hands over her ears.
The door now open, Josie and Sarah peered through the gaping doorway into the darkness of the house. Sarah stuck one little hand out behind her, and Josie obediently grabbed hold of it. Then, each of them clutching a lantern in their free hand, the cousins crept into the house.
From their vantage point in the bushes, Little Joe and Hoss could just make out the dark shapes of Sarah and Josie slinking into the house. They had had to clap their hands over their mouths to keep from laughing aloud at Josie’s reaction to the whiskey jugs – the moonlight had glinted off her revolver just enough for them to see that she had drawn it.
Now, as the girls made their way inside, Hoss and Joe clutched at each other, in excitement, Joe seemingly forgetting his otherworldly encounter from the day before.
Sarah treaded quietly through the deserted living room, but the loosened floorboards creaked under Josie’s weight, and she glanced nervously down at the decaying planks. They headed toward the first floor’s smaller bedroom, and as Sarah pushed the door open, they heard a loud “TWANG!” Sarah squeaked in surprise and jumped backward, dropping her lantern, which immediately went out. She snatched it up quickly, praying that it would not set the withered old house on fire. Fortunately, she had not spilled any lantern oil; she just needed to relight the wick. Josie had jumped, too, her heart racing, and in the glint from her lantern, Sarah spotted a thick wire strung along the top of the doorframe, and she knew immediately what had made the sound. She also figured out pretty quickly how that wire had most likely come to be there.
“Joe,” she muttered under her breath.
“What’s that, Sarah?” Josie’s eyes were still wide with surprise, and her breathing was ragged.
“Nothing, Josie. Just need to relight my lantern, that’s all. You have those matches?”
Josie fumbled in her jeans pocket, but her hand came out empty. “Darn it! I must have left them on the porch. Guess we’ll have to go get them.”
Sarah bit back a little grin. “I’ll get them, Josie! You stay here, and keep your eyes peeled. We wouldn’t want to miss any ghosts.”
“No, of course not.”
Sarah scampered out of the bedroom and out the front door, leaving Josie very much alone in the old Rayner House. Once out on the porch, the little girl had to stifle her giggles to keep Josie from hearing them. She was disappointed that the house wasn’t really haunted – apparently ghosts weren’t real after all – but it sure was fun watching Josie get scared.
Back inside, Josie retreated to the living room once more and silently urged Sarah to hurry up.
“Relax, Dr. Cartwright,” she murmured to herself. “There’s no such thing as ghosts. It’s just an old house.” She stepped on another squawking floorboard and jumped sideways a little. She looked up and saw that she was at the foot of a staircase – or, rather, what was left of a staircase. Only the bottom three risers remained. She heard another floorboard creak, and she glanced over her shoulder. “Sarah?” There was no motion from the front door, and Josie slowly realized that the creak had come not from her side but from directly in front of her… from the collapsed staircase. She whipped her head back around, and her mouth dropped open as she watched a translucent figure slowly descend from the second floor.
Josie gaped as the spectre, dressed in a house dress with her hair pulled back into a sharp bun, did not float toward the first floor, but rather walked, as if the staircase were still intact. The figure was that of an old woman; even though Josie could see right through her head to the wall behind, she could still make out the lines in the woman’s face. But it was the woman’s eyes she would never forget: two empty, gaping black sockets. Josie opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, and the phantom drew closer. She felt cemented to the floor as the ghost of Mrs. Rayner came within only a few feet of her.
“I’m hallucinating,” Josie managed to squeak aloud. “We left the potato salad out in the sun, and it went bad, and it’s causing me to hallucinate.”
“So glad you could make it, my dear!” the shadow’s grating voice rasped. “I’ve made soup!” A large wooden spoon suddenly appeared in one of the old woman’s gnarled fists, and she held it out to Josie.
Josie’s scream finally ripped from her throat, and she staggered backwards, away from the glowing being. The heel of her boot caught on one of the loosened floorboards, and she fell backwards onto the rotting planks at the kitchen entrance, her lantern sailing out of her hand toward the front door. Josie crashed through the decaying wood and plunged down, down, down into darkness…
Hoss and Little Joe grinned when they heard Josie’s shriek reverberate through the old house. They shook hands, silently congratulating one another, and, not wanting to get caught when Josie and Sarah figured out their prank, they turned tail and lit out for home.
On the porch, Sarah had just located the dropped box of matches and relit her lantern when Josie’s screaming cut through her. She knew instantly that this was not a scream of surprise at some little trick Joe and Hoss had rigged; something was truly wrong. Terrified, Sarah grabbed her lantern and tore back into the house. “Josie! Josie, where are you?!” Receiving no response, Sarah bolted into the bedroom where she had last seen Josie. There was no sign of her cousin, so Sarah raced back into the living room. “Josie!”
“Sarah!” a muffled voice answered.
The little girl spun around in a circle, looking for the source of the voice. “Josie?!”
“Sarah be careful! There’s a hole in the floor!”
Sarah raised her lantern and spotted the hole opposite the staircase that Josie had warned her about. It took only seconds for her to figure out that Josie must have fallen through some rotting floorboards and landed in the cellar. “Josie! Are you okay?!”
Down in the cellar, Josie took inventory of herself. Fortunately or unfortunately – Josie wasn’t certain which – she had landed on several sacks of spoiled potatoes. They had cushioned her fall, but she was now covered in a sticky, reeking goo. “Yeah! But be careful up there! The floor’s rotted through!”
Sarah came within about six feet of the Josie-sized hole and then belly-crawled the rest of the way to the edge. She dangled her lantern over the side to shine the light down on Josie. Even from ten feet up, she could detect the foul stench of the mostly decomposed potatoes. “Can you see the staircase?”
Josie was beyond relieved to see Sarah’s little face peek over the edge of the hole. She was still trembling from her encounter with Mrs. Rayner, and the sight of her cousin – a real, solid human being – nearly brought her to tears. She cast about, but the only light was the dim glow from Sarah’s lantern. “I can’t see a thing down here!”
“Hang on, Josie! I’ll go check the kitchen!” Sarah eased carefully away from the hole’s edge and sidestepped the chasm. Not wanting to crash through a rotted floorboard herself, she picked her way carefully through the kitchen to the cellar stairs at the back. A door covered the top of the stairs, but Sarah easily pulled the mouldering slab away from the frame to reveal yet another gaping hole. Like the main staircase in the living room, this one, too, had rotted and collapsed years ago. Sarah thumped the wall in frustration and returned to the hole in the living room. “The stairs are gone, Josie! I’m going to see if I can find a rope or something. Stay right there!”
“Where else would I go?” Josie muttered.
Sarah wished she had brought her lasso; it would have been perfect for hauling Josie out of the cellar. With all their necessary camping gear, that had had to be tied up to her saddle, the lasso had been abandoned at home. Instead, she had little choice but to search the house for anything she might use. The splintered sideboard near the front door revealed nothing but a moth-eaten blanket and a dozen spiders, so Sarah turned toward the master bedroom that she and Josie had not yet explored. She flung the door open and came face-to-face with the bed-sheet ghost Hoss and Little Joe had rigged. The old sheet swooped down upon her, and Sarah shrieked in surprise and raced back into the living room… and ran right off the edge of the hole Josie had fallen through.
Sarah screamed again as she plummeted through the darkness. Josie snapped her gaze upward and could just make out the figure of her tiny cousin tumbling toward her. Realizing Sarah was about to land right on top of her, Josie rolled out of the way, and Sarah crashed into the sacks of goopy potato with a loud “SPLUT!” Her lantern smashed on the cellar’s dirt floor and went out.
