Redtail
11 Aftershocks
I UNDERSTAND what aftershocks are now. You know when there’s an earthquake and then later you get knocked on your butt because the earth hasn’t really stopped shaking. I kept waiting for it. I kept expecting some Federal prosecutor to issue a warrant for my arrest for manipulating the market, or for murdering Joe Teini.
Phil sent us a security team and we led them to Kyle’s treasure cache. Either Mary Beth or Ashley or I and sometimes all three were at the cave inventorying exactly what was taken out. They moved it to a secure storage facility in Salem and I followed behind the two armored trucks, put a padlock on the door and sealed it. We made three trips to Salem over the summer to sort out what was in the storage unit. We transferred half a billion dollars’ worth of gold bullion to our account at American Gold and Silver Exchange. There was over fifty million in gold coins that we decided to keep on deposit there, too, but we’d sell them just a few at a time as we found coin investors. I wasn’t interested in depressing the numismatic market by dumping a bunch of rare coins.
The rest of the stuff was interesting from a historical perspective and some of it was valuable, but it wasn’t like it was another fortune. I puzzled over that. Kyle had just picked up whatever was at the site he’d been sent to without checking to see what was there, but he’d mostly been sent after gold or currency. Apparently, in the days when Joe was doing his own treasure-hunting, he’d been less discriminate about what kind of treasure he went after. Any abandoned wagon or cabin was game for him. I wondered how long he’d been at it before he started using Kyle. Still, for all the effort there wasn’t nearly as much there as the old prospector’s treasure and I had to wonder about it. Phile was still hanging around and getting a kick out of what we found, so I asked him point-blank how he got so much more treasure than Cal and Kyle did.
“Oh, I didn’t,” he said. “There’s much more here than I ever saw. There’s a Bible-story about it. The master of the house called together his three servants and distributed his wealth among them according to their ability to manage it. He gave the first five talents, the second three talents, and the third one talent. Then he went away and told them he’d be back. The first invested the five talents and when the master returned he had five more talents. The master made him the manager of his whole estate. The second traded with his three talents and when the master returned he had three more talents. The master made him the manager of his business. The third buried his talent and when the master returned he gave him back the same talent the master had given him. The master fired that servant and gave the one talent to the servant who had ten. That’s what happened here. Joe buried his treasure and when Kyle took it, he didn’t last long enough to do anything with it. So, it stayed buried. There’s been appreciation in the value of gold, but that’s all he got. I put my fortune in the hands of my grandfather to manage and invest and my family has been doing it for a hundred years. It more than doubled. In fact, it’s probably doubled ten times.”
“I guess I’m the worthless servant,” I said. What a disappointment. I just hadn’t been smart enough for this game.
“No. You just didn’t have time to manage the fortune. If you’d been there, I’m sure you’d have done as well as I did. Remember, I didn’t last there, either. I just gave it to someone I already knew could manage it. And you have time to do the same. Somehow, with a fortune this size, I can’t help but think you’ll need it in the future.”
I guess that satisfied me. It wasn’t like I needed anything more. We were already giving away money as fast as we could. Still, every time I went to Salem or even rode up on the range, I was looking over my shoulder.
We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it wouldn’t be a shock if it came when you expected it. Time went by and I thought we were all clear. That’s when you get the shock.
Birth of a Baby
I went back to school part time in the fall like I said I would. I was a year behind and likely to get further behind at the rate I could attend classes and still manage the ranch, but I didn’t care about that. Ashley would graduate this spring, assuming her either with a baby in her belly or on her tit. I think I nailed her Labor Day weekend.
Fortunately, Angus was willing to help out as we got our feet on the ground at the ranch. It wasn’t too difficult to get back into the swing of things at school. It’s different when you are applying the lessons immediately in the real world. I was also able to contribute a bit when it came to the economics of the open market for ranchers and farmers. What we experienced in the cattle business last year was just as applicable to sheep, pigs, and even cash crops. I was careful not to divulge any information covered by the confidentiality agreement. The time period on that agreement was five years. We didn’t want a bunch of people talking about the think tank that saved Albany County.
