Kathryn…, Was Her Name

I have been asked what happened to the girl in “Duck & Dunk”. I could give you an easy answer, short and to the point. But… there’s no story in that and therefore, no fun for a long winded old fa..,ah, gentleman such as I. Follow me if you will, back in time… back into the last century… back almost into the one before that… back to the time when my dad was born.

1904. Around that time a fellow named Rudyard Kipling published a novel entitled “With The Night Mail”. A fascinating science fiction read, about the world in the year 2000. I highly recommend it.

This was back in the day when (in our part of the country at least) there were no automobiles… no airplanes… no electricity. Dad was fourteen when he saw his first car. Back in the day when a good dog or a good horse were essential, not a status symbol. Back in the day when men hunted to subsidize the larder, not just for sport. This was the era in which our duck hunters were born.

I never met Kathryn, but I know her well. She stood between 5′ 7″ and 5′ 9″. She had red hair, blue eyes, freckles and she was stunning. She could carry her share of the load into a backwoods camp and pull her share of the freight once there. She was a crack shot with rifle or shotgun. I don’t know that she ever used a handgun of any sort. She could sling an axe right or left handed, but I think she drew the line at pick or sledge hammer. She also loved to fish, and was an excellent horsewoman. She and Dad were Soul Mates, long before the term was coined.

Dad asked her to marry him more than once but, due to a childhood injury, she refused. She never married. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the injury, only to say it involved a run away horse and a barbed wire fence.

I don’t know what the illness was… maybe I knew once, but that was long ago. But I remember the scene, and once again I’ll turn the narritive over to Dad.

“I was settin’ by ‘er bed, and I thought she was asleep. I was about half dozin’, ‘n’ she looked over at me ‘n’ said ‘Novle, would ye hep me sit up a little bit?’ I jis’ run m’ arm under her back and sat down on the bed behind ‘er. She didn’t weigh nothin’, just wastin’ away. I layed ‘er back agin me and she jus laid ‘er head back on my shoulder. She said ‘That’s better.’ we talked ‘er for few minutes, jis’ like you ‘n’ me ‘r’ atalkin’. She was sayin’ somethin’, I don’ remember what it was, an’ she jus’ stopped. She looked up at me ‘n’ said ‘Bye, darlin’. I gotta go. Jus like that. She closed ‘er eyes ‘n’ sorter sighed ‘n’ that was th’ las’ breath she ever breathed.”

Her heart belonged to Dad, and Dad went to his grave loving her.

Kathryn, was her name.

Happy Trails, God Bless. John