Ezra's Box 2

Ezra grinned as accepted the derringer back and reset the rig on his arm. Next he pulled a huge stack of sketches and sketch pads out of the box and gave each of the others a stack to look through. It became obvious quickly that these were different from the others they had seen.

"Hey," JD exclaimed with a frown on his face. He continued to look through his stack as he commented, "These aren’t of Ezra! They're not even all finished."

"Quite correct, but then an artist has the most difficulty depicting himself," Ezra said nonchalantly.

All of them looked at the grinning man then at the artwork that was already displayed, thinking of all the sketches they had seen.

"Standish did all of these?" Vin asked as he looked at his stack more closely, trying to find any that had Ezra in them.

Ezra nodded, "It is one talent my father's family is quite well known for, though very few choose to be professional artists. I've been known to use a sketch pad myself," he added.

"You'll have to show us some of your work sometime, son," Josiah suggested.

"While I would be happy to indulge your curiosity at some later date, but I must remind you that I am not your son, Mr. Sanchez," Ezra answered, casting a repressive look at the widely grinning profiler. Rolling his eyes he pulled a well preserved black gambler's hat and a burgundy coat with black trim. "These were Standish's favorites. His wife saved them at the time of his death."

"Standish was married?" Chris asked, curiosity piqued.

"Yes, he married a young seamstress that had moved to town four years after they all gathered in Four Corners. He loved her dearly and they had several children. My family stayed in the area for many years, until just before World War II in fact." Ezra reached for the last item in his carved memento box and came back with an antique gold pocket watch. "No one knows how many generations this watch has been in the family, but Ezra records that he was given the watch by his grandfather, who told him that he had gotten it from his grandfather. Some and total I do know it has been in Standish hands since at least the War for Independence."

A low whistle met this as he handed the watch to Chris to examine.

"So how did Standish die?" JD asked as he waited to look at the watch. After hearing how the others had met their ends, he wanted to find out how the last had died.

"Standish was killed by outlaws at the age of seventy. He still acted as a part-time deputy in the town on occasion. He was just stepping out of the jail when a group of outlaws burst out of the bank. Seeing the star he was wearing, their first shot severely wounded him. The new doctor in town did everything in his power, but Standish died two days later from complications."

They all looked sad for a few moments. After finishing packing everything back away in the last box, Ezra stood and stretched. "Well, gentlemen, As loathe as I am to break this up, I believe it might be wise for us to seek our rest. We shall have a busy day tomorrow."

Nodding their agreement all of the stood and started shuffling toward the front door.

Family #24 (coming) Index Home