“Sarah!” Josie scrambled toward Sarah, her boots slipping in the slick potato sludge now covering the floor.
“Josie!” Sarah reached her arms toward the sound of Josie’s voice and soon felt Josie’s hands grasping hers.
“Are you all right?” Josie began running her hands over Sarah’s arms and legs, doing the best she could to examine the child in the pitch dark.
“I think so. Nothing hurts. Everything stinks, but nothing hurts.” Sarah gave one hand a good shake and sent a clump of slime flying into Josie’s face.
Josie gagged as she tasted rotten potato, and she forced down the urge to vomit.
“Sorry,” Sarah giggled as she realized what must have happened.
“It’s all right.” Josie glanced around, but it was so dark in the cellar that she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. The moonlight was bright outside, but the hole in the floor above them was at the wrong angle for any of that light to filter down into the cellar. Josie heaved a long sigh. “But I’m afraid we’re stuck here until morning, kid. I can’t see a thing down here. There’s no way we’ll be able to climb out of here safely until we have some daylight.” Frankly, this idea terrified Josie. Despite her best attempts to convince herself otherwise, Josie knew she had not imagined Mrs. Rayner’s offering her soup, and she abhorred the idea of spending the night in the dead woman’s basement.
Sarah echoed Josie’s sigh. “I guess you’re right. Don’t worry, though, Josie. Pa knows we’re here. If we don’t come home by noon like we promised, he’ll come rescue us.”
“Just what I need,” Josie grumbled. “Adam rescuing me again.”
Sarah now realized how helpless and incompetent Josie had been feeling since she arrived in Nevada, and she groped in the dark until she found her cousin’s hand. “Then we’ll find a way out ourselves. Just as soon as it’s daylight.”
Josie smiled, even though she knew Sarah couldn’t see it. She put her arm around Sarah and drew her close to her side. Together, they scooted across the floor until they found a cool dirt wall to lean against while they waited out the long night.
Sarah sensed fear from Josie, but she chalked this up to Josie’s tumble through the floor. “Hey Josie!” she said brightly, hoping to cheer her cousin up. “Did you ever hear about the time Joe accidentally drank some of my ma’s breast milk?”
Josie barked with laughter. “No! Please, please tell me!”
Sarah grinned as she launched into the tale of the morning Little Joe tragically mixed up one of the triplets’ bottles with the coffee cream. Josie pushed thoughts of ghosts out of her mind and allowed herself to be drawn into Sarah’s story.
By the end of the anecdote, Josie was crying with laughter. “Joe does manage to get himself into all sorts of trouble, doesn’t he?”
Sarah giggled, but then grew serious. “He manages to get the rest of us into trouble, too,” she grumbled.
“What do you mean?”
Sarah sighed and leaned up against Josie, who wrapped her arm around the child. “I guess there’s no such thing as ghosts after all, Josie. All this stuff here, the fog, the howling, the creaky floor, Hoss and Joe did it all. They must have come out here early and set it up. It’s their fault we’re stuck down here.”
“I guessed something was up when I saw that fog,” Josie admitted. “They must have planted smudge pots all around the house.” She could sense Sarah’s disappointment and decided to divulge what she had seen. “But I’m telling you, Sarah, ghosts are real! I saw one while you were fetching the matches. That’s how I fell down here. I was backing away from it when I tripped and crashed through the floorboards.”
Sarah smiled, though she knew Josie couldn’t see her face. “You don’t have to pretend, Josie. I know they aren’t real. It’s okay.”
Josie threw her free hand up in the air in defeat and spent the next several minutes trying to comprehend how she and Sarah had both managed to reverse their positions on the existence of ghosts. In the meantime, Sarah grew warm and heavy against Josie’s side, and she knew the little girl was dropping off to sleep. And no surprise; it had to be past midnight. Sarah rested her head on Josie’s shoulder as her breathing grew soft and even. Josie kissed the top of the child’s head and rested her own head back against the cellar wall. She tried to sleep, but every time the aged house emitted even the slightest squeak, her eyes snapped open and she cast about, fully expecting to see Mrs. Rayner’s apparition gliding toward her. With another offer of ‘soup’, no doubt…
The night felt like a year to Josie who tried to entertain herself by conjugating Latin verbs, reciting the multiplication tables backwards, and plotting her revenge on Hoss and Little Joe. But she couldn’t shake the tingly feeling in her spine that had been there since she had seen the ghost, and she ended up spending most of the night praying for daylight.
Shortly before dawn, Josie did manage to doze off, but her eyes snapped open as the first timid rays of sunlight peeked through the hole in the floor and illuminated the basement in a soft, pink glow. She gently jostled her cousin, whose head had settled in her lap during the night. “Sarah, wake up, sweetie. It’s morning.”
Sarah rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around in confusion. It took her a few moments to remember why she was sitting on a cellar floor next to Josie, both of them covered in the slimy remains of ancient potatoes. She glanced up at Josie and grinned. “Sleep well?”
Josie chuckled. “No. But I’ll live. Let’s see what we can do about getting out of here.”
The two young ladies rose stiffly to their feet, and Josie shook out her left leg that had gone dead from Sarah using it as a pillow all night. There were sets of sagging wooden shelves lining the perimeter of the cellar, so the girls circled the room in opposite directions, searching for anything they might use to climb on or haul themselves out of the cellar.
Sarah’s search was disappointing. All she came across was some old salt pork –that had obviously been gnawed on by some sort of rodent – a jar of vinegar, a shovel head with no handle, and several cans of vegetables that had exploded after years of neglect. On one of the last shelves she inspected, however, Sarah came across two boxes. The smaller of the two resembled the box she had fetched from the porch the previous night, and, sure enough, when she opened it, she revealed a hundred little matches. Sighing in exasperation, she opened the larger box and discovered a dozen white candles.
“You’re kidding me!” she shouted in frustration.
“What is it?” Josie turned around, holding a bottle in each hand. Sarah held up the candles and matches. Josie groaned and held up the two bottles she was holding, which turned out to be old wine. “If all else fails, at least we can get drunk,” she joked.
Sarah giggled. “You find anything over there?”
“Yeah, actually!” Josie waved at Sarah to come over to her and then pointed proudly to a tall ladder that was half-hidden behind one set of shelves.
Sarah cheered and helped Josie pull the ladder out from behind the shelves. As they dragged it into the growing patch of sunlight in the middle of the cellar floor, however, the top rung fell off. Sarah frowned. “I think this ladder’s rotted.”
“I think you’re probably right,” Josie said, her face echoing Sarah’s frown. “Let’s test it out anyway. It might have enough strength left in it to at least hold you.” She started to set it upright, but just then, she sneezed from the dust they’d kicked up in their search, and she momentarily lost her grip on the ladder. Sarah tried to catch it, but the rung she grabbed came off in her hand, and the ladder crashed to the ground and splintered into hundreds of pieces.
“I don’t think it had enough strength left to hold me, Josie,” Sarah said, staring forlornly at the smashed ladder.
Whether from lack of sleep, last night’s scare, or just the sheer absurdity of their situation, Josie did not know, but she burst out laughing at the sight of the ladder lying shattered on the ground. “That’s ok, Sarah, we’ll figure something else out,” she said when she finally recomposed herself. “It never would have worked anyway. See anything missing?”
Sarah looked around and quickly realized that the hole they had both fallen through was in the center of the cellar’s ceiling – there were no walls nearby for them to have leaned the ladder against anyway, and the decayed floor boards certainly wouldn’t have supported the weight of the ladder with a climber on board. “That would have been a problem, wouldn’t it?”
