Vanessa

by David Howells

Chapter 25 – COUNTDOWN

  “I tell you Mary Jane, this is the biggest thing to happen ever! Just imagine, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant finally meeting to put an end to this horrible war!” said Rachel.

  “No doubt, Julie Ann, no doubt. You know, maybe we can get our pictures taken with the two of them if we play our cards right, if you know what I mean.”

  Vanessa saw the two ‘ladies’ give knowing winks and sly smiles, and Annie’s look of horror at such immorality. She just couldn’t think of her as Monkey anymore. Even the bad part was part of her friend. It was degrading to the whole to hate the part that, despite problems, still retained a sense of dignity and right versus wrong and that was worth something. “Do NOT ask me to repeat that.” Monkey Annie wasn’t so much evil as mentally ill, with a fractured ability to understand and accept.

  “Julie Ann, I do believe Daddy might just be interested in purchasing this little shack for a winter retreat from those awful northern winters.”

  “Well, that sounds just fine to me. How about we tear down that old barn and put up a sleazy little hotel for the local red light ladies? It would be a real business opportunity for two young and ‘able’ ladies.” (cue: wicked laughter).

  “That sounds great, Julie Ann. Let’s go over to the main office and see what they want for this dump.” The ‘ladies’ strolled away, smiling and pointing as they walked along.

  If Annie was indignant before, she was mortified now. “Sell Homestead? My family home? For a BROTHEL? Vanessa! Did you hear that? Holy Mother; what kind of wickedness is this? This is TERRIBLE! Can you stop those ladies? PLEASE!”

  “Dearie, I’ll see what I can do. You just stay here for a minute. Vanessa will take care of everything, or at least I’ll try. I’m sure there isn’t a thing to worry about, I think.”

  Vanessa found a satisfactory display of panic, worry and confusion all competing for center stage. So far, so good. She strode off in the direction taken by ‘Julie Ann and Mary Jane’. First stop, Ryan.

  “Three more hours to go before show time. Still plenty of time for hot dogs, popcorn and soda.” thought Ryan. The men were getting anxious and running out of things to keep their minds busy. Vanessa came just in time. She hailed the men, saying that there was good news.

  “We’ve got Annie not knowing if she’s or coming or going. Now she’s afraid our two ladies of questionable virtue are going to turn her family home into a bordello. The kids are excited, hopeful and trusting. We can’t let them down now! Melissa is at the house. She listened in on the conversation between Marianne and Rachel. Call Gustav and pass the word on that the ruse was a resounding success. I’m going to check on Jed Patterson. If something is amiss, I’ll come right back. Good luck men. May this be jour last ride! God Speed, every one of you!”

  A great hurrah arose from seventeen soldiers of the North, despite their diminished numbers. This visit gave them courage, not to mention a few more discussion topics to pass the time with. It was a shame Vanessa couldn’t stay to give a few more details on this Melissa lass. Well, there was always Ryan and he just might be persuaded to get Allen to spill some beans. Men like to gossip just as much as women, but they called it ‘catching up on the latest news’.

  Ryan could lean back and relax. There was fodder for morale boosting here to last the rest of the trip. He made no sign to his own men that Vanessa had even been there. His mind had begun to lock on to the end goal and he really didn’t want distractions at the moment.

  Annie laid low, keeping silent. She could ‘see’ Monkey above, like a dolphin might see a whale in slightly murky water. It seemed so unfair that such a warped part of her mind should wield such great power to cause so much misery. There was a barrier between them, much as the one that once separated Nighttime Annie from Mad Annie. It was translucent and, as long as she didn’t get close, there was little chance that she would be noticed.

  However, the more confused Monkey got, the thinner the barrier appeared. She thought about how Monkey had gotten Mad Annie to do her bidding. Part of her sensed that Monkey somehow attached herself behind Mad Annie without actually becoming united with her. Could she do the same? Could she do better? She carefully, softly and very silently edged toward the barrier as far from Monkey’s peripheral field of vision as possible.

  “Jed? Private Jed Patterson? Are you there? It’s me, Vanessa.”

  “I’m over here, ma’am. Thank you for coming. I was getting lonely.”

  “You’re welcome, Jed. I guess you’ve been alone for a long time. Having you regain your wits was one of the best extra bonuses any of us could have wished for.”

  “Also pleased to put my feet on the ground. Been passing the time trying to remember some of the dance steps I learned back at Bolton Landing on Saturday nights. Not the same without a young lady though, but I’m not complaining.”

  Vanessa felt so sorry for Jed. She knew the feeling of a life denied by the fruits of another’s wickedness. Maybe she could do something for the man.

  “Jed, I want to check on something. It’s important that you can make good contact with the children. Some spirits can touch, others can’t.”

  It hadn’t occurred to Jed that the children he wanted to save might just pass through his strong arms. He looked horrified at the prospect. “Mrs. Fitzgalen, what can I do?”

  “I don’t do well with mathematics, Jed. But Ryan taught we something that just might help. If I can hold the children, which I can, and you can hold me, then you can hold them. Do you see?”

  Jed scratched his beard and gazed at the ground. “You’re saying that, even if I can’t directly see if I can carry the children, that if I can carry you and you can carry them, then I should be able to carry them, too?”

  “(Not bad, Jed. If only events could have turned out differently for you, perhaps you might have been one hell of a man instead of one man in a Hell.) Private, I think you’ve got it. Now, I’ve a little time to spare. How’s about you teach we one of those dance steps?”

  Jed balked. Private Jed Patterson, it turns out, was ‘powerful shy’. He had been to Saturday night barn dances all right, with his sisters. Pretty ladies scared the life out of him, even though he would have given anything to be able to dance with one, once upon a time.

  There was no time for being coy. Vanessa walked right up to Jed. Her eyes came to his chest pocket buttons. Now that he was off his horse and they were toe to toe, she was given a fuller appreciation of just how BIG this man was. Her left hand reached out and clasped his right hand. Jed gasped. The hand size comparison was not far from that of hers compared to Rebecca’s. She took his left arm and put it around her waist and began to hum a slightly up-tempo version of ‘Union Maid’, leading him in a simple box step. The look of wonder on Jed’s face was one that you might see on a child at Christmas. He took the greatest of care so as not to bruise such a flower, feeling clumsy and oafish. But with only a minute of practice, some of the old rhythms came back. Vanessa had expected flattened toes, but nothing of the sort was forthcoming.

