The RECKONING: A Jess Williams Western (5 page)

             
Jess stared straight ahead with a look that the sheriff had seen more than once in his lifetime and it was not a look that should be on any man’s face, much less a boy’s. He walked back up the steps and sat next to Jess again putting his arm around him. He knew there was nothing he could say or do to comfort Jess in this moment, so he just sat there with his arm around him for a while. While the sheriff sat there, he thought about what he had to do next. He wanted to hit the trail and look for these murderers, but he would have to go into town and get some help. The blood on the floor was mostly dry except for the thick puddle that was around Becky’s feet, so they had a good head start. He decided he would load up the bodies in the wagon and take the bodies and Jess to town. He knew he had to break the blank stare that Jess still had on his face. The sheriff could only imagine what thoughts could be going through his head.

             
“Jess?” asked Sheriff Diggs. Jess said nothing.

             
“Jess?” asked Diggs, a little louder. Jess still didn’t respond. “Jess, I have to take the bodies into town, and you have to go with me.”

             
Jess slowly turned his head to look at the sheriff. His voice was broken and quivering badly as he spoke. “Why would anyone want to kill my ma and pa, and little Samantha? Why? What sort of people would do something like this?” The sheriff knew there was no logical explanation he could give a fourteen-year old boy that would make any sense, and yet, he had to tell him something.

             
“There are a lot of good men in this world, Jess,” he explained thoughtfully. “Unfortunately, there are some really bad men, too. There are men who kill just for the sake of killing and the pure pleasure it gives their cold black hearts. It never makes any sense, no matter how old you get or how many times you see it.” Jess looked away from the sheriff and looked straight out at nothing again.

             
“Jess, why don’t you sit here while I go get the horse loose from the plow and stable him?” The sheriff suggested. Jess nodded affirmatively.

             
The sheriff walked out into the field and unhitched the horse. When he was finished, he met Jess back at the front porch and told him to put the horse in the barn and feed the stock. He figured that would give him enough time to load the bodies into the wagon without him being around. He quickly unloaded the supplies from the wagon and loaded up Becky and Samantha. Then he drove the wagon out to John’s body. Jess was coming out from the stables when the sheriff got back to the front porch.

             
“Time to go, Jess,” the sheriff said. He nodded as he looked in the back of wagon at the three bodies. He crawled up in the wagon and took his seat next to the sheriff. As he sat down, he looked at the boot prints in the soft dirt in front of the house. He noticed a left boot print; with a missing boot heel. He planted that picture deeply into his mind.

             
It was a long ride back to town. Jess never said a word. He kept going over and over in his mind what had happened. He thought about the boot print with the missing left heel. He pictured the three men again in his mind. He never wanted to forget what they looked like. He would burn their images into his brain and remember everything he could about them. It was getting close to dusk when they pulled into town. The sheriff stopped the wagon in front of the general store. Jim had come out on the porch to see what the sheriff was doing driving a wagon back to town with Jess next to him in the front street. The sheriff explained what happened and Jim fought back the tears.

             
“Jim,” the sheriff asked, “can you take their bodies over to the undertaker? I need to get Jess here set up for the night. Then I need to round up some men for a posse to head out at first light and hunt down the bastards that did this.”

             
“Of course, Sheriff,” replied Jim, “whatever you need. Are you going to put him up at the hotel?”

             
“Yeah, just for a few days until I can sort all this out,” he replied.

             
“Sheriff, I have a better idea,” said Jim. “Why don’t you take the bodies over to the undertaker and let Sara and me take care of Jess? We have an extra room upstairs. He shouldn’t be alone at a time like this. We can keep a close eye on him that way.”

             
“That sounds fine to me, Jim,” replied Diggs. “I’m sure he would be better off here than at the hotel. You sure your wife won’t mind?”

             
“Not to worry,” replied Jim. “Becky was like a daughter to us and Jess is like family. We’d be more than happy to look after him,” he replied firmly. Sheriff Diggs looked at Jess.

             
“Jess,” asked the sheriff, “would you rather stay with Jim and Sara?”

             
Jess shook his head affirming that it was okay with him. He, too, had always considered Jim and Sara as family. He looked in the back of the wagon as he stepped down from it. There was no sobbing, but you could see tears coming from his eyes.

             
“I’m tired,” said Jess, barely audible.

             
“You go on in and Sara will fix you some supper.”

             
“I’m not hungry,” he said flatly. “I just want to go to sleep.”

             
“That’s okay, Jess,” agreed Jim. “Whatever you need.”

             
“Sara!” Jim called out to his wife.

             
“I’m right here,” Sara said softly, tears streaming from her eyes. “I’ve been standing here all this time. Jess, you come on in and I’ll set up your bed right away, okay?”

Jess nodded and followed Sara up the stairs.

              “You go ahead and get comfortable,” said Sara. “I’ll get you a glass of water just in case you get thirsty later.”