Josie giggled again. “Yeah. But no matter. Look what else I found.” She pointed toward the far corner, and Sarah peered around her to see, well, a big pile of ‘stuff.’ The cousins ambled over and pawed through it. The first layer wasn’t too useful – an axe, a rusty saw, and some more rotten potatoes – but the second layer was much more promising. Supporting the top layer of detritus was an old copper hip bathtub, a sturdy Boston rocker, and a dusty, yet intact, barrel of flour.
Sarah grinned broadly at their treasures. “Let’s start stacking!” she crowed.
They dragged the hip bath out first and placed it upside-down under the hole in the ceiling. Its curved top caused it to wobble, but Sarah grabbed several pieces of the broken ladder and jammed them under the shorter places to level it out. Then they placed the barrel of flour on the seat of the rocking chair, which they heaved on top of the bathtub. Using more bits of the splintered ladder and a fallen shelf, Josie levelled the rocking chair so it would hold still enough for them to climb. The cousins stepped back to admire their tower.
“It’s not a brilliant piece of architecture, but it’ll do,” Josie observed.
“Good thing the ceiling is low,” Sarah added. She was right. Their teetering column was only about seven feet high, but fortunately, the ceiling was only about nine feet, so even Sarah would be able to reach the edge of the ceiling to haul herself up to the first floor.
“All right,” Josie said a bit nervously. “Up you go.” She reached up and steadied the rocking chair while Sarah scampered up the bathtub, onto the edge of the rocking chair’s seat, and then onto the top of the flour barrel. “Ohhhhh, this is so unsafe,” Josie moaned quietly as the entire structure wobbled. Undaunted, Sarah grabbed the edge of the broken floorboards and with a little jump off the top of the barrel, swung herself up out of the cellar and onto the living room floor. Josie was truly impressed; her little cousin seemed to be half monkey. Not unlike her uncles - Hoss and Joe - Josie reasoned, to herself...
“I did it, Josie! I’m upstairs!” The little girl was over the moon with joy.
“That’s great, Sarah! I’m coming up!”
Taking a deep breath, Josie hefted herself onto the top of the bathtub and stared uncertainly at the Boston rocker. Even with the boards they had used to stabilize it, the chair would be unsteady with no one down below to hold onto it. Josie placed one foot gingerly on the front edge of the seat and tried to disperse her weight by also gripping the back. She let out a little “Eep!” as the chair swayed under her a bit, but she held her breath and waited for it to steady itself. Then she slowly, deliberately climbed onto the flour barrel. The chair rocked again, but this time Josie could grasp the edge of the broken floorboards for support. She grabbed hold of the jagged planks and set her feet in the middle of the barrel so she could jump like Sarah had done.
Unfortunately, Josie had not considered either the barrel’s aged condition or the fifty pounds she had on Sarah, and her foot broke right through the old wooden lid and plunged into the flour. A huge white cloud puffed out of the barrel and concealed Josie from Sarah’s view for several seconds.
“Josie!” Sarah cried. “Are you ok?!”
Josie coughed and sneezed as the flour flew into her mouth and nose. “Yeah!” she was finally able to croak back. She felt something crawling on her right leg and looked down. “Ugh! This flour is full of weevils!”
“Well, hurry up and get up here, then!”
Josie did. She grasped the edge of the floorboards and with a little spring off the metal rim of the barrel, she vaulted onto the living room floor, where she immediately began shaking tiny beetles out of the right leg of her jeans. Sarah burst out in hysterical laughter.
“It’s not funny!” Josie protested. “These little varmints are disgusting!”
“I’m sorry, Josie,” Sarah gasped as she tried to catch her breath. “But you should see yourself. You’ve got flour head to toe; even your hair is white. I’ve found a ghost in the old Rayner house after all!”
Josie glanced down at her clothes and saw that she was, indeed, coated in flour. It was sticking to the rotten potato sludge from the night before and making a stinking paste. Josie laughed heartily and gathered up Sarah in a big hug. “Here, have some!” she giggled. Sarah squealed, but she let Josie hug her.
“We did a good job getting ourselves out of that fix, didn’t we?” she asked, her arms still firmly encircling Josie’s waist.
“We sure did, kid. Didn’t even need your pa to save us.” Josie grinned. “Now let’s get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
The cousins strode proudly out of the house, Josie’s hand resting on Sarah’s shoulder. As they made their way across the porch, Sarah darted into a bush and emerged seconds later triumphantly bearing a burnt-out smudge pot. Josie set her jaw and shook her head.
“Joe is dead meat,” she growled.
“Hoss, too,” Sarah added. “Pa always said that Joe’s never found any trouble that he couldn’t manage to drag Hoss into with him.” She tossed the pot back into the bush and followed Josie to their campsite, where the two horses nickered happily at their mistresses’ return. The cousins fairly dived into their food buckets and made quick work of the apples and biscuits they had brought along for breakfast.
When they finished eating, Sarah glanced up at the sun and estimated they had about two hours left before they needed to head home. “Let’s wash our clothes in the pond. We can’t go home smelling like this.”
Josie agreed this was a good idea, and the girls quickly changed into their swimming costumes and took their reeking, potato-encrusted clothes down to the pond for a good scrubbing. Once they had gotten most of the sludge – and in Josie’s case, flour – scrubbed out, they laid their clothes to dry on rocks in the sun and waded into the water for a swim. Neither of them had ever felt anything so refreshing as that swim. Something about rinsing their hair clean of potato was downright heavenly, and the two cousins soon lost track of time…
******
Back at their home, Adam and Beth had just finished feeding the triplets lunch and were now pacing the living room floor.
“Josie said noon, didn’t she, Adam?”
“Yeah, she did.” Adam held Wyatt in one arm and ran his free hand through his hair as he glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. It was nearly one-thirty. “It’s not like Josie to be late.” He and Beth caught each other’s gaze, and wordlessly, Adam set Wyatt on the settee and grabbed his gun belt off the sideboard.
“Do you think you should get your father or one of your brothers?”
Adam buckled his gun around his hips and grabbed his hat. “No. I know what road they were taking. It’s better if I just get there quickly.” He glanced up at Beth and saw the fear in her eyes, and he knew she was remembering the previous year when Rosie had been kidnapped. He gathered his wife up in his arms. “I’m sure they’re fine. They probably just lost track of time. Or maybe they took off after a bighorn sheep or some other critter Josie’s never seen before. Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll bring them home safely.”
Beth nodded, kissed Adam goodbye, and watched him lope out to the paddock to get Sport.
Adam rode quickly toward the Rayner place, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of two other riders having passed by recently. He spotted some tracks that looked like they might be Rebel’s, but they were a day old and heading toward the Rayner place, not away from it. He sighed as he reined Sport to a stop next to a small stream. He jumped down from his horse to let the animal catch a quick drink – the sun was beating down on man and horse alike, and Adam knew Sport had to be thirsty. The horse was jumpy, however, and kept trying to shy away from the stream. Frustrated and worried about his daughter and cousin, Adam forced Sport’s head back toward the stream. “Come on, boy! What’s the matter?”
Adam heard a low grunt off to his left, and his head snapped up. He instantly saw what was the matter. A massive grizzly bear stood only yards away. He whipped his head around in the other direction and saw a slightly smaller grizzly in the stream behind him. “Oh no…” He realized he had just come between a male and a female grizzly during mating season. In his preoccupation with looking for Sarah and Josie, Adam had neglected to be wary of other creatures roaming the Ponderosa, and now he was in a very precarious position.