  The grace of this man! There was a waltz she had once been fond of, describing just such large men hired by logging companies to ride great logs down rapid waters. In fact, she could actually catch strains of the tune in the air. Vanessa began to sing. Her voice was a sweet rainfall to the parched heart of a very sad and remorseful man.

  “If you ask any girl in the village around,

  What pleases her most from her head to her toes?

  She will say, ‘I’m not sure if it’s business of yours,

  But I like to waltz with my log driver.’

  Yes they go burling down, down the white waters.

  That’s where the log drivers learn to step lightly.

  Burling down, down the white waters.

  The log driver’s waltz pleases girls completely.”

  All too soon, Vanessa had to bring it to a close. He wanted
it to go on, but knew it couldn’t. Duty called, as it always had in his life. Duty seemed to forever block his heart’s desires. Jed Patterson wasn’t a complainer though. He took what he had and made the best of it. The Union soldier took a step backward, bowed and dared a kiss to the hand of the wonderful lady that had made a very old man’s dream come true.

  “Thank you most kindly, Mrs. Vanessa Fitzgalen. I will never forget you. If it all works out, perhaps you would allow me to teach you a few steps in Heaven, if the good Lord is willing to have me.”

  “Jed, you were sick. Now, you are well. I have to go now, but you keep in mind who it was that God’s Son sought out. Wasn’t it the sick, the blind, the lame? Wasn’t it also the tax collectors, prostitutes and other riff-raff? Weren’t they still His children? You’re back in the fold now, Jed. Somewhere, your family is celebrating with angels. They’re all waiting for you to come home.”

  Vanessa walked back to the Homestead’s Main House, leaving a very thoughtful spirit of a man. “Lord bless you, Mrs. Vanessa Fitzgalen, for He certainly blessed me with you.”

  “What the heck was that all about? Grant and Lee? Building a whorehouse? Phony names?” Melissa was perplexed. There was hardly anyone listening to either Mrs. Gladstone or that Spanish lady, so they weren’t part of any show. Maybe they were rehearsing or something? But, that didn’t seem right. And why was Allen still not around when his mother was here? He still showed up on the NAVSTAR circuit, traveling slow enough not to be in a car, too fast for a walk, too slow for a bike. What? A horse? Nice day for a ride, she supposed. But what did all of this have to do with all that hullabaloo that went on back up in New York?

  Gustav had enjoyed listening via com-link to all the baloney they had fed Monkey. “Hope it gave her indigestion!” he thought, having been plagued with more of it recently. He listened to the band playing ‘Union Maid’. It was far enough away from Vanessa that she hadn’t realized that it was the faint strains of this band that inspired her to hum along.

  He looked at the pocket watch he had bought at the TimeLine Souvenir Shop. It was three-thirty. One and a half hours till it all came together. This was the calm before the storm. He was feeling less calm by the minute, but noticed that the band had struck up a different ditty. “What is that song? Doesn’t sound the least familiar. Kind of nice, though.”

  Sitting wasn’t getting her anywhere, so, keeping her parasol over her left shoulder and her fan strategically fanning, she walked out. So far, no one she knew was in sight as she scanned the crowd. Wait. She spied a familiar bulk about a hundred plus feet to the northeast.

  “Hammer? Is he everywhere?” Where there was Hammer, there were others like (ugh) Barry. Why are bikers here, of all people? Maybe they liked the muskets and cannons. Men liked things that banged. She stopped, snickered, and then went back to watching. He was preoccupied with, what? She squinted, putting her fan up to shade her eyes from the sun’s glare. It looked like the fart head was talking to some women. Squint. “Uh-oh.” She had better get closer if she saw what she thought she saw. The scene was lost in the crowd as she got off the porch but, soon enough, Melissa closed the distance to see a lively conversation going on between Allen’s mother, her friend and Hammer. What’s her name didn’t seem pleased about the interchange. “Wait a minute. ‘Spic Chic and Blondie’?”

  “Well, well, well. We meet again, ladies.”

  Rachel and Marianne turned around after having purchased walkaway sundaes. The sudden shade had given them a moment’s warning before the pest began his wittiest speech today.

  Marianne smiled and in her nicest voice said, “Why, what a surprise to meet you here. Now, be a good little Godzilla and move on before we call security.”

  “Just a moment, now. There’s no need to be snippy to old Hammer. He doesn’t mean you no harm. We just started off on the wrong foot, that’s all.”

  “My wrong foot will knock two balls into the side pocket. Move along!” she said, a little more strongly this time. Other patrons began to give them room. This wasn’t part of the planned entertainment and no one wanted to be collateral damage. As it happens with group dynamics, it was hard for any one person in a crowd to take decisive action in offering assistance. What happened next took moments to transpire. The boom TV crew happened to be in just the right position, and had been panning the crowd for human-interest shots. It would have headlined the evening news, had not other events overshadowed this interesting vignette.

  Rachel felt she had been a major wimp at The Inn. Payback time had arrived. She shoved her open parasol in his face. Hammer reflexively grabbed the parasol and Rachel let it go with no argument. That freed up her left hand to grab his belt, pull back and cram her sundae down the gap. Sadly, Hammer was not in the habit of wearing underwear. He roared his displeasure in a forward bent posture, eye to eye with Rachel. Between the volume level and the smell of his beer breath, Rachel backed up too quickly, tripped on her skirt of her dress and fell, unladylike, to the ground with a screech.

  Marianne was caught by surprise by Rachel’s audacity, but jumped in to play catch-up. However, she, too, was foiled by southern dressmakers. Ruffles and petticoats slowed her snap kick so that Hammer caught her foot easily. He had been in countless fights and size wasn’t the only thing that made Hammer a biker legend. He had a fighter’s instincts.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head. Hammer flipped the leg up, sending Marianne yowling backwards to land on top of Rachel, her sundae sailing over the crowd. Hammer’s right leg went forward and he had every intention of taking another step.

