Cha'Nara's Gift

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 Brothers In Arms

Deak Continues

The wind generator would have to wait for installation when things warmed up a bit outside, and probably not until after New Years, as for the solar panel, I was able to find a place to mount it off the upper porch, and be able to angle it so it would catch the sun from noon onwards. It was around 1:30 when I finished installing the panel. I spent some time installing my ACOG scope on the new rifle Emily bought for me, I then located Ben who accompanied me to our impromptu shooting range about half a mile from town, I had set up some targets down in a small coulee I had Ben set up a series of bottles while I made final adjustments. I sighted the rifle in at 400 yards, an average distance for most of the shooting we do around here.

I went through a box of twenty, getting the rifle sighted in, to where I wanted it to shoot, the advertising is right on, once sighted in, these M1A rifles were dead on. Walking back into town, I parted company with Ben and headed for Sheriff James's office. He was sitting at his desk along with Ned Albright the blacksmith, and another man with a hard look about him. "Sheriff!" "Deak!" I leaned my rifle near the door and sat down, everybody was drinking coffee and smoking cigars, this was something you just didn't encounter anymore back home, the smoke filled room. "Mighty unusual shootin' Iron ya got there son?" said the sheriff's friend, before I could answer, Carson said, "Deak, this is Walker Evans, good friend of mine," "Nice to meet you Walker" I said as I shook his hand. "You guys in the war together?" Both men laughed, "In a manor of speaking," said Carson. "When the war was over I stayed in," said Carson. "They sent me out to Fort Riley Kansas, we were way under strength so they filled out my unit with "Galvanized Yankees" like Walker here, we took a liking to each other, known each other ever since."

Since the Civil War was a subject of special interest to me I knew this one, "Weren't "Galvanized Yankees Confederates who signed a pledge of allegiance to the union, and served in the Calvary or Infantry." Walker and Carson looked at each other, "Son, it would seem that you know your history," remarked Carson. I smiled and said, "Sheriff, I've been interested in the Civil War since I was a kid, I take it then you fought for the south Mr. Evans." "No son, I fought for Texas," said Walker. I chuckled, "You Texans sure have an incredible independent streak. Still do, Don't Mess with Texas! There were a couple guys in my unit from Texas, but we don't call them "Galvanized Yankees anymore, in fact Texas is one of the few states in 2012 that's doing pretty well economically."

Walker smiled, "Glad to hear that son, don't mess with Texas eh! I like it." "Very popular phrase down there," I added. After the ice was broken, I spent the next two hours talking history with three men who actually fought in the Civil War, the stories they told me were things I've never read in any history book, I was spellbound.

As things wound down I looked at these veterans and said, " I can't tell you gentlemen how incredibly honored I feel talking to you, with the possible exception of the Second World war, no other event has shaped and influenced this country like the Civil war, or in deference to you Mr. Evans The War Between the States. There are historians who would give everything they owned to be able to talk to you like I'm doing. In all the accounts and books I've read on the subject, I think the one question every historian would ask you men deals with what it must have taken to march or ride into the hailstorms of rifle and cannon fire and keep going back for more, generations from now people will still be honoring you men for the determination you showed at places like, Shiloh, Antietam, Maries Heights, Gettysburg, The Battle of Franklin, I'm truly humbled gentlemen." All three men laughed, "Well at least they still remember us!" remarked Ned. "So son, tell us about your war, and that fancy new-fangled rifle you've got over there," said Walker.

We sat and talked, I gave them a quickie overview of American History up to my time, World War I World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, The First Iraq war, The Second Iraq war and now Afghanistan. Needless to say these men were not impressed with all these "Foreign Adventures" as Carson called them, although I tried to impress them with the fact that war was no longer fought the way the Civil War was, I don't think they really understood, the magnitude of a world war or what modern weapons can do, most of the technology I described seemed to just go right over their heads, when I field stripped my new AR, they were amazed by the complexity of it, shooting people at long distances seemed "ungentlemanly" it was looked down on in the Civil War as being something underhanded, an opinion these men still held. I showed them pictures of Afghanistan, Emily and I, pictures Emily had taken of one of the FIT teams, all the men were very upset over the fact that this country had been reduced to placing women in harms way by allowing them in combat, or near it anyway.

I told them about Emily's commendation medal, "Ask her to show it to you sometime, if she does, know that the "V" device denotes an act of uncommon valor in the face of the enemy. They ended up being somewhat impressed by her courage under fire, and the risks women were taking over there, but remained convinced women had no place in combat. Before I left, I remembered something I wanted to tell the sheriff, "Carson, I've been meaning to tell you about something I've been kicking around in my mind, my wife, along with others are down on my case over killing so many men lately, even though it couldn't be helped. I purpose building something I call "The Box" it would be a structure, maybe two next to each other, with a stone floor, very narrow, only allowing for a man to stand up in, once he's in there all he can do is stand up, he would be allowed nothing but his long johns , what do you say?" Sheriff James shook his head, and said, "Seems to me that might be bordering on "cruel and unusual punishment there son, however something like that might tend to "cool 'em off a bit! What gave you the idea for that?" "Oh, one of my favorite "plays" deals with prisoners on a chain gang in the south; they use it in the play." Both Ned and Walker commented positively on the idea, Carson thought for another moment then said, "Go ahead and build one Deak, we'll give it a try, see how it works." "Great, I'll draw up a design, get some lumber shipped up here and see what I can do."

