Chapter Six

 

 Saint Julians River 

 Copyright Bill Gallagher

Tampa Florida 

Deming New Mexico 

 

 

 


                                                 

 6.


     Most of the soldiers stayed at the rope swing until well after dark, it was their private play ground from the looks of it.  They found a fire pit, and several of the men made another food run, while the rest collected wood.  From somewhere horse shoes appeared and a game was in the making.  Johnny would not be surprised if some stayed the night there, wrapping up in palmetto leaves next to the fire.  They did that often enough to know how.  They were experienced.
    Johnny left the party right before sundown, gathering his gear, heading back to the barracks for a shower, and a bed.  As he passed her home road he wondered how far down that road the farm was, and what kind of farm it was.  He had learned she was the youngest of three children, her two older brothers were twins, Joshua and Thomas, and hard to tell apart sometimes.  The woman he had seen with her family at their table in Cooeys was his fathers sister, Emily, Aunt Em, who had come from Savannah to help with things after Nancys mother died.  Emily had been single all her life, she'd worked in insurance and had saved some money over time.  Emily welcomed the change and was a very hard worker.  It was thought by all that she would sell her things up north one day soon, and settle in Esteenhatchee as part of the Huntington clan. Johnny strolled back to the fort deep in thought, and made it to his room unnoticed.
      His second day of leave began very early.  He'd slept well, and the sun was not even close to being up when he left the fort.  He occasioned upon Davy Shoemaker, who was pulling guard duty again.  Davy asked if Johnny had a nip of anything, while again making a reminder that his favorite was gin.
     Johnny took a walk down to the boat yard, where an older man with a white beard and long white hair was wrestling with an iron bar on the gate.  The sky was just getting pink, and Johnny thought the sunrises might be at least as nice here in Esteenhatchee as the sunsets.
     "Morning sir, let me help you with that," he said, grabbing the bar and lifting it clear and easy.
     "My thanks," the old man rasped,  "Are you lookin' fer work?  We could use a big strappin' fella such as yourself around here.       
     "Thank you for the compliment sir, but just out for a morning walk, I am on the second of three days leave from the fort, came in with a survey crew night before last.  I only got to see this boatyard for a few minutes while passing through, thought I would get a closer look.
     "You're with Matthew?"  The old man spoke with a sort of brogue, like an old country irish brogue, or even scottish.
     "Yes."
     "Ah, good man, Matthew, but he scares me sometimes, talkin' about ghosts 'n such.  The name is Martin, whats yours?"
     "Johnny Prestwick."      
     "Well, what say?  I knew a Prestwick over at St. Marys River, shipped in from Connecticut if I remember right."
     "Don't know of any close relations in Connecticut, but that is around my part of the woods. I am from a small town in Rhode Island not too far from Providence.
     The men gabbed as Martin led them to a shack where a small fireplace was lit and coffee was started for the day.  Johnny got a good look at the boatyard and it was quite a thing.  There were all manner of tools about, and Martin said some were supplied by the government itself, so that government work could be done to their standards.  The river didn't allow large ships, but smaller boats from ships anchored away could be worked on here, and that kept them busy as they wanted to be.
     Johnny mentioned the captains canoe, and Martin knew it well, helped build it, there had been some trading going on, and basic good will among men of like minds.  It was stored in the boatyard whenever Matthew was away.
      Johnny ventured a question about the Captains personal life.
     "Does Matthew have a permanent place here around Esteenhatchee?"
     Martin said aye, he did, Matthew has been around Esteenhatchee a long time now,  his place was out on the water, in the mangroves, and could only be reached by boat.
     Johnny supposed if the Captain had wanted him to know this he would have told him so he changed the subject to fishing.  Other men began to arrive, heading first for that great social leveler, the foundation of parley-ment, the nexus of the workplace, the coffeepot.



