The Owner
By Heleen
It was 6 0”clock in
the morning and John was washed ready for breakfast. The others came to get
breakfast too.
“Blue, I must go to
“Yep, Pa,” said Blue. “How long will you be
away?”
“I am coming back in
about two days,” said John.
“Okay Pa. Don’t you
worry about the ranch. I’ll take care of it,” said Blue.
“Blue boy, I am proud
of you,” said Buck.
“Thank you, Uncle
Buck.”
Blue smiled and was
glad that his father gave him the chance to let him do these things.
“Oh John, please be
careful,” said
“Don’t you worry,
Half an hour later John
was ready to go and asked Sam to saddle his horse.
“Okay, Mister Cannon,
I’ll saddle your horse”
John mounted his horse
and rode away.
“Blue, what we do next?”
asked Sam.
“Let two men fix the
fence over there,” said Blue. “And we go with the cattle to begin branding,”
said Blue.
“All right Blue,” said
Sam.
Sara came outside with
little Johnny. “Say goodbye to your daddy,” said Sara to the little boy.
“May I go with Daddy, Mommy?”
“No, that’s not
possible, you are too little for that,” said Sara.
“Goodbye Daddy”
“Goodbye, Johnny,” said Blue.
The men rode to the
land and got to work. They were branding the cows and a few man stayed on the
ranch to fix the fence.
After almost a half
hour of work, Blue decided to have a break and go eat and drink.
“Pedro said, “Blue,
how does it feel to be boss?”
“It is fantastic to
have this job,” said Blue. “But I’m warning you now, not to do things like that
time a few months ago when you were teasing me with the bull in the water”
“Oh no, Blue. I will
not be doing that again,” said Pedro.
Suddenly there
appeared a few bandits who rode closer and closer to them and began to shoot.
“Hide yourselves!”
shouted Blue.
The men ran for their
lives and found hiding places from where they could shoot at the bandits. Suddenly they were gone and Blue wondered why
they run away so quickly
.
“What’s happened here?’
said Mano to Blue.
“I have no idea, the
bandits came so suddenly and disappeared so suddenly.”
“It’s possible that
someone is searching for those bandits,” said Buck. “They aren’t Mexican
people, maybe the Sheriff knows them,”
“We don’t have time to
find out. Let’s just hope that they are not coming back,” said Blue.
The hours passed and
the men were ready to return to the ranch. “Okay let’s go for lunch.” said
Blue.
The men rode back to
the ranch where Victoria and Sara were waiting for them for lunch.
John was on his way to
After half an hour he
started riding again and suddenly he saw a group of men coming in his direction.
John decided not to wait to see what the want, but to leave quickly before they
reached him.
He rode faster and
faster but the men drew closer and began to shoot. John shot back to try and escape
from them. Then he saw a rock where he could hide himself. He rode as fast as
he could to the rock and left the horse there and climbed on the rock to hide
himself.
The men jumped from
the horses and tried to surround John.
Michael, one of the
men said, “You have no chance and we will shoot you if you don’t come down from
that rock.”
“I won’t be coming down!” yelled John.
Martin, another one of
the men, climbed on the rock and came from the back towards John. He started to
shoot at very the moment that John turned towards him. John was shot in the
chest and fell to the ground unconscious.
Martin said, “He is
dead so we have no problems anymore,”
“Good,” said Michael,
“Let’s go!”
The men rode away in the direction of
Many hours went past
with John lying there on the ground. Slowly he came became conscious, to find
himself in a lot of pain. “I must go to
In the meantime, on
the ranch, they were having lunch and talking.
“Uncle Buck,” said
Blue, “I have an odd feeling that something’s wrong with Pa,”
“Oh, Blue boy, you
worry too much about your Pa,”said Buck. “He can handle himself, has done for
years, so stop worrying, will ya,”
“I think you’re
probably right, Uncle Buck.”
“I have coffee for you,”
said
“Thank you,
Sara sat Johnny with
them and gave him a plate of food.
“Daddy, when will you
teach me to ride?” asked Johnny.
“Not now,” said Blue, “you
need to be a few years older. I told you that before!”
“Johnny, come and eat
and no more talking now,” said Sara. “When you have finished your food than I’ll
go and play with you, okay?”
“Yes, Mommy,” said Johnny.
Manolito said, “The
stable must cleaned, who must do that, Blue?”
“I think you’ll have to do that because the men
are busy with other things,” said Blue.
“Okay, as you wish. I
will clean the stable,” said Mano.
“I think I’ll go break
a horse, and hopefully I’ll be successful this time,” said Buck.
“Yes you do that,”
said Blue, but his mind was on his father, wondering how it was with him.