  Melissa had the presence of mind to hike up her skirts before slipping in between two tourists and drop kicking the inverted ‘V’ between Hammer’s lead and trailing leg. She heard and felt the ice cream ‘squish’ and quickly faded back into the crowd. The cameraman caught the dairy queen slam-dunk, the mouth that roared, two flying females, the Bruce Lee can-can and the fall of the roaming empire. Security arrived half a minute after the Belle bolted. The ranking officer ordered the other two to secure the man who was rolling on the ground, mumbling and moaning, “Not again!”

  Seeing the camera crew, the ranking security officer asked if they got any of what happened. Rachel wanted out of there, but Marianne said she wanted to know who chopped down the tree. Cat perked up her ears. Mysteries were fun.

  Gustav came huffing up to the site. He had heard the conflict on com-link, but there was no direction provided as to where it was taking place. He had called security only to have two hundred and eighty pairs of eyes looking all over the place for a commotion. Three security people had found the right location, but things had happened so fast that the team was only halfway there when the boom camera crew witnessed the event’s end. The boom equipment sported an expanded replay screen. Heads crowded to see it all, first in real time. That took eighteen seconds, counting from parasol parry to ‘whump’.

  “Again,” said Rachel. “Half speed, but back it off first.” The perspective backed off to include more of the crowd.

  “STOP. Now, tenth speed.” Rachel and the others saw a birds eye view of the intrusion of a young blond woman between an older man and a heavy-set woman. She wore a period dress and her hair was up in a stylish knot with wisps of hair trailing down. They watched as her hands hiked up the multiple skirts of her dress.

  “STOP. Frame by frame, half second intervals.” The system was excellent. There was no blurring due to motion, but no doubt that the foot now visible was traveling at a nasty speed.

  Impact. The faces of men scrunched in sympathy. “Freeze that. Now focus on that woman, full frame.” The view showed the forehead, hair, nose, and... “Stick to the face, frame by frame, until we get a view of it and crop the cleavage, Clyde.” A red faced technician complied. The face of the unknown heroine was finally caught during her attempt to blend back into the crowd. “Fre
eze it! Can you get me a print?”

  The security chief asked Rachel if she recognized the woman. Rachel shook her head no, but kept the print in case they met later so that the woman could be properly thanked. The security head knew full well that she had just lied through her teeth. He didn’t make his rank by being gullible. But the lady had her reasons and authority here as well. After she left, he ordered a copy of the disc for his personal records, which would be played tonight to the tune of pizza and beer before all of his security buds. This was going to make them howl.

  Rachel got away from the crowd, which wasn’t easy, and speed connected her SatCom. The horse riders’ com-links weren’t turned on yet. “Ryan! Melissa’s here! Were you aware of that?”

  “I had heard that from Vanessa. Hoped it to be a coincidence. Lot of college kids here today. What happened?”

  “Next time your Vanessa tells my son to ‘ditch the bitch’, point me at her so I can tell her where to stick it. Melissa just saved our backsides from that big bad biker man we told you about from The Inn. We Southern Belles tried to take him on and got knocked on our cans. TV cameraman caught it all. We slow-mo’d it and got a clear picture of Melissa. She dropkicked the moose as he was beginning his final charge, then blended back into the crowd. Ryan, Allen needs to know this. We don’t need him being distracted by a surprise meeting.”

  “Agreed. Sorry not to have informed you about Melissa. I honestly didn’t think it was important. My mistake. Places everyone. Soldier com-links will go active in twenty minutes. Ryan out.”

  “Ryan, did I hear you say the name of my ex-girlfriend just now?”

  “Allen, if you have an ounce of common sense in that gifted brain of yours, I would unburn any bridges you have regarding Melissa. Gather round everyone, Fitzgalen has a tale to tell.”

  Everyone did just that, despite the ongoing backfires of Thunder. The story was worth it, spirits soared and tongues wagged. Allen just rode along, silently taking it all in and thinking, until Thunder perfectly punctuated the fall of Hammer. No one, mortal or spirit, could see straight after that.

  “Ladies and gentlemen. It is with deep regret that we inform all of you good visitors that there has been a failure in the peace agreement between the North and the South. Despite desperate 11th hour efforts at ‘round the clock’ peace talks, it looks like there is going to be one more conflict.

  “Both sides have agreed to the safety of non-combatants. If you good people would proceed to the areas marked off for your viewing pleasure, the battle will begin at precisely four-thirty.”

  The administration had wanted to add a disclaimer that this would only be a mock battle and that no one would actually get hurt. ‘War of the Worlds’ had proven that some people will believe almost anything they see or hear no matter how many times you tell them ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’. However, their largest financial supporter and very long-time board member had insisted on keeping that part out of the announcements. He had insisted on notification through the advertising, the flyer schedules, signs at each roped off public safety area, and with the security and guide personnel who were stationed at each of those areas. The people were to have all the realism possible, und dat vas an order.

  “Vanessa, did I hear what I just heard? It’s starting again? The war? Here? That’s impossible! The war was over long ago. Viewing PLEASURE?!”

  “Annie, I had always understood that there were pockets of resistance to the war’s end that never surrendered the fight. There are rumored to be fourteen states that have never since spoken to each other, cutting off all trade agreements. Unity has been a sticking point with Congress all these years.”

  “But those ladies said that Grant and Lee were coming to sign the treaty. They CAN’T still be alive.”

  “The ladies, or Grant and Lee?"

  “You nitwit, Grant and Lee, of course!”

  “Sounds hard to believe, I know. Army commanders take on the names of those leaders, kind of like the Pope takes on a different name when he ascends to the Vatican or a nun will change her name when she takes vows.”

  “But, Vanessa, how can fighting between anyone last that long? They’d have killed each other off long ago. There can’t be anyone left!”

  “You’d think not, but many wars are multi-generational; Southeast Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe. Some of those areas have been under war conditions so long that no one can conceive of it being any other way. As for dying off, well people make babies, don’t you know, and babies grow up (if allowed to).”

  In Annie’s mental state, Vanessa’s answers sounded almost reasonable. Certainly the sights before her fit what she had heard. Vanessa had made every effort to appear both air-headed and respectfully solemn at the gravity of this development. Inside, Vanessa was recalling an old program she used to like, long ago. (“What a Mission Impossible episode this would have made.”)

