Jason checked off the last meeting in his notebook. He'd been more than busy, with the shopping and meeting up with current and former clients looking for sales to make. He'd even found a little bit of everything on Josh's suggestion list. Samples, pamphlets, things of that source.
It all cost too damn much, and he wished, not for the first time, that he'd brought Josh along. His brother just had a better feel for the value/cost ratio of things. Of course they had discussed likely prices and what might be considered unreasonable, but once Josh had been told he wasn't going, he'd been much less excited and helpful.
Couldn't really blame the boy for that. If it hadn't been San Francisco, with its army base, he'd have let Josh handle it. Probably would have. Except for the talking parts, he'd rather face the trees. He knew he could outtalk those, and they were good listeners, too.
He wondered what advice the trees would have for a man who broke his brother's heart to save his life.
Yes, when he got home, he'd have fences to mend there. He had been wrong, and made it worse by acting like he wasn't. He hoped he wouldn't have to grovel too much to Josh to make up. (It might give Jeremy the wrong idea..)
Jason laughed out loud, because thinking about his brothers had him seeing them. That young man who'd come out of the haberdashery looked just like Josh, especially when he'd looked both ways up the street, then dashed around the corner.
It was definitely time to be heading home, and Jason headed for the docks. Hopefully, there would be a timber barge or something heading his way for another load. Might take a little longer, depending on the seas, but it was a better way to travel than being rattled to pieces overland.
/
Joshua didn't believe that had just happened. Well, almost happened. Had he really walked out of the men's shop while Jason was standing on a street corner doing something with his notebook? What were the odds on that, in a city this big with this many people all doing all sorts of businesses?
Thank god he had looked before heading that way! Jason had been looking right at him! Now, if only Jason wasn't eating at the same restaurant where he was meeting Jim Budd. Jim was a veteran at the Presidio, and willing to answer Josh's questions, as long as it was off base. Or what if he came in while Josh was there? Should Josh get a fancy haircut? Or would that reveal more of his face to his unsuspecting brother?
He paused to wonder how much of his lucky escape was due to he expected he could see Jason, and Jason had no idea he might see Josh? Probably too darned much of it.
Overall, though, he was glad to have seen him, even if it had only been a quick look. He looked like the business was going well, and he looked relaxed, for the most part.
That would make his homecoming a bit less – worrisome. Especially if he decided to enlist after talking to Jim. Everything was hanging on that.
Meanwhile, the more he'd watched the army's maneuvers and listened to the talk around town, he was less inclined to think he would do that. His brothers were right that he hated taking orders, and while he liked an orderly life – their lives had been chaos for so long after Mama died – he didn't like an enforced, uniform life.
Also, the talk at both the docks and the railyards echoed what Jason –was it Jason?- had said, about demand for railroad ties and shipbuilding. From what he had picked up, the suppliers (ie, forests) back east were inadequate to produce the ties in the great amounts needed at one time.
And the war was running on and being run by trains. They needed timber as badly, if not worse than they needed men.
It was starting to look more like he COULD do his part without surrendering himself, although he would have made the sacrifice if it was all that he could do. Because at least one of them should work For The Cause.
This way they all could, the way they always had.
It all depended on what Jim told him.
/
Jeremy wondered what Josh and Jason were doing. Josh must have gone ahead to that army place. And Jason was probably walking up and down all the streets, so he hoped Josh was being careful.
He was doing alright by himself. He took a walk every day, even when it was raining, and he could get wet, but he made sure he didn't get cold. He always got sick if he got too cold, and he didn't want to be sick. Jason and Josh were hardly ever sick, even when they got so wet that their hair turned into icicles when it was cold.
It wasn't fair.
Josh told him sometimes it was because he hadn't been fully cooked, which had made Jason laugh and made Jeremy feel like they were making fun of him, and that was okay because they weren't mean, but it also made him feel stupid, about his own self, so he just shrugged and went about his business, not asking any questions.
But it still wasn't fair that he got sick when he got chilled, and they didn't.
They had both been gone an awful long time. It was beginning to look like it was going to be a race to see who got home first, and thinking about that worried him.
What if Jason got really, Really, REALLY mad? Especially at Josh? What if Josh told him they'd planned it together? (Josh wouldn't do that on purpose, but when they all started yelling at each other who knew what might get said?)
It was getting hard to stay asleep at night. He'd wake up thinking he heard someone coming in and he'd sit up and wait and wait but no one came.
He'd go back to sleep, then do it again, all night long.
And the nights were long in January. They started early and stayed late.
Jeremy poured himself another cup of coffee and took the calendar off the wall. He'd been marking the days off. Tonight, he counted them, and sighed.
Come home, Josh.
Come home first.
He shivered as the wind kicked up a blew a flurry of something against the cabin.