Page 322 of The Texas Sterling Collection
“Can you get to Lightning, Joey?” Felix supported a sagging Joey in his arms.
“I think so, but you'd better tie me on the saddle. I don’t think I can sit up, so you’ll have to lay me over the saddle and secure me so I won’t fall off. I’m feeling terrible.”
Felix noticed Joey was beginning to look pale, and he seemed short of breath. He helped Joey to his horse and boosted him over the saddle. He tied a rope around the saddle horn and looped it around the back of the saddle, securing Joey.
“I think I’m gonna…” Joey passed out, and panic gripped Felix’s gut. He had to get Joey back to the ranch house, but the trail was treacherous, and he knew it would take time. He mounted Sparkle, and taking Lightning’s lead, they made their way slowly back to the house.
As they neared the house half an hour later, Felix began yelling. “PA. MA.”
Grover came running out of the house as he heard the screams and saw Felix approaching and Joey lying across Lightning’s back.
“Pa, Joey got bit by a couple of baby rattlesnakes. He passed out.”
“Oh, my God.” Grover rushed to Joey. “Let’s get him inside.”
Felix dismounted and helped Grover untie the ropes holding Joey. They carried him inside and laid him on the bed in Grover and Mabel’s room.
Joey’s pale skin and shallow breathing terrified Felix. Felix grabbed his good hand and held on tight while Mabel tended to the wounds on his other hand. The bitten hand was very swollen and red. Grover looked on.
“Should I go get the doctor?” Felix looked at Mabel, terror written across his face.
“There is nothing the doctor can do, Felix,” Mabel said, her voice shaking. “There is no cure for rattlesnake bites. We have to hope the snakes didn’t get too much poison in Joey before they let go.”
Felix held Joey’s hand and looked at the pale figure lying there. “Oh, Joey…don’t die. Please don’t die,” Felix pleaded. “I need you, Joey. I can’t survive without you.”
Grover walked up behind Felix and put his hands on his shoulders. He wanted Joey to pull through, too. “You keep holding on to him, Felix. Your strength will help him.”
Mabel did what she could with Joey’s wound. All they could do now was hope and pray. They held vigil through the afternoon, but around 5:00, the room grew quiet. The hand Felix held had already started to grow cold as Joey’s heart rate slowed. When he stopped breathing, Felix became hysterical.
“No, Joey. No!” he shrieked. Mabel broke into sobs, and Grover moved to comfort her. She stood and embraced Grover, and he sobbed as well.
Consumed by grief, Felix wailed at the loss of the only person he ever loved. Mabel looked up at Grover, and even through their own misery, they nodded and moved over to console Felix.
Mabel pulled Felix up into a hug, and the three of them sobbed together, not understanding why such a bright and loving young man was taken from them.
They mourned throughout the night, staying in each other’s arms, trying to console themselves. Their loss was insurmountable.
As the eastern sky brightened, Grover said, “We need to bury Joey. Felix, where would you suggest?”
“Let’s bury him near the spring. That was one of his favorite places.” Felix’s voice cracked as the beautiful moments they shared at the spring came to mind.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Grover said.
“Me, too.” Mabel wiped her cheeks. “Felix, go upstairs and get Joey’s best clothes. We’ll dress him in those for his burial.”
Felix went to Joey’s room and got what he thought were his best clothes. He knew Joey had clothes he never wore because he considered them special. He also got Joey’s newest pair of boots. He went back downstairs and undressed Joey, folding his clothes. He then dressed Joey in his finest. After he finished, he leaned over and kissed Joey’s lips. He didn’t care that those lips were cold. They were still Joey.
“Bye, best friend,” Felix sobbed. “I’ll miss you, and I love you.” Felix turned to Grover and Mabel. “He’s ready.”
Grover and Felix carried Joey’s body to the wagon and placed him on a padding of hay Grover had prepared. Mabel covered him with a white sheet. Grover and Mabel climbed onto the wagon seat while Felix mounted Sparkle. They rode to the spring.
“Gather rocks so we can cover him,” Grover told Felix, “and I’ll dig a shallow grave.”
Felix found thirty stones about the same size within fifty yards of the spring. He piled them near the shallow hole Grover dug. The two of them wrapped Joey in the sheet, carried his lifeless body to the shallow grave, and lowered him into it. Mabel came over and watched as they placed Joey in his final bed.
“May the good lord take our son,” she prayed. “He was a good son, a good brother, and a perfect best friend. Amen.”
Grover and Felix laid a stone border around the shallow grave, then covered Joey with the dirt Grover had removed, adding the stones on top. As they finished, they stood there in silence, looking at the mound of rocks and mourning the loss of their precious Joseph.
