TRIGUN: MOON CHILD
THE OKLAHOMA YEARS
Based on "Distant Lives" (FFN #3519328/9) from Trigun: Moon Child
Chapter One
The Visitors
By R. A. Stott
Forgiveness Chapel sat in the middle of a vast rolling plain of wheat and pastures, and saw the comings and goings of the days in peace and tranquility – an oddity to those who visited the church, since it's location within The Source, the place where Angel Ones and their descendants, the children of Angel Five (AKA Plants) acquired their power from, seemed remote and out of place. But it had become quite a popular meetinghouse for them. Every Sunday for the last ten years, the building would take in a standing room throng of the newly devout, many of whom thought this was the closest they would come to their possible roots. To others, the atmosphere was a pleasing release from what Gunsmoke, or what was now called Deneb One had become – a bustling spaceport community – the tollbooth to the outer rim of the galaxy.
But the majority would say that the warm feeling and the overall fondness of being near the Saverem's was the real reason why they continued to come and pray at their weekly services. The community was held together by their fondness of the couple and their growing family. The Reverend once noted it to being inside a fish bowl, but it was a necessary evil to bear for the good of all.
So the community would witness it all, the good and the bad. They were there when the pair had their children, and they were there when they lost the child at birth. They saw the family grow over the years to seven members and two more grave sites outside the doors of the chapel. Seth Albert and Morgan Ashley Saverem had both been stillborn, and had been buried beside their great great great great great grandniece Remembrance.
The community also kept a watchful eye over the matriarch of the family, Millie Saverem. The fact that she was merely a human within The Source astounded many. Some would bring their own children to her home just so that they could learn the simple ways of this kind and gentle woman. Beloved by the community, the two times she lost her babies had sent a ripple effect through the Plantoids to make sure it never happened again. Concern over her safety was a regular point of discussion at the annual meetings of the Plants Council, since this had been the woman responsible for the creation of the vast landscape that greeted visitors to the Saverem Homestead within The Source. Rem Saverem's world prior to Millie's was merely a large tree and a slab of stone – Millie's husband, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, simply created his Forgiveness Chapel as a replacement for the tree. But Millie added to the surroundings, and it was this that the Plants cherished – Oklahoma from the late 1890's Earth stretched out around the church and four other buildings that had sprouted from the first. The vast open fields and woodlands were often used as vacation sites by those who could come to rest their minds and relieve their pains of the now hectic daily life of Deneb One or the Plants other homes on Earth and Venus.
Millie's daily morning activities had been completed. The children had been sent off to the schoolhouse out back of the chapel for their lessons of the day by the visiting teacher, Nicholas was in the rectory planning the next week's sermons, and she had finished collecting eggs from the chicken coops and tending to the livestock in the barn – after school, she and the kids were going to do the unenviable task of mucking the barn out. Such is life on the farm. She sat on the bench at her piano in the church and sipped on a soothing cup of coffee and contemplated the always changing stained glass windows. N'ya was near the large one on the left side of the chapel admiring the newly created pieces that had sprouted overnight.
"It must have been a cold night on Earth," he bemused. Millie giggled at the silly Kuroneko.
The front door to the chapel pulled open. N'ya spun about, not expecting anyone. The church was usually a quiet place to be on a Monday morning. He saw a strange light entering the opening.
"Uh oh," he said.
Millie looked up from the piano's keyboard. "What?" she asked, having not noticed the door or the light at first.
"Astral light," the cat said as he jumped down from the window and scurried over to Millie's bench. "What do they want?"
"They?" Millie asked. She looked at the light and saw two silhouetted figures step out of it. The luminescence then vanished and Millie gasped.
The image was of two teenage girls. Both seemed quite powerful to her. The first had long blond hair, fair skin and bright green eyes, and she wore a robe-like gown that was white and trimmed in blue and gold.
The other girl though was the opposite of the first. Her skin was red, and her short black hair swirled across her head. Her eyes were fiery gold, and burned like the flames from below. She was wearing a tight leather… something… there was very little left to the imagination with the dress she wore. On her head were a pair of little horns, and on her back were a set of leathery wings and a tail.
"Mildred Elizabeth Thompson Wolfwood Saverem?" the blond girl asked. Millie winced at the saying of her full name, especially 'Mildred'.
N'ya stood at the end of the piano, his fur bristling and his eye narrow. His tail switched back and forth like a whip. "The name is Millie, if you please," he hissed. "May I ask why we are having a visit from you two?"
"Listen fur-ball, we're not here to talk to you!" the dark girl with the wings snarled back. N'ya flicked a clawed paw in her direction – she did the same back.
"Xuru! Please!" the other girl scolded her partner. "That won't help out with our project!"
