Jeweldean was out in the barn when Clint sneaked up behind her. "Hey," Clint touched Jeweldean's shoulder. Jeweldean jumped at the sudden

         "What're you doing scarin' me half to death?" Jeweldean asked, her hand on her heart.

       "Just wanted to come out here to help you. You shouldn't be muckin' out stalls in...your...condition."

         "Clint, I may be pregnant, but I still got plenty of time before this little one comes into the world. Besides, you and I both know that I was out workin, doin much harder work than this, when I was nine months pregnant with Cody. Sonny and I built our house when I was pregnant. Plus, I've had two kids. Both were a little over their due date. Trust me Clint." Jeweldean resumed shoveling the horse stall, but Clint grabbed the shovel and looked Jeweldean in the eye.

        "I'm gittin' real hungry. Why don't you go make us some breakfast?"

         Jeweldean let go of the shovel. She knew Clint was just trying to take over her job, mostly to protect her. Jeweldean walked inside her beautiful two story farm house. Many thoughts flooded Jeweldean's mind of when her and Sonny found this land, and when they began building this house, and the barn, and all of the other buildings that the young couple had built.

           Before they had homesteaded this land, Jeweldean and Sonny lived on Sonny's parents farm where Sonny grew up. When Sonny and Jeweldean had gotten married, Sonny was only 19, and Jeweldean was only 16. They courted for less than a year, then, with Jeweldean's father's permission, the young couple tied the knot. Since in this part of Texas, you had to be 21 before you could own any land, Sonny's parents bought this land, which was only about 500 acres at the time. As a wedding gift, the parents of the new couple helped to build this homestead. The barn was built a short while after the house was built, but a small run in shed was built for Sonny and Jeweldean's two horses. The house was a small one story, two room house, with a bedroom and a kitchen/ dining room. The room Cody sleeps in now used to be Sonny and Jeweldean's, and the kitchen is the original; the couple clearly added a few more rooms since then. With only two horses, one-hundred heads of cattle, five chickens, and two dairy cows, the 500 acre farm was plenty of land. Eventually, the barn was built; it only had three stalls in it at the time. In addition, it had a tack room, with three saddles- one was a wedding gift for the couple, one was Jeweldean's, and the other was Sonny's, along with other tack. It also had a space for the feed for the horses. Above the barn was a hay loft, big enough for a good amount of hay, though it was never completely full. Shortly a year after the construction, Sonny and Jeweldean moved in.

            On the eve of Sonny's 20th birthday, his mother came down with a terrible cold. The doctor was out of town, and there was nothing they could do to save her, so sadly, she passed away. Then just a few months later, Sonny's father was killed in a barn fire, that was set by bandits. Sonny was devastated. He went from having wonderful two parents who had just blessed him and his young, new wife, with a place they could call their own, to nothing. Sonny travelled to his older brother's home, who lived about 30 miles away from his parents house, but he got nothing but the cold shoulder from his brother. Sonny's other brothers and sisters no longer lived in Texas, and so Sonny just sent out a telegram to them to let them know that their parents had passed away, He only got one response back; it was from his older sister saying that she will help in any way possible. So Sonny's sister, Charlotte, made her way down to her deceased parent's home. Since Sonny did not have enough money, and was not yet 21, and Charlotte was a teacher who lived far away, they were forced to sell their parents long-lived-in home.

          Surprisingly, Charlotte and Sonny were the only two out of the seven children in their parents will. Charlotte was a teacher, and was doing well financially, so she decided that since Sonny had very little money now, she gave all her inheritance money to Sonny and Jeweldean. In return, Sonny and Charlotte decided that Charlotte could keep all the furniture and everything else that was supposed to be given to Sonny as part of his inheritance. Charlotte also gave Sonny the animals that their parents were going to give to her. Despite the devastation, Sonny and Jeweldean were very blessed by the inheritance.

