Chapter 199: Headed up River

Mid-morning four days later found me relaxing on the roof of the steam boat as we slowly chugged our way upstream. It had taken me three days to fully recover from whichever bug it was that decided to bite me, I had no clue and didn’t care as long as it was over. The third day was a day of recovery, while I had been tempted to get going the thought of relapse while stuck on a steam boat was enough for me to take it easy. But those first couple of days, those days had been a nightmare. In fact my intermittent sleep during those days was always filled with nightmares in which I couldn’t find a toilet or the door was always locked. Horrid dreams that always ended with me jerking awake to rush over to the shitter.

I had quickly run through the small amount of toilet paper that I carried with me and ended up sending Amos up to the general store to purchase a bolt of white cotton cloth. The sort of cloth you would use for babies diapers if you could afford it. Well I could afford it and I had them cut that cloth into 6 inch x 6 inch pieces and used those to wipe my ass. It worked well and you cleaned them just as you would a babies diaper, while bleach wasn’t widely available there we still a number of methods for getting your whites white again and Sinclaire apparently knew those techniques.

On the third day I was mostly back to normal and felt in charge of bodily functions. Real food, a shower and a good nights sleep in a real bed did wonders for my attitude and the sore tender bits of my body. From a diet of meat broth, tea and water I was able to shift back to full on steak and eggs with roasted mushrooms and onions. That first meal was heavenly.

And so I found myself sitting on roof of the cargo box watching the river go by.

Our progress was slower than normal as Captain Sven had taken advantage of the extra time and purchased a small river boat which we were laboriously towing upriver. On the plus side this allowed us to carry a quite a bit more cargo and gave us some deck space back; on the minus side it definitely decreased our speed of travel and introduced risk we normally wouldn’t have.

Thankfully they had loaded the barge boat down with the good doctor’s furniture and belongings, his wife fussed about dings and scratches the entire journey. That woman liked to fuss, some people just aren’t happy unless they are complaining about something, I felt sorry for poor Doc Browne. It was obvious that he loved the lady but despite his great patience he would eventually snap at her, after which she would spend the rest of the day pouting in the cargo house. Mrs. Browne apparently considered herself a ‘Lady’ and demanded special treatment.

I took issue with her self evaluation and expressed it to Amos thusly, “A Lady takes measure of the situation and modifies her expectations and behaviors to be helpful rather than act as a hinderance.” Amos, as usual, took in those words of advise without reply. The boy could be rather reflective when he was of a mind to be, it was to be a trait that served him well as he grew into a man.