By Keri
Chapter I
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Callie was at the point of screaming as she turned in a circle to find she was surrounded by wilderness without the faintest hint of civilization.
"Damn horse. I swear I'm gonna shoot you if I find you!" She continued under her breath, " Spooked by a snake - you're only ten times the size of the thing...argh..."
Well she could certainly say her trip wasn't boring. On her ride from Blue Creek she had been robbed of her money and clothes, chased by Indians, and now she had been thrown by her horse.
Facing the way she had been riding Callie gently slid a hand across her abdomen and took a deep breath. She had to calm down. Slapping at her thighs she watched clouds of dust rise from her trousers, which she had chosen for riding ease. She reached up to push her thick brown hair back up under her hat and felt something sticky. Blood.
I must have hit my head harder than I thought she mused without concern.
"Well" she informed the wind, "If I'm gonna get to Sweetwater, I guess I'm gonna have to walk."
"So what d'ya say Sam? Join us for dinner?"
Emma and the boys were in town on a routine shopping trip. They were just about finished loading the wagon when Sam appeared.
Emma's eyes seemed to light up when she saw him and a smile instantly replaced the look of reproach she had been giving Cody for fooling around.
Sam was always up for Emma's home cooked meals but more then that he was always up for a night with Emma. Even if it did mean that he'd have to eat dinner with some of the most rambunctious boys in the territory.
There was always the threat that a food fight could break out at any minute.
"Yeah Emma, six okay?" he held her hand and helped her climb up on the buckboard.
Emma smiled and nodded as she grabbed the reins.
As he watched her drive off he couldn't miss the kissy faces Cody and Jimmy were making. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. With any luck, those boys wouldn't be to far off in their prediction for the evening.
"Would you look at that, another tree. Well now that would have to be the twenty sixth...no, no, no, no twenty seventh one I've seen so far."
Having walked alone in silence for an hour Callie decided she needed to start talking to keep herself alert. Her head was bleeding worse now than it had been and she could feel herself getting weaker. The way she figured, she had at least another hour to get to the town and search for her uncle. Hopefully she would make it withouthaving to make a detour to the town's resident physician.
Her blue eyes scanned the horizon, searching for something else she could discuss with the setting sun when they fell upon a house in the distance.
Callie began to laugh.
"How do you like that, Callie. There's a house. That is the first one of those I've seen in a while."
For a second she questioned herself as to the reality of her vision. I'm not hallucinating. I can't be.
Each step she took got heavier and heavier, and even with the homestead coming into full view, Callie was unsure of how much further she could go.
Jimmy and Cody sat on the fence and watched Kid check on Katy's leg. She had bruised it on his last run and he wanted to make sure there would be no permanent damage. Katy was the first to notice Callie's arrival. Still almost fifty yards off Katy started to prance uneasily. Cody leaned back and stretched his arms above his head. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the stranger.
"Hey Jimmy. Look at this" Cody's poke in the ribs got Jimmy's attention.
"Looks hurt."
Jimmy got up slowly and cautiously approached the stranger, being careful to scan the figure for any weapons. There were none.
With ten yards between the two, the stranger collapsed. At this, Jimmy started to run, and Kid and Cody weren't far behind.
Jimmy knelt down beside the figure and was surprised to see the eyes of a woman look up at him. From her attire he had assumed she was a man. And what kind of woman dresses in trousers and walks around without a horse?
"Is this Sweetwater?"
Her words were weak but clear. Despite this fact, they were quite ignored.
Cody rushed up and starting asking Jimmy questions, and Kid ran in the bunkhouse for help.
"Is this Sweetwater?" Callie repeated with more determination.
"No, ma'am. But were right outside it."
Jimmy smoothed her hair out of her eyes, that's when he saw the blood.
"Ma'am?" Cody questioned. "Hickock, you need your eyes checked. This boy.."
"Is a ma'am," Callie interrupted.
Cody looked at the girl with confusion. Sure could've fooled me he thought. Then again Lou had him fooled for quite a while too.
Callie looked up at Jimmy, trying to focus on his face, desperately trying to remain conscious.
