Even If They Don't Ride Horses Anymore

The Wheels of Time Turn. Episode 8.

Jacob was dressed and finishing up some bacon and coffee on the back porch early next morning a little before he would be leaving to go do what he had to do. Betty Lou had handed him a note the night before and said he could put it in his pocket next to the picture Jake had given him, and that way Jacob could remember the both of them at the same time. As he sat quietly on the porch in the still morning light, he took out the note and read it for the first time.

It simply read,

Dear Jacob,

I had told you that I wasn’t wantin’ to be lookin’ down the road waitin’ for you to come back but I reckon I’ll be doin’ that anyway.

Love,
Betty Lou

Sweet Betty Lou! Jacob thought to himself, and smiled. He folded the note back up and placed it in his pocket next to the picture Jake had drawn, both next to his heart. How could I ever forget either of them! And Jacob smiled once more.

Jacob’s eyes glanced about the house one final time as he was about to close the door behind him for the last time for a long time. Jake had left his teddy bear in case Jacob came back home when they weren’t there and he was lonesome for some company. There was the blue wooden box that he thought would carry the family legacy but later felt that box and whatever it could hold just wouldn’t be enough. Jacob didn’t understand the urgency he held to get it right, to have a remembrance in place, before it all passed away as they knew it.

Soon the dusty town would come into the modern era with blacktopped streets welcoming newfangled automobiles. Even their rural Kansas could become a place where they don’t ride horses anymore. And likely one day, a place where no one would even know that the Strong family had existed and lived their lives there, one generation after another, until the modern world took the family away to other places that held out more opportunity and more excitement than their little town ever could. The wheels of time turn and turn and no one can stop them. That’s just how it goes, Jacob had come to realize.

When Jacob stepped down the front porch steps that morning, his boots made a noise that sounded like freedom, freedom from the burden of blame that their owner had carried for so many years. Jacob knew that his leaving this time would find him between his old life of guilt and his new life ahead full of possibilities. He knew when he did come back, he would not be as he was when he left. Whether the town had yet changed or not, he would be changed. And he knew, he would be alright even if they don’t ride horses anymore. One step at a time forward, dusty road or no, yet always forward, he knew he would be alright. After all, Betty Lou had said so.

Previous Episodes. Even If They Don’t Ride Horses Anymore
Aunt Daisy & Caleb. Episode 1
July 4th, 1900. Episode 2
Keepsakes. Episode 3
A Better Way. Episode 4
Unfinished Business. Episode 5
Looking Down That Road. Episode 6
Not Looking Back Any More. Episode 7