         Sonny fought with the bank and lawyers in order to keep his and Jeweldean's new home, since he was not yet 21. Eventually, because of the circumstances and the will, the bank and the lawyers finally gave in, and let Sonny and Jeweldean keep their newly built home.

          Sonny's parents were not incredibly wealthy, but they had enough money to feed seven children, send them to a good school, and still have some money left over for Sonny and Jeweldean's new homestead.

           With the inheritance money, and the money Sonny and Jeweldean had saved through their lives, they were able to expand their land and possessions. They first added onto the house, making it a four room home instead of just two. The addition included a living room and a separate dining room. They were also able to build a beautiful porch that wrapped around three of the four sides of the house.

        Because of the devastation of the fire that killed his father, Sonny demanded that their small barn be torn down and built further away from the house, so if there was a fire in the barn, it would not spread to the house. With some help, they were able to salvage almost all of the old barn, then rebuilt a larger one further away from the house, just as Sonny had suggested. Sonny was very talented with woodwork, which made building much easier and cheaper.

         Next came more cattle, and more chickens, along with two hired hands. Clint was the first hired hand. The second hand was Carver, a young hard working man, that was new to town.

       Clint met Jeweldean about a month or two after Sonny and Jeweldean started courting. Clint had a huge crush on Jeweldean for the longest time, and Jeweldean still thinks he does even though he won't admit it.

       Since there were two more men living with Sonny and Jeweldean, they built a small cabin for Clint between the house and the barn. Carver was hired six months after Clint was hired, so Sonny and Clint built a few cabins big enough for two men so that there would be plenty of room for more hired hands in the future.

       By this time, the couple now owned over 1500 acres, triple of what they owned just last year; God had certainly blessed them. They had continued to add on to the house and land as the years went on. Their biggest, and most difficult addition was adding a second story once Cody was old enough to have his own room. The upstairs is where Sonny and Jeweldean's room is now. Suzannah sleeps in that room as well.

       Jeweldean still remembered the time that she told Sonny she was pregnant. He was out in one of the pastures with Clint and Carver fixing the fences. Jeweldean had rode out on her horse, and Sonny saw her and smiled his beautiful smile. He was covered in dirt and sweat; his sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt were rolled up to his elbows. Jeweldean dismounted from her horse and walked over to Sonny, tears filled her eyes. Sonny stopped what he was doing and looked at Jeweldean, eyes full of worry.

       "Jeweldean, what's the matter sweetheart?" He asked, and put his hands on her shoulders.

      Then, Jeweldean smiled. "You wanna teach one more fella how to mend a fence, ride a horse, and rope?"

     Sonny smiled. "Well, Clint and Carver are real good at what they do. I don't think we need another hand, but if you think we do then I reckon we can hire on one more."

     "Good, cause you're gonna be a daddy." Jeweldean's voice went hoarse.

      "You, you mean-?" Sonny smiled the biggest smile Jeweldean had ever seen, except for maybe the day that they got married. His hands dropped from her shoulders. Sonny looked down at Jeweldean's stomach then back up to her face.

        Jeweldean nodded, "Yes, I'm...I'm pregnant." She smiled at her husband.

      Sonny threw his hat up in the air, and began hooting and hollering. He then grabbed Jeweldean around the waist, lifted her up into the air, and twirled her around. Setting her back down, he leaned down and kissed his young, beautiful wife. After the long kiss, Sonny held her face in her hands and looked deeply into her eyes.

      "I love you so much darlin'." Sonny said with happy tears in his eyes. "I love you so much."

      Jeweldean smiled wide and replied, "I love you too, Sonny."

      Sonny then kissed his wife again. When he pulled back, he turned to the confused and wondering faces of Clint and Carver, who had stopped what they were doing in the midst of the commotion, and exclaimed, "She's pregnant!", pointing to Jeweldean. The he lifted Jeweldean up again and spun her around as he said, "I'm gonna be a daddy. I'm gonna be a daddy!"

       Jeweldean hadn't realized that she cut her finger until Cody said something.

