"Worst thing that ever happened to the South, that's for sure." ruminated Greene.
"Not so good for Mr. Lincoln either," Caroline added dead pan.
"But I don't know about Ol' Abe. Maybe it's best to go out like that, when you're on top. I mean look at Grant: he was the idol of the North when the war ended. If he'd gone out then, he'd be held in as high esteem as President Lincoln is today. But now look, after all these scandals and the Whiskey thing..." he looked philosophical "Some men are at their best in peace, some in war."
"I don't follow the news much ...or politics. The local paper don't cover that sorta thing much and I'll be honest and admit I ain't much of a reader," she shrugged.
She then remarked, in jest of course, she would have loved to have been in the war as a soldier despite her young age.
"Wouldn't fancy Lee's chances against even a half-sized Miss Mundee!" he said.
"Old saying ya know, it ain't the size of the dog, it's the size of the fight in the dog," Caroline grinned.
"Or you could have gone as a cantinière!" he suggested.
"Oh I heard of 'em," she nodded, "Camp followers, right."
"Say, didn't I see your funny little friend dressed up as one of those particular 'ladies' one time?" he frowned.
Caroline had to laugh, recalling it.
"Yep, you did. That's Arabella, she works in the saloon. Laundry, washing floors, glasses, you name it. She's an orphan girl. But she also plays the piano and she's really good at it. A big help to me when I'm up there singing," Caroline replied.
"She's a character that one. Ralph sez it best I think..."
"Arabella is best taken in small doses but she comes at you by the gallon."
"Er, would you fellers mind awfully standing to attention?"
"I don't follow the news much ...or politics. The local paper don't cover that sorta thing much and I'll be honest and admit I ain't much of a reader," she shrugged.
"What's going on back in Washington might not be too interesting to people out here, but pretty soon we'll have some more local politics for folks to fall out over. I hear tell the Mayor's Office is up for grabs." he mentioned. "I happened to see a list of the candidates on display at the town hall."
Somehow the conversation morphed from politics to piano pounders.
"That's Arabella, she works in the saloon. Laundry, washing floors, glasses, you name it. She's an orphan girl. But she also plays the piano and she's really good at it. A big help to me when I'm up there singing," Caroline replied.
"I should drop by when I'm off duty some night. I'd like to hear you both." he smiled.
"She's a character that one. Ralph sez it best I think...Arabella is best taken in small doses but she comes at you by the gallon."
"Yeah, I think I danced with her at some kind of barn dance I was ordered to attend by the Colonel. Might have ben before you came to town. She... oh well, I just remembered some more of my Mother's advice: she told me if you want a girl to like you, don't talk about other women to them! Even Arabellas."
"Ah yeah, the mayor's election. Why should I care who wins? I can't even vote in it,"Caroline waved it off. Oh she would clap for and cheer on Mr. Priest whom her boss was pushing to win but she personally did not give a damn.
He then mentioned being interested in listening to her and Ara perform.
"Please do. I don't want to sound like I'm braggin' but most folks say I've got a real nice singing voice. I admit my dancing is not that special but I just show them a little leg.......or more than a little...and they clap alright," she informed him.
Turns out the lieutenant possibly had even danced with Arabella at some town dance. Bet Ara enjoyed that, good fer her!
"Yeah, must have been before I arrived in town. No local dances for me yet...besides I got a feelin' my sort would not be welcomed at any such town affair. Those things are for proper folks."
Seemingly Ara had been in attendance, but it was different, she was still a child. They would probably cut her some slack. Saloon entertainers though, they were often lumped in with whores, fair or not. Life wasn't fair.
"Er, would you fellers mind awfully standing to attention?"
"Ah yeah, the mayor's election. Why should I care who wins? I can't even vote in it, "Caroline waved it off. Oh she would clap for and cheer on Mr. Priest whom her boss was pushing to win but she personally did not give a damn.
Greene shrugged. "Maybe not, but the person who's elected could make your life a lot better or a whole lot worse. You ever hear of a abomination that goes by the name of a 'dry county'? The poor b... er, denizens of a place like that probably didn't realise until too late what they were voting in." he laughed, although it was no laughing matter: reformers and prohibitionists were even in these early decades starting to make their voices heard.
He then mentioned being interested in listening to her and Ara perform.
"Please do. I don't want to sound like I'm braggin' but most folks say I've got a real nice singing voice. I admit my dancing is not that special but I just show them a little leg.......or more than a little...and they clap alright," she informed him.
