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MOUNTAIN JOURNEY HOME
Rock Corner, Texas. 1877.
Life couldn’t get much better for Dave Kimbrough. He has a beautiful wife in Jenny, a fine young son in Jonathan, and a small ranch with which to build their future. But when Jenny suddenly dies, the heartache is more than Dave can bear, so he leaves his son with his wife’s family and rides off into the rugged Texas country alone. After several years Dave is wrongly accused of murder, and when he sets out to find the man who can clear his name, he runs instead into a posse that has set out to kill him. Wounded, he holes up for the winter in a cave. It is not time wasted, however, as he is given time to contemplate the mistake he made in abandoning his son.
Once spring arrives, Dave returns to make things in his life right. Things rarely go as planned, however, and Dave’s plans are no different. Beset by a trip to jail, Jenny’s spirited sister Rachel, and the heartache of taking away the only life and family his son really knows, Kimbrough makes a promise he thinks is the right thing to do. But a fateful winter followed by a deadly spring storm changes the course of their lives in ways that no one—least of all Dave—could have ever imagined.
Here is the first chapter of the book:
Chapter
One
Rock
Corner, Texas, 1877
Dave Kimbrough
struggled to keep breathing. Jenny, his wife, his love, his world, couldn’t be
dead. Glancing around at the small crowd around the open grave and listening to
the soft sobs, he wanted to scream at the suddenness and unreasonableness of
her loss. Jenny was dead. He couldn’t accept it. His light and his joy had
ended, buried in a pine box in the nearly frozen ground. As Jenny’s brothers
shoveled clumps of dirt mixed with snow into her grave, Dave saw nothing but
blackness to come.
Mr. and Mrs.
Harrod clung together across the grave from Dave hugging Jenny’s little twelve
year old sister Rachel. He needed to say something to them. After all, they
were burying their twenty-four year old daughter, but he had no words with
which to comfort them.
He couldn’t look
at Jenny’s sister Mary, not with her holding his two-year-old son. It hurt too
much even to look at Jonathan.
The preacher
stepped around the grave and took Dave’s hand. “You have my deepest sympathy,
Dave. May God be with you in the days to come.”
God? Where had He
been when the fever had taken his beautiful wife and left a two year old
motherless?
“Let’s go to the
house and get out of this cold.” Mr. Harrod walked toward the buggy supporting
his wife on one arm and his youngest daughter with the other. Dave almost
envied the tears that the Harrod family shed so easily. The ache in his chest
felt as if it would consume him if he didn’t release the tears that flooded his
soul. But he couldn’t cry.
Everyone had left
except for Jesse and Wayne, Jenny’s brothers. Dave couldn’t leave the grave now
mounded with fresh dirt. How could they expect him to leave his bride here in
this cold ground? Jenny didn’t like the cold. Dave wanted to howl his refusal
to accept that he would never hold her again and feel her arms around him.
Darkness would
soon be upon them. Wayne put his arm around Dave’s shoulders. “We have to
leave. You can come back tomorrow but for now let’s go home and get warm.”
“I can’t ... I
can’t leave her ... she doesn’t like the cold.”
Jesse led their
horses up. “Wayne, we got to go.” Jenny’s oldest brother seemed to be choking
as he spoke.
Wayne nodded.
“Come on Dave. Let’s go check on Jonathan.”
Dave allowed Wayne
to guide him to the horses. He wanted to get on his horse and ride until he
could outdistance the tearing pain of his loss. But he had no strength to even
turn toward his own ranch and allowed Jesse and Wayne guide him to the warmth
and caring of the Harrod’s ranch.
His agony was so
great that even to look at his son, Jonathan, was more than he could bear.
The Harrod family gathered
around him even in their own grief, but Dave couldn’t go on with the life that
so remained him of Jenny.
~
Two days after he
buried his beloved Jenny, he rode out from the Harrods’ place where he and
Jonathan had been staying and returned to his ranch. He sat on his horse and
stared at the little ranch house that had been so full of hope and dreams. He
dismounted and tied the horse’s reins to the hitching post in front of the
house. Taking a deep breath, he slowly climbed the steps onto the porch and
opened the front door. The house already smelled abandoned and cold had crept
into every corner of the now empty rooms. The furniture was still there, but
without Jenny there was no life in the place anymore. The ache within was so
great that he couldn’t even release his tears. Everywhere he looked, he saw
her.
He gathered up a
few things, including all of the baby's clothes and flannels, and put them into
a valise. Taking a last look around at his life with Jenny, he then walked out
of the house without a backward glance. He rode back to the Harrod’s ranch with
a sense that all sounds and feelings had been deafened.
Dave put his horse
in the barn and carried the valise into the kitchen.
Mrs. Harrod stood
at the dry sink washing bottles used for the baby. “Dave, I’m glad you’re back.
