Chapter 13: Jake’s Story

~All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.~—Leo Tolstoy

“So, like I said, my father, Isaac Wade, was a farmer. In time, he married my mother, Leah Carver, and pretty soon, I was born. My full name, the one you so desperately wanted to find out a few days ago, is Jacob Carver Wade. It was just the three of us for about three years, and then my father died.”

“What did he die from?”

“Not sure. He caught something, came down sick with whatever—even Momma never knew what it was that killed him. Doctors were even more scarce back then than they are now. He suffered for about two or three days before givin’ up the ghost.

“Honestly, I don’t remember him at all, but folks spoke of him as a good, honest man. They did say he was kinda soft. Maybe that’s why he died too soon. He didn’t have the toughness needed to live a life out in the wild part of the country.

“My momma was left alone on the farm with a small child. Then, ’bout a month after my daddy’s death, Ben showed up at our door. He was lost and all sick and dyin’, like.

“Momma took care of him, nursed him back to health, and he stuck around after that and married her. He had some dark past he didn’t want to talk about. He never went to town and wasn’t the social sort. That aside, he was a strong, tough man who could handle the demands of farmin’, and that was exactly what Momma needed.”

“Did they love each other?”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. At any rate, they got along great, and he was never harsh to her. My brother Daniel was born before the year was up, and two years later, Rachel made her way onto this earth.”

A shadow crossed Jake’s face when he mentioned his sister.

“Was it hard for you to get along with your stepfather?” Dannie couldn’t help asking the question.

“Nope.” Jake shook his head. “I couldn’t remember my father, so Ben was the only father I knew. I’d say he was pretty good at being a stepdaddy. I remember Rachel always complaining that he was too severe, and it was true, Ben wasn’t the kind of man who knew how to show affection.

“But he didn’t play favorites, and that was why I respected him. Never once did he make any sort of distinction between me and his own children. He treated us all equal. He made us work hard on the farm, but the work was always fair, and we were never asked to do more than our share.

“Things went on like that for a good while, and then one day Ben had a heart attack and died. It happened in the summer of 1864. I was fighting in the war at that time.” Jake paused here and looked at his hands.

“You mean the War between the States?”

“Yup.”

“Union or Confederacy?”

Jake laughed. “I lived on Confederate soil, so I fought Confederacy.”

“Why did you join?”

“I turned seventeen in ’63 and was tired of farm life. To me, it was dumb and boring, but I didn’t know what to do or where to go. The army seemed like an easy way out, so I took it. My momma cried. She said it was wicked of me. Ben said the decision was mine to make, but when we shook hands in parting, I thought I saw something like tears in his eyes. I’m glad I parted well with Ben, because I never saw him again.”

Jake’s voice died for a few seconds, and he looked off through the cave entrance into the falling rain. “I ain’t gonna talk about those war years, Dannie. I lived through hell, and it took a long time for the nightmares to go away. If I talk about the endless days I spent fightin’, they all come back.”

“Don’t.” Dannie’s voice was soft. “I don’t care to hear about it, anyway. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is war.”

Jake nodded. “When I got back from the war, Ben was dead, and things got pretty complicated.”

“Complicated?” Dannie was getting more and more intrigued with the tale.

“Growin’ up, Rachel and I were pretty close, but Daniel and I never got along. I don’t know why, but he never let me forget that I was a half-brother, and that Ben wasn’t my real daddy. When I returned from the army, the tension escalated to terrible heights.

“You see, with Ben’s death, the farm went to me. I heard from Rachel that when Daniel found out I was gettin’ the farm, he argued day and night with Ben. Daniel said that he was Ben’s flesh-and-blood son, so he should inherit the land. Ben’s reply was that the farm originally belonged to Isaac Wade, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“After Ben’s death, Daniel looked after the farm till I got back—and he became very possessive of it. When I returned, we tried to make it work between us, but when the year was up I had enough.

“I thought it was dumb for us to be so mean to each other all the time. I hated farmin’, I hated the farm, and I didn’t want to own it—so what on earth were we fightin’ about?

“I approached Daniel and told him that I would work with him till he was old enough to run the farm on his own, and then I would head out to Arizona. I wanted to work on a ranch with cattle and horses, but I felt Daniel was too young to do it all by himself. I told him I’d hang around till he was eighteen, and then I’d be off.

“I think my brother was a little suspicious of me, but at the same time, he liked the deal. So, we came to terms, and things settled between us. I suspect the stupid boy was a little afraid I might change my mind, but he needn’t have worried. I had more than one reason to want to get as far away from that farm as I possibly could.”

Jake let out a frustrated laugh. “Growin’ up, I was close friends with a girl from the town who went by the name of Amy Brown. Folks always said we would get married, and as we grew older, we made plans to build a family together. Then I went off to war, and Amy said she would wait for me.

“During those cold, horrible years of bloodshed, I would dream of coming back, marryin’ Amy, and putting the war behind me. When I returned, I found Amy had gone and married some other fellow.

“Oh, she gave me plenty of reasons for her actions. We had been so young, we didn’t know what we were doing. She hadn’t heard from me in so long, she had decided I was dead. On and on the excuses went.

“I said I was ashamed of ever having loved her in the first place. Told her to stay as far away from me as possible. I never spoke to her again, even though I had to stick around that part of Texas for another three years. And of course, as if this wasn’t all bad enough, my little sister Rachel had to go and pull a stunt of her own.”

“What happened?”