The girl named Xuru crossed her arms and pouted. The other girl sighed and turned back towards Millie.
"I'm dreadfully sorry," she said in a light and airy voice. "My card." She handed a business card to Millie who blinked at the inscription.
"Puruu – Goddess in Training" it read in gold relief letters. She turned it about and found that on the back and written in red scrawl was "Xuru – Junior Demon – Fourth Class."
"Oh my," Millie exclaimed. "A Goddess and a Demon? Together?"
The cat sat down with a thud on the edge of the piano. "Not surprising, m'am," he growled. "They get paired off during their training days… a fallout from the Treaty of Advent…"
Millie looked at N'ya with a confused expression. "Treaty? Was there a war or something?"
The two girls looked at one another and then looked at the cat then back at each other again.
"Maybe…" Puruu and Xuru said in tandem.
N'ya sneezed. "Riiiiight," he cracked. "If it wasn't for the Treaty of Advent, the universe would be a blaze with darkness and blight beyond all things evil or light. That was why the demonic world and the holy worlds signed so readily." He looked at the one named Puruu and got a terse look on his face. "I thought you were unable to lie…"
Puruu cleared her throat. "I did not lie," she said with a slight cough. "We are not allowed to discuss such things, which is why I… faltered there…"
"I'm the one who can lie!" Xuru volunteered happily. "I can lie like a rug! I can fib, falsify, fake, philander and cheat with the best of 'em!"
N'ya drooped an ear. "It's telling the truth that probably gags her!" he moaned.
Puruu glared at the floor and had a visible sweat-drop rolling down her forehead. "Actually, the treaty also limits the amount of falsehoods a demon may spout as well." She looked up at her partner who was giving her the evil eye. "It limits the damages caused by such lying."
Millie laughed. "Gee, you two remind me of when I was working with Miss Meryl!" she gleefully said.
Puruu and Xuru looked at her with drawn faces. "Err, yes," they said again in tandem.
"Fffth!" the cat spat. "Why are you here?"
Xuru looked as if she wanted to barbecue the feline, but Puruu intervened. "We are interested in the history of the Saverem family," she said with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Really?" Millie replied with the same sparkle which caught the two girls by surprise.
"My horns! She's just like you Puruu!" Xuru said as she stepped back. Her spiked tail wrapped around her legs and shook like a rattlesnake's.
"Almost like Rem's!" the training Goddess exclaimed.
Xuru gave her partner a sideways look. "Don't get overly excited now," she grunted.
N'ya's ears perked up. "Rem? You know of Rem Saverem?"
"Know her?" Puruu smiled. "She's our subject for our final report in Spirits and Souls!"
"Ea?" the Kuroneko said with a squirreled nose. "Subject? As in term papers? This is a school project?"
"Believe me, it wasn't my first idea," Xuru said with rolled eyes. "Especially the way we have to do these reports!"
N'ya now was sitting with a confused look on his face. "Why for how come?"
Puruu stepped back next to her partner and looked down. "We have to look at our subject as if we were our partner," she said without looking up at either of them.
N'ya nodded. "Ah, I see," he said.
"I don't," Millie said. "What does she mean?"
N'ya shook his head. "She means, the Goddess must report as if she were a demon," he started, and noticed that Puruu winced when he said it. "And the Demon must report as if she were the goddess." Xuru now winced and her tail again rattled.
Millie sat back on the bench and looked at the two girls. "Really… That must be difficult!"
Both girls gritted their teeth and meekly said "yes." N'ya nearly fell off the piano.
"N'ya, that's not very nice," Millie scolded the Kuroneko as he rolled about laughing. "So I take it that you've met my great - great - great - great - great granddaughter?"
Much to her surprise, it was Xuru who this time perkily said "Yes, yes we did!" She then caught herself and cleared her throat. "Ahem… she sometimes works for our teacher as an assistant on the subject of humans and their capabilities to intermix with others."
N'ya was on his back looking at her with that perplexed look again. "Come again?" he queried.
Puruu shifted on her feet. "Remembrance Saverem has become an expert on the relationships between humans and other life forms since ascending. She and her husband have been diligent researching the subject."
Millie scratched her head. "I didn't think that when you went up there, you needed to do such things…"
Xuru snorted. "Anything's better than just sitting around and contemplating the clouds."
Millie cocked her head. "Why? What's wrong with that?" Xuru didn't want to even go there.
N'ya righted himself. "So, you interviewed Rem. So why are you here?" he asked.
Puruu smiled. "Extra credit!" she exclaimed.
"Whoopee!" Xuru expounded with little fanfare.
Puruu ignored the demon's comment. "When Rem told us of her family's history, and then of her one hundred thirty years of near solitude, it was simply too good a story to pass up. We actually had to fight off others who wanted to do her story as well!"
