Subject: Forgiven But Not Forgotten Sat Apr 01, 2023 8:31 am
As it's April, it's time to start getting the boys out into the spring sunshine. What better task that looking for
Forgiven but not forgotten
That can be a literal fool take on the prompt, or any other spin you want to put on it.
What are you waiting for?
Get writing.
Kattayl
Posts : 47 Join date : 2020-08-10 Age : 69 Location : Los Angeles, Ca
Subject: Re: Forgiven But Not Forgotten Sat Apr 22, 2023 1:58 am
Challenge April 2023
Forgiven but not Forgotten
Jed ‘Kid’ Curry looked out the small cracked window of the rundown line shack. The full moon bounced off the wet bushes and grass outside. All that was left of the fast-moving rainstorm was a bitter cold wind. It danced through the trees creating shadows, illusions. Curry studied each shadow for a human threat. Finding none, he sat on the bricks in front of the empty fireplace to rest…and listen..
“Heyes, stop pacin’. You’re makin’ me nervous.”
Stopping in mid-stride, Hannibal Heyes looked at his partner as if he had forgotten he wasn’t alone. They had been apart for over seventeen months, exactly seventeen months and fourteen days. He’d been alone then, even when he was with others. He didn’t trust anyone but Curry. They’d been tired and hungry, and both their tempers flared simultaneously on the day they separated in anger. He thought back on that day and regretted his words so many times in the months apart.
They’d been working on the Running B ranch in Wyoming. It was hard work, but they considered themselves lucky to get it, especially because the Kid was only seventeen and his baby face made him look younger. They stayed to themselves mostly but didn’t want to appear unsociable. They had no trouble with the other hands. Heyes was perfecting his poker skills in the nightly games, being careful never to be either the big winner or the big loser. Curry would play a couple of hands, mostly win, never lose a lot but preferred to help with the horses in the evening.
It wasn’t the horses that drew his attention but Gretchen, the middle daughter of Chris Baer, the owner of the Running B… the twenty-year-old daughter. She’d caught Heyes’ eye, too, although most of the other hands considered her too sophisticated for their taste.
It took two weeks, but Curry was patient. Now he was walking her back to the main house after grooming the horses each night. Another two weeks and she kissed him good night on the cheek. A week later, he put his finger under her chin, looked her in the eyes, and kissed her lips lightly.
She smiled at him and his lake blue eyes that seemed to reach her soul. And let him kiss her deeper the next time.
“Mr. Curry, just how old are you?” she asked in a voice lost in romantic thoughts.
“Haven’t I asked you to call me Jed?”
“That wouldn’t be appropriate.”
He found her lips again before he broke it off. “Good night, Miss Gretchen, sweet dreams.”
“Good night, Mr. Curry. Same to you.”
He stood on the porch and watched her go into the house with a smile.
She closed the door and leaned against it with the same smile.
ASJ*****ASJ
Heyes watched the exchange from the porch of the bunk house…and was jealous. The first night they started at the ranch, the Baers, Gretchen, her two sisters and her father, had him and his cousin to dinner. It was a tradition at the ranch and an opportunity for Chris Baer to evaluate new employees. Heyes and Gretchen had discussed the merits of Mark Twain’s books. He found her enchanting. All that week he had tried to figure out how to see her alone…until he went to the stable one night and saw her and Curry grooming horses and laughing together.
He told himself that it was nothing. Jed was three years younger than her and didn’t even like to read. He watched as they grew closer and knew that her father didn’t know. He made it clear the first night that his daughter was not to date ranch hands.
ASJ*****ASJ
Heyes warred with himself about the situation. The Kid hadn’t told him anything about Gretchen. Hadn’t even mentioned her. He was also the happiest Heyes had seen him in a long time. He had protected him for so long that the Kid being happy made Heyes happy. But he also started thinking about Gretchen all the time. She was different from the few girls they had met since they left Valparaiso. He ran into her casually a few times. She was friendly, even flirty. They discussed authors and books, and she lent him two books that still smelled new. He read one when he went to check the line shacks with another hand. Mr. Baer always paired new hands with his experienced men. At first, he cringed when he found that she had underlined passages in the new books. But he reread them and appreciated the thoughts. And he thought he was falling in love with Gretchen.
