Plum Creek

The sky had been cloudy all morning, and by noon, there were several ominous looking clouds moving across the sky. Benjamin knew that probably meant rain. He stretched the canvas outer cover of his bedroll over branches he cut and pounded into the ground on the highest spot in the clearing. The crude tent would be cramped, but would keep them from getting soaked by the rain.

After supper, he spread all his blankets inside the tent. A short while later, raindrops began dripping through the leaves on the trees. He and Catherine crawled inside the tent and lay down.

It was uncomfortable to Benjamin to have Catherine so close beside him. He'd been this close to her before, but she was lying down and he was sitting. Now, they were both stretched out side by side and close enough she touched him if she moved. It wasn't much of a touch, just when her knee touched his leg as she tried to get comfortable, but each touch sent a tingle down Benjamin's spine.

He'd never been that close to a woman who wasn't a relative in his life, and while his mother or an aunt might hug him, this feeling wasn't the same. Benjamin knew what that feeling was and he knew it wasn't proper for him to feel that way. Sleep came to Benjamin slowly that night because he couldn't stop thinking about Catherine next to him.

If their situation was different, if they were back in Hoyleton, he probably wouldn't have paid her mind. Catherine would have blended in with all the other women. Here, in the middle of Nebraska, he'd seen what was inside the woman, her determination and her intelligence, and he realized those traits were more important than how her face looked. She would be a good wife to some man, not him of course because he was quite a bit older, but she would make a good wife.

Catherine had trouble falling asleep as well, and it was because she couldn't work out how she felt about Benjamin. She'd told him she hated anyone who had any part in the Union and assumed he felt the same way about anyone in the Confederate Army. He'd just said he figured the men on both sides were just doing what it took to stay alive. When she said she was worried he'd leave her there, he said he wouldn't.

The other thing that kept Catherine awake was she'd started to feel safe with Benjamin around. She hadn't felt safe since her father died. Her life had become a life of continuous fear after that, first the fear of what the man and his son would do to her, then the fear of walking in the dark, and then the fear that she was going to die. Benjamin had changed that fear into the feeling that things would be better now that he was with her. What would she feel once he took her someplace like a town and then left her? Could she still feel safe with people she didn't know?

For the next week, their lives were about the same. Benjamin left the improvised tent up, but unless it was raining, he slept beside the fire while Catherine slept in the tent. Being so close to Catherine made his thoughts confusing and he had trouble falling asleep.

Those thoughts became more confusing the day Catherine said she needed to wash her dress and herself.

"I feel really dirty and I'm sure I look that way too. I'm going to go wash myself and my dress in the creek. You have to stay here and not try to look at me."

Benjamin promised he'd stay by the fire, but when Catherine walked off toward the creek, those same feelings came back to him. He wondered what she looked like with no clothes on. He wondered if she'd know if he did steal a look at her. Then he was embarrassed by having those thoughts. He'd been taught that it wasn't right to think about a woman like that. Only a woman's husband was supposed to see her without clothes on.

He couldn't stop those thoughts though. He'd heard many stories by the men he'd served with about going to a woman's house for some "horizontal refreshment". They spoke of how big a woman's breasts were and how smooth her skin was and how it felt to slide their manhood inside her. He'd become aroused at hearing those stories, and he found himself becoming aroused by the thought that just a few yards away Catherine was probably naked.

He had to do something to get those thoughts out of his mind, so he cut enough firewood to last for a few days and then looked at their food supply. By the time Catherine came back wearing the same dress, still damp but clean, he wasn't aroused any more. She did look better though. Her hair was still wet, but the dirt was gone, and her face looked more filled out with the smudges gone.

Benjamin knew they needed to move on soon. In spite of the beans, cornmeal, and other food he'd found in the abandoned the wagon, they were running out of food. That second week, he hunted and managed to bring down a rabbit or a prairie chicken every day. That helped stretch out their food, but they still needed at least more beans.

