Road Tripping Pt. 26

Chapter 26

Readers, this is a fictional road story set in the 1980's, before cell phones and the internet as we know it today. There is pot smoking in this story. All sexualized characters are fictional and over 18. This is part twenty-six of a many part series. I hope all have enjoyed it so far. Any constructive feedback is appreciated, Thank You S. L.

This chapter begins with Lou, Molly, and Sara awakening from the last and by far the worst of a series of dreams. In the last one of the night Lou was killed in a Civil war battle and Molly, Sara and one other they know from 1987, Megan, find out two days later the fate of their husbands in 1863.

Lou, Molly, and Sara awoke with a start from a tremendous thunderclap that sounded like a cannon shot in their dreams, as the downpours continued outside. Molly was very upset with tears streaming down her cheeks as Sara held her and with her own eyes moist. She had been deeply shaken by the mass of grief she had just witnessed in her dream.

Lou was already holding the left side of his head as he turned on the lamp on the side of the bed and both women could see the light hurt him more. "I haven't woken up with a headache like this since I got drunk and puked from Tequila when I was nineteen and after doing way too many shots, but I do remember this headache is not from drinking, but from the last dream I had."

Molly did her best to not choke up as she asked. "Were you in a battle in your dream Lou?"

"Yes Molly. I was in a battle in the Civil War, and I've had this dream before. It ends with the battle quieting down, and we begin to chase the enemy out of the woods we were in. Then there is a loud bang and I wake up with a tremendous pain in the side of my head."

"I was dressed in the uniform we saw in that earlier dream of that time we shared. Was yours of that time too Molly?" He said quietly as she began to cry again as Sara held her and she shook her head yes.

"I was in a store with Sara and another young woman who looked an awful lot like Megan, Lou." She said, taking a tissue from Sara.

Molly took a deep breath and gathered herself as Sara told them. "I was there too and remember all of this, but I didn't not know you were together in that time also."

Molly did her best to put on her stoic Ta'Pau persona as she told them. "We were in the store and heard a train whistle. The three of us women went out of the store that I think I was running. We walked to the small town's train and telegraph station."

"Several telegraph machines were clicking furiously, as the operators handed out pieces of paper for someone to call out the names of those receiving either good or bad news. The town was all decorated for the Fourth of July. From the train that had stopped at the station, they began to hand out long, printed, lists to all at the station. Megan and I found you and her husband among the killed on their list."

Molly took a moment to compose herself again as Sara spoke again. "That is how I remember it too. I did not recognize the other woman with us, but she called me Susan, and she said they were glad my husband was at a place called Vicksburg, instead of where they were."

"I forgot she called you that name Sara, but I do remember the word Vicksburg. Lou, do you know anything about any battles around there?"

"It's a city on the Mississippi river and there was a siege of the city that was won by the Union on the Fourth of July in 1863, the same day you experienced and a day after the three-day battle of Gettysburg ended on the third."

"The list said you were a lieutenant and had been killed on the second. I remember the name I saw her look at, Lt. L. Johnston. I knew that was her husband and later I've got to call Megan and see what she remembered of the dream. We were mostly just observers in this dream, but she did give me a subtle look of recognition while we were there."

Lou went to the side of the bed and held Molly while she cried and took a few minutes to work the grief out of her soul. Sara got out of bed and turned the TV on and found some news for a weather update. Looking out the window, she saw it was still pouring rain and there were flashes of lightning in the grey dawn.

Lou just held Molly as she slowly calmed herself. "I'm sorry I acted like this Lou, but it was so real, and I can still feel the pain she was feeling inside of her from losing you."

"I think we are here Molly to face and work through the pain both of our souls went through, over 120 years ago."

The three watched the early news and weather, finding out that aside from a few hours break this morning, it looked like heavy rain for most of the next three days along the east coast.

"We can go to the park for a few hours while it is nice out and then figure out what we want to do for the next few days. Any ideas Kitten?"

