The Travelers 1

by Lee Hunnicutt

Shamus had been on the floor before and was as tough as nails. He struggled to get up but Sonny still had hold of his foot. Shamus growled in angry and frustration and started to reach inside his vest.

  The next thing he knew his vision was blurred and there was a loud buzzing in his ears. He was also having a hard time breathing. Something heavy was on his chest.

  As soon as Shamus’ back hit the ground Anne took two steps forward and kicked Shamus as hard as she could in the right side of his forehead. His head snapped back hitting the floor with a loud cracking thump. She then dropped down on one knee on Shamus’ chest, breaking two of his ribs. The force of her boot hitting his head had opened up a four inch, half-moon cut above Shamus’ right eye.

  Shamus knew that he had to shake this off and get back into the fight but he was disoriented and confused. When his vision began to clear, he saw something bright and shiny spinning in front of his face. Each time the shiny object spun, he heard a slight slapping sound.

  Anne kept a Green River strapped diagonally on her belt across the small of her back. As soon as she had planted herself on top of Shamus she had the knife out and without thinking and in a fit of nervous energy, began to spin the knife so that the blade would rotate around her fingers. The handle would end up back in her palm with a smack.

  When Shamus’ eyes finally focused, what he saw made his blood run cold. He didn’t see a vision of loveliness, a red haired, green eyed beauty. He saw death. He let out a gasp of terror because he knew he was going to Hell and that she was going to send him there.

  When Anne saw Shamus’ eye focus, she smiled, grabbed his hair and pulled his head back so that his throat was fully exposed. She was no longer spinning the knife. It was held rock solid in her hand.

  Before she could bring her hand down and cut his miserable throat, Beth grabbed Anne’s wrist. Anne bared her teeth and turned her head in preparation of an attack, her eyes and face full of fury. When she saw it was Beth, she gave Beth a questioning look.

  Beth simply shook her head and motioned Anne to get up.

  Anne let go of Shamus’ hair, gently pulled her wrist out of Beth’s hand. She put the Green River back in its sheath. Before she got up off O’Neil’s chest she reached under his coat and pulled out the small revolver. She stood up put the pistol in her pocket, walked over and stood beside Beth.

  Sonny reached down with one hand, grabbed Shamus’ by the tie and lifted him to his feet. He held Shamus like a rag doll for a second and then threw him up against the bar. Shamus had to hold on to the bar to keep from falling down. He was having a hard time getting his legs to work. His breath was coming in short, panicked gasps. He had never experienced anything like this before. The situation had gotten out of his control. He had grievously underestimated these four as green horn kids. He had thought that he could bully and beat them into submission. It had almost cost him his life.

  Sonny looked at Shamus and said in a calm voice, “Leave town now and don’t come back until we’re gone. If we ever see you again, we won’t mess around like we did tonight. We’ll really hurt you.”

  “Mess around?” thought Shamus. “Hell, I can’t see out of my right eye. My chest feels like it’s on fire and I can’t seem to get my legs to work!” All Shamus could manage as a response was a weak nod.

  Sonny took a menacing step towards Shamus. Shamus raised his hand and gave a gasp like whimper.

  Up to now Sonny had had a serene calm about him. Now his whole demeanor changed as he stepped towards Shamus. His voice was full of menace and danger as he said, “I said now Shamus. Leave now! And carry your bullies with you.”

  He then snorted through his nose and said “Although if I were you, I’d get rid of these clowns and hire someone that knows what they’re doing.”

  The one Sonny had hit with the cane had managed to roll over and was on his hands and knees trying to shake the cobwebs from his head. Blood from his forehead was dripping onto the floor.

  The thug that Jack had hit was on his feet. He had one hand on his throat. He was bent at the waist. His other hand was on the bar. His breath was coming with great wheezing sounds.

  Shamus didn’t trust himself to speak. He motioned to the wheezer to help the one on the floor to his feet. The three of them, using each other for support, staggered out of the bar.

