10 Pound Bag Ch. 041-045

**** Chapter Forty-one -- Best Friends ****

I came awake in the middle of the night, my bladder had a message for me and I was wise enough to pay heed. When I returned from visiting my friendly neighborhood tree I stopped and looked at my bed before I climbed back in. Michelle was still comfortably asleep there, snuggled in deep against the spring night cold.

She was my close friend and I was very fond of her.

She was my lover and I enjoyed sharing that with her.

But she wasn't my love and that broke my heart in a small yet very depressing way.

We didn't fantasize about children or our future together, we discussed logistics and plans.

We had great sex and kept each other warm, but we really didn't cuddle and whisper sweet nothings.

I climbed back into the warmth of bed and considered all of that until sleep swept me away again.

**** Chapter Forty-two -- We have an Egg! ****

Matilda served me Steak and an Egg for breakfast; not eggs, but a single egg. Who ever accused her of not having a sense of humor? It made me laugh and tasted good; laughter was something I really needed.

It turned out that two of our hens had gone broody but one was still laying. I decreed then and there that whomever was rehearsing at breakfast that morning got the egg or got to bequeath it on someone else. Silly family games of a sort.

We had two kids, three Mom's and one Dad; it was a strange sort of family but as the days passed and spring came into bloom we drew closer together.

**** ****

We decided on a calendar, even if we were wrong it gave us further sense of structure. So the day we woke up here became Monday, April 1^st, 1822; Happy Fools Day everybody.

Saturday's were determined to be laundry and house cleaning days, it was also the day that I would start both the trucks and allow them to warm up. I'd even move them a little to prevent the tires from dry rotting, those tires were irreplaceable. I also disconnected the batteries in all the vehicles, batteries were going to be another priceless thing, proper storage and maintenance was a must.

Today was therefore Sunday and Sunday was a day of rest. After some badgering by Sonya we agreed to have a Bible Story reading each and every Sunday morning. We started with that right after breakfast, thankfully she chose a short children's story to read and we were done with the religious lore in less than half an hour. If someone started preaching there would be trouble with me, I'm not much into humans trying to mold God into their desired deity to gain political influence.

Sunday however didn't mean chores didn't have to be done. Livestock and crops had to tended. There was, however some relaxation to be had; Michelle took Amos down to the stream to do some fishing, Sonya found something to read or watch on her tablet, and Matilda and I had some peace and quiet.

Not together, Matilda fussed with Matilda stuff and Esther shadowed her. I started to go through my weapons stash. I simply started with the first box I found. It was like Christmas as a kid.

The first box I opened was a bust, it was simply a box full of cleaning supplies; patches, oils, etc.

The next box was fun, inside all of the packaging was a brace of Harper's Ferry flintlock calvary pistols complete with pommel bags and holsters. Beautiful replicas of the highest quality. They came with a nicely bound hard cover history and lengthy instruction book. The wooden storage case was a thing of beauty as well. These weren't the pirate pistols I thought I'd bought but I supposed I had made a better choice in the end. I broke the shipping box down and started a cardboard pile, I was sure Matilda would find a use for that.

On to box #3, it was a long box and I was pretty sure it was one of my muskets. It was, it turned out to be another sublime replica; a hand made replica edition of a Harper's Ferry/Hall 1819 breach loading percussion rifle. It was another work of pure art and I could see why I bought it; it would look a hell of a lot better over my mantle than an AR-15.

In box #4 I guess I had started to delve into my Louis L 'amour influenced youth, I unboxed a Sharps 50-90. It was long at almost 4 feet in length but not as heavy as I expected. This was a true buffalo gun and would bring down a bear or an elk at 500 yards with ease if you knew how to shoot straight.

Box #5 contained a replica Winchester 1873 .45 rifle, the so called "Gun that won the West" and a Model 1866 "Yellow Boy" also in .45 caliber. These were the rifles we all saw on TV and in the movies, in actuality they were great utility rifles and as replica's they fired the same cartridges as my M1911.

