Chapter Fourteen: Picnic

Tuesday, July 5, 1910

Michael was leery, "Are you certain this is a good idea, five girls having the entire house to themselves?"

Paula smiled. "It'll be fine, don't worry. You two go hunting and come back Thursday afternoon. I'll be back Wednesday evening."

"Well, alright. I trust you." Michael kissed his wife. He got in Will's wagon and they headed down the road.

Paula cautioned, "If anything happens…."

"Nothing will happen, mother, I promise."

Paula retained confidence in her daughter. She got in her carriage and headed toward River City.

Sarah waved as she disappeared over the hill. "And… we… are… alone!"

Emily shouted, "Whoopee! Freedom! Sweet Liberty!" They did a little dance.

"Sarah Conrad you are amazing! Let's go to the hotel to pick up Jan and Audrey and then Lynn."

Emily said as she boarded the wagon, "A 24 hour longer slumber party, I'd bet they don't have those in Helena."

When they arrived at The Grand they ran into the lobby and up the stairs to room 6.

Knock-knock.

Audrey answered, "This is the crummiest hotel in town."

Emily shrugged. "This is the only hotel in town."

Jan wrote: "It's not too bad. She's just upset because the bathroom is down the hall."

Sarah whispered a reply, "Frontier life."

Audrey and Jan checked out of The Grand. Emily and Sarah carried their luggage to the wagon. Audrey, Jan and Sarah sat up front. Emily sat in the back on Jan's trunk.

"Do we need to stop by Emily's bakery?"

"Nah, much of her clothes are already at my house. We practically live in each other's rooms."

Emily chimed in, "No bakery for me today. I can avoid that chocolate dungeon. My mother has me working there all of the time. I need to learn responsibility and blah, blah, blah, blah."

Sarah announced, "Today, I proclaim deliverance from the shackles of parenthood. While you are at my house, my parents will be… drum role please… out of town!"

Audrey asked, "We have the whole place to ourselves?"

Sarah nodded.

Jan chuckled, "H, h, h, hurray!"

Emily yawned, "I am still tired from last night: all that walking, skating, staying up late for the fireworks. If this is a slumber party I want to get an early start on the slumbering."

Jan's eyes bulged. Her smile reflected that she was instantly smitten. She pointed to the left of the wagon.

"Afternoon ladies," said Tommy Grossman as he walking down the street.

Sarah and Emily replied in unison, "Hi Tommy."

Jan wrote: "Whose boyfriend?"

"Lynn's, in theory, though I went out with him back in April. On the prairie, everything must be shared."

When they got to the Watson's residence Jake was already on the porch with a big suitcase. He brought it up to the wagon. "It's Lynn's."

"Be at my house at 5:00 pm sharp. Got it?" Jake smiled.

"I'm so ready to go, go, go," Lynn was adlibbing a song when she climbed in the back with Emily. "Agh! Does anyone else have a mother who drives her insane?"

Emily, Audrey and Sarah raised their hands. Jan just laughed to herself.

As they unloaded the wagon at the Conrad's house Emily asked, "Ok. What do we do first?"

Sarah smiled. "Picnic at Darling Knob, they can see the whole valley from up there. Besides how can we pass up this warm, cloudless day?"

Lynn exclaimed, "Sounds like fun."

When they reached Darling Knob, the girls stepped out of the wagon; each grabbed an item to take. They all wore different colored dresses and all wore hats.

Emily wore a coral colored sun dress and a black and white striped cloche hat. It had a small light brown belt and a wide copper buckle; a lone purple feather gave it flair. She carried a large tin box which contained cupcakes: yellow cake with rich milk chocolate icing. A loaf of sour dough bread and honey butter complimented the meal.

Sarah wore a lacy white and gray tea gown. On her head was a straw raffia hat with a 4 inch brim, bound by a deep pink band. The string which held the hat was tied in a bow which hung at the bottom of her neck. She carried a large basket with Granny Smith Apples, peaches, white grapes, bananas, figs, boiled potatoes and lemons.

Lynn wore a teal day dress decorated with gold frills. Her rainbow colored crochet hat had a thick black cloth band. She carried a picnic basket, the chicken was still warm. It was in a light steel container, still stewing in juices. Its aroma wafted across the valley enticing every pallet, man and beast.

