16Caroline sat outside the back of her home looking off into the plans of Montana, also known as her backyard. The great mountain chain was never ending were a rusty orange and the brown grass grew on forever. Trees were scarce among the jagged edged mountains. Something so empty yet it was filled with so much beauty.
The view could keep Caroline engaged for hours. Sometimes she would see a moose or a heard of buffalo passing though. Other days it would be as empty as an unworn cowboy hat.
She dreamed of being rebellious and living out in the western no mans land. She wished for the suspense of what would happen next.
Caroline heard thumping inside her house. It kept getting louder until her brother reached the doorway.
"Caroline!" He yelled.
Her daydreaming was cut off by the loud intrusion of her brother. "It's Gitty," she said sternly, "And what do you want."
"Sorry," she said, even though he really wasn't. "If you don't hurry up and eat, we'll be late for scho'."
"I ain't hungry, le's jus go. Teach' 'ill jus let us out early anyways." Gitty stood up and looked out in to the plains then walked around there house to where their horses were tied up.
The siblings released their horses and mounted them. As they came though the town, they saw the once sleeping town awake in its usual light. People and carts ran throughout the dusty dirt streets and animals being traded or sold to butchers or other farmers crowded the path. Clerks were waiting in stores and the saloon was opening its doors to traveling cowboys or the town's folk. The mine was already warmed up by the sight of the smoke from its chimney and the men working.
When Gitty and David reached the school house, they tied their horses up to a tree and walked toward the outside lawn. There were only eight children in the whole town.
David and Gitty were just about to enter the school house when a group of three boys stopped them. Rupert, of course, was the head of the clan and spoke first. "David, ma' dad's gots some extra chickens. Told me I could shoot 'em if I want." He explained that he was letting people come over to join him. He had a slanted smile, the kinds were it is meshed up at the side and his eyes said "you know you want to".
"We'll be there," said Gitty immediately. She was excited about this opportunity.
One of Rupert's friends' spoke. "We ain't talking to you doll face." He spit on the ground to show his manly ruggedness and to show that a girl shouldn't be around those types of boys.
The second one spoke. "Yeah, gurls can't fire a gun." Then he spoke in a high pitched voice mocking a little girl, "it's too loud."
Gitty became furious and reached for her shot gun pushed into the side of her belt and said "who says I can't fire a gun?" fighting for herself.
Before she could pull any moves David stopped her. "Neither of us can come," said David to Rupert. He turned towards Gitty, "Dad needs us tuh do s'me work.
"It's not gonna take us all night."
"So, he still needs us home, you heard em."
Rupert rolled his eyes at the stupid argument they were having. "Y'all er a bunch a sissies," he said harshly.
"Yeah, y'all er yeller," said one of his sidekicks backing up Rupert.
Gitty, becoming more enraged, lunged at him yelling treats. She was fuming with anger that someone would call her brother that.
David jumped between the brewing fight and stopped yet another one of Gitty's tiffs.
The yelling caused a crowed from the rest of the kids. Once they realized Gitty was one of the fighters, they walked away.
The school bell rang and the brewing fight stopped instantly and went inside. As the students walked into the dim school room, David gave a summed up lecture about how acting out could hurt her.
When school was over, Gitty had calmed down and after she mounted her horse, she looked out and saw Rupert riding away on his horse. She decided she could sneak out after her dad went to the saloon and David to bed. She kicked her horse and cased after him on the dirt road. She told him to expect her and to expect an excellent performance. He told her that the sight would be too gruesome for a lady but if she insisted he welcomed her competition.
She turned back around to her home to try and get her chores done early. Her father was waiting on the front step of their cabin. He was a tall lanky man. His skin was becoming saggy and his skin was red from the day's deadly hot son. He had sharp features; full lips and crystal blue eyes. His blue jeans were ripped in the knees and were covered with dirt and his plaid shirt was old and faded. His cowboy hat was old and worn. The bristles were staring to poke out of it.
"Wonderin' when you'r gonna make it back," he said softly but firmly. He kept his eyes in the landscape, not looking at Gitty.
Gitty got off her horse and took the rope from a pole to tie her up. "Sorry pop, I, uh…I was arrangin' things after school." She ran up the porch steps and was just about to pass her dad until he said:
"Plannin' ta go to Rupert's for an ol' fashion shooting?"
Gitty seized at the door. She figured David had told him and hoped her plans weren't about to be crushed.
"No pop, I wuzznt makin' plans like that, I er, I wuz-"
"I don want you going ta no shootings." He still didn't look at her, but his wise word of the wise man started to creep out.
Gitty wanted to prove herself to Rupert. She couldn't let her dad stand in the way. She wouldn't do anything stupid, just a few dead chickens, that's it.
"I don wan you hangin 'round tha boy." His voice was stronger but still quiet and soothing. Her father went on to explain that Rupert's father had been loosing money from the mine because there wasn't enough gold. So he started to steal from other miners.
Gitty was begging to feel shot down but wasn't about to give up now. She stood at the doorway feeling torn. Her father stood up and followed her into the doorway.
The room was wooden and worn, almost gray. There was an old wooden table pushed up against the back wall with two chairs and a crate under it. A fire pit was to the right with a plain piece of wood for a mantle. To the left was another room with a single bed in it that David and their father share. Gitty's bed materials were shoved up in the corner of the main room. On top of the mantle, there were a few pictures. Their mother's portrait was in the center and her gun was in a case next to it.
