Fare Thee Well, Part Eleven

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG-13

LINK TO PART ONE

~

The service was short and sweet. Hoss sighed again and shook his head when it was over. That’s when he remembered the stranger. The fellow was still standing at his side.

"I can’t believe that my brother’s a married man," he told him.

The stranger smiled. "Oh, I knew he’d marry Antoinette. Even when she was seven she could challenge him and amuse him. And she adored him from the first. I can remember her trailing after him wherever he went."

Hoss stared at him. This fellow must have known Adam and Charlotte in New Orleans all those years ago.

"I never did catch your name," Hoss ventured, wondering why the young man's eyes held such a fond, bittersweet look as they rested on his brother.

"It’s Kevin," he answered as he took a step toward the rectory door. "Well, my friend, I’ll be on my way. Tell Adam—well, won't you tell him I was here?"

Hoss opened his mouth to ask him to wait just a minute. But suddenly he found himself engulfed in Little Joe’s arms. He turned to accept his brother’s hug and by the time he turned back the stranger had vanished.

The next thing he knew Adam and Charlotte were in front of him. They were looking for hugs too, but Charlotte gasped when she saw the tin cup he was holding.

She laughed and turned to her new husband. "Adam, that’s not that vile cup that Kevin always insisted on using?"

He grinned. "I’m afraid it is. Kev refused to part with it—despite the dents and the stains and the rust. It only seemed right to keep it for him after he died."

She laughed again and rolled her eyes as she hugged Hoss. "Why don’t you come with us into the Church?" she invited. "We’re going to light some candles for all the people who couldn’t be with us today. And I want to leave a bouquet for the Blessed Mother."

Hoss nodded dumbly and then she was moving onto the Widow Hawkins.

Come to think of it, he did remember Adam writing about a Kevin back when he was in college. But that couldn’t be the same fellow!

The one Adam told them about in his letters was dead. Hoss remembered the story.

Adam met him in New Orleans just before he went to college and the fellow traveled east with him. A few years later he got caught up in some brawl in New York. He ended up bleeding to death in Adam’s arms.

Adam must have sensed that something was wrong. "What’s up, Hoss?" he asked.

Hoss stared at his feet. "Wasn’t your friend Kevin an Irisher?" he asked.

He felt Adam place a hand on his shoulder as he answered. "Yes, he was. What of it?"

He shrugged and continued to look down. "I don’t know. What did he look like?"

"Well, I’d say that he was about Joe’s build." He paused and Hoss could hear a fond smile in his voice when he continued. "And, like Joe, he had a pair of hazel eyes that were brimming with mischief. His hair was blonde, though--sort of a dirty blonde. Why?"

Hoss couldn’t bring himself to answer.

Adam sighed. "Well, it doesn’t matter," he said at length. "Look, Kev’s one of the people we're going to light a candle for. Why don’t you come?"

"I will," Hoss managed. Then he forced himself to meet Adam’s gaze. "I—I reckon your friend would like that."

LINK TO PART TWELVE