  Jed heard the announcement. “Well, Coaljack, here it comes. The riders will be by shortly. Whatever happens, old friend,” he said while patting the horse’s neck, “...we’ll see it out together. One last ride and then May God have mercy on our souls.”

  Jed got up on Coaljack, not liking the sound of that last thought. Seemed too much like something you would hear at a hanging. Steeling himself, he looked down the exit path from the graveyard. “Mrs. Edwards, I hope you can only kill a man once. Let’s go, Coaljack.”

  Allen, Ryan and Ralph were coming up on the last leg of the journey. They could now hear through the com-links what everyone was saying. The announcer looked at his watch. 3... 2... 1...

  The noise of three-thousand voices raised in battle cry punctuated by two-hundred and four authentically reproduced and strategically located cannons, followed by thousands of black powder guns going off was enough to wake the dead. In this case, it sure got their attention. Annie, down deep, heard it clearly. The barrier between her and her remaining self went away, completely. She moved slowly, quietly, and positioned herself behind her other self, then would not move again until she knew it was time to.

  Monkey was wonderfully shocked. The war had never come to her door, not like this. There were so many sounds and sights. Dust and smoke were everywhere. There was yelling, shooting, screaming. Foolish parents who brought toddlers and infants added to the mix with juvenile screeching and their frightened calls for the battle to stop. That only served to make it especially realistic. Parents who insisted on the educational experience for their wee ones had to sign a waiver for any emotional trauma that might result. Gustav had made sure of that. Bugles were heard from a dozen different directions, which made it impossible to lock onto any one of them. That many participants made for a scope of battle action to where no one watching was denied the experience of a lifetime. Skirmishes were everywhere. One thousand two hundred of the men were mounted and the cavalry charges were sights no one would likely ever forget.

  The ‘mortal’ men of the ghost platoon were also shocked. All three ripped out the earphones that were not designed for that kind of volume of transmitted sound. The automatic sound dampening circuits weren’t capable of handling this kind of load. That capacity only came with the models used by the military. It was one of the many planning mistakes, and was by no means the worst one.

  No one was prepared for the scope of what they had created as it took on a life force of its own. The men who took part in its performance were caught up in the adrenalin rush of war and, despite precautions, there were injuries (powder burns, ankle sprains, a lot of laryngitis cases, corneal abrasions from dirt/dust/powder flashbacks, a dozen fractures, mostly due to falling over ‘dead’ or falling over the ‘dead’, and a whole lot of bruises). Some cries of the ‘wounded’ sounded awfully real, because they were.

  Major Covington was no stranger to such sounds and Ryan had to do some quick legwork to keep him from charging into battle. The Major looked sheepish and shook his head. “Old soldie
rs never die completely, do they Private Ryan?”

  “We’re proof of that, Major.”

  Ryan, too, was an old soldier, though with none of the battle experience of the type suffered by the men around him. His battles were different, but it was enough that the bond between him and the Major was very real and deep. They both nodded slightly to each other in full mutual understanding, then rode on to battle.

  Vanessa was with the children. They were told by her many times what to expect, but how could they ever conceive of something like this? Dead or not, they were terrified and needed comforting. Monkey Annie watched as another woman succored her children, aching to go and do likewise and frustrated all the more that something in her being was keeping her from doing so. “What is wrong with me? Those are my children. They are MY responsibility. Why can’t I leave this porch?!” Those thoughts were temporarily put on hold. Riding down the road was a cavalry troop of two hundred, complete with caissons and artillery. They wore Union blue. The memories that this brought back washed away all other thoughts, including those controlling the spirits of the real Union Army soon to make the scene. It was an unexpected advantage in the balance of the whims of war.

  Melissa had taken up shelter in the women’s powder room. It wouldn’t do to be seen by Allen’s new friends (choke). She had no business being there and it seemed stupid now to ever have come. She had been able to get into the Main House by complaining her eyes were getting irritated, and she didn’t have to put on an act this time. Melissa was crying her eyes out.

  Jed joined the Union Army, again, though his new comrades ignored him, not because of any madness. They just couldn’t see him. They were in no hurry at all, which suited Jed just fine. This was the tricky part. He would soon be fully exposed to the woman who had every capability and desire to crush him. “Lord? Sure could use your helping hand here. I’d be much obliged.”

  Timing was crucial. In all the other skirmishes, there were fudge factors. Not here. One hundred and twenty members of ‘Johnny Reb’ and ‘Stars and Bars’ chapters of the Timeline Civil War groups came around the barn and spotted the ‘Northern Light Brigade’ invading Southern soil. The ‘Rebel Yell’ was, according to old documentaries, something like you might hear from the bowels of Hell itself. It had never since been reproduced because it took the rush of war to bring it out, until now. The passion of the moment, though choreographed, was real, salted by echoes of old and hidden animosities that never really died in the South. The intensity and downright scariness even took the Union men by surprise, regardless of their previous military experience. The only thing that had ever come close to it in real battle situations were bagpipes but, despite arguments to the contrary, bagpipes were tuned, timed and musical. Not this. It was pure emotion in raw form. The Yell was the prelude to a volley of fire that was now at close range to the players of a far greater drama. It was all everyone could do to keep to the plan.

  Monkey Annie’s eyes were drawn away from her children in favor of the gallant Southern Army. The sight of ‘her boys’ was one that would have brought tears to her eyes, if she had tears to shed. She yelled and waved her encouragements to them, having now bought the deception hook, line, and fishing pole. “Get them boys! Drive Sherman back to Hell! Hurrah, Hurrah! God save Jefferson Davis!”

  Vanessa had made it back to the children, but could still catch a glimpse the wild look on Annie’s face. Now was the time to act, or never. She looked behind her, holding onto Jason and Rebecca who were clinging tightly to her. Jed caught her signal and walked up to them, holding Coaljack’s reins in his left hand.

  “Hello, I’m Jed. You must be Jason and Rebecca. Kids, its time to leave this place.”

