Demon's Pass (2 page)

“Wait,” Parker said. “Can I tell my ma and pa one more thing?”

“Of course you can, son. Take all the time you need.”

Parker cleared his throat, and looked down at the pile of freshly turned dirt.

“Ma, Pa, if all your teachin' about heaven and all that is right, then I reckon you can hear me, 'cause the Lord has, for sure, taken you into his arms. So, what I want to say is . . . don't worry none about me. I aim to live the kind of life you would'a both wanted me to live. And I figure, the way things are now, why, you'll both be watchin' over me even more'n you would'a if you was still alive.

“And you can set your minds to ease about Elizabeth, too. I aim to find her. It may take a while, but I promise you, if it takes twenty years, I'll keep lookin' for her.

“I reckon this is good-bye for now, but, if you don't mind, I'll be talkin' to you from time to time. Oh, I prob'ly won't be comin' back out to this place anymore. But, then, I don't think your souls will be hangin' aroun' here anyway.”

Clay stood a few feet behind Parker as he said his final words. He was glad he couldn't be seen. It wouldn't be seemly for the boy to see him wipe the tears from his own eyes.

“I reckon that's it,” Parker said.

“You'll do your folks proud, Parker, I know you will,” Clay said.

Parker started toward the horse, then he remembered the hidden pouch of money. It was under a loose board in the front of the wagon, a part which hadn't been damaged by the fire. He started toward it.

“What're you going after?”

Parker looked back toward Clay. The man had saved his life, helped bury his parents, and even read prayers over their graves. But a sudden cautiousness made him hesitate to tell Clay of the money. What if all the help this man had given him had only been a ruse to see if there was anything of value left? He felt almost ashamed of himself for being suspicious, but he thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. “Just some letters,” Parker said. “I want to keep them.”

“All right.”

Parker moved the board to one side and picked up the small leather pouch. He could feel the hefty wad of bills inside. As he had overheard his mother and father talking about it, he knew they had one thousand dollars left over after buying the wagon and supplies.

Parker slipped the pouch down inside his waistband, then walked back over to the horse. Clay was already mounted, and he offered his hand to help Parker climb up.

 

The air was perfumed with the smell of rabbit roasting on a spit, while Clay and Parker drank coffee. Parker hadn't been a coffee drinker before. His ma told him she'd as soon he not drink coffee until he was an adult, and that was what he told Clay when Clay offered him a cup.

“Well, Parker, some folks become adults before other folks,” Clay said. “Seems to me like that time has come for you.”

Clay was right, Parker thought. He was on his own, now. As far as being an adult was concerned, that sort of sped things up. He accepted the coffee. It tasted a little bitter to him, but he was determined to acquire a taste for it.

Clay sipped his own coffee through extended lips and studied Parker over the rim of his cup.

“How old are you, Parker?”

“I'm sixteen,” Parker said.

Clay raised one eyebrow.

“All right, fifteen . . . and a half.”

“Where were you folks comin' from?”

“Illinois.”

“You got any relatives back in Illinois that you want to go to?”

Parker shook his head. “No, all my ma's folks live in England and I don't even know their names. My pa had a brother, but he got killed at Antietam.”

“Bloody battle, Antietam,” Clay said, shaking his head. “Any close friends or neighbors?”

“None I would want to be a burden to,” Parker replied. He took another drink of his coffee. It seemed to him that it went down a little easier this time. “Anyway, I don't want to go back. I've got to find my sister.”

“Older sister? Or younger?”

“Older. She's eighteen.”

Clay studied the boy for a long moment before he talked. “Boy, you have to face the fact that you may never find her. A group of renegades like that . . . especially if they have a white man riding with them . . . will sell her to the highest bidder.”

“I'll find her,” Parker insisted. “It may take me a while, but I'll find her.”

Clay started to caution him against false hope, then he checked the impulse. Instead, he smiled at Parker. “I'm sure you're right,” he said. “If anyone can do it, you, my stalwart young lad, can.”

“What's a stalwart?” Parker asked.

Clay laughed. “It means resolute, courageous, determined,” he said.

“Determined. Yes, that's what I am. I am determined.”

“Well, now, the question is, what are we to do with you?”

“Do with me? Why do you have to do anything with me? Just get me back into a town somewhere and I'll be grateful.”

“I can't just turn you out on your own,” Clay said “You're too young.”

“I thought you told me I was an adult.” Clay cleared his throat. The boy was trapping him with his own words.

“Well . . . you are, as far as I'm concerned. But there's other things to consider. Your schooling for example. You being only fifteen, you're going to need another couple of years of schooling, and I don't think you can get that on your own. Tell you what, I'm going into Independence tomorrow. Suppose we go see the judge and let him decide your case.”

“What do you mean, decide my case?”

“Decide what to do with you,” Clay said.

“Oh.” Parker was quiet for a long moment.

“Mr. Springer, will the judge put me in an orphanage?”

“He may,” Clay admitted. “I believe there is an orphanage in Independence.”

“I don't want to go to an orphanage.”

“Why not? There will be people there to look after you. You'll be fed and clothed, and you'll go to school,” Clay said, trying to paint as attractive a picture as he could.

“I don't need to be looked after. I can feed and clothe myself.”

“Parker, I don't know how much money there is in that pouch you've got stuck down in your waistband, but I'd be willing to bet there isn't enough to take care of you until you are full-grown.”

Parker gasped and instinctively felt for the pouch.

“You were right not to tell me about it,” Clay said. “I'll give you credit for that. But this should prove something to you, I hope. If I were the type person who would rob you, I could have already done it. So even your attempt at secrecy wasn't enough. See, you'd be better off going to an orphanage.” Clay pulled a blanket from his saddle roll and tossed it over to Parker. “Here,” he said. “Wrap up in this and get some sleep. It's been a bad day for you, but you'll see things more clearly tomorrow.”