Jan wore a chalk lace gown embroidered with flowers and fleur-de-lis. She had the largest hat of all. It was woven straw, dyed umber with a 20 inch brim. She tied it to her head with a sheer purple cloth. She carried the utensils, napkins and five flute glasses wrapped in brown paper. She held a 10 foot by 10 foot red and white checkered cloth atop the picnic basket.

Audrey wore a mustard colored blouse dotted with mocha swirls. Her skirt was solid navy blue. She wore a small pastel linen hat. She carried a jug of lemonade and a jug of tea. After the girls had picked up Lynn, they had gone to Sarah's house to pick up the drinks which they wanted to keep cool and the chicken which they wanted to get right out of the oven.

As they walked up Sarah was in the middle of the pact. Lynn and Emily on her right: Jan and Audrey on her left. They casually ambled up the incline; each not moving very fast because the baskets and such were heavy.

Emily challenged them, "Last one up the knob is a poor, old maid."

The girls screamed and immediately scrambled towards the top.

Emily was the first to arrive. She put down the large tin box and collapsed. Sarah soon followed. Audrey came next and unfolded the cloth which Jan had given her.

Lynn and Jan were huffing and puffing. Jan, however, gave her legs a bit of extra exertion. Lynn saw her gaining so she put everything she had into her scramble. They moved closer to the top, Jan beat Lynn by a single shoe. When Lynn reached the summit she tripped on Jan's foot. She lost her balance and awkwardly ran to the blanket.

Sarah screamed, "The chicken! The chicken!"

Emily grabbed it just in time.

Lynn settled, exhausted and disappointed that she was the poor old maid. They climbed the small hill as conquerors. They took off their hats and tied them together with a long red ribbon.

Audrey complimented Emily, "Congratulations! The way you saved that chicken was quite graceful."

Emily said, "Nah! This is graceful!" She stood up, breathed deep, ran and perfectly performed two cartwheels.

Sarah jumped up. "One handed," she did a one handed cartwheel and curtsied.

Lynn did three flip flops, almost crashing on the landing.

Jan did a handstand to a front roll with stiff legs.

Jan handed Audrey a note, "Beat that!"

Audrey pointed to herself, demanding attention from the crowd of an invisible circus. She leaned forward, extended her arms and walked on her hands. The girls were laughing because her feet were up in the air, her bloomers were showing, her skirt was almost in her eyes.

Sarah opined, "Audrey! You're indecent."

Emily guffawed, "Who cares? It's just us girls."

As soon as Emily had completed the sentence an arrow streaked through the air and between Audrey's legs at the knees. She never heard the whizzing arrow. She continued walking on her hands until she heard a male voice say, "You ain't no turkey." The shock of hearing this made her fall backwards.

A young man appeared over her carrying a bow. "Are you alright?"

Audrey grimaced, "I'm just mortified."

The young man said nervously, "I didn't mean to scare you, honest."

Sarah giggled, "No injuries, here's your arrow back, Benny."

Benny shrugged. "I thought she was a white turkey."

Emily said, "Yeah, she gets that a lot."

"I've been hunting a flock around the valley all morning. I was walking up the hill. I saw your bloomers in the air and those black shoes. As you might suspect, from my angle, you looked like a turkey."

Sarah said, "That's fine. Really. We were just about to have a picnic up here and, well, I guess we got a little silly and we started to do gymnastics. Benny, you already know Emily, Lynn and I from church."

The girls all sat down on the blanket and began getting out the food.

Audrey asked, "Are you hungry?"

"Yes. I was about to ride home for lunch. My horse is tied up under a tree over yonder."

Lynn smiled. "Stay for a bit, sit down, have some chicken."

"Much obliged."

Audrey gave him a slice of sour dough bread. "Do you live around here?"

Benny finished his bread and said, "Yes ma'am, down in the valley a few miles that way." He pointed to his right and took a bite from an apple. He put it down on the sheet; Lynn picked it up and bit the other side. She winked at him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Benny. Are you in school?"

"No. My Uncle Brad took me out of school when I was eight. I can read and do a little math, but, that's about it."

Sarah explained, "Benny here came to us in a unique way."

"I was living in North Dakota. I was an orphan. I lived with my Uncle Brad… he was a mean old drunk."

Audrey gasped. "I'm so sorry."

Benny shrugged. "When he died suddenly, I left but I had no place to go: no family, no friends. I met Mr. Conrad, Sarah's father, when I tried to rob the bank with a broken gun."