  The bar which normally had a background noise of general bar activity, gambling and piano music, had gone quiet during the altercation. As soon as Shamus and his bullies hit the door the noise picked back up.

  “Well Pat, how’d we do?” said Sonny.

  “Not bad. This isn’t the last you’ll see of Shamus O’Neil. I’ve never seen him shaken like this but he’ll be back. It’s just the way he is.

  Oh he’ll go off and lick his wounds. It may take a year or so but he’ll come at you again. You can count on it.”

  “We’ll keep our eyes peeled,” said Jack.

  “Well Pat,” said Sonny, “we were a better floor show than that anemic drummer and piano player you have over there.” He nodded at the stage. “How about a beer for our efforts? Beating up ruffians is thirsty business.”

  Pat laughed and said “The beer is on the house.”

  As Pat drew the beers he looked at Anne. He could see that she was seething. She was smarting over Beth keeping her from cutting O’Neil’s throat.

  He said, “Well Annie girl, it’s good fortune that Beth here stopped you from doing something foolish.”

  “Foolish is it! How was it foolish? You said yourself that the little bastard would be back.” She took a long pull on her beer. She wouldn’t look at Beth. “It would have saved us all trouble if I’d have sent the little shit to Hell.” Whenever she was mad, which wasn’t often, her brogue thicken.

  “It might have” said Pat “but we have a new sheriff and a new district judge. They are bound and determined to tame this part of the world and they are not too particular who they send to jail or who they hang.

  You could have probably gotten away with cutting ole Shamus’ throat but then who knows.

  Beth did you a favor. You should be grateful.”

  Anne didn’t answer. She sulked for a while and drank her beer. This was the first time since she had known them that she had been angry at any of them. She couldn’t stay mad long.

  She said “Of course you’re right Pat.” She reached over and wrapped an arm around Beth and gave her a hug. “Thanks Beth, it was just that I couldn’t let that vile little man attack Sonny and get away with it.”

  “I know” Beth laughed “and thanks to you he didn’t get away with it.

  You know,” Beth continued, “as we get older and become adults, people will stop underestimating us. Someday we may actually have a fight on our hands.”

  Pat just shook his head and poured himself a beer.

  Near the end of October, the four were back in Wardley’s office. As usual, Sonny was their spokesman.

  “Pete, each winter for the last five years we have frozen our butts off.”

  Wardley had become accustomed to this sort of blunt, frank talk from the four teenagers. The two girls didn’t seem to mind so he thought why should he. It was not like they were clods. They all spoke well, were articulate and knew how to hold a knife and fork at the table.

  Wardley concluded that they were not crude. They were just confident in themselves. With that confidence they were straight forward in, as far as he could tell, everything that they did including speech.

  Sonny continued, “We want to spend this winter in a milder climate and take our first vacation in five years. We were thinking about California, San Francisco to be exact.

  What do you think?”

  “Excellent choice,” said Wardley.

  “A new hotel has just been finished, the Palace. It’s the newest, most modern hotel in the West maybe in the whole of the United States. They claim it has elevators in it. I’ll have our agent in San Francisco book you some rooms.

  When do you plan to go?”
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  “We’ll leave in a day or two. As soon as you can get us reservations, we’ll catch the train.

  We are going to need clothes. Do you think your man in San Francisco can line us up with a tailor and a dressmaker for the girls?”

  “That will be no problem. Anything else?”

  “We want to talk money. With our last stock sale, we now have a total of sixty-two, sixty-three million dollars. Right?”

  “Sixty-two million four hundred thousand three hundred fifty to be exact.”

  “We want to invest some of our money the New York Stock Market and we want you to be our agent.”

  Sonny didn’t wait for a reply. He handed a folded sheet of paper to Wardley.

  He said, “Here is a list of our first purchases to be executed immediately.

  We value our privacy so we want you to form a holding company. This company will form half a dozen subsidiary companies. Spread the investments out among the subsidiaries. They will do the actual investing.