I attended classes Monday and Thursday. It wasn’t quite as convenient a schedule as Ashley had worked out last fall, but at least on Thursday we could commute back and forth together. When I came to school as a freshman, I figured I would live on campus so I’d get an experience of living away from home. Now I lived in my own home and I had a wife, a cousin-wife, and two babies on the way. I wasn’t staying away from home any more than I had to.
It was Saturday before Thanksgiving and Ashley had a sorority function to review the new pledges. Even though she wasn’t on campus, she was still a senior member of the sorority and participated in its activities. We’d gone to the fall cotillion in October, just like the first year I was in school. The difference was I took her home and made love afterward.
I figured I’d study in the library until she was done with her meeting and then we’d go home. It turned out to be a bright sunny day—a rarity for November—and I found a study carousel on the third floor near a window. I guess that was a mistake because I couldn’t keep from looking out across the parking lot to the vast snow-covered park. It slowly seeped into my mind that I was looking at the cemetery and I got to thinking about Caitlin again. After Ashley had been stalked in the cemetery, she hadn’t gone back to place flowers like I used to, and since I got back to school, I confess I hadn’t thought about it either. But sitting there in the library on a beautiful day, I was moved to go find a flower and take it to her. I found one at the Wyoming Union and headed across the parking lot to the cemetery. At the main entrance, I walked down the Avenue of Flags about a hundred yards and turned left to get to the Old Potters Field. I suppose I could have just wandered across the cemetery and around the stones at that end, but for some reason I always stay to the paths. Eventually, that brought me to the field from the east.
I was surprised to see another figure standing near Caitlin’s stone. As I moved forward, I was even more surprised to find it was Geneive. I cleared my throat as I approached and spoke her name. She turned abruptly, almost like she was afraid to be found there. Well, there had been stalkers last year.
“Cole! What are you doing here?” She looked at the flower in my hand and started crying. I had no idea what was going on, but as I approached she wrapped her arms around me and buried her head against my chest and wept. She was directly in front of Caitlin’s grave. “You remember her,” she sobbed. “You remember.”
“I… Geneive… how do you…?” I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to ask. I glanced up in the sky to see if there was a hawk flying out there someplace but nothing appeared.
She pulled away from me and said, “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, Geneive. I just come out here when I can and give a flower to this poor girl who had it hard back when Wyoming was just becoming a state.”
“But you remember her. You remembered her and found her. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to find her.”
“How do you know about Caitlin, Geneive?”
“I… She was… I’m like you and Joe, Cole. Or I was. I was till she died.”
“My God! I didn’t know.”
“You never recognized me. I knew. Caitlin was already head-over-heels in love with Kyle. I knew as soon as you taught Kyle that trick about where to kiss me and then to go down on me. I was so scared that when I got back, I broke up with you.”
“Right after Christmas.”
“Then I wanted to get back together with you. I wanted you to know that it was me. We were sharing something so special being together in two different times.”
I laid the flower on Caitlin’s grave and took Geneive by the hand. “I always say thank you to Caitlin and tell her that I miss her,” I said. We paused a minute and I led her back toward campus. “Let’s get something hot to drink and talk a bit.”
She followed docilely as though she had lost her will. We went back to the Union and I ordered her a hot chocolate the way she used to drink it back in high school, with marshmallows floating on top. We sat and she stared at her drink.
“You remember everything, don’t you?” she said. “I haven’t had one of these in three years. It wasn’t sophisticated enough for Joe.” I snorted.
“For a kid who grew up in a hired hand’s house he didn’t know that much about sophistication.”
“I know he was ruthless, Cole, but he was good to me. He made me a better woman.”
“You were always a good woman, Geneive. Why did you leave me?”
