"Sam's Reflections"

This GS story is about the Long Branch bartender, Sam, played by Glenn Strange. I have been told there was another Sam but to me there is really only one Sam. I took real events from Glenn's past and some I made up for Sam Noonan. I am taking his starting date at TLB as "Perce", Season 7, Episode 1. I know there has been discussions about this but after doing research that is the conclusion I reached, and mine alone. Thanks to John Meston for creating such enduring characters. Special thanks to my BETA Miz L for going through his story with me and making it so much better with her encouragement and correcting my mistakes. Many thanks to my special angels walk along the GS road with me as experts and co-conspirators, Uncle Dubs, Sharon, and Wanda. I can't forget the GS gang who add so much to this journey because you have been there and help me when the inspiration is needed.

CHAPTER ONE:AN ENDING

His throat was dry, his heart constricted, as he stood at the end of the bar watching his employer and friend walk away. He knew her heart was breaking and his broke for this wonderful lady, who had rescued him as she did so many. Sadly, there seemed to be no one there who could rescue her as she left a place and people she loved behind. As the batwing doors closed behind her the absence of her soul and glow of her copper red hair made everything seem darker.

Kitty Russell was beautiful and every inch a lady. There was only one other woman who had been more beautiful and that was his Mary Ann. She had auburn hair with golden highlights, sparkling green eyes, and laughter that sounded like bells in the wind. Amazingly she had loved a rough looking big galoot like him. Oh, how he had loved her.

He followed Doc, and Festus, and Newly out onto the saloon's front porch as he waited for her to get on the stagecoach. She spoke quietly to the coach driver and turned and headed up to Doc's office. Maybe she was having second thoughts or maybe the Marshal would beg her to stay. Then he heard Festus ask Doc if he thought she might change her mind, but the doctor shook his head.

A few minutes later she came back down the steps. There was complete silence when she climbed into the coach and it pulled away. A few customers came back inside but most people wandered off; their heads bowed. It would never seem the same. She was the lifeblood of the Long Branch, and without her it would seem like a wound that would not heal. Sam, who liked and respected the lawman was angry that he couldn't see what a treasure he was letting slip through his fingers.

Late that night Sam was very tired as he finally closed up. He had promised Miss Kitty he would stay there at night until the place sold or she came back. He wasn't going to sleep upstairs where the girls were staying but had made a bed for himself in the small room next to the office. The rain that had threatened all afternoon began to pound on Front Street. He heard the thunder and crack of lightening.

As he finished the accounting he sat back in his chair with a glass of whiskey and closed his eyes. It was a night like this Miss Kitty had rescued him. He was soaking wet, sitting on a stump, and drunk as a skunk. She had never seen him in that condition when he dropped in at the bar.

Not paying attention to whether she got wet or not she brought a blanket, wrapped him into it, and led him inside. He had been shivering and she told him to take another drink. From somewhere she found some dry clothes and left him in the office to change. She led him to an upstairs room to sleep it off.

She never pried as to why he was in that condition she just let him tell her in his own time. Her latest bartender had quit, after getting knocked out, losing two teeth, and shot in the foot during the latest bar brawl. She offered him the job temporarily and here they were almost ten years later. After all the years of wandering since he lost his family, he had found a home.

Sam lay down on the cot and listened to the rain pounding outside. He hoped Miss Kitty was safe at her destination and not out in the cold and windy night. She was such a special lady, and he hoped she would come back, but he was also angry with the Marshal for letting her go. Oh, when he had first come to town, he had heard about the beautiful redheaded saloon owner and how she was under the protection of the U. S. Marshal. Most of his informants snickered as they told the stories about the couple.

It didn't take Sam long to realize there was a definite relationship between the big man and the lady. What he knew, that others didn't, was this was no tawdry affair. From his view behind the bar, and with his great height, he saw things no one else saw. As tough as the Marshal was there was a gentleness that only Miss Kitty was privileged to see. He watched as their hands touched, the way they talked with their eyes, and especially when they were alone in the Long Branch, early in the morning, how their heads almost touched, and they spoke in low voices.

He was not really sure how far their connection went until the night he came back for his jacket and heard them in the back office. It didn't take a lot of imagination to figure out what was happening. The bartender was happy for both of them. Neither one had an easy path through life, and they had both been knocked around. If they could find happiness with each other, then good for them.

Then came the times he would see Miss Kitty not eating and sleeping because Matt was gone for so long with no word from him. It would tear her up inside. There was no way to miss the fights. She was a spitfire and the big man knew what buttons to push. Sam never mixed in, but there were times he would like to shake some sense into Matthew Dillon.

Memories of his own mother crowded in as he began to fall asleep. Lovely dark-haired Maureen Murphy Noonan, who was old before her time. She had married Patrick Noonan when she was just 16 and fresh off the boat from Ireland. His father was a dreamer and they moved from place to place looking for his pot of gold. Sam was born in Texas near what would become New Mexico and it seemed there was a new child every year. Some lived, and some died, but his mother did everything to give the husband she adored the chances to follow those dreams.

They didn't have an easy life, but Sam didn't realize it because few people around them had much of anything. There were always lots of playmates with all the brothers and sisters. His mother grew what they needed to eat along with a few chickens, what fish they could catch, and anything they could hunt. Growing up he felt it was a wonderful life. Then the war came, and life changed forever.