  We want the investing done in such a manner so that there is no pattern to the buying and selling of stocks. We want this set up so the subsidiaries are ignorant of their ownership. We do not want them to know that they are linked.

  We will be the sole owners of the holding company and all subsidiaries. We want you to be the president of the holding company.

  This will give you an excuse to take the wife and kids back East to see the family. What do you say?”

  Wardley knew that something special and exciting was happening. He knew that this was an opportunity that came along once in a thousand lifetimes. He didn’t hesitate. He stood up, walked around his desk and shook hands with Sonny, Jack and the two girls.

  He said “I’ll get on it right away.”

  As an afterthought he said, “Oh by the way, what is my salary to be?”

  “Sixty-five thousand with an open expense account,” said Sonny.

  Wardley didn’t say anything. He went a little weak in the knees. He had come from wealth but sixty-five thousand a year was a fortune in the 1870s.

  Sonny mistook his silence and said, “That’s just for the first couple of years. You’ll have an escalating salary depending on how well the company does.”

  Wardley smiled and held up his hand and said, “No, no, the salary’s fine. It’s more than enough. I was just taken back a bit. That’s all.”

  Jack broke his reverie and turned away from the window.

  This was going to be the first time in almost five years for Sonny, Beth and Jack and almost three years for Anne, that they had worn anything other than buckskins or work clothes. Although the boys wouldn’t admit it, all four of them were excited at their first night in civilized dress.

  Beth was especially excited. She would be dressing in authentic nineteenth century period dress. She could hardly contain herself.

  The boys were dressed in boots that came up over the calf, with pants tucked into the boots. They had silk shirts, silk scarf ties, tied in a bow, brocade vests and long coats that came down to mid-thigh. It was their Wild Bill Hickok look. They were quite pleased with themselves.

  Sonny was all pumped up. He was pacing back and forth and Jack was looking down in amazement at the Lotta Crabtree fountain, Lotta Crabtree, the California Diamond, the toast of San Francisco. The beloved, beautiful, blond comedienne had donated the drinking fountain to San Francisco as a token of appreciation to the city she loved.

  They had seen the fountain many times in the last week, but some reason the sight of this nineteenth century monstrosity never ceased to amaze Jack.

  They heard a hand on the bedroom doorknob. Sonny stopped pacing and held his breath. Jack turned from the window to face the door.

  Anne came out of the bedroom first. What she saw on the boys’ faces pleased her and made her smile. She spun around and said “Well, what do you think?”

  “You’re gorgeous.” croaked Sonny. He cleared his throat and said “Beautiful!”

  “And you Jack, what do you think.” She said.

  Jack smiled and said, “Sonny said it all. You are gorgeous and absolutely beautiful.”

  “Absolutely eh?”

  She felt good. She felt radiant and she looked it. She smiled and walked over to Sonny and put her arm through his. Looking up into his face and batting her eyes she said, “Sir will you escort me downstairs for some refreshments?”

  “Of course.” stammered Sonny. “But what about Beth?”

  “Oh, she’ll be along in a minute. Jack can bring her downstairs.”

  Sonny looked down at Anne and went weak at the knees.

  Jack, observing all of this, made an involuntary snickering snort and smiled. It was all he could do from laughing out loud.

  Sonny looked up sharply becoming a little red in the face and accusingly said “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing, nothing.” Jack snorted through a tight grin, trying not to laugh.

  Anne laughed and tugged on Sonny’s arm and said in a false Southern accent, “My, my, what’s a lady to do for a cold glass of lemonade? I declare, I do believe I feel the vapors comin’ on.”

  Sonny immediately forgot about Jack and looked down at Anne with a vacuous stupid grin and just stood there.

  Anne looked at him pityingly, smiled at Jack and led Sonny out of the room. Sonny’s eyes never left her face.

