Chapter 99

Boones Crossing, Kansas July 23, 1889

Little Eli, Kit, Ruby, and Isaac arrived in Boones Crossing early, making the short trip from Kansas City in only a matter of two hours.

They had accompanied their friends to the train station the evening before and watched as they boarded the train to Colorado. This was a tearful parting of new friends with all of them vowing to meet again soon.

The McInnis sisters especially took it hard, sobbing as they sat on the train and waved out the window to the redheaded Halloran sisters, where they stood on the loading dock, waving and crying also.

After seeing their friends off at the station, Kit and Ruby wanted to go find that camera shop before returning to the hotel to pack for their trip to Boones Crossing the next morning.

“I love this little town,” Kit said as they walked across the street, making their way to Connors Store from the depot.

Eli wanted to surprise his Grandpa and Marshal Hopkins. He didn’t let them know they were coming for a visit.

“I do too, Kit. I’ll be glad when Tulsa has grown and our town looks as good and clean as this little town,” Eli told her.

“Eli, that’s Young’s Store. That’s the store where you caught up with the woman who was kin to Turkey, isn’t it?” Isaac asked.

“That’s it. Everything still looks the same as the day I left four years ago. Nothing has changed as far as I can tell. There’s Connors Store just ahead,” he answered and pointed out his Grandpa’s store, then reached out to pull Isaac back.

“Come over next to this store and wait. There’s Marshal Hopkins headed to Grandpa’s store now. I wanted to walk in and surprise them if we could,” Eli whispered as he pulled them back to stand near a doorway until Dal Hopkins had entered the store.

“Eli, how old is Marshal Hopkins? He sure looks old for a lawman, doesn’t he?” Kit asked.

“I’m not sure how old he is, but he is getting on up there in age. I wish I could talk him and Grandpa into going back to Tulsa with us.”

“Oh Eli, let’s do that. I hate to think of them up here alone with no family left now,” Kit told him.

“We’ll have a hard time convincing them, but if all of you will help me, we’ll try our best to talk them into it. Grandpa will fuss about leaving Grandma though. I know what he’s thinking though, he wants to buried next to her when his time comes.”

“Eli, that is so sad. But I know you’re right,” Ruby said.

“Eli, we’ll help you. There’s no way we can leave here without them. They would love it there on Crow Ridge with Grandmother and Gramps Halloran for company. Just think of the Little Bucks and the babies too who would love them like they do Gramps Halloran and Grandmother. We’re going to make this happen, one way or another,” Isaac said as they walked on toward the store now that Dal Hopkins was no longer on the boardwalk in front of them.

“I read in the newspaper not long ago where a family had moved their parents’ bodies from the cemetery in Tulsa to a town in Kansas so they would be buried close to them. I wondered about that at the time, and why they would do that. But now that I think about it, maybe we can try to get Grandpa to let us move Grandma too. I hope so anyway.”

“Eli, you and Isaac, stay here and let Ruby and me walk in the store. I want to see how long it takes for Marshal Hopkins and Grandpa to start wondering about who we are,” Kit told them.

“Ruby, when we go in there, let’s just start talking to them, calling each other by our names. If that doesn’t work, I’ll ask them if they know when Eli will get here. I’ll tell them that we’re supposed to meet Isaac and him here this morning,” Kit told her sister.

“You girls never stop conniving, do you?” Eli said, then, “this will work though. Even better than anything I could have come up with. Go get them. I love this,” Eli said and pulled Kit over for a kiss before she turned to walk into Connors Store with Ruby.

“Well, hello there,” Sam Connors spoke as soon as they walked into the store. He was sitting on the counter and Dal Hopkins was sitting in a chair facing him as they talked. Marshal Hopkins turned to see who Sam had spoken to and saw the flaming red hair of the two sisters.

There was something about these two girls and the way they were smiling, that made him wonder who they were and what they were doing in Boones Crossing.

“Good morning. I’m Kit and this is my sister Ruby. We’re supposed to meet some friends here at this store later. Do you mind if we sit and wait for them?” Kit asked with a straight face, until she looked at Ruby, then both of them smiled, holding back a laugh.

“Not at all, come on in and sit here,” Dal Hopkins said as he stood and pulled his chair around toward them, then pulled another chair next to it.

“Where are you young ladies from?” Sam Connor asked. He too looked at them, thinking he should know them for some reason, though he knew he’d never met them before.

“Kit and I arrived on the train from Kansas City just this morning,” Ruby told him, then added, “we were just there for a short visit. We’re supposed to meet our friends here in Boones Crossing. They told us to meet them here at Connors Store.”

“Who are the friends you’re supposed to meet here? No one has been asking if you’ve been here this morning,” Sam said, still looking them over. He knew there was something he was missing here, he just couldn’t pin it down.

“I’m supposed to meet Isaac Duncan,” Ruby told him.

“And I’m supposed to meet Eli,” Kit told them and the sisters started laughing as they looked at one another, then Sam and Dal.

“Isaac Duncan? Eli?” Sam asked.

“Eli who?” Dal asked, then looked at Sam with a smile on his face.

“Eli Crow. I’m Kit and this is my sister, Ruby. We’re from Tulsa!”

“YOU MEAN? I mean ... You’re Eli’s girl?” Sam asked, already off the counter and walking toward Kit.

