P. K. Pinkerton and the Pistol-Packing Widows

by Caroline Lawrence

  The next morning I bade farewell to Barry Ashim & Carrie Pixley & Mrs. Murphy and I promised to keep in touch with all three of them.

  Early afternoon on Sunday December 21st found me setting out for Virginia City. There was snow on the ground but not on the Toll Roads, so that was good.

  I cast my mind back over the past few weeks. I had learned Marsh’ s phonographic shorthand & also how laws are made. I had nearly been buzzed in two & almost froze to death. A pistol-packing monkey had saved me from being riddled with balls. I had seen Jace laugh and saved him from marriage to a Black Widow. I had got myself a new pistol and a couple of new disguises.

  I had also got me a Vision of what I might be in four or five years.

  I guess that was just as well; although I feel more like a “Me” than a “He” or a “She,” my body has other ideas.

  As I was pondering all these things, I heard horses behind me and turned my head to see Stonewall and Jace coming up fast behind me. Jace rode a black gelding and Stonewall a big gray. They came up one on each side, Jace on my left, Stonewall on my right and they matched their pace to mine.

  With them riding on either side of me I felt my heart rise a little, like a hot-air balloon.

  “Howdy,” I said.

  “Howdy,” they replied.

  We rode in silence for a spell. I noticed they had their carpetbags tied to the backs of their saddles. This clew told me they were leaving Carson City, like me.

  “You hear about the lights?” growled Stonewall.

  “What lights?” I said.

  “Ghostly banner lights in the night sky over Virginia,” he said. “Not Virginia City. The state of Virginia back east. Last Sunday night during a battle at a place called Fredericksburg. Some people say those lights represented the Confederate flag and a promise of victory in the Heavens.”

  I said, “When I was little, my Indian ma and I saw ghostly banner lights floating above the Black Hills on a winter night. Maybe it is a sign from God that the rebellion will soon be over.”

  “I doubt it,” said Jace. “Remember back in September when President Lincoln made that proclamation to set all the slaves free next week? That shows he is ready for all-out war. He is right, too. No man should be a slave, no matter what color his skin is. I guess that emancipation proclamation proves not all politicians want only money and power,” he added.

  We rode in pensive silence for a spell.

  Then I said, “I am going to emancipate myself from Ping.”

  Jace turned his head to look at me. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I like Ping,” I said, “and he is proving to be a useful partner, but sharing a small bedroom with him is not working out. When I get back to Virginia City, I intend to find a private room in a boardinghouse. Like my room at Mrs. Murphy’s,” I added, “with a queen’ s-ware washbowl and carpet and feather bed.”

  Jace nodded approvingly. “If I had a daughter your age, or a son,” he added hastily, “that is what I’d want for them.”

  I said, “The main thing is that it be near the Flora Temple Livery Stable so I can visit Cheeya every morning and every evening and take him out for daily rides on the sagebrush-dotted hills to keep him fit.”

  At the sound of his name, Cheeya twitched his ears and gave a little snort.

  Jace said, “You’d better buy that pony pronto, so that nobody else gets him.”

  I said, “That is good advice and I intend to follow it. But he will still belong to himself. ”

  We rode in silence for another spell. Then I took a deep breath.

  “What about you, Jace? What will you do now?”

  “I reckon it’s time for me to move on,” said Jace.

  My heart that had been soaring like a balloon sank as if turned to lead. I guess Jace had a right to go to a normal place and start a family like normal people.

  I swallowed hard & said, “Yeah. You got to be free. You going to California? Or back to Mississippi?”

  “Neither,” said Jace. “I reckon I will stay here in Nevada. It is a strange place full of deserts and sagebrush and coyotes, but there is treasure just under the surface. It is just that you have to be patient to dig out that treasure. Maybe invest a little time and money.” Then he said, “Stonewall and I just bought us a ranch near Steamboat Springs.”

  I said, “The Steamboat Springs that is only three miles from Virginia City?”

  “Yup. We are going there now. Thought you might like to see it. It is on the way to Virginia by an alternate route,” he added. “Will you ride with us?”

  I did not trust my voice so I just nodded.

  “Will you ever visit Virginia City?” I asked after a spell.

  “I reckon I will ride up a couple of nights a week to keep my poker skills honed. But Virginia is getting too crowded.”

  I said, “Are you going to raise cattle on your ranch?”

  “Couple of cows for milk, but mainly horses,” he said. “Stonewall is good with big critters like horses and cattle, ain’t you?” he said to Stonewall.

  “Yup,” said Stonewall. “I like big animals. They make me feel peaceful.”

  “Me, too,” I said. “Animals make me feel peaceful, too.”

  Jace looked off towards the mountains. “Well, there will always be a bunk for you there, if you desire. We got ourselves a good Chinese cook, his specialty is roast turkey stuffed with oysters. Stonewall shot a grizzly bear last week. He is already making mince pies out of the meat.”

  I said, “Grizzly mince pies?”

  Jace nodded & then glanced over at me, real quick like. “Fact is, Stonewall and I thought you might like to come for Christmas. Stonewall scrapes a fiddle pretty good and I can bang a piano. Won’t be singing no Christmas carols,” he added. “But we will play some music and eat good food and go riding. No toll roads on our ranch, nor quicksand neither.”

  My heart-balloon was flying so high that I almost smiled.

  “Cheeya and I would like to spend Christmas at your ranch,” I said. “We would like that a lot.”