Yankton

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 Supply Run

Mark and I had now decided to make an expedition south to pan for gold, offer our services to transport gold to the bank, along with taking Jo and Sara down to Custer City. However, we couldn't put off our return to 2013 any longer. Kitty was returning to Dora's to finish her recuperation, Montana promised to see to it someone checked on our livestock, as Melonie had decided to accompany us mainly so she could continue to study as well as get a chance to take a nice hot shower. This time traveling was starting to become routine, so once again we returned to our own time setting our return date for two days after we previously left. Everything seemed to be in order; nobody had tried to break in, however when I opened the front door a note fell out on to the floor.

"Brian,

Your truck is here, don't know who the car belongs to, don't know where you've run off to. Need to talk, Jeff and I are finished. Need a place to crash for awhile, staying at Super 8, call me as soon as you return…Melinda." I stood there and looked at the note just shaking my head. "Problem?" asked Mark. Making a face, I replied, "That stupid sister of mine has apparently split from that i***t live-in boyfriend of hers, now she's here, Christ, if I didn't have enough problems." My first course of action was to call my mother, who being at work couldn't talk long. She was just as upset as I was, "Melinda has said nothing to me about this," said my mother. ""It's probably because she knows how you feel about Jeff and doesn't need a lot of "I-told-you-so's," I replied. "Well she's here in Deadwood, expecting me to put her up, and frankly mom I'm a bit busy right now, I don't have time to "baby sit." My mom didn't offer much encouragement other than, "She's your sister Brian, she just needs to sort things out, talk to you later, I'm rather busy here, bye!" Mark then asked about Melinda, he knew I had a sister, but not much more than that.

"She is…Or was, living with a professional student Jeff Kroger, who was attending classes at the University just taking enough credit hours to still be listed as a student. They were living in subsidized housing, he played in some sort of alterative rock band, she was his sometimes lead singer. Basically they were living as wanna-be hipsters, but Laramie Wyoming isn't really conducive to that sort of "lifestyle. Mom blames herself for Melinda's failures in life, but sometimes it's simply a roll of the dice, she's the total opposite of me. Melonie then asked, "You never said anything about having a sister, I think I'd like to meet her." "Be careful of what you wish for Melonie," I replied, "You just might get it." "why, what's wrong with your sister?" she asked. "Melinda is basically a decent girl," I said, "But she doesn't have much of what we call common sense, you asked me once what women were like in 2013, well I suppose your going to find out." I put my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes, "Mel…Prepare to be scandalized." She just grinned, "Oh I think I'm past all that now, after all I count Montana as a good friend, taking care of Kitty, and consorting with fallen women, how could your sister be any worse, are you telling me she's a prostitute?" I grimaced, "By the standards of 1876, probably. What would your family and friends say to a woman "living in sin?" "Oh…Well, I'll try and overlook that."

I called the motel and got hold of my sister who seemed a little put out at my being gone, but promised me she would be right over. Mark and Melonie had returned to her studies, with Mark amazing her with things on the internet. About a half hour later, came a knock on the door, when I opened it I was rather taken aback by what stood in front of me wearing a sheepish grin. Normally my sister has natural blonde hair, now it was spiky and black with unnatural streaks of red centered around the front; She also had several body piercing one just above her right eyebrow, one just below, and one on the side of her nose.

She was wearing a black tank top along with short shorts with flip-flops on her feet. I also spotted tattoos on the tops of her breasts with the indication that they went farther down. "Hey Bri' you look great, came I come in?" As I stepped aside, she pushed past into the living room. I hadn't realized it before, but she was also smoking. "Oh gee I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had house guests, Hi all, I'm Brian's sister Melinda." Putting the cigarette back in her mouth, she offered her hand to Mark then stood there looking at Melonie, who was by now staring at my sister with eyes big as saucers. "Melinda," I announced, "We don't smoke in here, if you're going to smoke go outside." This put her into a huff, as she made a production of going outside to put her cigarette out. While she was doing this, I looked at Melonie and shrugged. Back inside she went into her "act." "it's true, it's officially "over," between Jeff and I, he kicked me out, I thought a change of scene would be good for the soul, and I heard you were here in Deadwood, I hope you don't mind?" What could I say? In a way, I did feel sorta sorry for her, but before I could offer my advice, Melinda had gone over to where Mark and Melonie were working. "What's with the clothes, are you one of those re-enactor's you know I thought of doing that once, they had a job open at the old Territorial prison for some sort of guide, I applied, but never heard from them."