"Pop, if I did go to the shooting, I could use ma's gun."
"I don't think I'd ever let you use that gun, Gitty. I'd never let nobody use it, not fir a shootin."
Gitty looked at it. The wood was still dark and lustful. The golden mussel was free of anything that may disrupt its beauty.
"That weapon's worth more than anything we own. Loosin it would be like loosin a parta ma life.'
"Awe pa, don't ya trust me with it?"
"It's not 'bout loosin it, it's all I have ta live for, other that you an' David.
It was the only thing her father had that belonged to his beloved wife. The tired miner looked at the gun sadly. Gazing into it, he remembered his dear wife and how much he loved her life with him out west.
"Never harmed a good man, only defended herself. I put so much faith inta her, leavin' her alone with you children."
Gitty knew this story. It was when she was alone and was killed. Her father told it to her and David so many times. Every time she learned something new about her courageous mother and inspired Gitty to be like her. Her father made it seem like she was sheltered under her father and broke away when she met John.
"So grand ma, did she go to the shoot out? Did she meet Jacob there?"
Her grandmother looked at her. "Dear, don't rush this! Jacob will come along. So as I was saying…"
David walked inside to see Gitty and her father at the mantel. "Father, I've been feeling ill," he said. Then he asked if he could lie down for a few minutes.
His father agreed and turned back to Gitty. "A day will come when I will let you use that gun, but not now," he said.
Gitty nodded and figured she could use her own shot gun. It was only a puny four inch one and didn't have much power, but it could defiantly knock a chicken down for a moment.
Her father told her to get dinner ready so Gitty went outside to their family's tiny garden. She plucked some vegetables that hadn't been eaten by animals and cooked them over the fire pit.
Once everyone had finished, David went to bed early and when John thought his kids were asleep, he left for the saloon. Gitty got out of bed. She checked on David to make sure he was ok and just as she was about to take off, she took her mothers gun from atop of the mantle. "Pop will never know it's gone," she thought. "I only need to be there for a half hour or so." Then she took off on her horse.
The sky was getting dark and it was hard to see. When she got to the main part of town, the lights from the saloons and hotels helped regain Gitty's sight.
A mouse scurried across the street and seeing it as a chance for target practice, Gitty took out her mother's pristine revolver and aimed at it. The mouse stopped and picked up a crumb of some sort of food and gnawed on it. Gitty rested her gun and started to pull back the trigger. She realized the weapon was not performing and pulled it back even farther; still nothing. Gitty looked inside to see if the gun was set properly but realized hat there was no shots left.
She closed the gun, a little annoyed since she had come all this way. Rupert's house was only a mile away and now she began to think that all of the chickens were dead by this point. She checked her pocket watch; it read ten thirty. Her father would have already been back by then so she decided to tell Rupert that her chores were not finished and she wasn't allowed to do. He wouldn't believe her, he'd call her a yeller, but it was actually true.
She turned her horse around and walked it back home. She tried to take as much time as possible returning, hoping her father would be too tired to deal with her.
She returned to her home at about ten o'clock. Her house was quite, so maybe her father had gotten drunk and just went to bed without noticing. She walked inside and the dim moon light lit the room, but the contents of her house were not normal. It looked like a tornado had swept though.
Her bedding was torn, the mantle was broken, and the table in the corner had been over turned. Every box was broken into and papers and articles of clothing covered the floor. Gitty was shocked at this display.
Could her father have been so drunk he became violent or so clueless that he was looking for her? Gitty lit a candle and went into her father's bedroom.
She saw the same picture as in the other room. The mattress was ripped up and the straw was sprinkled on the blanket. The boxes underneath the bed had been opened and the contents spilled onto the floor. It looked like someone had been looking for something. Not money, because the box that carried John's savings what been left, smashed, on the floors.
What confused Gitty the most was that neither her father nor brother was in the bed. They were not anywhere in there little house and they were not outside at this time of night.
Gitty looked at the bed once more and noticed a piece of paper that se had never seen before. She picked it up. The writing was messy and misspelled. She squinted at the paper and tried to read it. It said:
"If you evor want to se your famle agin they ar ware the beevr swims. Bring it if you wan to hav em bak or thay wil di a panful deth."
"Where the beaver swims?" Gitty said. "What is that suppose to mean?" She also didn't know what "it" meant but that didn't stop her. Gitty had to go and find them. She immediately packed some of her belongings. She gathered up all of her father's money, bullets, and some food. She rolled her blankets and brought an extra set of clothing. She packed her saddle bag with more ammunition and her mother's gun. Gitty was sure that this was the right time to use it.
She shuffled though the rubble to find anything else that could be of use when she came across a picture of her mother.
She looked at it for a while. She could see David's face in hers and her eyes were big, like she was just won a race or something. Her father always talked about how much she liked horse racing. Gitty knocked herself out of her thoughts and decided to fold the picture and put it in her back pocket.
She rushed back out side to get on her horse. Her watch said it was almost eleven and the road ahead of her was dark and empty. She took off from her house once again that day. This time was different, for she didn't know if she would be returning and she didn't know if her family would either.