Fire, The (24 page)

Kevin chuckled.

"Andy O'Connell, are you telling me that there's more to life than getting laid once a week?"

Andy laughed.

"I wouldn't go that far. What I
am
saying is that maybe it's time to think long-term. Maybe it's time to find someone like Sadie or your lovely teacher and settle down."

Andy paused and looked at the miners who had crowded around the bar.

"It may also be time to leave Wallace."

"Why would you leave? Do you have a new job somewhere?"

"No. I haven't even started looking, but I will soon."

"What's wrong with Wallace? What's wrong with the
Standard
?

Andy sipped his beer.

"You're looking at this the wrong way."

"How should I be looking at it?"

"The question is not what's wrong with Wallace or with the
Standard
but rather what's right with all the places I could be instead. I've been here three years, Kevin. That's plenty long for any town. I want to make news, not simply report it. I want to influence a community in ways I can't do here."

"Please tell me you don't want to be a politician."

Andy laughed.

"I'm not that shameless. I do, however, want a greater voice in public affairs. I'd like to operate my own paper or perhaps edit a much larger one."

"Are you sure you can't do that here?" Kevin asked.

Andy put down his mug and pointed with his eyes.

"Look around you. What do you see?"

"I see fifty miners practicing American English."

"I'll tell you what I see," Andy said. "I see the same thing I've seen for three years. The faces may change, but the town remains the same. Three years from now, the rich will be rich, the poor will be poor, and fifty new miners will come in this tavern and squabble over the same things."

"Isn't it that way everywhere?"

"Maybe," Andy said. "Maybe not. Either way, I need to find out. I've done all I can do in this town. It's time to stir up trouble somewhere else."

Kevin couldn't believe Andy was about to leave on the eve of the biggest story in Wallace history. Then he remembered that Andy didn't know about the biggest story in Wallace history. He also didn't know something Grandpa Roger had told Kevin as a boy:

"It hopped o'er the hill on the wings of the wind and burned the east side instead. It took out the newspaper in minutes. Those inside barely escaped with their lives."

"I think you're right, Andy. Maybe now's the time to look around."

CHAPTER 44: KEVIN

Saturday, April 30, 1910

Kevin had to hand it to Marcus Duvalier. When he'd built his castle for his new bride in 1897, he hadn't skimped. He'd insisted on five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a den, a sunroom, and something called a Turkish bath, which looked suspiciously like a modern sauna.

He'd also insisted on two platforms from which he could watch the world: a veranda in front that extended about ten feet from the front of the house and a smaller porch in back that offered an unobstructed view of a steep hill that boxed in the west end of Wallace. Needless to say, he had equipped both with swings.

Kevin pondered the Gilded Age excess as he sat in the swing on the back porch and watched a pair of mountain bluebirds fly between two small apple trees. He could live this way, he thought. He could live this way pretty damned easily.

He reached for a cup of coffee he'd placed on a nearby wicker stand, took a sip, and started to think of other things when he heard a noise from the south. When he turned left, he saw a woman lead a spotted white horse along a trail that hugged the bottom of the hill. He needed only a few seconds to determine that the woman was Sadie.

"I didn't know you owned a horse," Kevin said as she approached.

"I don't," she said. "She belongs to Mr. Bennett. He's the man who runs the stables down the street. He let me borrow her for the day."

"That's pretty generous. Did you make him a pie or something?"

Sadie smiled at Kevin but didn't respond right away. She instead led the horse to the far side of the small backyard, tied her to a hitching post, and then walked toward the porch.

"I didn't make him a thing. I just asked for his mare. Maude sent me over with a note. Mr. Bennett apparently owes Maude a big favor. For what, I don't know."

Kevin laughed to himself. He didn't need an answer to that.

"So why bring her here? The horse trails are that way," he said, pointing to the south where the city of Wallace ran headlong into the mountains.

"I brought her here so that we could go for a ride."