Adam reached for his rifle, but the male grizzly roared again. Sport reared up in panic and knocked Adam backward into the stream with a loud splash before tearing back down the road they had just ridden down, taking Adam’s rifle with him. The bear glanced at the retreating horse but decided the man in the stream was the bigger threat – he was still positioned directly between him and his potential mate. Dripping, Adam scrambled to his feet and drew his pistol – it might not be powerful enough to kill the bear, but at least he could scare him off and get away. He cocked the gun, took aim, and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
His gun was soaked from his dunk in the stream and would not fire. “Oh, crud...” The grizzly had dropped to all fours and was charging towards him. Adam knew he could never outrun the beast, so he re-holstered his gun, and darted for the nearest tree, the enraged bear hot on his heels.
******
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, while Adam had been setting out on his search, Sarah and Josie had glanced up at the sun again and realized they had swum far too long. Josie had been making good progress floating on her back, and they had paid no attention to the passage of time. The ladies hastily threw their mostly dry clothes back on, swung into their saddles, and made tracks for home.
As they came around a bend in the road near a stream, Sarah pulled Rebel to a stop and held up a hand to indicate Josie should do the same. “Do you hear that?”
Josie listened intently and heard a deep, rumbling roar coming from the other side of a nearby copse of trees. When she glanced at Sarah, Josie’s eyes asked her question for her.
“That’s a bear!” Sarah exclaimed, her eyes growing wide. She’d had dangerous encounters with wildlife on the Ponderosa before – remembering in particular one close call with a cougar – and she wasn’t anxious to have another one. She gathered her reins to nudge Rebel back down the road when they heard a second roar.
This roar was followed by a very human yelp and a few words that were so impolite that both cousins blushed. The cursing was out of character, but Josie and Sarah would have recognized that voice anywhere.
“That’s Adam!” Josie cried. She and Sarah both kicked their horses and took off toward the ruckus, Sarah riding expertly, and Josie hanging on by the grace of God.
They zipped around a clump of bushes and spotted Adam scrambling frantically up a cedar tree. Right behind him, an enormous, angry grizzly bear took a swipe at him, missing his right calf by mere millimetres.
“PA!” Sarah screamed as she scrabbled for the rifle she carried in a scabbard on her saddle.
Josie’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Not my brother, you don’t,” she snarled as she, too, reached for her rifle.
The cousins raised their rifles and fired in perfect unison, the sound of the shots resounding off the nearby trees, and the bear slumped to the ground. Startled, Adam twisted his head around and saw Josie and Sarah on horseback, each of them with a smoking rifle still tight against their right shoulders. Behind him, the female grizzly took off running, frightened away by the gunfire.
Adam was now a good twelve feet up the tree, and he stayed put as Sarah and Josie approached slowly, keeping their rifles trained on the bear until they could be certain it was dead. Satisfied that the bear would not rise, the ladies lowered their rifles and glanced up at Adam.
Josie was less successful than Sarah was at stifling her giggles. Adam had his arms and legs wrapped around the tree trunk, his rear end sagging several inches toward the ground. She called up to him. “Adam! Are you all right?!”
Adam gazed down at the girls, trying not to let his embarrassment show. “Yeah. Hang on, I’ll come down.”
Adam unwound his legs from the tree trunk, set his feet carefully on a branch, and began lowering himself slowly, branch by branch. He made good progress until he was about five feet from the ground and he settled on a branch that was just a smidgeon too thin to support his weight. By the time he heard the branch cracking, it was too late for Adam to find a sturdier perch. The branch snapped under him, and Adam hurtled toward the ground.
Josie and Sarah screamed as they watched Adam plummet to the ground. He didn’t have far to fall, but he landed hard on his hind end right on the dead bear’s thick skull. The air rushed out of him with a loud “Oof!” and he closed his eyes against the pain now shooting through his lower back as he pitched sideways off the bear and onto the ground.
Shrieking again, Josie and Sarah raced over to him. He gasped a couple of times before he was able to draw a full breath once more, and Josie and Sarah helped pull him up into a seated position on the ground. Apart from being a little pale, Adam looked all right to Josie until he rested his weight on his rear end and howled in pain. He tried to leap to his feet, but this hurt him, too, and he had to grab hold of the tree trunk to haul himself up.
Sarah’s eyes were wide with fear at the sight of her father in pain, and it took all her fortitude to keep her voice steady as she asked, “Pa, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m ok,” Adam wheezed, still clutching the tree trunk for support.
Josie had to purse her lips to keep from laughing at her poor cousin. It didn’t take a detective to see that Adam was not all right, and she had a pretty good feeling she knew exactly what was wrong with him. “I think he’s ok, Sarah, but we should check him out just to be sure. Could you get my medical bag off my saddle, please?”
Glad to be able to help, Sarah scampered over to Josie’s horse and began untying Josie’s black leather bag. Meanwhile, Josie turned to Adam. “Can you stand up straight?” she asked. Adam complied, albeit stiffly. “Just hold still for a second. I want to check your spine.” Starting just between Adam’s shoulder blades, Josie ran one nimble finger all the way down the middle of his back.
She gasped a little when she got to the waistband of his black jeans. In the fall from the tree he not only had injured himself, but Josie realized – by the two bare buttocks showing - that he’d totally ripped out the seat of his jeans, and his underwear, on his way down through the last few branches.
She stifled a snort of laughter. “Oh, Adam - and they’re bruised too…”
Adam spun his head as far around as he could manage, trying to see what she was seeing. “What? What’s bruised?!” Then he felt a sudden cool, errant breeze, as it blew across his derriere, and he let out a low groan. “Oh, no…” He turned his face away from Josie again, so she couldn’t see his cheeks flush in embarrassment, as he rolled his eyes. “Well, this is just great,” he grumbled, under his breath. Josie felt for him, and his predicament, though she couldn’t help but snicker as she helped him out of his wet shirt.
Josie took Adam by the hand, and led him slowly – as he walked gingerly, and carefully - to a heavily shaded spot under a nearby tree. “I can examine you better if you lay down, Adam. On your side there, please.” She tossed a blue towel over his shoulders, to keep the chill of the shady patch off of him, and Adam wanted to pull that towel right over his head, till it was all over. He grunted a little. “Believe me Josie – lying on my back would be totally out of the question right now, anyway.” He lowered himself onto his side, with Josie’s help, and then propped himself up on one elbow.
Josie couldn’t help but smile a little. “How about we cover you up a bit?” Adam glanced over his shoulder to see Josie remove her own hat, and, with great ceremony, propped it against his naked derriere.
“Yeah…Thanks, Josie….”
As Josie continued her careful examination – gently palpating each individual little vertebrae, and gently stroking her fingers slowly up and down either side of his spine, checking for any damage, Adam felt a very sudden, totally involuntary, and very personal physical reaction, to her very gentle manipulations…
He glanced up self-consciously, wishing this particular examination could just be over. His pulse was starting to quicken, as the familiar sensations continued to tingle up and down his spine, and he knew it was only a matter of time before Josie noticed. He felt totally mortified, by the whole thing, when he turned a very embarrassed face to look to his young cousin. “Um, Josie? Hmm…You know there are some ‘things’ that I can’t control here, right ?... Don’t take it personally, or anything…”
Josie was concentrating so much on her careful examination that she glanced to him distractedly, as she swiped a fallen strand of hair from across her face.
“I’m sorry. What was that?”
Adam’s embarrassed expression said it all, as he averted his eyes from hers, and shifted himself a little...
Josie nodded her head slowly in realization of just what was happening. “Oh, ‘that’. Happens all the time with male patients, Adam. I just ignore it. I am a doctor after all…” She just shrugged, then went back to her work.