Xuru grinned. "It was a glorious battle!"
N'ya and Millie stared at the demon-girl. "You fought over Rem?"
Puruu smiled again – N'ya nervously watched her as she mimicked Millie just a bit too much at times. "Oh yes, when a subject is wanted by more than one partnered group, a competition is held to determine who shall be rewarded with the item, this time being the privilege to discuss with Rem her family's history!"
"You always make it sound so pedestrian," Xuru complained then got a wicked look on her face. "I took Ursula down with one good swipe of my claws and a whack with my tail! She floundered in that pool of quicksand for hours!"
N'ya and Millie blinked with blank stares. "Really," the cat finally replied out of the side of his mouth.
"How… diligent," Millie said.
"Nicely put," N'ya noted to her.
Puruu coughed. "Yes, well, during our interview with Rem, she told us that you actually lived two lives, and that you're actually living a third one here in The Source…"
Millie blushed slightly. "Well, I wouldn't call it three lives… I'm still with my Nicholas…"
"But two completely different families," Xuru said, "and a life before meeting Nicholas… not very many people can say they did all that!"
Millie sighed and reflected. "My life before I met Nicholas was pretty mundane… Oklahoma was always my favorite…"
Puruu perked up – if that was even possible – further. "Oh, we were hoping you'd say that, since we have little to go on from that time in history!"
N'ya scratched his ear. "Why not just read the Observer's Report on the subject – I'm sure you can get a copy of that."
Xuru planted her fists on her hips and gave the cat a stern look. "If we could we would - but we can't so we didn't!"
"Come again?" N'ya queried.
"We're not allowed to reference that body of work," Puruu stated. "We must have one on one conversations with our subjects."
"Fine then!" Millie exclaimed as she straightened herself on the bench and gestured the girls to sit on the front pews. "Let's get started!"
"You'll do it?" Puruu asked with a bit of shock in her voice.
"Really?" Xuru chimed in as well.
"Well, of course I will!" Millie smiled. "Oklahoma is my favorite subject! I'm always happy to talk about our life there!"
Xuru grinned from ear to ear. "Great!" she exclaimed as she snapped her fingers.
Millie put her hand up to her face as the glare of a pair of spotlights blinded her. When she blinked, she could see that there was a pair of cameras pointed at her and some people behind them swinging them about.
"What is all this?" N'ya howled.
"Xuru! We agreed!" Puruu stated from her seated position.
She grumbled. "Oh, okay…" She snapped her fingers and the Action News camera crew vanished. "So how are we going to take notes?"
A pad of paper landed in her lap along with a pencil.
"Oh, joy," the demon said as she started doodling in the corner of the paper.
"Oh!" Millie said and held her belly. N'ya stood up and moved over to her side.
"That was a good one," he said.
"This one's feisty," Millie admitted. "'Would make a good soccer player!"
Puruu and Xuru had not noticed, but their subject was quite pregnant. They sat and blinked as Millie settled back down on the bench as she soothed her belly.
"Are you sure you want to do this madam?" Puruu asked her being worried for Millie's comfort.
"Oh, heavens child, this is nothing!" Millie sparkled. "But before we continue, you both must promise me one thing…"
They both leaned forwards and listened closely to their subject.
"Please don't ever call me that name again!" Millie said.
Xuru gagged and stifled a laugh. Puruu nodded but looked at Xuru with confusion, agreeing out of simple want to do the interview.
"Fine!" Millie exclaimed as she turned to the piano and ran her fingers across its keys. N'ya watched as she started few bars of a song.
"What name?" Puruu whispered to her partner.
Xuru sat like a statue, smiling like an imp. She took her pointed tail and scratched across Puruu's pad the name "MILDRED." The Junior-Goddess gasped and quickly flipped the page over.
Millie placed her fingers on a set of keys and stopped. "Where would you like to start?" she asked.
Puruu collected herself and flipped through her notes. "Well, seeing that you're with child now, why not at the beginning? We understand that when you were first placed in Oklahoma by Horloge the Time Keeper, you were pregnant then as well…"
Millie sat back and looked at the balcony over the door to the church. She smiled as she remembered a child who would play on the smaller one that was in her chapel in Oklahoma. She had long straight black hair and deep brown eyes like her father's and a cute little nose like her mother's. Freckles dotted her cheeks and she always was with a smile on her face.
"Mmm, Meryl," she said to herself.
"Meryl?" Xuru asked. "Your partner?"
Millie blinked then shook her head. "I named my first child after her. Meryl Eileen Saverem… Her middle name was my grandmomma's." She sighed. "I was carrying her before I went to Oklahoma," she said in a hushed tone.
