Saturday, September 24, 1910
Sarah hurriedly trudged through the thick, muddy streets of Miles City on her way to the train depot. As she made her way beneath the shelter she noticed her luggage was not in the pile that was being put aboard the train.
"Have you seen a light gold suitcase and a pink hatbox?"
"Name?" asked one of the porters, one was tall the other short.
"Sarah Conrad."
The short one looked over his manifest. "Yup, here it is. It should be in Gardiner by this evening, but I'm afraid you've missed your train."
Sarah was panicky. "Gardiner? Where's that?"
"The Gateway to Yellowstone National Park, you'll have a great vacation."
She mumbled, "I'm going to Billings!" She angrily handed him the ticket.
He looked it over. "Oops. Oh well. I'm confident that a porter down in Gardiner will take care of it there. Your luggage should be in Billings by Monday."
She said matter-of-factly, "I'm staying in Billings overnight."
Sarah stood still and assessed the situation. She spoke in a calm voice to the porter. "I've always wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park. But, now at least my suitcase and hatbox will enjoy the majestic beauty of the storage closet at the train depot in Gardiner."
The porter chuckled, "Yeah, I guess."
As Sarah was stepping into the passenger car she overheard the short porter say, "Forget it, she's just a girl."
She snapped back around. He was telling the other porter. "Women do dumb stuff all the time and then they want they want to blame us. They think that because they got a few curves that we'll roll over for them."
She stepped aboard and took her seat. Ironically, except for the height difference, the porters even resembled Tommy and Pete.
As the train lumbered down the track, Sarah tried in vain to read Crystal's speech.
"Sarah Conrad is a girl like you" was the opening line. She thought that was a clever way to begin.
A baby sitting behind her screamed every time it heard thunder.
She thought, "Calm down. Everything will work out fine. I will be in Billings at 5:30. I will check into my hotel, relax, take a shower, change into a nice dress and speak at 7 pm. There is nothing to worry about."
The train jerked and lost forward momentum until it stopped.
Sarah hung her head.
The conductor stepped on board, "Tracks are flooded folks."
The passengers murmured.
He said, "I apologize but this is not a boat. We should be in Billings by..." he took out a pocket watch and swished his mouth. "I'd say, 6:30."
Sarah’s eyes bulged. More thunder, more screeches from the baby who was now not only afraid of the storm but also hungry and, as everyone in the rows 6 to 10 could testify, he was in need of a diaper change. Sarah closed her eyes, exhausted from the madness.
She closed her eyes and attempted to get some rest.
"Welcome to Billings" barked the porter.
Sarah opened her eyes. She yawned and arose from her seat. She wiped her eyes. She flew down the steps of the train and ran out of the depot. She ran three blocks, through the rain until it occurred to her that she knew neither the location of the hotel nor of the convention center.
She found a friendly face. She wasn't too far. She ran faster through the torrent trying to avoid automobiles and wagons careening through the muddy, now flooding streets.
Through the sheets of rain she could barely make out the sign for the Billings Convention Center, which was unfortunate for her because it meant she did not see the curb. Her left foot hit it with much forward momentum causing her to tumble and nearly cart-wheeled to a halt. As the scene slowed down from her perspective and right before she landed face first into the foot deep mud puddle, she saw Crystal's speech flying passed her and make a perfect entry into the drain before disappearing into the city's poorly managed drainage system.
She tried her best to remain calm as she lifted herself from the puddle. She turned around and noticed that the glass in front of a nearby shop made a perfect mirror. Her white dress was now black. Her new hat and gloves were ruined. She stared at herself until the emotions boiled up within her and she screamed.
An umbrella broke the heavy rain. "Are you all right?" came a voice from behind.
Sarah turned around and said to the young woman, "Oh, I am just tremendous."
The woman patted her shoulder.
Sarah said, "I am losing my ever loving mind! I've had an insane day. I traveled all day to get here by train. My travelling companion had to have her appendix removed. I am supposed to make a speech right about now and I am covered in mud."
The young woman smiled. "My name is Mary Ann. I work at a Caldwell's Dress Shop."
Sarah's eyes brightened.
Mary Ann took her by the elbow. "Come on, it's just across the street."
"Bless you."
They walked into the dress shop. Sarah picked the first one that looked remotely resembled her original outfit.
Mary Ann gave Sarah some wet towels to wash her face and then guessed Sarah's shoe, hat, and glove sizes.
As Sarah was buttoning up the dress she heard the store clock chiming. 
"Oh, no!" without thinking about it, she bolted out the door.
Mary Ann looked up from behind the counter. "Hey, hey, wait a second! Come back here!"
