Part 7
When Vin returned, Nathan convinced Buck to go tell the others
what had happened and get a meal. He went
first to the jail, and since there was no one locked up, he easily convinced
Chris to come to the saloon so he wouldn’t have to keep repeating himself. Next he called Josiah from the church, and
finally headed for the Saloon where he had seen JD. When he had them all together, he filled them
in on what had happened just little while ago.
All of them
were silent for a few moments as they absorbed what Buck had told them. The first to break the stillness was Josiah.
“Dear God,
forgive me the pain I must have caused him.
I should have realized he had a reason why he hated for me to call him
son,” Josiah said, hanging his head.
Chris didn’t
say a word in response, but inwardly he was wondering how in the world Ezra had
stood it. If any of these men had been
named Adam, he knew he would never have been able to. He would have ridden out of town the next day
and never looked back.
“There’s a
lot we haven’t learned about Ezra, Josiah,” JD tried to reassure him. Thinking
a little farther, he said, “He’s a lot more than we ever gave him credit for,
isn’t he?”
They all
nodded their agreement, but Buck was surprised when Chris spoke up.
“A lot
smarter, too.” When Chris saw the
confused expressions on their faces, he explained, “Ezra gave each of us
exactly what we expected to see. He was
probably the most open with Vin and JD because they
were the most open to him. They didn’t
have set expectations for how he should act.
He knew what we expected, what we would believe the easiest, and gave it
to us. When a man sees what he expects
to see, usually he won’t question in or look closer.”
They all sat
thinking about what Chris had said, and found that they agreed with him. Ezra had given them what they expected to
see, and they had assumed that that was what he was. Even after they had been around him and he
started acting differently, the change had been so slow that mostly they hadn’t
noticed. After several minutes, the
quiet men were joined by Vin.
“Mrs. Potter
came up and volunteered to help, so Nathan sent me down. Nathan said for us to bring him something
when we go back up,” Vin explained when Buck cast a
questioning glance in his direction.
“Vin, JD, did
either of you ever have any idea about Ezra?”
Josiah suddenly inquired. He was
worried that his preconceptions had clouded his judgment badly. Had there been signs that he had missed? Had he been so sure that his opinion of the
man was right that he had unconsciously ignored what was right in front of his
face?
Vin and
JD looked at each other for a moment, before Vin nodded for JD to go ahead and
answer.
“I’ve always
wondered about that ring he always wears, but I’ve never gotten up the courage
to ask him about it,” JD confessed.
The confusion
was obvious in Josiah’s voice as he asked, “Ring? He wears several different rings.” Josiah knew Ezra wore rings; one couldn’t
help but notice them.
“Actually, he
usually wears two. One over the other,
but he always wears a weddin’ band,” Vin clarified. “All
of his others are special made to fit over that one and disguise it.”
“When’d you
notice that?” Chris asked.
“When Travis
had him in the jail,” Vin said. “One o’ the times I was in there, he grabbed
the bars’n I saw it.
When I asked him about it, he jerked his hand back an’ looked real
uncomfortable. He just said that he wore
it as a reminder, didn’t say of what. At
the time, I figgered he’d lost her an’ didn’t want to
talk about it, so’s I didn’t pry.”
“Why didn’t
you ever say anything?” Chris demanded.
He didn’t like it when people didn’t tell him things like this.
“Figured it wasn’t my place to be tellin’ you nothin’, cowboy.
If’n Ezra didn’t see fit to be tellin’ you
guys about his life, why in hell should I be tellin’ you what little I know?
Especially when I ain’t even sure of what I think I know?” Vin
reasoned with him.
Chris winced
and nodded his agreement. Vin was right, if Ezra had wanted them to know, he would
have told them. None of them had
bothered to take the time to get to know anything about Ezra except Vin and JD. The rest
of them hadn’t even bothered to notice things that had been right in front of
their noses for the last three years.
“Well, we
know now,” Chris murmured quietly as he got up to
leave to go back to the jail.
“Yeah,” Buck
concurred, just as quietly. And the only
reason they knew now was because Ezra’s mind was torturing him with it. Buck started to get up, but Vin caught his arm.
“Nathan told
you to get some food, and I ain’t lettin’ you go back
without it,” Vin warned him as he pulled him back
down. Buck thought about protesting, but
didn’t think it would do him any good, so he sat back down. Josiah left the table for a few minutes while
they ordered a couple of meals and waited.
As they sat
at the table, Vin was thinking over what had happened
in the clinic. One part of the event
stuck out in his mind, because he had no idea what it meant. “Buck, do you know what all that yellin’ Ez was doin’ about his
name meant?”
JD, who had
also stayed, piped up, “What are you talking about?”
Vin and
Buck quickly recounted exactly what Ezra had said in the last few moments of
the confrontation in the clinic. It
sounded just as perplexing the second time around as it had the first.
“I’m not sure
what all he was talking about, but it sure makes you think there more to it
than is obvious on the surface. I’ve
been thinkin’ on it, and do you really think Maude Standish would have named
her son ‘Ezra’?” Buck said.
Vin was
silent as he thought about it, then replied, “Maybe his Pa named him.”
Buck thought a
second, but quickly shook his head.
“It’s possible I guess, but you know how much she changed her name. She’d have done the same thing to him. Even if his daddy had named him, she would
have changed his name so many times, there’d be no
telling what his name was originally.
I’d say it comes from somewhere else, but it means something special to
him.”
Vin sat
quietly mulling over what Buck had said, and found that it made sense. The very idea that Maude Standish would name
her son after some obscure Biblical character was laughable. Then where had it come from and why had he
reacted so violently to it?
JD also
considered it, and agreed. ”I wish we knew what it meant.” Buck and Vin nodded.
Josiah, who
was just returning to the table, caught JD’s statement and asked, “Knew what what meant?”
Without
thinking, JD told him, “What Ezra means.”
“Ezra means
‘Help’ or ‘Helper.’” Josiah said.
Vin
thought for a moment before asking, “You happen to know what Phelan means?”
Josiah frown
for a moment, searching his memory, “If I am remembering correctly, it’s an old
name from
“Oh,” Buck’s
eyes grew round, thinking of the implications.
Ezra had declared that he would have justice, then
claimed a name that meant either wolf or avenger. He had been giving warning. If only he could find out more about what had
happened. Buck looked over at Vin to see if he had the same idea that had popped into his
head. When their eyes met, he knew he
had. Judge Travis. With that, Buck got up and took off for the
telegraph office. Vin
just watched him leave.
“What was
that about?” Josiah asked as he watched
Buck leave the saloon.
Vin,
usually a man of few words, actually answered him. “Another mystery to solve.”
Josiah looked
back at Vin, but knew that was all he was going to get
from the taciturn sharpshooter. When he
asked JD what they had been talking about, he explained about what Buck and Vin had been discussing.
Josiah
thought about it for a few minutes, but came up with no more answers than they
had. He really hoped what ever idea Buck
had gotten worked.
