Hannibal Heyes happened to be the one driving the wagon when the small party arrived at the wrought-iron gates proclaiming "Maryville College" in a scrolling, curlicued script. He turned the team of horses into the long lane, which stretched through a colonnade of elm trees surrounded by an expanse of rolling green lawn. Trudie rode Heyes's horse, Randi and the Kid each on their own mounts. Kid Curry hung back, keeping pace with the wagon, as the two girls raced ahead, excited to have finally reached their destination.
"Ya know, Heyes," Curry commented, "I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I'm kinda sorry the trip is all over."
"Yeah," mused Heyes, "I'm going to miss those two."
When they reached the Administration Building, they spotted Mariah's and Heyes's horses tied to a hitching post out front. After a few minutes, the girls burst out the door of the three-story brick building and bounded down the wide steps, in very un-ladylike fashion, which made the boys chuckle to each other.
They each held a sheaf of papers in their hands. "We're enrolled," the younger girl cried. "We're college girls now."
Randi handed one of the papers to Heyes, which featured a map of the campus. "Here's our dormitory," she said, pointing to the location on the map. "But let's stop at the stables and get Mariah settled first.
"Yes, Ma'am," Heyese said, grinning.
After they'd unloaded all the trunks and valises and carried them up two flights of stairs to the small room the girls would share, the boys began to wish their erstwhile charges farewell. But before they could say much of anything, a small, grey-haired matron bustled into the room. "Gentlemen,' she pronounced icily. "There are no men allowed in the women's dormitory. You must leave at once."
"We just lugged all their things up the steps," protested the Kid, but she would hear none of it, and swiftly and efficiently shooed them out the door and down the stairs, limiting the good byes to an abbreviated exchange of well wishes, heartfelt thanks from Trudie and Randi, and last-minute instructions to behave themselves from Heyes and Curry.
When they stood outside once more, Heyes turned to his partner. "Well, that's s thousand dollars earned the hard way. What do you say we go find a livery and sell these horses and the wagon and all our gear and take a nice, fast train back to Cheyenne to collect the rest of our pay?"
"Best idea I've heard all day, Heyes. But in between the livery and the train, how about a drink?"
"Now that's the best idea I've heard all day," grinned Heyes, slapping Curry on the back.
The better part of an hour later, after a ride into the city proper and a fair amount of haggling with the proprietor of a nearby livery, the partners sat in a smoke-filled workingman's bar along the riverbank in the section of St. Louis known as LaClede's Landing. Each held a mug of beer, a local brew according to the friendly bartender, with the nearly unpronounceable name of Budweiser. As they sipped the light but refreshing lagers, they continued the argument they'd begun the day they'd rescued Trudie and Miranda from a life of crime - or worse.
Kid asked earnestly, "Now, I'm not sayin' it was a smart idea or that I regret stoppin' 'em, but I keep thinkin' -
"There you go again Kid," teased Heyes, interrupting his partner, "violating our agreement."
Curry ignored him and plowed on, " - I keep thinkin', what right do we have to tell them what to do? How to live their lives? Didn't we run off and become outlaws right about the same age they are right now?
"And look how that turned out," pointed out Heyes, brown eyes twinkling.
"Come on, Heyes, it wasn't all bad. In fact it was pretty damn great for a long time. We made a name for ourselves."
"Yeah, but you're forgetting: we're men. They're ladies."
"So we're allowed to be outlaws if we want and they can't? Don't that make us just as bad as those hypocritical so-called Christians?"
"Kid, we're not telling them how to live their lives; we're just keeping them safe. They may look like grown women, but they're really still just kids, after all. And we promised their Pas we'd deliver 'em safely to that college. And for that we collect a thousand dollars. And we make the governor a happy man. And that takes us one step closer to our amnesty. And who knows? Maybe they'll like it. Maybe they'll learn something there. Trudie loves books, so she'll probably like it. And Randi loves Trudie, so she'll like being there with her. And what they choose to do after that is entirely up to them. And they just better not run off and try to become lady outlaws again. The governor wouldn't like that one bit. He'd think we influenced them."
"Maybe they'll go back to the Lazy S Ranch and run it together." speculated Curry.
"Yeah, I could see that. I think that's where they'd be happiest. And everyone deserves to be happy, right Kid?"
"Here's to being happy, Heyes."
They clunked their beer mugs together in a toast.
Three beers (each) later, the partners exited the saloon. As they strolled along the muddy road, heading toward the train station for the return trip, they stopped to admire the view of the wide, grey-brown river. Dotted with barges and steamboats plying the waters in both directions and with the opposite shore almost a full mile away, it was an impressive site.
"There she is, the Mighty Mississippi. The Big Muddy. Father of Waters and all that," pronounced Heyes dramatically. "Mark Twain claims this river has a new story to tell every single day. Ya know, I've never been across it – never even seen it before now. Damn. It really is as big and wide as they say."
