Fated Memories (12 page)

Thankfully, Simon responded right away and knelt beside her to see what his friend needed. Max reached out, squeezing Simon’s arm, his voice a ragged whisper. “My pipe… Hilda’s… medicine… helps.”

Simon removed the pipe with the little pouch of tobacco from Max’s vest and held it up to him. “Is this it?”

Max nodded. “Please… light it… for me.”

“No!” Kitty gripped Simon’s arm to stop him. “He told me he has asthma. You hear how he’s breathing, if he fills up his lungs with smoke, it’ll just make it worse. He could die.”

Watching his friend’s pleading gestures, Simon’s hesitation lasted only a moment. His eyes riveted her as he held her shoulders, whispering. “Remember the conversation we had about interfering? If this is his usual way of managing his asthma, we have to let him do it. I understand your reasoning, it makes sense, but people treated all kinds of diseases before… us.” He shot a glance at Max. “I’m going to light the pipe, and you need to let him smoke it.”

Simon filled the bowl and used the matchsticks he found in the pouch to light it. Simon puffed hard to get it going, and choked on the unfamiliar, pungent taste of the tobacco herbs. “I’ve seen him smoke this stuff many times. It hasn’t killed him yet, so maybe it does help.”

He passed the pipe to Max and faced Kitty again. “I have to help the others get that pig to camp, but I’ll come back for you as soon as I can.”

“What? You’re leaving me here?” The panic rose in her throat again.

“Just for a little while. I’ll come right back, I promise. Max needs someone to stay with him, but I need to help the men to carry that litter. You’re better at things like this than Maggie. Can you do this, Kit? Can you be brave and stay here in case he needs help?”

Kitty looked over at Max, the smoke from the pipe now encircling his head. “Yes, I can be brave,” she lied. “Just don’t forget about me.”

Simon drew her close and laid a reassuring kiss on the side of her head as she’d often seen him do with Maggie. “You’re my sister, how can I forget you?”

Though she tried not to let her quivering insides show, Max still sensed her nervousness as she sat back beside him. “Thank you, Miss Kitty,” he wheezed.

“Shh, don’t speak. Everything will be okay, Max.” She didn’t know who needed convincing more, her or him.

To Kitty’s surprise, it didn’t take long for the herbal mixture in that pipe to do its job and Max insisted on talking. Between puffs he told her that his wife, being half Shawnee, had been taught the traditional Indian healing methods by her mother. In their hometown, people sought her out for all sorts of remedies.

Now that Max’s breathing had returned to a near normal rhythm, only the fear of being left alone in the dark lingered. 

After a while Max dozed off and Kitty waited, on high alert for any sign of danger. It seemed an eternity had passed before she heard footsteps through the brush. She recognized Maggie’s voice and called out, directing them to her location. Simon had brought John Gruber along, in case he needed help to get Max to his tent. Now they bolstered him between themselves and, regardless of his protests, helped him along the narrow trail.

Maggie’s hug was tight, but comforting. “I’m proud of you, Kit. It was so brave of you to stay here. I’m sure I would’ve been a basket case sitting in the woods alone watching someone who couldn’t breathe. I don’t know how you did it.”

Neither did she.

The dizzying aroma from the pilfered pork, roasting on the spit when they returned, made Kitty’s mouth water. Even men from the surrounding tents floated over, eyes bulging and tongues hanging out, begging for a share. Isaacs took charge of the picnic doling out large portions to be cooked at the other campfires. He also set aside several good sized hams to trade in town for other supplies. 

His breath restored, Max told the awestruck soldiers how Maggie and Kitty had come up with the idea to steal the pig in the first place, and then concoct the story to get them past the guards. The poor undernourished men gazed at the women with such admiration and gratitude they couldn’t deny the tall tale. Listening to this fictionalized account confirmed Kitty’s suspicion that the battle stories they’d been told had also been blown out of proportion.