"OOOOH!" she shouted.
Nicholas bolted from bed, startled by his wife's shout of labor. He spun about with a gun drawn, the sleep still being wrestled from his mind.
"What!? What!?" he yelped.
"The baby! Nicholas! The BABY!"
Wolfwood looked around the blacken cabin. It took him a moment to realize where he was again. It had been only a few months since they had been dropped into this world, and the place was starting to get nasty. Early winter was upon them, and the wind was howling outside with a bitter yell. The building was hardly insulated, and the many covers of blankets were barely helping things.
The cold floor stung his feet as he fumbled with a match to light the lantern on the lone table. He cursed the fact that the house he was starting to build was nowhere near finished. He had been told by his friend at Fort Supply that help was available, but a present uprising within the local Indian Nations had drawn much of it away at that time. He looked at Millie. She was gritting her teeth and would look up at him pleading to stop the pain.
"Damn!" he said. "Can you move?" he asked.
"I'm… not sure…" she squealed. "But… I'm pretty sure the baby is ready."
"Ready from the oven, ea?" he cracked as he threw on a shirt and his shoes. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time I delivered a baby… unless you think you can get to the buckboard…"
Millie reached for the headboard of the bed and lifted herself up just as another contraction struck. She snapped the leg clean off the bed. Wolfwood had to quickly gather her up before she fell on the collapsing pieces as they dropped across the straw mattress. Millie looked at the wreckage with her hand across her mouth.
"Oh, honey!" she cried. "What now?"
Wolfwood looked around. "We get you warm and toasty is what." He sat her down on a chair and started to toss a few extra chunks of coal into the stove. He then gathered up her warmest jacket and covered her in it. As she watched in a slight befuddled amusement, he gathered up her shoes. He knelt down and started to put them on her feet. He felt a tapping on his shoulders and looked up.
Millie had the skillet that she had once smacked him in the head with when they first arrived in her hand. "I knight thee, Sir Nicholas, defender of the realm!" she giddily said through the jacket's collar. He could see she was giggling, even though she was obviously in great pain.
"We are not ready for this," he said to her. "This is too soon!"
"I'm sorry," she said with an apologetic look in her eyes. He reached up and caressed her cheek with his hand.
"Millie-Angel, you are not to blame," he said with a slight smile. "You had little to say about this… babies just don't have good timing!"
"After all, they're babies!" Millie added. Wolfwood looked at her, adjusting his mind to her logic. He laughed.
"Exactly!" he said as he gathered up his jacket and a hat. He then lit the second lantern. "I've got to get the horses up and set. Are you going to be okay?"
She winced and gave a thumbs up. He shook his head and kissed her before bursting out the door into the cold Oklahoma night.
"I hope this thing works," he mumbled to himself. He pulled a small thin box out of the pocket of his black jacket which he was wearing under his heavy jacket. The box had been given to him by his friend and, as it turned out, protector from the future, North. He was to use it only in emergencies – and this was precisely what he had at that moment. He flipped open its lid and pressed a button at the base of the inside panel. The device beeped and began to make a whiney shrill.
The noise made their horses Diamond Mane and Betsy shake their heads. Wolfwood did not need them spooked right then, so he stepped out of the newly built covered corral they were in.
The shrill stopped.
"North here Nick… is it time?" a voice came over the com unit.
"She just kicked both of us out of bed and then broke the bed!" he said as he re-entered the corral.
"Yea, as we expected," his friend said. "She's a bit early though… any idea how often the labor is hitting?"
He thought for a moment. "It looked like about every five to ten minutes…"
"Ah, she's quite fragrant then…" North replied. "Okay, we sent a wagon out a few hours ago in your direction. Look for a Conestoga on the path towards Two Bluffs…"
"Two Bluffs, gotcha," Wolfwood said as he lead Betsy to her place on the buckboard. He strapped her in and was about to get Diamond Mane, when he saw the horse already standing in his spot waiting his belt.
"You are a smart horse, aren't you?" Wolfwood said as he patted him on the neck. "Thanks."
The horse snorted.
Wolfwood drove the buckboard to the front of the cabin, which now seemed incredibly small to him. A family was about to be brought forth, and he stood on the wagon looking at it feeling completely lost out in the middle of nowhere. He jumped down and entered the dwelling.
He found Millie bent over, her fist clenched and her arm resting on the table for support. She had thrown up and was panting. She slowly looked up at her husband and weakly smiled.
"I'm a mess," she said to him.
"That makes two of us," he said as he gathered up the blankets from the wrecked bed. He used the strength he had on Gunsmoke to lift her into the back of the wagon and covered her over with the blankets. He then latched a canvas cover over the edges to keep the howling wind out.
"Oh, please, don't close the front," she pleaded.
