Winter's Refuge
Chapter Two Hundred Three
HEYES
When we finally announced what was going on, just the word "Smallpox!" caused a panic. By the time we told the people from Mason's Crescent and Three Birds, we made sure that all those from Mallard Springs had left. Dr. Crehan went with them. Dr. Arden was going to go at first.
"Dr. Arden, you stay here and treat the people who know you and are used to you. And your wife and son are here. I'll go to Mallard Springs; just let me get my bag. Deputy Preston can come with me. He's vaccinated," Crehan told him. "Maday, would you come over here please! Do you have any more of the smallpox vaccine?"
"It's hard to get. I have it backordered in three places. I have twelve to fifteen left," he whispered. Looking around, he added, "How do you want me to handle it?"
"I'm not sure but I don't know if it helps once cases are detectable," Aiden said, and I could tell he was trying to remember what he read in his medical journals. "But there may be some folks there who haven't been exposed yet."
Dr. Crehan nodded. "I'll take half the doses. You keep the rest, Dr. Arden. Maday, if you get more in, send someone over to Mallard Springs with them."
"I'll do that," Maday said, as he hurried away to get the vaccines he did have.
"Pa, I want to go with Dr. Crehan and help him," Michael announced.
"No!" the Kid answered firmly.
"And Martha wants to help Dr. Aiden," he added.
I looked at my oldest niece and nephew and thought how brave and caring they were turning out. They had the perfect role model in their pa.
"I said no," the Kid repeated.
Thank goodness, Aiden stepped in. "Michael and Martha, it's good of you to volunteer, but you're needed elsewhere."
"But…" started Michael.
Aiden spoke firmly. "Your mother has been vaccinated, but there are no articles on how exposure might affect an unborn baby. Martha, I would like you to stay here in Three Birds. Your mother and you will move into our home. And I'll tell you two a secret that won't be a secret for long. Miss Denise is with child, too. We can assume that the office and house are uncontaminated. Smallpox can live on clothes, blankets, and such. There's a washtub in the shed behind the office with a lot of clean towels. I need you to bathe and help your ma, Miss Denise, Joyce and Ajay to wash before anyone goes inside. Wrap up in towels and leave your clothes in the shed. I will see that they are washed… no burned. That will be safer. Smallpox is insidious, tricky. Once you're inside, stay there, and don't let anyone in without my say so. And thank goodness all of you are vaccinated." He spoke fast and his words were orders.
"Yes, Doctor," Martha answered and went off to find her charges
"I need your pa and Uncle Heyes to help me here. Michael, I want you to do the same at Phoenix. Not a blanket, piece of clothing, cloth doll, or anything that was here goes into the house. Those should all be burned. I know that is extreme. Then everyone should be safe from smallpox there. No strangers or visitors, though. Understand?" Aiden instructed. "Juan wasn't vaccinated. But he also wasn't here to be exposed. See that you remind him he should stay away from anything that came to Three Birds today."
"Yes, Doctor," Michael said seriously.
Before she left, me and Angie hugged for a moment.
"That's not exactly how I pictured a church social," Angie told me. "I feel guilty, I suggested it."
"Not your fault, not at all. Until Dr. Aiden found the smallpox, were you having a good time?" I asked.
"It was far better than I hoped. Thank you," she answered. When she turned to leave, I kissed the top of her head gently.
"Good, then we'll do it again sometime."
JED 'KID' CURRY
When Michael and Martha and their charges had left, Aiden returned with Frank. "Looks like the jail is going to be our home for the next few days. Thanks for staying behind and helping me," Aiden told me and Heyes.
We stayed behind to help Aiden and Frank talk to our neighbors in Three Birds. Aiden wanted everyone to stay in town durin' the waitin' period, but there were farms and ranches that needed to be worked. Those who left, Aiden urged to burn their clothes and buggy blankets they used and take baths before they entered their homes. If they refused to burn them, at least wash and soak them thoroughly.
"I'm not worried about those that are vaccinated. I'd like to isolate all those who are not for nineteen days," Aiden told me. "I warned everyone to stay on their farms or ranches. I need to make rounds, starting in two weeks, to see if anyone is displaying symptoms. I'll need your help with that."
"What about the vaccines you have left?" Heyes asked, starin' at the door to the sheriff's office. I knew he didn't want to sleep on the cots in the jail, even with the cells unlocked. Neither did I.
"I gave one to Widow Kirk. She's older and smallpox would be especially hard on her. I told her she was quarantined at home," Aiden told us.
Palmer Robinson overheard and was indignant. "I will not be quarantined!" he stated firmly. The bank will open tomorrow at nine." He looked around and saw his bank clerk, George Pages. "And Pages, I expect you to be on time." Robinson turned a deaf ear to Aiden's protest and walked away.
Our undertaker, Leo White, watched Robinson and spoke up, "I don't believe there's any danger. I will be open tomorrow, too. All this is Indian mumble jumble from Maday's wife." And he headed to his apartment behind the funeral parlor.
Aiden shook his head. "Come with me. I have a plan." The three of us washed in the horse trough behind the office and dried with some towels that Aiden grabbed from the outhouse. With a towel tied around our waists we ran into the back door of the sheriff office and dressed in the only clothes we could find, Frank and Deputy Preston's extra uniforms. They were tight on the Kid and loose on me, but Preston's fit Aiden just fine. Still, I shivered dressin' as a sheriff and Heyes looked like he was about to tear it off. But it was all we had for now.
