A Brush With The Past
Kid and me had just ridden into the little windswept town of Willis Texas and were still heading down the street eyeing all the buildings, the Sheriff's Office, the saloon, the hotel, when I happened to notice a woman walking toward the Mercantile. She looked to be about our age, heather blonde hair peeking out from under her bonnet, plainly dressed, carried herself with a bit of confidence in her gait. She reminded me of someone, but I couldn't think who that would be.
But then I glanced over at Kid, expecting to see that concurring admiration kind of smile he always flashes at potential female conquests. But that weren't the look on his face. He looked more like he'd just been belly kicked, kind of a shocked and pained expression, and that's when it hit me.
This woman was the spitting image of Kid's own ma, the way he and I both remembered her, not the way she'd likely look today if she was living. Kid shot me a quick glance and I gave him a confirming nod. When the woman walked in to the Mercantile, Kid pulled hard on his reins and headed to the hitching post outside the store. I followed, but not too close.
Kid got off his horse and wrapped the reins around the post. Then he reached into his vest pocket. I thought he was reaching for some change to go into the store to buy some peppermints or something as an excuse to bump in to her, but what he pulled out was his pocket watch, the one he had found in the rubble after the massacre that had belonged to his Pa and had a picture of his Ma inside the cover.
He popped the watch open and looked at it, then he looked and me briefly before turning and walking into the store. I waited outside, knowing this was about to become a brooding kind of day.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," Kid said, wasting no time with introduction. "I wondered if I might ask your name?"
The woman was startled by the stranger's boldness and her eyes darted to the counter to be sure the owner was nearby. She took a timid step back and was a bit unnerved when Kid took a step forward, maintaining a close proximity.
"I've never seen you before," she said loud enough for the owner to hear.
"No Ma'am, you haven't," Kid replied. "It's just that..." Kid thrust the pocket watch toward her to show her the picture.
She gave the picture a dismissive glance, then looked up at Kid and saw the look of despair in his eyes. Her own eyes fell back to the picture and, without thinking, she took the watch from Kid's open palm and studied the image.
"Who is she?" the woman asked.
"Her name's Rebekah Curry, or at least it was."
"Was she your wife or …."
"No Ma'am. Someone I use to know. When I saw you walking down the street... Well, it gave me a bit of a start."
"Is Curry her maiden name?"
"No, Ma'am. It was Camden."
The woman was suddenly very conscious of their surroundings and was now concerned the owner might be overhearing their conversation.
"Where did she live as a child?"
"Indiana."
"I had an Grandmother, Winnie Camden," she said in a low whisper. " From Indiana. Are you...Jed?" she asked as she handed the pocket watch back to Kid.
"Shhh," Kid cautioned her and gave the owner a nervous glance. "My name's Jones, Ma'am. Thaddeus Jones."
"I don't understand?"
Kid smiled. "Most people don't, Ma'am."
"But you and I are... second cousins?"
Kid smiled. "And I don't even know your name."
"Elaine Crowder."
Thaddeus, you find what you needed?" I asked my partner who seemed a bit surprised to see I had grown tired of waiting for him.
"Joshua Smith, this is Elaine Crowder. Her Grandmother and Rebekah Curry were sisters."
I smiled at her graciously as a half a dozen possible consequences of this meeting, all of them bad mind you, raced through my mind. "A pleasure to meet you, Ma'am."
"Joshua's Ma and my Pa were brother and sister, so I guess he's somehow related too," Kid explained.
"So, Curry was your mother's maiden name?" Elaine asked.
I gave Kid a nervous glance before I answered the lady. "Ah, yes Ma'am."
"But you go by the name of Smith?"
"Perhaps we could find a less public place to go over the family tree," I suggested, hoping for a miracle that this town closed its doors at five sharp every night.
"Could Joshua and I buy you diner, Elaine?" Kid asked.
Although Elaine was intrigued by these two men, they were also total strangers to her and was not about to invite them to her home.
"The hotel has a nice dining room and some tables there are discrete for conversation," Elaine suggested.
