Chapter 80: Enter the Mouse

Breakfast was a treat of the food I had mostly missed last night. Like any other culture the Pawnee had created a gourmet’s delight from locally harvested plants, animals and fruit. I somehow had missed out on the macaroni salad and the molded jello; I knew it had to have been there, it was a Potluck after all. Good food and hot coffee was a nice start to the day, I gimped outside of the lodge to sit in the sun and enjoy a morning cigarette, rest was the plan. I smoked my cigarette and dozed in the warmth of the sun.

I started to put together my plan to get on the road again and I now had new companions to factor into my plans. I had hoped to hire a couple of good farm hands but what had happened instead was far outside of my plans. I needed to see Pete and find out what actually happened last night. My head hurt just trying to think about it.

I thought about Fort Atkinson, it wasn’t far from my childhood home. I knew from the field trips we had taken there as youth that it was a major garrison for a while and I could expect to find up to three thousand people there. I hoped to be able to hire a boat for the return trip down river, I could sell my horses or pick them up from Pete later. I also thought it was time to go inside again, I didn’t want to slow my healing as I’d like to be on the road again in two days’ time.

Getting fully upright was still a bit of a challenge, too much on that bad side at the wrong moment and I would be on the ground in a heap. So as Brin watched with curiosity I started to leverage my way up so I could hobble inside. Banshee grabbed me as I started to over balance, saving me from a spill; I hadn’t even seen her come out but her timing was immaculate.

She held me up and slowly said, “You come inside please”, she completely butchered the words but she was learning English.

“Good”, I replied, “Yes, I come inside.”

With that she balanced me as I made my way back to bed. Once I settled in she knelt before me and said, “English OK make wife now?” with a hopeful smile. “Sleep now”, I said and closed my eyes.

I really was trying to avoid the wife thing and my social stumbling about hadn’t helped my situation at all. My fear was that the women of this era were far too accustomed to mistreatment as the norm and standard of affection. Losing control myself for a couple of hours didn’t make me any more comfortable with the situation.

If someone likes to be spanked I’m all fine with that, but I wasn’t hot on the idea of that being part of my daily life. Stripping Mary of her garments of degradation I still thought had been a good idea and now she was sitting near by quietly singing a happy song while she made a sling for my arm. I wanted to avoid sex with these ladies and that might be a chore, Banshee seemed determined to identify herself by me and that just wasn’t healthy at all.

I need to get back home and what I needed more than anything else was one of the long slow horse back rides I took with Michelle just to be able to talk openly to somebody. So much had happened and happened so very quickly since I left to come up here, while our romance might not be flaming hot Michelle was still the best friend I’d had in a very long time. Hell I even missed Matilda.