#6 - Pair of Colt Frontier replica .45 pistols. These were the famous "Spaghetti Western" pistols toted by everybody in a thousand TV shows and movies. I had a variety of holsters to go with them as well, all of them out of place in our new time and usually out of place anywhere but a movie set. There were a set of calvary holsters that held promise though. These holsters were almost as popular as pommel holsters in actual history and allowed you to carry your pistol horizontally across your waist giving you access while mounted as well as when unmounted.

#7 was a Winchester 1873 .22 short. A replica 1873 in .22 caliber, I remember buying this rifle as a training rifle; it was nice but not spectacular. It was still a very nice rifle, .22s were one of the most popular weapons in the old west. More importantly from my point of view I had hundreds of rounds for it.

#8 was a replica Colt Sheriff .22 short revolver. Again this was to be a training pistol and again it was a nice weapon with a short barrel and incredibly effective. I had a shoulder holster for this one.

I had obviously gone nuts shopping that day at the show.

Unpacking and sorting out took several hours, thankfully none of the weapons were packed in cosmoline and all of them were polished and well oiled. Showroom condition if you will. I pulled everything out of the gun safe and lined everything up on our spare cot. We had one heck of an impressive arsenal.

After lunch I started issuing out weapons with the accompanying explanations.

Michelle got the Double barrel shotgun, the .45 1873, and a .45 Frontier with pommel holster. She would look perfectly normal if the year was 1890 but it was not 1890 so she would need to be careful with who saw her with what she had.

Sonya didn't really want but eventually accepted a .22 auto to use as a hide-away piece. She argued long and hard and I was just as resolute, 1820 was a harsh world and people wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of her. I also reminded her that she might need to protect the children.

Matilda made her .22 auto disappear into her ever voluminous bag and went back to sewing whatever she was making.

And finally I gave Moses the .22 Peacemaker revolver and .22 Winchester rifle; the revolver came with a shoulder holster which we would be able to fit to him with a little bit of adjustment. His eyes grew wide and I think I earned a lot of points with that young man on that day. He seemed to stand a little taller and his view of his situation seemed to have changed.

Young Esther got a pointy stick and a very small camping knife with sheath that I had purchased to use for gardening. The pointy stick made everyone laugh and Esther liked the small knife, Matilda fastened it onto her waist and it looked quite normal in a farm girl kind of way.

I had a few folding knives which I handed out and I had decided I'd go through the fancy knives and reloading supplies later, there was only so much I could handle in a single day. I wasn't going to issue ammo until the next day when we could hold a safety class and familiarization fire session.

For the most part I would be the one carrying weapons around, everyone else was to keep theirs concealed since their firearms were all from another era. I planned to carry the shotgun and my M1911 around the homestead; I'd carry the muskets when we had contact with civilization. I had a double rifle saddle scabbard I could use when I went out hunting. Our main firearms were all .45 or .22 caliber; replica's can be made like that which was nice. I doubted the Sharps would ever see much use and I hoped the A2 never would.

I stored my weapons to their appropriate places; some in the gun safe, some in storage and the most commonly used in my tent. We stacked all of the packaging materials carefully into one of the stalls, everything was a valuable commodity now and nothing was going to be left to waste.

Amos and I made dinner, I taught him how to make Mac-n-Cheese; it was a simple joy to watch his amazement at the flavor and texture.

That evening we watched a Disney movie, you should have seen the kids faces. I made popcorn to go with it. Esther curled up in Matilda's lap and they cuddled together with the cats at their side.

It was stupid fun.

**** Chapter Forty-three -- Visitors ****

The next morning I used the tractor to clear sod so they could have their garden. Dropping the forks and attaching the bucket was surprisingly easy and I quickly learned how deep to cut to only get the sod. Amos guided me and got pretty good at it by the end of the day. We used the sod to begin to build a root cellar, I dug out a 12' x 12' five foot deep square hole and we started piling up the sod to make walls. The dirt I dug out went back into the garden giving them plenty of the dark rich earth to work with.

The entrance as a different problem, dug a descending trench about thee feet wide to bottom floor of the root cellar and then used sod to build a small wall and sill to the downward steps; it would not do to have our root cellar flooded. Locating it on a small rise, not quite a knoll, as I did would help but I needed to be careful about drainage. I had learned throughout my life to treat mother nature with due reverence, she still might be a bitch to you but if you treated her with proper respect you might survive her fury.