  For Jason and Rebecca, time stopped and the outside racket became distant. This was the man their dearest friend had kept telling them about, the one who was going to take them away from their daily horror, yet he was the man who had killed their mother and had been killed by her. Vanessa saw their conflict, despite all her best efforts, and didn’t know what to do. When nothing else came to mind, she took Jed’s free right hand and held it in her own.

  “You have to trust him children. I do. Your mother was helpless before him this morning and he carried her to the porch with love in his heart. This is not the man that was. He has changed, as we hope to have your mother change. We can’t do that without your help. Please, you have to trust us.”

  Rebecca was loath to let go of Vanessa’s skirt, but Jason took the bull by the horns. “Very well, Private Patterson. Let’s saddle up and move out.” Jed saluted the young man and got up on his horse. Jason returned the salute. Vanessa handed the children to Jed, Jason first, and he held them at his left side as he leaned a bit to the right. He had to block them from Monkey Annie’s view as best he could.

  Vanessa wanted desperately to look back, but that might prove disastrous. She went straight to Annie, who was still cheering on the boys in gray, to add her own Reb encouragements to the chorus. To her horror, she saw Annie turn her gaze to the Union men who were returning fire, but there were so many of them that she didn’t recognize Jed riding on the far side of a group that was spurring their mounts forward in a flanking maneuver.

  Melissa couldn’t help but have her depression rattled by the noise. She left the powder room to stand by the settee she had previously occupied. Looking through the window was like viewing a war zone through a time portal. “Holy!” There wasn’t an expletive noun to tie into sufficient to what was before her. She knew there was going to be a mock battle, but this was more than that. The glass was vibrating and pieces of reproduced vintage plaster were falling down. It was one of the details that had escaped event planners. Melissa went to the open door and was met with an even greater battle panorama. She searched for another expletive, but none seemed sufficient for the task.

  There was a young woman leaning on the porch banister also taken up with the horrible grandeur. Melissa walked up to her, and the girl turned around. They had to yell to each other to be heard.

  “You made it! Eyes better? I’m Nicole.”

  “Melissa. Thanks. Did you expect it to be like this?”

  “No one did. Isn’t it amazing?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this, ever. Are we OK here?”

  “Yeah, this is a safe zone. Kind of like home base for ‘tag’. Don’t leave the porch.”

  “Didn’t enter my mind, but thanks.”

  Vanessa never caught the exchange, being occupied with keeping Annie’s attention on the soldiers in gray. Neither young woman saw the three people watching them from inside the Homestead Main House. They had entered by the back door and spotted Nicole and Melissa on the front porch. Melissa had stepped back a bit when two Union men fell right in front of them, ‘felled’ by a Southern volley. Realism was high priority in this one area. The players were told that it was for the documentary being filmed by the crews on top of the house and on the nearby boom camera.

  The two that fell activated small pouches of red latex, which burst out from vents placed in their jacket fronts. They did a commendable job of passing away and playing possum. Nicole didn’t move back, having been better briefed on what was to occur. That left Melissa backing up out of Nicole’s line of sight and that was what the three watchers were waiting for. Melissa had zero warning of the male hands that had simultaneously covered her mouth and pulled her back into the house. Nicole noted her absence half a minute later, but figured Melissa went back to the powder room. After all, her eyes were still pretty red.

  Vanessa had all she could do to keep Annie’s attention directed at the combatants. They had one last ace in the hole, just in case. The flanking Union Cavalry had lost half their riders. In the interest of safety, none of them fell to the ground. They just slumped over and kept going forward and out of the combat arena (only to show up in another assigned combat area). It still looked real enough,
more so than in past enactments (re-enactments had planned outcomes, while enactment results were up for grabs). They used to have problems getting soldiers to die off, because none of them wanted to stop playing the game. Now, laser devices on the guns and warning devices on the soldiers actually told who was killed, wounded, or still alive and well. Random aiming fudge factors were embedded into the software, reproducing even the inaccuracies of the firearms of the period.

  Jed kept riding, now with the children seated in front of him. The angles of sight now favored that position to keep them out of their mothers view. He wasn’t sure how far he had to ride to reach the point of no return, but he knew that to rush it was to attract attention. He tried to slump forward as much as possible to imitate the other soldiers, but not crush the kids.

  “Keep your mouth shut, Melissa, and it will be alright. For God’s sake, don’t make a noise.”

  Melissa felt the hands that held her slowly release. She fearfully and slowly turned around and faced Gustav, flanked by Rachel and Marianne. Rachel put her finger up to her own lips in a universal ‘hush’ sign, not that normal conversation would ever penetrate the din outside. Gustav closed the door, Marianne closed the window that had been opened earlier by Melissa.

  Rachel began. “Dear Melissa, do you know this person?” She handed her the picture, revealing Melissa’s failure to remain covert earlier, and Melissa nodded sheepishly. “Marianne and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts. There is something going on here that is too complicated for us to explain. You may stay here with us and watch for now. That’s all we can really do for the moment. This is a staging area for something about to happen that’s bigger than what you see out there. You’re in no danger, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  She was wrong.

  Despite Vanessa’s best efforts, the inevitable happened. When the ghost squad of real Union Cavalry began to arrive, Monkey Annie’s attention was wrenched away from the enactment. She looked west, then northwest. Nothing that had happened could compare with her incredulity of seeing the space reserved for her children now only showing smoke and dust. It was difficult to tell, at first, for there was carefully planned running back and forth of Union ground troops confusing the view, but they couldn’t block it entirely without risking Monkey Annie feeling the need to check on her children personally. It took Monkey Annie ten seconds of desperate searching for her to realize that they were gone. They could not have gone under their own power, someone else had to have taken them. She turned and looked hard at Vanessa.

  Vanessa saw the fire rage in Annie’s eyes, and it was aimed right at her. She couldn’t run now. “Annie, Honey, what is it? What’s troubling you? You look awful!”

  “WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN!? YOU were the last one to see them, the last one with them. What did you DO with them?”

  “Oh my God, Annie, they were right there when I left them!” True. It wouldn’t have done to have Vanessa reveal the body language of lying to a most observant opponent, which was why she had to turn her back on the kids once they were in Jed’s care. “I honestly don’t know where they are!” Also true, but she did know who they were with.