Audrey guffawed, "A broken gun?"

"Yup. I didn't know any better. Anyway, instead of turning me in, Mr. Conrad took pity on me."

Sarah chimed in, "My father is also an orphan. He knows what its like to be alone. He arranged for Benny here to live with an old, widower farmer named Abraham Windsor."

"I come into town once a week to go to church. I try to bring Mr. Windsor, but he's been sick as of late. I always enjoy visiting with the people there. I've met Lynn and Sarah and Emily, but, I don't really know much about them."

Audrey spoke up, "Well, Benny, I can help you out. I will now tell you the full story of each of these girls."

"Um... ok."

Audrey subtly winked to Sarah and Emily; they both giggled understanding the scheme she had in mind.

"My friend Lynn took a bite of the apple because that is the custom back in her native land of…."

Sarah said, "Germany."

Benny raised an eyebrow. "Lynn, you're from Germany?"

"Si. My name is Lynn; I am from Ber-lin which, of course, was named after me."

"Ok," replied Benny. He asked Audrey, "What's your name?"

Before Audrey said a word Lynn spoke up, "Turnip. Her name is Turnip."

Benny tilted his head. "Turnip?"

Lynn tried to hide her smile. "Her name is Turnip... Gorilla."

"Um… ok. Pleased to meet you… Miss Gorilla." Benny took a bite of chicken.

Emily said, "Turnip's father is a millionaire."

"Really? What does he do?"

Sarah popped in. "Inventor."

"What'd he invent?"

"Cowbell!" said Emily. "Turnip is very proud of her father."

"Wow! You should be proud. I see cows wearing those things all the time."

Audrey smiled. "Thank you. Before my father came along, cows wore…."

"Jingle Bells" shouted Sarah.

Benny raised an eyebrow. "Jingle Bells?"

"Jingle Bells!" responded Sarah with a serious inflection. "However, cows stopped wearing jingle bells because…."

"It was distracting Santa Claus" said Audrey. "The Jolly Ole Elf would confuse his reindeer with the cows and that would make him be late Christmas Day. Pretty soon, some people stopped believing in Santa Claus all together."

Benny was skeptical. "There ain't no Santa Claus."

Audrey motioned with her hands. "Well, there ya go. Benny, you've proven my point."

Benny shrugged. "You're welcomed."

Emily grabbed a grape from his plate. She made eyes at Benny while she ate it.

He nervously smiled. "Hi."

Sarah said, "Don't mind Emily, she's a little flirty sometimes. That happens a lot to girls who...."

"...have spent most of their life in prison" Audrey added.

Benny's jaw dropped. "You've been in prison? What'd you do?"

Sarah whispered, "She poisoned her boyfriend."

"He deserved it!" said Emily defensively. Emily narrowed her eyes and gave Benny a menacing glare. "That's what happens if you don't like my chicken."

Benny gulped, he looked terrified. "Emily, I like your chicken."

Emily sighed. "Then you shall live."

Sarah said, "This is Jan Johnson she's a mute. She communicates only by...."

"Kissing" said Audrey.

Jan almost broke out in laughter.

"Kissing?" Benny asked.

Jan smiled and blew him a kiss.

Sarah said, "That means 'let's be friends.' And, just so you'll know she's given that same message to every guy in Helena."

Jan playfully punched Sarah in the arm.

Sarah continued, "Well, besides boys Jan mostly talks to...."

"Elephants," Lynn spoke up. "Jan is an elephant trainer for a traveling circus. She's famous among circus folk because she trained her elephants to...."

"...walk a tight rope" said Sarah. "She trains the elephants to walk a tightrope."

Benny said, "Wow! That sounds like an exciting act."

Benny finished up his bread, apple, chicken, cupcake and glass of tea. The girls all dabbed their mouths with napkins. Benny did the same. The girls put the dirty dishes and left over food in the big picnic basket.

Benny stood up, "Well, it was nice meeting you, Jan, Turnip. I'd best be moving along now."

He picked up his bow and arrows and headed down the hill with a full belly and a head swimming with questions.

As soon as Benny was out of range the girls laughed. They fell on the blanket, their heads together in a star pattern savoring every moment of their delicious deceptions. Enticed by the warm sun and cushiony blanket, they all closed their eyes in search of a daydream.