Let’s see if I can get the next chapter out a little sooner: Dawn.

Stone

Chapter 30 – Finally, on the road

Stone had planned to leave at first light, but the sun was already fairly high in the sky when the wagons finally started to pull out. There were the two caravans, 12 wagons chartered by Stone, mainly filled with bags of coal, and five other wagons joining the train to take advantage of the 8 soldiers Stone had hired.

Stone, Rayla, the kids, and the dogs were in the original caravan. Kalosun was with O’Breyne in the new caravan. He had wanted to be with Jason, to start telling him of the lore of the Kitrens. But Stone pointed out for the first few hours the kids would be too hyped up about the trip to pay much attention. It was only after a few hours, when they started to get bored would they be allowed to join the black man.

They had been travelling about a half hour when Rayla said that Arthur was reporting on someone on the road about an hour ahead, walking unsteadily, in very worn and torn clothing. Stone decided to ride on ahead, taking two soldiers with him.

The three trotted on at about double the speed of the wagon train, so they crested a ridge about a half hour later and saw the person. She was close enough that they could tell she was a woman, and rode up towards her. They were about 100 yards from her when she noticed them, and looked around for a place to run. There was none. When Stone arrived where she was standing, he noticed something particular about her. Back on earth she would have been termed a Mongloid or having Down’s Syndrome. She looked to be in her mid teens. Astonishingly, she laid down on the road and lifted her skirt.

“Looks like she’s offering herself to you,” said Barnet, one of the soldiers. “She’s no prize in the looks department, though.”

“I can see where a traveller on the road for a long spell might not mind,” Kirk, his partner, added.

“Enough of that,” Stone admonished his men. “She’s terrified.” The girl was shaking as she lay on the road, eyes tightly closed. “What she fears is not going to happen, so keep your traps shut.”

Stone got down and bent over the girl, and picked her up. At that her eyes flew open: this was not the way it usually went. Stone carried her over to Doug, and put her on the big horse. At first she squirmed but for the big man she was no more difficult to carry than a toddler. But once atop the horse, she calmed somewhat and petted him, running her fingers through his mane.

She tensed up when Stone pulled himself up onto the horse behind her: being close to a man had never turned out well for her. But she relaxed as Doug turned and they headed back to the wagons, with Stone speaking softly to her the entire way. Since they had been moving while the men investigated, it was only 10 minutes before they met the wagons. Stone went to the old caravan, while the soldiers branched off to their compatriots.

“What did you find?” Rayla said. “Another woman? Am I not enough for you?”

“She is for you,” Stone said, sliding off the horse and lifting the girl onto the front bench next to his wife. “She has faced some trauma in the past, I fear. Hopefully you can calm her down and get her to speak. If she can speak.”

That question was answered a moment later when she waved at Doug, and said “Bye bye, horsie.”

Rayla put her arm around the girl, who tensed for a second, and then fell into her embrace, starting to sob. Apparently she was not afraid of women.

The noon lunch stop was about an hour later, and during that time the tears stopped flowing, and the new girl and Emily were back in the caravan, playing with Emily’s dolls. They were not traditional fabric dolls, like those now sold in Greenstone. O’Breyne had whittled these for Emily on their travels, out of pieces of wood.

During the ride the two girls bonded in their play. Rayla heard her tell Emily that her name was Sissy, and realized that while she looked around 16, she was on a mental par with five-year-old Emily. Except Emily would continue to mature, while Sissy would forever remain a five-year-old.

At the lunch stop there was a table set up for a cold meal. The men would take one of the still-fresh bakery buns and put slices of meat on them: venison, beef, ham or mutton. The entire break would only be 15 minutes, and the wagoneers would eat their sandwich while driving their wagons.

Stone and Jason went to the bench and made five sandwiches to carry back to the caravan. Stone also picked up a bag of rolls to take back.

Jason left his load with Rayla and Emily, who quickly started to eat. He then took his own lunch and went to the second caravan, interested in learning what Kalosun had to say.

Stone got into the back of the caravan, and handed a sandwich to the girl, who was reluctant to get close enough to the man to take it. Finally Stone passed it to Rayla, who handed it to the girl, who sniffed it and deciding it was good, started wolfing it down. She finished before any of the others, looking like she hadn’t eaten in days. Stone opened the bag of rolls beside him, and held out a plain bun.

This time she only paused for a second, and then darted out to snatch the roll. Her hunger overpowered her fear of men. But she retreated back to her place as far from Stone as possible, with Emily between them and proceeded to eat again at a much slower pace. Rayla had cold tea for them all, and Sissy drank down three cupsful: she was as thirsty as she was hungry.

Once the wagons started to move again, Sissy and Emily again spread out with the dolls and spent the full afternoon playing. Emily was glad to have a friend to play with, even one so much bigger than her. And Sissy felt safe in the wagon, with the only man present the driver safely on the outside. She felt comfortable with Rayla, the woman who had only hugged her when she cried: Sissy remembered many times in the past when tears meant getting hit, usually accompanied by the words ‘I’ll give you something to cry for.’

When the evening break came just before sunset, Rayla stayed in the caravan where the two girls were playing. Stone went to get Jason from Kalosun, and found that the boy was somewhat interested in what the older man had taught him during the day.

