Chapter 4

“So, your OK with marriage and taking on all the women in this holding, yet relearning your life bothers you? You are a strange young man.”

“Perhaps it will all come to me when my father returns.”

“That sounds like wishful thinking. So far you remember everything except your personal life. I will try to give give you a short primer on what you need to know.”

“We live a little over a hundred miles west into the Indian Lands not far from the Eastern border. The original colonies as they used to be called, are to our east. We are closest to Germanshire.”

“All colonies have been reorganized into one government known as New England. The individual colonies have been classified as Counties much like in Old England. Locally, we often use the common term of shire.

New England’s government is, of course, loyal to Her Majesty. Queen Mary III is the present queen. Her Viceroy for New England is Lady Porchester, who resides in Boston. She’s there where many of New England’s more fractious people live. This allows her to keep a close watch on them.

The County of Germanshire is just east of us. It is so named because it was settled in the 15th and 16th Centuries by German-speaking people. They emigrated here for religious reasons.

The county government for Germanshire is headed by Lady May. She is a Life Baroness. The people of New England rejected the idea of being governed by heredity members.”

“There are two large cities in Germanshire, Steeltown and New Hope. Steeltown is east of us, just this side of the Indian Lands border. New Hope is in the east on the Delaware River and Delaware Bay.

We never got much further than the original colonies. There are not enough people. To be direct, women are not really interested in moving about, like some men.

To the north is the country of Kanata, or as some call it New France. It belongs to France along with a sizable trading colony they have in New Orleans. Spain owns Florida and everything west of it to the far coast. It is mostly peopled by Indians with a few Spanish along the western coast.

Most parts of the northern continent are sparsely inhabited only by the Indian tribes. Few whites are allowed.

“Hmm ... living in the Indian lands. let’s start with their beliefs. Colonization by Europeans stopped spreading after the great affliction.”

“The Indian tribes hold similar beliefs to each other. The Sun, the Moon, and Stars are sacred. Every child has a Mother.”

“We are children of the earth, we are born of the earth and return to it when we die. The Earth is our Mother and must be treasured and cared for.”

“Some tribes believe similar things but the God has a name here. It is ‘Mishe Moneto’ which means ‘Great Spirit’ in the Shawnee language. This is the Shawnee name for the Creator. This is a divine spirit with no human form or attributes, including gender.”

“The Indians feel these things very deeply, so consider it whenever you do something.”

“For example, we don’t chop down trees just anywhere, change the course of streams or rivers, or set up mines. We do not do anything else that ruins the lands or waters or anything that will adversely affect the Indians. Remember, this is their land. They allow us to share it with them.”

“We also do not shoot deer or buffalo. These are reserved for Indian use, and why we raise a lot of our own meat. You don’t break the rules here. This is important because the Indians will arrest you for wrongdoing.”

“Indian trials are a lot worse than New England’s courts. We live under Indian law, not New England law or crown law. Remember that.”

“Indian People are very much about respect and caring for each other. All the fighting we had with them is over two wrong-headed ideas.”

“One is that we ‘whites’ think we are superior which is plainly a sign of disrespect.”

“Our unrevised history tells us we arrived on these shores and could not feed ourselves here. Many colonies failed early and many people died.”

“Our blunderbusses and matchlocks were horrible. An Indian could shoot 5 arrows in the time a Pilgrim could load and shoot once. So our supposed superiority was all in our minds. If you can take a deer or an elk with a bow, a man is easy to shoot.

“Back to respect. Respect is about caring about others and helping one another, people don’t go hungry in the Indian Lands. Here we take care of each other and we have adopted many of their ways.”

“The second big issue is that land cannot be owned. Indians fundamentally will never agree to the concept that land can be owned.”

“Their point is that you cannot hold the river in your hands as it travels by. You can not hold the wind as it blows by, it flows through your hands. Dirt cannot be kept. You grab dirt, and it too flows through your hands.”

“How then can you own the land, you can only hold one handful at a time. You are here only for a few years and then you are gone. It is like the wind and the water, it falls through your hands and then you pass on, you are no more. Land is for everyone’s use.”

“So we don’t own our land?”

“Not exactly.” Michikinikwa started out as a trading post. Our farms were set aside for white families’ use but we are here on suffrage. The farms support the village which also aids the Indian population. We are part of the village’s breadbasket and it’s their main trading center locally.

They allow us to be here because we share some of our bounty with them. We provide some education to them about our ways and employ their excess people. They have also gotten used to wool blankets, linens, hatchets, knives, and porridge. Plus they rely on a large list of other things.”

“The local tribes are all affiliated and meet every summer. They meet with the Cherokee Nation and other local tribes. They decide on issues that come up. The Shawnee are the predominant tribe or group close around here. However, they are affiliated with all the neighboring tribes.”

With few men around today. Warfare between tribes of Indians and Whites is almost nonexistent. Everyone is just too consumed with trying to scratch out a living. To keep our populations going.

“Michikinikwa is our closest town. It started as a small trading post to the Indians and grew as needed until it is a good-sized town.”

“Oops, I need to check on dinner, you want to follow me?”

“Yes.”

Now I was sure. Their house is laid out exactly the same as ours. She was using the small stove and looked like she was cooking a potful of chicken. On a rack by the window, I saw lots of flat string-looking things hanging down.

I pointed and asked, “What are those?”

“They are noodles. I got the recipe from Arianna Guerra, she runs the spice shop in town. Your mum knows her well as she buys most of your mum’s spices. I made the noodles yesterday so they would be dry for today.”

“O wow, so homemade Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner?”

“Homemade, what other kind of noodle is there?”

(oops) “I don’t know, can’t you buy noodles here?”

“Not that I know of. Possibly in one of the big cities? Never thought about it. There are very few Italians in New England let alone the west. We are having chicken noodle soup with...”

She had caught me looking at her tits. “Are you listening to me?”

“Uh, yes I am. I can’t help myself. The view is very nice to look at.” I said as I flagrantly continued to stare.

“They are just tits,” she said as she moved her hands to bracket them.

“No they are not ‘just’ tits, they are a pair of very, very fine tits.”

“Huh? Every woman has tits, what’s so special about these?”

“They are perfect in every way. They are not so big they will sag down to your knees when you are forty, nor so small that you can’t feed your baby. Their elegant shape naturally draws your eye to them.”

“Further, they are a sensuous rounded work of art. They fit in one hand or two hands just as well. More importantly, they supply life to your baby.”

“There are no scars, big warts, or anything else to mar their perfection. Your nipples are aligned perfectly and are exactly symmetrical. No, those are a “perfect” pair of tits.”

“Well, thank you” she said as she turned (blushing) and drew me into a long hug. I had me head over her shoulder and wished my shirt was off so I could feel her tits better. I was thinking how my wife would have killed me for calling them tits (giggle) but when in Rome and all that.

“HEY! Unhand my man there, big sister.” Sally had just stepped into the kitchen.

“Hahaha. Well, you left him alone, so some floozy might snap him up. Why not me? It’s not like there are a lot of men waiting around for me to ensnare.” Gracie said.