Death Whispers In The Wind

Chapter 9

Early in Castor's tumultuous life, during the period of his rambunctious adolescence, when at the tender and freshly ripe age of just ten years old, he'd been given a birthday gift haplessly wrapped in old newspaper, which Castor swiftly ripped open and started tearing the newspaper to shreds.

On the day of his 10th birthday and upon opening his birthday present. A young and anxiously excited ten-year old Castor Feenix would find his true calling that day, upon opening his birthday present and were given or rather he inherited his very first gun from his assumed father, the only constant person in his young life, which that man would be the person who came to raise Castor and loved him as though he were his son. Castor had remained oblivious to the matter, regardless he always would call him his father.

George Foster Feenix was a stern, yet gentle and soft-spoken southern law man who found himself thrust into a situation that left him raising his best friends' suddenly orphaned child, solely on his own, due to unforeseen circumstances that were riddled with a hard-handed smack of bad luck and a quantifiable degree of unfortunate happenstance.

Many a times, George would inexplicably find himself pondering a pivotal moment, plucked from his past and remembered clearly a promise that he'd made, an oath he swore he'd keep that day, if something horrible were to happen or perhaps things went awry. Through this obligation to keep his promise, George became Castor's guardian, he'd taken him in as a baby and cared for him.

As his love and attachment grew for young Castor, so did a profound sense of guilt that weighed heavily on George's mind and he also felt a growing concern for Castor's feelings, how would he react to the truth? Early on, he reluctantly decided to withhold the truth from Castor about his parents, as time wore on, George believed he'd made a grave mistake in not telling Castor the truth and continued to struggle with the fear of what Castor's reaction would bring.

Over the years, the two developed a close personal bond that mirrored a real relationship between a father and his son and truthfully, through it all, it didn't really matter if George were Castor's real father or not. However, he couldn't escape this deeply seeded feeling that he needed to come clean with Castor, as he watched with a deep sense of pride and admiration, it was also coupled with a somber dose of routine guilt and deceit while he raised Castor from a relative infant to a prominent young boy and hoping that one day he could find a way to tell Castor the truth about his parents.

For the better part of a decade and as the years wore on, Castor never grew suspicious of the fact that George wasn't his real father, that George had merely taken and adopted the father role. The day of his 10th birthday would change all that and become the day he was sat down and finally told the truth about who his real parents were, what they were like and then somewhat reluctantly, George had told Castor in detail the unfortunate nature of their deaths with how both had met an untimely end, shortly after his birth.

He told the young Castor everything he wanted to know about his parents and for a ten-year old boy, he had questions like "where were they from?" or "what did they look like?", things a young boy his age would ask.

George Foster Feenix had been, for many years, a personal longtime friend of Castor's biological mother and father, Murphy and Henrietta Boggs. George and Murphy had a tremendous friendship as both men were more like brothers, they'd even shared the same passions and pursuits in life. The two of them were inseparable and did everything together, both men had rough upbringings, both had grown up in the same neighborhood. The two men possessed a profound respect for one another, so much so that both of them had even made a solemn promise to each other. This was the promise that George had thought back to.

That promise would be tried and tested to see if it were a promise that would actually be honored and kept. George would have the grim distinction of being the only one who witnessed the unfortunate death of Castor's father, Murphy J. Boggs at the hands of an angry and hateful mob. Murphy was a smart, charismatic and educated man who read everything he could get his hands on and was always fervently outspoken. He pursued a career as a lawyer, but soon found himself gravitating towards a job as an elected official, as he'd discovered he was a tremendous public speaker and could easily sway public opinion and capture people's attention. Murphy became the mayor of a small town in western Texas, called
Hubburts.

Castor's mother, Henrietta Boggs had been a schoolteacher. She was a warm, sweet and kind-hearted woman who loved horses and enjoyed traveling to new and exotic places. She loved to paint and had a keen fascination with any form of entertainment, specifically the theater and had always carried a strong interest and curiosity for musical instruments and had tirelessly studied composing music.

Murphy had died exactly six weeks prior to his wife's Henrietta's death, which left her incredibly heartbroken and she was still reeling from his sudden death when came the day Castor was born, it would also be her last day on Earth as she'd died from complications that sprung up unexpectedly during the birth of her one and only child. And so in the span of just under two months, Castor would lose both his parents all before he'd even reach his 2nd birthday.

Castor remembered his 10th birthday fondly, as it were the day he first learned about his parents, learned how they met and what their wedding was like. George told him countless stories of him and his father's numerous adventures, by the time they finished their discussion, it had brought them even closer together. For George, much to his relief when he realized it didn't change the fact that Castor still considered him his father.

For Castor, the date of October 7th, 1847 held great importance, it being the day of his 10th birthday and it also signaled the very instance when Castor's future was preordained. The day of October 7th brought his introduction to an instrument of violence, when he held that first gun in his small hands, it created a scenario of perfect harmony where Castor's superhuman skill and incredible quickness with a gun was instantaneous and would forever cement his future.

That momentous day of his 10th birthday, the path he would soon follow had been set in stone and would lead him to his preordained destiny, on October 7th 1847 and from that day forward, Castor's life would never be the same. If there ever was such a thing, and without a shade of doubt, that would be an absolute certainty, for when it came to weapons, especially pistols. Castor Feenix knew from the moment he grasped the handle of a pistol and rested his finger on the trigger, he knew then that he'd found his true calling. Castor's ridiculously fast hands and the ever-cool fluidity of how he handled both revolvers became impeccable.

Guns and how he used them effortlessly we're his forte. Around the time Castor celebrated his 18th birthday is when he finally decided and went into the lucrative business  of killing people. Becoming a bounty hunter was the  only thing he could possibly think of doing.

He'd quickly made a name for himself and established a reputation that he only took on contracts to bounties that served a purpose, namely in the spirit of true justice. The fact that Castor wasn't interested in making money taking on bounties from crooked people that didn't preserve his integrity made Castor's good-natured intentions and morals which spread the word that he was an honorable man in a profession that most deemed seedy and sinful, motivated purely by greed. People began to take notice and it garnered Castor some favorable attention from the likes of legends such as Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Cody.