Keeping secrets
Sara glanced at Kylie's sheet and copied the next answer. The text was difficult and she didn't have the patience to read through it carefully. Deep inside she knew she would only getting more and more behind if she continued copying everything.
Tomorrow,she thought, tomorrow I'll do everything on my own.
Looking around, she spotted Miss Evans checking the time and then ringing the bell for the lunch break. Letting out a relieved sigh, she grabbed her lunch pail and grabbed Kylie's hand dragging her outside. She caught sight of a free bench right by the white washed fence and continued her way over to it.
Kylie tried to keep up with her."Hey! What's the hurry?" She complained limping after her friend as fast as possible.
Sara slumped down on the bench and let out a huge sigh. "Ahhh. Finally. Rest. I thought it would take forever."
"So you were just lazy and wanted to get out of school?" Kylie mocked.
Sara nodded truthfully. "I would rather be at home now playing with Rhys."
Kylie didn't reply. She sat down on the bench next to her friend. "Ifin ya could you would never come to school," she accused.
Sara shrugged. "It's jist so hard. It feels like I don't know anything." She unpacked her lunch and sunk her teeth into her sandwich. She didn't feel like talking about school right now. If her dad found out that she hadn't done her homework, he would probably start checking it every day. Kylie felt her friend's unease and became quiet too, eating her lunch in silence.
Both girls didn't notice William Talbot the drunkard of Virginia City lying in the dust, leaning against the fence which was surrounding the school boundary,, sleeping off his inebriated condition. When he heard the girl's chatting again he went to sit up and tell them to shut their noisy little mouths, but he remained quiet when he realized what they were talking about.
"I would really like to meet this mister Heavens." Kylie mumbled while munching on the last piece of her sandwich.
"He's really nice. Though he looked really scary in the beginning. He was in a battle or somethink. Yesterday he told me he's from the south and that he had a family there. I told him maybe grandpa could adopt him and then he would be one of my uncles. I can just imagine him scaring Garrett to death." She ended grinning. Kylie giggled when she imagined the picture of a troll chasing Garrett around in the town.
William got to his feet and leant over the fence close into Sara's ear slurring, "Hey girls! Can ya tell me some more about that man?"
Sara immediately jumped to her feet, when she felt and scented the bad breath of the man. Kylie also got to her feet and took a few steps away from the man in the dirty clothes. Sara took a hold of her friend's hand and squeezed it tightly, wanting to show Kylie that she would protect her if needed, but she also felt safer feeling her friends hand.
"Now, now no need to be afraid, littl' ladies. I jist wanted to know some more about this Heaven." William leaned heavily on the bench and tried to focus on the children in front of him.
"His name ain't Heaven, it's Rhys Heavens." Sara replied defiantly.
"And where's he from? Didn't ya say he's from the South? Was he a soldier?" He questioned impatiently, for a good story he could get many drinks. He was so eager with asking his questions that he didn't notice the tall man approach him from behind until a heavy hand fell on his shoulder.
"Mister Talbot. You ain't got any business around the school. So leave my daughter alone." Cormac growled.
Intimidated Will shrunk back."I meant no harm. I jist heard Little Miss Cartwright talk about a man from the south and wanted to know a little more about this story."
Sara watched with wide eyes when Kylie's father grabbed the man by the neck and dragged him away from the school yard.
"What do ya think he's goin' to do?" Sara asked curiously and somewhat nervous.
"I don't know, but maybe he hand him over to the sheriff. He ain't allowed near the school ya know."
But Cormac did none of this. Instead he reached into his pocket and handed William something, then grabbed him by the shoulder and said a few words. Visibly intimidated William ducked his head and shrunk away. Cormac stared after the man then turned towards Sara and Kylie again. When he started to head in their direction Sara started to feel some butterflies in the pit of her stomach. He looked angry and he was really intimidating with this stern look on his face.
"I think we better go inside again." Sara whispered and turned to go, but Kylie kept her friends hand in a firm grip.
"Sara! Kylie! Come here," ordered Cormac, when he had reached the fence. Obediently, Kylie headed towards her father dragging a reluctant Sara along after her. Cormac climbed over the fence and crouched down in front of the children, so they were at the same eye-level.
"Sara, Kylie. I don't want you to talk about your friend from the south when you're in Virgina city or around anyone but family. Is that clear?" He stated.
"Why?"Sara asked confused, "Doctor Martin knows him already and Rhys' is really nice. I bet ya would like him too."
Cormac had to smile at her sincere naivety, "Look Sara, there are men here in town who are very angry with the south and maybe they would take out their anger on your friend Rhys."
"But why would they do that?" Kylie piped up.
Cormac sighed. How could he explain this war to his child? "You know the Union is at war with the Confederates, don't you?"
Both children nodded.
"The Union is in the north and the Confederates are in the south. Many people in the north now think that all the people in the south are bad, and they in the south probably think the same of the people in the north. So if some men found out that a southerner is in your house, Sara your dad could get into trouble with the military, or even the law. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir, but Rhys isn't bad. He's really nice, he simply doesn't look very good, but he can't help that, because it's like Kylie can't help for her leg and..." Cormac put a finger against her lips to interrupt her rambling.
"Good, so no more talking about this man in the city."
"Yes, sir!" They replied in unison.
"Now go back inside. It looks like Miss Evans is about to call you back in." He was right. A second later the bell rang and the children headed more or less reluctantly inside.
Later that afternoon
Sara stuffed her schoolbooks into her small saddlebags, then went outside slower than usual. Even Kylie was in front of her. The work she had to do seem to get more and more difficult with each day. She had only managed to keep up with the others during the afternoon, because Kylie had whispered the solutions to her exercises whenever she had time.
