Markeson Freight Mule Skinners

I thought I'd get a job a boy could do and let my hair grow out, and then go to one of the new towns as a woman and get a job in a store. If I did, I could find a husband too, because there aren't very many women out here yet. I used to read the notices men from Colorado put in the newspaper to get a woman to come out here and be their wife.

"When I got here, there weren't many jobs for a boy, and I'm not strong enough to do what a man can do. I saw the wagon train come into town that day, and I knew you didn't have to be really strong to work mules, so I went to the freight office and asked if they needed any drivers. The part about me knowing mules was true. I used to help William in the field, so I knew how to work mules.

"I didn't intend to get close to anybody, and I tried not to, but you were nice to me and I thought I could trust you. Turns out, I was right. I didn't think I'd have to trust you to do what you did, but I was right."

Ezekiel asked what she was going to do now because she'd have to stay off that leg for almost a month to give it time to heal. Josephine frowned.

"I don't know. Get me a room at the hotel I suppose, but I don't have enough money to stay there for a whole month. You sure it'll take a month for this to heal up?"

Ezekiel shrugged.

"That's what it took in the war. You'll be able to walk around before a month, but if you did anything hard, it might bust open. So you came all the way out here to find a husband?"

Josephine smiled at him.

"Yes, that's why. Why did you come out here? If you're a doctor, like you said, why aren't you doctoring someplace instead of driving mules?"

"You wouldn't understand."

Josephine frowned.

"If you don't tell me I won't, that's for sure. I told you about me. Now you tell me about you."

Ezekiel looked over at Josephine and she smiled.

"Come on, tell me. It can't be that bad."

Ezekiel shook his head.

"It can be that bad and it was. I spent most of my time in the Army watching men die because I couldn't stop them from dying. I knew if I went back to Philadelphia and started being a real doctor again, some people would die and I couldn't take failing again. I came out here so I could forget."

Josephine tried to make a joke to cheer Ezekiel up.

"I'm glad you didn't forget so much you didn't know how to fix my leg."

"No, I didn't forget that part."

"So, what you really came out here to do is hide from yourself? That doesn't make sense to me. Seems to me if you really wanted to be a doctor, being a doctor is all you'd ever want to be. You didn't fail those men, Ezekiel. If you hadn't tried to save them, what would have happened to them? They'd all have died instead of just some of them. If you saved some of them, that isn't failing. It's trying to do the best you can, just like you did with me.

"If you ask me, not being a doctor because you're afraid you can't save everybody is just plain selfish. You're saying you won't take care of anybody else because you don't want to feel bad. That is failing. What if a woman said she wasn't going to ever get married because then she'd have children and if none of them were boys, she'd feel like she'd failed her husband because she didn't give him any sons?"

Ezekiel frowned.

"That isn't the same thing and you know it."

"Yes it is the same thing. She'd be keeping herself from getting married because of something she couldn't control. Don't you see? That's what you're doing. There will always be people hurt too bad or too sick to get well. You can't control that so you're not even going to try. I thought you were a man, but now, I feel sorry for you. When you get old, you're gonna think back and see what you could have done with your life and you'll be sorry too, but you'll be too old to do anything about it."

}{

It took another day and a half before the wagon train rolled into the outskirts of Cheyenne, and during that day and a half, Ezekiel and Josephine hadn't talked much, but Ezekiel had done a lot of thinking.

She was right about how he'd probably feel when he got too old to drive mules. As soon as Josephine had said that, he realized he already felt like he'd lost something he didn't think he'd ever get back. He'd felt that something, a little anyway, when Josephine's wound didn't get infected and she didn't get sick. He'd been able to keep that from happening by checking the wound and taking care of it three times a day. Maybe if he'd been able to do that during the war, more of the men he treated would have lived.

Another thing was causing him to think as well. When he'd pulled down Josephine's trousers that first time, he was stunned to find she wasn't a boy like he'd thought. He'd begun to think of her as a friend and someone he liked even though she was younger. After he knew she was a woman, he couldn't think of her as just a friend anymore. She was still younger than he, twenty-two she'd said, but she was a woman and the feeling had changed from friendship to something a lot stronger.

It was a different feeling, one he'd never had before, and it bothered him. If he felt that way about Josephine, he couldn't just leave her in Cheyenne to fend for herself while he went off on the back of a mule going to Denver. He'd worry about her the whole time, yet, what else could he do? It finally came down to either staying in Cheyenne with Josephine until she was healed enough to do for herself, or forgetting about her, and Ezekiel didn't think he could ever forget about her.

If he stayed with her, what would he do to make a living? He only knew how to drive mules and be a doctor. If he couldn't continue to drive mules, could he be a doctor again? Ezekiel thought he could treat most things like broken bones or cuts and even gunshots if they weren't too bad, and he could probably prevent the spread of some diseases by quarantining the sick person even if he couldn't cure them. He had the right instruments, so he could do all of the other things a doctor was called upon to do. Could he treat a person he knew wasn't going to get well, just treat them so they didn't hurt as bad, and then watch them die?