By the time they’d finished cooking the meat and filling their stomachs, and the story of their adventure twisted and told a thousand different ways, only a few hours remained for a nap before reveille. The little gang of thieves settled for coffee in the morning and, feigning illness, passed their breakfast rations to the grateful soldiers who hadn’t taken part in last night’s feast.

I
t was early September, and Kitty couldn’t wait for this miserable Indian summer to end. The foul odor of garbage filled the hot, sticky days, and the only life in the muggy night air came from the abundance of biting insects that drove everyone mad. Not mad enough to give up their evening entertainment though. The group used branches to wave the smoke from the campfire and deter the bugs, and still met to relax, laugh and discuss the topics of the day.

Simon had been brimming with excitement all evening, but refused to give up his news until the rest of their friends had gathered.

The last to arrive, Isaacs became the object of the group’s amusement.

“Where’ve you been Isaacs, for Christ’s sake?” Max jeered at him. “Didja get your ass stuck in the latrine again?” That had actually happened to him once, and no one had let him forget it. The comment started snickers and sneers from everyone.

While they all settled in, Simon poured himself a fresh cup of the local moonshine being passed around. “Okay, come on guys, enough. I want to share the important information I heard today.” All eyes focused on him as he continued. “It looks like we’re being assigned to General McCall’s division and moving from Camp Curtin to the Washington area. The brass thinks we’ll see plenty of action there.”

Cheers, handshakes, and testosterone-loaded shouts of bravado gushed around the campfire from everyone except Kitty and Maggie. They’d been dreading this inevitable event, but now there were serious considerations to be addressed.

Maggie put her cup down and laid her hand on Simon’s arm to get his attention. “What about me and Kitty? Should we stay here by ourselves, or can we go with you? What are we supposed to do?”

“No, of course you’ll come with us, both of you.” He reached to reassure Kitty as well. “The regiment always travels with a medical attachment and you two can come along as field nurses.” Maggie had her doubts it would happen so easily, but at least Simon’s earnest insistence sounded encouraging. “I’ll see to it, I promise. You’re my family, I’m not going anywhere without you.”

Maggie’s suspicions proved valid. Simon had made it sound way too easy. Permissions to get re-assigned as field nurses had to be secured from everyone up the chain of command to the Sanitary Commission in D.C. Paperwork needed to be filed, tests taken, and interviews passed.

Coming down to the wire, they didn’t receive their approved applications until the day before the company’s scheduled departure. Carole Brunswick promised to send them frequent care packages as they said goodbye to their few dear friends in and out of camp. Then, right before dawn on a cool early September morning, the regiment set off on foot for their new home in Tenallytown, just outside Washington DC. 

***

A brigade strong, the Pennsylvania Reserves Division, the artillery, cavalry and sharpshooting Bucktails made an awesome sight as they started off, drums beating a marching cadence, on their one-hundred-mile trek from Harrisburg to Tenallytown, DC. Maggie and Kitty had hoped to walk alongside Simon, but Colonel Kane forbade it, saying they’d be a liability in case of attack. So they walked next to the medical wagon being driven by Lulu and her husband the Chaplain, wearing the comfortable trousers and shirts they’d asked Carole Brunswick to sew for them, the worry of what lay ahead still heavy on their minds.

As usual, reveille sounded just before dawn. After a meager breakfast of hard tack, coffee and salt pork, which did little to ease their grumbling stomachs, they started on the road at sun up each morning. The cool early morning air, though, soon turned into thick muggy heat, replaced by steamy showers in the afternoon.

The march left everyone hot, tired, and crabby by evening, with still plenty of work ahead of them. Maggie and Kitty were pressed into service right away as the medical wagons gathered for an impromptu clinic. For the most part, only minor ailments that had come up during the day like blisters, bug bites and sunburn were treated. They did have one casualty though. A poor soldier with an unknown allergy to bee stings went into anaphylactic shock. With epi pens or other life-saving treatments unheard of in this time, Kitty could only watch him swell up, suffocate, and die. She swallowed the angry tirade that welled up inside her, stomping off to where she thought no one could hear her, to jump up and down and scream in frustration. Since they hadn’t gone more than twenty miles yet, an ambulance wagon shipped his body back to Camp Curtin. It would rejoin the group later for the casualties of the battles yet to come.