She pushed the nervous feeling away and ran up to Kylie's side, whispering a thank you into her ear, before escaping into freedom of the schoolyard.
At edge of the fence she spotted her grandpa. With a small squeal of joy she ran over to him and he scooped her up in his strong arms. She thanked him with a somewhat sloppy kiss to his cheek and grinned.
"How has your day been little one?"He asked tickling her belly with one hand.
"Stop that." She giggled slapping his hand away, then replied, "It was good, but a bit boring. We had to do a lot of reading in the morning and had to answer lots of questions, but I managed to finish it, so I don't have any reading homework."Thanks to Kylie, she added in her thoughts. "And in the afternoon we did math and then we had a quiz about American History. I answered two questions right." She said proudly puffing out her chest.
"Of how many?" Ben asked raising an eyebrow at her.
Sara looked crestfallen. "But grandpa I told ya it was a quiz. Miss Evans divided the class into two groups and then she asked us questions and the group who answered most of the questions won."
"So it wasn't an exam?"
"No, ya silly." She giggled and tapped his nose.
"Mister Cartwright?" Both of them looked up and spotted Miss Evans standing in front of them. "If you have a moment; I'd like to discuss a few things with you."
Ben sat Sara down on her own feet and eyed the young teacher. He hadn't had the time to talk with her yet, but Adam had described her as a young well educated woman.
"Of course Ma'am."
Miss Evan smiled and nodded. "Please follow me inside then."
However before they were able to take one step Cormac came over to them. "Mister Cartwright, Miss Evans." He greeted. "I would like to have a few words with you Ben, if you have the time?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid you have to wait for a few minutes.. Miss Evans here has already asked me in for a conversation."
"Oh, my apologizes. I'll wait here until you're finished. That way Kylie and Sara can spend some more time together."
"No, no. You can talk s now. I'll go and collect my things then join me when you have finished, Mister Cartwright." Lorraine stated and headed back into the school without even waiting for a response.
Ben turned towards Sara and fixed her with a firm glare. "Is there something I should know, before Miss Evans talks to me young lady?"
Sara shook her head firmly, offended that everyone seemed to think that she always got into trouble.
"Sara!" He prompted.
"No, sir." She quickly said.
Meanwhile Cormac watched the other children leaving side by side with their parents or alone if they were older.
"So what is it Cormac?" Ben questioned.
"I heard your little granddaughter talk about a man from the south. William Talbot heard it too." Ben eyes went wide and he was just about to say something when Cormac continued, "I told him to keep quiet and gave him five dollars. That will supply him with drink and food for about three days, I guess. He will also work for me tomorrow, carrying some stuff to my smithy. That way he'll earn some easy money and will most likely keep his mouth shut. Furthermore I told the girls to stop talking about the man."
"How... Thank you. I..."
Cormac raised a hand. "Mister Cartwright, I'm a friend of your family and will keep quiet, but I don't want to know anything which could get me into more trouble. Kylie has only me left." With that he turned around, took Kylie's hand in his and headed towards his house.
Ben turned to Sara and crouched down in front of her. "We will talk about this at home Sara." He stated with firm voice.
"Am I in trouble? Everyone looks mad and that's jist because I told them of Rhys. I don't wanna be in trouble again." The small girl looked as if she was close to tears.
"No, you're not in trouble little one. You couldn't have known that it wasn't good to talk about Rhys in school and we forgot to tell you." He put two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up, then kissed her forehead. "Go and wait in the buggy. I'll come as soon as I finished talking with Miss Evans."
He spun her around and sent her away with a gentle tap to her backside.
In the classroom Lorraine had already taken out the sheet with the math exercises and some other problems Sara had solved during the day. She looked at the letters and number, still amazed how quickly she had learned everything. The door creaked and she glanced up seeing Ben entering the room.
"Please sit down Mister Cartwright." She said offering a chair, then handed him the latest sheet with math-exercises. "This was Sara's latest homework. I wanted to test her progresses in math and had a short talk with her this morning. Sara said; her father, nor had anyone else of her family helped her with the homework. Is that true?"
"Yes, Adam is up at the lumber camp, but he will be back by Friday." He replied while checking every answer. "This is quite amazing, I dare to say. I remember that she was struggling to learn her ABC and her numbers only a few months ago."
"Yes, I thought so too, and I wanted to ask you if I could work out a new schedule for her, or if she seems to struggle with the homework tasks. Is she stressed by her schoolwork?"
"No, if Sara has a problem she calls her father or me for help. If we aren't available there's always Little Joe, but he doesn't have the patience to explain a lot things to her and if Hoss tries to help her they always end up doing something else. She has him wrapped around her little finger. But Hop Sing helps her too sometimes, and I don't know if he perhaps helped her with the homework. I'll ask him when I get home. If he did I'll write you a letter and send it with Sara, if he didn't I would be glad if you would work out a new schedule for her to extend her abilities."
"Thank you. I just wanted to discuss it with you and not make some rash decisions." She explained.
"It's alright. I'm grateful for this talk." He stood up.
"Have a nice evening then Mister Cartwright."
"You too. Good-bye Mister Evans." He put his hat back up and left the building filled with pride. It seemed as if little Sara was indeed a quick learner. At this rate she would end up one of the smartest students in the school.
Well I hope you enjoyed it. I know it wasn't particulary thrilling, but it belongs to the story. It's one of it's turning points as you probably noticed. So what will happen next?
Would be really glad to read some reviews, so why don't you press the button down there and drop me a line :)
