Fort Laramie (8 page)

She shrugged, and Tom realized that she had been pushing herself too hard. He dished up the over-cooked stew into two bowls and joined her at the table. "I'll get you the pills and some water after we eat," he said.

"What are you being so nice," she asked miserably.

"I'm just a nice guy."

"And that's the real problem, isn't it," she muttered.

Tom was sure he'd never understand women at all.

The stew had tasted only a little charred, but there hadn't been enough of it. She hadn't made any biscuits to go with it, and there wasn't any fruit - as the fort wouldn't have had access to fruit either. They would eat normal foods for the 21
st
century mornings and nights, but lunches would be period appropriate. Tom had learned a little song the soldiers of old Fort Laramie had sung. "Soupy, soupy soup - without any bean! Porkie, porkie, pork, without any lean. Coffee, coffee, coffee - without any cream!" Apparently, army food had a long, well-earned history of being unpalatable. He sang it for Carrie and was rewarded with a weak smile.

"Things will get easier," he said.

She nodded.

"So how did your morning go? Did you give the spinning demonstration?"

She shook her head. "I can't," she blurted. "Not until my foot gets better."

He nodded, not sure how one needed a foot to spin yarn, but he let it pass. "Vicki and Julie will be by later to help with clean up. I'll see you tonight when we close up for the day." He leaned over her, planting a chaste kiss on the top of that wild riot of hair she had attempted to tame into a bun.

They were swamped with tourists that afternoon. Several busloads of mostly senior citizens came by. They were more attentive than the children, more patient that the children's parents. They seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say, and asked thoughtful questions. Tom decided seniors were his favorite customers. He hoped the others were enjoying their presentations half as much as he was. He gave a field demonstration of the 45-caliber Springfield carbine, the army's principle weapon of the time. Sabers were useless in fighting Indians, and were worn mostly for official functions when in full dress uniform.

Chayton looked positively frightening in the traditional garb of the Lakota Nations. The school children were fascinated by him, as they were naturally attracted to all things scary.  They crowded around him and the large teepee erected for educational purposes. They could go inside and sit on the imitation buffalo robes, and listen to him tell stories of the various Native American peoples.

At seven the bugle sounded again. His young soldiers gathered in the parade ground for inspection, drills, and firing practice. They stood stiffly at attention as the Nation's flag was brought down and carefully folded, signaling the end of the day. Few people still knew that the flag was not supposed to be flying at night unless it was illuminated. In cities and private yards flood lights could be directed at the flag, but in 1880s Fort Laramie, no such light would have existed. That's why the custom of raising and lowering the flag existed, he explained to the waiting crowds watching his men perform the simple task.

The visitors filtered through the visitor center again, picking up souvenirs, using the rest rooms, and eventually left the park. Tom brought the van around to pick up Carrie, helping her into the front seat, which was easier for her than climbing into one of the back benches. The boys were loud and rowdy, exploding with enthusiasm for their first day. Vicki was just as excited, but Carrie was oddly silent. He hoped it was just her foot bothering her, and not something else. Maybe he'd ask Julie if she knew what was wrong.

The next day a wagon train came to the fort - a real, honest-by-gosh wagon train! It wasn't completely historically accurate, but a group of volunteers had decided to re-enact   an Oregon Trail wagon train, loading up old wagons with food and gear and traveling the route through Fort Laramie. They circled their wagons out near where the old hotel had once stood, built a campfire, and spent the rest of the week camping there. It added to the visitor experience, and Tom was only sorry he hadn't thought of it first. Maybe something could be done to repeat the experience every year, and maybe even a couple of times through the summer. Chayton sure enjoyed them. Tom had never seen the stern senior smile more, or laugh harder.

But by the weekend, Carrie's mood hadn't changed at all. She remained sullen and withdrawn, and any time he tried to ask her what was wrong, she practically tore his head off. He had been about as patient as he was going to be. They didn't work on Sundays. Volunteers came into the fort to host worship services, so the students had the day off. He would drive them into town and let them horse around, go shopping, take in a movie - whatever they had in mind, within reason. He hoped to get Carrie by herself for a heart- to heart conversation, maybe preceded by a hand to bottom conversation, if necessary. She was no longer taking the pain pills, and on Monday the stitches would come out. One more week, and she could even get off the crutches. It was time to stop making special allowances for her.

Sunday morning several of the students asked to go to the Fort to participate in the worship service. Tom was surprised. He hadn't figured that any of them were that spiritual. Julie and Carrie chose to sleep in, so he left them behind with Adrian and the rest of the boys. Vicki came with Henry, as the two hadn't been separated since the second night. They were practically joined at the hip and were even starting to look alike. Tom wasn't their parent or guardian; he was only responsible for their safety. They were adults, after all. He just hoped that one of them didn't get their heart broken. That could put a real kibosh on the rest of the summer.

* * *

Carrie gave out a whoop as soon as Tom's van left. Gees, she didn't think she'd ever get rid of him! He'd been hovering over her ever since the accident. At first it had seemed sweet, but that quickly turned to irritation. She was a big girl, she could take care of herself, but the way he'd been acting it was as though he didn't trust her at all. Like he had to protect her or she'd break. She'd like to break him. Or break something large over his thick head.

"Come on, Julie, wake up. It's time," she whispered, shaking her girlfriend vigorously.

"Go away. It's Sunday."

"Yes, it's Sunday. Remember? We have plans. And who knows when Tom's going to come back. It's now or never."

Julie sat up, looking just as pretty as she did the rest of the day. Her long, silky hair fell smoothly around her shoulders as though she'd brushed it one hundred strokes. Her face, even devoid of makeup, was perfect. Carrie wrinkled her nose, almost hating her best friend. "You suck, you know that, don't you," she snapped.