I planned to lid it over with logs and add sod on top of it; in the end it should look just like a small hill with a door in the side of it.

We had gotten as far as we were going to get that day on the root cellar, we needed more sod for the walls and I wanted think further before I cut that out; I'm not a big fan of mud and without the sod that's what we'd have when the rains came.

We were called to lunch and Matilda had made one of my very favorites: peanut butter and onion on toast. I ate three of them. The food was good and everyone was getting better at rehashing the story of our lives, we were starting to get some interesting embellishments. Occasionally even fantastical.

Matilda had broken out her seed stash and after work the ladies went to work on the garden. Amos and I were going to walk the line and inspect the fields, I had shown him what to look for in the tomato fields and I saddled Lunch to ford the brook and check the corn.

I checked the young corn for problems stemming from the few cold nights, we seemed to have gotten lucky and avoided significant losses. I guessed that Oscar had planted a cold hardy breed in hopes of crashing the market early, time would tell.

I had just made it to the tree line when I heard a sharp crack and a scream of pain from the other side of the camp. Something had just gone very wrong. Lunch and Brin were both looking in that direction also so I launched Lunch and called for Brin to follow.

That stallion took off like a dragster, he made full speed in his first three bounds; after that it was breakneck speed all the way. He cleared the brook in one large leap and never lost stride, we whipped through the main camp with Brin trailing behind.

I as I passed the garden the women were all looking towards the far side of the tomato field and I angled for there, calling up Mila and Kordi as I passed. Matilda was the first to move and then the rest of them woke up and started moving also.

As I crashed across the young tomato's I could see four men and they seemed to have Amos held between them, I saw one of them drawback with a whip. They froze when they saw me coming, they would have ran had they seen the three hellhounds following close behind.

It was too late for them before they even understood what was happening. I reined Lunch to a turning halt dismounting with him between me and the men; I could hear the dogs, they were closer now.

I stepped out from behind Lunch with my M1911 in hand, they didn't recognize it for what it was. Pity for them.

Two of them were holding poor Amos, a third had the whip and one big guy seemed to be leading the show. The big guy was almost my size.

The big guy stepped forward saying "This ain't none of your business mister..."

Those were his last words, an unfinished sentence.

I shot him in the face.

Brin was there.

A skinny guy holding Amos's arm tried to pull his knife.

I double-tapped him.

The other two froze and Amos fell to his knees.

I set the dogs to guard.

Esther was there hugging Amos and crying.

Michelle looked motherly and checked Amos's back.

Sonya was weeping.

Matilda looked like the Angel of Death. She had her straight razor in her hand. Christ on a Crutch that woman scared me!

The moment froze for me; still life once again and I knew I'd never forget this.

I was starting to get angry, very angry; this was about to get brutal.

**** ****

I waved the two away from Amos, they just stood there looking shocked until I put another round into the ground between them. Poor fellas couldn't understand my pistol but they weren't asking questions either. The moved a good twenty yards from Amos, the dogs shadowed their every move. The chubby whip guy appeared to have pissed his pants. Matilda stayed near them that frightful straight razor still in hand.

"Sonya, run and fetch me some rope please!", she didn't move until I shouted, "NOW!"

Off she went.

"Michelle, Status please?" I asked.

"He's gonna hurt but he'll be OK, he's still bleeding pretty good." Was her reply.

"Amos?", I queried.

"I'll be OK boss." But he had a quaver in his voice.

I looked at our two prisoners, Mr. Whipper and Mr. Holder. Whipper was a somewhat chubby middle aged guy with really bad teeth and completely unkempt appearance. Holder was younger, late teens probably, short with a lank of unruly hair.

"Where's your gear?" I asked.

Whipper kept his mouth shut but Holder admitted it was just yonder beyond the tree line with their horses and mules.

It was my turn to sow some fear and pain and I was well in the mood for it. "I suppose you won't mind if we collect that from you since you won't be using it any longer," I started with, "and go ahead and take off those clothes as there is no sense in putting holes in perfectly good cloth."

Any sliver of hope that had been in their eyes faded quickly, whipper looked panicky. Holder balked for another reason, "But Mister, them ladies..."

"Brin." I said quietly.

