Mystics of the Tuolumne

Deliverance #

"Oh no....no...no." Dahlia sat straight up in bed perspiring profusely, her heart beat so rapidly she had to gasp for air.  She was faint and reeling unable to support herself.  She laid back down.  Gradually she began to gain focus.

It was dark and a chill hovered in the low ground fog.  She had to tell Mr. McKinley not to go on the stage to Oakland.  It was too early she would appear only to  be a mad woman if she went to his house now.

"I haven't time for breakfast now Mamm."   She rushed through the yard and into town to the hotel where the stage line was headquartered.   As she arrived breathlessly she searched the scene for Mr. McKinley.    Albert and his father pulled up in a carriage and went inside the stage office.  The hostler placed Robert Sr's into the boot of the stage.

"Mr. McKinley you can't go on the stage today.  It's...a...something is going to happen...something bad."  Dahlia did not know how to approach this august man.

'Wait just a minute, my little princess.  What do you mean by all that?"  He had heard of her gifts and abilities.  But wasn't sure whether to lend credence to them.

"Sir!" interjected Albert with a concerned face.  "I think you should pay close attention to what she has to say."

"I had a dream that awakened me early this morning about that stage.  I can't tell what.  I can't see in clear focus.  It has yo do with guns and a gray coyote or more like a fox.   You are robbed and maybe hurt."  She paused and caught her breath.

"That sounds like just a bad dream a nightmare.  I appreciate your concern.  I have important business."  He was half smiling and half grimacing at her.

"You won't get there sir"  She almost whispered.

"Father, please listen.  She is not a crank.  I have seen this from her before.  She is always correct."  Albert was growing more alarmed at his father's recalcitrance.

"I know I sound crazy.  Please wait one day and go tomorrow."  Dahlia had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"One day's delay won't hurt if that's what it takes to staunch the tears on that pretty little face."  He placed the knuckle of his curled index finger under her chin and raised it to encounter her radiant smile. "Can you predict the wheat prices in Chicago?"

"Maybe, I never have."  Dahlia  was calmed by his decision to stay.

'Albert, bring her to supper this evening.  You take the carriage tom pick her up.  Now off to school you both."  My goodness, he thought as they walked away, I am going to have some handsome grandchildren.

Joel got in trouble at school because he put a frog down the back Sarah Blankenship's dress."It was her fault.  She was snotty to me."

"Enough!  I am taking you to BJ before we go home."  Dahlia was angered at his childish behavior.   She was almost an adult now.

"Are you mad at me BJ?"  He looked up at BJ after Dahlia gave her report.  

BJ was having difficulty controlling his grin and suppressing his laughter. "Yes, I am.  Did you return the frog to his home?"

"No, sir.  She ran out of the classroom and I never saw what happened to it."  Joel was looking properly chastised.

"You have a responsibility to that frog and any pollywogs it left behind.  You also have a responsibility to behave like a gentleman at school."  BJ looked sternly at Joel.

"I ain't no gennelman." Joel protested.

"Oh. I know that.  But you are going to be from now onwards."  BJ shot right back.

Dahlia was bent over her studies and taking notes at a furious pace.  "Momma, I am going to be picked up by Albert in his carriage and have supper at his house tonight.  Is that alright with you.?"

"Oh, my little girl is growing up," Ericia said proudly.

"But your little boy is not.  He stuck a frog down the back of Sarah Blankenship's dress at school." Dahlia proclaimed.

"Dios mio, I delivered that girl.  What am I to do?"  She wailed.

"Nothin, BJ is already taking care of it,"  Dahlia reported

Ericia crossed herself twice. "I thank the heavenly father for bringing such a good and kind man to me and my beloved children."

"I thought you weren't a Catholic anymore."  Dahlia was surprised.

"I am only when it comes to BJ and my children."  Ericia declared piously.

Dahlia rolled her eyes.  It was the first recorded eye roll in Tuolumne County.

After supper,  Mr. McKinley, Albert, and Dahlia retired to his office.  Mrs. McKinley busied herself upstairs after remaining stiff and silent through the meal.

"Dahlia lets try something from the evening newspaper from Stockton, alright?"  Robert Sr. enquired.

"I'll do what I can.  I won't lie to you either way."  Dahlia with her bright honest eyes facing him.

Mr. Mckinley unfolded the paper and opened it to the front page.  His faced went white then flush then white again.  "Oh my God," he muttered and dropped the paper in his lap.

"What's wrong," both children jumped up out of their chairs.  They had been making eyes at each other and playing a psyche game that was uniquely theirs.

"Sit...sit...children sit and be calm.  Nothing is wrong absolutely nothing.  Bill Miner, A.K.A. the Grey Ghost, robbed the Modesto to Stockton stage this morning.  His partner shot the only passenger dead."  He handed the paper to Albert.  "That answers any questions that I had."

"You were going to try something, Mr. McKinley?"  Dahlia reminded him.

"Oh yes, Let me have the paper, Albert," he thumbed through it to the page he wanted. "For yesterday's price on a bushel of grain in Chicago....can you tell me what it was?"

"Don't look at it, sir." She instructed.  "56 1/2?" She tentatively offered.

"Exactly right.  Why did you not want me to look at it?" Robert Sr. enquired.

"Because you Albert are too much alike and I would be getting the number from you instead of..a clicking glass jar with a ribbon with words on it...and another one with a big machine with letters."  She dropped into the chair with a bewildered look on her face.

"I'll take you home now.  I can see that it strained you again."  Albert was kind,affectionate, and proud.  "She gets like this after any major 'seeing'."  Albert brought the carriage around and swept her up in his arms and plaqaced her in the carriage.  He held her all th way back to her house.