Posted January 10, 2023
Emeline was grateful for the casual setting of the Tahoe House. Of course, they weren't currently dressed for a fancy outing at the moment, and she was frankly glad of that. While she wouldn't mind for special, short occasions, to get all gussied up, it was getting more and more difficult as her pregnancy progressed. Soon, she'd balk at corsets and bustles altogether!
"This doesn't seem so bad," she commented as she slipped onto the stool beside Barnabas, amused that the seat swiveled, and making a few rotations before settling down.
"Sorry, that was fun!" She grinned broadly. "Food and entertainment all in one! I like it!"
Posted January 11, 2023
"I'm not sure anybody could, I know I couldn't. Might prove dangerous though. I mean, a body get's to spinning an' flies off'a it?" He chided. "Might want to be careful of that."
"The idea of them in Kalispell isn't hard to imagine, not at all. Fact is, maybe we could expand just a bit and put on of these in." They were sitting at a counter with the stoves just on the other side where the cooks took the orders, of course there were tables and some booths which required a waitress to get the orders.
"So what do you think you'll have? They've got some good sandwiches and good sides of potato salad and such. Me, I'm thinkin' on maybe a small steak."
It was then that a man stepped up behind Barnabas with a wide smile.
Posted January 12, 2023
Emeline laughed at Barnabas' suggestion that you could get the seat spinning so much that you went flying, and she pushed herself around a couple of times, just to test the theory. "Still here!" she laughed, grabbing the counter to stop.
"I'll have the fried chicken dinner, I think," she declared, then noticed the man approaching them. "Good afternoon." She was in a good mood, and beaming brightly. "Are you a friend of Mr. Pike? I'm collecting stories about his days here, if you've any to share!"
Posted January 12, 2023
Pronto spun around. "Cap! For God-sake!" He was stunned, though he shouldn't be. Captain T.G. Taylor stood there looking scrufty, as if he'd been in one of the mines. "This is my wife, Emeline, Em, Cap Taylor."
"A pleasure Ma'am, a real pleasure. And yes, I can tell you some stories about the feller'll curl your hair." Taylor replied.
"Been expecting you. Bill sent work you were on your way. I got us a table where we can talk if you and the Misses don't mind. And Ma'am, the fried chicken here is as good as it gets. Believe me." He added as if what he had to say needed a more intimate setting.
"Sure Cap, if Em here don't mind, she's having a grand time on that stool she's on. Has a cafe of her own, planning to make some changes, and a counter with stools seems to be one of 'em." He turned to her and held out his hand to her.
Tags for Bongo
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Taylor." Emeline grinned and nodded. "I look forward to those stories!" She gave Barnabas a sweet smile and a wink, then looked back at the Captain. "Of course you can steal him away, just bring him back sometime before dark!"
Leaning over, she gave her husband a quick kiss on the cheek then squeezed his hand. "If you need me to, I can keep myself entertained the rest of the day, I don't mind." She had some money in her purse, and knew their credit was good in at least one store here.
Taylor laughed, "Oh no Missis Pike, That'll come later, probably tomorrow. I have a table over here. Make it easier to talk. You might well enjoy what this lad's into these days. But I know him well enough that even he has no idea."
"Hold on now, I know I've paid little attention to this business, an' I've pretty much left it to you to manage my interests, but things have changed, Cap. In a big way." Pike said in his defense, such as it was. "I came here to see what was what about my interests because there's my family involved now, a ranch, child on the way. I need to know where I'm at, where this is all going."
Cap Taylor was still smiling, "Good son, good. So then, Missis Pike, if you'll join us, this affects you as well then." He offered in his easy manner. "I'm sure this will be of interest to you."
"Oh, certainly!" Emeline was flattered to be included in a discussion involving business, since that wasn't considered something a woman would know about. Of course, with her own business, she knew what was involved in financing, and she knew that Barnabas respected her opinions.