She sipped at her cocoa and a tear dripped into it. I reached out and wiped the tears from her cheek with my thumb. She flinched with the contact, but relaxed into my hand. She sighed.
“Because you never recognized me, even after… even after I died.”
“I’m sorry, Geneive. I don’t know what to say.”
“When I was fourteen, Billy Sanders convinced me to let him put his hand in my panties. He was sixteen and knew stuff. He said he’d teach me. His finger in my pussy was just the start and while he pushed his cock into my virgin pussy, I heard a bell ringing far away and all of a sudden, a dirty old cowboy in a whorehouse was ripping his way through my maidenhead. I was flat on my back on a smelly bed crying while he pumped into my dry pussy and left me three pennies for a tip. Caitlin was thirteen.” I looked at her in horror. I knew Caitlin had been a whore for longer than the little time I knew her, but I didn’t know the extent of her abuse. Thirteen! Shit! “I don’t know why I was sent into her. Maybe it was punishment for my sins. I visited her at least twice a year. The first time was just long enough to feel the pain and horror. The whorehouses that you went to—don’t tell me it wasn’t you, but Kyle; you were there—they were never houses of pleasure. They were always houses of pain. I don’t blame you. When you showed up in Kyle, I thought that was why I was there. I was there for you and you would rescue me.”
“Um… thanks, or I’m sorry, I guess.”
“When you came back and cried for her—for me—I just wanted to find you and love you the way I knew it could be. And then in the morning, you left. You went to find that Indian girl. I knew then that I’d lost you. Except that Kyle came back and made a stone for me. It was the first time I knew how much he cared. Not you. Kyle. The first time I’d been able to leave the room, and I did it with him. It gave me hope. When Kyle stopped coming to the whorehouse, I was lost. It seemed like I could only leave with him. But he went out west to help the Indian girl and I didn’t see him again.”
“Shit, Geneive. How long were you out?”
“There, months and months, trapped in that whorehouse bedroom. I lost track of time. Here? A few weeks. You remember. You tried to call me but my mom broke us up.”
“I thought you’d used her to break up with me. Then when school started, you were mad at me, but we got back together again. For a while.”
“It was weird. It was when the first bell rang in school that day and I saw you in the hall. It was always a bell that rang when I shifted. I’d been released from that hell, but you still didn’t recognize me. I thought if I did some of the things we’d done together back then, you’d see it was me, but all the things we did were things you’d already done to me. I couldn’t understand how you couldn’t recognize me.”
“And then Joe. He recognized you?”
“Right away. The first time he looked at me at the restaurant, I knew he was a time traveler. And he knew I’d been there. He had Cal’s memories of fucking Caitlin. I had Caitlin’s. They weren’t all that pleasant for me, but they were this special secret only we could share.”
“Do you still go back?”
“Go back? Cole, is Kyle still alive? Can you still go back?” There was a trace of excitement in her voice for the first time. “Can you take me? Cole that’s all I wanted from Joe. I thought he could maybe somehow take me with him when his coyote howled. I want to go back to before Caitlin got pregnant and stop the little bitch from aborting. Can you do that, Cole? Can you take me?”
“Oh God, Geneive. If I could do things like that, I’d go back and stop Kyle from getting killed. I’d stop Caitlin myself. I’d probably kill Cal Despain right away. We can’t change the things that happened. Even when we’re back there the past is the past.”
“You got everything, Cole. You got a wife and child back then and you’ve got a wife and your cousin is pregnant. I know she’s the one I always shared you with. I found out a long time ago. You still go back, don’t you? The only thing I ever wanted—the little baby to hold in my arms—she threw away and I can’t have. I hate you!” Tears were streaming down Geneive’s cheeks. I had to do something.
“Come home with us tonight, Geneive. Let us be with you and talk about things. You don’t have to suffer out here alone,” I said.
“Oh Cole. You’re great really. But you’ve got a wife and… and another wife. Neither one of them would be that happy about having your ex-girlfriend who happens to be the widow of your worst enemy show up. I’ve got money. Joe bankrupted himself fighting you, but I managed to hide enough that I’m not penniless. I’ll go somewhere. There’s no reason to stay here and no reason to live in the past. Either past.”
