This story was written between 1992 and 1993 with my friend Ellen, who is now a high school English teacher, during Mr. Mitch's Journalism class. Good use of our time, don't you think!
Allison
Kid
reread the letter again as he walked toward the marshal's office. Not
noticing, he walked right into Teaspoon.
"What'cha reading
there that is so all fired important that you don't know where you're
walking?" Teaspoon asked.
"A letter from my cousin. I
have problems, Teaspoon, and I don't have much time to figure it
out." Kid told him.
"Well, Kid, why don't you give me a
try?" Teaspoon told him.
"Okay', Kid began. "She,
my cousin Allison that is, is on her way here right now. She will be
here any time. I don't know what I am going to do with her."
"I'd say you're family just got a little bit bigger. You and
Lou will be getting her brother and sister soon as you can, right?"
Teaspoon asked.
"Yeah. But it may be awhile before we get
them. What are we gonna do with her in the meantime. She doesn't have
any family left, and I don't want to send her back to Virginia with
all the tension going on down there.
Teaspoon regarded Kid
carefully. "Welcome to the world of being in charge of other
people's lives, Kid. Just wait until they're your youngin's."
He laughed. Kid stood there in utter disbelief. Lou walked up beside
him.
"What's the matter Kid?' She asked her future husband.
He handed her the letter. "Well, I guess we better go and see if
she can board with Rachel." She told him. Kid looked at her as
if she had just invented the wheel. A smile broke across his handsome
face. Louise just looked at him quizzically.
"Lou, have I
ever told you how smart you are?" He asked as he took her arm
and practically dragged her to Rachel's house.
"Of
course she can stay here, Kid, what would you have her do, stay in
the bunkhouse with you?" Rachel asked with a smile.
"Thanks
Rachel. This takes a load off of my mind." Kid told her,
relieved.
"How old is your cousin, anyway?" Rachel
asked him.
"She's got to be around sixteen now. She was just
a little girl when I left, all knobby kneed, I don't really know what
to expect of her." Kid explained.
"I have to say that
it sure will be nice to have another female around for Kid to fuss
and worry over. Take some of the pressure off of me." Louise
joked about her fiancée's over protective streak. Kid looked
down at her with a hurt expression on his face.
"Don't
worry, Kid, I'm just joking. I love that you care enough to worry
about me." Louise soothed him. She tiptoed up to kiss him.
Rachel smiled at the two that were due to get married in two weeks.
She always knew that they would make it to the altar. Their adversity
and strife had only served to strengthen and prove their love for
each other.
"So, What's say we get that extra room cleared
out for Miss Allison, okay Kid?" Rachel suggested. Kid was just
staring at Louise. Ahh, young love, Rachel thought. "Kid?"
Rachel repeated, bringing Kid's head out of the clouds.
"What
did you say, Rachel?" Kid asked. Louise blushed.
"I was
just suggesting that you help me get ready for Allison by clearing
out the extra room upstairs." She told him.
"Yeah, I'll
do that." and he bounded up the stairs. Louise and Rachel
laughed.
"Lou, I do believe that he loves you." Rachel
teased the young woman.
"I'm pretty lucky, I guess. I'm just
glad that we found our way back after all that happened." Louise
told her.
"Know what? I think you both found your way back
because of all that happened to you. I just don't think you too could
live without each other.' Rachel smiled. Lou ducked her head and
blushed. "Now, I believe that we have a wedding dress to get
altered before you get married, Not to mention a couple of suits that
need to be finished." Rachel reminded Louise of the chores that
needed to be done before her wedding.
Kid
worked the afternoon away clearing out the spare room and Louise and
Rachel worked just as diligently to finish her dress and Kid's suit
while they had the opportunity to do so. The Pony Express had been
running less mail with every week that went by, and the rides where
scheduled further and further apart. Louise was apprehensive about
taking her final run next week. It meant that apart of her that she
love would be ending. But, in its place, a whole new adventure was
beginning, and she wouldn't be on this one by herself.
Teaspoon
walked in the door. "Kid, I do believe that your visitor is
waiting for you to pick her up." He shouted up the stairs. Kid
ran out of the room and down the stairs.
"Already? I didn't
think she would be here for a couple days at least." Kid said as
he ran out the door. Rachel and Louise looked at Teaspoon with the
same bewildered expression as Kid had on his face as they put down
their work and walk out of the house to follow Kid.
Sure
enough, standing at Stagecoach stop, was a young woman with long hair
the same chestnut shade as Kids. She was slightly shorter than Kid,
with a build that would have the boys bumping into each other at
dinner tonight. She looked around for a familiar face, looking
slightly afraid that she had made a grievous error in coming all the
way out to Nebraska territory with out hearing back from her cousin
first.
"Allison?" Kid asked from a few feet away. She
turned at the sound of her name.
"Kid? Is that you?"
She asked, Hopeful.
"Yep.' He told her, coming close to give
her a hug." I wasn't expecting you for a couple of days yet. I
just got your letter today. Seems that the mail is running as fast as
the stage now days." He half joked.
"I do hope that I
haven't caused you too much of a problem. I just couldn't stay with
the Calder's any longer. They already have so many mouths to feed,
and with the war coming on, I felt that I was a burden on them. I
miss home, but with out having your people around, nothing is really
home. You are the only family I have left." She told him. She
reached for one of her bags and Kid beat her to it. He spied Jesse
standing by Teaspoon and asked him to help him out. Jesse walked up
to the pair, the awe in his face naked to those who saw it.
"UHHO,'
Rachel whispered to Louise, "looks like we have a case of puppy
love starting here." And she pointed Jesse out to Louise, who
covered her laugh with her hand.
