[Oregon Trail Time Travel 04.0] Angie and the Farmer

by Susan Leigh Carlton

  “I’ll look.” He came back. “We have plenty. A lot more than I thought.”

  “Her lips are parched, and her tongue is swollen. Do you know if she’s had any water?” Sophie asked.

  “I haven’t noticed it while we were moving,” Mandy said. She placed the saturated cloth on Angie’s forehead. “She hasn’t been wearing a bonnet either.”

  Sophie took the dipper of water from Polly and let a small stream flow onto Angie’s lips. She began to stir. “Take a small sip. Don’t try to take too much at a time.”

  Clint Adams had ridden back to see what the holdup was. “What happened?”

  “She fainted. I don’t think she’s been drinking any water,” Sophie told him.

  “Get her into a wagon and let’s get moving. Every minute we stop makes it harder to get started again.”

  “I wondered why we weren’t using more water,” Polly said. “Put her in our wagon. I’ll keep an eye on her and make sure she takes water.”

  “She’s smarter than that,” Sophie said.

  “I told them we had to save water after the meeting the other day,” Seth said.

  “The problem is, she thinks she’s a burden on everyone, and is going out of her way not to be,” Mandy said.

  “We’re just going to have to convince her she isn’t. She’s been a big help to me,” Polly said.

  Chapter twelve

  Out of the Desert

  “We’re going to be stopping at Green River tomorrow,” Jed told his family, dismounting and dusty from his scouting trip with Slade. The grass is good and so is the water. I think the major is planning a layover, but I don’t know how long.

  “What’s been going on around here?”

  “You mean beside Angie passing out from no water and the heat?” Mandy replied.

  “Is she all right?”

  “Mama can tell you better than I can. She’s been helping Polly take care of her.”

  “Did they run out of water? Couldn’t we have given her some of ours?”

  “They didn’t run out. In fact, they had plenty because she wasn’t drinking any. The idiot was trying to save it. She also wasn’t wearing a bonnet. I’ve never seen her wear one. I’ll bet she doesn’t even have one, and she would never ask to borrow one.”

  “Do you think it would be all right if I visited her?” he asked.”

  “I’m sure it would. Especially if you tell her we’re stopping tomorrow.”

  The Gilley wagon…

  “Miss Polly, would it be okay if I say hello to Angie?”

  She called out, “Angie, Jed Lewis is here and would like to say hello.”

  “I’ll be out in a minute,” Angie said.

  He stood at the rear of the wagon, hand extended to help her down. She took it and hopped lightly to the ground. “I’ve been out several days and wanted to say hello and see how you are doing. Mandy told me what happened.”

  “That was so embarrassing. I know better than that, but I was trying to save water.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. We’re almost out of the desert and will be stopping at Green River tomorrow. I don’t know how long the major is planning to lay over.”

  “That is good news. I’m sure everyone will be relieved to hear it.”

  “Back on the farm I’ve stayed in the sun until I was light headed. It’s not a good feeling. Are you still feeling the effects?”

  “I think I’ll be back to walking tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by. It was sweet of you.”

  “Well, take care, and wear a bonnet. The sun can be a killer.”

  Angie watched him walk back to the next wagon and begin talking to Mandy.

  * * *

  The next morning…

  The plates had been scrubbed and rinsed. Everything was stowed in preparation for the move out call. Mandy came up to Angie and handed her the bonnet she was carrying. “Jed said you were walking this morning. You need to wear one of these.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Angie said.

  “I know I don’t, but I want you to have it.”

  “I’m sorry for the way I acted the other day. I was a real bi… very rude,” Angie told her.

  “I had no right to say what I said. I’m overly protective of my baby brother.”

  “Some baby,” Angie said, chuckling. “Will you walk with me this morning? I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to go, and I’d like to have someone handy to catch me if I fall.”

  “I’m good to go,” Mandy said.

  The signal came down the line and the broad line of wagons began moving. “What happened the other day was…”

  “You don’t have to explain,” Mandy told her.

  “What happened was, I asked Jed if I told him something could he keep it a secret. He said he didn’t know, so I told him I couldn’t tell him. He changed and said he could, but at that point, I couldn’t trust that he could do it. He persisted, and finally I told him to leave me alone. You came along and I said the same thing to you. That’s all it was. A big to-do about nothing, but it cost me a friend.”

  “If you’re talking about me, I’m still your friend, and you don’t have to tell me anything.”

  Angie stopped walking and the two girls hugged, holding each other tightly long enough for the line of wagons to pass. When they broke apart and began to hurry to catch up, Angie said, “Only the major knows this...”

  “Angie don’t.”

  “Are you always this bossy? Anyway, I want to tell you and I trust you not to tell anyone. This is the way it was…”

  * * *

  Chapter thirteen

  Angie’s Story

  “This is going to be hard to believe,” Angie said. “I don’t even believe it myself and I’m living it.

  “Mom, Dad and I had been to Lincoln just like I told everyone. It wasn’t in a wagon. We were in a car instead.”

  “There were no railroad tracks anywhere near there,” Mandy interrupted.

