This is a sample of something I've been tinkering with. Just want to see if there's any interest before investing any time in it. Of course, everybody is 18 and all that. Let me know what you think.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerrod Preston lay bleeding profusely with an arrowhead buried deep in his chest. He looked at his wife, Merideth, who was holding his hand. He breathed his final breath there on the Texas Plains. The date was March 1850.
The indian that put the arrow through his arteries lay dead out there among his fallen compatriots. Shot by the friend of their only son, Josiah Webster, a boy a couple of days from his 18th year on earth. Their son, Fredrick, had died during a river crossing.
The wagon train had come under sudden attack, not leaving them the opportunity to form any effective defense strategy.
Merideth stood up, looking around, lost. She was shaking. Hyperventilating. She looked to the west and saw the wagons pulling into the distance. They had refused to stay and help her. Except for Josiah. He had lost his parents in the same flood Fredrick had died in.
Now, here she was, 42 years old. Widowed and all of her earthly possessions sitting in the back of the wagon. She and her family had set out from New Jersey looking to start a new life in the promise of the western lands.
She was wide hipped, heavy breasted, and with plain features, not really what men counted as attractive. Josiah went to her wagon and got out a ground cloth that had been slightly burnt. He wrapped the dead man up in it. Went and got a shovel, and started digging.
He gently placed the man in the grave and covered him up. Merideth came up to him,
"Thank you, son.'
He just nodded, went and put the shovel up and tied his horse to the wagon. He motioned for her to come get on the wagon. He helped her on and he took the reins and got the team moving. He caught up with the rest of the wagons well after dark.
He unhitched the team took them to the creek for water and staked them out, rubbing each of the four mules down with handfuls of dried grass. Then he headed back to the wagon. Unsaddled his horse and got him watered and curried. Then got his bedroll and stretched out under the wagon. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the seat of his saddle.
He awoke at the first of false dawn. Shook out his boots, slapped on his hat. He took his horse and the mules to the creek and let them water for their fill.
When I got back, I saw a bunch of the rest of the party gathered up around her wagon. The one that fancied himself something of a leader, was speaking.
"Now, Merideth, you simply must turn back for Fort Worth. You can't continue with us, you have no man to care for you. There are some bachelors travelling with us, if you care to continue with us, well..."
One of those bachelors stepped forward.
"I reckon I'd take her in. She's a mite old, but I reckon she'll do."
I stepped up and tied the horse and mules to the wagon. Then stepped over next to Merideth, who had been getting wound up to protest.
"I'm her man now. Y'all go on about your affairs."
The rest gawked at me.
"You, her man?! Why, you're just a kid."
The bachelor came up to me. He was a loudmouth bully and I'd taken an immediate dislike to him when we first met.
"Now, you look here, you skeedadle on about your business before I take the whip to you."
I stand 6'3" barefoot, and tip the scales at around 225. I grew up working on the farm. We'd had a couple of crop failures and the bank took the farm. Pa sold everything he could and outfitted for this trip west. After the accident that took their lives, Jo had traded the wagon and team for the stud horse, saddle, rifle and trail gear.
I wasn't raised to talk when there was a job of work to do. So, I stepped up and clobbered him right side his ear. He dropped like a mule had kicked him. I turned, ignoring him, and hitched up the mules, gathered the gear and stowed it. I helped Merideth up on the wagon and drove down to the creek and filled the water barrels then looked off to the west.
I got back on the wagon and looked over at Merideth.
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know. This is just all too much."
She looked back to the others. Her face twisted with concern. She looked back to me,
"Josiah, I appreciate what you did for me back there. Everything. But, I can't be your woman. You're too young."
So, I handed her the reins and climbed down. I went back and saddled my horse, and started riding away.
She yelled at me.
"What are you doing! Where you going?!
I pointed north.
"That way."
"But, how am I going to make it out here?
I shrugged,
"Same as anybody else I reckon. By doin'. I suppose you oughta go back to where you came from."
"But, I have nothing with which to start over with. Everything I own is in the back of the wagon."