Chapter 6: Half conceals, half discloses

“Bonnots Mill is only about five miles up-river,” Tommy said as they looked at an old chart. “But I’m not sure how clear the channel is on the Osage there.” He pointed to the juncture of the two rivers. The Osage dumped into the Missouri about a mile north-east of Melissa’s next stop on the way to Jefferson City.

“It usually flows fairly steadily,” Melissa said, “but I don’t think you would want to risk getting stuck up there. Besides, I have to ride to take Charlie with me. I can’t just leave him and my wagon out here.”

“No, you can’t do that,” Annie agreed.

She had reappeared from someplace below as Tommy and Melissa chatted. Melissa had blushed at the slim girl, wondering what she really thought about her clumsy attempt at seduction. It had been a long time since she had been comforted in another’s arms. Despite the short acquaintance, she liked these two near-siblings.

“Well,” Tommy said. “How about we have an early dinner and get you back ashore with plenty of light to travel to Bonnots Mill? We can move up-river a little and anchor near the mouth of the Osage. Do you think there might be an opportunity there for us to do a little trading?”

“Carmine will be thrilled if you did,” Melissa replied. “He doesn’t have much but does a fair job trapping and hunting. He always has some nice deerskins cured. He mostly gets by on what he can gather, grow, and salvage. There is a place nearby growing grapes and trying to produce some wine, but I seldom see them on my travels. Carmine might know more for us.

“How old is he?” Annie asked. Her voice sounded both eager and a little subdued. Melissa saw the glance she gave Tommy.

“He’s got to be pushing sixty,” she said. “He was living with a woman last time I came through. She had wondered in from the north, looking for a more temperate climate. Her name was Christine, I think. I keep a journal, so I’ll have to take a quick look at that on the road.”

Melissa was surprised by Annie’s look of relief. Despite the facts Tommy had shared, she was still missing something about the strange family they came from. She wondered what it was.

“So, dinner?” Tommy asked, unaware of the looks Annie had given him, or not caring about them.

“Dinner,” Annie agreed. “I’ve got a pot of white beans with pork simmering, along with the last of our fresh spinach and lettuce. I opened up a jar of trade peaches to make a cobbler for dessert.”

Melissa found her mouthwatering suddenly. “That sounds perfect,” she said. “I don’t eat nearly enough greens when I’m on the road.”

Both of her hosts laughed. “Mama Sam insists we travel with some healthy fare on these trips,” Annie said. “She once threatened Papa Jack with banishment if he did not take fresh greens and other vegetables with him.”

Melissa smiled. “She sounds like a smart woman.”

The three of them worked together to set the table on the stern and then Annie insisted she and Tommy sit while she served them from the galley. Melissa noticed the sway of her hips as she walked back and forth. Annie had a nice, pert rear-end. Tommy noticed the wiggle once and rolled his eyes.

“Problems?” Melissa asked softly as Annie ducked back inside.

“Just more teasing. I swear Mama Samantha had it in for me when she decided Annie should come on this trip.”

Something clicked for Melissa. She suppressed a smile. Annie was back with the last plate of food before she could frame a reply.

“So, Melissa, what made you decide to become a travelling doctor and vet?” Annie asked after they all took their first few mouthfuls of food.

Melissa took a bite to delay answering and thought about her past. She had stumbled into her life in the new world, initially driven to flee something rather than actively looking for a future. She had always made what she felt was the right choice before her, but hardly considered herself following a plan.

Finally, she swallowed. “I more or less fell into it,” she admitted. “Before, I was a veterinary student, about half-way through my post graduate coursework. There were a few folks around campus afterward that I fell in with. We didn’t want to stay where we were, so headed south, steering clear of cities. We hooked up with a few others for the first winter, and mainly survived.”

She thought about that period and gave a little shudder. Some things were best left in the past.

“I split off from them and eventually made my way down here to the Lake of the Ozarks area. I had a lot of people give me a hand on the way, trading animal care and hard work for a place to rest and recover from my travels. When I finally found a place, I could call my own, I found I missed being on the road and interacting with other folk.”

Annie shook her head. “I can’t imagine traveling that far, on my own. It must have been scary.”

“It was, at times. But I wasn’t comfortable around some of the people I met. At least not comfortable enough to settle down with them. I can’t believe this happened to just let our old prejudices rule us again,” she added.

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked.

Melissa felt her cheeks warm. “Look at your own family,” she said, not wanting to talk about herself yet. “In the old world, you would be publicly shamed at the least and possibly arrested. The concept of a line marriage would guarantee that sort of a response. But now? Here and now, it works, and I think it could work for very good reasons of making sure long-term consanguinity isn’t an issue in a growing community.”