  “Let me go on, and I’ll explain all of it that I understand, okay? There was a flash flood and the water was washing across the road. Dad hit the water and lost control of the car and we went into the overflowing creek. I guess I had better explain what a car is. It’s metal and is driven by a gasoline engine. They can travel really fast. The desert we’re crossing? We could do it in less than an hour in a car.” She smiled at the look of incredulity on Mandy’s face. “You ain’t heard nothing yet.

  “Back to the story. We were in the car and going downstream with the flow. I got out through the back window and crawled to the top. My father was trying to get Mom out. We went by a tree, they were swept into the water, and I was caught up in the limbs of the tree. The tree where Jeremy found me.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” Mandy said.

  “What year is this?”

  Why it’s 1866 of course.”

  “I was born January 27, 1998,” Angie said.

  “That’s impossible. That’s what one hundred-twenty years in the future,” Mandy said.

  “Actually, it’s one hundred-thirty-two years. I told you it was hard to believe. I’m going to show you something I’ve only shown Major Adams and it was to convince him I was telling the truth.

  She pulled her phone and the solar charger from her pockets. “This is called an iPhone, and this gadget uses the sun to recharge the battery. You’ve never seen one because they won’t be invented for another one hundred and forty years.”

  She tapped an icon and the phone came to life. She tapped more icons. “This is my mother and father, and our farm. That is the Lexus we were in when we went into the water.” She swiped the screen. “Recognize him?”

  “That’s Major Adams. And you.”

  Angie put her arm around Mandy and held the iPhone out in front of them and took a selfie. Mandy heard a click and blinked at the simultaneous flash. “Now look.”

  “Oh my God,” Mandy said.

  “It’s also a telephone, but phone
s haven’t been invented yet either.”

  “What were you doing out in the middle of nowhere?”

  “It wasn’t the middle of nowhere then. It was a little over two hundred miles. About a three and one-half hours’ drive. I was an athlete. Do they have baseball now?” Angie asked.

  “Yes, I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard of it.”

  “People that play sports are athletes. I played volleyball and basketball. I was good at both. Several colleges offered me scholarships where they would pay for everything just so I would play for their school. We had been to the University of Nebraska to see if I wanted to go there. I also was on my high school swim team. During the past two summers I was a lifeguard at the municipal swimming pool. That’s how I was able to get to you when you fell in the river. Remember, I told you I knew what I was doing? That’s how I knew.”

  “This is so much to take in,” Mandy said. “So maybe you were sent to save my life, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

  “I never thought of it that way, but I guess it’s a possibility, if you believe in divine intervention.”

  “Are you… are you an angel?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t think angels faint the way I did the other day.”

  “So you don’t know what happened to your folks, do you?”

  “No, but I don’t see how they could have survived.”

  “What if they wound up in another time just like you did? Or just bumped into something and made it to solid ground.”

  “That’s the really hard part. I’ll probably never know.”

  “I’m glad you told me. You don’t think you’ll be able to go back do you?” Mandy asked.

  “No. I would have had a much more comfortable life than walking to Oregon, not knowing how I’m going to get by or anything like that. Back home, I could have gone to college and become a lawyer or a doctor, or anything I wanted to be. Mother and Dad both went. Mom was a teacher. Dad was happy being a dairy farmer.

  “Remember when we were talking and I asked you about taking a bath? I did take one every day. We had a gas hot water heater, and I could stand under a hot shower for half an hour and still not run out. As an athlete, I perspired a lot. We had dishwashers and washers and dryers for our clothes.

  “It was not all sweet and lovely. Since there were a lot more people, there’s a lot more crime. Everyone is always in a big hurry.

  “With my iPhone, if I had their number, I could call anyone in the world.

  “Here, our world is what we see in front of or behind us. In 2015, you can go anywhere in the United States in five or six hours unless you’re talking about Alaska or Hawaii. In fact, Mom, Dad and I went to Hawaii once. We flew out of Chicago in the morning and were in Honolulu that afternoon.”

  “You could fly?” Mandy asked.

  “I couldn’t of course. They have a big thing called an airplane. Think of it like a big metal tube with wings. Inside the tube are seats and windows. Enough to hold four or five hundred people inside. And travel over five hundred miles in an hour.”

  “Did you have a boyfriend?”

  “No, I dated a few boys, but none of them were special. I was too busy with sports to date much. I had chores on the farm before and after school. What happened with Jed was he asked if I knew how to milk since I lived on a dairy farm. I told him I could, but ours was done with milking machines. It was a slip up on my part, and I was going to tell him what I’ve just told you. I backed down when he said he wasn’t sure he could keep the secret.”

  “Why did you decide to tell me?”

  “Because I felt I could trust you, and I need someone to talk to.”

  “I’ll keep your secret. How do you cope with something like this?”

  “What else can I do? I go one day at a time and try not to be a bother to anyone.”

  “Would you go back if you could?”

  “In a heartbeat. I want to know what happened to my parents. They wouldn’t have been on that trip or that road if they hadn’t been doing something for me. None of this would have happened. I feel responsible for it all.”

  “You shouldn’t blame yourself,” Mandy said.

