A Harper! Yeah, well not anymore, now she�s a McKittrick, but he was truly happy for her this time. He remembered her face had glowed softly when she had told him that he would like Ben. People eventually heard of Gils army desertion and death, and then Francie as well. She was free to marry, she just couldn�t take that next step...but then she �took sick�...and Ben stayed. He didn�t desert her like Gil. She saw him see her through it and nurse her back to health. Again Jess could feel it, he saw her face as he remembered it in Mort�s office that day they began their talk. Yes, began only...she didn�t bare ALL her heart until yesterday right here on this same porch...just about sunrise. They both stood outside early that crisp morning as if �called� to a secret meeting, studying each others faces and looking into familiar eyes, they said in unison � �guess I just couldn�t sleep, how about you?�. They laughed . They laughed together.
Yep, she appeared in his life just like the moon which was now beginning to light the yard. Jess glanced up at it for a slight moment and then looked into the yard. Moonlit shadows...a little hard to make out just now. Just like in life, sometimes things are hard to make out. We just need a good sunrise...or until then...at least a full moon! He thought, yeah, full moon, I�d enjoy that right about now.
He remembered how he felt as Francie had told him the story, unfolding it as the sun rose on them warming their skin. How could he tell her he knew first hand about Gil and his deceiving nature. That he had felt the pain of her death not once, but twice in his life. Her face was so pained when he had told her about the Galveston newspaper. How could he tell her how he felt when that sergeant Jordon �threw it in his face� that night near Canada�s border: She�s dead. It would ring in his ears sometimes in the middle of the night as he slept and he�d even wake up hearing himself shout it at Gil, before he killed him. Why �rake it up�, it wasn�t true, he knew that now, but he didn�t want her to hurt for him. He�d let it sit. It had �sprouted� through his �rubbish pile� of buried memories into a new green healthy shoot of fresh life. Raking at it would hurt the tenderness of that new life, and her happiness. Maybe...maybe someday...maybe not. Time would tell. Jess knew Francie would take the brunt of it because she always understood him so well, that inner part of his feelings, that part that he kept hidden so well from outsiders.
