Chapter Twenty-Nine
Comfort and Fresh Milk
Miss June said we needed to go back and see Cal and the young ’uns right away, so they’d know for sure we weren’t gonna abandon them because of what we’d discovered.They needed to know we were on their side, and that we wouldn’t leave them to their own devices as of yet, even though we didn’t quite know how to help them.
She wanted us to tell Cal about the plan to fix up the barn and get some livestock, and see what Cal thought about that.If she didn’t have a problem with it, we should get that started.And while going about it, we needed to keep thinking about a long-term solution.
I had supposed that Trick would go back to her work at The Angel, now that Cal had been found, but Miss June hadn’t said anything, and Trick seemed to be a whole other person out here in the world, in the buckskin trousers she’d bartered for in Agnes Hill and the men’s shirts and jackets she’d gotten to wearing.’Twas fascinating to see her blossom, and she didn’t seem in any haste to go back to pleasing men for money.
I recalled that Trick and Cal had had a close friendship when they’d worked under Miss June at The Angel, and now Trick was invested in and concerned with Cal and the children’s well-being.
“Now, look here.We want to help you,” she said to Cal, when Cal hesitated o’er the plan for the barn.
Cal gazed at Trick with a great deal of vulnerability in her eyes.“I know.And that’s…that’s mighty kind of you all.”
“We ain’t tryin’ to be kind!”Trick said, losing her composure.She reined it in, though.“Well now, of course we are, but more’n that, we’re tryin’ to help you to make somethin’ of this place.You can’t go on as you have been, Cal.You gotta see that.”
Cal gazed around her at the small home she shared with the three children, whom Miss June had taken outside.
“I suppose.I know, I…”
“You did what you had to do, Cal,” Oscar said.“And you’ve done your best to look after the wee ones.But you can’t go on like this…none of you.”
A look of melancholy came o’er Cal.
“I know.But what else can I do?”
Trick kneeled on the wood floor in front of where Cal was sitting.She gazed at Cal with an adoring expression and placed a hand on Cal’s knee where it sat under her rough skirt.
“You can let us do what we have to, to give you and these children a chance at a happier life.Don’t you want that?”
Oscar and I watched in silence as Cal’s fingers crept forward o’er her skirts to clutch Trick’s.She nodded as tears cascaded down her cheeks.
“Oh, Cal,” Trick murmured, as she moved forward to take Cal into a gentle embrace.“I know you’re in there, the Cal that I knew.”
I blinked back emotion as Cal held on to Trick, and the sound of Trick’s broken sobs ripped through the small space.Oscar and I stood sentinel as Trick and Cal clasped each other in a cathartic embrace.
After a time, Miss June poked her head in the door and saw what had happened.
“Good.She needs to get it out.What happened to Cal and these children will take time to recover from, but the first step is grief for what was lost, not particularly the husband—good riddance to him—but the rest of it.The children will be fine.They’re resilient.But I don’t mind saying that I’m awfully worried for Cal.But maybe this”—Miss June nodded at the two friends—“this will help.”
“I’m sure ’twill,” I said.
I motioned to Oscar and Miss June, and we left Cal and Trick to their sorrow and their comfort.
* * * *
O’er the next few weeks, Cal began to come back to herself.She wanted Trick near her, though, and Trick didn’t seem to mind so much.
Oscar and I bought supplies in Agnes Hill and fixed up the barn.We had experience now, and I reckoned we did a good job, even without Tim and Carson to help.We got a nice little spotted cow for a good price from an old man in the neighboring district, and the children lit up when we brought her to the homestead.
“Oh, she’s so pretty!What’s her name?”Lizzie exclaimed, wringing her hands with excitement.
I glanced at Oscar, who shrugged.
“We forgot to ask,” I admitted.
“Why don’t you name her?”Oscar suggested.