Sarah made ran to the performer's entrance to the convention center. "I'm the seven o'clock speaker."
A guard asked her, "Can I see you paperwork?"
"Of course." She sighed. "Um, my paperwork is floating away in a drain at this moment. But I should be on the program. I supposed to speak right now. My name is Sarah Conrad."
The guard looked at the schedule. "Nope, I don't see that name."
Sarah's was aghast. "What? Why am I am not on the list? Wait, wait, wait! My name is Crystal Hines."
The guard tilted his head. "Huh?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, my name is Crystal Hines."
The guard made a dubious face. "You look in wonderful shape for a woman whose been married to a preacher for twenty-four years."
"No. I mean, I am not Crystal Hines actually; my full name is Sarah Conrad Crystal Hines! Understand?"
He shook his head.
A man’s voice asked the guard; "Is something amiss?"
"Nothing is wrong, sir. There's a lady claiming to be the next speaker."
He stepped into the light. "Well, we are missing a speaker, maybe….”
Sarah yelled, "Simon!"
"Sarah?"
She reached out to him and kissed him. As she hugged Simon she kissed his cheek and whispered, "You have no idea how nice it is to see you. My friend Crystal had to have her appendix taken out in Miles City, I lost her speech, but at least," she stepped back and twirled. "I have a new dress."
"And I have a new ring!" growled Harriett as she hooked her arm around her new fiancé. She boldly flashed her silver and diamond encrusted engagement ring in Sarah's face.
Sarah froze.
Simon spoke softly to the security guard. "I think I figured it out. Everything is fine. She needs to be escorted to the stage," he looked at the now seething Harriett. "Please escort her as quickly as possible."
Sarah took out the telegram in her locket. Her voice broke, "But you proposed to me."
She handed Simon the telegram.
He read it. "Sarah, I've broken up with Harriett. I love you. Will you marry me? Wonderful. Now quit moping to Emily every night and move on with your life! Signed Simon…" he smirked. "Incidentally, I misspelled my last name."
Sarah just stood there shaking.
The group overheard the hostess of the event say, "We're still looking for our seven o'clock speaker."
The guard gently poked her shoulder. "Mrs. Hines, I'll escort you to the stage now."
Within seconds, Sarah was standing in the bright spot lights. The crowd politely applauded.
The hostess said, "Um, ok, well, my friend Crystal is looking much, much younger these days."
The audience laughed. 
Sarah made her way to the podium.
"Miss? Your name?"
Sarah whispered her reply.
The hostess said, "Please welcome, Miss Eagle Conrad from Sarah Creek."
Sarah stood in front of the podium.
She whispered, "That's not me."
The hostess said, "A little louder dear and speak into the microphone."
She took a couple of deep breaths. She turned to a lady seated on her left, "Could I get a glass of water?"
The woman poured a glass of water.
Sarah drank it in one gulp.
She cleared her throat. "I am a girl."
The woman who gave her the water spoke through her teeth, "We've already guessed that part."
Sarah swallowed. "Hi. I'm Sarah Conrad from Eagle Creek. And, here's the speech."
She sighed. "Sarah Conrad is a girl like you" she stopped and realized how little sense that made.
She leaned into the microphone and said, "Third times a charm."
She started again. "I am a girl, just like you." She looked down. "Let me rephrase that, I am a complete moron!"
The audience gasped.
The hostess began to stand up. "Sweetheart, do you need to…?"
"I am sixteen-years-old and, at times, so desperate for love that I am convince myself that the most idiotic romantic fantasies are real.
I can date two handsome boys at the same time in a small town and no one will ever find out!
I can play lose with my morality so I can possibly trick one of them into confessing his love for me!
And, I can lie to my best friends and hate them.
I can believe a proposal received by telegram from a boy whom I never should have fallen in love with in the first place is real so now this other girl hates me! And… and…. "
She shook her head and blabbered as she cried. "And then I put on this stupid clown face that I wear for Sunday school so I can continue to lie in front of my mother, my father, and God himself because I think I'm so smart that I can get away with anything."
She tried to catch her breath. She noticed Mary Ann at the far end of the stage with a policeman.
"And, to top it off, I can be arrested for stealing a dress, shoes, socks, matching gloves and a hat!"
She collapsed her head on the podium.
"The only thing I've ever known about actual love was in a poorly written novel I read about a pirate. And I am the most helpless, hopeless, pathetic, lame brained, deceitfully wicked woman in this world."
"I think you're ok." She heard a voice say softly to her.
She looked up. It was Harriett. She put an arm around Sarah's back.
