Part one
Another Tale
It had been a week since I asked about the picture in the album, but to my surprise grandma remembered and today she asked me to bring it to her. As she turned the worn pages I saw my life and that of my father pass before my eyes. When she reached the picture I had asked her about before she paused for a moment then turned the page.
“This one,” she began, “was taken shortly after they started riding for the express. This here is Mama McCloud and the boy there in the buckskins is Elmer but they always called him Kid.”
“Why?” I asked curious as to why he hadn’t gone by his given name.
“I’m not sure, Mama always said that he didn’t like it because it had belong to his father. But in later years after your grandfather came along, he told her his name. She never used it though, still called him Kid till the day he passed on.” She closed her eyes then and I thought she was done with her tell, but a moment later she surprised me again by continuing her story. “I recall the day that Mama told me about the day they joined the express. She was scared that they wouldn’t accept her because she was so small. And that someone might find out she was a girl. Well, girls just didn’t do things like that in her day. See she had seen some pretty bad things, since leaving the orphanage. No one wanted to hire a girl without a family for much, except for maybe.” she paused here not sure how to put it, “taking care of a gentleman’s needs, so to speak.” I had seen grandma blush before but never the way she did then.
Then it dawned on me what she was talking about and I asked, “You mean she worked in a…” now I found myself at a loss for words, you just didn’t talk to your grandmother about thing like that.
“No, child,” she corrected, “She was a laundress there but the man that ran the place did force himself on her. Mama told me once that she got even with him before he died and would have killed him herself but that Papa stopped her.”
“Why did he stop her? Didn’t he know what the man had done to her?”
“Oh, no, see you didn’t speak of things like that then, and usually when a woman did she was the one that was blamed for the act. Mama told me that she was terrified of telling Papa what had happened but that Mama Rachel had told her she needed to. And after the man was killed by another man for something he had done, she did. She told me that it caused him a great deal of pain and that he couldn’t speak to her for what seemed like weeks. He was really torn by the fact that he had stopped her from killing that awful man. See, they had been broken up for a while and had just started to get back together when the man showed up. They never told any of the others what had happened.” Grandma chuckled to herself then and I looked at her this wasn’t something to laugh about.
Then she looked at me, “You’re wondering why I can laugh at something so terrible. Well, that’s not what I’m laughing about. She told me that she asked Papa not to tell the others because she was embarrassed by what had happened and didn’t want anyone else to know. But the truth was that she was afraid of what it could drive Jimmy to do. She told me she would not have put it passed him to dig the man up shot him again, and then trample him into the dust. See, he cared for her just like Elmer did but didn’t see that he could do right by her or any woman. He did love her, so much that he turned away from a woman that could have hurt all of them. Anyways, like I was telling you that picture was taken the first day they were together at the Express Station.
“And like I said before, she was afraid they would find out she was a girl and she would have to leave so she didn’t say much,” chuckling she added, “She showed all of them what a good horse woman she was. As a matter of fact if she lived today she would probably be in one of those rodeos as a trick rider of sorts, if not a barrel racer. She was a good shot, too. Not as good as Papa or Jimmy but really good for a young woman.”
I saw that her energy was fading then. “Let me help you to bed, grandma you can tell me the rest another time. I’m thinking that we need to spend more time together. I’m going to move out here and stay awhile, if it’s ok with you?” I asked.
“Oh, my, child, you sure you want to move in with an old woman? It can get pretty boring around here, girl,” grandma replied. “So let me finish telling this part and you can put me to bed then. Let’s see where was I. Oh yes, I was telling you how Elmer found out Mama was a girl. See, he didn’t know till she was shot once, and then he was surprised. Mama always use to laugh when she told me about it, said he acted like he had found a snake under her shirt or something. Anyway, she made him promise not to tell anyone her secret, and he kept it for a short time. Said he told her, he figured she had a right to try to make it on her own. She said that was the first time he kissed her, and was really her first kiss. Oh, how she loved him.” She smiled at me as she told me her memories and then said; “Now I’m ready to go to bed. And like I said, it can get pretty boring around here for a young woman, are you sure you want to stay here for a while?”
“Of course, and I don’t think it’s so boring around here. I’m learning a lot from you. And I can’t wait to hear more about the family. So I’m going to move in here with you and help you."