Chapter 5

When the chores were done, I came back into the cabin and found the two women standing, waiting for me.

I didn't laugh, but I wanted to, as the clothes I had bought were several sizes too large. The two seemed happy with the pants and shirts. Hopefully, they each put a T-shirt on for the additional warmth.

There were three chairs in front of the fireplace, so I put another small log on the fire. I poured myself a cup of coffee from the pot I had at the rear of the stove, staying warm without boiling. It was bitter black, but I didn't want to make another pot yet.

I sat in one of three chairs and said, "Come, sit with me so we can talk."

Once they were seated, I continued, "Thank you for cleaning up the kitchen for me. The big pan is heavy and I know it is difficult to clean. Thank you."

The compliment gained me smiles from both. I hope the praise was warranted.

"Okay, my name is Mike Grayson. What are yours?"

The two women looked at each other, a little frightened and remained quiet.

"Look, I know you can both talk. You both said something to me last night. If we are going to live on this mountain together, if we are going to share some food, if we are going to watch TV together, you have to talk to me."

"I am Summer Jorgenson. I live with my mother," the younger of the two said, and stopped as if she had told a horrible family secret. I tried to make her feel good by smiling at her.

When I looked in the eyes of the older of the two, she quickly looked away, but finally spoke, "Thank you for taking care of me last night. I was very sick. I feel better now, but need more rest."

Now, I was almost sarcastic, "I'm sorry; I didn't get your name."

The lady squinted at me. "I didn't tell it to you."

"Well?" I said, to see if she would take the hint. She was a tough nut to crack.

She was intensely squinting at me for at least a minute, before she said, "I am Mildred Jorgenson. Many years ago, my ancestors homesteaded the lower half of the other side of the mountain. They grew their own food and meat. They also had a vineyard similar to the one here and the one on the Finnerty land. My parents sold the property to Eliza's husband when I was a young person, and moved into the city. Our one hundred acres was below the Finnerty place. I heard what happened to them. That was terrible.

"There was a time I had a good man. We were good people, living in a good neighborhood. My man, ah, um, ah, my husband, worked on the railroad and made good money. One day, the railroad was robbed. Someone accused my man of being a thief. He was afraid he would be put in jail and not be able to provide for Summer and me, so he brought us here, to my parents' old homestead. We had visited the land many times, so we knew the house on the land to be good, and we could raise our own food to live on.

"No one knew we moved to the other side of the mountain. The way the cabin is, you cannot see it unless you are right next to it. It is built into the mountain, in the front of a cave, so it is fairly warm in the winter and cool on hot summer days. We have a good garden, but we didn't have animals for meat. We caught some wild pigs and were raising them, but someone found the pen and let them go free. My man was good with his hands and was able to make a bow to kill deer. We were lucky and usually had meat that way. We didn't have salt, but we would chip off small pieces from the stock salt blocks in the area. We didn't have lamps either, but I did learn how to make candles from bear fat. That's how my husband Bernard was killed. He shot the bear with a bow, but didn't kill it. He shot the bear four times, but none of the arrows killed the bear. It caught my husband and killed him. Luckily, the bear did not eat him. I buried him near a meadow on the mountain. We have not had meat other than squirrels and rabbits since then."

She sat there, looking at me for a while, before adding, "I have done my best to teach Summer everything she would need in the world away from the mountain. She is a good reader. She knows her history of the United States and the world. She is good with math through algebra. I have been able to find books, and Eliza has put out books for me over the years."

After waiting to see if she was done, I asked, "Mildred, when your husband was killed, why didn't you go back to civilization? Why didn't you try to get Summer back into school?"

"I was afraid we would be in trouble for living on land that was not ours. I was also afraid people may have thought my husband had me help him with the robbery. I was so afraid."

Before I could say anything, with a curious, and almost angry tone, Mildred asked, "Why did Eliza sell her land to you? Did she owe you money?"

As an explanation, I told the two of them, "I was lucky to find someone who wanted to sell their house and property. Eliza wanted to live near her relatives, and I wanted to live away from people. This was perfect for me."

Summer was curious. "Eliza didn't have the TV for a long time. You do. She didn't have the electric lights, you do. She didn't use her refrigerator, just the spring house. Everything works for you. How is it that way?"

"Eliza didn't have enough money to have electricity. She only had enough to continue to buy feed for her animals and for the food she couldn't grow. She sold vegetables, milk, and eggs for her money."

Summer was listening intently. "I understand, I think."

"What are you going to do now that I know you live on the mountain?"

The lady very cautiously said, "We will go back to the other side of the mountain and live. We were trying to live a little closer to Eliza as she was helping us with food. If you let us live there, we will find another way to eat at our home."

I got up and made a small pot of coffee. This was going to be a tough one. How do you kick out a couple of people in the middle of winter without food and probably not a lot of clothing? The kid needed to go to school, although she was probably past high school age. The woman looked about my age, maybe a little older. I wondered if she might have some survivor benefits from Social Security. Depending on how long ago her husband was killed, they may have some child survivor's benefits too.

