The Dolphin

By Marion

Rating: G

The Ponderosa and the Cartwrights are not mine (except for Annie, of course) Thank you to Mr. Dortort for allowing me to play on the Ponderosa for a little while. This story is purely for entertainment and is not intended to infringe on the rights of anyone else involved with Bonanza and Ponderosa.

Ben Cartwright shook his head as he looked out the window at the rain-drenched streets of Eagle Station. The deluge had started as he and his oldest son, Adam, had closed up the trading post earlier that afternoon. Now Ben was anxiously awaiting the return of his second son, Erik.

"Mon cher, come away from the window. Watching will not bring Erik home any sooner."

Ben glanced affectionately at his wife, Marie. Her arm was resting lightly on his, and even after ten years of marriage, her touch took his breath away.

"You’re right, my love. Besides, I have the letter from Ed to read." Ben glanced at the stove. "Is the tea ready?"

Marie nodded as she pointed to the mugs on the table. "Sit and tell us how your brother is doing."

Grinning as he settled at the table, Ben picked up the letter. It had been waiting for him at the trading post that morning, and he almost didn’t have the will power to wait until now to read it. Adam and Joseph were already at the table, although Adam leaped to his feet to help Marie to her seat. The young man blushed as his stepmother murmured her thanks.

Ben made a great show of opening the envelope. Letters were a rarity in Eagle Station and treated as great events in the Cartwright household. He smoothed open the pages and, after taking a sip of tea, began to read.

Dear Ben, Marie and boys,

I hope this letter finds you all in the same good health as Annie and I both enjoy. The weather is dry and comfortable in Santa Barbara but I suspect that this letter will not reach you until autumn.

Ben, the most remarkable thing happened the other day and I could not wait to share this with you. I met a man who knew the name Cartwright. He was an older man, obviously a former sailor by his bearing, and he said he had sailed with a man named Cartwright, and perhaps I was related. Cartwright is a common name and I said as much, but I humored the old man and asked him the Cartwright’s name. I almost choked as he told me it was Thomas Cartwright, a first mate out of Eastham. Glory be, but that name took me back many years. Do you remember the first time we met Tom? I bet John does!

Joe interrupted his father. "Who’s Thomas Cartwright, Pa? And does Uncle Ed mean Uncle John?"

Ben set the letter down and looked at Joe. "You remember I’ve told you about my Uncle John?" Both Adam and Joe nodded.

"Well, Thomas Cartwright was Uncle John’s oldest son, which made him my father’s first cousin."

Ben was interrupted by the sound of the slamming door downstairs and a quick shout of "Sorry, Pa, the wind took it."

Marie and Ben exchanged glances. Erik was notorious for slamming doors and then claiming, "the wind took it." Erik had more odd weather phenomena as he opened and closed doors than any person had a right to.

Marie gasped and jumped from her seat as Erik stepped on the landing, pools of water collecting where he stood.

"Mon dieu! You will catch your death." All four male Cartwrights rolled their eyes at that. Marie was convinced they would all catch their deaths if they got wet.

"I’m okay, Ma. Darndest thing about this storm. There weren’t nary a cloud in the sky when I left Greene Valley." Erik had been visiting the new girl in town, Tess Greene. He grinned as he held out his hands; he had two bulging sacks. "Miz Greene sent apples and some cider and apple butter, Ma."

Adam and Joe hurried to take the sacks as Marie clapped her hands with delight. "Such a gift." She raised a finger to Erik. "But now you must change, mon fils."

"Yes, ma’am."

Soon Erik’s soaking clothes were drying by the fire and he was seated at the table warming his hands around a steaming cup of tea. Joe had informed him that Pa was about to tell stories about when he was a boy, and Erik had begged Ben to wait.

Ben was amused. He didn’t recall promising to tell stories about his youth, but somehow he knew that Joe was going to wheedle them from him and he resigned himself to an afternoon of storytelling.