       "Mama! Your finger! It's bleedin'!" Little Cody said, his voice full of worry.

       Jeweldean stopped her reminiscing and snapped back into reality.

      Jeweldean fought for words, but couldn't find any. She walked over to the bucket of water on the counter, wetted a rag, then washed the blood off her finger along with the trail of blood that was on her wrist.

       Jeweldean sat down at the table and held the rag on her finger. When she took the rag off, she saw a deep cut on her pointer finger. Looking at her finger, she wondered why she couldn't feel any pain in it. She concluded it was because the pain she was feeling at the moment was from a much deeper source than a knife cut.

     "Okay, we're here." Tucker said, and dismounted from his horse.

      Sonny looked around at where he was at. He wasn't sure how far they rode, or where they were at, but Sonny knew that he was not anywhere near where he needed to be right now and that was back home with his wife and children. Looking up to the sky, Sonny concluded that it was probably around 9:30 in the morning. Sonny dismounted Bronco with all the strength he could muster. He almost fell when his feet hit the ground, but Bronco was there to break his fall.

        Tucker tied his horse to a small tree and told Sonny to do the same. Sonny listened, still not sure whether he should trust this stranger or not, but he was too tired and sore to argue with himself if he was making the right decision in following Tucker.

      "This is where you can hide out until it's safe. It ain't much, but there's some food, water, and a bed."

       Sonny followed Tucker inside of the ramshackle shed. Tucker was right. It wasn't much. One room with a small table with two chairs, a cot, a fireplace, and a counter looking thing.

      "And, if you were to need it," Tucker hit several rotting wooden floorboards with the heel of his boot, then looking satisfied, he bent down and lifted up one long board. Much to Sonny's surprise, Tucker pulled out a shotgun, and a small bag with shotgun shells. "A shotgun, for hunting purposes only."

      "There should be enough food here to last you till tomorrow. I will stop by about this time tomorrow and bring you more." Tucker said. Walking over to Sonny, Tucker pointed his finger at Sonny. "But you have to stay in this cabin. If you don't, Butch will come lookin' and if he finds you, it ain't gonna be good. You just gotta trust me."

       A confused Sonny asked, "Why are you doin' this? I'm supposed to be tied up to a tree somewhere, and you're supposed to be hittin' me and whatever else you folks do."

       "Us folks?" Tucker asked. Then looking ashamed he said, "I am not like those men. I swear to you. I'm doin' this to help you, not to hurt you. Believe it or not, I was in your shoes about a year ago." Tucker pulled out one of the chairs from the lop-sided table. It creaked as he sat down backwards on it, the back of the chair against Tucker's chest. Sonny followed suit. "Only my story's much different from yours, I can assure you." Then without any comment from Sonny, Tucker continued. "When I was eighteen my pa got shot by some real bad men. My father was a heavy drinker and after my ma died, he would go to the saloon every night, and gamble and drink away what little money we had. One night, he lost so much money in a poker game, that my pa took off, and started runnin' home. The men followed him, and walked into our house with a pistol to my father's head. I told them I would do anything and everything that they told me to do, as long as they didn't shoot my pa. They said that they wasn't gonna shoot him as long as I gave them the money that my pa owed 'em, and that I was to join their posse, or else they would shoot me too. But we didn't have the money. So they shot my father, beat me up real real bad, and burnt our small shack we was livin' in." Looking up with misty eyes, Tucker continued, "I was only eighteen. I didn't have no money. I had no other choice. The men told me that if I worked for them, they would pay me good money, give me three square meals a day, along with my own cabin. I had no other place to go, and I went with them...they said they would shoot me just like they kilt my pa if I didn't go with them... They kept their word. They gave me good pay, three square meals a day, and I even had my own small cabin. But then the glory ended about a week afterwards. They said, 'You've had your fun, now the work begins.' They were bandits. Those men-." Tucker looked up at Sonny. His jaw clenched. "I still work for 'em. Have for over a year. Those are the men who did this to you. They're the men who killed my pa."