"I can imagine!" he smiled. But it was a nice smile. A friendly smile. Not the sort of lascivious smile that indicated that he already had been imagining... frequently.
They talked of the famous Dance.
"Yeah, must have been before I arrived in town. No local dances for me yet...besides I got a feelin' my sort would not be welcomed at any such town affair. Those things are for proper folks."
Greene frowned. He didn't like to think of this beautiful woman being denigrated in any way: though he was not unaware of the snobby often hypocritical attitude of those who felt them selves a cut above the type of folks who worked in certain professions, including soldiers - at least the non-commissioned kind. Sometimes with good reason, often times not.
"You know, one of my aunts once had our family tree drawn up, just like the noble families of Europe. The fellow who did it even drew it like a tree, leaves, and apples, and all. We're real Vermont blue-bloods, you see, despite the green name. Aunt Mary-Anne expected our forefathers to have come across on the Mayflower, or with Captain Smith to Jamestown."
He smiled happily at the memory of it.
"Imagine her delight when the feller delivered our family tree and revealed that the first Greene to set foot on American soil was an indentured servant, a virtual slave, who'd been transported here for, get this, stealing apples from some rich lord's orchard!"
He enjoyed the memory of his snobby aunt's discomfort for a moment then returned to the present.
"So you see, in a hundred years time... the president of the United States will be tracing his roots back to a beautiful saloon singer in old Kalispell and a tramp in the street'll be vaguely aware that he is descended from the once great Greenes of Vermont." He shrugged. "Who cares, rich man, poor man, beggar man thief." he looked into the depths of her blue eyes "... or lady, baby, gypsy, queen."
He tried to make it sound important enough that she should be interested in local politics but really what good did being interested do her? She could not change anything. She could not vote so to hell with it. The people she lived with, worked with were what was important to her. But she wasn't going to argue with him about it.
"Sure, I reckon," Caroline shrugged.
Then handsome young soldier...correction, officer now launched into a nice long tale of his family roots. It was fascinating really he knew all that much about his family history and those who came before. She didn't know a damn thing about such things in her own life. She was pretty damn sure the woman she called Ma had been the one to give birth to her but she was not positive. And there was even more doubt about her father or step father. No matter, they had been a family and stuck together til two out of three died. So now it was just her. Well, her and her saloon family.
"Interestin'," she nodded, enjoying the way he told the story as much as the actual story.
"So you see, in a hundred years time... the president of the United States will be tracing his roots back to a beautiful saloon singer in old Kalispell and a tramp in the street'll be vaguely aware that he is descended from the once great Greenes of Vermont." He shrugged. "Who cares, rich man, poor man, beggar man thief." he looked into the depths of her blue eyes "... or lady, baby, gypsy, queen."
"Not gonna happen that way. I'm never gonna get married and I ain't gonna have any children so no one is descendin' from me, hon. But I liked yer tellin' of it," she liked him, this dinner date had turned out better than she had figured it would.
"Er, would you fellers mind awfully standing to attention?"
"Not gonna happen that way. I'm never gonna get married and I ain't gonna have any children so no one is descendin' from me, hon. But I liked yer tellin' of it," she liked him, this dinner date had turned out better than she had figured it would.
Joseph couldn't think of a reply to that: it seemed so final and sort of sad: almost a declaration of... was 'genetic suicide' the right word. If he never had children, if he had no direct descendants, it would be sad but he'd live with it. But Caroline sounded so determined not to, as if continuing her story into the far future would be anathema to her. Luckily the waiter came, then, to take their orders.
Back East, the gentleman would order for the lady: but things were a little more egalitarian out West, and Caroline was no simpering girl to be ordered for.
"What'll you have?" he asked "Still keen on the duck?"
Two people, a man and a woman, ordering food in a restaurant: It was a humdrum enough event: but that was the beauty of it. He wasn't a dashing army officer fighting Indians, she wasn't a glamourous saloon singer belting out a tune to a bar full of rowdy cowboys: Two people, a man and a woman, ordering food in a restaurant.
He ended that subject once she definitively informed she would not ever be making her part of his imagined future come true. It was fine though, he liked his story telling, his voice, his easy way of conversing. In short, he was good company.
"What'll you have?" he asked "Still keen on the duck?"
"Oh yeah, a lot keener on the duck than it is on me I reckon," Caroline smiled then looked up at the waiter.
"Gimme the duck...maybe some potatoes...roasted. Oh and if we get bread with the meal, make sure there is butter," she directed the fellow.
"This place serve alcohol?" she wanted a drink.