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     Johnny was on the patio of the restaurant, watching the river flow by, when Nancy arrived.  Believing that circumspection was probably the better part of valor at this time, he caught her eye then waited across the road.  She tried not to hurry as she came around the building with her empty basket.  Crossing the road to him they began walking back toward her road.
       "How are you today Nancy?"
      "Very well, thank you, Johnny.  My family left for Rose Head early this morning, there are relatives, and a store, they will be gone overnight.  I am to watch over things.  So I happen to be free today, and would be honored to show you some of the countryside if you are curious."  She looked at him askance, from under her bonnet.
     Things kept falling into place.  They both heard the clicking of parts, pieces coming together.  A Quickening, almost as if time itself conspired in their union.
     "I would like that very much.  If we'll be out and about I'll want my rifle, and I'll stop and get some supplies at the restaurant..."
     They made quick plans and he turned around back to the restaurant.  He ordered food he thought would travel, and also a small bottle of gin in a paper bag for his pal Davy Shoemaker, who was not at his guard post, though Johnny knew where the hiding spot was, so he stuck the bottle there, and went to get his gun.  
     He made quick time back to the road leading to Nancys farm house, and this time he walked all the way to the house itself, knocking lightly on the front door.
     "I'll just be a minute!" she said from somewhere inside, "Have a seat on the porch swing."
     She had changed into another dress, and had discarded her sun bonnet.  Her dark blonde hair curled in ringlets at her shoulders.  It shone in the sun.  As she came up to him on the porch she began tying it into a pony tail.  She was more than pretty, John Prestwick thought to himself, she was really beautiful.
     They began their walk about by taking another dirt road from the farm, following it for a mile or so out back of the house.  Nancy said it led to a shell road which paralleled the river and ran north to Rose Head once the river turned that way.  She told him of a story of a stage coach robbery that took place on that road not too long ago, and how the men from the fort had been instrumental in apprehending the culprits.  An interesting aside to that was the fact that the bank box which had been stolen had still not been recovered.  The thieves obviously knew where the money was hidden, but they weren't saying.
     "Money has a way of hiding itself, I think. It just uses us to that end."
     She looked at him with something like surprise then, smiling.  "You're a deep one Johnny."
     He blushed, and she laughed, and they continued on their way, conversing non-stop, catching up, old friends in new bodies.  They came to a side road which became much less than a road very quickly.  More like a horsepath.  It led to a clearing near a  running stream which looked crystalline.  There were many such places around Florida, water erupted right out of the ground, and because it had to go somewhere it cut ways for itself through the soil, becoming spring runs to the closest low point, usually more water, river or lake.  
     The water talks," he said.
     Sun dappled the ground through the leaves of the trees.  She moved close to him, looked up into his eyes.
     "And what does the water say, Johnny?" She asked.
     He reached for her, the first time, and she did not resist.
     Yes the water talks, but mostly without words.
     What happened next was as natural as the sun and rain, as natural as the lightning which the frequencies of our brains are tuned to.  Its what men and women do, what we have always done, emulating a wholeness that can be sensed but not seen.  We instinctively know is unattainable any other way.  The last pieces fell into place, and everything fit perfectly.  The sun was directly above when they started but falling fast in the west when they stopped.  As they dressed he said:
     "You were a virgin."
     "Yes.  And you were not."
     "No."
     She was buttoning the front of her dress.  Johnny thought she was beyond pretty, beyond beautiful, she was perfect.
     "Well there will be no more of that Mr. Prestwick.  You are mine."
     He nodded, kissed her.
     "And you are mine Nancy...Prestwick."
     "Hmmmm, yes, I will marry you.  It sounds nice doesn't it?  Nancy Prestwick."  
     Just their saying it made it so.  It was a different world, in some ways a better world.  The couple made it back to the farm before dark, and spent the night in the loft of the barn, laying blankets out on a bed of loose hay.
     "What if there is a child?" he asked during the night.
     "Thats what I want Johnny, I want a child, the first of many from us.  Its what I've wanted since I laid eyes on you, and you are the only man who has ever made me feel that way.  Some people do not have the wherewithal to know what it is they want out of life.  I'm not one of those people.  Time is not to be wasted."
      "Not Ever." he said, pulling her close.
      What a rare thing she was, he thought.  A beautiful rarity.  His wife!


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     Johnny awakened long before the roosters crowed on his last day of leave, and he woke Nancy in his moving about.  They began to make their plans, and though both knew it would not be easy, they also knew that anything worth having hardly ever was.  There was no doubt between them that they were lucky lucky people, and the trick now was to keep it going their way.  In some ways their separation would strengthen them, pain toughens, but it was not something to be relished, no.  Before he left he kissed her one more time.  They would be able to meet later, around dark, where her road met the shell road from the fort, but it would be a short time together, really a goodbye.  When they realized what was to come their moods changed, they became somber, and it was very hard for him to let her go, and get back to the fort, where things would begin happening in preparation for their leaving early the next day.  Her people would be coming in any time too, no doubt.   Well, life is full of hard things.  They both grew up a lot in a very short period of time, though they were not doing it alone anymore, and that in itself was wonderful to both of them.  


