Chapter Two
“Where the devil can those children be?”
“I don’t know, Clara,” the man responded, his brow furrowed with worry.
“Go look for them, Ted,” Clara urged.
Ted stepped from the wooden porch to the ground and placed his brawny hands on his hips. His stocky frame was clothed in a patched blue shirt and ragged jeans. “I swear. Sometimes those youngsters are more bother than they’re worth!”
“The good Lord blessed us with healthy, normal children,” Clara stated.
“We should be grateful.”
Ted nodded. “At least their minds haven’t been turned to mush.”
“Go find them,” Clara reiterated.
Ted sighed and began walking across the cleared expanse in front of their small cabin. “Those twins!” he declared, then stopped, shocked.
“Ted!” Clara exclaimed, looking out across the clearing.
“I see them,” Ted confirmed. He wheeled and stalked toward the open cabin door.
“Ted?” Clara said, wringing her hands in the fabric of her pink dress.
“I’m getting the gun,” he announced as he reached the porch.
“Ted Butler! You’ll do no such thing!” Clara rebuked him sharply.
Ted hesitated, staring to the west. “But they’re white.”
“They’ve got Leo and Ernestine,” Clara said.
Ted disappeared into the cabin.
“Ted! No!” Clara objected. She gazed at the figures, now 40 yards distant and closing at a dogtrot, and perceived they were well-armed.
Her husband emerged with their ancient double-barreled shotgun cradled in his arms.
“Put that away!” Clara stated.
“No.”
“You don’t even know if it’ll work!” Clara reminded him. “Those men are armed to the teeth!”
“No,” Ted said with finality. He moved to the edge of the porch, interposing himself between the approaching threesome and his wife.
“Leo looks hurt!” Clara cried.
Ted gritted his teeth and leveled the shotgun.
The three strangers never slowed. They fearlessly crossed the yard and halted ten feet from the porch.
“That’s far enough!” Ted warned needlessly.
“Howdy,” said a blond man in buckskins.
Ted glanced at his children, his eyes narrowing as he saw Leo’s right leg.
“Your son requires prompt medical attention,” the short man in black stated.
“We come in peace,” added the giant bearing Leo.
“Put down my kids,” Ted directed.
“You’re not being very neighborly,” commented the one in buckskins.
“Put down my kids!” Ted repeated.
“Suit yourself, mister,” the blond man said, and gently lowered Ernestine to the grass. He moved a pace to her right, his hands dropping to his sides.
Ted could see the sunlight glinting off the man’s pearl-handled revolvers.
“We just toted your young’uns five miles,” the man in buckskins mentioned. “Your boy here needs help. Now.”
“Hickok!” the giant interjected.
The gunman glanced at his companion. “We don’t have time for this, pard.” He looked at Ted. “Put down that shotgun.”
Ted wagged the barrel. “I’ve got you covered.”
Hickock smiled. “I don’t mean to brag, you understand, but if you tried to shoot one of us, I’d plug you before you so much as moved a muscle. I’m askin’ you nice. Put down the gun.”
“Poppa!” Ernestine exclaimed. “Do it! These men are our friends!”
Ted balked.
“Please, Poppa!” Ernestine prompted. “I’ve seen Hickok draw. You wouldn’t stand a chance! He’d kill you!”
The gunman glanced at her. “Kill him? Are you loco? I might shoot him in the foot for being such an obstinate cuss, but I’m not about to kill your pa.”
“Put down the damn gun!” Clara snapped.
Surprised at his wife’s rare use of profanity and the tone in her voice, Ted slowly lowered the shotgun.
“Thanks,” Hickok said, beaming. “I hate pluggin’ folks in the foot. It’s a pitiful waste of toes.”
The giant walked up the porch, his gray eyes scrutinizing Ted. “Your son was attacked by an alligator. He needs a Healer.”
Ted reached out and touched his son’s forehead. “A Healer? There’s Doc Stone, but he lives fifteen miles from here.”
“I am not a Healer,” the small man in black remarked. “But I do possess some small skill at treating injuries. With your permission, I will tend to your son. You can send for the physician after his condition is stabilized.”
Ted glanced at Clara, who nodded.
Leo appeared to be woozy. His eyeslids fluttered as he grinned at his parents. “They saved my life, Poppa, Momma. I was a goner.”
Ted looked into the giant’s gray eyes. “Thank you. Come in.” He motioned at the doorway. “My name is Ted Butler. This is my wife, Clara.”
“I’m Blade,” the giant said. He nodded at the gunman. “That’s Hickok—”
“Right pleased to meet you folks,” the gunman stated.
“—and that’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” Blade said, nodding at the man in black.
“Let’s get inside,” Clara suggested.
“I’ll stand watch out here a spell,” Hickok offered.
Ernestine watched her parents, Blade, and Rikki enter the cabin. She gazed at the gunman in frank fascination.
Hickok hooked his thumbs in his gunbelt and smiled at her. “Shouldn’t you be inside with your family?”
Ernestine shrugged. “There’s not much I could do. Leo will be okay.”
“You think so, huh?”
“I know it, Mister Hickok,” Ernestine assured him.
“Drop the mister,” Hickok instructed. “And what makes you so blamed sure of yourself? You’re not much more than a sprout.”
“I know Leo will be okay,” Ernestine explained. “We’re twins, you know.
We’re like two peas in a pod. Sometimes we even have the same thoughts at the same time. Ain’t that spooky?”
“Not really,” Hickok responded, his voice momentariy losing its decided western twang. “Biological twins, as Plato once said, enjoy a mental rapport.”
“What?”
Hickok chuckled. “Oops. Sorry. I plumb forgot myself. Yeah, you’re right. It is downright spooky.”
“You talk funny,” Ernestine told him.
“No one’s ever noticed it before,” Hickok said with a smile.
“Who’s Plato?”
“He’s the leader at the place I come from,” Hickok replied, scanning the yard and the fields beyond.
“Where’s that?”
“It’s called the Home,” Hickok said.
“Your people have a name?”
Hickok nodded. “The Family. We were named by the hombre who started the Home right before the war.”
“Is it far to your Home?”
“Far,” Hickok stated, grinning at her. “You sure are a bundle of questions.”
“Am I botherin’ you?”
“No,” Hickok said. “I’m hitched.”
“Hitched?”
“Yeah. I’m married.”
“I don’t get it,” Ernestine commented.
“You will after you’re married,” Hickok mentioned.
Ernestine seated herself on the edge of the porch and rubbed her left side.
“Are you all right?” the gunman inquired.
“A little sore.”
“We should have Rikki check you after he’s done with Leo,” Hickok suggested.
“I’m fine,” Ernestine insisted.
Hickok inspected their cabin, noting the craftsmanship displayed in the meticulous construction. “Did your pa build this?”
“Yep.”
“He did a right smart job,” Hickok said.
“Thanks.”
“But why’d he build it out here? Why are you folks livin’ in the middle of nowhere?”