Geneive got up from the table and walked away. I didn’t know what to do. I just let her go.
When Ashley and I got home about an hour later, Mary Beth was not at the door to greet us as she usually was.
“Mary Beth? Are you here, love?” I called. In answer, I heard a scream from the bedroom. Ashley and I ran.
Mary Beth was stretched out on the bed clutching a pillow to her. Her knees were in the air and spread, but she still had her pants on. We rushed to her.
“Coming. She’s coming,” she gasped.
“Hell. Not with your pants on, darling,” I said. I unfastened the pants and pulled them off with her panties.
“Oh! That feels better. I forgot. I’m thirsty. I haven’t been able to get up for half an hour.” I ran to get water and towels while Ashley got MB out of her Shirt and bra. I started hot water running in the bathtub then tempered it to medium warm. As soon as the tub was full enough, I went back to get Mary Beth. As soon as the war was over last winter, we had the master bathroom remodeled and put in a tub we could all three get into. Ashley and I supported Mary Beth and got her into the tub. “So much better. So much better.”
“Did you call Ava Dickinson?” I asked. She was the local midwife and had talked to us a few times about the coming birth. The tub was her idea.
“No. It came so hard and all at once that I laid down without ever thinking of the phone.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Ashley was already stripped and in the tub with Mary Beth, supporting her as she leaned back. If it weren’t for what was happening, I’d have just stayed there to watch them. They were so perfect together. I went out of the room and called the midwife. Ava said she’d be there in half an hour and to just stay calm and help Mary Beth relax.
Relaxing wasn’t in the cards. This baby wasn’t waiting for any midwife. Mary Beth had thrown herself back against Ashley and was gripping both her hands tightly. I looked down in the tub and could see the top of the baby’s head. I stripped off my shirt and scrubbed my hands nearly to my shoulders in hot water and germicidal soap. When I was clean, I reached down between Mary Beth’s legs and touched my daughter for the first time.
“She’s almost here, honey. I’m touching her head. You take a deep breath when you’re ready and give us one more good push. We’re about to have a baby Mary Beth.” Ashley was whispering in Mary Beth’s ear and helping her with her breathing as they clutched their hands together. Being between Mary Beth’s legs and touching the head of my own child beat the hell out of delivering calves. Mary Beth took a deep breath and started to push. “Keep coming. Keep coming,” I said. I had her head in my hands and the rest of the little girl was making her way out of my precious cousin’s opening. “One more push!” and then our baby was floating in the water.
I pulled her up and placed her on Mary Beth’s tummy, letting the cord float in the water. Ava made us get a kit prepared for this and I finally had a chance to open it. I looked for what I wanted and found that little bulb squeegee that sucks mucus up. In the barn, we just use a big old turkey baster. I quickly sucked any gunk that was in her nose out and rubbed her back with Mary Beth and Ashley until we were sure she was breathing okay.
I keep saying she. I’d decided long ago I was having a daughter and they say the father decides. I don’t know what we’d have done if she’d come out with a cock and balls. But she didn’t. She was perfect. We bathed her in the water that was warm enough to be like mama’s womb.
“Her eyes are open!” Mary Beth said. Ashley looked over her shoulder and I leaned over. Open and hazel with gold flecks like her mother’s. I checked and the cord had stopped pulsing, so I took out the clamps from our kit and cut it.
“Time for that last big push, darling,” I said. “We get the nasties out and then we can get you and our baby into the big bed and warm.”
“Oh, Cole. Thank you for giving me the most beautiful present in the world! Thank you!” She gave another big push and I scooped the placenta out in a kitchen strainer. As long as Mary Beth and Ashley and the baby were comfortable, I didn’t want to disturb them, so I ran to the kitchen and put the kettle on for tea. While I was still there, Ava knocked on the door.