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     They met right after dark, and she ran into his arms.  He held her tight.  First things first he thought, he had to give her something.  They separated and he retrieved a small but heavy package from his coat pocket.  He instructed her to give it to her father, it would help prove his intentions.  She had a pocket on the front of her dress that was not even noticeable as a pocket.  The small package was put away quickly.
     "I found a treasure..." he said by way of explanation, but the treasure he had really found was standing before him in all her awesome glory and he did not kid himself about what was valuable here and what was not.  No.
     He kissed her, and held her close again, but the entire scene suddenly took on aspects not only of the macabre, but the ridiculous too.  Johnny had already learned enough about surveying to understand Benchmarks, and he considered ridiculousness a benchmark of the human condition.  
     A voice had echoed out of the darkness nearby:
     "Here now what is this?"
     Nancy said "Oh no, its my brothers."
     One of the twins said  "Get your hands off our sister soldier boy.  Nancy you get home, Dads not going to like to hear about this."
     "I will NOT!" she said loudly.  
     Johnny released her and stepped back.  He looked her in the eye, shook his head slightly, and moved his eyebrows as if to say its best to leave now Nancy.  To her brothers he said:
     "Gentlemen, Joshua and Thomas, I am John Prestwick.  Lets be reasonable here."
     The talker of the twins said "Oh we'll be all the reason you'll ever need to leave our sister alone, soldier boy."
     "I am warning you now fellows, this is a bad thing you are doing, and no one is going to get hurt but you two."
     The two large men laughed aloud, and once again Johnny caught Nancys eye and lifted his chin toward the house slightly.  She took his meaning and made as if to leave, to go back home, but she only went so far as to be out of sight.
     One of the two men kept trying to get behind Johnny, who said:
    "Last warning sir ding-a-lings, and then you're going to be sorry."
    Both the men laughed again.  Johnny sighed as if in resignation.  
    What these two did not know is that Johnnys Grandpa had always been a fan of prize fighting, and there was not a big fight that came to Providence that he didn't take Johnny to.  Grandpa spent a lot of time instructing Johnny in the ways of fighting hand to hand, and his number one rule was this:  when you fight you want to inflict as much pain on your opponent as quickly as possible,  with as little damage to yourself as possible..."  Also, the State Fair came to Providence once a year, and there was always a Tough Man at the fair who would arm wrestle, lift weights, or box against opponents from the crowd for money.  Grandpa showed Johnny his winnings once, from betting on that man and others like him.  They were buried in a corner of the barn, and Johnny supposed they were still there.  It was not something he would be proud to let Grandma in on, his Grandfather said, and Johnny kept the secret forever.  The thing that Johnny noticed most about the Tough Man at the State Fair was that when he boxed it looked funny, he did not hit square on as most men did.  Johnny watched carefully, always, and Grandpa said that man was the most artful fighter he had ever seen.  Johnny saw it for what it was, the man would not strike in ways that would hurt his hand, and he took a funny stance in preparation for that type of fighting.
      One of the twins managed to get behind him then, so Johnny did a quick lunge forward, as if to strike the brother in front of him, but then he did a fast half turn and a hop-skip backwards, catching the brother behind him with his hands down around his waist.  He gave that twin the back of his fist, the knuckles, hard, right where the nose meets the lip.  There was a crack and a squalling sound from that brother as he fell backwards, tripping over his feet and falling hard on his behind.  Blood covered the front of his shirt and ran down his face from his nose.  
     Johnny whirled on the other brother, the one who had been in front, and strode toward him menacingly.
     "Now YOU!" He yelled loudly, do you want some of the same?  Because by Damn I will give it to you and you will be sorry."
     The brother backed off a step or two.
     "I intend to return here when I get out of the Army, in about a year, and I am going to MARRY your sister.   And I tell you right now it will be a sad day for both of you if I hear that you have made trouble for her in any way while I am gone."
     The brother on the ground had gotten up slowly and the twins regerouped themselves as Johnny let loose this tirade.  They seemed slightly terrified and the bloody one was sniffling pitifully.  As if this was not enough, just when Johnny finished speaking there was a giant explosion from up on the hill, from the fort.  Johnny saw Nancy come out of the woods at the noise, and he yelled that he had to go, trouble was at the fort.
     "I love you!" he hollered above the din.
     "I love you too, she said, but he could only see her lips move, he couldn't hear any sound as he turned to run toward the conflagration on top of the hill.  He saw flames and shadows and smoke and none of it looked good.