He was unhitching the horses from the cook's wagon when Josephine hobbled up to his side.

"Ezekiel, you haven't talked to me for a day and a half. You've been thinking about what I said, haven't you?"

Ezekiel remembered how his mother always knew when something was bothering him. Josephine seemed to be the same way.

"Yes, I've thought about it?"

"Decide anything yet?"

"No. Have you figured out what you're going to do? You won't be able to work mules again for another few weeks at least or you'll tear that open again."

Josephine smiled.

"That depends on you mostly."

Ezekiel frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"Well, if you decide to be a doctor again, I thought you might need a woman to cook for you and wash your clothes and things like that. A doctor wouldn't have time to do that for himself. If you decide to keep driving mules, I don't really know what I'll do.

Ezekiel smiled.

"So, you'd want to be a housekeeper for me if I was a doctor?"

"If you'd have me and you should. You really need a woman to do those things. You couldn't even cook beans by yourself and I'll bet you haven't washed those clothes in months. I can smell you six feet away and you don't smell all that good. You smell like a sweaty man and a sweaty mule put together. A doctor would have to smell a whole lot better."

"That's all it would be? You'd just be my housekeeper?"

Josephine smiled and touched Ezekiel's arm.

"Unless you wanted me to be something else. The way you look at me when you change my bandage makes me think you might. It's the same way my husband looked at me when I took a bath."

Ezekiel shook his head.

"That means we'd have to get married."

Josephine grinned.

"That's the first sensible thing I've heard you say in three days."

Ezekiel felt like he was being trapped and tried to defend himself.

"What makes you think I'd want to marry you?"

"Well, after I got shot, you constantly wanted to know if I felt all right and you fussed about everything I did until I asked you why you weren't doctoring instead of driving mules. That's the same way my husband was until I asked him why he thought he had to go off to the war. Besides, who else would you marry? One of those women down at the saloon? They might be able to do one thing better than I can, but I'll bet they can't cook very good."

He knew Josephine was pushing him to be a doctor again, and she was pushing him hard. If she thought he could be a doctor, maybe he should try, at least until she healed. If it didn't work out, he could always go back to being a mule skinner. He looked at Josephine's smiling face.

"Do you think they need a doctor in Cheyenne?"

Josephine grinned.

"Well, I haven't seen any signs that say they have one now."

"And if I opened a doctor's office, you'd want to be my housekeeper?"

Josephine frowned.

"Being your housekeeper would probably have all the women in town talking about us. I don't think I'd like that part."

Ezekiel stared at Josephine with his mouth open for a few seconds.

"But you're the one who suggested being my housekeeper."

Josephine smiled.

"Yes, but that was just a way to get you to talk about what I really want to be. It worked, too."

Ezekiel shook his head.

"I thought it was the man who proposed to the woman, not the other way around."

Josephine smiled an innocent little smile.

"I never asked you to marry me, did I? I just said I'd be your housekeeper unless you wanted me to be something else and then I said you looked at me and treated me like my dead husband always did. You're the one who brought up getting married, so you did ask me...sort of."

Ezekiel gave in, and it surprised him how good it felt.

"I suppose you're going to sort of say yes, too."

}{

Ezekiel got two rooms at the hotel, one for himself and another for Josephine. He had to help her up the stairs and then bring her their bags to their rooms. After that, he paid to take a bath and then put on his other set of clothes.

He found an empty building next to the general store. It had been the original general store before the current, larger store was constructed and was still owned by Mr. Anders, the storekeeper who'd sold Ezekiel the Remington revolver. Mr. Anders listened to Ezekiels story, and then said he'd rent the building for ten dollars a month even though he'd be losing money because Cheyenne needed a doctor.

Mr. Anders had asked him if he'd kept his medical tools, and Ezekiel said yes, but he'd need some medicines, catgut and plaster for casts.

"We can't have a doctor in Cheyenne no medicine. You pick out what you need from my supply catalogues and I'll order it for you. You pay me a little every month until you've paid me back...with a little interest of course, say a nickel on the dollar."

Ezekiel thought about what Josephine had told him about bargaining.

"How about two cents on the dollar and I don't have to pay you anything until I get some patients?"

Mr. Anders shook his head.

"The things I do for this town. I can do three cents, but not a penny less."

Ezekiel shook Mr. Anders' hand and smiled.

"You or yours get sick, you come see me and I won't charge my regular fee."

When he got back to the hotel, he knocked on Josephine's door to tell her the news. He forgot what he was going to say when she opened the door, because she was wearing a dress. Her hair was shorter than most women wore theirs, but it had been brushed until it shined.

Josephine looked at him and grinned.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"No...I...I didn't...Josephine, you look like a woman."

Josephine smiled.

"Well, I should. I am a woman, or have you forgotten that."

"No, I hadn't forgotten. I just got used to seeing you in trousers and a shirt with a hat on your head, that's all. You're really pretty."

Josephine blushed.

"Pretty enough to be your housekeeper?"