“Well, let’s get this show on the road,” she said as she walked in.
“To late, Ava,” I laughed. “Curtain already went up. Mom and baby are still in the tub. Go on up. I’m making tea.”
“Already? That must have been one of the shortest labors on record. Don’t go thinking every one is going to be like that.” Ava was off and up the stairs to the master bath while I finished making tea for everyone. I chuckled to myself over Ava’s comment. Every one? I wondered just how many there were going to be. I supposed I should call the parents, but once I got Ava out of the way, I wanted a little time with my family before everyone else got there. I took the tea up to the bedroom and Mary Beth and Ashley were already cuddled in the bed. Ava was standing right beside them and did the health assessment on the baby while they dried and got into bed. She wrote the baby’s length and weight on a form with a five-point checklist of vitals and then she tucked the baby right under the covers with Mary Beth and told her to start sucking. I guess she knew what that meant because Mary Beth’s nipple went into that baby’s mouth like into a vacuum.
“Well, you all done good,” Ava said. “You’ve got a healthy baby girl, a healthy mama, and you, mister,” she said turning to me, “have three naked ladies in your bed. I’ll leave and you can get in there, too.” With that, she gulped down one of the cups of tea and said, “I don’t think Joyce Kenworth’s delivery is going to be that easy, so I’m headed over there. Give me a call if anything changes or if you have any questions. I know your mamas will be here soon.” She put her cup on the tray and was gone.
I already had my shirt off, so I stripped off my boots and pants and crawled in next to my wives and my daughter. She’d sucked her fill and was lazily toying with the nipple, her eyes mostly closed. I know I talk like all this took five minutes, but I suppose it was a good three hours since Ashley and I got home. It’s just that things went so fast it was hard to keep track of the time.
“I think your little girl is ready to meet her daddy,” Mary Beth whispered. “You hold her while I rest a while, Cole. Tell her how much you love her. I’m going to lean on Ashley and just rest a while.” I took the baby and she tucked her little legs up like she was a frog and went to sleep on my chest. Mary Beth drifted off and I just marveled at the life in my arms.
And wouldn’t you know, Redtail called.
Traveling: Blessing
I knew I was on my way to see Laramie and I held the feeling of my baby in my arms as I quickly looked to see where my love was. I was lying in the bed right beside her.
“Kyle?”
“Look, Laramie. Isn’t she beautiful? She’s the next in our line, my love, and she was just born.”
“Oh Kyle. So beautiful.”
“I’m here, Laramie. I love you.” I swear both the baby and Laramie sighed contentedly.
“Are you here to show me the way, Kyle? Will you take me home now?” she said.
What? What was going on? I stretched my senses. I was in the same room as I’d been in the present, but Laramie stretched out still beside me. Kaylene was nearby and little Mildred, my granddaughter/grandmother was holding her grandma’s hand.
“Papa?” Kaylene said. “I knew you’d come. Mama, he’s here. You can feel him, can’t you, Mama.”
“He’s here with me, Kaylene. Kyle has come to take me home, haven’t you, love?”
“I’ll be here with you, Laramie. I’m always here with you. I love you. I love you. I love you.” Laramie’s breath stuttered and she was floating with me, young and beautiful and full of life like the first time I saw her when we were making love. With us, too, were Theresa and White Horse, Kyle and Kat. They were all waiting for Laramie with their hands outstretched. I didn’t know Kat had passed away, but I was thankful for a chance to see her again. They all came to bless my little baby before they turned to go.
“I’ll be waiting here for you and all our family,” Laramie said. “And I will always be with you.” I felt the wash of a love so warm and joyful that I cried out, “Laramie!” and felt her presence withdraw. I wept. I held my little daughter in my arms and wept for the loss of her ancestor who died seventy years ago.