Sara shrugged her shoulders and gave Molly a hug and went to look for clothes to wear and dig out her jacket for the rain today.

They got dressed and went to the restaurant in the front of the hotel for a good hot breakfast and extra coffees to warm up for the cool and still wet day. By eight they had all of their stuff in the station wagon and were on the road to the National Park and the sight of so much bloodshed. They did not have to drive far and there was no traffic in the nasty weather and had no problem with parking at the visitor center with the giant circular painting of the climax of the battle on display there.

The rain was down to light shower as they parked, and Lou said: "Sara. If it is still quiet, do you want to take Andromeda for a practice drive on the park roads. With you going on the road with us it will help to have a third driver. We can cover more miles if we want to."

"I'd love to Lou. I was going to ask you to let me drive sometime this weekend. I never hit another car and don't have any tickets, but I don't get to drive very often, and I've never driven anything as big as Andromeda."

"It will be good to get you ready for the road more Sara and she is fun to drive. I love being behind her wheel seeing all the cool places along the way." Molly said with a rare smile today so far.

The shitty weather, nightmare, and her impending period had her feeling like all she wanted to do was lay down and get warm.

Lou's gold pass got them a good discount and they went to look at the displays before finding their way to the main exhibit of the huge circular painting of the climactic battle of the three-day campaign, "Pickett's Charge".

Lou and Sara went off to look at the giant painting as he explained more about the battle to her. During their walk around the room with the painting they talked with two others in the nearly empty building, who said they were doing some early work for a documentary about the whole war.

Molly went up to the central information booth they had in the center of the room. She had asked to go alone and almost hoped they had nothing for her or that it was just a strange dream and not as real as it felt.

A male Park Ranger and another guy dressed in a park services polo shirt, both in their fifties, smiled as she approached with her notebook. They both had seen several people with that slightly distressed and haunted look over the years approach their booth on quiet days. "How can we help you, Miss?"

"Hi, Molly managed with a fleeting smile. I have a name of someone who I think died in battle here and I was hoping I could find out more information from you?"

Molly gave them the name, rank, and what unit she thought he served in, without telling them the source of the information.

The men did not ask as they went to their computer and a book of lists of the casualties. It took them only a minute to confirm what Molly had told them.

"Lt. Leander A. Johnston. 20th Maine. Killed in action on July 2, 1863. Battle at Little Roundtop. Led one of the companies sent to flank Confederates from behind a stone wall. Shot in head as they were driving Confederates from the field. Plain field marker. The body was retrieved and buried in his hometown of Gardiner Maine." Walt the Ranger told her.

Molly wrote all of this down in her notebook as the men saw some of the weight actually lift off of her. They did not show her the picture of Lt. Johnston, worried it might overwhelm her as she looked to be getting past this.

They had both gotten a good look at the man she was with who went to walk around with their dear friend she said. He looked a little better fed then the image on the computer screen that slowly came up but there was no mistaking the resemblance, especially with the Fu Manchu he was wearing that looked somewhat like the long drooping mustache Lt. Johnston wore in the Daguerreotype.

Some days the job was just a little strange both men thought as she thanked them deeply for their help and went to meet up with the man, she called Lou and their other friend. No doubt headed for Little Roundtop and a walk in the woods of the battlefield.

After the three had been gone from the building for a few minutes Walt called the two men talking about shots in the room for their documentary. "Hey Ken, want to hear a story?"

The two were over at the information booth in a moment. "Is all your equipment off because this is a real ghost story you will love but you CAN'T tell it in your stories. It would freak people out!!!"

They shut everything off as everyone talked quietly and they let them into their booth to see the computer screen. You saw the young woman who came in with the guy and the younger girl.

"Yeah, we talked with him a bit. He said his name was Lou and he and his girlfriend Molly, and their friend Sara were on a break from following the Grateful Dead and wishing they had picked a nicer weekend to see Gettysburg. What did she come to talk to you about? She seemed upset. Did she have a relative here at the battle?"