"But… honey, the wind," Wolfwood pointed out.
"Please," she asked. "I want to be able to see you."
He sighed. "Okay," he said, "just enough to see me." He closed the rest of the tarp, covering her up. She felt him get into the wagon's seat. She then found his pocket knife slitting the tarp just behind where he was sitting.
"How's that?" he asked.
"Perfect, Sir Nicholas," she smiled. Another contraction caught her and she rolled to her side. As the buckboard started to roll, she laid back in the straw he had scattered in the back and felt the jarring of the path down the hill from their home.
"Someone needs to check on the chickens," she said.
"What was that?" Wolfwood asked.
"Chickens!" she yelled up at him.
"They're asleep!" he called back. "Just about where I wish I was right now."
She smiled and reached up and tugged at his jacket.
"Yes?" he asked. "Room service!"
"I love you," she said.
He smiled and reached back and held her hand.
"You're something else, Mrs. Saverem," he said. "Help is on its way."
The dim light the lantern gave only showed the path slightly and the trip towards Two Bluffs was still an hour away. He was at the whim of his large black horse.
"Diamond Mane, we're at your mercy boy," he said. "Get us to that wagon!"
The horse glanced back and nodded, much to the surprise of the driver. He quickened the pace and kept to the known path.
Wolfwood glanced at his pocket watch he had purchased from the Sears Roebuck catalog just a few weeks prior. It said that it was only two in the morning. Nasty.
A half hour later, they were passing their first neighbor, the Murrah's. A light dimly lit the windows of their cabin. Why were they still up at this god-forsaken hour? He knew that she was pregnant as well. Wolfwood considered this.
"What's our condition back there?" he called to his wife.
"Still here," she replied. "Problems? Ohh!"
He grimaced as she wailed. Was this what they called sympathy pains? He looked up at the Murrah's home again. He could see that someone was running back into the cabin from the small barn that was there. He sighed.
The Murrah's were younger than they were – practically only just out of their teens. He grunted and turned Diamond Mane and Betsy up the path to the shack on the hill.
"Honey?" Millie called up. "Is something wrong?"
"Something," he replied. "Just a short detour. Checking on the Murrah's…"
Puruu and Xuru blinked. "He stopped?" they asked.
Millie smiled as she rested her head on her hands. "My Nicholas is a man of his faith. He may have been a gunslinger at one time, but he's always been a man of god."
Ed Murrah met the Preacher at the door. His eyes were full of wonder.
"A blessing! You're a blessing!" he was saying.
"What's the problem, Ed?" Wolfwood asked as he removed his hat. He looked over at Melissa Murrah. Like his Millie earlier, she was sitting in a chair beside a table, but she was surrounded in a puddle of liquid.
"I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!" Ed was crying. "My wagon just broke its wheel, and Melissa just did… did that!"
Wolfwood quickly looked over the situation. "Get her wrapped up and get warmer clothes on Ed," he ordered. "We'll meet up with my medical help."
Ed looked pale at the preacher. "Medical…?" he stammered.
"JUST GET GOING! My wife is in labor, and yours just broke her water! Let's get a move on!"
Ten minutes later, they were heading down the path towards Two Bluffs. The women in the back were holding hands while Ed was up front pleading the Preacher to move faster.
"OHHH!" Melissa yelled.
"Oh, you're not going to wait, are you?" Millie said as she slid around under the canvas cover.
"What's going on back there?" Wolfwood yelled. "You okay?"
"You just keep your mind on the road," Millie said. "I'll take care of things back here."
Melissa looked down at her neighbor, who was now below her in a delivery position. "Have… have you ever done this before?" she asked.
Millie smirked and shrugged. "Birthed a calf back at home… how much different is it?"
Wolfwood saw a lantern in the distance being swung back and forth. He smiled.
"Looks like our ride has arrived," he grinned.
"PUSH!"
"What the hell?" he said at that outburst.
"WaaaaAAAAAAAAHHH!" came a cry that raised the hairs on both men's neck. They both looked back and saw the canvas moving about.
Millie peeked up through the slit in the tarp and looked over at their passenger.
"It's a boy, Mr. Murrah! A healthy boy!"
The lad smiled then grinned. "A boy! A boy! Can I see him Miss Millie?"
"Wait until we get there son," Wolfwood said. "No need to expose him to a night like this, right?"
Ed blinked. "Oh, yes, you're right Reverend… what was I thinking?"
Wolfwood looked down on his wife and smiled. "Thanks honey," he said as he reached down and rubbed her head.
"OW!" she replied. "How much longer?"
The Conestoga wagon was now well in sight. A large red cross was on the front near the seats, and written across its illuminated stretched tent covering was 'FEDERATION & OBSERVERS – SCOUTING SERVICES'. Wolfwood shook his head.
