Chapter 40

Sam: St Joseph, Missouri

Andy paid the down payment on the cattle yesterday. He said the guy we were buying them from told him of a guy who was selling horses, so he went off to look at them today.

The Vencille boys had made me a playpen for Becky. It was about four feet square and had slatted sides that came up about three feet. I lined it with quilts and blankets and put Becky in it for the first time this morning.

Evidently my little angel liked looking at the sky and the clouds because she seemed perfectly happy to be left lying in it. She hadn't been in it long when Abby O'Connell came over with Benjamin.

"Why don't you put Ben in with Becky and see if they get along?" I asked her.

Abby gave me a big smile and placed her little bundle alongside Becky. They both took notice of each other immediately, but they were too young to do anything about it except wave their arms and coo. They were a joy to watch.

Abby and I did a lot of talking. She told me about growing up in Pennsylvania and I made up a story about growing up in upstate New York. I wrote out the story in a diary so I'd remember it in the future.

Wednesday, April 19, 1848

Ed: Day 31 of the Boston to St Joseph trip

As soon as I saw Cindi this morning I asked her to walk with me. When we were away from the campfire, I asked, "Did your father hit your mother last night?"

"No, but he was mean to her. He called her some bad names and was still claiming that she's responsible for him losing his lifestyle."

"You do want me to talk to him about this, don't you, Cindi?"

"Oh, yes, Ed. Maybe he'll listen to you."

"Okay, let's go back and I'll talk with him."

I waited until after we had eaten breakfast and were getting ready to go before I told Tim I wanted to talk to him. He reluctantly followed me away from the rest of the group.

"Tim, it has come to my attention that you hit Sally the other night. I also understand that you are blaming her for you getting kicked into the past."

"That is really none of your business."

"It is my business. Sally is a nice lady. I'm not going to see her abused."

"You just don't understand. No one does. I had a great life in 2003. I had a great house in one of the nicer suburbs of Detroit. It cost me almost a million dollars, but it was worth every penny of it. I had a new Infinity and a Cadillac SUV. I was an investment banker. I enjoyed my work and made good money. I invested my own money and I had more money in stocks and bonds than you probably ever saw."

"I do understand a lot of what you are saying. I was an engineer. I lived and breathed electronics. I miss that. I also miss playing golf with the guys at work. I miss pizzas and Chinese food. We all lost a lot when we were booted back here."

"Yeah, I miss the golf too. I had a five handicap and I played every Saturday morning. I also played tennis every Wednesday evening. Now, I have nothing and it's all because of Sally and our bratty kids."

"Why do you think it's because of Sally and the kids?"

"Because Sally never liked the way we lived. She said the house was too big and she said she didn't like our 'snooty' neighbors. She was born on a farm and I don't think she ever did get the cow shit off of her feet. She raised our kids to be like she is. All any of them can talk about is the 'Great Outdoors'. I'm sure she was wishing something like this would happen and I'll bet the kids were too. She was always saying she was born two hundred years too late."

"Why did you marry her in the first place if you didn't like who she was?"

"Oh, she was a pretty thing. She had nice big tits and a great ass. I thought I could change her. I thought she'd like the good life and would get used to having servants. I don't think she's changed one fucking bit from when she used to shovel horse shit."

"Well, whatever the reason you married her in the first place and whatever the reason you stayed married to her for as long as you did, you are not going to abuse her now. That includes verbal abuse as well as physical abuse."

"Just what are you going to do about it if I did?"

"I don't think there's any doubt that I could kick your sorry ass from here to Kentucky. If kicking your ass doesn't work, I'll just blow your fucking brains out. Things are different in this time, Tim. Justice is swift and usually final."

"Why are you trying to protect her?" Tim sneered. "Are you fucking her, or is it Cindi you're fucking?"

"I'm not going to dignify that with an answer. I will tell you it is all I can do right now to keep from mashing your nose all over your face. As I said before, things are different now. Learn to live with things the way they are, or kill yourself. If you keep up the attitude you have now, someone else will do the killing for you."

Tim stomped off. I don't know if our talk did any good or not. I hoped it had. I think Sally still loves the guy and he is Cindi and Jason's father.

Cindi was quiet when she got up behind me this morning. She hugged herself against my back and rode in silence for a long while. We had probably gone five miles before she said anything.

"You talked to dad this morning, didn't you?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yes."

"I thought so. When he came back from talking to you, he gave me a look that could have killed. Did you tell him I was the one who told you about him hitting mom?"

"No, honey. I don't know how much of this I should be telling you, Cindi," I sighed.