When it was the Kid’ turn to check the line shacks, Heyes gave his excuses at the nightly poker game and went to the stables.
“Mr. Heyes, so very nice to see you,” Gretchen greeted him warmly.
“Miss Gretchen, thought I’d help brush the horses. Didn’t know you’d be here,” he lied.
“Well, it’s delightful you’re here,” she answered, giving him a warm smile, and batting her eyelids. “Perhaps we can discuss the books I lent you while we work.”
“My aren’t you charming!” she said as he offered her his arm to walk her back to her house.
He was enthralled with her as she leaned her head against his shoulder. He took the chance and kissed her gently. She responded warmly. She looked into his beautiful warm brown eyes as he kissed her again.
Neither one of them heard Curry approach on horseback in the darkness. He had returned earlier at the other hand’s request to warn the ranch of two mountain lions prowling the north end of the ranch. And to come back with more ammunition for their rifles. He headed toward the bunkhouse but saw the tableau on the lighted porch of the main house. And his mind filled with jealousy.
He raced his horse to the porch. “Heyes, what’s going on here?” he questioned. Heyes heard the hurt in his voice and felt guilty. “And you, how could you?” he asked Gretchen.
Curry turned and rode to the bunkhouse.
“Kid, wait, come back,” Heyes yelled to his back.
“Kid? Just how old is he?’
“Seventeen,” Heyes answered quickly, then remembered they had lied about the Kid’s age. “No, eighteen.”
“How quaint,” she said, smiling before going into the house.
ASJ*****ASJ
The cousins ignored each other while Curry gathered the ammunition to return to the line shack. Finally, Heyes could not stand the tension between them and followed Curry to the stable.
“Kid, listen to me. I’m sorry,” he pleaded.
Curry ignored him.
“Kid, please! Forgive me. She was just so enchanting when she flirted with me.”
“She flirted with you, Heyes? No…I think she’s in love with me. And you stole her from me!” Curry growled.
Heyes saw the hurt in his eyes and answered contritely, “I’m sorry, Kid. I really am.” He locked eyes with Curry. “Forgive me?”
“Did you have to tell her I was seventeen?”
“Sorry, it just slipped out. Am I forgiven?”
Curry studied him, then turned and focused on the horses. Heyes waited patiently, confident that forgiveness was coming, and their relationship would go right back to normal.
He was hurt when Curry answered, “Forgiven, but not forgotten,” and didn’t take the hand Heyes had extended to him.
The words stung Heyes, and he fired back in anger. “Well, maybe we should just be apart until you can forget,” he snapped.
“If that’s what you want, alright.” Curry mounted his horse and rode off.
Angry, Heyes stood with his hands on his hips. “Well, I didn’t really mean it like that,” he said to the wind.
ASJ*****ASJ
Heyes thought he knew the Kid well. Everything would be settled in a couple of days when he returns from the line shacks. So, he acted like nothing was different and waited. And watched as Gretchen had another ranch hand walk her back to the house the next night and allow him to kiss her gently.
But Curry didn’t return from the line shacks. The other hand came back bringing the horse Curry had been riding.
“Where’s Jed?” Heyes demanded, a fear starting to grow inside of him.
“I rode with him into town. Said he was catching a train to Texas.”
Heyes felt as if part of himself was missing. He stayed at the Running P for a couple of months, hoping Jed would return. Then he struck out on his own. He ended up with the Iron Gang when he ran out of money. The gang broke up after a failed bank robbery left their leader in prison. Didn’t take long before he heard the Jim Plummer gang needed a safe man.
And everywhere he went, he looked for his cousin. He scoured every newspaper in every town. And started to read stories of a young, blonde, fast draw with a quick temper, Kid Curry. All the articles said the Kid hadn’t started the trouble and didn’t draw first, but they all said one thing. He won every gunfight, and no one had ever seen anyone faster. Soon the articles were more frequent, and the Kid started to be known as the fastest gun in the west.
