Meleah's Western Part 6

Here is Part 6 of Meleah's Western. I hope you all enjoy it. I have no idea what I am going to write for the next 1000 word. I hope some of you will help me by asking questions that you would like answered. That usually sparks something for me and I get an idea. So, please, if you have questions (and if you don't I'll wonder why) let me know what they are. You can leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, I leave you with "Meleah's Western Part 6."

Part 6

All was quiet. The branches of the trees were heavy with their load of snow. Occasionally the snow would slip off with a soft sound leaving the branch to spring lightly up into the air. Here and there birds, with feathers ruffled to keep out the cold, could be seen searching for seeds. Most of the forest animals, however, were snugly settled in their warm nests. The only sound heard was the faint hammering from the barn where Carson was busy at work building a rough pine coffin. Smoke spiraled skyward from the nearby cabin chimney, yet though the sun was rapidly approaching the center of the sky, no one inside had so much as thought of eating.

The brother and sister were sitting on either side of a small table near the fireplace. Before them lay the broken locket, the small picture and the family Bible. They had been sitting thus for some time talking and puzzling over the events of the preceding night.
“I still can’t see who it is yer ta look for,” Sally sighed. “If we have a sister, why ain’t we heard of her before? An’ why didn’t Pa tell us even her name?”
Ty shrugged. “I jest don’t rightly know. I’m wishin’ I did though.” His brows drew together in a frown as he gazed at the table.
“Are ya sure there isn’t anything else in the Bible that would help?”
“I didn’t see nothing.”
“Ty, are ya sure he said “sisters” and not jest sister?”
“An’ if’n he didn’t, then who would I be supposed ta find?”
It was Sally’s turn to frown. They had been over this ground before, and yet she just couldn’t quite believe she had a sister. Looking up slowly, she almost timidly began to speak. “What if Ma really isn’t dead and that is . . ..” She didn’t finish her sentence.
“I’ve been wonderin’ that very thing myself if ya want ta know the truth. Only I don’t see how that can be.”
“Perhaps there is a record in the Bible.”
Ty opened the Book and saw the faint inscription again. After a moment of careful study, he read it aloud. “For my darling daughter on her wedding day 18__ from Mother.” Ty looked up. “That’s all that inscription says. Ain’t much help.”
Sally said nothing only reached for the Bible to see for herself. After reading the same words, she turned a page or two. “Look Ty. There is a record of some sort in here. See there is Pa’s name, Jonathan Andrew Keith Elliot. Why’d he have so many names, I wonder? There is his birth date written. Below his name is Ma’s, Eleanor Mary Crook Elliot an’ her birth date. Ty, there is no date of death here.”
“I know. I looked years ago an’ always wondered why. If’n she did die, why ain’t her death recorded?”
Sally didn’t answer. She was busy reading the rest of the writing on the page. “Our names an’ births are recorded here, an’ there is no other name anywhere.” She looked up. “I jest don’t see how there could be a sister an’ it not be recorded.”
“Sally,” Ty almost groaned, “I don’t see either, but it don’t change the fact that I have ta find someone.”
No more was said for a while as Sally turned page after page looking for anything that might be called a clue. Ty sat thoughtful. Slowly he picked up the small picture and looked at it. As he gazed, vague memories stirred from some forgotten recess of his brain. In a dazed and perplexed voice he began to speak. His low voice had a faraway feeling to it. Sally ceased turning pages and listened, staring in wide eyed wonder at her brother.
“She was there . . . an’ Pa. It was a cabin. Small, but weren’t like this. . . . Flowers in . . . a pitcher, seems like. There were others there. We went away, . . . you an’ me. . . . She was gone when we got back. . . . No sign a her. Her bonnet was gone. I looked for it. . . . Pa said . . . she was gone away. Never said where. . .. Pa cried. I heard him. . . .” His voice trailed off and all was quiet.
Sally hardly dared breath. Was Ty remembering some clue to these puzzling questions?
“Sally,” Ty spoke firmly. “This is Ma’s picture. I’m sure.”
Sally nodded.
“An’ I wonder . . .” There was obvious hesitancy in the brother’s voice. “I’m jest guessin’ ya know, but could Ma ‘ave left Pa an’ gone back ta the city?”
Sally gasped. “Left him! Why?”
“Think. Pa was livin’ out here in the wilds long ‘for he got married. Could be Ma didn’t like it an’ went back.”
“Why? I mean, what would she do an’ how would she live? You don’t think a sister could have been born after she . . . left?”
Ty shook his head. “Else how’d Pa know. I’m mighty certain he didn’t get no mail. No, I reckon perhaps there was--” here Ty stopped.
Sally finished the sentence in horror stricken tones. “An illegitimate sister.”
Ty nodded grimly. “Maybe Ma never told Pa ‘bout her until she was leavin’ . That’d explain why she ain’t in the Bible.”
“Ty, could it be?”
“I jest don’t know, Sally, I jest don’t know. How else would ya explain the missin’ name an’ no date of death?”
For a long time they sat there in silence. Each busy with his own thoughts. Surely that couldn’t be right, and yet, how else could it all be explained?
“Why’d Pa say ya could do what he couldn’t?” Sally wondered.
Ty was several minutes in answering. “I reckon,” he began at last. “he might not a knowd where they lived, an’ I’m ta find out.”
“Well, I ken tell ya one thin’ Ty Elliot, ya ain’t goin’ nowheres without me.

To be continued . . .