"Did you say
we
?"

Sadie beamed.

"I did. I knew that you didn't have anything planned this afternoon, so I went ahead and made arrangements," she said. Sadie turned to the horse. "Spirit, I'd like you to meet Kevin. Kevin, this is Spirit. She's a six-year-old Appaloosa."

Kevin glanced at the mare and then at Sadie.

"You want me to ride that?"

"I do."

"I appreciate the gesture, Sadie, but I'm not sure this is a good idea. In fact, I can think of about ten reasons why this is not a good idea."

"Give me one."

"I've never ridden a horse."

"I figured as much," she said. "That's why I'm going to teach you."

"You're going to teach me?"

"I'm going to teach you."

"Do I have a choice in this matter?"

Sadie grinned.

"No."

"I was afraid of that."

"She's very gentle, Kevin. I rode her this morning. Mr. Bennett says that's she's one of his tamest horses. She hasn't thrown a rider in two years."

Kevin sighed and brought a hand to his forehead. He wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of this. He got out of the swing.

"OK. Let me take a look at Flicka."

"Her name is Spirit."

Kevin walked down the porch steps and joined Sadie on a grassy strip between the house and the hill. Together they approached a horse that seemed to grow larger with each step.

"This horse is bigger than a house, Sadie. I can't ride a house."

"You're funny."

"I'm not even dressed appropriately. Don't I need riding pants or chaps or Levis 501s?"

"You're fine the way you are."

Kevin looked at Sadie and forced a smile. He didn't want to ride this horse and didn't want to ride with Sadie in public when he was supposed to be dating Sarah. He had made his choice and didn't want to do anything that might cause hurt or confusion, but he was running out of reasons to refuse a reasonable request.

"All right," he said. "I'll go, but only on one condition."

"What's that?"

"If we ride together on the same horse, we have to ride on a trail where we can't be seen."

"I
like
that idea," Sadie said. "We can follow the Placer Creek trail into the hills."

Ninety minutes later, Kevin Johnson, time traveler, science teacher, and exerciser of poor judgment, found himself actually guiding a horse into the St. Joe Mountains. Spirit had proved to be surprisingly manageable, just as Sadie had proved to be surprisingly deft. Shortly after convincing Kevin that he could manage a horse the size of a house, she had convinced him that sitting crossways on the saddle in
front
of the rider was the only way a proper lady could travel.

Sadie had neatly wedged her hips between the front of the saddle and Kevin, who was all too aware of the close quarters. She playfully kicked her feet away from Spirit's side.

"You're certain this is the
only
way a lady can ride?" he asked.

"Indeed, I am. I even consulted an expert on the matter."

"Who?"

"Maude."

Kevin laughed.

"You've been planning this for some time, haven't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The sly smile on your face says otherwise."

Sadie reddened.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"You can always talk to me, Sadie. I'm your friend. You can talk to me about anything."

"I know," Sadie said more thoughtfully. "It's just that now it's difficult."

"You mean it's difficult because I'm seeing Sarah."

Sadie nodded.

"This isn't easy for me either, Sadie. I like you. I like you a lot, but I can't date you while I'm seeing someone else. Even if you and Sarah agreed to share me, I couldn't bring myself to date both of you. I would end up hurting someone in the end, and I don't want to hurt anyone."

Sadie pouted.

"It's not fair."

"Why?"

"It's not fair because I picked you first."

Kevin was about to respond with a soothing, serious comment when he saw the trace of a smile form on her face. When he started to laugh, she did the same and, within seconds, the two of them were holding their sides.

"What am I going to do with you?"

Sadie smiled and batted the lashes that surrounded her big, brown weapons of war.

"You're going to take me away on this horse, that's what."

Kevin chuckled. He knew she would probably never give up, and part of him hoped that she didn't. He liked the attention, even if he knew that it couldn't last and shouldn't last. Every man, he thought, should have a Sadie Hawkins pining for him at least once in his life.