Adam sighed again, then muttered under his breath. “Yeah… Well… It’s a little harder for me to ignore…no pun intended, of course…”
Josie snorted in laughter. “Nice to see you’ve still got your sense of humour intact.” She continued carefully down his spine – everything seemed to be where it needed to be... “Almost done here, Adam…”
Adam grinned, in glassy eyed embarrassment, and then muttered. “Well - that makes two of us…”
He was shaken totally out of his reverie, as Josie examined the very tip of his spine. The moment she touched it, Adam let out a very loud yelp. “OWWW! What are you doing back there?! That really hurt – a LOT!”
Josie sat back on her heels. “It would appear, Older Brother, that you have a broken coccyx.”
Adam’s hazel eyes suddenly grew wide in alarm. “I broke my what?!”
Josie grinned at his stunned reaction. “That’s your tailbone – the very end of your spine - we all have one, Adam. Yours just happens to have been broken in the fall. It’ll heal, but it’ll take time, and I’m afraid you won’t be sitting much. Here, let’s get you home.”
As Josie helped Adam to his feet, Sarah finally returned from the horses. “Sorry I took so long, Josie – the tying straps had gotten into a big knot – I couldn’t get them undone!”
Josie reached out a gentle hand to ruffle the young girl’s hair, as she reached the medical bag from her grasp, and handed Adam’s shirt back to him. He pulled it on, and quickly re-buttoned it. “That’s alright, kid. I was able to examine your pa anyway. He has a broken tailbone.”
Sarah’s eyes widened, as she tried to scoot behind Adam, to take a look. “Pa has a tail?! Let me see!”
Adam held Josie’s hat tightly against his still-bare backside, as he scooted around in circles, trying to keep just ahead of Sarah’s prying eyes, and winced a bit as he did. “No, Sarah, I don’t have a tail! It’s just what they call the end of your spine. I broke it when I fell.”
Sarah looked disappointed. “Oh… Will it get better, Josie? Maybe we’d better listen to his heart, make sure that’s okay too, huh?! ”
Adam rolled his eyes, as Josie opened her bag, and then passed the stethoscope to the young girl. Sarah’s brow furrowed in concentration, as she held the horn shaped instrument up to her Pa’s chest. She nodded knowingly after a few moments of listening. “Your heart sounds fine – let’s check those lungs! Breathe in and out – nice and deep, now!” She had soon moved around to Adam’s back. “Another couple of nice deep breaths, Pa!”
Adam complied, as Josie winked at him. “Yeah – you sound fine, Pa – you’ll live!”
Adam grinned at his daughter. “ Well - that’s a relief. Now - let’s get home, shall we?”
Adam leaned on Josie a little as she helped him over to Rebel. With Sport being long gone – after being spooked by the bears – he’d be riding Rebel home, while Josie and Sarah doubled up on Betsy.
Josie just looked at Rebel, then looked to Adam. “Now what? You sure can’t sit up there!”
Adam tilted his head thoughtfully. “How about riding across the saddle like a dead man? That’s the only way I can think of!”
Josie nodded in agreement, as she passed him one of their towels to cover his backside with. The three of them struggled for several minutes, trying to get Adam up on Rebel’s back. He couldn’t be of very much help himself: he was in too much pain whenever he tried to raise his leg and reach the stirrup to mount up on his own. At length, Sarah spotted a good sized rock off in the tall grass. Using it as a bit of a mounting block, Adam was finally lying safely across the saddle, with Josie’s pink towel tucked carefully around his bare backside. Grabbing Rebel’s reins, Josie and Sarah mounted up on Betsy, and then they all set off for home…
Adam couldn’t remember a more unpleasant ride. The sun was just beating down on him and between the uncomfortable awkwardness of lying across the saddle, the blood rushing to his head, and the horse seeming to hit every little dip in the trail – that jostled him around so much – he just wanted to get home again.
After a seemingly interminable journey, they finally pulled into the barnyard. Josie and Sarah slipped down off their horses, just as Adam and Beth’s front door opened. When Beth saw Adam draped across the horse, she thought the absolute worst, and rushed over to him, tears in her eyes. “Oh, Adam!”
Josie grabbed Beth’s arm to steady her and quickly put her mind right at ease. “He’s okay, Beth. Just a bit of an accident. He fell and broke his coccyx.” Beth’s eyes widened a bit, and Josie quickly explained “That’s his tailbone.”
Visibly relieved, Beth wiped a tear from her eye, as she reached for Adam and removed his hat. “Let’s get you into the house so you can sit down and relax, sweetheart!”
Adam grunted in pain as they helped him off the horse, and he leaned on Beth as they headed for the house. “Sit down? You obviously don’t have a full grasp of the situation here, Beth…”
She glanced at the pink towel that was still wrapped tightly around his waist and tied in place with a knot. “Why the towel, Adam?”
He half smiled. “Well – I left part of my jeans, and underwear, up in a tree – it’s a long story Beth…” She just looked around questioningly at the three of them.
Sarah grinned a little. “We’ll tell you what happened when we get inside, Ma.”
“Yeah, this is one of those stories that’s going to be really funny in a couple days,” Josie added.
As they entered the house Wyatt, Shane and Rosie all looked excitedly up at their Papa from their spot on the floor, where they were playing with their blocks. They stood as one and toddled quickly over to him, their arms held out in front of them, in excitement, as they all shouted out “Papa!”
Josie intercepted them – afraid that their mad dash would end in a collision against her poor injured cousin. “Easy, guys! Your Papa has a sore – bottom. Be very gentle!” They all slowed, then gently grabbed his legs, and gave him a communal hug.
Shane looked up at him, with a true look of concern on his little face. “Papa hurt?”
Adam grinned down at his small son, then gently ruffled his dark hair. “Yeah, Shane, but I’ll be okay soon.”
Rosie reached up a dainty hand and stroked the bottom of the pink towel still wrapped around Adam’s waist. “Papa pwetty,” she cooed.
Josie and Sarah stuffed their fists in their mouths to keep from laughing aloud as Adam blushed and thanked his baby daughter for the compliment.
Beth headed for the stairs, with Adam on her arm, to help him get changed. With each step he climbed, he winced a little, as he leaned on his young wife. He was already unbuttoning his jeans, as they entered through their bedroom door. Adam rested against Beth as he pulled off what remained of his jeans and briefs. Beth gasped when she saw his badly bruised bottom: It had turned ugly, angry shades of red and purple. “Oh, Adam! If it’s as painful as it looks… It must be awful, sweetheart!”
She reached out gently, to tentatively inspect the bruises, and Adam just winced again. “Easy, Beth – it really hurts…”
Beth smiled up at him. “How about we just get you dressed again?” She walked to his armoire and reached down a pair of briefs and jeans and handed them to him. It really was a joint effort: Adam pulled the items on, all the while leaning on Beth, for support. Once they’d made it back downstairs again he lay on his side, propped up on one elbow, on the settee, as the family gathered around him in the great room. Beth hustled off to the kitchen, with Josie, to make some sandwiches and get drinks for everyone, and they were soon sitting around ready to hear just what had transpired at the old Rayner homestead.
As they sat there digging hungrily into the sandwiches, Sarah was the first to speak. “You know what, Pa? I don’t believe in ghosts anymore. I didn’t see any at all! Well, just a ‘sheet ghost’ in a doorway… All I saw were kind of booby traps, set all around the house: there were smudge pots around the outside to make it look like it was foggy, and there was wire across the door frames so they’d make a ‘twang’ noise when we opened them, and it seemed like someone loosened up some of the floorboards, so they’d squeak when we walked on them, too. Someone had even tied empty whiskey jugs up in a nearby tree, to catch the wind and make a howling noise…I think it was Hoss and Little Joe – they were the only other people who knew we’d be going there! Well, except for Grampa Ben, but he wouldn’t have done that to us.”