"Marshal Sam Cain." she struggled, "I need to..."
Before the injured girl could finish her sentence the whole gang came running out of the bunkhouse spurred on by the urgency in Kid's voice.
Jimmy called for Sam across the yard. As he approached, Callie seemed to be losing her struggle to stay conscious.
Upon finally reaching her, Sam felt the color drain from his face.
"Sam" she breathed as she reached for him, and then the dark enveloped her.
Chapter II
Still not fully awake, voices started drifting into Callie's head. Someone was holding her hand, and she could not fully understand the words being spoken around her - the pain in her head was overpowering all else.
Weakly, she moaned - more to let her hosts know she was awake than anything. At once the voices stopped and the grip tightened on her hand.
"Callie? Callie? Can you hear me?" Sam's voice was full of concern. Concern that had puzzled all the riders and alarmed Emma.
As the boys had carried the girl into the bunk house Sam remained glued to the spot where he first saw her. Emma couldn't ask him questions, she needed to tend to the girl whom Sam had called "Callie". However, as the minutes passed Sam's composure slowly returned and he had peeked his head in the room to check on her.
Emma guessed that she'd be fine in a couple days with some good rest. "She'll have quite a headache though" she predicted, and although Callie wasn't awake to hear the prediction she would not have agreed more with it.
After the boys helped move Callie to Emma's house for the night Sam finally confessed.
"She's my niece Emma. I don't know why I didn't say something earlier - I was so shocked. I haven't seen her for a few years now. The boys said she was looking for me - I don't know what to expect."
"Niece." Emma sighed a silent sigh of relief. As insane as it was to be jealous of a women who was dirty, sweaty, dressed in pants and practically dead, She could not help those feeling of protection that welled up in her chest when she saw the reaction Sam had to the girl.
"Well, you'll have a chance to ask her probably tomorrow. She should be up and able to talk by then."
Emma wrapped a blanket around Sam's shoulders and faced him. "I know you don't want to leave her, so you're welcome to stay. If there is any change, come get me upstairs." She added a kiss to his forehead as she turned to leave the room.
"Hey, Emma. Is that the only reason I can come upstairs?"
Emma knew he was trying to act normally even though he was worried out of his mind.
"For tonight? Yes." Her smile seemed to ignite his and he wished her sweet dreams as he turned back to his vigil. ______________________________________________________________
Just as predicted Callie woke up fully the next afternoon. Her head was still pounding but not nearly as bad as it had been previously. She sat up to find herself alone and wondered how long she'd have to sit and wait for someone to come and check on her. Never having been one for patience Callie slowly stepped out of bed and stood up. For a brief minute the world swam in front of her and she thought she would pass out again, but just as quickly as it had come on the dizzy spell resided and she made her way outside. Two boys were working on a broken fence. Both looked vaguely familiar. An older man approached her from behind and nearly startled her out of her skin. Out of the corner of her eye she had seen him approach and trying to turn her head quickly she earned herself another dizzy spell.
"Damn it" she muttered as she swung her arms out for something to steady herself with. That "something" just happened to be Teaspoon Hunter.
"Ma'am. Emma says you should be in bed for at least a week."
Callie looked at the man as is he were speaking another language. "Marshal Sam Cain, is he still here?"
Cody, seeing the two conversing, decided now was a great time to take a break from the fence. He sauntered over to the two with an air of such self-importance that Teaspoon and Callie actually stopped talking to stare at him.
"William F. Cody, Ma'am."
Callie nodded but as the pain shot through her temples she thought better of that reaction in the future.
"Wonderful" she smiled at Cody and he at once wondered how he could have ever mistaken her for a boy. Her eyes seemed such a deep blue they were almost pools of water and her whole face seemed to be transformed by the smile he was getting treated to. "Maybe you can tell me where Marshal Cain is."
Teaspoon looked at the expression on his riders face and was surprised to see real emotion on it. Cody had always been one of his most flirtatious workers, but this looked like more than flirting. In fact Cody seemed to be frozen, almost as if he was caught in the path of an oncoming train.
"Cody, why don't you take Callie..."
