Dutch's Links
When I left you all those years ago, it broke my heart. I spent the last four decades trying to return to you, but I could not find my way. The stars saw me through though, and I drug myself into the saloon that you’d called your home in my absence. I didn’t know you then, until you recognized me. The pain of leaving you was brought back to the surface- I never wanted to leave, and I’m glad you heard me out. I’m so glad we’re here now and I get the chance to know you again, and to love you the way I’ve wanted to all these years
Dutch? Well...you could say that old dog and I have a complicated history. Sometimes, life's river has a way of twisting and pulling you all sorts of directions, only for you to end up right back where you started.
I often wonder how things might have been different, had my childhood friend not been truncated so suddenly from my life. Maybe things would have turned out for the better, maybe I'd have wanted to be a little more open with meeting folks, and been able to shrug off my distrust at the longtitude of any fond attachments. All I know's we've now got a chance to make up for lost time, and I intend on wasting none of it.
I was surprised when Dutch returned quite so suddenly, wandering in from the wastes, unrecognisable to my skeptical eye beyond an odd sense of familiarity to a kit I once knew. It wasn't until, weeks past this drifter occupying my saloon and lending his hand to any task I set him, that I heard him whistling a tune long past. My heart bled at the familiarity, an ache that transformed to rage, a red and angry tempest. Had this friend, turned stranger, not done enough damage? Must you return, after 4 long decades, to dig the knife a little deeper?
Of course, it was all a simple misunderstanding, though the emotions attached were none-too trivial. You were taken from me, my sweetest friend. You were forced to abandon me, not by your own selfish desires, but by familial circumstances outside of your control. A weaker, pettier man may have turned you out on your heel, but I have no such want.
What I want, Dutch, is for you to stay, to teach me all that you are now, and to show me all of the world that I have missed in your absence.