Distant Lovers - 7

Well first to find Trace Reed, and the rotten stupid kid of his. I guess I better pay attention to my dreams. Find out what happen and why the boy killed my Lily. By the time he arrived it was afternoon. He check in at the borden house across from the local saloon. Mace was hankering for some rot gut, to wash his troubles away; but he knew it was no use. Drinking was not going to get his beloved back. 1

He settled down, had a hot bath drawn and some food sent up to his room. After trying to eat some real food for a change his belly couldn't hold it. He's down right sick...thinking of a kid that had destroyed his life. He threw up...so he laid down to rest. Then his Lily came to him again. In a dream or vision.... 2

(Mace I am with you, I will never leave you. Please forgive the boy he's confessed and scatter-brained. He was trying to protect his sisters. I know the whole story now. If anybody is guilty its the people at his church. I love you Mace and I will be waiting for you.)3

It was about 4 am in the morning when Mace awoke; he sat up sweating again. Strange but he recalled every word that was said to him by Lily. The words seem to calm him down.
He got dressed and tried agin to eat a cold piece of chicken from last night. It was tasty, and it stayed down. He was all of a sudden hungry...something he had not felt before he loss his Lily.4

Well after breakfast he set out for Traces ranch; when he got there it was too quiet. He enter the dirt road and a shot rang out across his head. He dismounted fast....taking cover in some nearby trees. That's when he heard, "Not one more step Mace
or I be forced to shoot you" said Trace. "Nobody taking my boy in but me" 5

Mace hollar back, "I came to talk to find out Why?" I just want to see the kid and ask him why...with that said Mace dropped his guns and put his hands up. He walked the rest of the way up to the house. when he got there he saw the tears in Traces eyes. "Come on out here son" requested Trace. The boy was about twelve years old and he stood there and wet hisself. You see his father had told him he done a very bad thing. That he would go to jail. 6

Mace remembered the words Lily had told him in the dream. The boy was not right in his head. "Trace you know we have to report all crimes to the sheriff. Let him handle it. I see the child has problems. He needs help and not jail" said Mace.7

By the time Mace got to the house; here came the Sheriff, Poppy and the boys Maw. When the child saw Poppy he started crying and saying he was sorry....what should they do now?8


Mace & Poppy taked with the sheriff and wonder if there was any hope for young Trace? "He needs some mental help and some care he will never get ftom his Paw & Maw" said the sheriff Mr. Hunt. "But he still has to go before a judge" spoke Mace. "Well first we need to explain all we can to the boy. That he killed the wrong lady, "I am her sister," said Poppy....the one his father loved so long ago.
So he's never to that again. "Teach him what God rules are" cried a sad, sad Poppy. 9

Time pass the boy had to remain with his father at all times until the judge came to town. Then the judge would do the deciding of young Trace's future. Poppy feared he would go to jail like a man..and he was still a child. Yet it was boys his age on there own. Working as farm hands, cowpokes, and ranch hands.10

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