"What? Huh...." Having just heard his name half way through Teaspoon's sentence Cody needed to have the request repeated back to him.
"I said... Take Callie back to the house while I go get Sam"
The rider was more than willing to comply with that request.
"Really Mr. Cody, I'm fine. I made it down the stairs I'm sure I can manage to get back up them."
Cody retained his grip on her arm. "If it's all the same ma'am I would appreciate it if you would let me assist you. And please." he held up a hand as she started to protest further, "call me Billy."
Callie sighed. She knew she was not going to be left alone any time too soon, but somehow the thought of being "stuck" with this particular Pony Express Rider didn't bother her as much as it should have.
After seeing her to Emma's spare room and keeping her company until Sam's arrival, Cody quietly shut the door behind him as the relatives sat down to talk. He started down the stairs in a daze and seemed to be unaware of his surroundings. So unaware in fact that he tripped over his own feet and tumbled down the remaining stairs. Emma walked in the parlor having heard all the ruckus. Seeing Cody sprawled out on her floor, making no attempt to move, with his patented grin on his face was just too much for her.
"Billy Cody" she stated gravely. "You have a fence to mend, and I would suggest finishing it now, that is unless you want to be working on it during supper."
"Yes, Emma."
Cody untangled himself, brushed himself off and headed towards the door, making certain to throw one last glance over his shoulder towards Callie's room.
As he made his way back to the corral, Emma stood in the doorway watching. She pressed he hand to he mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Sometimes, she thought, that boy can be too much.
"Callie, what is going on. Where's Tom?"
Sam sat at his niece's bedside as she stared at her hands. It had been almost an entire day since Callie had arrived and now was the first chance that Sam had had to talk to her alone. Having been in such a hurry to speak to him when she arrived, Sam was a bit confused by her silence now.
"Callie? What happened?" As he pressed her for answers he noticed her tears. Reaching out to hold her hand Sam took a deep breath.
"I can't help you if you won't..."
"He's dead Sam."
Her voice was a whisper but it cut off Sam's sentence nonetheless.
"Tom's dead? What happened?" For the second time in as many days Sam felt the color drain from his face. Tom Roberts was one of his best friends.
Granted he hadn't seen him in years, however this was only because he could never keep tract of the couple's whereabouts. The fact that Tom was a friend from Sam's "lawless" days may have factored into Tom's absence from his life as well. Sam hadn't always been on the side of the law that he was on now, and when he decided to become Marshal of Sweetwater he had to let go of his past, which included many close friends and in this case, his niece's husband.
"Sam, I want to tell you everything, I do. But I have to know that I am talking to my uncle, not the marshal right now."
Sam leaned back and exhaled. He had a feeling he would not like the story that followed but he nodded his consent to keep the law out of her affairs. Callie wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and took a deep breath.
"Okay. Well, you know that Tommy was pretty deep into cheatin' gamblers. He was so proud of himself, you know. He felt like he could actually do something well."
Sam nodded with a small smile playing on his lips. He remembered days when Tom had cheated some of the best cheaters around, and even they hadn't seen it coming.
"Well" Callie continued, "We were doing okay, you know. We were surviving. Sometimes I would help him, but not always. We had been saving up some money so that we could get us a place out in the country, Tommy said he was gettin' to old for everything he was doing and one day he was sure to come across someone better. Well then, like I said things were going pretty good, but then well..." hesitating "well Sam, I'm gonna have a baby."
Sam's head whipped up. Callie had looked a little rounder than he remembered but he had never suspected. Callie continued before Sam could comment.
"When I told Tommy about the baby, he got real serious. Said we had to get out of that two-bit town that night. Well I told him, 'Tommy, we can't do that, we ain't got enough money' But he was set on leavin' that night so he planned this big scam. Suppose to be a bunch a big business men in town. Tommy figured we could scam enough off them to get out of town right away, so I agreed."
Callie rested her hands on her abdomen, "He did it for us you know, for our family. He was a good man." The tears started again and it was several minutes before she could continue. Sam thought he knew the direction this story was heading in.