"Allison,' Kid began,
walking his cousin to the house, "This is Rachel Dunn, you will
be staying in the house with her. And this,' he set the bag down on
the porch and put an arm around Louise," Is Louise. We are
getting married in two weeks." He said with a grin. Allison
smiled at Louise brightly.
"I am so glad to meet you Louise.
Congratulations." And she hugged the woman.
"Why don't
Louise and I get Allison settled in, Kid, and then we can all sit
down and get reacquainted?" Rachel suggested. Allison nodded her
agreement to the suggestion, and Rachel and Louise showed Allison to
her room upstairs. Allison glanced around the room that would be her
home for who knew how long, relieved to see that she would not be
sharing it with four other people, as had been the case at the
Calder's. They were good people, and she would miss them, but, like
her cousin, the call of the west was louder than her need to be
around all the bloodshed that was soon to come. She wanted to be a
teacher, and when war was around, very little teaching got done. She
put her things in the dresser and hung her dresses in the small
wardrobe that stood against one wall. She took a deep breath and
Walked down the stairs.
Kid
and Louise sat on the settee and Jesse was leaning against the wall,
just watching her walk. Allison looked at the young man, intrigued.
He was around her age, and had a wizened appearance, as if he had
already been through too much for one his age. Allison could relate
to that. She decided that she would like to get to know this young
man.
"You can't be all settled in already, Alli." Kid
asked his cousin.
" I have the important things put away.
For now, I want to hear everything you can tell me about living out
here, not to mention about you getting married. I used to think that
you would end up with Doretha, but she ran off and married that slick
fellow that was always hanging around."
Kid looked down at
the floor, and Louise told her what had happened with Doretha.
"
Uhmm, Doretha was here a while back with her husband, Garth, and
well, they were in some trouble and Garth was shot, and Doretha
killed herself." Louise told Allison.
"Oh, Kid, I am so
sorry. I didn't know. That's just awful. I knew about Jed, but no one
has heard anything about those two in so long. We had just figured
they had made it to California like they had talked about."
Allison finished.
"No harm done. Anyway, That doesn't really
matter, does it?' Kid reassured the girl. "You wanted to hear
about what it's like out here, right? Well, I'm sure Cody will be
more than happy to tell you all." Kid began.
"Okay, but
what about you two?" Alli asked, motioning between Kid and Lou.
Louise laughed.
"You are going to have to be here all day to
hear that story. I have a brother and sister in an orphanage in St.
Joe that I am trying to get out. So, to try and get the money for a
grubstake, I started working for the express, as a boy. Would have
kept my secret longer, too, if it weren't for your cousin here
finding out.' Louise nudged Kid in the arm. They smiled at each other
for a moment, remembering that first moment of realization. "
The boys found out when I had to rescue my brother and sister, and
Teaspoon didn't find out until Rachel came along to save us from
Jimmy's cookin. I guess, though, with me and Kid, I loved him from
the moment that I saw him. Even though he was wearing those god-awful
buckskins." Louise laughed at her future husband's early choice
of clothing.
"Hey, they were comfortable!" Kid tried to
defend himself. The whole group laughed.
"What about you,
Kid? When did you realize that you loved Louise?" She
asked.
"That would be the first time I kissed her. If she
hadn't been so dang mule headed, we would have gotten married the
first time I had asked her." Louise narrowed her eyes at him.
"I guess I deserved that. He had a lot to learn about me,
though. I had some demons to deal with, and so, I told him no, twice.
We stopped seeing each other, and had some tough times. But we were
always there for each other. Then, I knew that anything that I had to
deal with, he would be with me. That's when I knew we would survive
anything. It just took him longer to ask me to marry him. But I sure
am glad that he did. I can't wait to be his wife. Shoot, I'll even
cook every once in a while." She joked.
Outside,
the dinner bell was called, and the group headed to the bunkhouse to
eat. Cody, Buck, and Noah already sat at the table. They all stood up
when they saw the unfamiliar woman enter the room.
"Cody,
Buck, Noah, I would like you to meet my cousin, Allison. She has just
moved here. She's going to be staying with Rachel." Kid told the
bunch. The boys showed Allison their best manners, and as promise,
Cody told Allison the bounties of the west, in all of his dramatic
ways.
"Now, I must say, that all of this great land and open
space that we have is just the greatest thing that I have ever
beheld, but more and more people are moving out here and not
respecting what was here before them. Like the Indians. Buck could
tell you first hand the beauty of their ways, and the atrocities that
have fallen them since Lewis and Clark came this way looking for the
ocean. We have done nothing but make promises to them and not keep a
one. It just makes me sick to see what is happening. I don't know
what this war is going to do to this nation, but I do see that not
much good is going to follow." Cody finished. Allison regarded
the blond man quietly.
"I understand that there have been
some conflicts all the way out here. I had always thought that the
war would only be fought in the direct south, like Georgia and
Virginia. Why, I heard about some horrible atrocities on my way out
here. I heard that they have been burning people's farms and taking
livestock all the way out here. I must say, though, that it is so
much nicer here than back in Virginia.
"I think,' Rachel
interrupted, "that we should put aside all of this talk of war
for the moment. I am afraid, that while it is inevitable, we can
probably find a better conversation for the dinner table." She
finished, noting that the mood was growing somber.
"Can't
help it Rachel.' Jesse began. " It is right in our face. I can't
rightly remember a time when my family wasn't talking about it. I
just hope that we can all make it through this before too long."
"I know, Jesse, I know." Rachel told the boy.
