Vin’s Box 2

After the guy’s jabs died down, Vin, still red faced, handed the book back to Ezra.

JD looked at Vin speculatively. “Hey, Ezra, did Tanner ever get married?”

Ezra nodded, “After his name was cleared, Tanner went back to Texas to claim his family’s land. He returned to Four Corners several years later, more quiet and subdued than ever before. Some people in the town speculated that he had fallen in love and been refused. He eventually confided to the others that he had gotten married, but she had died in child birth a few months before his return.”

“No other children, then?” Josiah asked.

Ezra shook his head. “No, not according to the records I’ve seen, and I cannot believe the man would have knowingly abandoned any child after what had happened to him as a boy.” Seeing the questions lurking on his friend’s faces, he explained further. “Tanner’s mother died when he was five, and he never knew his father. He was raised discreetly by the local tribes for a while, but eventually the townspeople noticed the white boy in the camp and came and took him to an orphanage.”

Ezra saw the understanding and anger on their faces, for all knew what orphanages were like in that time. They knew there was no way Vin Tanner would have left any child to that kind of life.

“How did he die?” Vin asked next.

“Tuberculosis,” Ezra said quietly. “He was diagnosed about a year after returning to Four Corners. He only survived another three years.”

Nathan cringed internally. Tuberculosis was a very painful way to die, and back then there would have been very little they could have done about it. His thoughts were confirmed a few moments later when Ezra spoke again.

“Jackson kept him as comfortable as possible, but there was little he could do with the technology of the day.” Ezra bit his lip for a couple of minutes as the others considered this, then stood and headed out to the room to retrieve something. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

The others looked at each other and shrugged, wondering what Ezra was going for.

Ezra was back within ten minutes with a carved wooden box in his hands. They all recognized it as the box that Ezra had kept sitting on a table in his apartment. They had noticed it because it was about the only personal piece Ezra had had out at all.

Everyone moved closer as Ezra sat back down with the box in his lap. Ezra caressed the top of the box for a moment before saying, “I have always kept one piece from each collection in this box, as a reminder, I guess, of what I wanted. Now I think it’s time to put them back where they belong.” Ezra then opened the box to reveal that the interior had been fashioned into seven padded and lined compartments.

Picking up intricately designed silver buckle, he handed it to Chris. “That was made especially as a wedding present for Larabee by one of the seven. When he died, Mary gave it back, saying she thought Chris would have wanted him to have it.” Everyone admired the beautiful workmanship and passed it around. When Josiah went to hand it back to Ezra, Ezra asked if he would put in Chris’s box.

The next item Ezra pulled from the box was a well cared for, but obviously much used, harmonica. “Tanner carried this where ever he went. He never really played all that well, but he liked to have it with him. He asked my ancestor to take it before he died, because Standish was the only other of the seven that could play the thing.”

Chris was surprised at that and burst out, “The gambler could play a harmonica?”

As Ezra retrieved the harmonica after everyone looked at it, he grinned and replied, “It was kind of a trade off thing. Standish taught Tanner to read and write, and Tanner taught Standish to track and play the harmonica.”

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