"I'm home!" Buck announced as he slammed the door after him. He toed off his boots in the mudroom, flinging them in mid-air against the wall and strolled into the living room where Chris was reading the newspaper, Josiah was reading his Bible and Nathan was pouring over a medical journal.

"Did you hear something?" Nathan questioned his other brothers.

"Could have been a herd of buffalo," Josiah suggested, without looking up.

"Maybe we had an earthquake," Chris said, also not looking up.

"Ha, ha, you're so funny!" Boisterous Buck sat, flopping on the couch so hard it unsettled Chris. Buck then put his feet on the coffee table, crossing them and leaning back. "You sure missed a good 'ole time at Rosie's. I had a contest . . ."

Josiah groaned, but Buck continued without pausing, "to see whether the ladies liked me better with or without my beautiful mustache."

"You know we have to ask," Nathan said with resignation, "or he'll never shut up."

"So what were the results?" Chris asked without any apparent interest.

"About sixty-forty, Chris, for the mustache! I had two jars where everyone who wanted to vote put in a dollar for and against!"

"And how much did you make off those fool drunks who had nothing better to do with their money except spend it on frivolous things and not on supporting the Red Cross?" Nathan asked, getting ready to start on his favorite soapbox.

Hurrying to cut him off, Buck boasted, "$200! Think of that, Nate!"

A large grimace was the response Buck got.

"All right, all right," Buck grumbled. "I'll put half for the Red Cross."

Josiah looked over at Buck, raising his right eyebrow and frowning in a subtle, threatening way.

"And half in the church offering," Buck gave in, a bit sullenly.

"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver," Josiah smiled while Chris and Nathan laughed.

"Well, the good Lord could have given me a few more siblings with a sense of humor and less like little old ladies," was Buck's response.

Chris, Nathan and Josiah exchanged smiles. While they all enjoyed Buck's high spirits, the other three also needed quiet. Buck couldn't even be quiet in his sleep, snoring loudly according to Nathan, who as a smaller boy, had to share a room with him. Lincoln Larabee gave Nathan his own room after watching Nate looking up poisons in a book. That was one of the times Linc knew his youngest son would become a doctor. Linc had thought Nathan too young, but after a few experiments on his brothers, tending wounds with toothpaste, listerine, and other things causing pain and causing Nate to flee for his life when the medical lab rats revolted, Linc got eight-year-old Nate medical books, which Nate devoured at a pace that amazed his teachers.

Josiah was the oldest and the result of a teenage fling Linc had with Maria Sanchez. Linc Larabee was not ready to be a parent, and Maria Sanchez, along with her parents, raised Josiah. Therefore, Josiah had spent most of his life with his mother and grandparents, but did have contact with his father and brothers. Josiah had been a rebellious teenager and carried a lot of anger towards his father. After enlisting and spending time deployed, Josiah had undergone a change from the wild and reckless young man he used to be. He spent a lot of his time reflecting on life and its meaning and was fascinated with religion, philosophy, and psychology.

The Chris Larabee on the couch also was not the same as he had been a few years back. He and Buck used to get into scrapes when younger and with Josiah when he was around, and were both reckless and fun-loving. Then Chris met Sarah, married her and had a son, Adam. After they were killed in a crash, Chris became more like an empty shell of a man staying close to the ranch and brooding and drinking way too much. The anger he had tried to control most of his life was just under the surface and could explode at any minute.

Buck was the son who most resembled his father in terms of loving woman. Fun-loving, gregarious, Nathan frequently called him Peter Pan, who refused to grow up.

Josiah got up and walked to the library to find another interesting book on psychology. While surfing through the shelves, he accidentally knocked a few off the shelf and when he bent to pick them up, one had opened and pictures and notes were scattered on the floor. Scanning a few, Josiah was stunned.

TBC