  “Maybe not, but I do.”

  Jed…

  Jed rode up, dismounted and got a dipper of water. “Watch the cattle,” he said. “See how much more lively they are? They can sniff the water. We’re getting close; we’ll be lucky if they don’t run.”

  “If I get a whiff, I may run too,” Angie said.

  “I heard that,” Mandy chimed in.”

  Chapter fourteen

  Green River

  The meeting…

  “Let me warn you folks,” Major Adams said. “Green River is dangerous. It’s wide, and where we’ll cross is about twenty feet deep, so the wagons will have to be ferried across. It’s going to take the better part of two days to do it, so take the time while you’re waiting to get everything repaired, greased and tightened up. Be careful. Be out of the wagons while crossing, and hold onto something. We don’t need a repeat of last time.

  “So far we’ve been lucky and only had three accidents. We’ve lost four people since leaving Ohio. Other trains have lost many more. We’ve been fortunate in missing out on cholera for the most part. Get caught up on your rest and maintenance. We’ll have one more day after everyone gets across. From here on, it’s rough going with two major mountain ranges and a lot of water to cross. We’ve got about two more months on the trail. Good luck and Godspeed.”

  “You are looking better lately,” Sophie Lewis told Polly Gilley.

  “I’m feeling better. It’s been over a week since I’ve been sick in the morning.”

  “That’s good to hear. I had a touch of it with Mandy, but it only lasted a few days. With Jed there was never a bad day. After what you went through, I realize how lucky I was.”

  “It’s been pretty bad. It would have been a lot worse without Angie. She’s been a blessing. She does all of the laundry and cleaning up. She’s been fixing most of the morning meals. She’s doesn’t know much about it, but bless her heart, she tries.

  “I hope she finds a good man to marry. I know she’s worried about what she’s going to do when we get to Oregon.”

  “I’ve told her not to worry,” Sophie said. “After what she did for Mandy, she’s part of our family. I’m afraid she’s too proud to accept help though. Lord knows, Jed would help her in a minute. I think he’s in love with her.”

  “She’s never said anything to me about him or anyone else,” Polly replied.

  “She told Jed she’s not looking for a boyfriend.”

  “He’s a nice boy. Maybe she’ll change. I’ll put a bug in her ear,” Polly promised.

  “Have you seen her shoes lately?” Sophie asked. “They were worn so thin you could read through them. Jed told me about them, and I repaired them once. He and Mandy had some kind of argument or something with her and they haven’t talked much since. They never told me what it was all about.”

  “They’ve been walking together the past few days,” Polly said. “Mandy and Angie have, I mean. Jed came over to see how she was.”

  That evening…

  “What’s all of the commotion about?” Angie asked, as the sounds of fiddles wafted over the camp, followed by the sounds of clapping hands.

  “I’ll bet they’re having a dance,” Polly replied. “Two or three people brought fiddles, and there are guitars and banjos. We had dances early on when we had a nice camping spot and were laying over. That was before people were so tired.

  “Seth, let’s go. I haven’t felt like dancing in a long time. I’m probably as graceful as a cow now, but it might be fun to try.”

  “You’ve got a deal,” he said.

  “Angie, you come too,” Polly said. “You haven’t had a break in forever.”

  “You go ahead and enjoy yourselves. I’ll just stay and straighten things around here.”

  “Nonsense,” Polly told her. “You’re coming. Seth, will
carry you if it’s the only way you’ll come.”

  Seth grinned and stood, “Which is it going to be?” he asked.

  “I’ll go, I’ll go. I don’t want to be slung over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes,” Angie said, laughing. “You shouldn’t gang up on me. Two on one is not fair.”

  “Fairs got nothing to do with it. You deserve to have some fun.”

  A bonfire had been built in the middle of the circle using the now abundant wood. The livestock had been moved to the edge of the circle. The long dresses of the ladies stirred a cloud of dust that mingled with the smoke from the fire. A slight breeze was taking it away from the merrymakers.

  Seth and Polly joined the couples in the middle when the fiddles and banjos began playing square dance music. “Would you like to dance?” Jed asked Angie, walking among the flickering shadows from the bonfire, startling her with his sudden appearance.

  “I’ve never danced to this type of music,” she said.

  “Come on,” he replied. “You’ll be good, and if you aren’t, it’s too dark for anyone to notice. I’m a clodhopper myself.”

  She hesitated. “I don’t know…”

  “If you don’t, I’ll have to dance with Mama and Mandy. That would be embarrassing.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to have to suffer the humiliation, but you can’t laugh.”

  “I would never laugh at you, Angie.”

  After two dances, Jed said, “I don’t want to get you over tired, since you’ve been sick. Come say hello to Mama and Papa.”

  “How did he convince you to dance?” Sophie asked.

  Angie looked at Jed, and flashed a devilish grin. “He said if I didn’t, he’d have to dance with you and Mandy. He sounded so pitiful, I couldn’t refuse.”

  “He has to dance with me anyway,” Mandy said. “Come on, little brother.”

  “I always wanted a brother or sister,” Angie told Sophie, after Mandy led Jed to where the group was dancing to a reel.