by F. M. Worden
Sam said to himself, “If I were an Indian, I would have my sign, I now know I have been wrong about God all along, I’ll try to be better, I will be different.” He made a promise to God.
That night he rested and had the best sleep he could remember, no dreams, no nightmares.
The sun was high in the sky when he rose and started a fire to make coffee and breakfast. He heard the sounds of a horse coming his way in the distance. His horses had their ears pricked and pointed in that direction and made a muffled whiney. He tried to quiet them, he grabbed his Winchester rifle and kneeled behind a pine tree, his attention was fully on the horse moving toward him.
“Maybe it’s the Apache kid,” he thought. “He’s been known to have been in these mountains.”
He levered a round into the chamber and waited. Soon the horse and rider came into view, the rider was a woman with long black shiny hair. Sam rubbed his eyes in disbelief, as he stepped from his hiding place he called, “Is that you Rosa?” He didn’t have to call a second time.
She spurred her mount to him and flew off and almost knocked him down, she had her arms around him crying. “I knew I could find you.”
Sam stood there stunned. “Why have you come up here, Rosa?”
“Momma said I should come for you and tell you how much I care, can’t you understand how I feel, Sam?” Tears were streaming down her beautiful face. “I love you Sam, I have since the first day you came to our house, I will always love you.” She was begging now. “Can’t you love me just a little?”
Sam was trying to push her away. “Rosa I’m fifty-five, way too old for a young girl like you, you should love a young man.” Sam was doing his best to reject her. “What does your Momma say about this feeling of yours?”
“I’m twenty now and I know what I want and need, Momma said I should tell you, she says if I want you it’s fine with her, If you don’t want me, say so now, I’ll leave and never bother you again.”
Sam was overwhelmed. He dropped to the ground on his knees his hands covering his face so she couldn’t see his tears. “I have to be the luckiest man on the face of this earth to have three wonderful women love me, God is surely in this mountain, I can’t turn you away.”
Sam and Rosa spent the rest of that day and all night talking. She told him of her time in Mexico. What a beautiful country it is and how much she liked Mexico City. She had many suitors, some were very rich and handsome. She always measured them to him, none could take him from her mind. She had met Benito Juarez, the president and said how he had made the country better since the French Emperor Maximilian had been shot. “You would like it there, we must go sometime.”
Sam and Rosa returned to Tucson and with Dolores’s blessing they were married within a week. A big celebration was held at the Martinez house on Meyer Street.
The ranch house was finished, many rooms were added thru the years. Rosa gave Sam a child every year for the next seven, five boys and two girls.
A happy and contented family lived on the horse ranch. Their horses were prized by all who knew of them and sold as soon as they were old enough.
It was early on a spring morning, Rosa and two of the younger children had gone to visit her mother in town. Sam decided to take a ride and saddled a young green horse, he rode the river road west. An hour or so later the horse returned to the barn with an empty saddle. Two of his cowboys rode to look for him. They found him laying just off the road, they could see the horse had spooked and thrown him, the fall had broken his neck, he had died instantly. They took him home and one rode to tell Rosa and the children.
Rosa told everyone that Sam had always said he wanted to die with his boots on.
A well attended service was held were he was placed to rest under the shade trees in a cemetery just off Oracle road. After the funeral Rosa told a small gathering, “Sam is happy, now he was with his Fawn and Louise and some day I will join them in paradise.”
From this union of Rosa and Sam came many solid American citizens, men and women who served God and country well.
The year Sam died the Arizona Territory became the 48th State in the Union of United States of America. It was the year 1912. Sam would have been 83 come December.
Rosa Duncan lived to be one hundred and one year’s old. She lost two sons in the war to end all wars. She lost a Grandson in the Marine Corps fighting in the South Pacific, two other Grandsons and a Granddaughter were laid to rest in France serving their country during the second world war.
About the Author
Francis M. {Frank} Worden was born in Oklahoma in 1930. He migrated to Tucson, Arizona, as a youngster with his family for the health of his mother.
Growing up he became an avid student of the history of Arizona and America, especially the Civil War and the Western movement.
He served seventeen and a half years in the National Guard of Arizona and Army Reserve, honorably discharged as a Captain.
Frank has a deep admiration and love for his ancestors and the people who through courage, resourcefulness and hard work settled and developed this great nation.
He lives in Tucson with his wife Beverly, is the father of five sons, a daughter, twelve grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
He owns a small business, race horses, is an outdoors-man and gun collector.
Other books by F. M. Worden
Our Father’s Generation
The Two Sams