Adam glanced to Beth – as they both remembered their experience at the birth of Rosie, and the ghostly intervention there by Adam’s own Mother. “Well, Josie, how about you? What were your experiences?”
Josie’s eyes grew wide. “I saw the same booby traps as Sarah - but I did see a ghost - I know I did! It was the ghost of an old woman – and she offered me soup!”
With that comment Adam, Beth and Sarah all started to laugh at the absurdity of her encounter, and Josie looked a little put out. Then Beth sat in shocked silence as Adam then described how he got treed by a bear, then fell out of that tree, and landed squarely on the dead bear’s skull, breaking his own tailbone as he landed. Adam looked to his cousin again and noticed the pouty expression still plastered on her face. “There are many things on this earth that are beyond our knowledge, and understanding. I have no doubt you did see something,” he offered.
Josie frowned. “I didn’t see a random ‘something’ Adam! What I did see was the ghost of an elderly woman. It startled me so much that I tripped backwards over one of those loose floorboards and then crashed through the floor into the cellar! Then Sarah fell down the hole, too. It was too dark to see any way out, so we had to spend the night down there!”
Adam’s eyes widened in concern and he tried to jump up from the settee, remembering just in time how painful that action would be. “You fell into the cellar?! Are you both okay?!”
Josie nodded decisively. “Yeah, I checked us both out – best I could, in the dark. No broken bones, or anything – but we’ll have some pretty good bruises, for a few days. Thank goodness for those potatoes…”
Adam turned to Beth, and there was a look of anger on his face. “Those brothers of mine! Both Josie and Sarah could have been seriously hurt. Or worse. Not to mention my own problems…” He paused for a moment, as he struggled to stand. “Come on – we’re going over there, to have a very necessary little talk with those two… First off: since I can’t do it – they can skin and cure that bear hide.” Adam headed for the door, then glanced back to his family. “Come on - I’ll need help hitching the team. Beth? Under the circumstances, you’ll have to drive them, sweetheart.” They all followed Adam outside – even the triplets toddled along. While Sarah led Beau and Belle out of the paddock, Beth and Josie shoved the buckboard into the barnyard, while Adam supervised the triplets, to keep them safely out of the way, of the flurry of activity.
They were soon hitched up, and ready to go. After tossing several folded blankets into the buckboard’s box – to help cushion the ride - Adam reclined carefully on them, on his side, as the kids joined him there. Beth and Josie perched on the driver’s seat, while Josie’s horse was tied to the back of the buckboard, bringing up the rear. Both Beth and Josie knew that Adam must have been really angry to take such a trip, when he was in the obvious pain he was. They also knew better than to try to talk him out of that trip, too…
When they pulled into the other barnyard on the Ponderosa, Hoss and Joe were relaxing under the porch overhang. They’d taken just a few steps towards the wagon, to greet their family, then thought better of it, when they saw Adam’s head appear. They knew something was up if Adam wasn’t the one driving the team… They headed for the house’s door, when they saw the furious expression on Adam’s face, as he waved one fist in the air. He heard the stampede of booted feet, and called out angrily, “YEAH -YOU’D BETTER
RUN!”
Josie saw red, as she watched her retreating cousins, and leapt down from the wagon, to chase after them.
Ben, who was just crossing the threshold between the dining room and the great room, was spun, fully around – several times - as Joe, and then Hoss, just tore past him. With a quick “Sorry, Pa!!!” the pair of them bolted up the stairs. Then, the whirlwind that was Josie, ran right into Ben, too. Josie grabbed his arm, to steady her Uncle, as he managed to just sputter out, “ WHAT IN THUNDERATION ?!!!”
Josie’s pace slowed just a little, as she very calmly explained, “Sorry Uncle Ben – but I have to kill my two idiot cousins!!! I hope Adam’s your favorite, because he’s the only one of your children who’s gonna live to see the end of the day!” Ben managed to grab her by one arm, just before she lit off again to commit murder.
Moments later, the rest of the family burst through the door. Adam and Josie were now yelling, at the top of their lungs, almost in perfect unison, “YOU TWO - GET BACK DOWN HERE!!”
Ben – having finished spinning – reached out for Adam’s arm. He looked from his son to his niece then asked, almost calmly, “Do you mind telling me just what is going on here?” They quickly filled him in, and then it was Ben’s turn to bellow, as he glared in anger towards the staircase. “HOSS ! JOSEPH ! COME BACK DOWN HERE – RIGHT NOW!”
Upstairs, Hoss and Joe cowered together at the far end of the hallway. Hoss pounded his little brother on his arm. “Dadburn it, Joe – I gotta stop listenin’ to you – you, and your harebrained schemes! Adam looked mad enough to swallow a horned toad backwards…”
Joe was totally flustered, as he was trying to guess what their punishment would be this time, and just how they’d get out of it. “MY schemes?! I seem to remember you thought rigging that haunted house was a pretty good idea, too!”
Hoss hung his head in resignation. “Yeah, I reckon you’re right. Why is it, Joe, that you and me seem to have no trouble at all getting into all kinds of bother?” Hoss reached one large hand around Joe’s arm, then shoved him towards the top of the stairs. “We might as well go - and get it over with…” Then, almost as an afterthought, he sighed, as he added, “Adam’s gonna kill us…”
It was two very sheepish-looking young men who descended down the stairway, as their family watched. It was almost like they were watching two condemned men approaching the gallows as Ben just pointed one finger angrily towards the settee. Hoss took a seat on it, while Joe perched on the coffee table.
Adam stood at the bottom of the stairs, and rested one elbow on the newel post, as he gazed to his two younger brothers. The tension in the room was almost palpable, at that moment, so Ben spoke up. “Well, what have you two got to say for yourselves this time? Your little pranks - and I’m assuming it was you, who rigged the house - not only put Sarah’s and Josie’s lives in danger, but Adam’s, indirectly, too. Yes, fair enough, the floor gave way under Josie. But your placement of all the props in and around the house – to frighten them – sure didn’t help the situation. Especially loosening the floorboards – one of which Josie tripped over, which helped make her fall, after seeing the ghost, to begin with. I believe it was that sudden, jarring pressure – of her hitting the floor so hard – that made the rotted boards give way. As far as Josie and Sarah being late to get home – well, that’s just one of those things: it’s easy to get caught up in an adventure, and lose track of time. But it’s still not really an excuse.” Ben turned and raised an eyebrow at the two young women.
Sarah hung her head in red-faced embarrassment, but Josie opened her mouth to protest. If they hadn’t fallen into the cellar and landed in the rotten potatoes, then they wouldn’t have gone swimming again that morning and lost track of time. But she took one glance at her uncle’s stern countenance, clapped her mouth shut again, and dropped her head, too.
Ben turned to his eldest son again. “But Adam – being the man he is – was very worried, so went out looking for them. That’s when the ‘plot thickened’ and he ended up getting hurt himself, because of his very real concern for a couple of the members of his family. You two never mean for anyone to ‘get hurt’ with your harebrained schemes. But they often do, don’t they? The time Joe thought he could train Hoss to be a matador, comes to mind…” Ben paused for few moments as he remembered the absolute disaster that day had turned into… He just shook his head slowly, as he gazed at his youngest sons. “When will you two ever learn?!”
Ben paused at this point – he could see the remorse on both Hoss and Joe’s faces, so he continued. “Now, the question is – what do we do about it all? It’s clear to me that Adam will be out of commission, as far as ranch work goes, for quite a while...” Ben calmly crossed his arms, and turned to face his two youngest sons.