Brin rose to his feet and advanced growling, Mila and Kordi echoed the growl.

Clothes quickly came off.

"On your knees." I ordered, down the went onto their knees.

"Cross your ankles behind you." Some confusion but accomplished.

"Hands behind your back." Quick compliance.

I had them nude and on their knees; Matilda had the rope from Sonya and quickly went to work, Michelle and Esther helped her.

Sonya had finally stopped crying and was starting to look self-righteous again; she was going to be a pain.

I made a decision, "Matilda, take their hair please; let's see who we're dealing with here". Ever the model of efficiency she used that razor and removed all of their head and facial hair.

I was still angry and it was time to render judgement.

"You came onto my land without invite or announcement. You kidnapped, assaulted and tortured one of my people. These things offend and anger me." I said coldly.

Chubby Whip just couldn't help himself, "Mister, no offense but he's a runaway nigger slave, we have the right to take him back."

I kept my cool, "He's mine I brought him here, you made a really bad mistake and you aren't in the States or even the Territories any more; I'm the law here and the only rights you have are the ones I give you.

"You came here to my land and did evil things and for that I condemn you to death."

Fucking Sonya.

Sonya screamed "No!"

So we held a trial that afternoon out under the great walnut tree. Sonya stood for the defendants and her opposition to the death penalty. Michelle stood for the family. I stood as Judge and Jury. Matilda was our jailer and Esther brought us refreshments.

While the ladies worked out their arguments Amos and I got the dog cart and went out to collect their belongings and their buddies. We found their gear just inside the tree line, they had four nags and two decent pack mules. We'd see what Michelle had to say about the nags, perhaps with a little TLC from her they'd be decent mounts again. We'd go through their gear later.

We loaded up the bodies and another evidence onto the cart and Kordi and Mila took it all back down to the great walnut tree.

It was almost trial time and dinner needed to be ready soon, last meal and all that. I sent Esther and Matilda down to put together some food while I joined Brin on guard duty.

We fed our naked, bald prisoners there under the tree while Michelle and I sat nearby discussing where to place our Potters Field, it had to be unnerving eating steak and potatoes while hear someone discussing your paupers grave site.

**** Chapter Forty-four -- The Trial ****

It then came time to convene our Kangaroo Court, basically it was a Summary Trial. We'd all been there and seen what was done, we were now simply listening now to closing arguments and passing sentence. The best our intruders could hope for was that Sonya would think of something mitigating to say that might save their lives.

It didn't take long. I listed the charges again and had Amos tell his side of the story. He recited a pretty simple story, he was walking along inspecting the tomatoes when he was grabbed from behind. He was held, yelled at and whipped when he wouldn't speak.

It was Michelle's turn next, she spoke plainly of the crimes of kidnapping and torture. She became more insistent when spelling out the danger that they would be to us if we let them go free. It was pretty compelling.

Sonya got her turn, she spoke mainly of young holder guy and how he was repentant and sorry. She spoke of his manners, how he had fallen in with a bad crowd and even his upbringing. I was dubious but open.

Finally our intruders had their moment. Chubby Whipper went first and doomed himself from the moment he opened his mouth, it seemed he couldn't help himself and just had to explain that Amos was just a runaway nigger and that what he had been doing was completely legal in Missouri. He wound himself up pretty good and even spoke of revenge. I let him talk just to make his fate easier to carry out. Sonya simply shook her head, apparently he'd just done everything she told him not to do.

Holder got his chance eventually and he threw himself on the mercy of the court and begged for forgiveness. He saved himself.

It was finally my turn and time to end this all.

I called Chubby Whipper forward and announced in a somber voice, "I find you guilty of all charges. After arguments and your own testimony I have to decided to punish you with torture in return for the torture you inflicted. The punishment for attacking and trying to kidnap one of my people is death. Sentence is to be carried out immediately."

He tried to say something but Matilda stepped forward quickly and sliced off his genitals with her straight razor, she had acted even faster than I expected. He didn't even realize what had happened yet or felt any pain when she held them up for him to see. A half-heartbeat later the pain hit him and he doubled over, Matilda calmly and smoothly reached down and slit his throat from ear to ear. He died quickly lying in the dirt with his dismembered genitals lying in front of his face.