***

Three days later their regiment trudged into Darnestown, Maryland, wet, bedraggled and hungry. Kitty’s nose dripped constantly, her muscles throbbed, and her back ached from sleeping on the hard ground with just a tarp around her for shelter. In no mood to listen to anyone else’s complaints, she convinced Maggie to help with the evening clinic without her. 

“You look miserable, are you sure there’s nothing I can do for you? I am a nurse you know,” she said playfully.

Kitty sat huddled in the lean-to they’d made with the tarp, hot and shivering at the same time. “Yes, make the rain stop. I keep soaking it up through my feet and blowing it out of my nose. I think when we get home I’m moving to Southern California where it never rains. At least that’s what the song says.”

“Well, I can’t do that, but I can bring you back something to eat and maybe something warm to drink. Here, put this shawl around you, it’ll help with the chills. I won’t stay too long tonight.” 

Max had been seen at the clinic for the blisters on his feet and, when Maggie told him Kitty had fallen ill, he came by to check on her. He brought her a cup of the hot herbal tea his wife made for him whenever he had the sniffles. “I’m not sure what the little leaves are, but my Hilda’s famous for making teas for all sorts of ailments. She stocked me up good when I left for the war.”

Kitty welcomed the kindness, remembering how Hilda’s botanical mix had helped Max’s asthma. With her nose stuffed up and runny at the same time she couldn’t smell or taste it, but the soothing warmth, and the comfort of having someone tend to her for a change, felt good. Max’s thoughtful ways more than made up for his lack of physical beauty.
You’re a lucky woman, Hilda.

After she finished the tea Max refilled her cup with whiskey from his flask and got his pipe loaded and lit. “I brought my dominoes too. Are you well enough to pass the time?”

Kitty remembered playing dominoes as a kid with her sister, Patty.
She could never beat me and always swore that I cheated. I probably did.
Such a simple memory, but, perhaps heightened by the dreariness of the incessant rain, or the misery of her head cold, it made her heart ache for home. She’d given up bitching at Simon about it. It didn’t do any good. Their being stuck here meant they had to get along and rely on each other for support. But it didn’t mean she had to like it.

Max had the pouch of tiles out, but before he could spread them on the ground she stopped him. “Not tonight, Max. I’m just not up to it. I’m sorry.”

“Do I want to know why you’re apologizing?”

“Oh Simon stop, leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s not feeling well? Here honey, I brought you willow bark tea for your fever, drink it while it’s warm.” Maggie handed her another cup of tasteless liquid along with a tin plate of rice and beans mixed with smoked ham. Kitty was sure all the fluid going into her would make her pee like a racehorse tonight.

As Simon and Maggie sat under the tarp with her, Max rose to go. “I guess I’ll leave you then to your supper and get in the mess line for my own. Good night to you Miss Kitty, I hope you’ll be better soon.”

“Thanks again for the tea Max.”

Rather than eat, Kitty only wanted to stretch out and sleep. She crawled to a spot where she could stretch her legs, wrapping the shawl around her shoulders. She lay back, closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her. Between the fever, the whiskey, and all the tea, she was out cold and didn’t wake again until Maggie shook her at reveille the next morning. The sound sleep must have done the trick because, even though her nose still felt stuffy, the fever and body aches were gone, leaving her better able to face the coming day.

***

A stone’s throw from their destination of Tenallytown, the brigade received orders to stay at Darnestown another few days while some organization took place. They appreciated the rest. Although housed in more primitive quarters, at least they no longer had to suffer the stench of garbage, stagnant water and overfull latrines that permeated Camp Curtin. 

Colonel Kane kept the soldiers busy during the day with drills and rifle practice. He wanted them on their toes and ready for whatever action might present itself. The nurses reported for duty at the field hospital.

Near suppertime, Maggie and Kitty cleaned up the clinic after treating the last patient. That’s when John Gruber and an exhausted and wheezing Max, puffing on his pipe, came searching for them.