Kid was quite pleased with the idea but I just kept hearing warning bells going off in my head. But I was outnumbered, so we adjourned to the hotel dining room.
Elaine asked for a table in the back and she was right, it did provide a bit of a distance from the other diners which enabled us to talk quietly without being overheard.
"I've read about Heyes and Curry and I've always wondered if there was a family connection," Elaine said as we waited for our dinners to arrive.
Neither Kid nor me really addressed that comment. Relative or not, she was a stranger to us and we knew better than to let our guard down to a stranger.
"Where did you grow up?" Kid asked.
"Indiana Territory. My father had a limestone company there."
"So, your name being Crowder, you must be married?" I asked.
"I was, Mr. Smith. But I'm a widow now."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ma'am," I replied.
"I remember hearing about the tragedy in Kansas. The two of you must have been very young."
"Yes, Ma'am, we were," I replied and noticed Kid had quieted down some, so I caught his eye and signaled him join in to the conversation."
"So, are there any other relatives still living?' Kid asked.
"My brother, William. He's in Pennsylvania. So far as I know, that's all."
"So you're down here in Texas all alone?" I asked.
"I wouldn't say all alone. I've lived here for ten years. I'm the school teacher here. I'm a member of the Catholic Church here. I have a lot of very close friends. This is home to me now."
The three of us grew quiet when the food arrived, but the conversation picked up after the waiter left.
"As I've said, I've always been curious about the two of you. Your real name is Curry and yours is...Heyes?"
"Well Ma'am, thinking of us as Smith and Jones is just fine," I said as diplomatically as I could.
Elaine smiled. "You've got to remember, you're in Texas now. Texas is a very free thinking state. Unless you infringe on one of the Texas laws, no one's much concerned about who you are or what you've done."
"Except a little group known as Texas Rangers," I reminded her.
Elaine laughed. "I suppose, but Texas is a big state. They have a lot of ground to cover. You're not likely to meet up with any Texas Rangers."
Having finished his meal, Kid pulled out his pocket watch and studied the picture of his mother once again.
"I just can't get over how much you look like her, how much you act like her too."
Elaine leaned across the table to look at the picture again. "I don't do justice to her. She was very lovely. I do see some physical resemblance, though."
"Enough to make me stop a stranger in the street," Kid replied.
The waiter approached the table. "Will there be anything else?" he asked.
Kid and me shook our heads and looked at Elaine to see if she wanted dessert.
"I'm afraid I have to be going," she said. "It's late and I have papers to grade. Are you going to be in town long?"
"I suspect we'll be leaving in the morning," I told her.
"Well, I'm glad you stopped and introduced yourselves. It's been a pleasure meeting both of you," she said as she stood to go.
Kid and me stood too.
"Would you like me to walk you home?" Kid asked.
Elaine shook her head. "It's not far. I'll be fine," she said and walked out of the restaurant.
Kid and me sat down with our coffee but when that was gone, it occurred to us that we had yet to get a hotel room. So that's where we headed next.
"Top of the stairs, third room on the right," the clerk told us. I headed upstairs with the key and Kid went out to the horses to get our saddlebags. A couple of minutes later Kid walked in and set the saddlebags on the beds. In his hand was a neatly folded note.
"The clerk handed it to me when I came back inside. He said the school teacher dropped it off a half hour ago."
What's it say?"
Kid sat down near the foot of the bed, took off his gloves, and unfolded the paper and read the note to himself first. Kid reads a little slowly and I was getting impatient.
"Well?" I finally asked.
"Says she's had second thoughts and she wants us to stop by her house sometime before nine tonight."
"What's she got second thoughts about?"
Kid shrugged. "You don't think she's decided to collect the reward, do you?"
I gave that some thought before deciding against it. "She would have just told the Sheriff we'd be checking in to the hotel and he could find us here."
"Should we go to her house and find out?" Kid asked.