"We're here," he said as a woman came over to the buckboard. She was looking at the young man beside him with a bit of worry on her face.
"Dr. Abigail McManus," she told them. She then looked at Wolfwood. "I was only expecting you, Reverend Saverem."
Wolfwood pulled the break on the wagon. "Emergency house call – you get two for the price of one! Tolefson, come on over here, would you?" he called to the soldier he knew standing beside the larger covered wagon. The cry of a baby greeted them as they opened the back gate and saw the two women.
"You're a doctor?" Ed asked McManus. "A woman?" She huffed.
"There's more of us than you'll know, sir," she replied as she caught his innuendo. "Let's get them into the back of the Connie."
Melissa was lead out first, lifted by her husband as she cradled their newborn son and protecting him from the harsh wind and cold. The umbilical was still attached, but had been gathered up in the blanket. Tolefson rushed them into the wagon to the waiting arms of a nurse.
Wolfwood assisted Millie out. She was sweaty and was breathing oddly.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Just as she touched the ground, a burst of fluid splattered her feet.
"Oh, that's a definite sign if I ever saw one," McManus said as she lead Millie to the Conestoga. "Coming Mr. Saverem?"
Wolfwood stared momentarily. A few hours ago, he was completely out of his league. Now, two babies were here, or nearly here, and his wife was dealing with them both.
"That woman amazes me," he said as he slowly walked through the windy night to the back of the wagon. He looked back to see Tolefson releasing the break to the buckboard.
"Follow us, okay?" he told Diamond Mane.
He could have sworn he heard the horse say "Sure thing."
Millie sipped her coffee. "We headed back to Fort Supply to stay at the hospital there. I was in labor for two days after… whoever said breaking your water was the sign of imminent birth didn't talk to my Meryl! She took her own sweet time!"
Puruu and Xuru sat stunned.
"You helped in the birth of one baby then had your own?" Xuru gawked.
"We're trying for sainthood, but it seems you have to be dead first," N'ya cracked. Millie giggled and scratched his ear.
"Whatever became of the boy?" Puruu asked as she jotted down what she had just heard.
Millie looked at the ceiling. "Jeb Murrah… we were friends of theirs for years after that… They helped build our chapel and home… I think that Melissa always wanted to see Jeb and Meryl marry someday… but…"
Meryl sat under the tall blackjack oak that sat behind the barn playing with a rag doll as she usually did on these spring days. Her brother David wobbled nearby on his infant legs, and would plop down unceremoniously from time to time. A serious child, it did not seem to faze him when gravity overtook him. He would just get up again and try a few more tentative steps before succumbing again.
Meryl was quietly talking as any child would to her dolly. It had been a bad dolly, having fallen in some of the stuff the cattle leave behind, and it needed a good cleaning – a lesson she herself had learned from her mother – when something caught her attention. A pillar was rising over the trees far down in the valley and covering the sky in a black haze.
"Mommy? Mommy!?" she started to yell. She dropped her doll and ran back towards the church.
Nicholas was in the little copula that held the small bell that the chapel had – a stubborn rope was keeping it silent when tolling was required. He looked up as he heard his daughter calling.
"What's wrong pun'kin?" he called down to her.
"Daddy! Daddy, something's wrong at Jeb's!" she cried.
Wolfwood had the advantage of being on the highest point around – his chapel could be seen across the entire valley – and he could see clearly what was happening. The house that he helped the Murrah's build was entirely in flames. He began to rapidly pull on the clapper to the bell.
"Honey?" Millie asked as she looked out of the front door of their new home. It did not take her long to see why he had hammered on the bell so. She gasped and held her hands to her mouth.
"Millie, I need you to keep that bell ringing," her husband yelled as he slid down the ladder and ran for the barn. A few moments later, Diamond Mane and Wolfwood were barreling out. He stopped at his wife.
"Millie, please, the bell!" he reminded her.
She nodded. "Hurry, please!" she said.
Wolfwood nodded and urged the horse to fly, which he obediently did for once. Millie entered the church and started to pull on the rope, praying that it was working again. The bell rang clearly and loudly. She began to cry at the thought of why she was ringing it, and praying for the best.
Again, Wolfwood reached for the com unit. He looked at it with trepidation. It was for his family's emergencies. Could he use it for a friend's?
He opened the lid and pressed the pager button.
"North here," he heard. "We see where you're heading – we have troops in that area – play it safe, Nick."
"Thanks buddy," he said as he closed the unit and pressed Diamond Mane on. In the buckboard, it was half an hour's ride to the Murrah's – but on this lightning fast steed, he was there in less than ten minutes.