"Yep," agreed Curry. "I was just a little kid when Pa took us to Philadelphia to visit my grandma, but I'll never forget the first time I saw it. We rode a riverboat across. But now there's a bridge all the way over to Illinois." He pointed at the steel trussed structure spanning the wide river. "Ya know, Heyes, long as we're here, we could cross that bridge. Just so's you could say you've been over to the other side."
"Naw, Kid. No need. I reckon I belong in the West."
"Me too, Heyes. Me too."
The partners turned on their heels and strode away from the river, heading westward, heading towards home.
~ END ~
Author's Notes: This story started out to be one of my standard "Kid meets Girl. Girl falls for Kid. Kid breaks girl's heart" stories. (I think that's what most of them are at least!) However, when Trudie and Randie showed up, they had a different story in mind and they insisted I tell it. I really think Kid and Heyes would have accepted them the way they do in this tale. I worried about the gals getting rescued by our heroes, because I wanted to show them as capable and independent in their own right. However, I told myself they are only 17 and 19 and haven't seen much of the world yet, so it is okay they needed a little bit of rescuing. They are certainly not helpless! AND it's painfully true that despite their independent thinking, they would have been quite vulnerable to the kind of brutes that prey on women of all walks of life. We have come such a long, long way since the 19th Century, when couples such as Trudie and Randie would have had to deny their true selves or be forced to live a double life, hiding their love. I sincerely hope that things only move forward in terms of civil rights and public acceptance for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, including some very good friends and relatives whose (finally legal!) weddings I have been privileged to attend.
And now, for a little history lesson:
The beer: Compiled from the Budweiser website, the The Society for Historical Archeology, and Wikipedia:
"It is my aim to win the American people over … to make them all lovers of beer." - Adolphus Busch (1905)
[Budweiser's] founder, Adolphus Busch, journeyed to America from Germany in 1857, determined to make his dreams come true. Adolphus wasted no time once he landed in St. Louis, and started work at a brewing supply company. Among his clients was Eberhard Anheuser (the name might sound familiar), who owned what was then known as E. Anheuser & Company. Adolphus married Eberhard's daughter, Lilly, in 1861.
After fighting for the Union during the Civil War, Adolphus joined his father-in-law's business, bringing big, ambitious ideas with him. Adolphus's entrepreneurial spirit and sales prowess contributed enormously to the brewery's growth. By 1875, Adolphus was named secretary-treasurer. [He would become President after his Anheuser's death.]
Before Budweiser was introduced, many Americans were drinking heavy, dark ales. But St. Louis summers were hot – perfect for a palatable, crisp lager. So Adolphus jumped on the opportunity to create and brew a beer that would be perfect for those hot summers. And he always knew a great beer when he tasted one. Apparently, although his company (only later to be renamed Anheuser-Busch) manufactured and bottled Budweiser, he didn't actually create the famous brew himself. That is attributed to his friend, Carl Conrad.
Budweiser, an American-style pale lager, was introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. It has grown to become one of the highest selling beers in the United States and is available in over 80 markets Conrad, a friend of Adolphus Busch, toured Europe in the mid-1870s, returning by 1876. The story goes that Conrad dined at a small monastery in Bohemia "where he was served a brew he declared to be 'the best he ever tasted.'"
Upon his return, Conrad began setting up Carl Conrad & Co. to market Budweiser Beer (named for the town of Budweis in Bavaria), although Conrad neither brewed beer nor manufactured bottles. Adolphus Busch actually made and bottled the beer.
Budweiser's smoothness and drinkability was a success. Thanks to Adolphus's expansive shipping network (and his innovative pasteurizing techniques), Budweiser quickly became wildly popular not just in St. Louis, but across America.
The Bridge - from Wikipedia: Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway steel bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting St. Louis, Missouri and East St, Louis, Illinois. Opened in 1874, it was one of the earliest long bridges built across the Mississippi, the world' first all steel construction, and built high enough so steamboats could travel under. As such, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.
ASJ miscellania
I am pretty sure Heyes met Wyatt Earp during Season 3, but I don't like to watch those episodes. I don't think they ever met Wild Bill Hickock in the series, but they certainly could have, since they seemed to roam all over the west and so did Hickock. Before his death in in 1876, he lived in Kansas, Nebraska, and both Wyoming and Dakota Territories, and also traveled around with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. So they could easily have met him before they started going for the amnesty. (And of course, the Kid would easily have beat him to the draw, no matter how good he was, because he's Kid Curry!)
Randie could very well have read about Calamity Jane, seeing as "Calamity Jane became more famous for being a dime novel heroine than for her own shabby deeds, beginning in 1877 when a character with that generic name appeared in the very first Deadwood Dick series entry," according to the book, Bad Boys of the Black Hills and Some Wild Women Too by Barbara Fifer.
We all have heard Heyes say he's "never been east of the Mississippi," but know that the Kid has been all the way to dusty Philadelphia. I don't know that Heyes has ever seen the Mississippi or not. I believed he and the Kid robbed a bank in St. Louis once, but I am operating on the assumption that he was way too busy planning and robbing and getting away to take in the sights!
One last thing about the Mississippi River: I have walked across it! (At its source, at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, where it is less than knee-deep and only about 20 feet across or so.)
