“The war is over for me, but it will remain with me for the rest of my days.” The statement made by the sullen young man hung in the air as Teaspoon sat across from his former Express rider. “You shouldn’t have come. I never wanted you to see me like this! Go back to Rock Creek. Go back to your life and forget you ever knew me,” Kid spat angrily. “Now, Kid…” Teaspoon started to say to the young man sitting in the rocker with a blanket covering his lap. “Don’t you Kid me Teaspoon! Look! I said look damn it!” Kid yelled tearing the blanket away, revealing the empty pant legs where his legs had once been. Teaspoon looked as Kid directed, wishing that the man would not dwell so much upon the fact that his legs were missing, though not fully understanding how Kid could not. “Kid, I know you’re angry and with good reason, but you got to think about what you do got and get on with your life. Lou loves you and wants you to come home.” Thinking to shake the younger man up a bit, he added, “ She ain’t gonna wait forever ya know.” The old man shook his head wishing he could change what happened to Kid during the Battle of Chickamauga. Under General John B. Hood the Army of Northern Virginia, which Kid had been part of, arrived in Tennessee and served under General Braxton Bragg. During the conflict at Chickamauga Creek, Kid had been injured when a Union cannon fired upon his division. Both legs had been badly mangled and the field surgeon deemed it necessary to remove both legs just above the knee. Unconscious from the morphine that he had been given, Kid did not know of his injuries until several days later when he came to at a camp in Georgia. While he had been unconscious, a letter had been sent to Teaspoon back in Rock Creek asking him to come and retrieve the wounded soldier. When Teaspoon arrived, which was no small feat in itself, having to traverse across miles where the Union and Confederate troops were engaged in battle, he found Kid at a house of an old widow woman. It had taken the letter five weeks to make its way to him and another four of travel to reach where Kid had been left in the woman’s care. When Kid seen his old boss, he was furious that the man had come with the intent to take him back to Rock Creek. Teaspoon let Kid work through his rage by allowing him to yell and cry until the younger man fell silent, spent. “I ain’t goin’ back Teaspoon,” Kid finally stated, watching two children nearby playing with a ball. Teaspoon sighed, knowing it would be an uphill fight with Kid to get him to return to his family where he could get the care, love and support that he would need to heal and move on from this terrible blow. “But Kid,” he protested, “If you don’t go back with me where we can take care of you and to be with family, what are you gonna do? Where are you gonna go?” Kid sat pondering the question a moment, weighing what he was going to say. “I can’t go back Teaspoon. Not now, not ever. I ain’t the Kid you once knew. I never will be that young man again. You shouldn’t have to put up with me and neither should Lou. Tell her I’m dead, that I didn’t make it. Tell her whatever you want. I don’t care anymore. Let her move on with her life. Lou deserves a to marry a man who can provide for her, who has both legs, not some…some cripple!” Tears welled up in the old mans eyes as he listened to the pained words coming from the man he had come to love as his own son. The fight had gone out of Teaspoon and his shoulders drooped. He knew when he was fighting a losing battle and trying to get Kid to return home with him was just that, a losing battle. The former soldier had made up his mind that he was not going back and that was that. “Don’t you think Lou has the right to decide for herself what and who she wants? She loves you Kid. That hasn’t changed,” he said in a quiet voice. “Well it would if she were saddled with me now,” Kid spat out in disgust. “Let Jimmy have her. He’s always wanted her, you and I both know it!” “Jimmy’s gone. He joined the Union army as a scout. We haven’t heard from him in months.” Kid closed his eyes, praying to God that the man he had considered his best friend was all right. “I didn’t know…” Kid whispered, his memory drifting back to the battles he had been part of, wondering if at any time he had been across the field shooting at his friend. The two men sat in silence, pondering the ramifications of war, both thinking of the time they served and fought. As twilight fell, the widow McKane came out onto the porch and told the men that dinner was ready if they would care to come inside. Kid reached for the wheelchair that was next to the rocker as Teaspoon moved to help him get into it. Kid stopped him with a shake of his head. “No, don’t. I got to learn to do it by myself. Go on in Teaspoon.” Teaspoon stood inside the door, watching Kid struggle to lift his body into the wheelchair, pain filling his heart when it took several attempts to accomplish the task. He silently opened the door for Kid to wheel himself inside. As the trio sat at the table eating the delicious fried chicken and biscuits that the woman fixed, she remarked, “I hope you aren’t taking my boy here away. It’s been such a blessing having him here with me these last couple of months.” Teaspoon looked from the woman to Kid, who was smiling with fondness for his caretaker, knowing that when he left, he would be leaving alone and that Kid would be in loving hands. Drop me a note and let me know what you thought!