Spinning a final time on the stool, she chuckled, then hopped off and followed after the men, her hand resting on her belly. "I think little Mehitable likes that! She's got an adventurous spirit!" She'd leave it to her husband to explain her quirk of trying out names for the baby, even if she was teasing!
I've Got Two Guns, One For Each Of You!
They trouped over to the last booth closest to the door, the only one that was vacant, and took seats. The woman serving as the waitress came by and took their orders. Then Cap leaned forward, "I know you're both surprised that I asked Misses Pike along, but like I said, this will affect her as well." He absently looked around, then continued, "Been some changes 'round here. The 'Kings" got it far more organized than it has been. That means the shares, our shares, have been worth more for near a year now."
Pike looked at him. If there was one thing he knew, Captain Terrance Glenn Taylor was as honest a man as he had ever met. "Changes? How so?"
"The manner in which the dividends are paid out, was the first change. They went to monthly payments by check. Now Wells Fargo, back down the street, they're holding a number of checks fer folks, 'course now your money is deposited in your account here. None was transferred and it sits there in cash. I sent word to you back a ways when they told me nothing had transferred since the change."
"Nothing to get upset about, we've been on the trail a while, so we would have gotten no messages, we've not heard from friends we sent wires to, we been moving about, Portland, Frisco, now here." Pike replied. "I'll just go draw it out an' take it with us."
Cap looked at his friend. "Ah, oh, here you food!" He announced, interrupted as the waitress arrived with the order of fried chicken and one rare steak with potatoes and beans. She dashed to the counter and brought lemonade for the lady and coffee for the men.
"Don't nobody take a drink just yet." Cap began again, "There's somewhere over a quarter of a million dollars sittin' there. They don't have that on hand in cash."
Composed Emeline, who had weathered a move far from her family, losing her husband and child, and another, who had stayed composed and set up a small cafe in a tent in at the edge of a mining camp in South Dakota, then gathered her meager earnings and moved to Montana, where she was able to set up her cafe in a real building on Main Street...
Composed, even when that handsome deputy had started courting her, and she had come to realize that her life was going to move on in amazing ways that she'd not allowed herself were to be in her future...
Well, she was no longer composed! It felt as though the breath had been driven out of her lungs, and the world started to swirl around her, only she was sitting in a stationary seat, not one of those stools!
"Did he say..?" she managed to gasp out. Of course, it was hard to mistake, and Emeline lost her composure, sitting dumbfounded, gripping the table to keep herself grounded in the here and now...
Even Barnabas was stunned. "Yep, 'at's what the man said."
"Things around here are changing, Pike. Changing slow, but changing. I got us shares in about every mine on the hill that wasn't part of Con Virginia which is doin' alright. I was over't the Ophir, it, like most is slowin' down on production." He looked at both of the Pikes. "Been almost twenty years pulling blue slag outta the ground, this was comin' sooner or later, and to be honest, it looks like later, but like I said, mine production is down a bit, but it's on it's way." Cap explained.
"And what's that mean for us?" Pike asked. "I mean with the slowing down?"
"What it means is, I hope you've invested, and that cash over't Wells Fargo, I'd get me some cashier's checks or have it transferred to your bank, whatever suits you. Then find ways to make it pay. I'm lookin' cash in, sell off my shares and get outta Dodge! That is, while the gettin's good. Oh, they'll still be payin', don't get me wrong, leastways for the foreseeable future, unless the unforeseeable were to happen. He paused for a sip of the coffee. "You're a long way from here, there's that. Oh, I trust everything will be as it is, until the 'Kings' move on. You and your lady here need to talk about this." He smiled, Me? I'm off ta the bathhouse. I'll be around, big game up to the Sharon House tonight."
"Quit the pasteboards, but good luck to ya. An' I take it you can sell what I own?" Pike asked with his good wishes.
"That I can Pronto, that I can. I'll leave you two to your dinner. At the International I take it?"
"Are." Pike said as Cap Taylor got to his feet.
"See maybe tomorrow," Cap said. "A pleasure Missis Pike."