Hoss and Joe looked to each other, then to the floor, then to each other again.
Hoss was the first to come up with the obvious solution. “I reckon, Pa, we’ll be doing his share of the work, won’t we?”
Ben nodded in agreement. “That’s right, Hoss. You’d better ask your brother what may need to be done at his own home, while you’re at it…”
Joe turned to Adam, with a very sorrowful look on his face. He, too, realized his Pa was right. “How about it, Adam? What needs to be done?”
Adam considered the question for a few moments. “I think between Beth, Sarah and I that we can manage looking after our horses, but all my vehicles are due to have their axles greased. I won’t be able to do that myself. The actual ‘greasing’ - yes. But getting the wheels off, and hauled out of the way, hauled back, and bolted back on again – no… And that bear
that Josie and Sarah shot, that I got ‘treed’ by – I’d like for you to skin it, and cure the hide, for Sarah, to put in her room: Her first ‘hunting trophy’…Since I won’t be able to do that, either.” He grinned over to his daughter, who just shouted out in excitement, “Thanks, Pa!” He looked to his brothers again, and added, “That’s about it, right now.”
Josie and Sarah smiled to each other at Adam’s suggestion – that bear would look just great gracing Sarah’s floor.
Joe and Hoss looked to each other again, and smiled. Then Joe started listing off what they’d get done for their brother. “How about we come over Tuesday, to fix those vehicles for ya, Adam? Maybe check your fences, too, make sure all the boards are still nice and tightly nailed on?” Then Hoss chimed in. “Yeah – while we’re there, we can clean the stalls for ya, too. One day, at least, you won’t have to do that! Shucks, we can always come over and help you whenever you need us to, Adam! Just let us know…”
Ben smiled in pride at his ‘boys’, as their discussion continued. When it came right down to it, his family was definitely like The Three Musketeers: They may disagree on any number of issues, but always, in the end, they came together as a family again, always ready, and willing, to help each other out - All for one, and one for all…
The slight mist that had come across Ben’s eyes subsided, as he suggested they all have a cup of coffee - or a glass of milk, for his grandchildren, of course! They were soon all sitting around the great room, enjoying their refreshments, and the cookies Ben had ‘found’, all except Adam, of course – who couldn’t sit! But he enjoyed the refreshments, too, anyway…
Several minutes later Adam still stood, leaning on the newel post, at the base of the stairs, and he shifted a little uncomfortably, as he felt a sudden stab of pain from his own injury. “There’s one other thing about this whole ‘ghost topic’.” He glanced to Beth, and she merely nodded silently. “Something that Beth and I didn’t share with anybody the day Wyatt, Shane and Rosie were born…We’re going to share it with you now…”
Adam waited a few moments while his family finished up their refreshments, to be sure he had their attention, then he began his story. “Wyatt and Shane had already been born when Beth’s water broke again. Paul looked to us in shock, and said there was a third baby. We could both tell from his face that he was deeply worried.” Adam paused, and there was a look of raw emotion on his face, as he remembered that fateful day. “After a little while, it became clear that Beth was in trouble: too exhausted to deliver the baby herself, and Paul – under Beth’s and the baby’s physical circumstances – couldn’t help her deliver it, either…” Adam glanced over to Beth. Rosie was sitting on her lap, playing with her Mama’s long auburn braid, and her own little auburn pigtails were bobbing around, with her every motion, and giggle – and Adam smiled. “Well, the time went by. I was starting to think that we were gonna lose both Beth, and the baby. Then something happened…”
There was absolute silence in the great room as the family all listened intently, and hung on his every word. “I felt a presence in the room. I didn’t know who it was. At first. Then I felt her – she put her hands on my shoulders…” Adam’s voice started to waver – and he struggled to hang onto his composure. “It was my own Ma – I saw her face superimposed over Beth’s – then, she smiled at me…and then, well, Beth regained her strength, and she managed to deliver Rosie…” There were tears in his eyes, as he looked to his wife again. He wiped them away, quickly, and continued. “So - in short – both Beth and I believe in spirits, ghosts – whatever you want to call them. I believe my Ma helped us out that day – and she’s also the reason both Beth and Rosie survived, that day, too…” Adam gave a little shrug, and smiled.
Ben had stepped to him, and took his eldest son into his arms. Then Adam heard a softly whispered confession in his ear. “I felt her that day too, Adam…” As Ben backed away from his son’s embrace, once more, he smiled at his eldest ‘boy’, and that handsome face – so like his own beloved Elizabeth’s: Adam’s beautiful Mother – smiled back at him.
“Thanks, Pa… Well, we’ve all settled on the ‘chores’ issue. Now, I guess the question is: What do we do about the old Rayner homestead? It would appear that it just isn’t stable, or safe, anymore. I hate to have to suggest it, but perhaps we should just knock it down, before somebody really gets hurt in there...”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “We can’t do that, Pa! Where will Mrs. Rayner live? I mean – be dead? Well - you know what I mean!”
Adam grinned at his sensitive, empathetic little girl, and then Josie chimed in. “Yeah Adam, I agree. Mrs. Rayner’s ghost looked pretty content there…”
Joe’s eyes lit right up at this point, as he broke in, “YOU saw a ghost, Josie?! I saw a ghost, too – she offered me soup! See, Hoss – I’m not crazy!” and he gave his older brother a sharp poke in the shoulder.
Josie grinned wickedly at her two cousins, as Hoss returned that poke to his brother, and she felt her anger towards them rapidly fading. “Yeah – she really is a hospitable old girl, isn’t she? She offered me soup, too…” Josie shook her head slowly, and her face became serious again, as she looked to Adam once more. “I never thought I’d be saying this, Adam, but we can’t tear down someone’s home – even if they are just a ghost…” Even Josie herself understood the absurdity of her own statement – but she’d meant every word of it.
Adam considered all of the comments for several moments. “Fair enough. We won’t tear it down, but we – and by ‘we’ I mean Hoss and Joe, while they’re out there today, skinning the bear for me – can board up the doors, and windows, to be sure no one else ventures in there, and gets hurt.”
Both Hoss and Joe smiled at their elder brother. “Sure, Adam, we can do that for ya,” Hoss said.
Adam grinned in gratitude, as his brothers stepped towards him, and clapped their hands on his back. “Well – now that’s all settled – I’m thinking my family and I should head out. I really need to lay down again…”
With Rosie already comfortably tucked into one of her Mama’s arms, and with Sarah holding Beth’s other hand, Adam reached for Shane’s and Wyatt’s little hands, as they all headed for the door.
Ben and Josie followed them outside, to say their goodbyes, as Hoss and Joe headed for the barn. Ben looked after his two younger sons, and called after them. “There’s a stack of scrap lumber behind the barn you can use to barricade that old house with, boys!”
Hoss just raised one hand in acknowledgment, and smiled, as they continued towards the barn. “Sure, Pa! Adam, Beth - see ya Tuesday!” Adam and Beth waved them off as the two brothers disappeared into the barn.
Even Beth was grinning, as she’d watched her two brothers-in-law. Truth be told: she felt just a little sorry for them, and the additional work load they would be taking on, in Adam’s absence. “Tell you what, Ben – why don’t you all come to supper next Saturday? Say, about five o’clock?”
Ben clapped one hand warmly on her back. “That sounds just wonderful, Beth – we’ll all be there!” He reached out a Grandfatherly hand, and gently tousled the hair of his three littlest grandchildren, then gave Sarah a warm hug, and Josie did the same, before also hugging both Beth and Adam.