I took a deep breath to calm myself.
"Frank went home. He's going to ride to the capital and see if his brother can help get us more vaccines.". Aiden stacked everythin' from Frank's desk and set it on a chair then added, "We've got work to do."
HEYES
The work Aiden had for us was to make posters that said,
DANGER QUARANTINED!
DO NOT ENTER!
Me and the Kid nailed them up on all of the inhabited buildings, including the bank and funeral parlor. When we finished, we pulled the cots out of the cells into the sheriff's office. There was no way I was going to sleep in a cell, and I think the Kid feels the same way. Aiden fell asleep quickly, but I tossed all night, and the Kid did the same.
At sunrise, the Kid went out in the open lot behind us and practiced his shooting. It calms him. But it reminds me that there is another gunman searching for him. When he finished, we left an exhausted Aiden to sleep and sat on the bench in front of the sheriff's office with our coffee. There was no movement in the town until just before nine when George Pages, the bank clerk, walked down the street and climbed the steps to the bank. He stopped and read the poster. He looked at his watch and waited. At precisely nine o'clock, Palmer Robinson unlocked the bank door from the inside. Since his divorce, the whole town knows that he often sleeps in his office. That big house of his must seem empty.
"George, why are you just standing there? Come in and get to work!" he ordered.
Uncertain, Pages pointed to the poster. Robinson read it then tore it off the door. "Poppycock!" he said. "Get in here and start working."
With hesitant steps, the clerk entered the bank. Robinson propped the doors wide open and went inside. Seeing us across the street, he waved defiantly with the torn poster in his hand. Smiling, we waved back.
"What does Aiden have on our list to do today?" the Kid asked me.
"He wants us to ride out and put posters on the ranches and farms around here. No one should be showing signs until at least seven days but see how they are. Oh, and check if Arnie got any telegrams. He comes into contact with so many people in his job," I answered.
"Is Arnie vaccinated?" the Kid asked.
"Yes. he and his wife and mother in law were among the first," I answered.
"Riding out to the ranches can wait. I want to see what happens when no one goes to the bank today. Robinson may have torn up the quarantine notice, but everyone has seen them," the Kid said leaning back on the bench to watch.
ASJ*ASJ
Turned out the bank did have a few patrons, including Leo White, who all loudly discussed the smallpox hoax Maday and his Indian wife were pulling on Three Birds. They laughed loudly so we could hear them across the street. Maday came down to the sheriff's office at about ten with a parcel.
"Saw you gentlemen in sheriff's outfits and you looked a mite uncomfortable. These are new uncontaminated clothes from the mercantile. Gabe is vaccinated and was happy to help me when I told him what you needed," Maday told us as he walked toward us. "Dr. Arden inside?"
"Snorin' when we left him," the Kid answered, grinning. "Think it's time we woke him."
Aiden went straight for the coffee and grabbed pencil and paper. "Thought of a lot of things to do while I was sleeping," he explained.
"Gentlemen, I have a favor to ask," Maday said.
"What is it?" Aiden asked.
"I'm going to Bridgeport to pick up two dozen smallpox vaccines. I was hoping my wife could stay with Mrs. Arden and Mrs. Curry while I'm away. She's willing to do their cooking and cleaning in return." Maday looked us straight in the eyes, daring us to object. Then I remembered that Mrs. Maday has been very private since she came here. I've never met her. She wasn't at the social. I think if she gave us a chance she would be welcomed.
The Kid answered for us all. "Mrs. Maday is welcome to stay with our ladies. No need for her to take on the chores."
"Thank you. Her Indian name is Yellow Flower, but I call her Daisy," Maday told us. "I'll bring her over in the morning before I leave."
JED 'KID' CURRY
That first week after the social was quiet and tense. Everybody wonderin' if they were gonna be the ones to get sick. Me and Heyes and Chris Birde became Aiden's eyes as we carefully visited all the homes, farms, and ranches around Three Birds. We were all vaccinated, still we kept our distance. Chris took orders and made deliveries from the mercantile. I stayed behind and helped fix the Trayce family fence. And most of all we looked for the early symptoms of smallpox.
When it had been ten days, Aiden and Maday traveled to Mason's Crescent with the new vaccine from Bridgeport. Daisy was still staying with the ladies and Martha, and he shared that she was also pregnant.
Just before me and Heyes set out on our rounds that day, Chris caught us. "Aiden left already?" he asked.
"Yes, he should be back tonight or tomorrow morning," Heyes answered. "Problem?"
Chris Birde looked at the bank across the street. "Not sure. It's been hard to keep Robinson and Pages quarantined. Today, they were down in the empty salon playing cards with Leo White and Al Roland. Al came in for supplies, but Gabe wouldn't let him in the mercantile. Anyway, it seemed to me that Robinson looked like he was coming down with something. Wanted Aiden to check him out," Chris told us.
"You ask him how he felt?" Heyes asked.
"From the door. If he's sick, I don't want none of them germs on me."
"What did he say?" I asked.
"To go away and mind my own business. Reminded him of the quarantine and he just laughed," Chris finished.
"If we see Aiden first, we'll let him know," Heyes answered.