  Monkey Annie could detect no falsehood, which was difficult to do at best given the level of insanity that was all around. Where could she direct her anger? She turned west again and got her answer.

  Major Covington, Private Elijah Cooper and Ryan Fitzgalen came out of the woods side by side. Behind the Major rode Ralph (who gauged his distance from the Major only by the one rider that he could see) flanked by two more soldiers. The next row had Allen, likewise flanked. There were three more rows of three behind them, and one more row of two. The first thing they saw, to their astonishment and great joy, was that there were no children in their path. Their steeds, no longer registering the targets Monkey had programmed deep in their minds, were now fully under their riders’ control.

  Vanessa saw her friend’s alter ego’s hair bristle and felt what she could only describe as a chill. That was unusual for someone who could stand in an arctic snowstorm and feel no different than if she were lounging in Death Valley at noon. An angry spirit was gathering for the storm, like an impending tsunami will draw waters from shorelines. Vanessa saw, through the Main House front porch window, four people inside the house, looking confused and worried. She could see the mists of their breathing.

  Private Jed Patterson was a hundred feet from the house. Jason bit his lip, but was able to remain faced forward. He held onto Rebecca, who did not have that kind of will power when it came to her mother. She looked back.

  Nicole felt the chill to her bones and fled the porch (against the rules). When she was thirty feet from the porch, the feeling stopped. The panes of glass condensed the moisture from the air in growing intricate patterns of frost. Activity of the fighters within the energy gathering field stopped as they, too, wondered. Monkey Annie saw little of this, but what she did see happen raised her level of hate another notch. The soldiers that ‘died’ in the line of duty got up, rubbing their arms and looking frightened.

  “So it was all a grand trick to get my children. And the grandest trickster of them all was the one I called friend, the only one I felt I could trust. “Vanessa!” she snarled, and then turned the malevolence she had intended for the soldiers full force at the traitor.

  Vanessa saw it coming. She couldn’t leave her post without endangering the chances of the children. She closed her eyes and thought of them and the ones she had come to love during her great many years on the earth. She instinctively raised her arms up in front of her in a reflex attempt to ward off the bolt that was sure to come from her best friend.

  Ryan saw it too; the build-up, the moist breath, the clapping of arms. He saw the look on Monkey’s face change with the raising of the ‘dead’ and realized how horribly he had miscalculated. There was one last ace in the hole in the form of a speed connect on his SatCom. He pressed it, initiating his greatest miscalculation of all.

  Cannons continued to roar all along, as did muskets firing and men yelling. The climax was a hundred carefully placed charges all around the property, which would give the appearance of cannonballs landing and exploding. They began going off. It bought time, but precious little of it.

  The sound stopped Jed in his tracks, one hundred and twenty feet from the Main House. He reined in Coaljack off to the side of the main road and turned to look in wonder as the countryside erupted in geysers of smoke and dirt. The Main House itself was near several ‘hits’ and he could see the dirt landing on the house and yard. It was a huge error. Rebecca and Jason both screamed out to their mother. She heard them, and turned.

  Jed realized his mistake and did what he could to make up for it. Coaljack was spurred on for all the speed he could muster, but it was like swimming against a raging current. Monkey Annie reached out and held Coaljack, despite the horse’s valiant efforts to pound its way to freedom for himself and his master. The spiritual air was split by Coaljack’s fierce war whinny blending with Jed’s rallying cry to his beloved mount.

  The personality shard now called Monkey had indeed been taken by surprise by the explosions, smoke and dirt, but by now, she had seen so much insanity that she had grown numb to it all. The image of cannon destruction of her beloved Homestead only fueled the fires of hatred against anyone that had betrayed her, and that was everyone. There was no one to be careful about anymore, not with her children abducted. It didn’t matter who was destroyed. The nearest would do. That would be: Vanessa.

  The power of the bolt of hatred was visible to mortal eye. Even to the least sighted, Monkey Annie was highlighted now by the bolt’s glow as a specter straight from where nightmares come from. Men and women, confused over the weather change and disoriented by the explosions, had their attention drawn to the Homestead house. What they saw then was frightening. What followed on the porch terrified them.

  Knowing she was about
to wink out of existence, a split moment decision by Vanessa opened her eyes. She saw Monkey Annie glow, then release complete destruction at her. She saw her own arms extended and her left wrist flash like a magnesium flare. The bolt was deflected in a hundred different directions, including straight back. The windows of the house imploded into a fine dust, shingles from the porch roof flew up as if firecrackers had been placed under them, men and women felt darts of heat strike and leave random second-degree burns. The camera crew on top of the house saw their equipment rendered useless as electronic components smoldered. Monkey Annie herself felt the backlash of her own power, a taste of her own medicine. She didn’t like it one bit. The backlash weakened her and that was what her counterpart was waiting for.

  From behind, Vanessa’s best friend grasped her angry counterpart and hung on for all she was worth. It was like trying to remove a burr from the middle of your back. However, Annie was not able to do much to influence the rage of her other half, yet. This was a ‘learn as you go’ situation.

  From the outside, it looked like Monkey Annie was having a seizure. Her eyes were rolled up, teeth clenched and lips pulled back to release a raging snarl. She would shake her shoulders as if trying to break a grip from behind, which was exactly what was happening inside. When Monkey Annie found that her rider couldn’t control her, she decided to deal with Vanessa first and her other self later.

  The first strike was a spectacular failure. So, Monkey Annie reached out her right hand (her left hand was preoccupied with Coaljack), all fingers spread, and from it came a force less intense, but more constant. Vanessa instinctively did the same, her left hand forward, the bracelet glowing. Between the combatants a corona of greenish gold light began to glow. Vanessa’s beloved enemy upped the gain and the resistance from Vanessa followed suit to match it. Check and counter check. The glow brightened. As force and counterforce grew, once again the wavelengths given off by the entities were spread over a wider spectrum. Some of that was perceptible by human eyes and recording devices.

  The boom camera crew that had first spotted Melissa was now focused on the disturbance. “Christ, will you take a look at that! Is this part of the program?” Their camera had been left on the front of the Main House, having been told that it would be the site of some pretty real looking fighting. But this?