Catherine was anxious to leave as well, though she still worried about what lay in her future. She knew there were settlements along the trail made up of people who'd come that far and decided to stop. She'd seen them all the way from Independence, Missouri. If he left her in one of those settlements, where would she live and what would she do? She had no skills except that of a wife. That meant she would have to find a man and marry him, but since she wouldn't know anyone, how would she find a man she could trust?

It was ten days after Benjamin had found Catherine that he asked her if she felt strong enough to ride a horse. Catherine said she thought she could if they went slow, so Benjamin didn't turn Blue and the bay mare out to graze like he usually did. Instead, he took down the tent and rolled it and his blanket into a bedroll again, then saddled Blue and tied the bedroll, his shovel and his axe behind the saddle.

He folded the rest of the blankets into a pad for the mare's back and then hung what remained of the sacks of food over the blankets and secured them as he had when coming from the abandoned wagon. After tying Catherine's Henry rifle to the bay mare's side, he helped Catherine onto the mare's back. Before he mounted Blue, Benjamin tied the shotgun on his bedroll.

"Wanna take a last look", he asked Catherine.

She shook her head.

"No, I'll be happy to leave and never come back."

On the morning of the second day from the creek, they topped a low hill and saw a small settlement. It was only three small cabins beside a creek. He saw men clearing a few trees in what was probably going to be a field. Catherine asked if they were going to go down there. She was secretly hoping Benjamin would tell her they wouldn't. At that time of day, there should have been women outside washing clothes or working in the gardens she saw beside each house. There weren't any.

Benjamin shook his head.

"No. It doesn't look like they'd be able to spare any food and there's no store that might have any. We'll keep riding. There has to be a larger settlement or a town somewhere up ahead, probably by a larger stream or the river."

They rode for two more days before a small town came into view. It was just three large buildings, half a dozen small houses and one street that ran between them, but there were obviously people there, people Benjamin hoped would take Catherine in. He'd lost two weeks that he'd have to make up or he'd have to spend the winter somewhere before crossing the mountains to Oregon. He still had a little money left, but not enough to pay for a room and board through the winter. Besides, he wanted to save that money for Oregon. He'd decided if he could get some land, he'd try farming, and he'd need to buy horses, equipment, and seeds to do that. He could afford to buy enough food to replenish his supplies, but not much more than that.

When they rode down the only street in the town, Benjamin saw the buildings were a general store, a blacksmith's shop, and a church. He'd hoped to find a hotel where Catherine could live and might find work, but there was none. He'd have to replenish their supplies and then keep riding, but maybe someone in the settlement could tell him where to find the nearest actual town.

Since the general store would be the place where he could buy some supplies, Benjamin rode there first. After he helped Catherine off the bay mare, they went inside.

Benjamin was surprised at how little the general store had to offer. At his father's general store, they sold everything from guns to clothing to food to medicine. This store had only corn meal, sugar, and salt in bins and slabs of bacon hanging from cords from the ceiling. On one wall hung a few coils of rope.

The man behind the counter smiled.

"Hello. I haven't seen you or your wife in town before. Where's your farm?"

Benjamin hesitated. He was trying to think of a way to tell the storekeeper that he and Catherine weren't married without giving the man the wrong idea. He'd decided to tell the storekeeper that Catherine was his sister and that they were just buying supplies on their way to Oregon. He didn't get the words out. Catherine did.

She smiled at the storekeeper.

"Oh, we don't live around here. We're just passing through on our way to Oregon and we needed some supplies. It does look like a nice town though. Does it have a name?"

The storekeeper grinned.

"Yes, Ma'am. It's called Grundy...after Horace Grundy who built the first cabin here.

The storekeeper's eyes squinted a little then as he looked out the window of the store.

"I see you're on horses and not in a wagon. Most folks who pass through on their way to Oregon have a wagon."

Catherine smiled again.

"Well, we haven't been married very long, so we didn't have much to put in a wagon. We couldn't afford to buy one anyway so we just started out on our horses with what food we could carry. We thought once we got to Oregon, we'd find some land and build a cabin in a town and find work there."

