Last Rodeo

Howling Hank seemed quite willing to just leave Rodeo Bob alone. He’d found another rider to shack up with and made no effort to visit Bob.

It was Kit who delivered Bob’s meals and took away the chamber pot and who, when he wasn’t working with the horses, sat in a chair beside the door to Bob’s wagon and waited.

People would pass the wagon by, cluck their tongues, and give Kit a sympathetic look. When they had walked past, though, they more often than not looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “What a dummy,” some of them even said.

Kit told Doctor Pender that he’d be staying in Bob’s wagon with him when Bob wanted him and he hoped that the doctor understood.

“I understand,” Doc Pender said, knowing and valuing the effort Kit was making and acknowledging the deep affection for and loyalty to Bob that this represented, “but it could be a good long time before he realizes he isn’t going to die just because he wants to and that he needs the help.”

“I can wait,” Kit said.

He didn’t actually have long to wait. The fifth night in El Paso, Bob fell out of his bed and couldn’t get back in again. He lay on the floor for hours, hitting bottom in his anger and frustration. But the only direction he could go from there, because he didn’t die there on the floor, was up. Near dawn, he called out, “Kit!” and Kit was there in an instant.