Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
Sis listened to Mr Pike talking. He said he was sorry he shot her. There were a lot of questions about Love, but all of that seemed so far away now. Maybe it was the loss of blood making her head swim or maybe it was that stuff what the doctor lady give her, but she felt oddly euphoric lying here: up to now her life had been one long drudge of hardship and humiliation, being shown off as part of a freak show: now, well, she didn't know what her life was, but it was different, she felt sort of free. Like an idiot savant, she lived not in the trappings of the past or the uncertain fears of the future, but with the odd comfort of the present.
Mr Pike announced his departure.
"That sounds fine. I'd like to sit with her a bit longer." Angie said.
The big girl looked at her, the statuesque lady who had cared for her, with wondering eyes.
"You're a stranger here, like me, aren't yuh?" she asked, she didn't figure it out, she just felt it instinctively. Being a stranger put people on their guard.
As Barnabas left the room, Angie returned her attention to Sis. "I am. I was hired at the hospital that is under construction. And I had never been out to this ranch either, so first for me and you, I assume." She explained. "I am from Chicago in the state of Illinois. Many miles east of here. It was a long trip by train and then by wagon to get here. I imagine you have traveled quite a way to get here as well, at least from what you said."
"I doubt that this Tom fellow is a very nice person, or that he treated you and your brother very well either. It would seem that he was using you both to get at Mister Pike for one reason or another, and I believe he meant you both harm. I do believe he meant to kill the two of you, Missus Pike and the baby Wheeler in the bargain, if not Mister Pike as well." She paused, "If you can help these people, I believe they would be grateful. Mister Pike, I understand, was a deputy Marshal until recently, so he is a lawman, not an outlaw. He is a man you should help if you can."
Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
At Doctor Laurant's mention of killing Wheeler, Sis became agitated and tried to sit up despite the pain in her wounded shoulder this caused her.
"I wouldn't ha let Love kill the baby!!" she bellowed "That's why I tried to get him. I had t' protect the baby but Missus Pike woul'n give him me, she thought I was gonna harm him but I was gonna save him..."
When she fell back against the pillows, it wasn't through pain or exhaustion, it was through a horrible and depressing realisation that had at last penetrated her inch-thick skull.
"Oh no, people'r gonna thing I'm a baby hurter, what'm I gonna do Mrs Lady?" the young giantess asked the Doc with tears starting to brim in her eyes.
"I was not there, nor was I a part of Tom Love's plans for anyone; all I know is what I've heard to this point." Angie said in trying to distance herself from what facts there were, so far as she was concerned, which were few and hearsay."Were you told to take the baby from his mother? And, if so. why? That will be the big question. And your brother, was he supposed to shoot Misses Pike? Or just take the baby by force."
"I just don't understand how you were going to save the baby? Was Tom Love's plan to kill the baby and Misses Pike, or was that your brother's job? You see, these things have to be ferreted out before a judgment can be made about any of this. Was Tom going to do all of the shooting, and of whom?"
Angie paused, this was all a bit much for the girl she suspected. But whatever she knew, it could clear up a lot of facts that were a bit murky at the moment. "Perhaps you should rest now, maybe think about the snickerdoodles and supper that are on the way. We can talk later after we've both had something to eat."
In the kitchen, the small team was working with efficiency, and soon enough, there were several dozen cookies ready to be taken to the bunkhouse, but Emeline asked Pythias to stay back.
"Could you do me a favor?" she asked the man, sure he'd be willing to do anything she asked, except maybe this. "Could you carve a marker for that man's grave?" There was certainly plenty of scrap wood around the place. "I'll see if I can get his name. I know it's an odd thing to request, but no one...well, not many, deserve to be completely forgotten."
And it would spare some of her Humanity, help her recover from the horrid events of the day.
Storyteller / Shared NPC
"No, Ma'am, nobody needs ta be fergotten." Pythiuas said, "I kin get 'er done right quick like. All I'd be needin' is the name fer the fella. There's a good amount a lumber out by the barn. some inside, so I'll find a right proper piece. I kin g'wan out and lay him ta rest once't supper's served up."
He wasn't sure if the body had been buried, but he would ride out and make sure. The dead needed to be tended to, no matter who or what they were, at least that was how Pythias Moden looked at it. It wouldn't take all that long to get the hole dug, filled in, and some rocks piled up to mark the spot. The marker would take a bit longer to carve out and get placed.
"Thank you." She had been pretty sure that Pythias would understand, and she was also certain that Barnabas would as well. "I'll try to get his name, and his age as well." She really didn't want to know more, and she certainly didn't care for a bunch of sentiment on his marker.
As she was headed for the stairs, Barnabas came into the kitchen, and she gave him a quick hug. "I'm going upstairs quickly, then we can have supper."
At the door to the sick-room, she nodded to the man standing guard and handed him a couple of cookies. "Supper is soon, so don't ruin your appetite!"
Giving him a quick wink, she knocked lightly on the door, then opened it and stepped inside. "I was wondering if anyone here would like some snickerdoodles?"
Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
Sis rested back on the pillows, just like the nice doctor lady said. This sure was a nice comfy bed, it was a pity she was in a whole lot of pain and couldn't enjoy it more, she ruminated. And that was about it vis-a-vis Miss Lister's 'inner life' - there wasn't a lot up top, and she was as content, in a way, as any other dumb brute who found themselves in soft lodgings.
When her brother's slayer walked in and offered her cookies, she didn't really blink an eyelid: this was just another turn of the colorful shifting kaleidoscope through which she viewed her life.
"I was wondering if anyone here would like some snickerdoodles?"
"Yes please" wheezed Sis, hungrily.
@[Bongo]
"Here you go." Emeline handed the young woman two of the cookies, then held some to Angie. "Dinner is soon, so don't spoil it, but we all deserve a treat sometimes, right?"
She managed a smile, thinking that the girl seemed so lost and frail laying in the bed.
"Can I ask you something? One of the hands is going to carve a memorial for...your brother." It was a hard topic, for both of them, she was sure, but it had to be asked. "What was his name? And do you know his birthday?"
Best give me the baby, Mrs Pike
Sis was too busy stuffing her face with cookies to answer at first but eventually, speaking with her mouth full, grunted: "Clem, cept in the circus he was called 'The Human Cockroach'" then, after chewing and swallowing the remaining chud, the giantess added "Dunno when we was borned, just Ma onct said the war was just started and Daddy was a 'Spress rider, and he roded off an' never come back to us... but one day he might. Ma said he probably was a good feller but never even knowed we was borned so din comeback to look after us."
She went to reach for another snickerdoodle but suddenly turned a pale green sort of colour and muttered urgently "I think I gonna be sick!"
Luckily, there was a handy china bowl under the bed which served to catch the unfortunate flow from her mouth: the inevitable result of eating on top of the laudanum that the doctor had been giving her.