I started to come to Melonie's rescue, but she was way ahead of me, "Why yes I am," said Melonie a sly smile on her face. "What do you think of my interpretation, I answer questions for the tourists." "Wow, look at those clothes," said my sister pointing at Melonie, "I'll bet they're pretty uncomfortable." Melonie shrugged, "You get used to them." Melinda then switched gears, "Um, are you two together or is this some sort of ménage á Trois you guys got going?" Mark then spoke up, "Melonie and I are just good friends that's all, I'm teaching her…Things."

Melinda," I announced, "We're kind of in the middle of some things here, I can't deal with your problems right now." Being her brother I should have been prepared for what came next, Melinda then got a frightened look on her face, sat down on the couch and started crying. Her little "drama" achieved it's purpose, Melinda rushed to her side and tried to comfort her. "Careful Mel," I warned, "That's strictly an act." Melinda then glared at me with tear stained eyes, "Why do you hate me so much, what have I ever done to you?" "Nothing," I replied, "I feel bad for you, I really do, but like I said, we're involved in something right now." I was starting to get mad, as I launched into her. "Look at yourself, what's with the hair, and all the "tat's," how do I really know you two have split up, you know I'll bet if you lost the body piercing did something with your hair and tried to look presentable mom might let you move back in with her, course you'd really have to clean up your act, although I don't know how you're going to get rid of those tat's." "f**k you, it's my life, I'm not moving back in with mom, look Brian, I'm serious, I have no place to go, my car's on it's last legs, I have no money, I don't know what else to do." I stood there staring at her, then Mark spoke up, "Comon' man she's your sister, I don't know, maybe she can do stuff for us while we're gone."

Mark unwittingly gave her an opening, "Look, I'm serious, if you guys got something going I can really help, I really can!" "Hold on there Melinda," I quickly replied, "we're not into drug dealing or anything like that if that's what you think, and speaking of which, I'm going to check all your stuff, If I find any trace of weed, coke, ecstasy, or any s**t like that, I'm throwing your ass right out of here and calling the cops, I'm damned serious about that, it's not even a subject for debate, are you absolutely clear on that?"

"I swear to God I'm clean Brian, I really am, that was part of the problem, Jeff was getting deeper into meth and stuff like that, he was taking all the money we were making and buying good times with it, there were times when we had no food in the house, I'm serious, I can't go back there." I was sure she was lying, but I asked anyway, "How do I know that if I let you stick around, that the minute we're gone you won't call up your little boyfriend and get him up here so he can steal us blind? Listen, sis, I'm not kidding we've got a deal going on here that I can't jeopardize on a couple meth heads ." Melinda then got a funny look on her face, then getting up she came over to me and slapped me as hard as she could across the face. "Wooo, I heard that," exclaimed Mark, Melonie just stared in horror. As I rubbed my cheek, Melinda started in on me, "Don't you f*****g dare call me that, I'm your sister Brian, I have no where else to go, I came to you for help." She then broke down crying again. By now I was getting dirty looks from both Mark and Melonie. Then Melonie launched on me, "I thought I knew you Brian, this treatment of your own sister is totally uncalled for, why are you behaving like that?" "Because if I let her stay, I'm running the risk of giving her access to that machine, as well as a lot of very valuable artifacts." Turning back to Melinda I said, "If I were to go to the drug store right now and get a drug test kit, would you pass it?"

"You won't need to Brian," said Mark rather quietly, "I have one in my med gear." "Give it to me," I replied. "I'm not playing games here Melinda, I've got something in mind for you, something you could do to help us, that is if I let you stay, but I have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what your telling me is true, and that your totally clean." Mark handed me the test kit, "Here," I said, "Go into the bathroom and do this test, right now." She glared daggers at me but went into the bathroom and returned with her urine sample. While I was dealing with this drama, Mark was explaining to Melonie what was going on. Much to my relief, the test was negative. "Well, are you satisfied asshole!" snarled Melinda. Mark then spoke up in my defense, "Back off Melinda, Brian's right, we are involved in something that could be very dangerous if it got into the wrong hands, or if word got out, your brother is just being very careful, when you hear what it is, you'll understand."