"A little stranger than that. We get four or five "Widows" like her "Every" year, asking about someone who died in the battle. I know it sounds crazy, but it does happen and has quietly gone on since about fifty years after the battle. Since the 1930's we all were quietly told to treat them respectfully and help them discreetly as best we could. She had enough information to make it easy to find out what she needed, but we did not show her this.

They had the two men look at the computer screen, and in its grainy format there was the image of Lt. Johnston. Both men almost dropped the equipment they were carrying as they saw the man who looked like he could be the thinner twin of the young man they were talking with twenty minutes earlier. A second image was slowly coming up line by line on the other screen of a couple holding a small child, with Johnston in a Sergeants uniform.

None of the men said a word for a long moment as they all felt a deep, cold, chill run through the four of them. It was as if they had just been visited by two living ghosts. "So, does anyone want to talk about reincarnation?" Walt said as he cleared the screens and asked again that they not talk of this because of all of the problems it would cause, but he thought they should know.

Ken and his friend went for another large coffee and smoked a joint in their van, before going to take some more film and stills with the emerging sun and the wet leaves and grasses. They decided to take some film over at the Little Roundtop site today too.

Sara drove Andromeda cautiously around the park following Lou's directions and the signs to the Little and Big Roundtop sights and their parking. Molly had a joint out once they were out of the lot and she and Lou shared a few hits with Sara passing for now as she got used to driving something this large. It was less than a ten-minute ride to the nearly empty and quiet parking lot as Sara parked in an open area for ease and away from the other cars so she could get a few quick hits in the quiet lot.

It was wet out, but the sun was peeking out between the clouds. They had to walk about half a mile to reach the top of the small hill the local battle was fought from. Lou read the signs and elaborated on the importance to the Union that this hill was held and that it was likely heavily wooded then like now, although the battle was a month, and a half later so all the trees and undergrowth would have been more filled out with leaves.

After looking around they saw another small trail that led to the site of the troops that the Colonel had hidden on the flank at the start of the battle. Lou explained more of what went on from his knowledge of the battle and what the markers told him. Ahead was a very large oak tree, that was heavily grown into the low stone wall. Lou stopped to walk around it slowly. Its side was covered with unusual marks, and it had grown in a strange way for the lowest eight feet of its trunk.

"I was hidden behind this tree and wall with my Company, waiting for the signal from the hill above or if we saw the right moment to strike the enemy from the hidden spot. It was a desperate fight, and it went on for a while before it all came to an end for me as far as I know."

Lou went over the wall and wandered around from next to the tree and to an open space and to a small marker with a number on it. Molly looked at him and fell into his arms as they held each other, and both cried for a moment over a life that ended way too soon and for another left alone in that life.

Sara gave them a few minutes alone as she looked around at some more markers and could not imagine what horrors Lou's soul had witnessed that day. Sara had some moments of terror and the loss of her father at age eleven was a pain that still hurt her heart and had broken her mother and family to some extent. Her sister was off the coke still, but she still was not really ready to trust her again, and her older brother was in the navy and had a family near San Diego, but he was at sea half of the time.

Some stronger rays of sun came out to warm them and they took their time walking back to the trail and then back to the parking lot. They saw the two guys working on the documentary who said hello and asked if they had found what they were looking for.

A more relieved Molly said they did and told them about the light on the wet fields and stones. "It's nice now, and the sun was drying things quickly, but we heard the weather would turn bad again later."

They reached the white station wagon and Molly asked. "Can I drive for a little while and clear my head some more."

"I'm good with that. I still have a lingering headache Molly and I'll lay down in the back and close my eyes for a while if you don't mind. If you two find a place you'd like to stop at or somewhere you would like to eat lunch, I'm ready whenever you like." Lou said opening both driver's side doors as Molly got in the front and he took a pillow from over the back seat and went to close his eyes.

He would be happy if he slept without dreaming for a short rest now.

