Mystics of the Tuolumne

Reckoning #

Summer days seem to drag like a hot piece of metal stirring up dust endlessly.  Nights were hot too but they were so much cooler that the days.  Most people closed their stores or shops in the heat of the day.  Hard labor slowed to a snail's pace.  After the temperature started cooling in the late afternoon, the pace of the town picked up during the cooler night hours.

"Charley, I need you to look out for me.  I'm gonna have a little poke with that injun squaw."  Billy spoke quietly to his latest sidekick.  As they slithered down the alleyways in the dark.  Being careful to stay away from the lights cast by the oil lanterns that lit the streets.

"I don't wanna go messin with no witch,"  Charley said in a stage whisper. He started holding back.

"She ain't no witch!" snarled Billy.

"You tol everbody she was." Charley was backing away inch by inch by inch.  "An, I believe ya."

"You lily liver..." Billy was getting angrier. "Git outta here you fraidy cat.  An keep your trap shut.  Or I'll carve yer gizzard."

Billy kept in the shadows while he waited for Dahlia to walk home after visiting Albert.  He spotted her approach,  Then he ran to the back street and ran ahead of her to the edge of town where it would be dark when she walked by.

"Billy you get awahff"  Dahlia's word were stifled as Billy clapped his hand over her mouth.

"You better just shut it, digger.  You are going to pay double for what you last did to me."  With his hand over her mouth and the other arm around her neck he drug her backwards.  She was caught completely by surprise.  He choked her until she lost consciousness.  He threw her on the ground and lifted her dress and petticoat.  He pulled her drawers down then his and prepared to assault her.

"You little shit.  I'm going to tear you to pieces and feed you to the hogs."  BJ was righteously wrathful. He slung Billy up against an oak tree.   Dahlia recovered her modesty.  Before BJ could move, Albert had arrived on the scene.  Albert, out of breath, started beating Billy with his fist.  "Whoa, slow down there son, we're here to rescue bus, not to beat."

"I'll go fetch the town marshal."  Albert started off toward town.

"Albert, stop.  Come back here." BJ shouted as he stood with one foot on Billy and his arms wrapped around Dahlia. 'We can't take this to the law, it would destroy Dahlia's reputation."

"How?  I don't understand.  Billy is the criminal."  Albert's anger was starting to ebb.

"Albert, there are two kinds of two kinds of justice, justice and injustice.  Justice is for the rich people, like you and your family, and injustice is for the poor, like me and my family.  If we go to the law, Billy won't be put on trial the digger squaw half-breed who lured him into her trap will be put on trial."  BJ stared down at Albert searching for understanding on his face.

Albert stood there with an angry frown which turned gradually to sadness as his realization of the truth became revealed.  He saw the future possibility of ruin for his beloved.  "I think you may be right.  But, I have a brother who is a lawyer and my Father could help."

"Son, I love your honesty and goodness, but your father is only one man. Dahlia will be judged by twelve."  BJ looked at Albert with his prudent gentle face.  "She will lose all her friends and will be an outcast.  She'll never have a suitor."

"She has no friends now save for me.  She doesn't need a suitor.  She and I are betrothed."  Albert was fierce but he was trying to understand.  "We can't let this go unpunished."

"I didn't say he would not be punished.  I said we would not go to the law where he is privileged.  Where his actions are condoned." BJ gazed down on the squirming worm at his foot.  He released Dahlia to the comfort of Albert's arms.  He delivered a quick but solid kick to Billy.  "Can you two punish him in a 'gifted way' or shall I?"

The lovers looked at each other.  "What does the future say, Albert?"  she gazed up at the stars.

"The future says he keeps this up until he rapes, murders you, or both.  Help me take his clothes off."

The three of them stripped Billy down to bare skin.  "Now what?" BJ asked.

"Jimson weed."  Dahlia was just struck by a waking dream.  "Abuela answered me."

"We have to vamoose. Dahlia, get me a piece of rope from my shop.  Here's the key Meet us in the barn." BJ picked up the semi-conscious Billy and threw him over his shoulder for the walk to the barn only a small distance away.  It was bad luck for Billy that the darkness is a two-edged sword.

On the walk, Albert asked, "Do you know what jimson weed is?"  BJ shook his head.  Albert continued.  "It is loco weed.  It makes livestock go crazy.  They stay away from the herd and sometimes die of starvation.  Billy here will probably be taken to the state asylum."  That brought a smile to both.

Dahlia came to the barn shortly after they arrived.  and they tied Billy down on the gelding table He started screaming and they put a rag in his mouth and kept it there with a snaffle bit with tongue plate tied to his head.

"I have to go inside and get something from Mamma."  Dahlia turned and ran to the house and returned just as quickly. She held an enema bag in her hand.

"What in the world is that for, or better who is that for?"  Albert queried. BJ just shook his head and smiled.

"We need to get the jimson inside him. He is not going to drink it."  Dahlia ran out of the barn and came back with two Jimson weed plants.

"Those are the Moonflowers from your mother's garden."  BJ's facial expression shown in consternation.  She uses them with her cures.

"We need to make a strong tea and put it in this bag and put the tip 'you know where' and give it to him."  Dahlia knew exactly what to do because Abuela was helping her.

 "What are we going to do with him afterwards?"  Albert was curious.

"I think we should take him down to the livery stable and turn him loose." BJ Suggested.

After the potion was administered, they waited until they could see its effects taking hold.  Bj threw him over his shoulder, though he was almost the same size and BJ, he was less than half as strong. "Dahlia, go sit with your Momma and Joel.  Albert, get his clothes and bring them"

Once at the livery corral, Albert spread Billy's clothes out over the ground.  BJ un-snaffled and untied the blithering idiot and turned him loose in the corral of the livery stable.  Billy started ranting and talking to the horses.  BJ and Albert went there different ways by stealthy moves through the dark alleys.