Something was gnawing at me, telling me that wasn't the best of ideas, but logic was trying to over shout that little voice in my head. After all, you don't just turn your back on family, even if it is family you just discovered.
I gave Kid a shrug. "I guess we go."
We both cleaned up a bit since her first impression of us was one of trail dusty cowboys. We used the pitcher and bowl to wash up, and we put on clean pants and shirts, but we didn't bother shaving the shadows off our faces.
"I was afraid you didn't get my note," Elaine sad when she answered the door and ushered us inside. She led us through the parlor to a dining room where she had a decanter of Brandy and three snifter glasses in the center of the table and, and a stack of letters tied together with a pink ribbon. She also had a small box that was closed so I couldn't see the contents.
"Please, sit down," she told us and when we did, she poured us all a brandy. She sat down at the head of the table, with the letters and the box in front of her.
"I got to thinking that being orphaned as young as you were, you were likely displaced into foster homes."
"Foster homes, Ma'am?" Kid asked.
"No, Ma'am. We was sent to an Orphanage."
"I see... Well, I have a few correspondences from Rebekah to my grandmother, she saved everything," Elaine said with a smile. "These letters are in Rebekah's hand writing. I thought you might like to see them," she said, holding the stack of tied letters out to Kid.
Kid looked at me with dismay but I gave him a nod. Now Kid tends to have a gentle side to him, but his hand wrapped around those letters with something akin to reverence and he sat just staring at them for a moment. Then he carefully untied the ribbon and set the stack of letters on the table.
He picked up the first one and gently pulled the letter from the envelope. I could see his hand was almost trembling as he carefully unfolded the paper and began reading. I saw the corners of his mouth widen into a sort of smile a time or two and he bit the right corner of his lower lip once or twice as he read. When he was done, he folded the paper and slipped it back in the envelope and looked at Elaine.
"I told you my grandmother saved everything. These letters begin when Rebekah had just married and she and your Pa drove a wagon to Kansas where homesteaders were being promised free farmland. I believe she was sixteen when she wrote that first letter."
Kid handed the letter across the table for me to read. The letter was full of hope and excitement, with great plans for the future, dreams of prosperity, accolades about how brave and wise her husband was. There was something very sad and melancholy about reading it and knowing what was to come.
Each letter told of some great accomplishment like getting the deed for the land after building a cabin and sod busting the soil for a year, or the birth of each child, Kid's Pa becoming a Deacon in the Church, a bout of cholera that swept through the town, building a new barn that was twice the size of the house.
The last three or four letters were about the war, how Samuel and Caleb had joined the Kansas militia, how they'd see troops of soldiers, mostly on foot traveling down the road past the farm and taking baskets of dried meat and fresh eggs and jars or milk out to the soldiers, no matter what color uniform they happened to be wearing.
I watched Kid as he picked up the last letter and stared at it. I think he wasn't sure if he should open it, knowing it was the last letter she ever wrote to her sister. Slowly he raised his eyes to look at me, but I couldn't give him an answer. It was his decision what to do.
He reached out and drank the last of the brandy in his glass. Then he set the glass down and his hand gently caressed the top of the envelope. I saw Elaine reach over and wrap her fingers across the top of his wrist and he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then he slip the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it.
That last letter was dated July tenth, just one week before the soldiers raided the farm and killed Kid's family. His Ma talked about how worried and skiddish the whole town had become, never knowing when a soldier raid might happen. She talked about how worried she was about the safety of her two children still living at home and that she and her husband had talked about sending the kids to her sister in Indiana for the summer, till things settled own again. She said the soldiers didn't settle for the food offerings anymore and boldly stole chickens and even tried to steal Jed's dog Buster, but gave up when she went after the soldier with a broom. She said Kid's Pa stopped going into the fields cause he couldn't protect his family so far away from the house.
And she talked about how they tried to protect the two children from all their worries and fears and give them as normal a life as they could. She talked about letting Jed go fishing with his cousin Hannibal cause he was three years older than Jed and would know what to do if they saw soldiers approaching. But she said every minute Jed was away from the house she was terrified for his safety. She had already lost her older boys to the war and she was so afraid of losing Jed, too.