Jake didn’t hurry in answering. He sat silently for a few minutes, deep in thought. Dannie sensed that it was hard for him to talk about this part of his past. She wouldn’t pressure him. She merely sat silently, waiting for him to begin.

“It all happened the year Rachel turned sixteen,” Jake said at last. “I had been helpin’ Daniel for three years, and he was finally eighteen years old, and Momma thought he could manage without my help.

“I was twenty-two, itching to get away from the darn place and journey further west. And then, just as I was gettin’ ready to take my leave, this man appeared in our neck of the woods. I don’t know his real name. Everyone in the area called him Calhoon.

“He was a cattle rustler. Rode around with his gang and stole cattle from cattle drivers and ranches. He was a wanted man with a six hundred dollar reward on his head. Somehow or another, Calhoon saw my sister and was really taken with her. He began seein’ her in secret, and pretty soon, Rachel was head over heels in love with him.

“Rachel always was a great dreamer and hopeless romantic. I don’t know what Calhoon said to her to make her love him. The man was ugly, crude, and twice her age, but it worked its magic to the point that she even agreed to run away with him.”

“Did she do it?”

“Nope. In an unguarded moment, Rachel confessed the plan to Becky. Thank God, Becky had a head on her shoulders, and the first thing she did was tell Momma. Daniel and I never saw eye to eye on anythin’, but that day, probably for the first time in our lives, we agreed on something. There was no way we were lettin’ Rachel run off with an outlaw.

“We tried to talk Rachel out of the plan, but her silly little mind was set. She said she didn’t care what sort of a life he led—she loved him, he loved her, and that was all that mattered. It became obvious that reasonin’ with Rachel was like bangin’ your head against a stone wall, and we had to take some drastic measures.

“I locked Rachel in the cellar with Momma and Becky the night Calhoon was supposed to come for her. Daniel notified the sheriff. Unfortunately,” Jake’s hands clenched, “Calhoon got away. But he swore that he would never rest until he got Rachel, even if it was the last thing he did.

“I didn’t believe him at first, but pretty soon our farm knew no peace, and I understood that Calhoon meant to carry out his threat. The fact that Rachel was just dyin’ to go over to him was not much help. She tried to run away several times—and finally succeeded.

“Becky was the first to discover her absence, and ran to get me. I don’t think I ever saddled a horse so fast in my life. I rode to town and was able to discover that Rachel had boarded the train. Of course, by the time I got to the station, the train was pullin’ out. I suppose you can guess what I did.”

Dannie shook her head.

“I urged my horse to a gallop and took off after the train. Della was a good horse; I brought her with me from the war. We caught up with the train, and I jumped on it.”

“You JUMPED on the train?”

“I’m an ex-cavalry soldier.” Jake let out a bitter laugh. “I went through the cars and, sure enough, I found her. Calhoon had gone to take a smoke, and she was alone. That was God’s mercy toward me, ’cause I would never have gotten off that train alive if he had been sittin’ next to my sister.

“Rachel was looking out the window and didn’t notice me, which made it easy for me to run up and grab her. I dragged her to the exit, and she started strugglin’ and calling for Calhoon to help her. Who would have thought that the little girl who ran to me for protection during a thunderstorm would one day claw my face and bite my hands. The whole car was starin’ at us, wonderin’ what on earth was going on. When we got to the door, I flung it open. Holding Rachel tightly, I jumped out.”

“You threw yourself off a moving train?” Dannie couldn’t quite believe the story being told to her.

“It hadn’t picked up full speed yet. I’ll admit it was risky, but I didn’t have a choice. Calhoon was right after us. Rachel was shoutin’ for Calhoon to shoot me.” Jake spat on the ground. “She asked him to shoot me, her own brother. Calhoon would have probably done just that, but as soon as I landed on the ground, I jumped up again and pulled out my gun. I got Calhoon in the shoulder.

“Rachel was screamin’ at me that she hated me, that I killed the man she loved. It was quite a scene, and the entire train got to see it. I barely got that girl back home. I tried to reason with her again, but she wouldn’t listen.

“For the first time she in her life, she told me I was her half-brother, and I had no business messin’ with her life. I knew Calhoon was going to come back, and I didn’t have much time.

“Since Daniel and I were the men of the house, I took him aside, and we had a long talk. We agreed that in order to keep Rachel safe from the clutches of that monster, we would have to whisk her off somewhere far, far from the farm.

“It had to be a place where Calhoon would never be able to find her, a place where he wouldn’t even have the brains to look. I hit upon a plan, but it wasn’t very appealing to Daniel or myself.

“Momma once told me that Ben had relatives back East, and I suggested it might be best to take Rachel there. In those large cities, the chances of Calhoon being able to track her down were close to zero.

“Of course, Daniel didn’t want to go East, and I didn’t want to, either. We hated the idea of a city and movin’ there was worse than death itself. Dan was plannin’ to get married as soon as he could support a wife, and I was itching to head out to the territories and partner with some ranchers.

“We approached Momma with our dilemma, and she said that perhaps it would be best for us to split up. She would take Rachel away, Daniel would stay with Becky on the farm, and I would leave, like I had planned.

“Another problem was I knew that Calhoon would be tryin’ to find Rachel and would try to get it out of us. So, I told Momma not to tell me where exactly she was going.

“The only way to keep us all safe would be for Momma and Rachel to completely disappear, and for neither Daniel nor myself to know where they were.” Jake paused again, his eyes growing dim. “They left one night. We woke up in the morning, and they were gone, and to this day I have no idea where they are.”