         Sonny looked from Tucker to the floor. He didn't have any words to say to Tucker.

       Tucker said to Sonny, "I'm so sorry this happened. I will do whatever it takes to git you back home."

        Sonny looked up at Tucker. "You will? You'll help me get back home?"

       "I will do what I can. The boss is gonna be wonderin' what happened to you when I go back to camp tonight. I'm gonna tell him that you broke free, and then started to fight me, so I had to shoot you. What all did they take from you?"

       Sonny still wasn't sure if Tucker really was who he said he was. It could all be a trap, but Sonny wasn't sure. Why would someone make up a story like Tucker if Tucker wasn't who he said he was.

      "My horse, and my gun. I think that was all I had on me, but I-I can't seem to remember."

      "I'm gonna have to take your horse, just until I can git you back home. And I will get yer gun back for you too."

        Sonny nodded.

       "What did you say your name was?" Tucker asked, he shifted in his chair.

       "Sonny." He replied simply, not wanting to give too much away. 

       "You married Sonny? You got yourself a family?"

       Sonny repeated his story he told to the other men. "My wife died givin' birth to my son."

       "I'm sorry, but I don't believe that story. Not for a second. I need to at least know where you live to keep Butch away from your ranch."

        Sonny looked away. He once again could not and would not risk the life of his family, and his ranch

         Tucker stood up and walked over to look out the lone window in the shack. "I am not like them. I ain't goin' to hurt you. I'm tryin' to do whatever I can to help you, but I can't help you if you won't help me." Tucker turned back to Sonny. "You have got to trust me. Now. Do you have a wife?" Tucker sounded sincere, and he did seem like he was trying to help. Sonny could only pray that Tucker really was who he said he was and that this was not a trap.

       Sonny sighed. "Lord, please help me." He prayed in his head, then said out loud, "I got a wife, two children and a third young'un on the way. I got myself a ranch but it's a ways back. But I don't know how to git back there from here."

       "When Fulton and I came up, after we found your horse, we had found him eatin' some real good fresh grass. It looked like cattle had been there. I figured someone lived there so I told Fulton to turn back and tell Butch. If we set out now, we could probably git back to that patch where I found your horse, then you can go on home from there."

       It sounded too good to be true. To be back home, hold Jeweldean in his arms, and see Cody and Suzanne again.

      "How can I trust you?" Sonny asked.

    Tucker stood up, and he unbuckled his ammo belt and holster from his waist and laid it and the revolver in it on the table. He also took a small knife from his pocket, and a larger one out of his boot and laid them on the table.

      "Now I don't have a gun, or a knife. If I do anything that seems suspicious to you, then you have my gun to shoot me."

      A pretty bold statement for someone who was a fake. Sonny stood up to give the belt and knives back to Tucker, but when he did a pain came across his stomach where his cut was. He fell to the floor, holding his side. Tucker rushed to Sonny's side and lifted him onto the cot.

      Tucker rushed around the small shack, opening what cupboards there were, looking for something to help Sonny. Eventually after finding some cloths, Tucker grabbed his big knife and walked back over to Sonny's side. He tore off the remnants of Sonny's shirt, and Sonny watched Tucker's jaw clench as he looked at the cut.

       "It's infected. There's a lot of dirt and stones in there. I need to clean it out before it gets worse." And with that, Tucker ran outside then came back a few seconds later with a few sticks, his saddle bag, and a bucket of water. Tucker started a small fire in the fireplace. Sonny laid in the bed and prayed as Tucker heated the bucket of water. Once his head hit the pillow, Sonny passed out from the pain.

       Sonny was awaken a short time later by terrible pain in his side. He looked over at the source of the pain.

        "What do you think you are doin'?" Sonny said to Tucker who was holding a scalding hot cloth on Sonny's side.

      "I'm gettin' it ready."

       "Ready for what?" Sonny said through clenched teeth, trying not to show pain.

      "To remove the infection." Sonny followed Tucker's gaze over to the fireplace.