  Monkey Annie had plenty of practice extending her influence to bend others to her will. Vanessa didn’t and, even with the help of the bracelet to focus her resistance, began to stagger back.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, Annie. Please, let it go. Follow your children and cross over to where you belong.”

  In a voice completely bereft of pity, “Be silent, Dearie. Save your strength, not that it will do you any good.”

  The four in the house were staring through what used to be a paned window. They could see the clear outlines of Monkey and Vanessa. What was more, their voices could be heard; distant, discernable, and with growing clarity, especially since local noise had died down. The cannon fire was to be both the climax of the evening and the signal for combatants to lay down their arms and come to terms.

  Jed was still held in thrall, but strained with Coaljack none-the- less. If nothing else, he could at least help drain some of Mrs. Edward’s energy away from those who fought her on the front lines.

  Major Covington was about to ride to the aid of Vanessa when Ryan stopped him.

  “Ryan, I have never shirked my duty to a battle yet and I am not about to start now!”

  “Major, you fought your war! If you ride Annie Edwards down now you may destroy what we have worked too long and too hard for. The best thing you can do is to lead your men away from her and help Jed and the children. That is your objective Major and I claim the right to command it. That is an ORDER, Ben, and a plea from a friend! Ride now! The effort will further distract Annie and we’ll have a better chance to save her! Give Jed a hand with the children! Go, Ben! NOW!”

  The Major let out a cry of command and sixteen men added their voices as the ghost army spurred forward towards Jed and the children. Monkey Annie felt them passing and was, for a moment, undecided on what to do, then let the Union men go. She was managing to hold Patterson and her children and that should be her priority, but this witch before her that had so coldly betrayed her was just too satisfying a target to lighten up on. In the end, she tried to have both. She turned up the power even more. She couldn’t do that forever, but she wouldn’t have to. That pitiful apprentice witch couldn’t withstand her much longer.

  Vanessa stepped back again, wearing down. Rachel and Marianne were on the porch now and could see her plainly from behind. Both instinctively reached forward at the same time to keep Vanessa from falling backwards. Their hands caught her shoulders and arms and they got her back upright in preparation to pull her back.

  “DONT PULL ME AWAY!”

  Both women looked at each other, then back at Vanessa. There was just too much going on too fast to allow them even a moment to be amazed at the physical contact just accomplished between spirit and mortal. There was also too much distraction for both women to realize that there were eighteen more mounted soldiers in clear view than there had been a moment before. Rachel called out to her. “We can see and hear you Vanessa! What is it you want us to do?”

  “Keep your hands where they are. I think I can draw power from you. I don’t feel so weak anymore. Wait a minute. I’m sensing, something. I need, what?”

  Vanessa closed her eyes and saw possibilities, like she was being directed or guided in what to do. She saw the three of them and Annie as points on a plane and it felt incomplete. She didn’t need a triangle. She needed, a diamond. With the two assisting her, she could balance Annie’s onslaught for the time being, but already she felt her opponent waxing more powerful. It was only a matter of time.

  “I need someone as a bridge between you two.” She thought about it, quickly. There was something about it that was just, beyond...“Female! It has to be female. The diamond has to be in harmony.”

  Ryan had gotten to the porch moments before, but knew better than to interfere at this point. They were dealing with unknown rules now and a mistake could spell disaster. This sucked woodpecker eggs.

  Marianne called out, “Melissa! We need your help! Put a hand on each of our shoulders and hold on!”

  Melissa didn’t know Marianne well at all, but she had a healthy respect for Allen’s mother. The fact that she was Allen’s mother then kicked in. “Why not?” Her hands made contact with the two other women’s shoulders and the circuit locked in. Melissa felt her hands pulled magnetically onto both contacts. It seemed like it would be difficult for her to pull them away even if she chose to. She had no intention of trying.

  Allen now stood at Ryan’s right side. “Ryan, I can see her, them, both of them. What’s going on?” That saved Ralph from asking the same question as he took position on Ryan’s left. Gustav was in the doorway. All felt the floorboards as they trembled in resonance to the power being wielded.

  “It’s a stand-off. Monkey is trying to get at Vanessa. The spirit of that girl she tried to rescue just before she died somehow altered that bracelet of hers. It’s channeling Vanessa’s energy into a defense screen of sorts. Vanessa is using the women as power booster packs and configuration makes a difference. I don’t have a clue as to how she knows where to put whom. Maybe that’s being channeled into her by that bracelet as well. We can’t do anything until we’re told to or we risk upsetting the balance.”

  Ralph asked “What about help? How about our Annie, or the soldiers? Are they gone?”

  “Our Annie is trying to help, I think. Monkey had some sort of seizure a minute ago. I think that was a confrontation from the inside. She still tries to shake it off every minute or so. I think we need to weaken her further, but how? I don’t know! Monkey has Jed, Coaljack and the kids in her clutches an
d they can’t cross over. The other soldiers are trying to help, but they don’t know how.”

  The forth part of the diamond made a tremendous difference. The balance in symmetry gave a grace to Vanessa’s defense. Monkey Annie’s power draw was now divided between the women in front of her, keeping her children and Patterson from leaving, and trying to keep that gnat from burrowing any deeper into her back. She could do it, but it was wearing. “More power.”

  Coaljack began to slowly lose ground. Jed’s comrades didn’t know how to help him other than by shouting encouragement. They were still stuck to their saddles and that severely limited their ability to lend a hand. They carried no ropes or tethers of any kind for them to use. Taking the children now was too risky. Jed didn’t know if any of the other men could make physical contact with them strong enough to keep them out of Monkey’s paws. Jed was doing fine there and it seemed the wrong thing to do to try and change it. Major Covington gave orders, for any plan beat no plan, no matter how stupid it sounded.

  “York! Berdsley! Grab onto Coaljack’s harness leather and pull! Raskoskie! Lorriman! In the back, get your mounts against Coaljack’s rump and push! The rest of you, cheer on your comrade. He’s one of us now, by God!”

  And cheer they did. Like the weary runner whose loved ones are there at the finish line for him, Jed took heart from his return to the brotherhood of soldiery. Coaljack felt the renewed strength from his master and gave it all he had. His losing ground stopped and he once again began to go back upstream, inch by hard-won inch.