"I just don't think this is such a good idea," Julie said, lowering her voice to a whisper when Carrie shushed her.

"But we talked about it. We planned it... and now it's time to go through with it."

"Why don't we just ask him?" Julie insisted. "Maybe he'll say yes."

"But what if he doesn't? If he says no, then he'll be watching us, and we won't get away. It's better this way. We'll just take his keys and borrow his van and drive into town ourselves. Let's rent a motel room and sleep in a real bed. I can take a bath - finally - and you can use a real shower, and we'll watch television all day."

"And when Tom finds us, he's going to be so angry," Julie pointed out.

"Maybe he won't find us. It's not like we have smart phones with G.P.S. signal out here. He wouldn't let us bring them."

"You'll give him a heart attack."

Carrie grinned. "I hope so," she said. "Now get dressed!"

They moved quietly about the tent, packing clean clothes and toiletries into a bag that Julie carried. Silently they made their way to Adrian's wild colored, beat-up van, with the keys still in the ignition, where he left them. The van was old enough that no signal beeped when they opened the door - whether the car predated warning signals, or that function was just malfunctioning, the girls didn't know. Stealthily they climbed in, barely closing the door, lest they wake someone up. The van didn't start with the first crank, but the second time it turned over.

"Hey, stop!" Adrian called, his head popping out of his tent.

Carrie had seen him drinking beers the night before and had hoped he'd sleep through this part. "Go," she yelled. "Hurry up and go! Go!"

Julie shifted into drive and stomped on the gas, spinning out of the campground and spitting gravel at any who attempted to follow.

A mile down the road, they burst into laughter.

"I can't believe we just did that," Julie said. "You are a bad influence on me."

"You're only young once, Julie. You have to live a little. Now, there's actually a town called Fort Laramie, too. We drove past it coming here last week. I think there was a motel on the other side. I remember wishing that we could stay in it back then, especially after seeing the mess that restroom turned out to be in. Who fixed it, by the way? Do you know?"

"Tom told the boys to clean it up while you were at the hospital."

"Really? Why didn't he just make the folks who own the campground do it? Or demand his money back or something? What a wuss."

Julie glared at her friend. "You don't know him at all, do you. He is the nicest guy! And you wouldn't be half this mean to him if you realized that."

"What do you mean? And I'm not mean to him. He's mean to me," Carrie said with a huff.

"An old woman owns the campground. Her husband passed away, her son lives out east, and she had hired a high school boy to keep things clean. The boy took the money and cut the grass, but never did anything else. She's too old to do it herself, and didn't even know the boy was cheating her until Tom showed up. Tom fired the boy, and told her he would take over managing the campground for the rest of the summer, in exchange for a discount. She was so happy, she cried and baked him the pan of brownies we had for dessert last Tuesday."

"What a chump," Carrie said. But inside, she was starting to feel badly. But what was she supposed to think? He'd spanked her! Hard! On a bare bottom! And then, he practically ignored her. Oh, he smothered her, watching over her like she might break, but he didn't talk to her. He didn't hold her. He hadn't asked her out - not again, since he'd asked her out a bunch of times during the fall semester. She was confused. She didn't know if she even liked him... but she wanted to find out if she did. She wanted to know where she stood with him. Was she just a nuisance student who was no more than a burdensome responsibility? Or did he really like her?

She knew she had to do two things. She had to take a bath, since she hadn't really been able to get clean since the accident. She'd taken a couple of sponge baths standing at the sink in the rest room, but she couldn't take her foot into the shower. She wanted to soak in a hot bubble bath, and shave her legs, and shampoo her hair, and wear some perfume and feel like a woman again.

And the second thing was she had to get to the library. She needed to take out a book on spinning, since she didn't have access to a laptop to watch another YouTube video, and she had to learn how to spin before Tom found out about the big lie.

Julie had been just as eager to take the motel room, but she hadn't been as interested in the library, and was ready to call the whole thing off when she realized that they were basically becoming car thieves. She was sure - or at least fairly sure - that Tom wasn't going to press charges. It could ruin his whole internship program. Nevertheless, she was now an experienced car thief. Wouldn't her father be proud?

The motel was a small, mom-and-pop place, so it wasn't as expensive as a major chain would have been. The girls were ecstatic as they plopped on the queen-size beds and clicked on the television. It didn't matter that it was Sunday morning, and there wasn't really anything to watch except religious programming and home repair shows. It was even fun just to watch the commercials again. Neither one of them could remember ever going a whole week without television before.

Julie got first dibs on the shower. Carrie would use the time to start working on the tangles in her hair. She worked conditioner into the dry knots and painstakingly unraveled them, working the hair free strand by strand. Julie took most of an hour in the shower, but by then, Carrie's hair was tangle-free, even if it did look a bit gross with all that conditioner on it.

Julie filled the bathtub with hot water and bubble bath, then wrapped Carrie's foot with a roll of plastic wrap they'd picked up at the discount store. Then she helped Carrie into the tub, trying to keep her injured foot out of the water. She lit candles, at Carrie's direction, and placed them around the bathroom, and handed her a paperback novel - also from the discount store - to enjoy. "Call me if you start to drown," Julie said.

"Don't you start," Carrie said. "I'll be fine, really. I just need this. I need to feel clean and feminine again."

Someone had been grilling burgers and selling them with potato salad after the worship service, to raise money for continuing the worship service. Tom treated the students to lunch before taking them back to the campground. Maybe he shouldn't have, but he figured they deserved a nice treat for getting up on a Sunday morning. The other students would have to make do with cold cuts sandwiches.