Annie was nodding. “Mama Samantha made sure we all got at least enough biology and genetic education that we understand that. But you weren’t talking about our family when you said that.”

Melissa realized she had stepped into it. She sighed.

“No, I wasn’t. I met some people that did not have that same level of understanding. I’ve run into two types so far; people that think we need to rebuild a population base as quickly as possible, and people that want to ignore the bigger world and live in their own small part of it. Some folks have a foot in both camps, and that is going to make for a very shallow gene pool.”

“What about others?” Tommy asked.

“If the group is too small, it will die out sooner or later. A pre-dying couple might be able to have a bunch of kids and raise them to maturity, but by the third generation, it’s going to be pretty in-bred. I can’t see education and productivity remaining stable with that sort of a community. It’s one of the reasons I travel and try to make sure the younger generation is getting some form of education, even if it is just simple animal husbandry.”

“And the other group?” Annie asked.

“Those of even more problematic,” Melissa admitted. “They aren’t thinking about inbreeding, but they are bringing some serious third world thinking to the mix. They are starting to treat women as chattel. If you aren’t being bred, you’re hurting the collective whole. It’s a scary precedent in thought. It will become the norm within a generation. If you fell in with one of those groups, Annie, you would be screwed, literally, until they knew you were pregnant. Then, you could expect to be having a child every year for the rest of your life. With the lack of medical care and education, it’s likely it would not be a long life.”

Tommy and Annie looked at her intently.

“We’ve got it pretty good,” Annie said finally. “Don’t we?”

Tommy nodded. “It’s one of the reasons I won’t take you ashore. Papa Jack made sure I knew how to watch and learn before approaching anyone in the wild,” he said.

Melissa snorted. “I didn’t get that sense when you walked up to me,” she said.

Tommy grinned. It was a mature grin, and dammed attractive, even if he was nearly twenty years younger.

“I watched you plenty, first,” he said.

“Oh?”

He nodded. “I saw you at that Paulson place. He’s the type you worry about, isn’t he?”

Melissa was surprised but nodded. “How could you tell?”

Tommy told them about what had transpired after Melissa had left.

“You should have shot him,” Annie asserted.

Tommy gave her a cross look. “You know better than that,” he said softly. “I couldn’t hear a word, so did not have the full story. Besides, shooting him might have made things worse for those kids, for all I knew. Dead is hard to undo, as Papa Jack always says.”

“I don’t see how,” Annie retorted. “Would you just watch if he slugged me and made me blow him?”

Tommy shook his head. “I know you wouldn’t be a willing participant in that. Whoever that girl was, I can’t say the same thing about. She walked to him. She finished and went back to working the field. What right does it give me to kill him from behind?”

“Christ,” Melissa muttered. “I knew Herb was a piece of shit, but not that bad. I’m worried about those kids more than ever, now.”

Tommy shrugged. “We can get some neighbors and go get them from him, but what’s he going to do if a mob comes up to his place. He looked ready to shoot you, and you were his wife’s friend.”

Melissa considered his words and then shook her head. “He’d start the shooting, I’m pretty sure. Maybe I can change my route and swing back by there in a day or two. If I see the kids, maybe talk to them, I can find out what’s really going on.”

Tommy nodded. “My offer to help stands,” he said.

“So,” Melissa said, looking for a safer topic, “where are you two off to next, after Bonnots Mill, I mean?”

“Back down-river,” Tommy said as Annie nodded. “We set a limit of Jefferson City or two weeks from home. Now that we’ve scouted this far, we can stop and do a little more trading on the way home.”

“Can we interest you in some peaches?” Annie asked, as if to jump start the trading.

Melissa laughed. “You can interest me in some of that peach brandy, that’s for certain.”

Tommy climbed back aboard the boat and spotted Annie in the dim light of a small lantern. They had shut down the generator after ensuring the batteries were topped off for the day. Papa Jack had warned them to be careful with the Caroline, it was well past-due for servicing that they could no longer provide. Jack had told Tommy this might be the last trip up-river for the boat. Rex bound up the steep stairs from the boat platform to the main deck and went to Annie for a good ear scratching. Tommy shook his head and finished tying off the johnboat before heading up as well.

“You like her, don’t you?” Annie said as soon as he was near.

Tommy wanted to groan as he saw Annie in the soft glow of the lantern. She was still in her sundress but sitting with her legs tucked under her, so the material pulled tightly across her breasts. The small nubs pointing at him were enticing. He knew if he mentioned them, Annie would just tease him more. They had spent three weeks in close proximity, and it was more than a little frustrating. He knew they were supposed to be looking for a man for her. The fact she wasn’t all that interested in finding one only added to his frustration.