The storekeeper frowned.

"You're not with a wagon train then?"

Catherine shook her head.

"No, we decided to go by ourselves."

She lowered her face then and giggled.

"Like I said, we haven't been married very long and...well...there wouldn't have been much privacy in a wagon train, now would there?"

The storekeeper looked at Benjamin and chuckled.

"Wish my wife thought like your young lady. What are you looking for in the way of supplies?"

Benjamin waited until they were out of the town before he stopped Blue and turned to Catherine.

"You lied to that storekeeper. Why?"

Catherine frowned a little.

"He thought we were man and wife. If I'd said we weren't, he'd have thought I was some kind of loose woman. I didn't want him to think I was or that you'd be with one."

She looked at Benjamin and grinned then.

"Besides, it was fun being married to you even if it was only for a little while."

"You think it would be fun being married to me?"

Catherine couldn't look Benjamin in the face when she answered.

"Well, you're a good man and you saved me from dying and you've been good to me. I don't know what else a woman could ask of a man."

Benjamin chuckled.

"Well, she could ask that her husband has a way to provide for her. In case you haven't noticed, I don't. I'm just riding to Oregon to see if I can find something there, maybe work on my uncle's farm until I can get a farm of my own."

Catherine looked up then and frowned again.

"You don't seem like a farmer to me. Daddy was a farmer and you don't act like he always did.

"And just how is a farmer supposed to act?"

"Well, all he ever talked about was the weather and how the crops were growing or how much corn he thought he was going to raise. You talk about people you've known and what you've done."

Benjamin didn't think he acted much different from anybody else, but when he thought back over what he'd said to Catherine, he realized she was right.

"My father ran a general store about like the one in that town except it was bigger and sold more things. I don't know much about farming so I can't act like a farmer."

Catherine smiled.

"That sounds more like you. Why didn't you stay and work in your father's store?"

Benjamin frowned.

"I did for seven years after the war. It got so I couldn't stand all the people all the time, always talking about things that didn't matter just to hear themselves talk. That's what it seemed like to me anyway. I had to get away from them. That's why I started for Oregon."

"So, you're running away from people?"

Benjamin thought for a second. Was he running away from people, or was he running away from something else?"

"No...well, maybe. I don't really know. I just couldn't live that life anymore. We need to keep moving and find a place to spend the night. From what the storekeeper said, we're about four days from a town called Plum Creek. There's a railroad that runs through Plum Creek, and that's where he gets his merchandise shipped in. There'll most likely be a place there where you can start over."

Catherine watched him as they rode. Benjamin was a good man, just like she'd told him, and she'd meant what she said about being married to him. It didn't seem like he was interested in her, except for finding some place where he could leave her. She knew she wasn't going to like that. She'd be all by herself again. Maybe there was a way to get Benjamin to take her to Oregon with him.

Benjamin was thinking as he rode along the trail. What was he really going to find in Oregon? He knew his Uncle Amos would let him stay with his family for a while, and he'd teach him how to farm, but was that what he really wanted to do? Contrary to what he'd told Catherine, he did know a little about farming from talking with other soldiers during the war, and what he knew was that farming was doing the same thing over and over, year after year. Would he be happy doing that? The more he thought about it, farming seemed like it would be more boring than being a storekeeper.

If not farming, what would he do? He only knew how to do one thing well, and that was keeping a store, but there would already be a store in every town big enough to be called a town. He might find work in that store, but that would be like when he worked for his father. He'd just be doing what the storeowner told him to do.

When Benjamin thought about that some more he began to think that working for his father was his real issue with being a storekeeper. He'd been in charge of men in the war and had enjoyed the ability to make decisions and the responsibility that went with those decisions. At his father's store, he'd had no say in how the store operated, what they sold, or anything else. Maybe if he'd owned the store, he'd have been happier, but that was probably not possible. After buying the last supplies, he had about a hundred dollars left. That wouldn't begin to buy a store.