Are you all right?”
“I’m all right.”
It amazed him how easily and how much he lied these days. He wasn’t all right.
He would never be all right again. “Here are the baby’s things from the house.”
He couldn’t bear to say his son’s name.
Mr. Harrod came
into the kitchen from the back porch. He walked up to Dave and put his hand on
his shoulder. “What have you got there, son?”
The kindness of
these people only made him feel worse. He had to get away. “I want to ask you
to do something for me.”
Mrs. Harrod dried
her hands on a towel and came to stand next to her husband. “Anything we can
do, you know that.”
“I need to get
away for awhile. Can you take care of the baby? And maybe, look after my
place?” He looked down at the valise on the table.
Mr. Harrod moved
around to look at Dave. “What are you asking? For a few days, weeks, or
longer?”
“No, Dave, don’t
go away. Stay here with us, with Jonathan. Don’t leave us.” Mrs. Harrod raised
her apron to her face as she cried.
Dave felt he was
drowning in sorrow, his sorrow, the Harrod’s sorrow, the sorrow of the world.
He had to get away.
“Is it the
memories of Jenny?” Mr. Harrod asked in a soft, sad voice.
Dave couldn’t
answer. He could only nod as he continued to look the table.
Placing his hand
on Dave’s shoulder, he asked, “When will you leave?”
He took a deep
breath before he could speak. “I’ll leave in the morning.”
~
A year later, Dave
met Mr. Harrod and Jesse at the cafe in town.
“Son, it’s good to
see you.” Mr. Harrod gave him a hug.
Jesse also gave
him a bear hug. “You look awful. Haven’t you been eating?”
“How are you all
doing?” Dave tried to grin at them but it came out as a grimace. He was glad to
see them. They were good men, but he could see Jenny in Mr. Harrod’s eyes and
Jesse had the same color of hair as his wife.
Mr. Harrod and
Jesse told him about the ranches and the family as they sat together over a
meal that Dave couldn’t eat.
Mr. Harrod leaned
forward. “Johnny is the liveliest three-year-old you ever saw, always running
and curious about everything. He’s a happy little fellow. You’ll see when you
come out to the ranch.”
Dave turned his
attention to Jesse to avoid answering Mr. Harrod. “Jesse, I understand that
you’ve been taking care of my ranch.”
“Yes, Pa has had
too much to do on his own place. It just naturally worked for me to take
responsibility for your ranch.” Jesse shifted in his chair.
“I’m glad. You’re
a good rancher. There’s no reason for you not to run the ranch. Would you like
to buy it from me?” Dave leaned forward toward Jesse.
“Don’t you want to
come back and run the ranch yourself?” Jesse looked at his father and then back
at Dave.
Dave rubbed his
hand over his face. He felt beyond weary. It wasn’t a fatigue of the body but
of his spirit. “I don’t plan to move back here. I’d like for you to have the
ranch if you want it.”
“I would rather
you come back, but if you aren’t, then yes, I want the ranch.”
“You’ve been doing
the work anyway. I’ve already written a bill of sale for you.” Dave wanted to
get it over. He handed the bill of sale to Jesse.
“Dave, come back
to the ranch with us. Ma will want to see you, and Wayne, Mary, and Rachel. And
you need to see your son.” Mr. Harrod implored.
Dave could only
shake his head. It had taken all the courage he had to return to the town where
he and Jenny had met. He felt guilty about not seeing his son, and feared that Jenny
didn’t approve of what he was doing. In dealing with the loss of Jenny, he felt
out of control and it wasn’t really Dave Kimbrough making the decisions. The Harrods
didn’t understand, but they would care for their grandson. If Dave thought the
child had not been well cared for and loved, he knew he would have done
differently.
“Jesse, I don’t
want anything for me from the ranch. I want you to pay your father the money
for my son’s care.”
“Now, we can take
care of Jonathan. You need to take the money for yourself.” Mr. Harrod put his
hand on Dave’s arm.
“I’ll send you
money when I can.” Dave reached for his hat.
“Don’t you know
that we would rather have you back with us?” Mr. Harrod looked close to tears.
Dave could only
look at his feet. Giving the money from the ranch to Mr. Harrod wasn’t much,
but at least his son wouldn’t lack for the essentials.
As he left Jesse
and Mr. Harrod, he felt Mr. Harrod put something in his pocket. It wasn’t until
he was camped that evening that he remembered to look to see what it was. In a
little pouch was a locket with two pictures, one of Jenny taken the year before
she married and one of a serious round-faced little boy of three looking out at
him with Jenny’s eyes.
For the first time
since his wife’s death, he cried that evening by the campfire. Deep wrenching
sobs that felt as if they would tear him apart. He didn’t know if he cried for
his own loss, or for the little boy who would never even remember his mother.
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