The two stopped at an open spot three miles from town, at the base of Bad Tom Mountain, and ate a lunch Sadie had fixed. She had planned the meal as carefully as she had planned Easter dinner, packing sandwiches and treats she knew he would like.

When Kevin jokingly asked if she had brought something to read, she retrieved a small book and treated him to a poetry reading. She read everything from "Wild Nights – Wild Nights!" by Emily Dickinson to "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. By the time they finished lunch and headed back toward Wallace, Kevin considered his education complete.

Sadie's flirtatious banter continued long after lunch, but even it ran its course. When Kevin made it clear that her charm offensive would not lead to a shotgun wedding, she turned to other subjects. One of those subjects was a double date that had been on Kevin's mind all week, a date that appeared to open doors and set boundaries for each of the four people involved.

"Did you enjoy yourself Saturday?" Sadie asked.

Kevin nodded.

"I did. Did you?"

Sadie looked at him for a moment before answering.

"It was one of the best nights of my life."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Why?"

Kevin shook his head.

"Why? That's a silly question. I want you to be happy, that's why," he said. "I admit I was tempted to save a double date for another day. I had promised Sarah a night just for us and didn't know how she'd react to having two others along."

"So why did you ask us to come?"

"I asked because I knew you and Andy would be great company and because I thought you, in particular, needed to get out of the house and have some fun. You need to get out and mingle and find someone who will take you out every weekend. You're a lovely, intelligent woman. You deserve to be pampered."

Sadie turned away as her eyes moistened.

"You're getting to me again."

"I mean it, Sadie. I don't want you to ever settle for what you have now. You can have more. You
deserve
more. You deserve someone who can give you more. You can do better than me."

Sadie wiped the corner of an eye with a finger.

"I disagree with the last part, but thank you."

Kevin looked at her as he tightened his grip on Spirit's reins and directed the horse toward a trail that led to the south end of town. He could see that his words had registered.

"I hope you know you knocked my socks off at dinner. That warship stuff was over the top. I don't think there's another woman in Wallace who could identify
Jane's
as a book about ships, much less quote its statistics. You amaze me sometimes."

Sadie looked at him thoughtfully.

"I like learning. I know most of those books were written for others, but I like reading them. I like reading about things I'll never see or do."

"You don't know what you'll see or do. You have your whole life in front of you," Kevin said. "If you get that education we've talked about, you can do anything."

Sadie smiled sadly.

"I'm glad you believe in me."

When Kevin looked at Sadie, he wanted to shake some sense into her. No matter how many times he and others told her that she could succeed, she refused to believe it.

Then he realized something. He realized that he was impeding her progress. As long as he built her up and encouraged her to maximize her potential, she would continue to see him not only as a caring friend but also her knight in shining armor. She would shun other men and perhaps postpone plans to attend college. She would cling to the hope of a life with him. She would, in effect, squander the opportunities he had given her.

Kevin pondered the matter for a few more minutes and then returned to the trail. He realized that no matter how hard he tried he would not be able to solve Sadie's problems, or his, in a single afternoon. He needed at least another month, maybe two, to figure things out. He wanted to leave soon, but he didn't want to leave a mess behind.

An hour later, they joined the trail they had traveled by foot on March 12 and soon reached the boulder they had climbed. The rock had already become synonymous with missed opportunities and time lost. Kevin had been in 1910 only two months, but it seemed like two years.

"Remember this place?"

Sadie looked at him wistfully.

"I do."

"I wanted to kiss you that day."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I think you know why. You wanted me to be a gentleman, remember?"

"That's no excuse."

Kevin chuckled.

He looked at Sadie and saw her stare back with second-chance eyes. He knew he could kiss her and make up for the past, but he knew that he wouldn't. He'd had ample opportunity to kiss her away from prying eyes. He was not about to do it now within clear sight of the stately home of George and Bertha Marshall, the home of the woman he was supposed to be dating.