"Er, would you fellers mind awfully standing to attention?"
"Oh yeah, a lot keener on the duck than it is on me I reckon," Caroline smiled then looked up at the waiter.
The Lieutenant chuckled at Caroline's bon mot.
"Gimme the duck...maybe some potatoes...roasted. Oh and if we get bread with the meal, make sure there is butter," she directed the fellow.
"I'll have the same as the lady" chimed in Joseph "And the '67 Beaujolais, please."
"This place serve alcohol?" she wanted a drink.
"Yes, er, bring us an aperitif." He said commandingly and glanced at the menu again "A fino maybe, with the hors d'oeuvres."
"Very good, Sir." bowed the waiter, showing that his hair was parted perfectly in the middle.
He went and came back very swiftly, bearing a little plate of amuse bouche and two glasses of the pale dry sherry.
He held up the glass and looked at it, then smelled it. Not bad, considering how way out west they were. There was nothing ostentatious about this, he did it swiftly and without drawing attention to his appreciation of the 'real McCoy' But before he actually took a sip, he held up his glass to the beautiful blonde sitting opposite.
"So, here's to the Single life and no kids!" he toasted her.
Caroline actually knew the one fancy word was a wine plus she recognized 'apertif'. But 'fino', nope no idea. She simply smiled until the waiter departed.
"Are you showing off? I thought we were eating in an American restaurant," she inquired.
It did not take the fellow long to come back with two fine glasses of some sort of wine, probably weak stuff compared to what she liked to drink but alcohol was alcohol. She'd drink it without comment.
He then held up his glass to the beautiful blonde sitting opposite.
"So, here's to the Single life and no kids!" he toasted her.
"Is that what you want in your future too? You will be disappointing a lot of women I believe," she then klinked glasses with him and took a polite swallow. Alright, nothing great.
"I will have you know that I have nothing against children. In fact I like them, I feel like I have a sister now in Arabella I never had back in my youth."
"But when I told you there will never be kids that's because there never can be kids, if you follow me?"
Just in case he didn't, she decided to explain. Strange, first it was sleeping with Brendan and now revealing a long held secret... she wasn't quite sure why she was doing this sort of thing lately.
"Back in Chicago, I was ....well, really quite young, when I was assaulted by a soldier boy and it was very rough. The doctor told me I was never going to be able to have babies anymore, he didn't go inta details and I didn't ask for any either."
Though it was nothing to smile about, she managed one anyhow then sipped the drink again.
"Er, would you fellers mind awfully standing to attention?"
"Are you showing off? I thought we were eating in an American restaurant," she inquired.
"Showing off?!" frowned the Lieutenant, then broke into a grin "Of course I'm showing of. I'm trying to impress a beautiful woman. If I didn't want to show off, I'd have taken you to that Lick Spill It place instead."
They drank the dry sherry that was supposed to make them hungry enough to eat the whole menu.
"So, here's to the Single life and no kids!" he toasted her.
"Is that what you want in your future too? You will be disappointing a lot of women I believe," she then klinked glasses with him and took a polite swallow. Alright, nothing great.
"Wha.. was that flattery? I like it! Keep it up." he joked, but then shrugged more seriously. "I don't know. I'm not sure what I want. I guess I'm just kicking around until... what? Some great revelation. You seem pretty sure, at least, about not wanting to start a family."
"I will have you know that I have nothing against children. In fact I like them, I feel like I have a sister now in Arabella I never had back in my youth."
Joseph smiled in a small, understanding way.
"But when I told you there will never be kids that's because there never can be kids, if you follow me?"
"Yeah" he said automatically, but then changed his plea to "... I mean no."
"Back in Chicago, I was ....well, really quite young, when I was assaulted by a soldier boy and it was very rough. The doctor told me I was never going to be able to have babies anymore, he didn't go inta details and I didn't ask for any either."
"Oh Jesus, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked!" he exclaimed, nearly knocking his glass over. It was such a shocking revelation that he forgot that he, in fact, hadn't asked.
He shook his head, looking down at the table. At that moment he felt very young and inexperienced and like a babe in the woods compared to the deeply lived lives, for good or bad, of others who were little older, even younger than himself.
"Caroline, I don't know what to say. 'I'm sorry that it happened' isn't enough. I feel ashamed. Ashamed for all of my sex. God. That's just awful. I'm sorry." he shook his head again and stared at the table cloth, clearly upset ad shocked at her revelation.
He felt useless and embarrassed at his inexperience in the ways of the world. So much for 'showing off'.