Welcome To Red Cloud

Chapter Three - A Snake In The Foundation

"There's a foundation."

It came out in a strained murmur, and I held a hand to my throat as I took the plot in. Sure enough, someone had set down a large square of boards, dug deep into the muddy ground so that they were flush with it. The boards were weathered but nailed down solid, and large enough to form the foundation of a small house. My free hand hovered over the deed in my wallet. It didn't make sense.

"I... I came here to lay foundations." I spoke a little louder this time, looking to the girl who clutched my elbow.

She let me go, putting her hands to her hips. "Well somebody do it for you, sucka. At new year."

I furrowed my brow hard. It was hardly January. I'd left New York before the end of the year came. "New Year? This new year?"

The Chinese girl slapped me in the chest. It hurt like fire; my lungs were raging and weak. I did my best to grit my teeth through it as she chuckled.

"No sucka! Chinese New Year. Fee-boo-ary."

She finally broke a smile, the little white teeth brightening her looks. We both stared out into the wooden foundation, where the little boy was yelling something at his big sister. He looked around three or four and he sure could talk, but even as he stomped the weathered boards and shouted, his sibling did not respond. She was older and taller, dressed well in a pretty frock, and she sat at the dead centre of the plot with her back to us all. She barely moved, but one hand flexed now and then as if she was speaking and punctuating her words with it.

"Come, come, Alston. I show you."

The young laundress picked up her long skirt and apron and stepped over the nearest part of the boundary fence. I followed as she took me towards the near corner of the foundations, stopping sharply with one foot on the edge of the wood. She tapped it there, the sound echoing, and it made both the kids flinch and look our way. I crouched where she had tapped, spying an etching that had been carved deep into the wood.

Elias Alston Junior, 21 Feb 1857

"Is you, yeah?"

I didn't look up to meet the girl's eye, but I nodded slowly. It was the name on the deed, my brother's name. It was who I needed to be if I was going to settle here and make a life far from what the big city expected of me. But the dates made no sense. The deed had been drawn on the 3rd, and Elias had died the morning of the 6th. A foundation laid with his name on it some fortnight later made my chest ache in a very different way. Had he ordered labourers to travel out and lay it no sooner than the ink had dried on the papers?

"Pardon Miss Snake, but do y'all know if my momma is done in yer laundry?"

A small shadow had joined us. When I rose up to full height, the little boy who'd been running around on the foundations was tugging at the skirt of the young Chinese girl. She swatted it out of his hands. He stepped back. He too was pretty well dressed, though he was covered in a thin sheen of mud from his knobbled knees downward.

"You no play here no more, Little Barrett." She pointed a sharp finger at me. "This man owner this foundation. You trespass! Go, go. Back to Mama."

The little boy looked to me, his bright blue eyes taking me in. He flattened his wayward hair and produced a cap from his back pocket, setting it right and then giving me a polite bow. "I'm real sorry, Mister."

His proper little ways quelled some of the squirming in my guts. I patted his head and tried for a smile.

"Apology accepted, young man. Go about your way."

The little boy smiled back, then he craned his head back over his shoulder and let loose a sudden, shrill shout that made me jump.

"Marley! We gotta go back to Momma! Snake says so!"

He nodded once more to the Chinese girl, then leapt off the corner of the wood into a patch of mud. As he skittered to the door of the laundry and vanished into the steam, I turned my face back to the laundress with a frown.

"Did he call you Snake?"

She hissed at me, then laughed. The girl stepped up and took my face in her hands, flat palms turning me this way and that. "How old you, sucka?"

My jaw wavered, and I wished to God that it hadn't. The talk was taking a deep toll on my vocals, and every word I spoke came out with a dry croak now. "Coming up nineteen in the spring, Miss."

"Ha!" The girl they called Snake slapped my face on both sides a few times. She let me go, that bright chuckle back as her dark eyes sparkled over me. "I seventeen, and you look like baby to me." She gave me another poke in the chest. "You need laundry, come see Snake Chu. You need errand, come see Snake Chu. You need information, I very good. All good price."

She held out a hand to be shook, and for the first time since meeting Snake Chu, I knew what I was doing. I switched the doc's box over and shook her hand firmly, and then the young lady was off like a shot. She was shouting something in that violent Chinese of hers before she even re-entered the laundry, her voice dying off in the next hiss of steam as the door slammed behind her.

When I glanced back to the foundations, the little girl was seated dead centre. Her back was hunched over, her arm still moving to and fro, one finger tracing a pattern in the dirt on the boards. I stepped towards her gently, not wanting to frighten the poor thing. She had fair hair tied up in pretty ribbons, her head bobbing to and fro now and then as I inched closer. Slowly, her voice came into earshot: a sweet little mumble.

"I don't know how that could be, Mr Elias. I took the wander to Soul Hill like you said, but there was nobody near them windows. Momma screamed all Hell at me. I ain't gonna be able to go back for a while."

The name froze me in place. The girl waited, her head tilted as if she were listening for an answer. She nodded suddenly.

"All righty. I guess I'll try."

She started to get up, and no sooner had she made the motion to her knees but her eyes snapped onto me. I stumbled back one way and she the other, our gazes locked in a speechless moment. Her eyes were paler than her little brother's, her mouth open a tad as she looked me over.

"Young lady, were you speaking to a fella called Elias just now?"

Her mouth clamped shut, lips quivering. I crouched down to her level and offered her a grin.

"Hey, hey, it's all right. I was only asking on account of the fact that my name is Elias too."

I set my box of tinctures down to reach into my jacket. When I showed her the deed, it was clear that the little girl was educated well. She read the words with speedy eyes darting over them, and then nodded.

"You reckon you're the owner of this plot, Sir?"

I chuckled. "I reckon I am."

She got to her feet fully and dusted down her dress. "Well all righty then. Nice to meet ya."

He'd called her Marley, the little brother. She slunk away from me with small steps until she was fully round my back, then skipped off back towards the laundry. By the time I recovered my possessions and stood up straight, I saw her standing with her brother at the open door of my new neighbour. Snake Chu had a hold of a large cart of fresh linens, and she was pushing it alongside a fine lady who held the hand of the small boy. As they carried on down the street back towards the square, I spied the label DEW DROP INN on the wide cart between Snake Chu's strides.

My eyes found their way back to the foundations, and to the place where my late brother's name was carved into the corner. Marley must have read it there, and fashioned herself a friend to talk to instead of her own brother. My stomach growled again, its emptiness echoing and making my sore throat all the queasier. I supposed, at the very least, that I needn't worry about the foundations anymore. But if the truth be told, seeing my first labour done for me was far more a curse than a blessing in the present moment.

CHOICES:

Where does Elias go next?

1. Catch up to the Barrett family and Snake Chu on their way to the Inn

2. Seek out something to eat and drink

3. Find Mercy Martin for some answers about his rescue