He nodded his thanks as Marie poured more tea for him. "As I was saying before Erik swam into the room, Thomas Cartwright was my father’s cousin, my Uncle John’s oldest son. He was a first mate on a whaler, and I don’t recall ever meeting him before I was eight, although I must have seen him when I was very little." Ben leaned back and sipped his tea. "At any rate, I remember meeting him the summer that I was eight when my brothers and I were visiting Uncle John and Aunt May. One day, we brothers climbed on some rocks out of sight of the lighthouse, where we should not have been. Suddenly Ed slipped. John and I both panicked. We knew we’d get what for if we were caught, but we would have gladly suffered our fate if only Uncle John would come to our rescue.

"Ed had fallen between two rocks, and he was too frightened to climb up." Ben raised an eyebrow at Joe’s smirk. "He was only six at the time, Joseph." Ben hid his smile at Joe’s sheepish expression. "The tide was coming in, and we knew the rocks would be underwater before long. Ed was out of John’s reach, and the space was too narrow for either John or I to climb down. We were debating which of us should go fetch Uncle John when this bear of a man came to our rescue. He had heard Ed’s piteous shouts, and once we had explained our dilemma, he climbed onto the rock and pulled Ed out of the crevice. He wouldn’t set Ed down until he reached the shore. Then he towered over the three of us."

Ben paused a moment as he recalled that scene. The man had been the tallest the boys had ever seen, taller even than Uncle John. His beard had been short and neatly trimmed, and his bushy brows had furrowed as he had glared down at the boys. But what stood out in Ben’s memory was the man’s eyes. They were a cold green, almost a jade color, glittering in his anger.

"Suddenly, the man waved toward us. ‘You’re Joe’s boys, aren’t you?’ He pointed at us one by one. ‘John, Benjamin and Edward, am I not right?’ We all three nodded, wondering how this man knew us, and more importantly, did that mean he knew Uncle John. The man reached down and grabbed John’s collar to drag him forward. Then he landed his foot on my brother’s backside, knocking John into the sand." Ben smiled slightly as he pictured his brother scrambling to his feet before the stranger could kick him again. John’s face had been contorted with rage, and Ben had prayed that he would hold his tongue. Ben had been sure that the only thing that would save them from the stranger telling Uncle John was if they were all respectful.

"Ed spoke first. ‘Yes, sir, our father is Joe Cartwright, but how do you know us?’ The man grinned and winked at Ed. ‘I am your father’s cousin, Tom. I have not seen you, young Master Edward, since you were a babe in your lovely mother’s arms.’ The man rounded on John. ‘John, you are old enough to know better than to let your little brother climb on the rock. But I think we can keep that between us.’ John’s sigh was comical. But Tom was as good as his word. He never told his father what he had caught us doing."

Ben’s sons grinned, although whether at the thought of their father in trouble, or whether with sympathy at getting away with mischief, Ben was not sure. He glanced down at the letter and began to read it again.

Late that night, Ben stared into his teacup, thinking back on his father’s cousin. John had told Ben years later that Tom had taken him aside and told him that as the oldest, John was responsible for his brothers’ safety, ‘no matter how annoying that might be.’ Tom had shared with John stories about how he had had to be responsible not only for his own younger brothers, but also for his cousin, Joseph, and that he, Tom, always bore the brunt of any punishments received.

Ben smiled as he remembered calling Tom, "Uncle Tom" at Aunt May’s insistence, only to have Tom glower at him. "I’m not your uncle, I’m your cousin, boy." When Ben protested that he was only doing as he was told, Tom had said he would "talk to Ma." It had taken several seconds for Ben to realize that Tom had meant Aunt May.

But the real treat of that summer had been when Father and Mother came to the Cape. They brought with them the dual surprise of Tom’s two brothers, Will and Charlie. The boys had met Charlie several times, but Will was another cousin new to them. Ben’s thoughts drifted to that night when he crept down the stairs long after he and his brothers were supposed to be sleeping. Father, Uncle John and his three sons were sitting in the parlor, talking and singing. Ben had never heard his father in such good spirits, and he had sat by the door mesmerized by the men’s stories. Ben stared into the fire and allowed himself to be that small boy again.

********************

Will’s voice was low and deep. "Now, don’t tell Ma, or she’ll worry." Ben leaned closer, knowing instinctively that this would be a good story. Will began to spin an incredible tale of his whaleboat sinking, and of being stranded with his crew in the water for hours waiting for the ship to find them. Uncle John murmured something so softly that Ben couldn’t hear him.