"So," I stated, "Are you and Jeffy boy completely finished, no second thoughts, no running back to him hoping he'll take you back?" She looked me dead in the eye, and said slowly, I swear to God Brian, it's over, done, I came here for a fresh start, and hopefully a new life, I have nothing left." I thought about it for a few more moments, then pointed to the couch, "Sit down and listen carefully, I'm only telling you once, Mark and Melonie will back every word I tell you." I sat down next to her and began, "You remember Professor Wainwright?" "Mom's old boss, of course I do." "Well there was more to him than anyone ever thought…"

When I was finished, everybody was as quiet as mice, finally Melinda broke the silence with, "When do I get to meet Montana?"

"When I'm convinced that you can be trusted," I replied. Then I remembered something,

"Say, didn't you and Jeff sell stuff on e-bay?" she nodded,

Yeah, those dress designs I was making." Her mind switching again, she studied Melonie sitting with Mark at the table, slowly saying,

"So you've never seen cars, airplanes, cell phones or I-pods?" Melonie got her back when she pointed to the laptop she and Mark had in front of them.

"I'm using a computer!" Everyone laughed. My sister seemed sincere, but I had to be very sure, so I continued to scout out the type of skills she had, as well as ability to learn.

"Alright Melinda, here's the deal, and if I ask you something, I want an honest answer from you, it won't do any good to lie, or pretend, I'll discover it soon enough. From the looks of things, Mark and I are going to be spending a lot of time…Elsewhere. Your e-bay experience will be helpful, but you're going to have to dummy-up on antiques, guns, books furniture, jewelry, stuff like that. More importantly, you're going to be responsible for large sums of money, as well as finding places to sell gold, and getting a fair price for it all, do you think you could do that?" Melinda formed a puzzled look on her face,

"Yeah…I guess, what's this all about, are you guys opening an antique store or something?"

Mark and Melonie laughed,

"You might say that," I replied, "But seriously, are these things you would feel confident doing on your own?" My sister stared at me, then over to Melonie and Mark.

"Yes," was her firm reply, "Yes I can."

"Oh I forgot to mention," I replied, "Since we're going to be gone so much you're going to have to keep an eye on all the bills, gas, electric, property taxes, that sort of thing, big responsibility here."

"I told you I could do it," she answered, "Where are you guys going anyway?"

"Don't worry about that right now," I said, "At this point, we have to be sure that you can do what you say you can, there can be no doubt whatsoever, this is very important Melinda."

"What I'd like you to do for us is sell stuff on e-bay or other internet auctions. Guns, Indian stuff, books, anything like that," I said. You'll also be in charge of putting the money all these artifacts bring in. You're going to have to school yourself on antique prices, what things are going for, but most importantly, getting the highest bid at the auctions. Think you could do that? I'm really going out on a limb for you dear sister, maybe you could really be of help to us, but you're going to be handling a lot of money and responsibility I really have to be sure about you."

"What do I get out of it?" she replied. "At first, nothing, other than a place to stay, food to eat, maybe a little spending money, because this is all going to be strictly "OJT" at first, I'm sorry, but that's the way it's got to be, we haven't even seen much return yet, nothing's been sold on any auction site yet, oh! And another thing, we'll need you to make large purchases of condoms, Midol, Tylenol, aspirin feminine products…" Melinda burst out into laughter, "What do you need with all that stuff?"

I suppressed the urge to laugh as well, and replied, "In order for you to see what's truly going on I think I'm going to take you with us when we return, you'll get to meet Montana, as well as Dora DuFran, I think then you'll see why we need that stuff, now I need an honest answer from you, can you do the job or not?" Melinda sat for a moment thinking, then with a look of confidence replied, "Yes, yes, I can, I know I can, this is going to be so cool…Say, hold on a minute, I just thought of something, how are you going to spend modern money back in the olden days, I remember seeing something on cable about money, and it was different back then." Mark chuckled, "She's caught on already." I sighed, "You've hit on the big problem sister, you're right, all the money we make from the sale of anything we sell here in 2013 can't be taken back to 1876, but unless you have a better idea we've all settled on this;" Any gold that comes our way, whether it be dust, nuggets or coins, with a few exceptions goes to Melonie and Montana, plus anything they want in the way of hard goods, food, clothing, whatever we buy here with money from the account.

I realize with inflation, and the fact that gold nowadays is well over thirteen hundred dollars an ounce, It's a rather lopsided arrangement but I'm still trying to figure that one out, in the meantime, we'll have to do it this way." Melinda brightened, "So basically I'll be like Danielle, on "American Pickers." "I don't think I'm familiar with that show," I replied. "I have," injected Mark, "Yes Melinda, you'll be just like Danielle."