He was still thinking about that when they made camp that night by a small creek. He'd built a fire and was using the canvas cover from his bedroll to make the tent for Catherine when she surprised him by saying she'd cook supper if he'd dress the rabbit he'd shot that afternoon.

"Benjamin, I'll get the water and start the beans if you'll dress out the rabbit and cut some sticks so I can roast it."

Benjamin said he would, but asked why she wanted to cook.

Catherine smiled.

"I just want to see what it's like to cook for a man, that's all."

That night as Benjamin lay by the fire, he was smiling to himself. Catherine had only cooked beans and roasted a rabbit, but it was nice having a woman do that. She'd put a little salt in the beans, something he never did, and she'd wrapped a few slices of bacon around the rabbit. His roast rabbit always tasted good, but it was usually dry. The bacon kept it moist and gave it a different flavor.

Someday, when he had a way to make a life for a wife, maybe he'd have a woman like Catherine. Over the days, he'd grown to like being with her. She smiled a lot, and it was nice to have someone to talk with besides Blue.

On the morning of the fourth day, they saw Plum Creek in the distance, but it didn't look like much of a town. There was a rail station and railroad tracks beside a large creek, but no other buildings. There were a few buildings in the distance, but quite a ways from the rail station.

Benjamin and Catherine stopped at the rail station, tied their horses, and went inside. The man behind the counter looked up and said, "Next train's in two days, and we don't have a hotel yet. There's a hotel up the road in the old town though."

Benjamin said they weren't going to take the train and asked if this was Plum Creek, and the man nodded.

"This is the new Plum Creek. A little after the railroad came through, they moved the station down here closer to Plum Creek and laid out a new town. Hasn't got started good yet, but we'll have a hotel once the new owner gets it built. The railroad has lots for sale where there'll be more businesses too, ten dollars each. I 'spect in a couple years, we'll be a regular city."

Benjamin thanked the man, and he and Catherine rode to where the other buildings were. Benjamin wanted to find a place where Catherine could stay, and if there was a hotel, maybe she could find work there too.

When they passed the general store, Benjamin pointed it out to Catherine.

"That's their general store, but it's only about a third the size of my father's. They're going to have to get bigger if what the man at the station said happens. City people will need food, clothes, and cooking pots, and all the other things people need to live."

Catherine smiled.

"You seem to know what they're going to need. Maybe you shouldn't go to be a farmer in Oregon. Maybe you should build your own store down by the railroad station so you could sell people what they need."

The idea stirred around in Benjamin's head for a second and then made sense. A store by the railroad station would be able to get goods shipped in by rail and not have to transport them all the way to the older town. That meant he could sell his goods for less and as a result, probably sell more. The thought of owning his own store was exciting. The only problem was money to buy the land, build the store, and buy the first inventory. His hundred dollars might buy the land and build a building, but he'd run out of money before he could stock the store with anything to sell.

He shook his head.

"No. I've only got about a hundred dollars to my name and that isn't enough."

"How much would you need?"

Benjamin thought about that for a couple of minutes before he answered.

"Probably about a hundred and fifty dollars in all, depending upon how big a store I built. I could probably buy a lot and build a small store for my hundred dollars, but the goods I'd have to buy would cost another twenty-five or so. It doesn't matter. I don't have any way to get more money."

Catherine asked Benjamin to stop, and when he did, she nudged the bay mare up close beside Blue. She stuck her hand down the front of her dress and took out a small, leather pouch with a drawstring.

"When I ran away, I took all the money Daddy had. He had it to pay to get across the rivers and to buy more supplies, and I didn't want those two men to have it. I have almost forty dollars, but I didn't tell you because I didn't know if I could trust you or not."

Benjamin frowned.

"Catherine, I can't take money from you. You need that money to live on until you can find work."

She smiled.

"What if I worked for you in your store? Then I wouldn't need it."

"You'd still need a place to live. At first, at least, I couldn't pay you enough to live in a hotel. I could live in the store to save money, but you couldn't. If you did, well, you know what people would think."

Catherine smiled again.