 

Black thunderclouds rumbled ominously in the northwest all the next morning, but they held off long enough for Parker and Clay to reach their destination.

Independence was laid out like a giant cross, with Liberty Street forming the north-south arm, and Independence Avenue cutting across it, running east-west. Independence Avenue continued on as a wagon trail running west, out of town.

Parker looked at this town which was to be his new home. It was a very busy town. There was a lot of wagon and buggy traffic, and dozens and dozens of people walking along the plank walks which lined both sides of the streets. At intervals, there were boards stretched all the way across the dirt streets to allow people a way to cross when the roads were full of mud. This was the first town Parker had seen since his family had stopped for a few days in Sedalia, Missouri, some six weeks earlier. Despite the unhappy circumstances under which he was now seeing Independence, he found it very exciting to be in a town again.

At the intersection of Liberty and Independence, Clay stopped in front of the Morning Star Hotel.

“Why don't you take my horse on down to the livery and get a stable for him?” Clay suggested, handing Parker a coin. “Tell the hand to feed him oats and rub him down. Then come on back to the hotel. I'll be up in my room.”

“Where will your room be?”

“I don't know yet. I haven't registered. You can check with the desk, they'll tell you.”

“What's the desk?”

By now Clay had slipped down from the horse to allow Parker to move up into the saddle. Clay looked up at him and smiled.

“Are you serious?”

“I've . . . I've never been in a hotel before,” Parker admitted.

“Believe me, from the condition of some of the ones I've been in, you haven't missed much,” Clay said. He removed his saddlebags and hung them over his shoulder, then pointed through the door. “Look, when you come back, just go inside here, there will be a man behind a counter. Ask him what room number Clay Springer is registered in, and he'll tell you.”

“All right,” Parker said.

Parker watched Clay go into the hotel, then started riding toward the livery, which was about three blocks down on Independence. He reached down and patted the neck of the animal he was riding. His father had never owned a horse. Back in Illinois, he had farmed with mules, but he sold those when he made the decision to take the family West. He had then replaced the mules with a team of oxen.

Parker thought it would be nice to have a horse, and the freedom to go wherever a horse could take you. What if he just kept this horse? With a good mount and a thousand dollars, he could get a start somewhere.

And he wouldn't have to go to an orphanage.

But even as the thought crossed his mind, he knew he wouldn't do it. No matter how he might justify it to himself, it would still be stealing . . . and worse, he would be stealing from a man who had helped him.

By now Parker's slow ride down the street had brought him to the livery barn. Turning in, he climbed down from the saddle and handed the horse over to the attendant who met him, a boy not much older than himself.

“This your horse?” the boy asked.

“It belongs to a friend.”

“Looks like a good horse.”

“He sure is,” Parker said, almost possessively.

“I ain't seen you around here,” the livery attendant said as he took the horse's reins.

“I've never been here.”

“You'n your folks gonna live here?”

“I . . . I don't have any folks.”

The boy looked around in surprise. “You an orphan?”

“Yes.”

“I'm only half an orphan. I got me a ma, but she sure ain't much.”

Parker gasped. He had never heard anyone speak so freely of their own mother.

“You think that's evil of me, don't you?” the boy asked.

“I would never say anything like that about my ma. If she was still alive,” he added.

“Yeah, well, most mas is good, I guess. But my ma is what they call a whore. She works down at the Crystal Palace 'n when she's not layin' up with some man, she's more'n likely drunk. But at least havin' a ma . . . any kind of a ma . . . means I ain't a orphan, so I don't have to go live up on The Hill. Any ma's all right if she keeps you offen The Hill.”

“What's The Hill?”

“You kiddin'? You an orphan 'n you ain't never heard of The Hill? It's the orphanage. It's run by Ol' Man Slayton. Jebediah Slayton. They say he's the meanest man ever lived. He works the orphans till they're 'bout ready to drop, 'n he beats 'em when he don't think they're workin' hard enough. Just you wait. If you're a orphan like you say you are, 'n you're movin' here, you'll find out soon enough.”

“Maybe I won't go to the orphanage,” Parker said.

“If you stay here, you'll more'n likely have to. Seems like that's the law or somethin'.” The boy looked at the sky. “It's fixin' to rain somethin' fierce. If you ain't got a place to get out of it, you can stay here for a while.”

“Thanks,” Parker said. “I've got a place.”

“Better get to it then,” the stable boy said as he disappeared into the barn.

At that moment the thunderclouds delivered on their promise, and the rain started coming down in sheets. Parker dashed across the street and up onto the wooden sidewalk. Many of the stores had roofs that overhung the sidewalk, so though Independence Avenue was already turning into a river of mud, Parker was able to return to the hotel without suffering too much from the weather. He stomped his feet just outside the door to make certain he had no mud on his shoes, then he went inside.

The hotel lobby seemed huge to him. There were a dozen or more chairs and sofas scattered about, several potted plants, mirrors on the walls, and a grand, elegant staircase rising to the second floor. Parker looked around for a moment, taking in all the images of this, his first time in a hotel. Then he saw a counter and a man behind it looking at him.

“Boy, what you doin' in here? This isn't a place you can just come in out of the rain,” the man behind the counter said, gruffly.

“I'm looking for Mr. Clay Springer.”

“Springer. He just check in?”

Check in wasn't a term Parker had ever heard used, but he reasoned what it must mean.

“Yes, just a few moments ago.”

“Yeah, thought that was his name. He's in room 212.”

“Where's that?”

“Well, if it's 212, it must be on the second floor,” the man said in exasperation.