In pain, Big John rode
for many hours. Finally, he arrived in
“Where is the doctor?”
John asked.
A man came over John
and saw he was wounded. “Let me help you, sir,” he said.
Big John tried to
dismount, but he fell to the floor and unconscious again.
“Doctor, Doctor!”
shouted the man, Mr Mitchell. The doctor came outs and saw the wounded man
lying on the ground. He saw that John was unconscious. He had lost a lot of blood.
“Is there anyone who
knows who this man is and if he has family?” said the doctor.
A deep voice came from
the other side of the street and a big heavy man came towards him. “It is John
Cannon and he has family not far from
“Will you let the
family know what has happened please,” said the doctor.
”Okay, I’ll leave immediately.”
And so saying, he mounted his horse and rode to the Cannon ranch. It took many
hours of riding and it was the following morning that he arrived at the ranch.
“Good morning,” he
said to the men on guard. “Can I speak with Blue Cannon, the son of John
Cannon?”
“I have bad news about
his father.”
“Okay I’ll call him.
Blue! Blue! There is someone with bad news about your father!”
“What!” Blue ran to
the man on the horse and asked what was wrong.
“Your father is badly
wounded and unconscious in the doctor’s office in
“Okay I’m coming. Uncle Buck, Uncle Buck, Pa
is wounded and unconscious, I must go. Will you go with me please?” Blue was pale and his eyes were filled with
tears, but he tried not show it to the others.
“No,
They were soon mounted
and riding to
“Blue, I hope that man
make an mistake,”
“Yes, I hope he’s
wrong about my father.” The tears filled Blue’s eyes again, and seeing that,
Buck comforted his nephew, wrapping his arms around him and saying softly, “Let’s
hope it is all right with your
After a while they
rode again to
“Are you the son of
John Cannon,” the doctor asked
“Yes, I’m Billy Blue Cannon and this is my
uncle Buck.”
“Hello, Mr. Cannon, my
patient is in the room here.”
“Blue you go first.”
Buck said.
Blue opened the door
and saw his father. “Uncle Buck would you leave me alone for a few minutes please?”
“Yes Blue, I’ll leave
you alone with your daddy.” said Buck.
Blue closed the door
and sat on the edge of the bed and said to his father. “Pa….Pa…. it’s me, Blue,
your son. Pa can you hear me?”
Slowly, John opened
his eyes and said weakly, “Blue, I was attacked by bandits and they shot me in
the chest.”
“Don’t you worry,
“Blue, I’m too ill to
take the travelling.” His voice sinking even lower and weaker, he said softly, “I’m going to die, Blue boy. Tell
“Pa, please don’t say that. You’re not going
to die, Pa! Pa, do you hear me,
John said nothing more, but gave a last shuddering
breath and died.
“Pa, no!” Blue took his
father on the arms and shook him, crying out, “Pa, please you’re not going to
die!” After a while he realized that it was no good, Big John was dead.
Blue laid his head on
his father’s chest and cried softly. “First my mother is dead and now you. Why
do you have to die?”
Buck came quietly into
the room, tears in his eyes, and wrapped his arms around the boy.
“You are now the owner
of the High Chaparral, Blue Boy.”
Uncle and nephew sat
together for a while then Blue said sadly, “We going at home Uncle Buck.”
“Yes Blue boy we going
home.”
They hired a wagon to
take John home. They were silent on the way, finding little to say to each
other. Buck kept glancing back at his brother’s body, so still there in the
wagon, hardly able to believe what had happened.
“Uncle Buck, shall we
take a break for a few minutes?”
Buck agreed but after
a short while they started out again. The hours past and then they finally
arrived at the ranch.
Victoria and Sara and
the little Johnny came outside and saw John’s body in the wagon.
“Sam, we need to dig a
grave,” Blue said brokenly, “we must bury my father now.”
“Okay,” Sam turned to
the men. “Let’s go,”
Mano and Buck lay down
John on the ground,
Finally they were
ready to bury John and Mano read the Bible as the burial took place.
That evening, everyone
sat around the table, but nobody was able to eat dinner.
Little Johnny cried
and asked his Mother. “When is grandfather coming back?”
“Johnny, Grandfather
is not coming back again.” Sara said sadly, “I will try to explain to you. When
a wheel is broken the men can fix it and the wagon is good again. But when
people like you or me are badly wounded, they cannot be healed sometimes and
when people not healed than they going to die and pass on to another world. You
will understand it better when you are older.”
“Will I never see grandfather again?”
“No Johnny, it is over
now.” Johnny cried bitterly at this and Sara comforted him again.
Blue was thinking in
his room. First his mother and now his father dead. Why must this happen and
why didn’t he go with his father to
End of story
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