The Road is Closed Ahead

Written for November 2021 Challenge

(Part of Amnesty but First Penance Universe)

Waiting in Porterville for their next amnesty assignment, Hannibal Heyes and Jed Curry were once again reading the long-lost letters from Valparaiso.

"Kid, listen to this one. Name sounds kinda familiar." Without waiting for an answer Heyes read the letter out loud.

"Dear Proprietors of The Valparaiso Home for Wayward Boys,

We are searching for Thomas Timothy Trent. He is my half-brother, we have the same father. He has been missing for two years and we learned recently he was put on an orphan train to Kansas. He would be twelve-years old now. He has a triangle shaped burn on his left shin.

If he is there, we will come get him. Please let us know.

Theodore Triston Trent."

Putting down the letter, Heyes stared across the desk at his partner and realized he had not heard a word of the letter. "You know this Thomas Timothy Trent, Kid."

"Kid!"

"What, Heyes? I'm tryin' to do something here," answered Curry without looking up at him, busy writing on the paper in front of him.

"And I'm trying to get through these letters. Just what are you doing that has you so engrossed?"

Making a face, Curry looked up. "Grossed? Nothing about this is gross."

Heyes grinned. "Not gross. Engrossed – it means thoroughly absorbed in something."

"Guess I was engrossed then. This is important so I guess it's right to be absorbed." Curry picked up his pencil and went back to writing. Stopping every so often he leaned back on his chair until the front legs left the floor. Tapping his pencil on his lips, he'd stare at the ceiling. A warm smile would cross his face and he would snap his chair forward and write again.

"What's more important than these letters?" Heyes was losing his patience. "These people have waited years for answers."

Curry met Heyes eyes and smiled. "Those letters are very important, I know it. This is important to us."

'Us? Just what are you writing, Kid?"

"Makin' a list," Curry answered as if that explained everything.

Heyes decided to take another tack in his questioning. "What makes this list so important? Is it which diners serve your favorite food each day?"

"Hmmm. Hadn't thought of that."

"Kid!"

"All right. Remember when we used to rob trains and banks and then we was tryin' so hard to get amnesty?"

"Kid, the list?"

"Well, when one of us would meet a pretty girl, we'd always say, 'that road ahead is closed.' because we didn't live a life where a wife and family were a choice?"

Heyes was confused but knew Curry was trying to express something, he just didn't know what.

"Well, now we got amnesty and maybe the road ahead opened up. So, I'm making a list with columns for you and me and listin' some of the women we know to see if maybe we want to start something up with one of them."

Smiling with his dimples, Heyes reached for the list. "You just might have something there, Kid. Let me see your list."

"No, it ain't finished yet." Curry covered the list with his hands. "But I'll read what I got and maybe you got some ideas."

Now it was Heyes turn to lean back in his chair. "Okay, who you got."

'Well, there's some I got in the column titled 'Both'.

"Both?"

"Yeah, means we both like them. Wanted to be fair with the list."

"Okay, who's in the 'Both' column?"

"Well, Clem for one."

Heyes nodded but said nothing.

"And Georgette and Grace Turner."

"Grace Turner? Yeah, I admire how well she played a con. She's wanted now. Her road ahead is closed." Heyes leaned forward in his chair now, elbows leaning on the desk. "And what about Mary Cunningham? We both liked her," he added, his thoughts thinking of women they had known.

"Yeah, I'll add her, liked her kids too. And I have Kate Lewis there too."

The memory brought a smile to Heyes' face. "McGuffin's daughter? Wonder if she's a treasury agent by now? She the kind you looking for, Kid? Don't seem too needy to me."

"Don't think I'm lookin' for needy, Heyes. Want someone to stand next to me and build a life with. Maybe I ain't met her yet." Curry was staring at the ceiling again.

"Anyone else in that 'Both' column?" Heyes was lost in his thoughts.

"No, I have some in the no column, though."

"Who's a no?"

"Well, Beth and Bridget Jordan are sweet, but too young. Annabelle is probably married by now. Betsy was mostly interested in diamonds and money. Molly is becomin' a nun. I ain't competin' with God for a woman." Curry was looking at his list. "Wasn't sure where to put Cybele Snively? No sparks for me with her. You interested in her?"

"No, no sparks there. Nice girl, but her father and his potions just barely stay on the right side of the law. Now that we got our amnesty, I'd like to stay a free man." Letters forgotten, Heyes started making his own list. "And BeeGee is taken."

"Yeah, I think she found what she wanted."

"Okay, Kid, then who do you have in my column?" Heyes questioned, curious about his cousin's thinking in the matter.

Looking down, Curry glanced at Heyes, a small smile tickling his lip. "Well, I put Julia in your column."

"Ahh, Julia." Heyes let the exciting memory of their last kiss fill his thoughts. "Yes, Julia belongs there."

"And Leslie."

"Leslie? No, not Leslie. Just wouldn't work out," Heyes said, yet the memory of the pleasant kisses they shared to shut her up made him smile and Curry left her name where it was.

"Well, I got her friend, Margaret, on my list. If I ever get back East, I might look her up." Curry remembered how sad he felt when he saw her off at the train station. At that time, he definitely felt that the road to a serious relationship was closed to him.

"And I wasn't sure where to put Ellen and Mary Lewis; you know, the ones that were on that stage that ended up at Diablo Station."

Heyes thought for a moment. "No and no for me with the Lewis sisters."

"Me, too," Curry agreed. "But I got Michelle, Emma Sterling, and Charlotte Austin on my list."

"What about Ellen Anderson? Didn't you enjoy your moonlight ride with her?" asked Heyes.

"Yeah, it was pleasant, and it got her back to her father. Not sure I'd want to court someone whose father is friends with the governor; rather stay away from that if I can." Kid's eyes teased as he grinned and pointed his pencil towards his partner. "Got two more for your list, Heyes. Maybe you can see a future with one of them even more than Julia."

"Who's that, Kid?" asked Heyes, thinking he knew who the Kid was talking about, but still wanting to hear names.

"That schoolteacher, Amy Martin."

Memories of poetry and pleasant evenings together forced their way into Heyes thoughts. "Yeah, it was hard to watch Amy leave. I wonder how she is doing?" His gaze came back to Curry. "Who else?"

"The widow Sarah Henderson, she's beautiful and rich." Curry watched Heyes closely.

Slowly, a smile crept across Heyes' face until his chocolate brown eyes smiled. "Beautiful she is but her brother is awful protective," Heyes said.

"But I do like Jim Stokely." Curry smiled as he answered the gunfighter. 'Well, that's as far as I've gotten. Some good women there. There might be even more out there. I'm lookin' forward to meetin' more of them. Amnesty changed the game. The game changed because of freedom." Curry was adamant.

"Something to think about, Kid. Definitely something to think about."

"Oh, and Heyes, Thomas Timothy Trent is ThreeT; remember we first met him at Valparaiso. He was younger than you but older than me and a real bully Told us he got that scar from his aunt's iron."

"ThreeT," Heyes remembered, then his eyes saddened as the memory continued. "Er, don't want to tell his half-brother what happened to him. Think I'll just write a letter that says he was there but we have no information after the Home."

"Yeah, better than tellin' them the truth; he always was troubled and violent," Curry said softly.

Heyes finished the thought, "Stayed violent as an adult. Killed three men in a bar fight and hung for it. That's not the memory we want them to have."