“Yep, I am and I’m going to marry that grandson of yours one day too.”

“Where is that boy? I knew there was something about you two redheaded girls that I was missing.”

“Here I am, Grandpa,” Eli said, walking through the door with Isaac as both of them laughed at the prank Kit and Ruby pulled on them.

“ELI! I should have known sooner. I just couldn’t put it all together,” Sam Connor said as he rushed over to hug his grandson.

“We wanted to surprise you and Marshal Hopkins.”

“You sure got us good with that one, Eli,” Dal Hopkins said as he stood and reached for Eli.

“Now I want you to meet Kit Halloran and her sister, Ruby. This is Isaac, but I doubt you remember him from the last time we were all here together. He’s had a good growth spurt of his own,” Eli told them as he introduced his friends.

“Kit, you come here to me, Girl. I get a big hug from you and your sister, Ruby for pulling that on Dal and me,” Sam Connor said, holding his arms out to her.

Kit rushed into his arms, hugging him close, “I love you, Grandpa Connor, just as if you were my own grandpa. Eli has told me all about you and his grandma. I feel like I already know you just because he loves you so much.”

“Kit, I love you too, Hon, and I’m so happy you came up here with Eli. I asked him to bring you back so we could meet you. He told me he would one day and now you’re here. I want to tell you, you’ve got yourself a fine young man there, and now I can tell him that he’s getting the best girl in the world for his wife too. Come hug me again, Kit. That was the best surprise I’ve had in many a year.

“I just love you,” Sam Connor told her again as he held her close.

Eli and Isaac were laughing as they shook hands with Dal Hopkins, then he pulled them both close for a hug before pushing them back to walk over to Ruby.

“Come here to me, Ruby. You and Kit have made Sam and me so happy. We were just talking about Eli yesterday and wondering if he was ever going to bring Kit up here to see us. This is even better than we could have hoped for with you and Isaac coming here with them,” Dal Hopkins told her, still holding her close as he talked.

When he backed up, he had tears in his eyes and wiped them on his shirt sleeve.

“Marshal, we just need to live closer so we can see you and Grandpa Connor all the time,” Ruby told him, then looked at Sam Connor who stood near her, waiting to give her a hug too.

“You’ll just have to move up here then. I’m too old to be pulling up my roots and leaving Boones Crossing,” Dal told her.

“Marshal, you’re not wearing your badge! Did you retire?” Eli asked.

“Yep, I retired the first of this month, Eli. I was elected town marshal when I was twenty-one years old and they never let me quit until I had to tell them they needed to get a younger man.”

“How many years did you serve as town marshal?” Isaac asked.

“Fifty years, Isaac. I’m seventy-one now and to tell the truth, I have too much time on my hands. It’s all I can do to keep from going to the office each day.”

“That’s a long time, Marshal. I’m sure you have many stories to tell about your years of service here in Boones Crossing.”

“I sure do, Isaac. I’d like to sit and have someone write them down as I told them some of the tales about the early years and the later years too.”

“You ought to do that, Marshal,” Ruby told him as she sat next to him and Isaac.

“I doubt anyone would want to read the ramblings of an old Kansas lawman. Most folks will never know what it was like fifty years ago here in Kansas though.”

“I bet Aunt Clarissa would help you, if you lived closer,” Eli told him as he looked over from where he sat with his Grandpa.

“Eli, you know how well Dal can spin a story. He told you the ones about your daddy like it was happening in front of him all over again. I wish you could get him some help and make it happen, just for the history of Boones Crossing, if nothing else,” Sam Connor said, grinning at Dal as the two of them looked at one another glassy eyed.

They sat in the store talking and telling stories, having fun as they visited. Kit and Ruby told them about their Gramps and how he lost his sight a few years ago, but never let it get him down. They told him about his guide dog and how he goes all over the place. How Maryanne walks with him, describing everything she sees to him as they walk.

“I remember that girl as a baby in her momma’s arms when Eli brought the family here that time. It doesn’t seem like she should be that old already,” Sam commented.

“You should see her now, Grandpa. She looks just like Lee Yu did when she was younger,” Isaac told him and Sam looked at Isaac, smiling that he’d called him Grandpa.

Sam had some customers come in just as they were about to walk over to the hotel to eat an early dinner. They were going to wait on him to get through, then more came in and he told them to go on, he’d catch up with them later.

“If I don’t make it before you finish, just tell them to fix my usual plate and bring it back with you when you come. They’ll put it on my bill there.”

“We can wait, Grandpa,” Eli told him.

“You and Isaac take your girls and go with Dal, Eli. You need to get him to tell you some more stories about your daddy anyway. I’ll be on over as soon as I can.”

“You ain’t gonna change his mind. He’s getting as ornery as me,” Dal Hopkins told them. They gave up and walked out with him between Kit and Ruby as they hooked their arms through his. Isaac was grinning at Eli as they walked behind them.

Sam Connor never made it over to the hotel to eat, so after they ate, Dal Hopkins told them more stories about Eli and the time he spent here. Then told the story of him coming back to marry Little Eli’s momma.

They ordered Sam’s plate as he asked them to, before leaving the hotel.

Back at Connors store, Sam was about to close up and go meet them, when two young girls walked into the store. He looked at them and started to ask them where Eli and Isaac were and if they enjoyed their dinner, when he realized this wasn’t the Halloran sisters.