"He did it Sam, Tommy did it and I helped him. We made enough money to get out of town and start a new life. But something went real bad. I don't know how it happened but somehow those businessmen found out they had been cheated and they come up to get their money back from us. Well, we were all packed, and Tommy, he pushes me out the window and said 'Wait for me downstairs with the horses, and be ready to run'."
Sam closed his eyes picturing the scene as it unfolded from Callie's words. She had already began to cry again.
"So that's what I did, I got the horses and waited downstairs like Tommy told me, but while I was waiting I heard two shots, and I knew Sam, I just knew he was gone."
For the first time Callie looked Sam in the eye. "So I ran. That was almost a month ago. I didn't know where to go. I went from town to town trying to decide what to do, not knowin' if those men would come after me or not. Got robbed about a week ago, and they took everything, all our clothes and money, the money Tommy died for."
The room was silent except for Callie's occasional sniffs.
"What am I gonna do Sam?" The plea was delivered with so much desperation, Sam felt tears sting the back of his eyes. He sat on the edge of Emma's spare bed and wrapped his arms around his niece.
"We'll work it out, Callie."
Although delivered with conviction Sam was unsure of just how he would make good on his statement. _______________________________________________________________
Sam made his way over to the bunkhouse where the boys were eating dinner. He had made up his mind to take Callie away from the homestead as soon As she was ready to ride. He wouldn't bring anyone at the way station trouble and from the way Callie had described the men that killed Tommy, Sam was pretty sure that trouble was coming. At the sound of Sam Opening the door the bunkhouse fell silent. Emma had been dishing out food and the boys all sat quietly around the table, that is everyone except Ike who had left on a ride that afternoon.
"Sam" Emma nodded for him to join them "I was just gonna bring a plate of food over to Callie."
Sam nodded his thanks. "Look Emma," he began hesitantly "I was wondering if you could put Callie up for a few days until she can ride."
"Of course, Sam. I wasn't planning on throwing the poor girl into the street. Poor thing's been through enough already. She is welcome to stay as long as she wants."
Cody perked up at this statement and Jimmy threw him a smile from across the table. The Pony Express riders had not missed how taken with Callie Cody was.
"I wish it were that easy, Emma" Sam stated gravely.
"What's goin' on Sam?" Teaspoon questioned from the corner.
"Maybe trouble comin' Teaspoon. Trouble for Callie."
Before Cody could swallow his food, Lou perked up. "What kind of trouble?"
"There are men lookin' for her. Shot her husband."
"Husband?" Buck asked for Cody who for once, couldn't seem to get the words out.
"Yeah. She gonna have a baby too."
This was too much for Cody who started to choke on his food. Jimmy was all too happy to walk around the table and give Cody a few slaps on the back to aid with his choking. Cody pushed Hickok's hand away angrily and stalked out of the bunkhouse.
"Sam, what's going on here?" All eyes turned from the door where Cody had left to listen to Sam's response.
"Emma, it's a long story and I wish I could tell you it but it's not my story to tell. These men that may be after Callie, they're the type to shoot first and ask questions later. So I'll make sure to get her out of here as soon as possible. You boys have your own share of trouble without taking on someone else's."
Sam's attempt to lighten the mood failed.
"Well, Sam. If Callie's in as much danger as you say she is, wouldn't it make more sense to keep her here where we can all help keep an eye on her? Makes sense if someone comed looking for her they would go to town first. Besides ain't eight pairs of eyes watchin' 'er better than one?"
"Teaspoon..."
Sam's protest was cut off by Buck, "Makes sense to me."
The others nodded their consent and the matter was settled.
"Well, thank you. I really should get back to town to check up on Barnett. I'll be back first thing tomorrow."
"I'll walk you out Sam." Emma picked up Callie's plate of food and walked Sam to his horse.
"Sam...do I want to know what's goin' on here?" Emma knew that the Sam would never lie to her and the boys, but she had the distinct feeling that she didn't know the whole truth.
Sam leaned over and kissed Emma's forehead distractedly. "Just be careful Emma." With that he mounted up and rode off.
"Always am, Sam."
TO BE CONTINUED...Chapter III
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
The Way Station
Campfire Tales
