Coyote Trail

There are countless wonders and mysteries in the vast universe, on the planet earth and deep within each of us. There are other dimensions and worlds within worlds as all things are interconnected and all seek balance and harmony. As we can see this universal truth in the natural world around us, we can see it within ourselves as well. Every man and woman seeks to find balance and harmony, fulfillment and contentment, happiness and love in their lives but in our modern civilization, too often and for far too many, these things prove elusive or unobtainable. How many times have we each wished to live back in ‘simpler times’ or in ‘the good old days?’

Matthew Ransom had spent 47 years living in the past. He spent the remaining four years of his life in the little trailer behind the Coyote Inn, though his relations thought him a crazy old fool. The lights in the old place never came on again but it didn’t matter to old Matthew.

He had lived his life as Matt Ransom.

He would remember his youth, growing up as normally as any other until everything suddenly changed. Then he’d remember a whole different world and a whole different life.

And a whole different man.

He wrote a book about his life in the Old West that wasn’t published until after his death. It caused quite a commotion among some Western historians as to its authenticity, the information within it and the true identity of its author!

Edgar Spencer escaped the law, took on an alias and eventually settled outside of Miles City, Montana. There, he became involved with a widow who ran a saloon in town and they eventually married. A few years later, they had several saloons and Edgar lived out the rest of his life as an honest and comfortable man.

Clayton Big Thunder made his way down to Mexico where he gave up the life of an outlaw and married. He settled down to fathering and farming and he resumed his spiritual road. Years later he, his wife and their two children traveled north and returned to the familiar land of his youth. He returned to the Oasis ranch to visit his old friends. The Duggans honored him with a gift of 20 acres and there, he and his family remained.

Hank Duggan considered himself the luckiest man in the world! There would never be any regrets, never any longing for the world he had left behind. There would be memories, sure enough. Faces and places and times that he would remember forever but to Hank Duggan, nothing he had ever known could compare to his new world, his new freedom, and his new love.

Less than a month after returning to the Oasis ranch, he and Ellie had a modest little wedding ceremony in the tiny church in Red Holler. Digger was there as well as Miguel and his family. Even Doobie Aycuff and Joe Dent were there as well as a number of the residents of the tiny little town.

There was however, another, uninvited guest at the ceremony that evening. Actually, he sat high up on a ridge overlooking the town. As Hank and Ellie Duggan emerged from the church amid a shower of rice and confetti, the mysterious guest’s ears perked up.

As the Duggans climbed into their buckboard and drove off out of town amid the cheers and well-wishing of their friends, Old Man Coyote looked down from the ridge, silhouetted by the rising moon.