Crossing Purgatory Read Online Free PDF Page B

eastern Ohio, he said, on the road since early spring, bound for central Kansas Territory, near Great Bend, beyond the far reaches of settlement. Hanna learned she was pregnant two months prior to their departure but kept the news from him. She knew his heart was set on homesteading and she did not wish to cause him to reconsider.
    Listening to their story, Thompson sensed himself slipping back, and he fought to remain in the present. Still, images, like lightning strikes, flashed behind his eyes.
    R ACHEL HAD OBJECTED TO HIS being gone. “The fields need tending,”
    â€œI’ll be a few days only. I need to secure funds.”
    â€œWe have more acreage now than we can put into crops.”
    â€œWe’ll grow into it. The boys.”
    â€œCoveting is a sin, the Bible says.”
    â€œDon’t quote me the Book,” Thompson said, angry.
    T HOMPSON SHOOK THE PAST FROM his mind and refocused on the Lights’ company, Martha playing with her doll, feeding it scraps of bread.
    They stood around the table, evening coming on, eating, talking idly of inconsequential matters. Weather, mileage, the soil. Presently the Negro came over from his work and Mrs. Light served him supper and he stood with them eating. The idea of sharing a meal with a Negro would never have registered with Thompson before, but he found himself curious rather than put off.
    â€œThis here’s Ned, Mr. Thompson,” Obadiah said. “Ned Frederick, named after the county in Virginia where he was set free.” Ned inclined his head and said “How do?” and Thompson nodded back. Ned was a stocky man, ebony-skinned, with eyes that looked as though he’d had sorrow. As he ate, Thompson noticed that he was missing two fingertips of his left hand.
    â€œNed is a wonder with a saw and adze, a carpenter without peer in my book,” Light went on. “He’s traveling with us. I’m holding his papers for him until we reach territory where he can set hisself up without looking over his shoulder every waking minute.”
    â€œIs there such a place?” Thompson asked.
    â€œWe fixed on th’ hope,” Ned answered.
    Obadiah set his tin on the wagon gate and stretched. “And you, Mr. Grey. Family?”
    â€œNo. I am alone.” And, after a silence, “I best see to my fire before dark. I thank you for your hospitality.” Thompson shook Obadiah’s hand and nodded to Hanna and to the boy. And, as an afterthought, to Ned. He knelt in the grass and patted Martha on the head and then stood and returned to his camp. He folded some of the coffee beans in a flap of buckskin and pounded it with a flat stone. He shook out the grounds in his cup and boiled some coffee over the fire. A movement in the grass, a sound, and from the shadowy light Upperdine emerged.
    â€œMr. Thompson.”
    â€œCaptain Upperdine, good evening.” Thompson pointed to his coffee. “Have you a cup? I’d be pleased to offer coffee.”
    Upperdine untied the tin cup at his belt and held it out and Thompson poured half of his coffee into the cup. Upperdine raised the cup to his nose and inhaled the steam coming off the liquid.
    â€œSimon Pure, the real thing. We normally get by on some godawful adulteration, a few grounds mixed with dried peas, toasted grain, what have you.”
    Both men squatted on their boot heels close to the fire and drank the coffee without conversation. The rain had brought alive the mosquitoes, and the smoke from the cook fire helped knock them back. Crickets sounded in the tall grass. Upperdine broke the silence between them.
    â€œI ride out tomorrow to see that the streams are not overly swollen by the rains. The following day we break camp.”
    â€œWill all the wagons form up?”
    â€œIt was decided yesterday evening that the two bands will remain separate.”
    â€œA disagreement?” Thompson asked.
    â€œMost folks just want to be left alone to