But she ended the letter with hopeful thoughts, knowing that one day soon the war would be over, and life would return to something a bit closer to normal. She said she hoped that the next summer they would be able to make a trip to Indiana, so both the families could get to know each other and form some bonds.
Kid sat with the letter in his hands long after he had finished reading it. He sat perfectly still except for one finger brushing back and forth against the page. His eyes were downcast and far away. I looked at Elaine and could see tears in her eyes. I reached out and poured us all another Brandy and I think my movements stirred Kid back to the present.
He carefully folded the letter and slipped it back in to the envelope an handed it across the table to me. Then he picked up his bandy and studied it for a time before taking a drink. When I was done with the letter I handed it back to him and he very gently and carefully bound them all back up with the ribbon. He picked them up and held them in his hands for a few moments before offering them back to Elaine.
"I think you should have them," she told Kid.
Kid's eyes were full of sadness and remorse, but he shook his head. "Keep them safe," he told her. "One day I'll come back for them."
She looked at me and I gave her a reassuring nod.
"There are a few items that were sent to my grandmother," she said, gently opening the box. "I'm not sure who each thing belonged to, but maybe you'll know."
Elaine reached into the box and pulled out a small, charred rag doll. Kid reached out and took it in his hand and brushed back the few strands of yellow yarn hair. "Katie's," he whispered.
Next she pulled out a small book with handwritten recipes. Kid smiled when he saw that. "Ma's special recipe book," he said, taking it in his hand.
Her homemade bread recipe in there?" I asked.
Kid thumbed through the book and nodded. "Yeah, and her peach cobbler."
The last thing she pulled from the box was a hand carved six shooter. Kid held it as if it was a piece of fine china. "Pa carved this for me, for our last Christmas," he said and looked up at me. "Remember?"
"I remember how proud you were to have that. You carried it with you everywhere," I said.
Kid nodded and closed his eyes for a moment to conjure up the image of opening that gift on Christmas morning.
"I'll take this with me if I might?" he asked Elaine.
"I'll hold the other things for you and keep them safe. I promise."
I looked at the clock on the wall and it was nearly eleven. "Kid, I think we'd best be getting back to the hotel. It's getting late."
Kid nodded but had still not taken his eyes off that wooden gun. Finally he stood up and looked at Elaine.
Now I know Kid has a soft heart, but even I have never seen such tenderness in those blue eyes. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms about her shoulders and kissed her hair.
"Thank you," he said as he pulled back. "Thank you."
Elaine walked us to the door. "All these things will be here waiting for you," she assured him.
Kid reached down and took her hand. Then he leaned in and kissed her cheek. He gave her hand a final squeeze and walked out the door.
"You take care of him," she told me as I followed Kid out the door. I turned back to her and smiled. "You can count on that," I told her.
We didn't see Elaine again for another seven years, not till after the amnesty came through and Kid and me had settled in northern Wyoming. Just as she had promised, she had kept those items all safe and secure and Kid was very grateful to her.
As we were leaving with those precious items, Kid stopped and reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch. He held her hand palm side up and slipped the pocket watch into her hand, then folded her fingers about it.
"No, I can't take this," Elaine protested.
"I want you to have it," Kid told her. "After all, it's still in the family, and you are the spitting image of her."
From that point on we made a point of visiting Elaine once every summer, all of us grateful to have a family connection.
As the years passed we didn't get a chance to visit as often, but we still kept in touch by letters and eventually by Mr. Bell's invention of the telephone. Now that's a marvelous invention. It's like being in the same room as the person your talking to.
Elaine passed on about three years ago now and Kid and me are back to being all we got in the way of family. But Kid's still got them letters and those few old relics. In fact that little hand carved toy gun is displayed over the fireplace.
Kid and me still marvel at the sheer happenstance of meeting Elaine that day we rode into Willis, Texas and I know that town will always hold a very special meaning to Kid.