William Evans

Will Evans is in the middle rankings for All Around Cowboy and all the events involved in that: steer roping, bronc riding, bull riding, calf wrestling and sometimes team roping. The Evans' family used to own a training and boarding stable on land that had been in there family since the late 1800s but when the bills piled up due to Mark's surgery, Dan lost his leg in a fire and then died, Will realized that his skill at rodeo could help. Now while his mother works as a nurse, Mark's a scholarship student at a good school in Phoenix, Will travels the country to make every dollar he can on the rodeo with his horse Diana.

He has the skill that some of the old timers say he could make a name for himself but doesn't have the ready money to get to everywhere he needs to be. A few injuries have slowed him down, breaking his wrist on a mean bronc two years ago but he keeps going and he's ranked high going into the Dodge City Roundup.

After Ben Wade was put on the train and Dan Evans died, the money ran out quicker than everyone expected and Mark kept getting sicker. William found Milliways and that helped some but not enough. Two or three years after Dan's death, Ben Wade found William and asked for his help on a job, he remembered what a good shot William was and how focused he got. William didn't take that first job but he took another, it provides some extra money and his mother and brother think he's working someone else's range.

He has hasn't killed a man yet but he knows if he keeps on this path, that day might come. Age wise, he's the same, but the years have hit him harder, fewer doors, not as many good days and everything's coming closer to falling apart.

William's saddling up his horse as he waits for Michael. For later, there's a picnic lunch from Bar but for now, they have the entire day to ride.

William remembers when he was younger, he used to like the Fourth, the parades with the veterans from the Revolution and the War of 1812. It was nicer when they lived farther East, Mark was sick but the Fourth felt lighter somehow. Once the War started, every Fourth got tougher as the casualty lists got longer and then there was Gettysburg. By the time his father came back and the War was over, the Fourth was weighted down by too many deaths to be happy about it. After Contention, it was lonelier but he got better at hiding how all the talk of heroes drew his thoughts to his father dead and forgotten in the dust. Dan Evans was a hero who sacrificed for his country but in Bisbee, he was a man who didn't know how to properly manage his land.

In Bisbee, everything's smaller and noisier and harder, he knows his mother enjoys the baking and contests. There she gets a chance to shine and she even smiles a few times while Mark spends his pennies on rock candy and sticks close to William.

The parade's not that long but there are still veterans who march as the miners and railroad men start getting drunker. When Tom Hollander starts bragging about his new school and how one of his teachers is a real hero, William can feel his temper start to rise. Mark tries to help by talking about new dime novels and how their mother will win for one of her pies. When Hollander asks if Dan was really a hero, William takes a breath before asking, "You want to do this?"

Tom laughs and starts taking off his jacket, "Yeah, I do, Evans."

William takes off his jacket and goes after Tom in the schoolyard. No one pulls them apart because all the attentions on the rest of the fair and a crowd of boys and girls circles around them cheering as neither one comes out ahead. There's a holler from someone in the crowd and Hollander's off and laughing as William lies in the dust as he feels his left eye start to swell, checks his teeth and tastes blood on his lips. He can't count all the bruises as he looks up to Mark and his mother and considers closing his eyes to hide from the disappointment in their faces. Mark kneels down and helps him up as their mother frowns and whispers, "Oh William."

They spend what's left of the day on the edges before heading back before darkness falls and once he's been cleaned up and scolded, William goes to the barn. Up in the loft, he looks at the sketch of his father Wade did and wonders if anything can ever be as simple and good as it once was as Horus sleeps on his leg.

After Thalia left, William sat down on one of the hale bales in the paddock and stared up at the sky.

A light rain began to fall and he sighed and pulled his hat down on his head. He couldn't get angry because it wasn't her fault that she forgot him, that was just Milliways being Milliways and not caring about time or feelings.

She was hurting because of what happened and it felt wrong to even blame her a bit. He didn't know what to do and watched the rain drops fall off the brim of his hat.

He'd never expected them to have much of anything, their worlds held too many responsibilities and duties, he just thought they'd have longer. She had made a promise, not to another man but to a goddess and that's not something to be trifled with. It suited her, he could see that she wasn't as angry, but more her. That was what mattered, he was an Evans, that meant nothing went his way.

Before he went up to bed after talking to Bucky, his door returned. William considered writing a note before he coughed and decided, best to just leave now, it might not stay long.

On the other side of the door as always, nothing had really changed, which made it easier to adjust. The rhythm of life went on as it did before with chores throughout the day, making sure that Mark got to school and their mother was happy, as happy as she could be. She always looked tired and he wished there was a way to tell her that in a strange other place, Dan Evans walked and lived a half life and missed her. Maybe someday he would find a way to let her know.

When he dreamed of Mark dying again, he woke up and stared into the shadows. This time there was no one there as Mark peered at him and mumbled about getting more sleep. It was still tricky to sleep as he worried what he would dream about, but he did sleep and there were no more shadowy figures in his dreams.

The last days of the drive go by quickly enough, a heavy rain falls on the last day but they keep together. When they come in sight of Contention, Mark glances at his brother more, they've been here since it all got bad as they have to, but he worries. Their father was killed at the train station and he knows William saw it from the stockyards.

They're not the only herd coming into town and William ends up yelling and arguing before the stock is finally penned in.

Within sight of the stockyards, William finds a place for them to dismount and he leans against a hitching post, "I'll have to make the sale final and then I'll be able to pay you."

After talking with Ellen, William asked Bar for some help putting together some things to bring Michael.

There was a good bit of discussion before he headed upstairs with a tray holding soup, warm bread, water, a thermos of tea, some cookies and a few books.

It took a little while to find Michael's door but then knocked on the door and said, "Michael, I brought you some stuff you might need."

Some time not long after the earthquake and the crystal appeared in Milliways, William started having new nightmares. They began as small variations on ones he'd had for the past few years, the fight in Contention blurred into Milliways with Katya falling beside his father or Mark's coughing happened in the infirmary.

While he was in Gotland, they shifted even more as doors appeared and disappeared and artillery fire rained down on Milliways until it looked like the pictures of burned out Atlanta or the destruction around Gettysburg.

When he came back and found the outside resembled the pictures from the war and Katya and his father didn't return, the dreams grew more detailed and complex along with happening every night. The worst ones always happened out back in Milliways as the churned up ground came to hold the bodies of everyone he knew: his father dying and then fading away, Mark and his mother killed by a blast of something, Katya turning and shifting into a tiger before something he can't see kills her, Thalia charging into a monster, Bill shooting until his gun runs out, Miss Barlow with a rifle yelling in anger and fear before there's something soft on his face and he wakes up with a cry.

He wakes to Horus looking down on him, resting a paw on his face and licking him. Some nights, he's able to sleep again with Horus watching over him and real and alive beside him, other times he wakes up early to work in the stables. If he does enough during the day to go to sleep exhausted, he doesn't wake as often but the nightmares are always there.

When they pass through the two trees, the landscape changes from green to brown with other colors as they move into Arizona.

The door isn't right on the ranch, which William's grateful for as he wouldn't want to do any explaining to his family about Thalia and instead just show her his home, "What do you think?"