My daughter. How had I brought her with me? She was in my arms as surely as if I was holding her. I couldn’t just let go of her. I had to protect her and care for her. I had to hold her till Redtail called me back again. I was scared, but I was doing my best to be strong and calm for my baby. She didn’t seem to have any problems with it at all and was still cooking on my chest where I’d held her.
“Thank you, Papa,” Kaylene said softly as she pulled the sheet up over her mother. “Goodbye, Mama. I know you are at peace now.” Kaylene paused as if expecting something to happen. “I know you are still here, Papa. I know the place. I’ll show you now.”
I followed Kaylene down to the den with the original stone fireplace in it. Only it looked different than it had when I’d seen it before. Maybe I was thinking differently since I really had no sense of sight. It was just the feeling was different. Then I realized that the fireplace was more like the one we currently had.
“Mildred, go get ready for bed now. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“Where’s grandma, Mama?”
“Grandma’s gone to be with Grandpa, baby. Tomorrow we’ll take her out to lay her beside him.”
“Oh. She’s not alone then. Okay.” The little five-year-old girl ran out to put her pajamas on.
“Mama hid our cash from the bank here, Papa. She said we’d need it to pay people and keep the ranch going while times are bad. But she said to put her box of papers here, too. She said you’d know what to do with them. So here they are.” Kaylene took a locked metal box from the desk and placed the key on top of it. She moved a stone near the back of the fireplace and pushed the box behind it. I stretched my senses and felt my Smith & Wessons still hanging from the hat tree. Kaylene seemed to feel it. “I don’t know what she put in the box for you, Papa, but she said you’d know what to do. I’ll put these in there, too. It’s a different world now and we won’t need them again.” She put my leathers and the guns behind the stone and pushed it back into place. “Don’t worry about us now. We’ve got money and good hired hands. Mildred is a good girl and Robert is still here most of the time, unless he runs off after another new invention that will make all our lives easier. Would you believe we’ve got a washing machine? Don’t be hard on him, Papa. He’s a good man, but I’ll never marry him and let him have the ranch. It will all go to Mildred.”
“What goes to Mildred?” my granddaughter asked coming back into the room with her footie pajamas on.
“Everything goes to Mildred, baby. All my love. All Grandma’s love. And all Grandpa’s love. Everything goes to Mildred.”
“Who you talking to?”
“I just like to talk to Grandpa, sometimes when I know he’s near. I think Grandpa needs to know we love him and we love the little baby in his arms. Now that they aren’t here with us anymore, you have to say goodnight in your heart and mean it, baby.”
“I love you, Mama. Goodnight Grandma. Goodnight Grandpa. Love you!”
Kaylene took her daughter out of the room and I heard Redtail call me again.
Naming
“Of course, Cole. It’s perfect.” Mary Beth said softly. I filtered through my memories of the past few minutes as a tear rolled down my cheek. I’d been gone. I saw Laramie die and I knew where the papers were that she wanted me to find. I’d continued to hold my daughter in my arms as I’d gone back and shown her to her ancestors. And I’d called out Laramie’s name.
That was it.
“Wait, Mary Beth,” Ashley said. “He’s been gone. Didn’t you hear the hawk?”
“I thought I was dreaming it,” Mary Beth yawned.
“You took the baby with you, didn’t you, Cole?”
I nodded. I told them about seeing Laramie greeted by Kyle, Kat, Theresa, and White Horse and her promise to meet me and all our family when it was our time.
“That makes it an even better choice,” Mary Beth said. “She’s been blessed by both our grandmothers. Ashley, do you object?”
“What? That you’re not going to name her after me? Don’t be silly. I even know what I want my son to be named.”
“And when is that going to be?” I asked.
“In about six months,” Ashley said. “Laramie needs her brother to grow up with her.”
“Laramie?” I said.
“When I asked you what we should name her, you practically shouted out ‘Laramie!’ I think it’s perfectly beautiful.”
“Laramie Wyoming Bell,” I whispered. “My daughter.”
“And when her little brother comes along,” Ashley said, “we already know his name will be Kyle Redtail Bell.”
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