With that, our little "coffee klatch" broke up, Ned headed back to his shop where his son waited, Walker and Carson walked with me over to the saloon to play some poker with Emily, "She don't cheat, do she?" asked Walker, "No sir, she isn't that good," I remarked dryly.

Christmas Eve, Emily forbade any gambling, there were a couple of salesmen and a stray miner or two, hanging around, but she led everybody in singing Christmas carols, drinks were "on the house" and she played "Santa Claus" by passing out the gifts she had purchased in 2012. "Ladies, accept these gifts as a token of my appreciation for all you're hard work, ahm! No pun intended," which drew bawdy laughter.

"Tomorrow or the next day I will be conducting a little block of instruction, dealing with the proper way to apply the make-up I bought for you all, so here's to a very merry Christmas ladies!' Rachel explained to the others and by personal demonstration how to apply it, the comfort of the underwear, and just generally describing these little examples of the 21st century. One of the salesmen could play the piano fairly well so everybody danced, Emily and I danced together, giving everybody an example of how we "did it" in the future, Cha'Nara wearing her skin tone make-up made an appearance along with Ben, she and Ben danced in a style more like a jig, but everybody was feeling pretty good with the free booze, one of the rare times Emily allowed her "girls" to drink, they really let their hair down, even Rachel got a little "wild" but it was Christmas after all.

Emily Picks up the Story

New Years Eve 1878 and I was determined to "Rock this town tonight!" I took a cue from modern advertising, I had posters put up promoting "New Years at Miss Emily's" all drinks half price when paid with gold, "Other" services also got a "discount" when either dust or nuggets were offered, We would be serving some of the "better" booze brought from 2012, but the "Bad Girls Saloon" would be enforcing a strict "No guns" policy, weapons of every kind would be "checked" at the door, no exceptions, any man pulling a gun or drawing a knife would be shot on the spot, I wasn't bullshitting. My heavy promotion paid off, the place was packed, with more trying to get in, I made sure Sally down the street got in on the action as well, I sat at my table dealing poker, and keeping an eye out, Deak watched the door, collecting all weapons, (and offering owners of unusual firearms tidy sums of money for their gun) My "girls" were in fine form, I had held meetings prior to tonight going over every detail, and possible problem, they were ready.

Another thing I did was cast around for a good piano player, I got a guy all the way from Denver, who was damn good, he kept the place jumping, at one point, I even sang a few songs, they were period songs to be sure. My Darling Clementine, Annie Laurie, Streets of Laredo, Buffalo Girls, and an especially heart rending version of Oh Shenandoah! I had practiced all week prior to tonight and it really paid off, Deak says I should make it a regular feature. We did a countdown like they do in Times Square, and had a ball comedown from the ceiling proclaiming the new year of 1879! I told Deak later, "This is why I really trained my "girls" right, everybody pulled together, we all worked our asses off (literally) but we brought in an incredible amount of money well. Over $6000.00 which included everything, gambling, drinks, female companionship, contests (one of Deaks last minute ideas) In the morning there were plenty of aching heads (and other places) but I got up and really thanked the ladies for pulling this off and that they could expect to see bonus's coming their way. As for Ben and Cha'Nara, Ben helped Deak at the door, Cha'Nara under heavy disguise worked with the girls and household staff taking care of mishaps and little "problems" before they became big ones, all in all, one Hellava night!

Deak Picks up the Story

I really had to hand it to her, Emily really outdid herself, New Years Eve, we threw one Hell of a party, her "girls" made sure we cleared over $6000.00 Incredible! Pip and Ben even helped, I was especially impressed with Emily's singing, people were actually tossing coins and even small nuggets at their feet. I saw a lot of men actually crying when she did "Streets of Laredo, and Oh Shenandoah" Emily sure is an incredible woman.

Things slowed down considerably after that, winter storms extremely cold weather (Pip was absolutely miserable) put a heavy dent in business, we held on though, spring eventually came, Ben and I kept talking about prospecting, as the winter runoff's would reveal fresh veins and flakes and nuggets washed down from higher rock formations. It was agreed on, that around the first of April we would head out checking the surrounding areas for fresh sites. Emily wanted to go very badly but she had a business to attend to, "Besides" I said, "you'll probably end up "finding" more gold than we will, but in a different way, with the snow coming off the trails and passes; the "Bad Girls" will fill up again." While Ben and I waited for the snow to melt, I studied modern topographic maps against historical records of claim sites and gold discoveries. I also used this time to train Ben in using my Springfield and the M4 shotgun. Ben actually preferred a nice Winchester saddle rifle, and a Colt Bisley with a 5.5-inch barrel in .44 caliber, he liked the way it fit his hand. Ben was becoming quite the man, with his father dead, and his mother occupied full time with her restaurant he was at loose ends, I took an interest in him and began to involve him is most of my activities and dealings, his relationship with Cha'nara stayed strong and between the two of us Ben came into his own.