I went to my bag and pulled my notebook and pen out. Sitting back in my chair in front of the fire, I asked, "Please, give me yours, Summer's, and your husband's full name, social security numbers, and dates of birth. The date of your husband's death will be important. If you can remember, please give me the dates of the railroad robbery your husband was accused of. I'll need your old address and anything you can tell me about that time.

"We will have to go to where you buried your husband, but first I need to get an instrument that will tell me that exact location so I can write it down. The government may want to dig him up to find out what killed him."

After I had all of the information written down I saw that I didn't have Summer's date of birth as we went right past that. I was going to ask again but thought it might be something the mother was trying to keep from me. I informed them, "Okay, now I need to go to town again. I need to stop by Ben's to make sure he's okay. Do you show yourself to him often?"

Summer quickly spoke, "We are afraid of men, especially men with guns."

I told the two of them, "Ben and I only have guns to hunt and to keep bad people away. He is a nice man." They knew I was able to feed us many rabbit and deer dinners with a gun.

After a deep breath, I poured some coffee and asked, "Will you two stay here while I go to town? I need to call about your husband's incident with the railroad. I can use the information you have given me to find out most of what I need to know. We may have to go to Lexington to do everything. Let me keep you here for a while. I promise to not let anything happen to you and will feed you while you are here. Please stay while I am gone. The dogs will protect you if necessary."

They seemed content to stay, so I put my coat and boots on again and headed out. Down the road, I stopped at Ben's. There was smoke coming from his chimney, so I knocked. Ben came to the door and opened it, nodding for me to come in. "I'm sick, Mike. Sorry I didn't do the chores. I figured you would realize I didn't come and take care of them. My chest hurts because I've been coughing so much."

"How about I take you to the doc in town? I have a few chores to do in town and need to run up to Sterling to the Wal-Mart. If the doc is going to take a while, I can do my running around while you sit in a warm waiting room."

He nodded and said, "I probably caught my death from taking a bath the other night. I was beginning to smell myself and I've been around you a lot. You're a clean guy; Army, and all of that, so I thought I should get clean, too. I'll have to keep the house warmer when I do that."

I told him, "I doubt you caught what you have from taking a bath. You probably caught it from someone at the market. I'll bet you've never had a flu shot, have you?"

His questioning look told me the answer. "I ain't never had to have one of them. I heard one time you get the flu so bad from the shots it lays you up in bed for a week or so. No need to do that."

"That has changed now, Ben; let them give you a flu shot this time. I'll bet they can give you some antibiotic that will make your chest feel better too."

Ben put his boots and heavy coat on and followed me to the truck. When we got to the hospital, the same nurse from last night was there, "You have another person with pneumonia for me to fix up? Are the lady and her kid doing okay?"

Ben looked at me curiously, and all I could say at the time was, "Later."

Ben described his problem and the lady said, "You have what everyone around here has. I wish you people would get your flu shots. How about you, Mr. Grayson, have you had yours?"

I smiled and said, "I got it the day before I retired. I have had the Far East flu shot and one for here in the states. Don't worry, I'll be back every year for mine."

The nurse pointed at some chairs, mostly filled with people who looked as sick as Ben. "Sit over there and wait your turn, Ben. It's going to be a while."

After getting Ben seated, I told him what I was going to do, "Ben, I'm going to do some running around. I'll give the nurse my cell phone number so she can call me if you finish before I get done."

The nurse wrote down my cell phone number as I turned it on. It showed a full set of bars, but I already knew the area had good cell phone coverage.

The first place to go was Wal-Mart twenty minutes away in Sterling. I bought a battery operated GPS that looked easy to use, then headed for the Sheriff's department. The Deputy at the desk didn't look interested in anything that I had to say, so I asked for the Sheriff. He looked at me funny and asked, "And who may I say is asking?"

"Mike Grayson, a..."

He interrupted, "Yeah, the guy who bought Eliza's place? The same guy that brought a couple of women to the hospital last night? Who are you anyway, and where'd you come from? You a city boy?"

I really wanted to reach across the counter and smack the asshole. Instead I smiled at him, "I retired from the Army and wanted to live somewhere peaceful, away from people." I wanted to say that I wanted to live far away from assholes like him.

He took a different tack, "What can I do for you, Mr. Grayson? Since you are a taxpayer according to the City Clerk, I work for you."

Son of a gun, he got something right.

I explained I wanted to investigate a railroad robbery that happened fifteen years ago. I gave him the dates, Mr. Jorgenson's name, social security number, and date of birth. I told him that I really wanted to know what the disposition of that case was. Since it was a federal case, it should be easy to find.

"Why do you need something like this?" The man was testing me.

"Something tells me the man was never found and that he probably wasn't guilty. The man has since died, but his family needs to know as they have been in hiding since then."

"Where are they hiding? We'll run out and pick them up. If they're hiding, they're guilty of something."