They were soon all aboard the buckboard. Adam stood leaning against the driver’s seat, his arms resting on the low back support, and the kids were seated all around his feet, as they waved enthusiastically back at their family. With a slap of the reins on Beau’s and Belle’s backs, and a softly called “Get up!” from Beth, the big wagon lurched forward into motion. Ben and Josie waved them off - till they were out of sight - around the corner of the large barn.
As soon as Adam and Beth’s wagon was gone, Josie turned to Ben. “Think I’ll go inside and have a proper bath. Even after all that swimming Sarah and I did, I can still smell rotten potato.”
Ben chuckled and gave Josie a gentle nudge toward the front door.
A few minutes later, as she sank, blissfully, into a tub of cool, clean water, Josie rested her head against the back of the tub and closed her eyes, grateful that everyone was safe and sound. She giggled as she felt her rear end lift from the bottom of the bathtub – now that she knew how to float it would seem she would never be able to stop! As she grabbed the soap and began lathering up her long, dark hair, she thought about the ghost she had seen and the one Adam had told the family about. Being ten years younger than Adam, Josie had never met her Aunt Elizabeth, but Josie’s mother, Hannah, often mentioned her and kept a small portrait of her on the parlour mantel at the Cartwright home in Washington, D.C. Josie knew she bore an uncanny resemblance to the middle Stoddard sister – so much so that she had startled Ben more than once when he’d caught an unexpected glimpse of Josie out of the corner of his eye – and Josie wished she could have known her.
“I guess ghosts show up when they know they’re needed,” she muttered to herself. Though that didn’t explain why the ghost of Mrs. Rayner appeared and offered her something to eat when she had gorged herself on chicken and potato salad only a few minutes earlier. Josie supposed there were just some things in this world that even scientists like herself weren’t meant to understand. What she now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, was that she had made the right decision in moving to Nevada to be with her uncle and cousins. She may not know everything yet about living out West, but the Ponderosa was where she belonged. Smiling contentedly, she finished up her bath and got dressed for supper.
******
Once Adam’s crew arrived home once more, they all tumbled into the house. Wyatt and Shane didn’t understand why they couldn’t roughhouse with their Papa, as Beth, with Sarah as her helper, headed into the kitchen to make their dinner that evening. Adam explained patiently, again, why they couldn’t wrestle, but little Rosie was happy to just have her Papa all to herself, as she cuddled up to him, as he lay on his side, on their settee. Adam played with her pigtails, and tweaked her little button nose, and smiled as the little girl dozed off for her late afternoon nap. Adam rose stiffly, and carefully, then he laid the little girl down. “Sleep well, my little ‘Rosie-dosie-doe’!”, kissed her cheek softly, and then headed for the kitchen.
The room was a hive of activity. Wyatt and Shane had plopped down in the middle of the floor with their blocks, apparently content to play with them, instead of their Papa. As Adam saw them stack the small wooden pieces higher and higher he thought perhaps both his sons had inherited his talent for architectural design... Sarah carefully stirred the beef stew – that had been slow cooking all afternoon, over the reddened logs - making sure it wouldn’t burn to the pot. Beth had just whipped up a batch of biscuit dough, and put the tray of biscuits in to bake, in the oven, right beside an apple pie, as Adam sidled over to the counter, and rested one elbow on its edge.
“That’s funny how only Josie and Joe saw the ghost, isn’t it? I’d have thought she’d have made herself known to anyone there,” Adam mused.
Beth nodded in agreement, as she swiped a strand of hair from across her face, and tossed a couple of more logs into the fire box, of the stove. “Yes, that is sort of funny isn’t it? Maybe she only shows herself to people who claim not to believe in ghosts. Of course we’re assuming that ghosts still have ‘reasoning’ – you know, that sort of thing.”
Sarah looked up from the small cauldron of stew. “Oh – they have ‘reasoning’ all right.”
Adam’s head snapped towards her. “How do you know that? You said you didn’t see her. Besides, I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts anymore.”
Sarah’s face looked a little flustered, and she blushed a little. “No, I don’t…” and went back to her work. Adam raised one eyebrow, and made no further comment, but he was absolutely sure that Sarah was ‘holding back’ somehow.
Little was said during dinner, and Sarah excused herself early, that evening, to go upstairs to bed. Beth wasn’t too surprised at her early departure, after spending a mostly sleepless, uncomfortable, previous night in the haunted house. But Adam thought he sensed more in his daughter. His curiosity got the best of him – soon after Sarah had climbed the stairs, to go to bed – so he followed her up.
He crept quietly along the hall and was surprised to see the light from her bedside oil lamp still spilling out from under her closed door. He tapped it lightly, and heard a muffled “Come in” from the other side.
When Adam stepped into her room, he was surprised to see her still in her jeans and shirt, as she sat on her bed, gazing off through her opened window. He lowered himself down beside her, and tried to balance on one cheek of his bottom, on the side of her bed. He realized that that didn’t work, as he felt a sharp pain shoot up his back, so he stood up again. He reached one gentle hand towards her chin, and tilted her face towards his. “You were awfully quiet at dinner tonight. What’s up Sarah?”
The little girl stood slowly and as she moved to face her Pa, their hazel eyes met. Adam reached his hands to her waist, to steady her on the unstable surface of her mattress. “Can you keep a secret, Pa?”
Adam smiled. Oh - the number of times she had asked that of him… “Sure, Sarah – what is it?”
One large tear rolled down her cheek. “I didn’t see Mrs. Rayner – but I have seen a ghost. Least, I think I have…”
Adam cocked one eyebrow. “Oh? When was this?”
As she continued, Sarah reached her arms out, and wrapped then gently around his neck. “Well it was soon after my first Pa died. I saw a lady with long, dark, wavy hair, in my room, one night. She had the prettiest blue eyes.” Her eyebrows went up a little in recognition. “You know, except for the blue eyes, she looked a lot like Josie.”
That ‘first Pa’ Sarah was alluding to, of course, was Adam’s own Uncle John, who had raised Sarah as his and his wife’s own, after Beth had surrendered Sarah to their care, and had supposedly died, soon after. The whole story, of which, had been found to be untrue just two years before, when Adam had learned that Sarah was not his cousin, but his own daughter. And that Beth was her Mother, and was alive, after all…
Adam tilted his head thoughtfully. “I see. Did she say anything to you?”
Sarah nodded her head slowly, as she held her Pa’s gaze. “Yeah – she said I’d find my real Pa one day, and that she was my Grandma, and that she’d always love me… I was kind of surprised, and confused, but I never told anyone about it. Till now…”
A small smile fell across her face, as Adam felt his own eyes moisten, just a little, as he drew his daughter into his arms. “Oh, Sarah… that was my Ma you saw that night. And you’re right: except for her eyes, Josie looks just like her.” He had to pause, and swallow very hard, as he fought the growing lump in his own throat. A few moments later, they parted from that embrace, and Adam looked into his daughter’s big hazel eyes. “I guess, in a way, we’re lucky – we’ve both seen our Mothers, now, haven’t we? But you’re the luckiest one, Sarah – your own Ma is right downstairs…” He reached for her hand, and she hopped down from her bed again. Adam smiled down at his daughter, as they headed for her door. “How about a nice, big piece of your Ma’s apple pie, and a glass of milk, before you go to bed?”
Sarah smiled up at him. “That sounds great, Pa!”
The happy twosome headed down the stairs, hand in hand, once more. The whole adventure of the haunted house – and those ‘things that go “Bump” in the night’ - and especially Sarah’s own paranormal disclosure to Adam, that very evening - would be something they’d always remember, and treasure, forever.
THE END