  Jack walked back over to the window and looked out, lost in thought. He thought about their journey through time to where they were now. He thought of killing Dirty Earl and Beth scalping the Crow warriors. He had that thought of her holding the bloody scalps in his mind when he heard a door opening.

  He turned in time to see Beth come out of the bed room.

  His breath left him and he stood there with his mouth open not saying a word. He couldn’t speak.

  Beth looked at him and said with a little anger, “Well! Aren’t you going to say anything or are you just going to stand there with your teeth in your mouth!”

  He found that he couldn’t speak. It was now his turn to clear his throat but still all he could muster was a hoarse whisper. “You’re beautiful. You’re the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. You’re so beautiful it makes me want to cry.”

  All of the emotion of the past five years swept over him and tears welled up in his eyes. He now knew that he was in love and that he had loved her all of his life but right now he was speechless.

  Beth walked over to him, put her hands on his chest and ran them up to his shoulders. She looked into his eyes and tears came to her eyes. She put her head on his shoulder.

  She felt his shoulders heave as he sobbed and she began to cry. They had come so far and experienced so much in their young lives. Although they had made adult decisions and did adult acts, they were still children. It had been years since any of them had cried.

  Beth patted Jack and said in a weepy voice, “I know, I know, I know. We are lost aren’t we?”

  “Yes.” sobbed Jack.

  They both continued to cry and hold each other tightly. They cried over lost youth, baseball games never played and the summers they had never had with their families.

  They had been tough and strong. They had had to be in order to survive but now they were just two kids lost and away from home.

  In a few minutes, it passed. Jack stroked the back of Beth’s head. He ran his hand around to her chin, lifted her face and with love and tenderness kissed her lips. She kissed him back and put her arms around his neck, pressing her body close to his and pressing their lips tighter together.

  What was supposed to be a long passionate kiss, was abruptly broken off by Jack. He pushed Beth forcefully away. He stepped back and there was horror on his face.

  Beth looked at him puzzled.

  “My God, Beth, I’m sorry.”

  “About what?”

  “About what? About what? You’re my sister and Sonny’s my best friend. We can’t be doing this.”

  What came next, totally caught Jack by su
rprise. Beth hit him with her open hand as hard as she could. The heel of her hand caught Jack on the side of the head. Now it was his turn to be weak in the knees but from an entirely different reason.

  He couldn’t focus his eyes. Dimly, he wondered who this red faced screaming banshee standing in front of him was. His legs wobbled and he could barely stand when Beth grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and ran him backwards into the wall screaming, “You big jerk! I’m not your sister! You have always treated me as your sister! You moron!” she punctuated her words each time by slamming Jack into the wall. His neck by now was like a licorice stick and his head kept banging into the wall. He began to see stars, “I’m” slam, head into the wall, “not” slam, “your” slam “sister” slam.

  She stepped back. She was out of breath and breathing hard. Her voice was hoarse with uncontrollable anger, “You’ve always treated me like I didn’t exist and I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember.” In one last burst of pent up anger, she hit him in the nose with her fist.

  Blood went everywhere. Jack’s eyes rolled back in his head and he started to slide down the wall.

  When Beth saw what she had done, it was like coming out of a trance. She was horrified. She grabbed Jack under the arms to keep him from sliding to the floor. She put one arm over her shoulder and guided him to the bed.

  All of the time sobbing, “Jack, Jack, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please, please. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  She ran to the wash stand, filled the basin with water and wet a towel. She jumped on the bed and straddled him. She began to bathe Jack’s face, holding the towel on his nose trying to stop the bleeding.

  Jack’s eyes started to focus. He looked up at Beth. She was sobbing uncontrollably. He closed his eyes and started to groan.

  Beth wailed, “Oh damn it Jack, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  Jack groaned louder.

  “Oh, Jack.” her voice breaking.

  He groaned again and opened one eye and said “You’ve loved me for as long as you can remember eh?”

  Beth stopped cold. She looked down at him. Her face turning red, she threw the towel in his face and screamed “You bastard!”