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     Davy Shoemaker, professional guard, had arrived at his post on time.  It was 4PM and he was in a state that he did not really care to be in, a state of sobriety.  He'd already drunk everything that was available to him, and payday wasn't for two more days.  It was a well known fact around the fort that you could actually talk to Davy Shoemaker, and he would even get things done, towards the end of the month, the end of the pay period, because that meant he was broke and sober.  Regular occupants of the fort did not do anything to upset this tenuous balance, at least a few good days a month were better than none at all.  Of course Johnny Prestwick knew none of this, and with simple goodwill had left the ill fated bottle of gin where he knew his pal would find it, and find it he did.
     While seated in the guard shack, Davys right hand, seemingly of its own volition, like a bloodhound catching a whiff of scent on the wind, had wandered down below his chair, jiggling nervously. In what Davys brain thought was a vain effort, the hand felt around down there in the dark.  Davys hand was dowsing and he let it.  It made contact with something, something unexpected.  What was this?  Paper! YES, a bag.  The divining hand crept into the dark under the seat some more, tentatively, but with hope, feeling around as only a hand can.  The hand felt something in the paper, there was a bottle in a bag!  It took Davys mind a second or two to catch up to this event, and then the hand grabbed the bag and jerked it out from under the seat like it was a rattlesnake or something dangerous like that.  In fact it was, but only to people like Davy Shoemaker.  He oggled the bottle in the bag, then ripped off the paper.  GIN!   Hee hee heeeeeeeeeeeeeee, he giggled like a maniac.  It was nectar, it was ambrosia, it was alcoholic communion.  He had half the bottle gone before it occurred to him that his new friend from the survey crew had left him a tip!  And a grand tip it was, thought Davy Shoemaker, the timing was nigh onto perfect.  


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     "Don't rightly know what happened," one of the fort regulars said as they all stood around watching part of the fort wall burn down.  "Usually Shoemakers in pretty good shape this time of month, before payday and all.  Guards 'sposed to keep an eye on the water boiler, but not tonight.  Why, I never heard such a bang as that, eh fellas?"
     There was not much to do but wet the area around the fire then let it burn out and clean it up.  Rebuild.   The damage was very local, only part of the fort wall and of course the boiler.  There goes hot showers thought Johnny, until a new boiler could be obtained.  There were no injuries that anyone could see, at least no body parts had been found yet, and that was good.  Like most of his kind Davy Shoemaker survived the maelstrom without a scratch.  Johnny saw Shoemaker in a line passing buckets of water.  Good place for him, Johnny thought.  The mans eyes looked like piss holes in snow.
     The Captain came up then and said: "There you are John, been looking for you. We are meeting at the restaurant, I want everybody together to make sure we're all right."
     They began to walk down the hill to Cooeys.  John Prestwick decided against bringing up his gift of gin to the guard, decided against it forever.  In fact he thought if Davy ever brought it up he would deny any involvement.  Soldier like that probably told everybody what he liked to drink, over and over.  It was one of the things Johnny was sorry about, but would try to never think of.  Done is done.  Do your best to never let it happen again.  On the trip down to the river the Captain seemed distracted, and Johnny let it be.  He probably was distracted, there is always a lot to do on the day before departure, and now this.  They walked on in silence.