Molly went out of the lot and drove around until she found an exit and was on a two-lane road going north at forty mile an hour through the back country of Pennsylvania. For an hour and a half Molly and Sara talked as Lou slept and they drove through farm country and small towns. They almost pulled over for a couple of Antique shops but kept driving and staying ahead of the rain so far.

They were just leaving a small town, driving twenty-five past a half-hidden police car, when Sara spotted a Diner just past the railroad tracks. Pulling into the parking lot Lou woke up as they noticed two nearby antique and used things stores next door and across the street.

It was a very good and large lunch after a somewhat small and quiet breakfast. Lou and Molly were much more relaxed. A lot of grief had been worked through her soul visiting a place Leander's wife could never bring herself too.

Lou's headache was gone after his nap in the car and questions in his mind had been answered about both of the painful dreams of two large battles his soul had been in. Antietam and Gettysburg. He and Molly may visit the other Battlefield Park, but not today or anytime soon. Lou felt no deep compelling reason to visit there like Gettysburg had been.

The stores after lunch had many good things for all in this out of the way town. Lou found two good lots of old baseball and football cards for a nice price and some cheap used t-shirts for the next time digging. Sara found a faded jean jacket that fit her well and a cool looking antique paperweight she said she would find a home for someday. In the second store Molly saw a set of Iridescent glass for iced tea or cold drinks, containing twenty-seven pieces, in an unusual pattern and color, her mother had a few pieces of. It was marked $550.00!!

If she was right, it was a very rare set, then the price was a very good one, but she needed to be sure. She asked the woman who owned the store about the set and said her mother was a collector and she thought she might want it. "I will give you five dollars if you let me call her in Connecticut and ask her if I should get it."

Molly quietly asked Lou to run out to Andromeda to get some more cash from their $400.00 under the front seat, as she made the call to her mom as Lou handed her the money and paid for a large box of cards himself, t-shirts, six old matchbox cars, some very old pennies for Max and cool red sugar bowl for his mom.

She was home and told her what she thought the set was and the color. April asked where they were and said she should get it and she would give her the money, but not to let it bounce around in the car too long.

"Ok Mom. We will be there tomorrow if all goes well. We may stop at Megan's, but I will call you tonight from a hotel."

Molly got the set for $475 with all the other stuff they had bought, making the store owners day. It took them a while to wrap up the set well for travel and Lou went and found a detailed map of the area at a gas station across the street and looked for a minute in his hotel guide for any good stops along the way to April's tomorrow. He found one on this road about fifty miles from where they were, and he used the store owners' phone to get a room reserved for tonight, leaving them about a five-hour drive to Megans or four hours to Molly's mom's house. The hotel was at an entrance onto one of the major interstate highways they would start on tomorrow.

Molly was good with an early day off the road and the write-up in the booklet said there were pool tables, a game room, and a heated indoor pool in the new hotel. Molly said she loved the idea of a few games of pool and some video games to relax and clear their heads.

Lou took over driving the twisting back road north as the rain finally caught them. They stopped once to get Sara a bathing suit, some more snacks for the car and hotel later. It was 3:30 when they pulled into the hotel lot in the heavy rain."

In twenty minutes, they had everything they needed upstairs on the third floor of the new hotel and were glad to be away from the battle site and free of some of the pain, hanging over their very old souls.

Lou did not know yet that his soul had fallen again, twice more battles, before starting the life he lived now. It would be three years before he visited one of those battlefields in France.

The three of them teased each other while they changed into their swimsuits and went down the elevator to the pool and game room. The hotel bar and restaurant were attached to all of this and after swimming for an hour they ordered food after a round of drinks and did a quick change upstairs and were back down just as their food and table were ready for the three of them.

After their early dinner they were back in the game room for a few rounds of pool and Lou winning a few free games at a pinball machine he knew well. He won one of the three pool games against Molly and split the two he played with Sara, after she put up the high score on the Frogger machine.