"No", said Ezekiel. "But you're pretty enough to be my wife if you still want that."

For the next week, Ezekiel and Josephine worked to make the old store into both a doctor's office and a place to live. They turned the storekeepers office into an examining room, and the front part was the waiting and dispensing area. By Saturday, they had fixed up the back room as their living quarters. There was only the potbelly stove that had been used to heat the store, two chairs, a table, and a bed in the back room, but Josephine was happy.

"I know we'll have more once you start doctoring people, but for now this is just fine. I can cook on that stove, and we can sit at a table to eat and sleep on a straw mattress instead of on the ground. That's good enough until we can afford better."

They had to wait another week before the circuit rider, Reverend Mitchell could marry them, and that was at the hotel because there was no church in Cheyenne yet. After the ceremony, Ezekiel and Josephine came back to their new home. Mr. Akers and his wife had given them half a ham as a wedding present, and Josephine had used some of the money she'd earned from the last trip to Denver and back to buy some sweet potatoes at the general store.

"I was going to fix us ham and sweet potatoes for supper. Is that all right, Ezekiel."

He smiled and put his arms around her.

"Unless you'd rather do something else."

Josephine grinned.

"We'll eat first and then see what that something else is."

That night, Josephine told Ezekiel to go into the front while she changed. A few minutes later, she opened the door a crack and told him he could come back.

When Ezekiel walked into the room he stopped and stared at Josephine. The light from the single kerosene lamp wasn't very bright, but it still showed him Josephine standing there in a long, white nightgown.

She smiled.

"This was Mama's wedding night gown. Well, am I good enough to be your wife?"

Ezekiel walked to her and put his arms around her.

"Josephine, you're a lot better than I deserve."

When they lay there together afterwards, Josephine snuggled up into his chest, she chuckled.

"If it's always like that, you better be a good doctor with a lot of patients because we're going to have a lot of children to feed."

Ezekiel cupped her hip and pulled her a little closer.

"How many do you want?"

"I don't know. I'm twenty-two. It could be as many as twenty or so."

"Twenty? I was thinking more like four or five. We'd have to have a really big house for twenty."

Josephine kissed Ezekiel on the cheek.

"Four or five would be fine as long as I have one daughter. A woman needs a daughter to help her and give her grandbabies."

"Sons would give us grandbabies too."

Josephine stroked his chest.

"I know, but it's not the same."

Ezekiel stroked Josephine's hip.

"Well, we'll see what happens, I guess."

Josephine hooked her thigh over Ezekiel's leg, then yelped and put it back down.

"I guess I shouldn't do that for a while yet."

"No, it'll be a while before that doesn't hurt anymore."

Josephine put her hand on his back and pulled.

"We'll just have to keep doing it this way until then. I'd like to do it again right now. Think you could manage?"

}{

Ezekiel hung his sign, "E. Thompson, Doctor" over the front door that Monday and on Monday afternoon had his first patient. That patient was Willard Zachs, the man who ran the mule barn for the wagon trains. He had his hand wrapped in a dirty handkerchief when he walked in the door.

"Damned mule pushed me against the stall when I was cleaning it and mashed my hand. I thought it'd get better, but it hasn't so I figured I oughta have a doctor look at it now that we got one."

Ezekiel lanced and drained the swelling, and then told Willard to come back in two days so he could look at it again.

Willard's hand healed and that helped to heal Ezekiel and establish his reputation. Within six months, he had the trust of the people of Cheyenne and they'd come to him anytime they got hurt or felt ill. Old Mr. Walsh had died of the grippe, and that set him back until Mr. Walsh's son shook his hand and said, "Dr. Thompson, it was Daddy's time to go and I know what you did made him feel better there at the last. If you hadn't done what you did, he'd have died hurting. Thank you."

And so it was over the years. As Cheyenne grew, other doctors came to town and started a practice, but Dr. Thompson was still the one people went to unless he couldn't see them for some reason. He went by the name of "Doc Zeke" after one five year old little girl with a cut finger tried to call him "Dr. Ezekiel" but "Ezekiel" came out as "Zeke", and he smiled every time a patient called him by that name. He'd found what he'd lost and that made him happy.

He'd also found something else that was missing, though he never even had it in the first place. Josephine was a major part of that something, and the four daughters and one son she bore him were the rest.

When Ezekiel thought about it, being a doctor was important to him, but he could probably have lived his life driving mules. He was sure he couldn't have lived any kind of life without Josephine. She'd given him the push to become a doctor again, and she'd made a home out of the house they'd built once their second daughter was born.

More than that, though, was the way she snuggled up beside him in bed every night and whispered, "the babies are asleep, and that means you have me all to yourself for a while. Think you can figure out something to do with me?"

It wasn't the sex, though Ezekiel loved the feel of her body against his. It was the fact that she was giving herself to him. He didn't know how he'd been lucky enough to find Josephine. Josephine had been his friend as Joseph, and had become his most trusted friend, wife, and lover as Josephine. There could never be another woman like her.