"No, Father, I’m telling the God’s honest truth. I had harpooned the whale, and he took us on a right nasty Nantucket sleigh ride, to be sure. Then, when we thought we’d tired him out, he sounded. Next thing we knew, he surfaced right under us – knocked the boat clear out of the water, and sent us flying. We were bobbing around in the water like corks in a barrel, and the whaleboat had a hole the size of my fist right in the bottom. We formed a circle and held onto each other for dear life. After about an hour, the sharks found us."

Ben swallowed hard as he listened to Will’s tale. He could see his father and cousins and great-uncle through the partially opened door, and he could hear the clink of the glasses as Uncle John filled them again and again from the bottle that the boys must never touch. A thin tendril of pipe smoke tickled Ben’s nose and he drew his knees to his chest to listen as his cousin continued.

"I felt the first one brush my leg, and I, well, I did something I have not done since I was a small boy." Ben’s father and his cousins snickered, but Will growled at them. "You laugh, but you would have done the same had you seen those fins cutting through the water. I could not count them, there were so many. We were done for, and we knew it. I prayed that my end might come swiftly."

Ben leaned so far forward that he almost toppled off the stair. Will took another sip and continued his yarn.

"I felt the shark brush against my leg a second time and I knew he was ready to attack." Will chuckled softly. "I thought of Ma, and I knew she would kill me if I got eaten by a shark." Father laughed as Tom chimed his agreement. "Suddenly a shape swam past me and I could see it ram into the shark. More shapes glided by in the water and attacked the sharks."

"Dolphins." Charlie whispered so softly Ben wasn’t sure he had heard correctly.

"Ah-yuh. They drove the sharks off and stayed with us until we were rescued by the ship. I was the last man pulled on board, and as I looked back this big dolphin looked up at me. What could I do but say ‘thanks’?"

Ben listened as the men filled their glasses yet again. He was trying to picture Will surrounded by dolphins when suddenly the parlor door flew open and he jumped back. Ben panicked as Father stood over him, hands on his hips, frowning. Then Father’s expression softened and he scooped down to gather Ben into his arms. "I think you’ll be more comfortable if you sit with us." Father swayed slightly as he carried Ben into the parlor.

"Eavesdropping, were you lad?" Will glanced over at Ben, sitting on his father’s lap. "Joseph, you astound me. When we were boys, eavesdroppers were dealt with severely and yet you cuddle him on your lap."

Ben wasn’t sure what Will was getting at, but he was surprised by his uncle John’s guffaw. "You boys got away with eavesdropping more than not. I knew when you were hiding behind that door."

The men tried to protest that they had never eavesdropped but Uncle John laughed again as he pointed to Ben’s father. "That one breathed so loudly, you could hear him three rooms away!"

Ben’s cousins hooted so loudly that his father shushed them loudly. "Don’t be waking my wife! Then I’ll catch it from her, letting the boy sit here while we drink and talk."

Ben listened, wide-eyed, as the men teased his father. Joseph Cartwright looked down at his son and winked. "You’ll keep this secret, won’t you, Ben?" Ben nodded, and Joseph pulled him close, wrapping his arms tightly around the boy. Ben struggled to stay awake, but the warmth of the fire, the soft buzz of the men’s voices and the late hour conspired to lull him to sleep. He awoke the next morning, wondering if the night had been a dream.

***********************

A noise drew Ben from his memories, and he looked to see Marie standing beside him. She smiled as he drew her onto his lap and held her close.

"You were far away, mon cher." She rested her head on his chest, and he inhaled the scent of her.

"More than thirty years and a few thousand miles." He told her the story, sighing softly when he was done. "That was the first time I ever recall realizing that my father was more than my father, that he was a son and brother to my great-uncle and cousins." He sighed. "I wish the boys knew my family."

"Oh, but they do, Ben, just as I do. You tell so many of the stories that the boys must know these men, just as they know that their father was once a small boy like them. Do not fret, mon mari. Your sons know that you are a man as well as a father." Marie’s eyes twinkled and Ben felt his pulse quickening. "I know that you are a man."

Leave it to Marie to know his worries, Ben thought as he bent over to kiss her. Even better, she knew how to take his mind from those worries.