The Evil Twin, Part Iv

IV. The tears on his brother’s face were heartbreaking, and many watching wished it all would stop, but Paul simply walked over towards the noose, the whole crowd gasped as the little door dropped. The final words must’ve had some effect, since Harmon seemed to quickly changed his ways, in fact, he only would drink once a year, on the anniversary of that dark day. He would work the ranch from morning to night, he quit the whoring, and stopped playing cards. Within a few months he married Ella, did everything to make her life not hard. All did remark on the breadth of this change, even the preacher spoke of it in meeting, Harmon himself heard that very sermon since he and Ella were always attending. And though folks were happy he’d found his path, they rarely saw true smiles on his face, most figured it was because of poor Paul, a pain like that just cannot be erased. When another year passed, a child arrived, folks figured he’d settled to family, that he wouldn’t go back to wild ways now that he had a son to make him happy. They named the boy ‘Harmon,’ after his pa, which everybody though was delightful. Only the couple, and their descendants know, that, in truth, he was named for his hanged uncle.