Nathan’s Box 2

“The surgical kit actually came tandem with this,” Ezra said his eyes sparkling with mischief. Turning it around, Ezra handed the small painting to Nathan.

While the others whooped with laughter, Nathan smiled as he looked at a picture of himself and his long time girlfriend Raine Harrison in the middle of their wedding.

“Nathan and Raine were actually the first to get married, with Chris and Mary following them by about three months. Buck and Inez joined them within the year also.” Ezra informed them.

After everyone had looked at the painting, Ezra slid it back into the larger box. He then turned to the smaller carved box and withdrew a smaller knife and harness of a similar design to the back harness.

“After an incident caused one of Jackson’s back knives to be destroyed, he came into possession of this, which he then carried strapped to his ankle inside his boot. They were later able to replace the larger knife, but he always wore this one as it had proven quite beneficial,” Ezra said as he passed the knife to Nathan as he had earlier.

Nathan examined the blade carefully and found it to be a sharp as the others had been. After a moment he flipped it dexterously first into a backhanded grip; then it to a forward facing grip.

“Nate, you know how to use that?” JD asked as Nathan continued to quickly maneuver the knife from one grip to another, without ever faltering.

“Yeah, I learned how to use a knife when I was a kid. My dad always said it was family tradition,” Nathan informed him as he finally slid the knife back into its sheath and passed it to Chris.

As the knife continued to be passed around, Nathan asked Ezra about how Jackson died.

Ezra sighed as he said, “Pneumonia. Jackson was still quite spry in his early sixties and continued to go out to help some of the folks that trusted him more than they did the new doctor that had come to town a few years before. He developed pneumonia after being caught in a freak storm while coming back from a birthing on an outlying farm. It came as a shock to the town when he became so sick and his death even more so, because he had always been so healthy.”

Ezra stowed the small knife in Nathan’s box then moved to the last of the opened boxes.

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