Olivia goes West

Chapter 21

The trip to America had been long and restless for Basil. The first ship he had found bound for America was an uncomfortable cargo ship. He didn't care, he climbed a rope and snuck aboard, spending the entire trip across the Atlantic among crates and barrels. Some of the rats aboard the ship were pleasant to talk to, but Basil could really only think about one thing. Ratigan was alive, in Green River, was terrorizing the Flavershams, and was within the same city limits as Nellie Brie.

Basil had taken the letter with him. He wished he could have run some tests on it before he so hastily bolted out the door. It was type-written, meaning anyone could have written it. The parchment and the ink matched the qualities of Nellie's other letters from all he could tell without his chemical set, but it still didn't rule out every negative possibility surrounding it. Could Nellie have already been captured? Was she forced to write the P.S. on the other side? Was he walking straight into a trap? These thoughts ensured that he'd be getting very little sleep until the moment he arrived in this quaint little mining town.

When Basil arrived in Boston he did some shopping around for disguises and other things he might need, and from there, disguised as a lone cowboy returning home and doing his best to mask his British accent, he quickly boarded a train heading out west. It was a four day journey from there, and one that aside from having an actual seat to sit and sleep in, with food, was little more comfortable when he had the worries on his mind that he'd had the entire trip. He'd been rereading all of Nellie's letters, trying to make sense of it all, when finally at long last he heard the conductor's call.

"Green River, next stop is Green River! It will be a short stop, do not disembark unless this is where you're getting off!"

Basil threw open the curtain over the window to see if this was indeed the right place. Outside was a desert, with cacti, red mesas and cliffs; a thin, green gulch in the distance where the river was. The sky was a reddish pink. It was sunset. Basil hastily gathered his belongings. This had to be the right place. Finally, some answers.

Outside in the punishing Utah heat, Nellie Brie sat on a bench underneath a larger human-sized one, reading a mystery novel, her absolute favorite genre of course. The station wasn't very crowded. It never was, despite Waul and Ratigan's efforts to increase tourism in the town. She soon began to hear the low rumble of an approaching train. After waiting so long she'd grown accustomed to the disappointment of not seeing Basil step off, or to see no one stepping off at all. This would be the last train until tomorrow, so she placed a bookmark in her book and watched the railroad tracks.

This time when it stopped, however, she saw a single mouse step out from the mouse car underneath the train, in a wide-brimmed black Stetson hat, a matching black button-up shirt with denim pants and a gun at his hip, with a cigar sticking out beneath a thick mustache, carrying a suitcase. Her ears perked up and her heart jumped. Could it be? Was it Basil?

After looking around the mouse spotted her, and hastily walked toward her.

"Howdy, Nellie," he said in his best attempt at a Texas accent, "Your cousin Slim's come all the way back from Dallas to see ya, once I heard you was in Green River. Boy howdy, ain't seen you in a coon's age. How've ya been?"

Basil gave a wink. Nellie knew it was him, raising an eyebrow and wanting to ask where he thought up that ridiculous name and accent. She stood up from the bench.

"Oh Slim, I feel like it's been forever," she played along, before pulling him in for a tight hug, causing him to drop his suit case, "I've missed you so much these past few years..."

Though acting in case any of Ratigan's underlings were spying on them, Nellie's hug was entirely genuine. She rested her head against his chest, fighting back tears, as Basil slowly wrapped his arms around her in return.