"Sarah, you're not stupid. You're not evil."
Harriett looked out into the audience. "And, you're not alone."
The crowd was silent.
"There are two thousand women in this convention hall. Show of hands: who of us, at times has felt desperate for love?"
Harriett raised her hand.
No one else moved.
"So, it's just Sarah and me?" She raised an eyebrow. "You seriously expect me to believe that?"
There were giggles.
One hand.
Two.
Three.
Fifty. 
Five hundred.
Two thousand hands in the air.
Harriett spoke again to the audience. "Who lives in a small town and has dated two boys at the same time?"
The audience laughed.
"One, two… in the back I can't see." Harriett trilled her lips. "Ok, fine. Who has dreamed about doing something like that?"
Harriett popped her hand up.
One hand.
Two.
Three.
Fifty.
Five hundred.
Two thousand hands in the air.
Sarah shook her head and chuckled.
Harriett leaned in to the microphone and spoke in a low tone. "Who here has flirted with the idea of losing her chastity in order to hear the three magic words, 'I… love… you'?"
The women at the speakers' table gasped in shock. They shook their heads disapprovingly.
Nobody raised a hand.
"Did I say something taboo? Did I cross the line? Good! Now I'll ask again, who here has flirted with the idea of losing her chastity in order to hear the three magic words, 'I… love… you'?"
Harriett bowed her head. A couple of tears poured out of her eyes. She raised her hand.
There were sniffles and a few uncomfortable coughs and then a couple of hundred hands in the air including two women at the speakers' tables.
Harriett whispered, "Yeah, that one hit a little too close to home, didn't it?"
The audience was silent.
Harriett spoke to Sarah, "Sarah? Sweetheart? I don't hate you. You fell in love with Simon, get in line!"
There was a smattering of light laughter.
Harriet turned to the audience. "How many of you have ever fallen in love with someone that you are definitely not supposed to be pining for because they don’t love you and they live four hundred miles away or… because they are already married?"
Sarah and Harriett raised their hands.
Harriett said forthrightly, "Who here has the guts to admit it?"
A few hundred hands appeared.
"Who here has felt like a hypocrite in church?"
Sarah and Harriett raised their hands. Almost everyone in the audience raised their hands as well.
"Lastly, who learned about love by reading Romero the Pirate: A Tale of Forbidden Passions?"
Sarah covered her face in her hands to laugh. She peeked from between her fingers.
Every woman in the convention center was raising their hands. A few were whistling or hooting. Even Mary Ann from the dress shop was raising her hand.
Sarah smiled. "And, how many have stolen a dress?"
The crowd roared in laughter.
The hostess stood up and walked over to the police man. "Officer, it wasn't intentional. Here, I'll pay for it myself." They walked back stage.
Sarah went on to explain her crazy day and why she didn't have the speech Crystal intended to give.
She merely recited how she felt the day she came home from the girls' camp and how she wanted to make the future just a little bit brighter for them.
She explained about how the ladies days worked: both good and not-so-good points.
Everyone listened and made notes. When she ran out of things to say, the ladies went to a microphone on the floor and asked questions. Sarah did a very good job at answering them.
The most startling question occurred at the end of the evening when a woman asked, "What have you learned about yourself?"
Sarah spoke confidently this time. "I've learned that I'm a girl just like you. I have hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares, friends and foes and constant chaos but I have one constant in my life that alone keeps me sane."
She sighed. "Whatever happens, I can rest in this one thought."
She closed her eyes and tried to keep from crying.
"Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones…."
Her voice cracked; she was shaking.
"Little ones to Him belong."
She slowly inhaled. "They are weak."
She swallowed some air and pointed at herself. "I, I am weak…."
She bowed her head and pointed to the ceiling, "But He is strong."
There wasn’t a dry eye in the auditorium.
"Thank you for listening to me this evening."
The audience stood up and applauded for ten minutes.
Harriett, Simon, Mary Ann and a host of others wanted to hug Sarah. She gracefully received their accolades.
That evening, as she lay in bed, she turned to the window and stared at the moon.
"My future is a lot better than I imagined, isn't it?"
She heard an owl hoot.
"I'll take that as a 'Yes.'"
She closed her eyes. "Goodnight."
Morning worship was especially rousing and deeply meaningful to everyone.
After services, Sarah went up to her room and packed.
When the elevator doors opened in the lobby a large crowd applauded for her.
Three hundred people followed her to the train station.
Her mouth was agape, "I don't know what to say."
Someone cheerfully replied, "But we do!"
God be with you till we meet again;
By His counsels guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you;
God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus' feet;
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