"Easy, Deputy, could it have been a wife was following her husband. They could have had a kid with them."

The man looked at me a few seconds before picking up the phone and dialing. He was smart enough to call the FBI in Lexington. There was an extended wait, but when whoever he was talking to came back to the phone, the Deputy punched a button on his phone and put the receiver down.

Over the speaker, I heard, "We have a closed file on that case. The robbery was done by J.B. Beyers from Cincinnati. We caught him about three months after the robbery. According to the file, everyone near the rail yard was a suspect. Several quit and disappeared. The file said they kept thinking the last person to disappear was the guilty one, until the Beyers guy showed up trying to sell the goods in Toledo. What else can I do for you?"

I quickly said, "My name is Michael Grayson, Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, retired. Can I get a faxed copy of that file? It is important to one of the men's family that was under suspicion back then."

"Man, this file is probably ten inches thick. How about I send you what I have on that guy's name and the final disposition. Will that work?"

With a smile, I said, "That'll work. The name you're looking for is Jorgensen, and the Deputy will give you his local fax number."

The agent told us, "It'll be on its way in a minute."

I thanked the man before the Deputy gave the agent his fax number. When he pushed the button to hang up, "You know I shouldn't let you use the fax like that. But since you're a taxpayer, I suppose it's all right. You are a retired soldier, so you deserve something."

I thanked the Deputy after I mooched two copies of the documents and told him to tell the Sheriff if he came out my way to stop in for coffee. The Deputy said, "Man, nobody goes up that mountain unless they have to. The road is horrible and you got ghosts. You got balls livin' up there."

This had not taken very long, so I spent a few minutes making a grocery list. I didn't really know what meat was left at the cabin other than the smoked meats. I bought a couple of roasts, a bunch of ground beef, some fish, a few cans of vegetables Eliza wouldn't have canned herself, bread, honey, a bag of dog food, some dishwashing soap, some regular soap, some ladies' shampoo, a couple of hair brushes, more toothbrushes, and a couple of popular paperbacks.

Back at the clinic, Ben was still sitting, but with his head back, snoozing. The nurse told me the doc should be able to see Ben in half an hour or so. I thanked her and told her I would be back.

I went back to Wal-Mart up in Sterling again. This time I looked at all of their little ovens. They had a TV type oven that showed a roast, a pie, and a cake on the cover, so I put that in the cart. They had a deal on a crock pot, and I knew I could use that. As I pushed the cart past the TV display, I saw a nice forty inch TV that would fit over the fireplace perfectly. Anything bigger would look too big. I put a boxed one in the cart, with a speaker set and all of the cable connections someone would need. Oh yeah, how about a movie player. What to do, what to do? I had to listen to a fuzz faced kid tell me the advantages of a Blu-Ray player. It wasn't much more than a CD/DVD player and would play any media, so I put that into the cart as well. If the cabin was going to remain my home, and now having company, I might as well have some of this stuff. I found a couple of movies, including what I considered a chick flick. I needed some music, so I bought some CDs of decent ballad and blues groups.

It took a while to check out, and it took me a while to finish choking over my spending habits. I really didn't feel bad, as I hadn't spent a lot of money on myself so far this last year. I was going to need a bunch of cash to upgrade Eliza's place, but that was later, maybe the next summer.

The nurse had woken up Ben and taken him into the exam room. While I waited, I called Mervin and told him about a problem I was having with the satellite. It wasn't receiving very well and I also had a new TV to hook up over the fireplace. He promised to be out early in the morning.

It a few minutes, the doc came out with Ben. "This one isn't as bad as the lady last night. He only has the flu. He'll be fine by morning. He needs some food, some hot tea, and a good night's sleep. Check on him in the morning and he'll be dancing the jig."

As Ben shuffled toward the door, the doc held my arm. "He'll be fine, but if you can get him to come in again, I'd like to do some tests. He's getting up there in age, and his ticker isn't sounding that good. A lot of these old guys are too stubborn to get checked out. If you tell him, he might listen. Try, okay?"

I smiled at the doc and said, "I'll do that, Doc. I'll make sure Ben comes in. Does he need an appointment?"

"No, we're pretty loose here. When you bring him in, tell the nurse it's for me to check him out. She'll pick up on that and we'll get him in right away. I have a couple of specialists that come through on a regular basis, so we'll get him right in and checked out. Take care of the old folks like that, they are our history."

Ben was waiting for me at the door. I took care of his bill and took him to the truck. He was smiling as he sat in the seat. "You know, Mike, I know what the doc wants, and I'll come in with you. I know I'm not right all the time and probably need a little help, but I have to do what I have to do. I love our mountain and plan to live the rest of my life up there. Thank you for caring for me. Now you'll have to do the same for the other two old folks up there."

"They are a couple of good ones, aren't they?"

"You got to love old lady Fletcher just below me. She's an old witch that everyone loves dearly. She makes the best apple pies in the county. You know she's about my age, but never would give me a tumble. She says that by the time she became a widow, she didn't need a man no more, but I know different."