        "No, Tucker. I know what you are thinkin'. You are not goin' to cut it out. No. You said I could be home by today or tomorrow. I can make it till then. Once we get home, I will tell my wife I am home then go straight into town to the doctors."

        "Sonny, you can hardly stand up. If we wait another day, this infection will kill you. I've seen it happen. It looks terrible, and it's only gonna git worse if we don't do this now. I'm gonna do this one way or another. I can knock you out so that you won't feel anything." Tucker said. Sonny knew he was teasing about the knocking out part, but right now, that didn't seem the least bit funny to Sonny.

      "How will I know you're not gonna shoot me, or kill me?"

      "You have to trust me. You said you got a third kid on the way? You ain't gonna live to see him or your wife or your other kids if you don't let me do this."

      Sonny sighed. "Fine, but I'm goin' to stay awake so I can watch you to make sure you're not goin' to stab me." Sonny was now speaking in broken sentences from the terrible pain that consumed his body.

      "Here. Bite on this." Tucker handed Sonny a thick piece of cloth. Sonny knew it was to muffle his screams of pain he was about to endure. And sure enough the screams of pain came as Tucker cut into Sonny's side. Then suddenly the room went black around Sonny.

       The punches came hard, and they seemed to come constantly, without stopping. Sonny tried to fight back but he couldn't. In the distance he saw Jeweldean holding Cody's hand with one hand, and in her other arm she was holding little baby Suzanne, but she wasn't pregnant. He tried standing up to go to her but he couldn't. The bandits were dragging him away. They tied him to a tree; but Sonny kept his eyes on Jeweldean and his children. "Where is my third child?" Sonny wondered. Then he saw tears falling down Jeweldean's beautiful, young face. He saw sadness in her eyes as she looked down at her flat stomach then back to Sonny. She shook her head then walked away. Sonny fought to pull away from the strength of the ropes as he screamed his wife's name, but Jeweldean never turned back around. Thrashing his body in a failed attempt to get free from the tightness of the ropes, Sonny watched Jeweldean fade out of his line of sight. Her feet, shoulders, and head dragged as she walked away.

        "No. Jeweldean. No. Come back! Jeweldean!" Sonny turned in bed. He then felt a strong force on his shoulders, holding him still.

        "Sonny. Wake up. Wake up, man." The force was now shaking Sonny.

        Sonny thrust his eyes open, and saw Tucker's face. He looked around him. Where was he? Who was this man? What was going on? Where was Jeweldean and his children? Why did he feel pain in his side?

      "Where am I? Who are you? How do you know my name?" Sonny asked and tried to throw the man's hands to the side. "Where is Jeweldean? What did you do to her?" Sonny tried to sit up. He wasn't angry, just confused.

        "I'm Tucker. You're in a shack. You got thrown from your horse, and dragged. Bandits came and beat you up. I took you here to help you. Don't you remember?"

        "Where is Jeweldean?" Sonny again tried to sit up, but realized that there were cloths across Sonny's arms and legs that pinned him to the small rickety cot that he was on.

       "Sonny, you had a bad dream. Everything is fine, Jeweldean is fine."

       "How do you know? I need to see her." Sonny tried to wriggle out of the cloths. "Why am I tied to this table. Let me go, now!"

     "Sonny," Tucker grabbed Sonny shoulders, and forced him to lay still. "don't you remember the accident? You had a really bad infection in your side. I had to cut it out, to save you from dying."

       Sonny breathed deep and fought to remember. He searched his memory, but could not remember what Tucker was talking about.

       "Yeah. Okay." Sonny said, trying to slow his pounding heart.

       Tucker let go of Sonny's shoulders. "Why don't you just try to get some more sleep? You need the rest." Tucker untied the cloths from around Sonny's arms and legs.

       Rest was the last thing on Sonny's mind. He had to find Jeweldean, and he had to make sure that she was okay. Despite his fight to stay awake, sleep overcame Sonny and he fell back into a deep sleep.