  Monkey Annie felt the change. Another decision. Vanessa and her team had stymied her efforts, but she felt sure she could overcome them. If she diverted her attention from that battle, the delicate balance might shift the tide against her. She may not be able to stop the snowball once it started. “Let the Union boys struggle. The South has risen. There’s still time to have them all back in my apron pocket. More power.”

  Vanessa closed her eyes again. She could use the available force better with time, but time was limited. She needed amps. She needed brawn.

  “Man-power! Ryan, hold on to Melissa’s shoulders, both of them.”

  Ryan had been waiting for this. It made sense. She was going to power link them like in-line generators. Symmetry was the key here. He already had the magnetic alignment to be the gun barrel. Next, she was going to ask for...

  “Allen, Ralph, repeat what Rachel and Marianne did, now!”

  Both men bolted forward and latched their hands onto Ryan. The power raised another level. Monkey Annie was now forced to a decision. Something had to give. If she dropped her offense, it would leave her open to destruction. Then all would be lost anyway. There was only one way left for her by the machinations of that Northern tart.

  So be it. “Goodbye, my children. Ask God to forgive me for my sins.”

  Private Jed Patterson shot forward as though he had just left the starting gate at the races, barely managing to keep his hold on the children. The two men whose hands had grasped Coaljack’s harness leather felt themselves spun around by the sudden force. The other men yelled their joy and took off after him. Private Cooper took up the rear guard, for the men had thrown caution to the wind and the Major was in the lead heading them east. He watched as Patterson and the children winked out, then fifteen more, led by the Major. He felt his own self beginning to cross, but hard-reined a full stop when an angelic-looking figure blocked his path. It was…a black woman? The figure spoke no word to him, but raised a robed arm and pointed to the west. Elijah turned to look.

  The glow of the pitched battle had risen. His eyes went back to where his comrades had gone. Private Elijah Cooper had done his duty to them and his Commanding Officer. He looked at the figure, again. This time, she spoke. “Missy Vanessa needs your help.”

  “Turn around, Freedom. We have one more duty to perform.”

  Both protagonists now were clearly visible to any unsighted eye. The level of power from the corona between them must have finally reached far enough, for the boom crew’s equipment malfunctioned. All the light bulbs in the house had long since exploded and anything glass had been hit with so many harmonics that a million dollars of antique glasswork was now vacuum bag filler. Anyone who had ever shivered from a ghost story had long since left, and that was everyone except the Fitzgalen Family. The unknown was man’s greatest fear monger and it just didn’t get much more unknown than this. About the closest anyone would get was a tenth of a mile down the main road behind trees and bushes, and those were the brave few. The rest were still running, for few thought to invest the time to go searching for their cars.

  Without Jed to distract her, Monkey Annie could devote all of her attention to the job at hand. Her other self seemed to have eased her annoying digging into her back. Hopefully, she was too pooped to do any more. There was still the occasional twinge, but that was all. Perhaps that part of her died off. No big loss. The force she still wielded was considerable, and she still drew from the surrounding area. The region of cold now extended over a hundred feet. There was a cost, though: she was getting more brittle. “More power.”

  Vanessa felt Monkey Annie raise the stakes. She matched it, barely. The men had added a lot to the circuit. Could they do more? She closed her eyes, but didn’t get a feel for what to do, other than what had been done already.

  Monkey Annie felt her own power matched. It was a stalemate unless she could up it one more time. It had helped that all that blasted noise had stopped. Even the birds had sought friendlier climes and the bugs had burrowed for cover. Now, one more time. She could do it. “More (gasp) power!”

  Gustav had been watching. Vanessa hadn’t called him in yet. Why? Should he wait? The glow got just a tad brighter and he saw his side weakening. There was a leak in the dike. It would just get bigger if unchecked. The little Dutch boy walked forward.

  Elijah Cooper felt his skin tingle from the emanations of the strangest skirmish he had ever witnessed. Mrs. Edwards must have completely released him from her power, for Freedom was responsive to him even at this close range. Between that and the energy corona he was being subjected to, something else happened to his great pleasure and relief.

  Annie had burrowed inside her other self. There had once been a great strength reserve here, but it was becoming depleted and brittle. That vast reservoir was now almost a hollow chamber that relied on the outside forces she was channeling into. She stepped into the power, carefully, so as not to make so much as a ripple. She felt the exhaustion from her night’s labors recede. Still, she kept covert. It wasn’t time yet, she knew.

  Gustav placed one hand on each of his good friend’s shoulders, not knowing what else to do. He felt power surge from hand to hand through his body like he was hooked up to a generator.

  Vanessa felt the change, then closed her eyes and saw the answer. That’s what the answer was! Something in her had blocked that part of the equation. Why? It was obvious. Double diamond, grace in front, force behind. She saw it in her mind and saw that parts of it were not in synch. It had to balance like a laser or lose most of its potential. She molded the field that the double diamond was set in, tuning it. Now, “MORE POWER!”

  Monkey Annie was taken by surprise. She had seen the old man take his place in line, but he was too elderly to make a difference. She had sensed his frailness, shored up with witch doctor lotions and potions. It wasn’t his strength that had caused this much of a change. What was it? She didn’t know and began to panic. So close to victory, so close to the edge. There was only enough left for a short burst. She reached deep for all she had left, and then...

  “Pardon me, ma’am, but would you please direct this poor Union soldier to the little boy’s room?” Private Cooper had happily left his horse, Freedom, crept up behind Mrs. Edwards and dropped in what he had hoped would be enough distraction for his friends to make the final stroke decisive.
>
  This was the time for which Annie was waiting. She saw the weak point in what had become a house of cards and pushed with all her might. Monkey shattered like the glass in her home.

  The corona of force evaporated as though someone pulled the plug. Vanessa’s force had been completely defensive, fortunately. Had it been offensive, Annie would have ceased to exist as a coherent force of any kind and joined the universe as little more than solar static. Annie fell backwards onto one of the porch chairs. The double-diamond team felt the connection not only cease, but felt their hands repelled from each others’ shoulders as if someone had switched the polarities of touching magnets. Fatigue took the helm and all either held onto a banister or a doorway. One fell over the side porch railing and landed on the shrubbery.