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     Everyone was at a table made from two tables pulled together.  As soon as The Captain and Johnny arrived the Captain said "Wheres Holloway?"  No one had seen him.  They all knew he had a preoccupation with the rope swing, he never tired of it, even when the others were relaxing at night by the campfire, Charles would be out swinging in the dark.  Not a sound except his splashes, then quiet for a few minutes, then splash again.  But even a preoccupation should not keep him away from the violence on the hill, and a main reason was this: everyone was responsible for, and concerned over their own luggage.  Johnny knew his rifle and other personal goods to be fine because nothing was damaged within a hundred feet of the back barracks.  He was in fact traveling lighter now, having given the package to Nancy and only keeping four of his best spearpoints with him.  The rest of course were out with the pirate treasure, carefully secreted in a place Johnny would never forget.  Money had used him to hide itself again.  It happens over and over.
     Johnny said he would get the lantern off the skiff and go check the rope swing.  The Captain nodded, said: Try not to be long, if he is not there come right back.  Danny Smith and Chuck Stevens grabbed their beers and said they would go too.
      It did not take long to find Charles Holloway, he had fallen off the rope at precisely the wrong time, over the rocks, and it looked to be accidental.  There were not a lot of outward injuries though his head was somewhat misshapen, they saw, as they pulled his body off the rocks.  The world of flesh.  Fragile, really.  Johnny wondered if Charles had been in mid-swing when the boiler exploded at the fort.   Know one would ever know.  Chuck Stevens said he would run tell the Captain, and bring a horse and wagon for the body.
                            
                                             
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     Everything got off to a late start the day of departure due to the wake for Charles Holloway.  The Commander of Fort Brook, Major Tom Johnson assured Captain Gilmour that he and his men would see to the burial of Rifleman Charles Holloway this afternoon, in the cemetery reserved for military personnel.  The Major had offered the services of one Davy Shoemaker to replace the fallen rifleman, but Captain Gilmour declined.  


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      As they passed her road Johnny saw that Nancy was out waving to him.
      Johnny said "Captain..."
      Not a lot got by Matthew Gilmour, and it was like he'd expected it.
     "Go ahead John, but be quick, you're going to have to run to catch up."
     "Yes sir."
     As Johnny came up to Nancy she ran into his arms.  The troop had just made a turn in the road and was out of sight.  He kissed her.  
     "Write to me," she said, slipping a piece of paper in his left breast pocket, "I'll write back."
     "I will, and I will return as soon as I can and we will be wed.  Find a house you like, or at least some high property where we can build our home.  Its only 13 months until my enlistment is up, and by time I get back to Tampa there will not be enough left of it to send me back into the field.  I will get here as soon as I legally can.  Did you give the package to your father?", he asked.  
     She replied in the negative, she had opened it and seen the six little bars of gold, each one weighing at least two ounces each, they were the unmarked pieces that Johnny had saved out before hiding his pirate treasure and most of his spearheads.  
     She said she was saving that for a future time, when the presentation would be more powerful.  Johnny trusted her judgement and really didn't care, it was for her, really.  And he would bring more in the future, but she did not need to know that yet.      
     Her tears came then and he held her, then he kissed her once again, said "I have to...I love you...." and turned to leave.  
     As he went around the first turn in the road he looked back to see her waving and crying.  He waved once more and continued down the road.  His throat felt tight, and his eyes smarted.  
     There was no sign of the troop.  
     The road was very winding, they were somewhere around a turn up ahead.  Then a surprise.  Nancys two brothers came out of the lush river greenery that lined the side of the road, and Johnny wondered what in the devil this was going to be about.
     One of them, the one who was not injured, came up to Johnny and stuck out his hand.
     "We wanted to say we were sorry for being jackasses, and we want you to come back when you can."
     Well wonders never ceased.  Johnny took the hands offered, and said he appreciated the sentiments, and please look after their sister carefully for him until he got back.  They smiled and said they would, then disappeared into the jungle-like thicket as quickly as they appeared.  He wondered how much of that had been arranged by his beloved, and then thought that probably all of it had been.  She was a rare being indeed.
     Johnny figured he was really going to have to run to catch up now, so he started, only to turn the next corner and find the Captain there, searching white sand at the side of the road.  The rest of the men and the horses and the 2 wagons were under some trees just ahead.
     "Finding anything Captain?"
      With a broad grin Matthew Gilmour reached into a pocket then displayed a spearpoint in his palm that was almost as long as his hand.  It was red and white and blue, like the color of the American flag, and it was perfect.  Johnnys eyes almost bugged right out of his head.
     "Everything squared away John?"
     "Yes sir, and thank you again."
     "No problem John.  Now our work begins.  Are you ready to learn about surveying?"
     "Yes sir, I am."
     "Good."
     The two men walked to meet the rest of the party and they all began their journey to Devils Garden.