The new house that replaced the shack was starting to crumble. He stopped Diamond Mane around the front to see if there was anyone around.
"ED!?" he shouted. "MELISSA? JEB?"
A weak "Nick!" was heard near the front doorway, which was fully ablaze. He ran to the water-barrel next to the porch and pulled the bucket out of it. He doused himself in the water then filled it again. He readied himself to run into the inferno.
He tossed the water at the door, causing it to hiss and steam. He them planted his shoe hard against it, shattering it to charred splinters. He found Ed near it and dragged him out and away from the house. He took another bucket of water and again doused himself with it, filled it again, and re-entered the home.
"MELISSA!? JEB!?" he shouted.
"Rev… Reverend?"
Wolfwood quickly spun about. His eyes stung from the smoke, but he found Melissa near a stairwell, her hands horribly burned. She was expecting another child soon as well. This was not good.
He spread the water along the path back to the door then tossed the bucket out. He lifted the nearly unconscious woman up and ran out as the building started to fall in on itself.
"Jeb!" he said to himself as the roof caved in.
"BUCKET BRIGADE! DOUBLE TIME!"
He looked at the path below. Twelve Army men were running up the hill, followed by a few neighbors carrying what they could to help. A familiar Corporal came up to him and patted him on the back.
"Tolly," he said through the smoke in his lungs, "Jeb's still in there I think."
Tolefson looked at the burning structure. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Being careful to hide it from the neighbors, he keyed in a few buttons.
"He's in the pantry closet," he said.
"You Observers… damn you're good," Wolfwood remarked. He then saw the look he was getting from the officer.
"Are you kidding?" he cracked. "I'm breaking every rule in the book on this one!" He grinned and smacked Wolfwood again on the shoulder.
"Ike, come with me – the rest of you, buckets!" Tolefson and the man named Ike ran around the back of the house.
Wolfwood sat down beside Ed with Melissa in his lap. He was exhausted. Diamond Mane nuzzled him, and he patted him on the cheek.
"Good boy… great job…" he said nearly out of breath.
"Idiot!"
He looked at the horse. "Am I?" he asked.
The horse snorted and nuzzled him again.
The cracking of the wood was loud, but Wolfwood could still hear the tolling of his church's bell in the distance. He would have to thank his wife as well.
Tolefson reappeared from the back of the fire. He had his jacket off, and he was cradling something. The look on his face told Wolfwood all he needed to know.
Millie stood on the hill looking over the valley as the sun started to fall. Meryl and David clung to her legs. Her arms ached from the constant pulling of the bell, to which she had only stopped ringing when the rope once again broke. She watched as the smoke became a wisp of white.
The sound of a slow set of hoof-beats made her turn towards the path from the church. She could see Diamond Mane, his head low, and her husband on his back coming up the trail. She then heard the sound of a wagon behind him, and saw the Army men and a few others following slowly.
He slipped off Diamond Mane and stumbled over to the small entrance porch to the chapel where he sat down with a thud. He was wet, he smelled of smoke, and he was more than tired.
"Reverend, where can I set up?"
He looked up to see the doctor standing over him. He gestured to the main house.
"I'll let them use my spare bedroom for the time being, you can set up there," he said. "The door's open… upstairs to the left end."
McManus reached down and touched his shoulder. "Thank you," she said. He only nodded.
He watched her head into his home with Ed and Melissa as she prepared to do work on the woman's badly burned hands. He then had another set of feet to contend with. He looked up and saw the man he most wanted to see.
"Hey," North said. "Nicely done, friend."
"Was it?" Wolfwood grimaced. "I don't think so… I don't think so at all…" North sat down beside the preacher and let him drop his head against his chest and wail.
Tolefson stepped up, still carrying the body in his jacket. "Sir," he addressed North, "what should I do…"
North placed his finger to his mouth. "Put him in the barn – Nightwatch will protect him."
The horse looked up at North – the use of his real name was supposed to be forbidden, but under the circumstances, he understood. He nodded and followed the Corporal around back.
He patted Wolfwood on the back. "Hey – you're not out of the woods yet my friend," he reminded him. Wolfwood nodded and sat back up.
"Millie," he said dreading the rest. He wiped his nose and grimaced a smile at the Pastor.
"Besides, her shoulder is a better place to cry on, right?" North told him. He managed a slight laugh.
"Nicholas?" he heard. He looked around to the end of the chapel's wall to see Millie and the children standing there.
"Oh, look who it is!" North exclaimed, getting up and gathering up Meryl and David. "Did I ever tell you that I have a brother and sister named David and Merle?"
"No Pastor North, you didn't!" Meryl squealed as he carried them away so their parents could have a moment alone.
Millie sat beside Nicholas as he took her hand in his. She moved some stray hairs away from his smoky face. "You're a mess," she said.