Gruber fidgeted with his hat while they both shifted on their feet. Neither one could look the women in the eye.

“What’s up, guys. Can I help you with something?” Kitty asked.

Familiar with the face of impending bad news, Maggie cautiously approached. “What happened? Is Simon okay?”

They both attempted to talk, but stopped. John, his face a mask of misery, deferred to Max.

Maggie gripped Max’s arms and shouted. “Say it. Right now. What happened?”

At that moment, Max would’ve given anything to be somewhere else. “There was a flood, Missus, a flash flood at the practice range. Several of the men got washed away. When the water settled, we searched the whole length of that creek bed, but only found one of the soldiers. We never found your husband.”

Maggie’s hands slid down his arms as her body collapsed towards the floor. Max caught her, holding her head on his shoulder as she sobbed.

Kitty stared in shock, her feet glued to the ground, her brain sparking as if it had short-circuited. John Gruber came to comfort her, but she felt like a rag doll in his arms. “I’m sorry, Miss Kitty, your brother was a good man.”

Confused, she pushed back a few steps. “No, he can’t be. Simon can’t be dead. He can’t do that.” All the tension and frustration of the last few months culminated in this moment, igniting the sparks in her head into fireworks exploding colors behind her eyes. With her voice escalating, and her last wispy thread of sanity unraveling, she shook Gruber by his sweaty shirt and shouted the longest, most vile string of obscenities imaginable into his face. Then, in shameful defeat, she sank to the floor in tears. “He brought us here. He did this to us. We can’t get home without him. He can’t die and leave us like this.”

Maggie knelt beside her as they rocked and sobbed in each other’s arms. She’d lost the love of her life. Kitty had lost all hope of regaining the life she’d once had.

Max and Gruber let the women cry for a few minutes before escorting them back to their tent. With no appetite for supper, they guzzled the alcohol the men offered from their flasks, trying to numb the open wound in their souls. Their sleep came fitfully that night as they huddled close to each other for comfort.

***

Colonel Kane visited them in the morning offering his condolences. “Sergeant Reiger’s efforts in training the new recruits to use their weapons will have an impact on this war, I can assure you. As for your positions here, our regiment sincerely appreciates the service you ladies have provided. But I will be glad to offer an escort to the nearest rail-line to board a train for home if you so desire. Please think about it and let me know your wishes.”

After breakfast, the grieving family and their friends gathered at the river’s edge where Chaplain Lawrence held a heartwarming memorial service. Even Kitty was moved by his prayers.

In no mood to talk or eat, Maggie kept to herself that whole day. She greeted those who came to offer condolences with vague stares and nods. At twilight, the heavens paid tribute to the missing soldiers with fiery slashes of reds and golds across the darkening clouds, as if the spectacular show could atone for Mother Nature’s iniquity.

Kitty handed Maggie a cup of dandelion tea before taking her own seat, then broached the important subject. “What do you say, Mags? Should we take Colonel Kane up on his offer to send us back to civilization?”

Maggie watched the tiny leaves as she swirled them in her cup. “You mean return to Camp Curtin?”

“Oh, hell no. I’m not going back to that cesspool. But maybe we can retrace our steps at that tree outside Harrisburg. We’ll find whatever door we fell through and go to our real home.”

Maggie’s head stayed down, but her eyes flared up at Kitty. “You know Simon tried that a zillion times, and he never found anything.” Maggie paused, sitting up and gathering her composure. None of this was Kitty’s fault. She didn’t have to snap at her. “Besides, how will we live while we’re looking? The whole idea of staying with the army in the first place was for food and shelter. Simon’s savings won’t even last long enough to get us through the winter. Then what will we do?”

“Get jobs? I don’t know. There must be something we can do.”

“This is the nineteenth century, Kitty. Women don’t just go out and get jobs. We have to be sensible about this. I think we should keep living off the army and putting aside our hospital earnings until the spring and then go back to Harrisburg. If we have to live out on the street for a while I’d rather not do it in winter.”