"I'm a grown woman, Ed. I can handle it, whatever it is."

I had to smile about the grown woman comment. Cindi did, however, seem more mature than her father. "Your dad is very upset because he has lost the lifestyle he loved. I know it was hard on all of us making the transition when we were kicked back into this time, but your father seems to be taking it harder than any of the rest of us."

"Okay, I can understand that. It still doesn't give him the right to hit mom or call her a fucking whore."

"No, it doesn't and I told him so."

"What did he say to that?"

"He said it was none of my business. He also asked me what I'd do about it if he did it anyway."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him I'd kick his ass from here to Kentucky."

Cindi hugged me and said, "Thank you, Ed."

After a while, Cindi asked, "If he hits us again, will you really kick his ass?"

"Yes."

"What if he tried to kill us or something?"

"Then I'd kill him. Cindi, things are a lot different now. We don't have a policeman on every corner. It's almost a Darwinian society. Survival of the fittest. We have to protect ourselves, or we will prove we are not the fittest."

"Yeah, I can see that," Cindi said after thinking it over.

We made it to Peoria, Illinois that afternoon late. In 1848 Peoria had a population of between three and four thousand people. That made it a fairly good sized town for the era.

Cassie, Kate, and Su Li went off to the general store to stock up on food, while the rest of us went to the livery stable to buy horses for the new people. I sure wish we had Mandy along to help us pick out what horse each person should get.

The livery stable was nice and they had a couple of dozen horses for sale. We talked to the man who ran the place and he walked with us out to the corral. We stood there for a few minutes, just looking them over.

Three of the horses started to migrate toward us. I smiled as a bay mare started nuzzling Cindi's neck. "That's one," I thought. Jason's and Sally's horses picked them out as well. Tim said he didn't give a damn what animal he had to ride, so we went with the livery man's recommendation.

I ended up paying right at $200.00 for four horses, saddles, and tack.

We stopped at a tavern for dinner and the serving girl didn't even remark about Su Li being Chinese. I think all of us enjoyed the meal and even Tim seemed to get into it. After we had eaten, we pushed on through town and camped on the west side of the Illinois River.

Sam: St Joseph, Missouri

Two more families showed up today, the Jamisons and the Caldwells. Both families seemed nice and we added seven more children to our troop.

Abby came around and we talked again today. I really like her. She's nice to talk to and she treats Delia and Dalia with respect. I think that's amazing for someone from this time period.

It's less than two weeks until Ed, Cassie, and Kate will be here. God I miss them. I'm going to screw Ed's brains out the night he gets here. Delia says she has him the second night.

Thursday, April 20, 1848

Ed: Day 32 of the Boston to St Joseph trip

I figure we have about a week or a little over until we get to St Joseph. If it wasn't for worrying about what Tim might do, I'd be the happiest person in the world.

Everyone was up and moving in a timely manner that morning. All of the women pitched in on fixing breakfast while I started saddling the horses and packing the mules. When they called me to breakfast, I saw that Tim was already eating.

I sat down between Cassie and Katie and we were joined by Tina and Su Li. It wasn't but a few minutes later when Cindi came over and asked if she could join us. She was followed almost immediately by Jason.

"Is everything okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's just that the company over here is much better than it is over there," Cindi said.

"I have to agree with you, sis," Jason said. "I don't think dad has spoken since we camped last night."

A few minutes later, Sally came over and sat down to finish her meal. "Tim says he's leaving us," she said. "He wanted me to ask you if he could borrow a hundred dollars from you, Ed."

"I hate to say it, Sally, but I'd pay that much to be rid of him."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Sally said. "I'll pay you back for what he borrows though, Ed."

"No repayment is necessary, Sally. When is he planning to leave?"

"As soon as you give him the money. I guess I should be upset about this, but I'm not. We've been married for eighteen years, but the last five or six haven't been good. All he's been able to think about or talk about during that time is how much he makes and what all he owns."

"Mom, did you know dad has been having an affair?" Jason asked.

"Not for sure, but I suspected it. What do you know about it?"

"I don't know for sure either, or I'd have told you about it. One of my friends told me he had seen dad kissing a young woman who didn't look any older than Cindi. I thought he might be mistaken, so I didn't tell you."

"It's okay, son. Maybe that's why he's so upset about being bumped back. He won't have his little piece any more."

I reached in my pocket and pulled out what money I had on me. I counted it out and I had enough to give him ten gold eagles. I passed it to Sally and said, "Tell him he can keep the horse and saddle too. Fix him up a few days worth of food he can take with him."