             
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said politely. He got undressed and got into bed. The sheets felt clean and cool to him and yet they did not comfort him in the least. Sara brought him a glass of water and sat it down on a little table next to the bed. She put her hand on his head just for a moment as if to let him know that she would be right there if he needed anything. Sara closed the door most of the way leaving it open just enough so she could hear him in the night. Jess lay there thinking about all that happened. He slowly started to doze off. Just before he fell asleep, he imagined he was hunting down the killers who had murdered his family and that he would kill every last one of them. And he would make them suffer…

CHAPTER FOUR

              Jess tossed and turned that night. His mind replayed the horrors over and over again. He woke several times and each time he did, Sara was right there to comfort him. He finally woke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and bacon. For a brief moment, when he first opened his eyes, he hoped it was all just a bad dream. Then he realized where he was and it all came back to him again in a thundering rush. He just stared at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure
how
he could or even
if
he could deal with what had happened. Then his thoughts turned to the men responsible. He knew he had to see justice done. He didn’t quite know how yet. He only knew that he had to make things right. There would be plenty of time to figure it all out. For now, he had to survive. He had to figure out what to do today, next week, and next month. He was a planner in life, just like his pa had been.

             
He got dressed and splashed his face with some cool clean water Sara had left in a large bowl on the table by his bed. It felt good on his face. As he lifted his head up in the mirror and reached for a small towel, he noticed something different about the way he looked. It was surely his reflection in the mirror, but it didn’t quite look like him. He was different in some odd sort of way that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He headed down the stairs to the kitchen and Jim was sitting at the table sipping some hot coffee, an empty plate in front of him. Sara was standing over the hot stove and when she heard Jess come into the room she turned around to see him.

             
“How about some eggs and bacon, Jess?” asked Sara.

             
“I don’t know,” replied Jess. “I’m not sure I’m hungry yet.”

             
“Jess, you haven’t eaten since early yesterday,” pleaded Jim. “You’ve got to be mighty hungry by now.”

             
“Well, I guess so,” he replied, talking so low you could hardly hear the words.

             
“Then let Sara fix you a plate of vittles,” submitted Jim. “You’ve got to eat eventually.” Sara put a plate of eggs, bacon and biscuits in front of Jess.

             
“Thanks, ma’am,” he said.

             
“You’re welcome, Jess. If you need anything else, you just say so.” Jess picked up a biscuit and began to pull it apart. He put a small piece of it in his mouth and began chewing it, a strange blank stare in his eyes. Sara fixed herself a plate and sat down next to Jess hoping she could coax him into eating some more.

             
“It sure looks good,” said Jess, “but I just can’t seem to eat much. If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go out and sit on the back steps.” Jess got up from the table and looked at his plate and then looked over at Sara.

             
“Sorry, ma'am,” he said. Sara put her hand on his arm gently.

             
“It’s okay Jess,” replied Sara. “I understand. You can eat whenever you’re ready.”

             
“Thanks, he said, as he walked down the back hallway and out the back door and sat on the steps of the porch. The view behind the store was less than exceptional. There was junk cluttered all around. The view off in the distance was much more pleasing. He could see rolling hills, most of them covered with trees. As he viewed the scenery, he realized to himself that the men who had killed his family could be hiding in those hills right now. He didn’t even realize it yet, but his subconscious was mapping out his destiny and his future. Sara slowly picked at her eggs while looking down the hallway watching Jess on the back porch. Jim and Sara had not been able to have their own children and Sara had always been partial to Jess and had always treated him like her own son.

             
“It’s hard to even imagine what that boy is going through,” said Sara, her head hanging down looking at her food, which she hadn’t touched yet.

             
“I know,” added Jim. “Sara, did you notice something different about him this morning? I mean; I know his family being murdered and all has him all tore up inside, but something else is different about him. I swear he even looks older to me this morning.”

             
Sara hung her head and closed her eyes. You could see the tears welling up in her eyes as Sara looked up at Jim.

             
“Last night, we put a fourteen year old grieving boy to bed,” she said sadly. “But this morning, there is a fourteen-year-old young man with hatred and raw vengeance in his heart sitting on our back steps. I’m afraid for him, Jim, deathly afraid.”

             
“I felt it too, Sara. Something has changed him on the inside. We’ll have to help him as much as we can. That’s all we can do.”

             
Sara was crying quietly. She could feel in her soul what was manifesting itself in this fourteen year old boy and she knew there was nothing that she or anyone else in this world could do to stop it. She mourned for him more than for his family who would all be buried in the ground today. His family lost their lives. Jess, however, lost his very heart and soul.

***

              The burial went as well as burials go. Jim gathered up a few of the townspeople and the preacher, and hauled the bodies of John, Becky and Samantha back out to the ranch to be buried in the little cemetery plot John had spotted that very first night he had stayed on his land. The graves were dug in silence and the bodies placed in their gravesites. The preacher said a prayer over each of them and some of the men from town shoveled dirt until the graves were filled. Someone fixed up three wooden crosses for the graves and Jim pounded them into the ground with a rock. Sara cried the whole time. Jess, however, watched all of this in a strange silence. He never spoke a word nor shed another tear. It was as if he already let them go and this was all just a formality; something that needed to be done. Jim came up beside him and put his hand on Jess’s shoulder.

             
“We should be getting back to town,” Jim told him softly. “There is no more we can do for them. The Lord will take care of their souls.”

             
“I’m not going back, I’m staying right here,” replied Jess firmly.

             
“Jess, you can’t stay here and run this ranch all by yourself,” submitted Jim. “There’s too much to do for one man, much less a fourteen year old boy.”

             
“I’m not a boy anymore,
they
took care of that,” Jess replied, not really signifying who
they
were, but Jim and Sara both knew who he was referring to.