He debated if he should leave and go to Texas. Jim Plummer ran off with the thirty thousand take from a train robbery and his gang broke up quickly. And Heyes decided to find his cousin…and apologize again and understand if the answer was forgiven but not forgotten.
When he read a three-day old paper from Texas, he knew that the Kid would come looking for him. Kid Curry had killed a man in a gunfight. The sheriff declared it self-defense. The deceased had clearly provoked the fight and drew first. Curry was faster.
Heyes looked at a map and tried to figure how the Kid would ride north. He had to ride to Oklahoma until he found Curry in the back corner of a saloon, drunk.
Heyes walked over to him, sat next to him, and put his hand on his knee. “Kid.”
Curry raised his bloodshot eyes to his cousin. “Heyes, I…I…”
“I know. Let’s get out of here.” He put his arm under Curry’s and helped him to stand. Curry grabbed onto him.
“You know what I did?”
“I do. It’s done, can’t change it. Try and forget.”
Heyes supported him as he leaned heavily against him all the way to his room in the hotel. He’d matured in the seventeen months apart. It was no longer the body of a boy but a man. Curry flopped face down on the bed. Heyes took off his boots and managed to get his gun belt off. He let him sleep while he thought.
Heyes pulled the curtains open and let the sun in the next morning.
“Sorry, partner. Got to get going. I only paid for one night.”
Curry looked at him and winced at the bright light. “I need breakfast before we get goin’ anywhere. Where are we goin’?”
“North. Colorado, maybe Wyoming.”
“Wherever you say, partner. But we eat first.”
“Wouldn’t expect to have it any other way.”
“Heyes?”
“Yeah, Kid.”
“Forgiven and forgotten. Should have said it that night. Sorry.”
“Forgiven and forgotten.”
ASJ*****ASJ
Heyes was uncomfortable with the silence between them as they rode north. Neither said exactly what they’d been doing and neither asked. Heyes had told the Kid about his time with the Plummer gang and the reward for his capture. Their only thought was to maybe join a gang that needed a safe man and a fast gun. Their relationship was back to normal, but they were aimless.
As they entered Wyoming, in a small town named Table Flats, they had just dismounted in front of the hotel. Stretching and looking around for the saloon, they heard gunfire coming from the bank. A man dressed all in black, running by them, was shot as they watched. He stumbled into Heyes.
Heyes and Curry looked at each other. The bank was being robbed and this was one of the robbers. A second bigger man with a Hispanic accent yelled, “Get him on his horse and let’s go!”
And Heyes and Curry did just that, following the gang as they raced out of Table Flats. They stopped off the road about five miles out of town.
The big man looked at them closely. “Do I know you two? Are you lawmen?”
“Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry at your service, sir.”
“Jim Santana. What are you doing here?”
“You told us to get him on his horse and go, sir,” answered Curry.
Santana laughed, “So, I did. So, I did. Now what am I going to do with you?”
“Sir, we just happen to be looking to join up with a gang that needs a good safe man and a gunnie.” Heyes tried to sound confident and assured.
“Well, I would have to think about it. Right now, there’s a cabin about five miles up this dirt trail. Look close, it's on your right. Take Preacher there and let him heal. Cabin’s got food and supplies for two weeks. By then, I will send someone for him….and maybe you two.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, just turned to go when another man whispered into his ear. Santana looked back at the Kid. “You the Kid Curry I read about? Fastest gun in the West?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
ASJ*****ASJ
They’d been at the cabin for ten days now. Preacher had guided Heyes as he took the bullet out of the back of his shoulder. Then he rested and studied the two men.
Curry rose from the fireplace bricks and went back to the window. Preacher forced a cup of coffee into his hand. “He’ll be here.”
“And what happens then? He kills us because we can identify him?” Heyes asked.
“Santana’s not like that. He don’t hold with killing,” Preacher returned.
The partners looked at each other and nodded, each knowing that if the invitation to join the Devil’s Hole Gang was offered, they would accept.
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