“Is that new girl still with Emily?” Jason asked his father as they helped set up the evening fire. “She is weird. She is almost a grownup, but she acts like a baby, like Emily.”

“She is not weird,” Stone said. “Only different. She has had trouble growing up and learning things. Hopefully your mother will be able to help her.”

When the stew was ready, they had to carry six plates back to the caravan, since Kalosun would eat with them. His bandaged hands were still too awkward to use a spoon, so Rayla had to feed him. With six plates needed, O’Breyne volunteered to help carry two. He smiled at Sissy, seeing her play with Emily’s dolls, until Rayla took the plates and put them on the table. The new girl was frightened of O’Breyne, who soon left to get his own dinner, but she seemed intrigued by Kalosun: rubbing his arm to see if the black might come off. She then noticed that Jason was the same color, and rubbed his arms to see if his skin color was just dirt. She was astounded when it was not.

The family ate their meal quietly, with Kalosun again reluctant to be spoon fed by Rayla. Only when Stone offered to do it did he move over to the woman. Apparently being helpless before a man was worse then before a woman.

That night the girls played with dolls after supper, while Jason helped his mother clean up. The kids were happy to sleep in the new caravan, joined by Sissy and the dogs, which the older girl adored. O’Breyne would sleep under that caravan along with Kalosun. Rayla and Stone would have the old caravan to themselves for the first time in a long time.

Just before bed Rayla announced that there would be at least a few hours of lessons in the morning, to general groans. Then Stone got down on the floor for story time, where he recounted old fairy tales from earth that he remembered. He had told all he could remember many times over, but the kids still clamoured to hear them again, crying out if he missed a part or changed something. Emily sat on his lap, while Jason was snuggled next to his dad, holding Steel on his lap. Sissy sat on the bed with Rayla for the first two stories, and then shyly got up and sat down on Stone’s other side. She flinched when he put his arm around her, but slowly started to snuggle in. If the big man was safe for Emily, he must surely be safe for her, she reasoned. Soon she felt safer than she had in years.

Eventually they all got into their sleeping wear: Jason and Emily, that is. Sissy had no other clothes. They went to the new caravan where the kids were tucked into the bunk beds, and a pad from the settee was placed on the floor as a bed for Sissy. Stone showed Jason how to drop the bar in front of the door, and announced that he was in charge of it. He was supposed to only open it for Rayla, O’Breyne or him. The dogs were ushered into the caravan, one lying at Sissy’s feet, and the other snuggled next to the girl who wrapped her arm around it.

Stone did not get the peaceful sleep he had hoped for. Rayla was fidgety all night, worried about her kids. No number of reassurances from Stone could convince her that they were all right, and she had to get up three times during the night to walk to the other caravan to see if they were all right. Only when she could hear their snores from outside the caravan would she agree that they were all right. Of course Stone felt compelled to accompany her on these trips, walking gently to not waken the men asleep beneath the wagon. At least once he could hear O’Breyne’s rolling snore stop as they neared.

So a sleepy Rayla lay in bed at dawn when the camp came to life. Stone went to the new caravan and Jason opened the bar, and then dashed off to the bushes for morning relief. Sissy and Emily accompanied Stone to the latrine that the soldiers had erected for the women the evening before. As they walked past the old caravan, Stone rapped on the side, telling Rayla to get up.

The girls had finished their business when Rayla darted past to do hers, and then the three headed back to the old caravan while Stone and Jason went on towards the fire to get morning oatmeal. Again, O’Breyne had to bring two plates, and when they got back, the females were stretching their legs. O’Breyne smiled at Sissy after handing his plates to Rayla. Sissy saw the smile, and remembered other times men had smiled at her. She dropped to the ground, flat on her back, with legs open. This had been the way that stopped most men from hurting her when they used her in the past. Not all men, but most.

O’Breyne just stood there stunned. Stone had told Rayla about his first encounter with the girl, but seeing it herself stunned the woman. “Sissy, stand up,” she sputtered, and the girl got up fearfully staring at the wagoneer. O’Breyne reached behind his back, and pulled something out of his waistband. It was a beautifully carved doll, similar to the ones he had made Emily. He held it out to the girl.

“For Emily?” Sissy asked.

“No. For Sissy,” O’Breyne said. It took the girl a few minutes to realize that this was hers. She had never owned anything before. Finally she held it close and said: “Sissy’s own dolly.” She turned and showed it to Emily, who squealed in delight.

“Look, it has arms,” the smaller girl said. “How do you make arms? Can you give arms to my dolls?”

O’Breyne grinned. “They are just twigs that bend a bit. I dowels them in and you can turn them a bit when you play, but not too much or they will get loose. It was a new idea. Bring me one of yours tonight and I will try to give her some arms.”

Then the man was amazed when Sissy leapt up and gave him a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said. And from that minute she no longer feared the driver, and was much less frightened of the other men on the trip.

That evening they reached Greenwood, and made camp outside of the booming little town. Stone took four wagons into town and sold the coal to the lumber yard for a good price, part of which Rayla took to the fabric store to buy a few bolts of cloth: a soft pink cotton and a sunny red woolen. Sissy needed clothes.