The Inventor and the Bounty Hunter - Jonah Hex

2.

Once again, I do not own! I only own my own character and plot! Thanks! 

"Looks great! Let's keep up the good work!" she called. 

Days later, Ella and her students were busy making decorations for the schoolhouse to get it ready for the Fourth of July and all the celebrations. The old wooden structure was very festive, decked out in red, white, blue and stars.  Very festive and celebratory indeed. 

"Miss Spear, will everywhere be decorated like this for Forth of July?" asked one boy.

"Most everywhere I should think," she replied. "It's always an important day, especially this year."

"Cause of the hundred."

"Yes, exactly, cause of the hundred."

"My Mama and Daddy said we're gonna watch the fireworks!" said one little girl.

"What about you, Miss Spear? What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know yet, but fireworks sound like a good idea." She stood back to look at their work.  "All right boys and girls, that's another day behind us. Good work today. See y'all tomorrow."

"Bye Miss Spear!"

"Bye!"

She watched them all leave with their bags and schoolbooks before getting her horse and riding home. Her house was a small, one room building down the road from the school house a ways - if you stood on her front porch, you could see a tiny dot in the distance that was her workplace. 

Jonah and her had talked about building a nice house for their family once he came home from the war and they could settle down. She had touched this place up herself, and while it felt a little empty with the of thoughts of the life she had wanted, it served her well. 

When she arrived home she set up her contraption that would pour water and drop hay into the horse's trough before heading out to the back with the axe. She needed more firewood, always more firewood. Even the summer nights could cool off pretty well.  

Still stiff from her last round of wood chopping, she tried to take it easy this time around. However, she quickly grew exhausted and more stiff on top of the already present stiffness and decided to call it a night. She had enough wood, she just didn't want to run out. She wanted to keep adding to the pile so that it never ran out completely. But there was always tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.

So she headed inside, eating a simple supper before bathing in the washtub by candlelight. 

Once dressed in her nightdress and a blanket over her shoulders that she had knitted herself, she opened her drawer and withdrew the stack of letters and the photograph. The letters were a collection from the war, the couple writing each other as often as possible. She only had his, of course, but the responses told her that he had received hers. The photograph was something they'd done, her idea, each receiving a copy to keep with them until after the war when they could be together again - or so had been the plan. She was  a girl in love back in that image, and now she was a woman running her life. She had hoped things would work out to be a combination of the two, but you couldn't predict how life would turn out, as she had learned well. 

She set the photograph aside and took up the letters once again, reading his scrawl, touching his words. 

Dear Ella,

The war is wrapping up, we can all feel it. Finally, our country can be whole again, not divided. Finally, I can come home to you and our future.

Love, Jonah

A message formed in her mind in response:

Dear Jonah,

Life is good. I miss you and wonder about you every day, but you don't need to worry about me, wherever you are, wherever you might be. I'm fine. I love you.

Love, Ella

She reassembled the pile of letters and the photograph together. Then she held the stack to her lips and kissed it before returning them to their place in the drawer. With that, she climbed into bed, drifting off soon after.

(Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))