He only nodded.
"I saw Tolly take Diamond Mane into the barn… He's okay?"
Wolfwood nodded again. She could see he was biting his lip. She placed her arm around him and held him close.
"Shhh… shhh… You can tell me," she whispered. "I'm a big girl, remember…"
"You're an angel," he whispered. "I don't deserve someone like you…"
She let a single tear roll off her face onto his head. "Tell me… please."
He nodded as he leaned his head into her chest below her chin. "There was an accident…" he started. "Melissa was holding an oil lamp when the child she's carrying kicked her… she dropped the lamp… the wick was still lit it seems, because it exploded…"
"Oh my," Millie gasped as she looked up at her home – the matching kit-house model that had just burned. She saw the soldier at the door and she saw Dr. McManus come back out for more supplies. "Is she going to be okay?" she asked.
Wolfwood shook his head. "The doctor is doubtful that the baby will survive, and Melissa burned her hands badly. We'll just have to wait and see… but…" He gagged on the words and heaved hard into her.
"Darling? What is it?" she quietly asked.
"Our… godson… didn't make it…"
Millie gasped for air. She stroked her husband's hair as he let his feelings take control of him. The memory of bringing him into this world splashed across her mind and she no longer could contain the steel reserve she had been holding. She joined her husband in weeping for the lost child.
North stood at the porch to the home having managed to drop the children on Ike to look after for a moment. He glanced down at a sheet of paper in his breast pocket. He sighed and looked at the doctor as she was heading into the house again.
"Abby," he said, stopping her. "This child matters, understand?"
She nodded. "Understood," she said. "Should I take extreme measures?"
North looked at the first bright star of twilight and grunted. "Do whatever it takes to save him and the mother as well."
She looked over at the church. "It's a shame we couldn't save the child," she said.
"History says that this happened." North put his hat on. "Sometimes this job stinks."
Millie wiped a small drop from her eye as she was stroking N'ya's back. She looked over at the pair in the pews. Xuru was to tears and Puruu was sitting wide-eyed in awe of the lady before her.
Millie smiled. "As it was, Jeb Murrah was the first person in the cemetery we established behind the church under that big oak that was back there. His parents eventually were buried there as well, though they moved away from the homestead they had, even after we rebuilt it. Melissa couldn't stand the memories in that place. It's a shame though…"
"What is m'am?" Puruu asked, still wide-eyed.
Millie gave a half-laugh. "Melissa could never truly love the son that she had after Jeb. She blames him for kicking the lamp out of her hands. It's quite a shame… He became a very good Judge…"
She looked at her watch. "Mercy! The children will be here soon, and we have stables to clean out… I'd love to continue, if you'd like later…"
Xuru and Puruu looked at one another then back at Millie. "Can we?" they asked.
"Sure," she gleefully said. "When do you have to have it done by?"
Puruu held her hand up. "Time doesn't matter! We can take as long as we need!"
"Fine!" Millie exclaimed. "Then I'll be expecting you then… unless you'd like to help on cleaning out the barn…"
Xuru suddenly got a very distressed look on her face, as she could see her partner willingly accepting the job. She quickly gathered her up and started to drag her out the door.
"It was a blast meeting you!" the demon grinned and dragged.
"Of course we would!" Puruu managed to get out from behind Xuru's fingers that were over her mouth.
Xuru stood with a pitchfork in her hands and small children running about in the straw.
"Demon's don't fork straw!" she glowered as one of the cherubs had her tail and was rattling the metal decorative band at its end.
Puruu smiled. "Oh come on, its fun! Just think of it as more extra credit! We're learning first hand!"
"I'll show you some extra credit!" the demon-girl groused. She looked over at a large black horse over in one of the stalls.
"Idiot," it said.
Xuru steamed. She then sighed and started to rake out the straw.
"Yay – farm life!"
oOo
Next Episode
Millie spins stories for the children of the Plants
Of Christmases of long ago Oklahoma
The blessings
The horrors
The sublime
The tragedies
and most importantly, the homecomings.
Next Episode of T:MC-The Oklahoma Years - Chapter Two - Sooner Christmas
Today's Weather Forecast for The Source – Snow!
Bring your boots!
North, Tolefson, Dr. Abigail McManus, Puruu, Xuru, Diamond Mane (Nightwatch), The Treaty of Advent, The Observers ©2003, 18 DMS – Used with Permission
N'ya ©2003, 18 S. Nordwall – Used with Permission
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003, 18 Yasuhiro Nightow
All characters from TRIGUN: MOON CHILD ©2003, 18 The MOON CHILD Project/DMS – Used with Permission
©2003, 18 The MOON CHILD Project II/DMS
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