On a warm and sunny day in a farmhouse in South Carolina lived Benjamin Martin, uncle of Sam Curtis, and his children: Gabriel, Thomas, Nathan, Samuel, Margaret, William, and Susan Martin. That afternoon, Sam rode in on Sasha in her regular clothing.
“Father, Father,” Nathan and Samuel said, running to the work shed where their father worked.
“What is it boys?” their father asked them, looking up from his work.
“A general road up, and it looks like Sam, but we aren’t sure,” the boys replied, looking at each other.
Sam is short for Samantha.
“Hey Gabriel,” Thomas started, “isn’t that General Cornwallis?”
Gabriel looked at Thomas like he was dumbfounded, “No, dummy. That’s our cousin, General Samantha “Sam” Curtis.” Gabriel paused and then continued “She looks hurt. Here Thomas, carry my gun,” he instructed with worry in his voice, “Father, it’s General Sam Curtis.”
Benjamin ran out of the work shed as fast as he could. When Ben got there, Gabriel was already helping Sam off the horse. “Sam, what happened?”Gabriel asked as he helped her off her horse.
Sam was short of breath as she said “British... attacked ... Virginia... husband and family...escaped to ...Maryland.” Then she pointed to her shoulder. “Cornwallis ... sword.”
She fainted, falling off her horse and almost hitting the ground. Gabriel and Ben barely caught her as she fell. Ben, who was 21 and Sam, who was 16 back during the French and Indian War, were both under General Washington, but Sam was ranked below the General. Cornwallis shot her mom, her dad, her two older brothers, and her sister. He killed her whole family,, besides for her Aunt and Uncle. It took quite a while for Sam to come through to Ben and Gabriel.
“Gabriel, grab the stick and have Sam clench it tight in her teeth so she doesn't yell and scare the children.” Ben instructed Gabriel as she came around.
Just when Sam was about to scream, Gabriel put the stick in her mouth. Gabriel also held Sam’s head down as Ben put stitches in the wound in Sam’s shoulder. Sam had tears streaming down her face, and Gabriel was keeping her hair out of the blood soaked shoulder. Sam was raised by Ben after her mom and dad were killed by Cornwallis, so they were pretty close. Sam stood up and went over to her horse and grabbed her uniform and boots then went upstairs to put on something less bloody and torn up from running away on her horse.
“What’d the mail carrier bring?" Ben asked Gabriel and Thomas. They both got up and rushed towards the stack of letters.
“Peter Cuppin joined the Continental Army and he is a year younger than I,” Gabriel stated.
“Well, a conference has been called...” Ben started.
“Charles town,” stated Thomas, “we are going to Charlestown.”
“Yes,” Ben continued, “we leave in the morning.”
Sam walked through the door still a little shaken from the injury.
“Where have you been all these years?” Ben asked Sam.
“Living in Georgia, working two jobs, raising a son, fighting with my bosses and husband,” Sam replied.
“Wait, you were doing two jobs, raising a son, fighting with your bosses and your husband?” Ben asked Sam confused.
Sam nodded her head yes. Thomas and Gabriel looked at their cousin like she was crazy, working two jobs, raising a son and everything else. Since Sam was 18 years old, when she left South Carolina and moved to Oklahoma, her and Jason being apart isn’t that hard on her, but for Jason it was a big thing because he was very close to his mom.
